The Chase (14 page)

“Good job, Kendall,” Jim, her crew chief, said, his voice crisp and clear over the radio. “You’re heading into some traffic ahead.”

She could see at least three cars battling to get into sixth place, and she narrowed her eyes, concentrating. This could very well be her best finish this year, since she was set right now to make it into the top ten. Not bad for a rookie driver, and she wanted it desperately.

It was a balmy sixty-three degrees in Tennessee, and the track was running smooth, the overcast sky removing the sun as a factor in visibility on the turns, and she was feeling confident.

“A little bit of a battle going on ahead,” David said. “Monroe brothers are jockeying for fifth place now and it’s some damn aggressive driving.”

“How aggressive?” Kendall asked as she went low and maneuvered past the number 23 car, which was spitting smoke and losing speed.

“Like sibling rivalry aggressive. Elec won’t let Evan pass. He’s holding him off with everything he has and Evan’s pretty unhappy about it . . . riding up way too close on him.”

Somehow that didn’t surprise Kendall, but it didn’t thrill her. If they knocked each other, they could take her and half a dozen cars out with them. “What are they saying?”

With the crew chiefs capable of hearing all the drivers, Kendall wanted to know how serious this could potentially be, especially with only ten laps to go.

“Uhh . . . Evan told Elec to move the hell out of his way. Elec told him not a chance, and it would be a cold day in hell before he ever let him pass. Then Evan said something that is definitely going to get him a fine for his language.”

“Fabulous. Thanks for the update, and pray we don’t have a caution.” If they needed to drop down for a caution lap, she was going to have to pit for gas, which would more than likely drop her ranking by five spots or more. She was sitting in a damn good position right now at eighth and she didn’t want to give it up.

“Go high, go high,” David urged her. “Evan tapped Elec and they’re sliding.”

Shit. Kendall reacted, moving up the track with the car right behind her, as they tried to avoid getting pulled into a wreck. To her left, she saw the number 56 car spinning, but then smoke smothered her visibility briefly. Sweat trickled down her back as she held on, controlling her car with everything in her.

“You got it, you’re clear. Caution lap, go to pit,” Jim said.

Just what she hadn’t wanted to do. Giving a grunt of frustration, she asked, “Monroe brothers okay?” Jim didn’t sound like it had been serious, but she wanted to make sure.

“Fine. Both are going to pit, but neither looks like they have any real damage to their cars.”

“Good.” Though she had every intention of smacking Evan when she saw him later. What the hell was he thinking?

His brother was clearly wondering the same thing, because after the checkered flag, with microphones stuck in his face, Elec wasn’t holding back on his feelings. “Even though Evan is older than me, that doesn’t always translate to maturity. That was some damn foolish driving.”

Hot and exhausted, Kendall winced as she heard the words, but thrilled at her own eleventh place finish. Her best yet in the cup series and not bad, though it would have been better if Evan and Elec hadn’t created a caution lap. But that was racing. You had to be aggressive to win, and sometimes someone else’s screwup made you a winner, and sometimes it took you right out of the field. There was a lot of skill involved, but also a lot of luck. Being in the right or wrong place.

A reporter popped up in front of her as she unzipped her racing suit and peeled the sleeves off, the cool air refreshing on her hot body, her microfiber shirt stuck to her skin with sweat. “Congratulations on your finish, Kendall.”

“Thanks, it was a good race. My team did a great job and the Untamed Chevrolet was running really well today.” Mention the team in a positive light. Mention the sponsor. Mention the car manufacturer. Golden rules for a driver.

“What do you think of the Monroe brothers’ dustup out there?” The reporter was a perky brunette, and Kendall wondered, as she frequently did, why the reporters down on the infield and in Victory Lane tended to be attractive women, yet the broadcasters and analysts were men.

“I have no idea what happened out there without seeing a replay, but it’s an aggressive sport. We’re all trying to pass each other.” She hoped that was sufficiently noncommittal.

After a few more questions, she managed to disengage herself so that she could go have some pictures taken and hopefully get a meal before heading back to her hotel. Not that there was any hurry. Getting away from the track with all the post-race traffic was going to take a while since she wasn’t staying in the motor home lot.

She passed Eve Monroe, who was biting her lip and looking like she wanted to hurl. “Hey, Eve.”

“Oh, hi, Kendall.” Eve was glancing back and forth between her brothers, who were both talking to reporters, both looking pissed off. “Total disaster. Total friggin’ disaster. I swear to God I’m going to have a heart attack. Why do they do this to me?”

Kendall was pretty sure the disagreement had nothing to do with Eve personally, but she could certainly understand her distress. This was a big deal. They were airing their grievances in public.

“You get Elec and I’ll get Evan, okay?” she told Eve.

“Really? You’d do that?”

“Sure. When he’s not annoying me, I like Evan.” Especially naked. Or when he was rubbing her shoulders and reassuring her, helping her calm down. She could certainly do the same for him.

The question was how did she interrupt without being rude?

It turned out she didn’t even need to. Just walking over in front of where Evan was standing talking to reporters, and hovering there for a second, got him to spot her and excuse himself. “Can you believe this shit?” he said to her as a greeting.

“Keep your voice down,” she urged him. “Let’s go back to your place and get something to eat, take a deep breath and go over this.”

“Really? Thanks, Kendall. Good finish, by the way.” He raked his hands through his hair. “But I mean, what the hell? My brother is a dick.”

“Evan, seriously. Zip it.” Kendall tied the sleeves of her jacket around her waist and started walking towards the compound. “Come on.”

Unfortunately, Elec was doing the same thing, and as they entered the gated area of the drivers’ motor homes, the brothers came face-to-face with each other.

Kendall looked around for help. Eve was nowhere to be found, and she didn’t see anyone who could be of assistance.

This looked to be good times. She braced herself for the confrontation, which came immediately.

“You’re an asshole,” Evan said heatedly to Elec.

“And you’re a crybaby,” Elec said in an easy voice.

Evan
hated
that. He really, really hated that. Why couldn’t his brother ever yell or get pissed off or emotional? He was just even, calm, cutting. Looking unruffled and like he was damn sure he was right. That had infuriated Evan since they were kids, and it had the same effect now.

“Shut up, Elec the Eyeball. You know what you did was shitty.”

“Oh, there’s a good comeback. Telling me to shut up while using my stupid childhood nickname. How original.”

Knowing he was going to punch his brother, Evan took a step forward. And smacked into Kendall, who had inserted herself between them. Evan grabbed her shoulders when he knocked her off balance. “Kendall, step aside, babe.”

“Take this inside,” she said in a firm voice.

When he tried to step around her anyway, she moved again, still blocking him. “Inside, Evan.” She turned to Elec. “I think you two should
talk
inside, out of earshot.”

“Your place or mine?” Elec asked with an enigmatic smile that made Evan immediately want to knock it off his face.

“My place. I don’t want to scream obscenities at you with your stepkids around.”

“They’re back in Charlotte, but whatever.” Elec rolled his eyes.

Evan fisted his fingers and said, “Seriously, Elec, why didn’t you just let me pass?”

“Why the hell would I let you pass? I was going for the win, just like you were.”

“Because you were risking losing control by all that maneuvering to keep me from passing. You were reckless.” Evan glared at his brother over his shoulder as he stomped across the gravel to his motor home.

“You were being reckless driving up my ass.”

“Because you should have let me pass!”

“Why?”

“I just told you why.” Evan yanked open the door and gestured for Elec to go first. “And because you’re my brother and you should know that I need all the points I can get right now. You’re having a great season and I’m not. You could have given one damn spot to me.”

“You would never expect me to do that for any other driver, so why should I do that for you? Why do you get special favors? Instead, you should just try driving better, crybaby.”

Crybaby. God, why did such a childish taunt make Evan see red? Elec still sounded completely unflappable, and Evan waited until Kendall had followed Elec into the motor home, then he slammed the door shut and dove at his brother’s back. Elec wasn’t ready for the hit and he went crashing into the coffee table, then dropped down onto the floor hard.

“Get off me, you dickhead!” Elec said, struggling to roll onto his back.

Evan ground his brother’s face into the carpet. “That’s for being a selfish prick. And for ruining my science project by pissing on it when I was in the third grade.”

Somewhere in the back of Evan’s mind it registered that this was ridiculous and petty, but it still felt really, really damn good to have his brother down, even as he could hear Kendall yelling at them to knock it off.

Elec got a hand back and made contact with Evan’s chin, hard. “What are you, twelve years old?” his brother asked, as Evan saw stars. “More brawn than brains, always have been that way.”

Then it was on, like Donkey Kong.

They were rolling and landing punches, knocking into furniture, and swearing like drunken sailors. Or very pissed off brothers.

Evan saw with satisfaction that he had managed to split his brother’s lip, though they had destroyed two dinette chairs in the process, when the door slammed.

“What in the Sam Hill is going on here?”

Uh-oh. That was his mother’s voice.

He and Elec both went still, breathing hard on their sides, Elec’s hands fisted into Evan’s driving suit. Neither one of them spoke, waiting for the wrath to fall.

“Oh, hello, Kendall,” his mother said in much gentler tone. “How are you, sweetheart? You’re having quite a rookie season.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“But I’m sorry you had to witness such a shocking and childish display of bullshit. I hope you weren’t injured in any way by their raging stupidity.”

“No, ma’am. I was just letting them work it out.”

Evan shook Elec off of him and sat up, wiping his nose. Blood. Fabulous. He looked warily over at his mother, who was standing with her arms folded, her purse over her shoulder.

Eve was behind her. “I hate both of you,” his sister said. “You’re determined to kill me.”

“Oh, stop being so overdramatic,” his mother told her. “No one is trying to kill you.”

Then she rounded on him and Elec. “But you two . . . if you weren’t grown men, I’d paint your back porches red. I didn’t raise you like this. Trash talking each other, to the media of all people! Running off half-cocked instead of talking about it. Rolling around on the floor like a couple of twelve-year-olds!”

“See?” Elec, who had sat up as well, nudged Evan’s leg with his foot. “Told ya you were acting twelve.”

“Oh, shut up.” Evan smacked his brother’s foot away.

“Knock it off!” his mother roared. “I’m ashamed of both of you. You—” Her finger shot out and pointed at Elec. “You are a married man. A father to two small children! This is not how you act to set an example for those babies. And you were sadly lacking in sportsmanlike conduct today.”

Evan felt a little smug when he saw the pained expression cross his brother’s face. Damn straight.

“And you.” The finger swiveled to point in his face. Uh-oh. “You know better than to expect special favors from anyone. It’s every man for himself out there, and you needed to ease up. Your reckless determination to pass Elec could have seriously injured someone. And this foolishness is just that—the actions of a fool. You are never going to get a woman if this is how you behave.”

Wonderful. Just what every man wants his mother to say in front of the woman he’s sort of sleeping with. A glance at Kendall showed she was fighting back a smile.

Furthermore, he knew his mother was right. He shouldn’t expect Elec to make things easier for him just because he was having a rough season. Nor should he be driving that aggressively, especially based on emotion.

“Maybe I should head on out,” Kendall said, undoing her jacket sleeves from her waist and pulling them back up onto her arms, making her chest do a lovely forward jut for a second.

“No, no, please don’t go.” Evan stood up and despite still feeling irritated, extended his hand to his brother to help him up. “We’re finished. I’m sorry, Elec. That was uncalled for.”

Elec took his hand and stood up. “I apologize, too. I was being stubborn on the track.”

They clapped each other on the shoulder and that was it. If his brother thought he was going to grovel, he could kiss his ass.

But he knew he had to say the right thing to his mother. “You’re always right, Mom. I’m sorry my behavior embarrassed you and Dad.” He gave her a loud, smacking kiss on the top of her head, which he knew would cause her to melt a little. “What would we do without you?”

“Kill each other.” Her shoulders relaxed, but she still gave him a stern look. “Y’all are going to have to make pretty in front of the cameras.”