The Champion (Racing on the Edge)

by Stahl, Shey

  By the way, if you have never been arrested in downtown Atlanta, keep in that way.

  What a nightmare.

  “I smuggled it in through my bra.”

  “Oh, cool. I usually shove my down my pants.”

  “That’s...disgusting Tommy.”

  He shrugged undeterred by my remark and made friends with the guy next to us and then took to flirting with the woman next to Emma. I had to remind him where we were and clearly picking someone up in jail wasn’t the smartest decision he’d ever made. I could have been wrong though.

  “Hey, she’s a step up.” He winked at the girl and if I was being honest with you, I wasn’t entirely sure she was a woman but I wasn’t telling Tommy that. “In college, I once fucked a female body builder. Not cute and it was like fucking Vin Diesel with a twat. Beastly even.”

  I laughed until I nearly pissed myself before he looked at me with a straight face. “I was so disgusted with myself that I only lasted fifteen seconds and then she proceeded to bench press me. Talk about emasculated a man.”

  “Oh fire crotch,” I leaned against him using him as support. “What would I do without you?”

  “Probably laugh a lot less.”

  “So what...did you date her after that?”

  “Hey, I didn’t say it was a relationship. We fucked and occasionally I took her to Subway.”

  “Some would classify that as a relationship. Not me, but some.” I smiled when he glared. “But it was nice of you...to take her to Subway an all.”

  Another half hour passed after Alley called Van to have him come get us but apparently he couldn’t so he sent Jameson. I was a little worried.

  “So Emma,” I kicked her shin when she fell asleep beside me. “Was this your idea of a good time?”

  “Actually,” she burst into tears. “No.”

  Oh Emma. She was just Emma. Wanted the best and ended in disaster every time. Look at her kids. Perfect example right there.

  Tommy perked up. “Hey look, it’s Jameson.”

  We all looked over to my husband leaning against the cell with a smirk. I burst out laughing at his appearance. The girls had gotten a hold of him, braided his hair, put eye shadow and lipstick on him and managed to paint his eyelashes and fingernails. He belonged in here with us.

  He smiled at me. I frowned.

  He laughed. I stuck my tongue out. It was like a game until the officer came to release us.

  It took a pretty penny to get us out and Tommy said he’d pay Jameson back.

  “Goddamn right you’re paying me back. And you can help explain this to reporters when they ask why my wife and mother were arrested.” Jameson, though amused, wasn’t pleased by this.

  Tommy agreed and Nancy looked at me and Alley standing against the wall outside the jail looking like we’d been ganged raped.

  “You mean to tell me I got a tattoo?” Nancy’s face was somewhere between complete mortification and humiliation that her son knew what happened.

  Tommy put his arm around Nancy. “We outta party more often.”

  “No,” Jameson shoved Tommy away from his mom. “Keep it up and you’ll be finding yourself another job.”

  That shut Tommy up.

  Like I said before, going out together never ended well and it didn’t that night. I knew Emma and all of us needed to let off some steam and getting arrested wasn’t exactly planned but the funny thing was it was all laughable after you got over the shock of it all.

  On the way up to the suite, Jameson and I stood in the elevator in silence when an older couple on their way to breakfast stepped inside. Though I still looked very gang rapped, my husband appearance was far more laughable.

  Through snorts and gasping, they contained themselves and exited a few floors before ours but what really set me into fit of giggles was the group of college girls we passed on the way to our suite who stared Jameson down.

  “So many judging looks coming your way.” I whispered his direction only to have him trip me.

  The groups of girls snickered at me.

  “Now who’s judging who?”

  I glared picking myself up from the floor. It was my only redeemable response. I had nothing left in me after that night.

  19. Air Wrench – Sway

  Air Wrench – This tool uses compressed air to quickly remove wheel nuts on contact. A crew member proficient with the air wrench can save a team valuable seconds on a pit stop. It can also be called an air gun or impact gun.

  After being arrested, we kept things low as the season was getting intense but so was the interest in my relationship with Jameson. I’m not sure why, but everyone wanted to challenge. It was like nowadays people didn’t believe in a lasting relationship that had stress and obstacles in its way. Well I did and I damn sure wasn’t about to let anyone threaten it.

  One night after the race in Bristol, I was walking back to the motor coach to meet up with Jameson and then we were heading to Elma for a couple days. I got half way there and realized I’d forgotten Casten’s stuffed monkey in the hauler so Van ran back to get it for me. I stood waiting for him when Rusty, a Nationwide driver approached me.

  Rusty was about twenty-three or so and had a knack with the ladies. He thought, and I would argue this, that he was god’s gift to women. He had no idea the man I had in my bed every night was by far the best.

  So standing there in the darkness of the paddock waiting on Van, Rusty came up.

  “What are you doing out here all alone?” he asked stepping from his golf cart.

  “Oh, well I forgot something in the hauler and Van went to get it.”

  “So Van, he’s like your body guard?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, something like that.”

  He smiled, brown golden eyes trying to work their magic. “I can see why a girl like you needs a body guard.”

  That’s when he stepped closer blocking me against the side of Paul’s hauler.

  This is when I felt the nervous goose bumps and the sudden urge to run. Since the incident with Darrin so many years ago, I didn’t like to be cornered by anyone.

  “So Sway, how about you say we, oh, you know,” he let his voice drop lower to a whisper. “go back to my motor coach?”

  Was he fucking serious?

  I must have gave him that look when he replied with. “You can’t tell me Riley gives you everything you need. He’s so focused on racing he barely see’s you for what you are.”

  Again, was he fucking serious?

  He stepped even closer, breath blowing across my face.

  That’s when the shit hit the fan.

  “What’s going on here?” Jameson asked barely controlled.

  I knew then, one wrong move, one wrong word and this Rusty guy would have regretted ever stepping my direction.

  Even submerged in the shadows and harsh lighting, his temper was thick. Like a race at a superspeedway with twenty cars running in a pack on the last lap, I knew what was coming.

  Rusty stepped back distancing himself from me. “Nothing, just talking to your wife here,” Rusty said casually with a hint of arrogance. “Nice run tonight.”

  Jameson looked to me for an answer avoiding Rusty. He knew looking at me it wasn’t that.

  “Sway,” Jameson’s voice had that tone and I knew then Rusty was about to see the big one. “Meet me at the motor coach.”

  My gaze upon my husband shifted over his shoulder to see Van standing there. I joined Van and never looked back.

  Van sighed and continued to walk with me. “How is it that I can’t leave you for a second?” he handed me Casten’s stuffed monkey.

  “I don’t know Van.”

  I hoped Jameson didn’t get into trouble and frankly, I was getting tired of this crap where everyone had to test us. Why wasn’t it that no one could have a marriage without people trying to test their luck?

  It was something I’d never understand.

  Jameson returned with Spencer beside and motioned for me to get inside the Ex
pedition waiting for us. I loaded the kids and we took off to airport without another word.

  When we got home and inside our room, he looked at me and leaned against the wall as I got ready for bed. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No. Did you hurt him?”

  “No.” his eyes dropped to the floor. “I just had a few words with him.”

  I knew what that meant and when I saw Rusty the next week, he wouldn’t even look at me and had the faint yellow markings of a black eye that was healing.

  Rowdy Riley was still very much, Rowdy Riley.

  Air Wrench – Jameson

  Toward the end of the 2009 season, I had made it into the chase and was well on the way to my fifth championship when we got caught up in the big one in Talladega. A lot of chase contenders were involved as well so that was good but not where I wanted to be heading into the final three races of the season.

  Everything was busy right now. Sway was in Mooresville with the kids helping Tommy and the boys with the sprint car team. The World Finals started on Wednesday and here I was on a Sunday night, after the Talladega race, drinking with Tate and Bobby.

  We all just needed a break. Sadly, I didn’t get one.

  I was standing there next to the bar, waiting for another round of beers when a man approached me for my autograph. I gave him one and expected him to leave me alone when he decided to invade my personal life by asking how my son was doing. Now I don’t really have a problem with that so much with asking about Axel, he was in the public eye now and there isn’t anything I can do about that. What I had a problem with was those who asked about Sway. Given our history and the year we’d been having, I took that shit personally.

  When his attempts got him nowhere, he went a step further.

  “You’re wife sure is pretty,” the man said conversationally, though I didn’t take it that way by his dark tone. I didn’t like this guy. One, he was standing too close to me and second, I just didn’t like him.

  I was aware my wife was attractive and understood other men coming on to her. Who wouldn’t?

  What I didn’t appreciate were the ones that felt the need to try their luck with her. To me, marriage is sacred. It holds a bond like none other. I valued it greatly and to have men disregard me as though my wife wasn’t my wife was something I wasn’t okay with. Actually, it pissed me off to no end and infuriated me at times. Just like the time in Bristol with Rusty, I lost my cool.

  “Don’t.” I shook my head slowly as I reached for the three beers the bartender handed me.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Threaten me.” I growled turning to look at him. “Do you honestly think you’re the first person to threaten my family?”

  “I only said she was pretty.” His words didn’t match his expression though. “Why are you so offensive about that?”

  “Come on dude!” Bobby yelled from the table. “I could have gotten them faster than you.”

  I nodded toward Bobby that I had the beers and was heading back to the table when the man followed me.

  “I only said she was pretty. What’s the harm in that?”

  Bobby and Tate caught on fairly quickly that I was moments away from showing this guy what the harm in that was. Instead, I responded with, “You’re in very dangerous territory.” I told him as threateningly as I could. Now that I had the man back up against the wall, it dawned on me who he was. He was the same guy from Indy, Gab. But as Van had found out, his name wasn’t Gab Kinney. It was actually Garrett Kinney, wanted for arrest in Atlanta, Houston and El Paso on possession of narcotics and burglary in Seattle.

  “You’re awfully protective.” He chuckled. “Has she cheated on you or something?”

  “You are lucky I’m even letting you say that to me right now.”

  “Oh, so that’s a yes?”

  “Listen to me, Garrett!” His eyes widened in surprise that I knew his real name. I snapped slamming my beer on the table as both Bobby and Tate stood from their place at the table. “My wife and my family are none of your fucking business, is that clear?”

  His hands rose defensively. “I was only pointing out a fact.”

  “A fact that it none of your concern,”

  Keeping my hands securely in his jacket, he struggled against me.

  “Jameson, let him go.” Tate warned stepping closer.

  “You should listen to your friend.”

  I had half a mind not to let him go. Flashes of Darrin surged throughout my blood leaving me boiling. This wasn’t Darrin, just some smartass looking to piss me off, but it didn’t change the feeling. Throughout the year, it seemed everyone was testing me and they did this by threatening my family.

  Knowing this came with fame, I tried not to read too much into it. But still, it was there, haunting me.

  Bobby ushered the guy away from me while Tate sat me down at the table again. “Relax man.”

  “Relax?” I balked. “That guy just told me my wife was pretty. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Tate seemed to contemplate this for a moment but didn’t answer.

  “Let me ask you something Tate...how would you feel if someone threatened Anna or Jake?”

  “I would have reacted the same way, but he didn’t threaten you. He said she was pretty...there’s a difference, Jameson.”

  “Really? There is?”

  “Yes, there is.”

  “Could have fooled me because that’s the first thing Darrin said to me.”

  “What?”

  “That Sway was pretty.”

  Tate hung his head and then slowly shook it. “You have to stop comparing every man to Darrin. Yeah, he was crazy but Sway is pretty. You’re not going to get away from men thinking she’s attractive.”

  “That’s not the fucking point.” I slammed my beer down on the table and walked out. Bobby was coming back inside as I was leaving and I blew past him with just a head nod.

  Instead of catching a flight home, I decided to drive that night. Once you were on I-85 it was only a six-hour drive and after the race and then the bar, I needed the time alone. Throughout the season, it was hard to find any sort of alone time. Like it or not, everyone needs it. I don’t care how in love you are with your significant other or family, you need alone time.

  Once I was driving home, I was able to calm down enough that I called Sway to let her know I’d be there sometime in the early morning.

  “What do you mean you’re driving?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  She sighed. “Why didn’t you just have Wes pick you up?” I could hear at least two of the kids screaming in the background.

  “I just...” Letting out my own sigh, I ran my hand through my hair. The freight trucks passing by hummed beside me. “I needed some alone time.”

  “Oh, okay. Well drive carefully.”

  “I will.” I told her. “I love you.”

  Sway told me she loved me too and then hung up after that. She called back an hour later and had me sing Arie to sleep. Lately she insisted I sing her to sleep every night so how could I deny my princess that?

  When I finally arrived home, I felt better but I was so tired I hardly had any sense to think. Just not hearing everyone tell me what I should be doing, or should be feeling was enough for me. It was a constant stream of advice these days from sponsors, drivers, my team, everyone but my family had an opinion of me and wanted to cast their thoughts upon me. I could give a shit what everyone else thought but it was them that stressed me out the most. While I didn’t care what they thought, it still weighed on me, almost as if it was a burden.

  Being at home always made me restless when I had racing on my mind but all that seemed to be the least of my worries the next day when I was watching the kids so Sway could go to the store.

  Sway’s cell phone kept ringing so eventually it annoyed me to the point I answered it.

  “Hello?”

  I waited but no one answered, just breathing.

  “Hello?” I r
epeated, riled from last night and then with the kids this morning.

  Axel and Arie spent the morning arguing over what cartoon they wanted to watch while Casten decided it was a good idea to pee on our living room floor—all this while Sway went to the grocery store. I wasn’t sure how in the hell she handled all three of the little spaz monsters without drugging them. Don’t think it didn’t cross my mind but I quickly ruled that out as child abuse and something most would frown upon.

  No one answered and eventually I got sick of the silent line and hung up. Two minutes later, the same goddamn thing happened. So when Sway finally walked through the door, grocery bags in hand, I was not happy.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked setting the bags on the center island of the counter and then swinging the door to the garage shut so Casten couldn’t sneak out. Any time the kid saw an open door it was like a bunch of prisoners trying to escape Alcatraz.

  “How long has this been going on?” I held up her phone.

  “A while I guess.” The fact that she knew what I was referring to made me that much more irritated with the entire situation at the bar last night and now these fucking phone calls.

  “How long, Sway?”

  “A month maybe,”

  “Goddamn it, you should have told me.” I snapped as she flinched at my harsh tone. Casten looked up at me, glared and kicked my shin.

  “No yelwing!” he told me and scurried to Sway where he usually hid.

  “What is with him?” I asked rubbing my shin confused why my youngest kid was kicking me. Casten was a funny kid. He never paid much attention to me and usually when I’d get home he’d give me this slow once over gaze that went up and down as if he was saying to himself, “So, you’re my dad?”

  Talk about feeling inadequate. It was if he thought I wasn’t anything special.

  Ignoring me, she picked him up and held on to him as she continued to put the food away as if nothing happened. Something did happen and damn well wasn’t going to again. I spent the next two hours lining up more security guards and a new cell phone for Sway along with more security cameras at our house and the one in Washington.