Dangerous Curves (5 page)

She resisted the urge to stab her finger into his chest, but only by curling her hand into a fist.

“You were so full of yourself,” she said. “So cocky and self-centered. I loved taking you down, even though a part of me did it because I wanted to get your attention, and because I needed to prove to myself that having more money than me didn’t make you better.”

“I didn’t have more money than you.”

“No, but your parents did.”

His eyes narrowed and he started to shake his head.

“But you know what?” she said before he could say a word. “I did match up. My Camaro was the fastest damn car in high school, even though I had
to scrimp and save for every part I put on that thing. And in the end, what did I have to do? Sell it to help my mom pay the mortgage.”

His stony expression was suddenly tinged with surprise.

“That’s right. I
had
to sell it. My Camaro. A car that was everything to me. The last thing I had of my dad’s before he died. My last piece of
him.
And I had to sell it.”

“Cece, I—”

“No. Let me finish.”

But for a moment she couldn’t go on, so overcome by a ridiculous, unbelievable stinging of tears that she had to inhale to stop from crying.

You beat him?
her dad had asked.

I blew his doors off, Dad.

Good for you, Tiger.

She couldn’t speak as the whole horrible time came rushing back to her again. Her dad’s death. Her mom’s financial spiral. That last terrible year of high school. And then her mom’s death two years later. Jeesh, no wonder she’d been running with the wrong crowd. For a split second Cece felt the emotions coalesce within her: grief, humiliation, sadness. She tried to shove the feelings back inside, but like oil on hands, it was hard to wash them away.

“We were so damn broke,” she found herself saying. “No life insurance. No money in the bank. Nothing. My mom and I tried as hard as we could to stay afloat, but life kept kicking us in the teeth. I swear
that’s why she died a few years later. She just gave up—the doctors called it a heart attack. I called it a broken heart. Not just because of her grief for my dad, but because of her grief at the human race. Nobody cared that she’d just lost her husband. Nobody cared that we’d sold everything we owned,
everything
—cars, furniture, jewelry—to make ends meet.”

And this time it was she who crossed her arms, tipping her head back in the process, her stupid tears causing prisms in her eyes. “When she died I vowed never to put myself in that position. I have a job that I’m good at, money in the bank, and believe me, that’s something that I’m proud of.

“So from where I stand, Blain Sanders, I’m more than competent to do a little investigating. Chances are this is nothing, anyway. But you’re the one calling the shots, so if you want me to go home, I’ll go.”

She waited for him to say something, anything.

But he didn’t.

“Fine. I’m outta here,” she said, pushing past him and out the door. “Didn’t want to come, anyway.”

And the jerk let her go.

H
E SHOULD GO AFTER HER,
Blain thought. Instead he heard the hollow thud of her footfalls on the center isle’s rubber mat as she left the hauler.

She’d had tears in her eyes.

Blain had never, not ever, seen Cece Blackwell cry. Hell, a few days ago he’d have sworn she was incapable of doing such a thing.

Her mom had died? He hadn’t heard about that.

Blain stood motionless for a few seconds more. In the end, his conscience made him move.

“Cece, wait,” he said.

Fat drops of rain had started to come down, the asphalt dotted with Dalmatian spots. Cece was already near the garage, the overhang protecting her. He quickly caught up with her, and the damnedest thing was, she’d gotten control of herself. Her face looked frozen in anger as he stared down at her.

“Cece, wait.”

She kept on going.

“I’m sorry,” he called out.

Still moving.

He caught up, stepped around her, staying her with a hand when she would have darted by him. “I didn’t know your mom had died.”

She widened her eyes as if to ask,
Yeah, so?

“I’m sorry.”

At last she spoke. “Fine. Apology accepted.”

She pushed past him.

“No, wait,” he said, catching her arm. “Don’t leave.”

She glared.

“Please,” he found himself saying, because the truth of the matter was, he
did
trust her to get the job done. She’d always been at the top of her class, even though he’d been shocked to learn just now that she’d held down a full-time job while doing it. How had she managed to do that? But he supposed it didn’t matter. He had a bad feeling about Randy’s death, and he was positive that if anyone could prove or disprove his theory, it was Cece. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but he did.

“I
need
you.”

She shivered, though she still glared.

“You cold?”

“No,” she lied, shivering again.

“You are.”

“No, I’m not.”

He grabbed her hand, to find her fingers were like ice. “Jeesh, Cece, you
are
freezing. C’mon back inside the hauler. I’ll get you a coat.”

But she didn’t move. He didn’t, either. The rain
pinged atop the metal roof, but Blain was mesmerized by the expression in her eyes.

“You really want me to stay?” she asked, pulling her hand out of his grasp before tucking it beneath the crook of her arm.

“I do.”

An air-ratchet went off in the distance, the high-pitched whir ending right as she asked, “Why?” and blinked away raindrops that clung to her lashes. “Give me the real reason you’re so insistent I help you out.”

He debated whether to tell her the truth, and decided he should. “Sonoma drags.”

She looked puzzled. “The grudge matches?”

“It was the last time we raced. Do you remember?”

She nodded.

He shook his head a bit. “I thought you were anxious to beat me because it was
me
you were racing, but afterward, when you’d won, you got out of the car…and do you remember what you did?”

She shook her head.

“You didn’t look at me—you looked up.” Blain would never forget her face at that moment. Ecstatic, triumphant…and sad. “You whispered, ‘This one’s for you, Dad.’ I saw it.” And he’d been stunned. “I never forgot that day,” he said. “It wasn’t me you wanted to impress. You’d set your sights on winning that race in memory of your father.”

Blain looked off, his gaze moving to the racetrack. “I feel the same obligation to Randy. Every time I think about what happened, I vow to get to the
bottom of his wreck. You of all people should understand that kind of promise.” He could tell from the look on her face that she did. “Something’s not right, and I need your help to figure it out. Will you help me?”

She shivered again. He thought she might refuse, but then she said, “Fine” in a way that sounded almost resigned.

His shoulders slumped in relief. “Thanks, Cece.”

“Yeah, well, don’t thank me yet.”

But he was grateful just the same. “C’mon,” he said, “let’s get you into something warmer.”

She took a deep breath, only to shiver again. “Okay,” she said through teeth that chattered.

By the time they made it back to the hauler they were soaked, the droplets of rain so heavy they’d turned the pavement a glistening ebony. Cece rubbed her arms as she stood beneath the car lift that jutted out over the back of the rig. Blain handed her a team jacket a second later.

“Thanks,” she said as she slipped the thing on.

And Blain, a man who’d never looked at Cece as anything more than a means to an end suddenly saw her in a much different light. She was a woman who’d overcome tremendous odds to get where she had. He realized now that she had depths he’d never noticed before.

“You can keep it,” he said, looking back at the garage, at anything but her. “You’re going to need it by the looks of things.”

She followed his gaze as she zipped the jacket up. And suddenly it sounded as if someone had poured a wheelbarrow full of water on top of the hauler. It began to rain,
seriously
rain.

“Qualifying’ll be postponed,” he muttered.

“You think so?”

She had raindrops clinging to her blond hair and forehead, her tiny frame suddenly reminding him of high school. He had a memory of her getting out of the Camaro, of stalking up to him and challenging him to their first race. He’d accepted. She’d won. It still amazed him.

“Yeah,” he said. “C’mon, let me grab a scanner so I can keep track of what’s going on.”

And that was how Blain Sanders found himself showing her around. And he had to admit, she impressed him. Not so much because she was a fast study—because she was—but because she knew a hell of a lot about stock car racing. More than she let on, he realized.

“So now you know what I do thirty-six weekends out of the year,” he said as they halted beneath one of the track’s massive grandstands, their breath puffing out like dragons.

“Forty,” she said.

“Forty?”

“Well, sometimes it’s more than that, right? Depends on if you qualify for the Bud races, or go to Japan.”

He almost smiled. Yup. Just as he suspected. “How long have you been a fan?”

Rain dropped down the backs of the empty grandstands, well, not completely empty. A few diehard race fans sat beneath colorful tarps, hunched down, shivering and waiting in hopes the track got dry enough to run the practice, and then later, qualifying. It wasn’t going to happen.

“What makes you think I’m a fan?” she asked, looking up at him out of a face turned gray by the storm’s light.

“Cece, the way you talk is a dead giveaway. The average person doesn’t know the difference between a Ford template and a Chevy template, but you did.”

“I studied up,” she said with a shrug.

The smell of stale beer, cigarettes and spilled food was familiar but for one thing: the scent of Cece carried to him on the same breeze.

“Bull,” he said.

“All right,” she said. “So I’ve been following the circuit for about five years now.”

“Really?” He felt his left brow tug up.

She shrugged. “I didn’t mean it to happen. One night I was out with some friends and I looked up and there you were.” Cece remembered as if it was yesterday. “I nearly spat out a mouthful of beer.”

She boldly met his gaze, daring him to mock her, but he didn’t. Humph. And so she added, “At first I watched because it did my heart good to see you lose.”

His gray eyes flickered and she held her breath, wondering why it was that she felt such an overwhelming need to provoke him. But when he didn’t rise to the bait, she relented, giving him another burst of honesty. “But you didn’t lose, at least not all the time, and by the time I realized you might have a shot at the year-end championship, I was hooked. I’ve been watching ever since.”

He didn’t say a word, and Cece didn’t know what surprised her more, that he didn’t say something snide, snooty or just plain rude, or the fact that he appeared to be—yes—it very definitely seemed like he was about to smile.

“That’s why you looked giddy while I was showing you around.”

She didn’t take offense. “It’s not every day someone gets to meet people she’s only seen on TV.”

His smile grew and Cece found herself thinking she liked it, not because it made him look more handsome—which it did—but because it put such warmth in his eyes, genuine warmth, as if he might be a really nice person.

You of all people should understand….
Cece swallowed past a lump in her throat.

“I remember when I first met Richard Petty. I’ll never forget that day,” he drawled in his Southern accent.

“So you know what I’m talking about.”

He nodded, and a part of Cece could only think
how bizarre it was to be here with him, talking to him after wanting to hate him for so many years.

But then his expression turned curious. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

She shrugged. “Truth be told, I didn’t think you’d keep me around for longer than a few hours.”

And that reminded Cece of what she’d been brought in to do—investigate, not make friends with Blain Sanders.

Who was currently a suspect.

She shook her head.

“What?” he asked.

“I need to get going,” she answered. “I’ve still got a job to do.”

She could tell the moment he remembered why it was they’d been brought together, too. The smile slid down his face like rain on a stormy day. And for a second she caught a glimpse of it, saw the unmistakable darkening of his eyes. Grief. He tried to hide it from her, but some things were impossible to conceal.

He’d lost a driver. Someone he’d known a long time. A friend. She knew all too well what that felt like.

“It was probably just an accident, Blain. I really doubt that letter you received is anything more than a worked-up fan.”

“I hope you’re right.”

But he didn’t believe her. So she said, “Think about it. Why send a threatening letter
after
you
murder someone?” He winced at the term “murder,” and Cece cursed herself. One of the things about working at the Bureau was how jaded you became using certain words. “Blain, if someone were really trying to go around scaring race fans, or killing drivers, they would have sent a note to the press, not to you.”

He went silent for a second, his lips tightening. “You’re not telling me anything I haven’t heard already, Cece. It’s just a crazy race fan. One who didn’t like Randy and so he claimed to have killed him.” He met her gaze. “But I don’t believe it.”

And that was why he couldn’t be a suspect, Cece admitted—because killers didn’t fight for justice. Crazy people didn’t send themselves letters and then bring them to light. Supposing Blain was right—this whole thing really was a murder and some terrorist or crazed fan was out for blood—Blain had nothing to gain by going public. If he
was
a murderer, he’d have kept quiet. Nah. Supposing this wasn’t a wild-goose chase, Blain was innocent.

“Well, if you’re right, I don’t see how someone could have done it. The garage is locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”

“It is,” he agreed, following her gaze to the infield, where the garage stood like a million-dollar industrial complex.

“I suppose it needs to be that way.” She gave him a small smile. “To keep race fans out. Like me.”

It worked. He didn’t smile, but his expression
lightened in the way the sky slightly brightened just before dawn. That was better.

What
was better? she asked herself. Surely she didn’t care if Blain Sanders smiled?

Right?

Right?

“Yeah, fans like you,” he said, and for a brief second he smiled. Cece felt triumphant—but then the smile wafted away like so much smoke.

Triumphant?

“Look, I…” She gazed out over the grandstands, at the cars in their stalls, the race crews milling about, the security folks dragging some guy away…. “What the—”

Blain followed her gaze. Just then some man wearing a team uniform bent down to inspect his car.

“Oh, damn,” Cece said, furious with herself that she’d been so distracted by Blain that she hadn’t even noticed the commotion in the garage.

“Someone must have snuck in.”

“Yeah,” she said, turning to dash off.
But why?