by Evelyn Glass
“Sure. But hold Mommy’s hand, okay?”
“Okay,” he chirped, as he unbuckled his safety belt and opened his door. She smiled as he crawled out of the car, slamming it behind him. He was growing so fast. It seemed like only last week they had brought him home from the hospital wrapped in a blanket, and now he was riding in a booster seat and getting in and out of the car on his own.
She took Riley’s hand and they toured the area, Leo or another Firechrome their constant shadow.
She stopped before the big display that had two columns of numbers, all reading zero. As she watched, men in riding armor stepped to the table where Palmer greeted each rider. Chuck and Jacob flanked him with their guns conspicuously displayed on their hips. The rider would give his name and Palmer would check a list on the computer. After finding the name, he’d accept a wad of cash from the rider. He counted it, twice, in front of the rider, then deposited the money in one of four cash boxes, sealed with a large lock. The rider would then draw a number from one of four glass fish bowls, Palmer would look at the fat chit that looked vaguely like a key fob, then type something on the laptop. He handed the chit back to the rider, the rider would step away, and the process would repeat with the next rider. She nodded at Chuck and Jacob, who nodded back, but their attention never left the table in front of them.
“Daisy?” Cale said as he stepped up beside her. “What are you doing here?”
“I didn’t have much choice.”
Cale glanced to Leo. “So I see. And who is this fine looking young man?” he asked as he knelt.
Riley tucked into Daisy’s leg, saying nothing, but his eyes were bright.
“Tell him your name,” she encouraged.
“Riley.”
“Riley?” Cale exclaimed. “I’ve heard a lot about you! Put’er there partner,” he said extending his hand. Riley took the hand, shook it, then buried his face in Daisy’s side. “Hey, you want to go see a really fast motorcycle?”
“We’re not here for a fucking party!” Leo growled as he put his hand on Riley’s shoulders.
Cale stood up and glared at Leo. “What happened to your face, Leo? And I noticed your bike was a little dinged up, too. Run into something you couldn’t handle?”
“Fuck you, you old cock-sucker,” Leo bellowed, shoving Cale.
Daisy picked Riley up and started to move quickly away, but five armed Cutthroats arrived in moments and began to muscle Leo away.
“What’s going on here?” Alex demanded as he strode up, several Firechrome following in his wake.
“Your man here got out of line. There’s one hard and fast rule. No violence. You touch another person, you’re ejected and you lose your entrance fee.” He looked at the security men. “Toss him out.”
“Wait a fucking minute!” Alex snarled. “He’s our entry against Dixon. You can’t throw him out.”
Cale glared at Alex. “I’ll give you this one, but you had better sit on him, and the rest of your men, too, because this is your only warning. It happens again, they’re out. Do I make myself clear?”
Alex glared at Cale. He didn’t like being talked to this way, but they were making a scene, and if they took over he didn’t want to scare off the money. “Got it. Get him out of here,” he growled.
When Cale nodded security released Leo with a shove.
“You touch me again and I’ll fucking kill you,” Leo snarled as he shook off the guards.
“Leo…shut the fuck up,” Alex said, as he turned and walked away.
“Let’s go, Daisy,” Leo growled as he reached for her.
“You touch her, or her son, and you’re out,” Cale warned.
“She’s my fucking wife!” he roared.
“Leo! Leave her alone! She’s not going anywhere,” Alex barked.
“We’re not done here,” Leo growled at Cale, but turned and followed Alex.
Cale watched Leo’s retreating back. “That’s what you think.” He then smiled down at Riley who was staring back at him wide-eyed. “Now, would you like to go see the motorcycle?” Riley stared a moment more and then nodded slowly. “All right, then,” he said giving the boy’s hair a tousle. “Follow me.”
Daisy and Riley followed Cale until she saw Dix. He was standing in his racing leathers, talking to Thad as he sat on his bike. “I can’t. He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
Cale paused and turned back to her, then looked at Riley. “See that man there, in the red and white suit? He rides the fastest motorcycle you have ever seen. You want to see it?” When Riley nodded, Cale looked at her. “Don’t disappoint the boy.”
“Dix,” she said softly as she stepped up.
He turned at her voice. “Daisy,” he smiled, then looked down. “You must be Riley,” he said brightly as he crouched down, not wanting the scare the boy. The last time they met, her father had told him he was a bad man.
Riley nodded.
“He wants to see the fastest motorcycle here,” Cale said with a smile.
“Is that so?” Riley nodded again. “How would you like to sit on it?” He chuckled as Riley’s eyes got big. He picked him up. “Okay, but you have to promise to bring it back when you’re done riding it, okay?”
“I will!”
He stepped to the front of the McGhee Recycling truck and sat Riley on his bike. “Careful, okay? It’s got a lot of power.”
Riley stretched for the handlebars he could barely reach.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” he said, turning his attention to Daisy. He looked at the bruise on her face. “I’m sorry about your face.”
She looked at him as her brow wrinkled. “Leo did this.”
“I know. I should have known that weasely shit would lie to me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Those marks on Leo’s face. I gave him those. I came for you, and when I caught him I made him tell me where you were. Except he lied. Did you used to live in the Greenwood Apartments?”
“Yeah. A few years ago. Why?”
“That’s where he told me you were. I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
“You came for me?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“I didn’t know! You sounded so…upset. Like you didn’t care.”
“Did you mean what you said?”
“No!”
He smiled. “Neither did I. But I assumed Leo was listening.”
“He was.”
“So I told you what he wanted to hear.”
She sucked on her lip so she wouldn’t cry. “I thought you didn’t care and didn’t want to see me anymore.”
He shook his head then nodded at Riley as the boy made motor noises. “Later,” he said, then gave her hand a squeeze.
She swallowed her tears. “Okay. I found who you’re racing against just now.”
“Who?”
“Leo.”
He chuckled. “Are you kidding me? He’s slow as…can be,” he said, changing his sentence at the last moment in deference to little ears. “I’m not impressed with the intelligence of the Firechrome leadership.”
“I’m not impressed with the Firechrome,” she added with a smile. With his promise to talk later, she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her.
“May I have everyone’s attention,” Cale said over a portable loud speaker. “Has everyone who’s going to race registered and picked up their timing chit?”
“Time to go,” he smiled. “Come on, buddy. Let’s go watch some racing,” he said as he picked Riley up and set him on his shoulders before walking to the knot of people standing under the lights.
“Okay,” Cale continued. “It looks like everyone has registered. Neil, kill the lights.” There was a pause then the overlook plunged into darkness.
“I want to welcome everyone to the fifteenth annual Green Hell Motorcycle Race!” He paused while people clapped. “I know most of you have been here before, but for those who haven’t, let me give you the rundown on what
’s happening tonight,” Cale began.
“First, we’ve turned all the lights out to give our riders eyes some time to adjust to the darkness. Please, only small flashlights from this point forward until the races are over.
“Second, this is the leader board. It gives the top three finishing times,” Cale said as he moved his hand down the display. “We time to the thousandth of a second...minutes, seconds, and thousands,” he said as he moved his hand along. Cale then pointed to another board. “Over here’s the running board. It is timing the riders on their run. Each rider’s time will be displayed by his starting number.
“Third, we send out riders at two minute intervals, so when your class is up, please line up according to your starting number. Your starting position will be displayed on the board by the start light,” Cale said, pointing to a third electronic board beside the track. “If you’re not in position when the light goes green for your run, that’s considered a DNF, and your race is over.”
“What’s a DNF?” Daisy asked.
“Did not finish,” Dix replied.
“Fourth,” Cale continued. “Except for the unlimiteds, you have to ride your bike here and then back to Douglas. Obviously you made it here, but even if you finish in first place, if your bike can’t make it back to Douglas, that, again, is a DNF.
“Fifth. We run the classes in this order. Under six hundred, six hundred to seven-fifty, over seven-fifty then the unlimiteds. There will be a thirty-minute break between classes to give the track time to clear, but we will begin queuing bikes for the next class as soon as the last rider is away. Please, be ready to take your place in line at that time.
“Sixth. Payout of the winnings will occur at Dunes Bar and Grille at ten tomorrow morning. If you want to get paid, be there, otherwise we spend your share paying everyone else’s bar tab. Seriously, be there. We’ll hold your winnings for thirty days, but after that we consider them forfeit. Oddly enough, nobody has never not shown up.”
Cale waited while the chuckle rumbled through the crowd. “Anyone have any questions?” When there were none, he continued. “Okay, that’s all the official business. If you have any questions or problems, just ask one of the men you see in the Cutthroat jackets and they can help you. There’s one more item of note. Tonight, after the unlimteds run, we’re going to run a pair of Harleys over the track. Wait, wait,” he called as people laughed. “It’s a heads up grudge match between our very own Dixon Montague and a member of the Firechrome Motorcycle Club, Leo Watson, in a winner take all event. Stick around for that, it should be interesting.”
“And slow!” a voice called from the crowd, making everyone laugh again.
“What’s he doing?” Daisy hissed.
“Putting it on record to pressure the Firechrome into living up to their end of the bargain.”
“Okay, anything else?” Cale asked. “No? Okay, Eddie, line ‘em up. Let’s go racing!”
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Dix slapped Thad on the back as he rolled to the start. The moment his light went green he’d be off. “Thad, you copy?”
“Five by five,” Thad said.
“How you feeling?”
“Great!”
“You got this. Nobody is even close to your best time. Thirty seconds,” Dix said, then went silent. He wouldn’t speak again unless Thad spoke to him first. Thad raced in the under six hundred class and would be number nine on the track tonight.
Thad watched the numbers spinning down on the timer. At one second he redlined the bike and dumped the clutch, crossing the timing light on the back tire three one-thousandths of a second after the light went green. Dix shook his head. Nobody had a faster launch than Thad.
They had five intermediate timers set up on the track. The first was at Porter, where the riders cross Porter creek following a hard right that leads into a long stretch with a series of left and rights that could throw off a rider’s rhythm with ease. Next came Knife, a fast right with a nasty bump in the middle that had put more than one rider in the weeds when the bike unloaded over the bump. Up next was Kink, where the riders have to make a sharp, near one-eighty, turn. Taken in first gear, this was the slowest corner on the track and where most races were won or lost. After Kink there was a long run on a relative straight before a series of turns that made the track look like a boot heel, hence the marker’s name: Boot. After Boot was Finger, the second slowest turn, another near one-eighty but this time to the left, a corner that had caught out many riders because of the sudden tightening of the radius in the middle of the corner. The final timing mark was Wiggles, a series of high-speed turns near the finish that a good rider could take flat out, but if you were behind at Wiggles, very few could make up any time in the final half-mile to the finish.
Dix watched the running board, writing down the number on his clipboard as it paused for five seconds, displaying the time at each interval so he could compare it to the leaders. Thad was kicking ass out there. Though he was slower than his best time, he was steadily pulling away from the other riders. Hurray for home track advantage! Unless he crashes, he can’t lose.
“Time!” Thad called.
“Don’t push it. You’re up almost a full second over the current leader.”
“Roger,” Thad said.
***
Dix was waiting for him as Thad rolled to a stop. “Riley. Guess who that is?”
“Who?”
“That’s Mr. Thad. He’s the winner so far.”
“Really?” Riley asked as Thad pulled off his helmet.
“Yes, really. How’s the track tonight?”
“Not bad. A little greasy. You think my time is going to hold?”
“Without a doubt.”
Thad held out his hand and Dix took it a firm handshake.
***
They had a forty-minute hold in the seven-fifty race as a rider took a hard fall and broke his leg. Marla, who attended all races to provide medical aid, was whisked to the scene where she applied traction to set the leg then immobilized it with a splint. The Cutthroats had several vehicles on site to take an injured rider into Douglas for medical treatment, but the rider, receiving Marla’s approval, decided he’d rather sit in the back of a truck so he could finish watching the races than receive immediate attention.
As soon as everyone was satisfied the rider would be okay, the racing resumed.
***
Dix sat on the tailgate of James’s truck, staring into the darkness.
“You going to be okay?” Daisy asked. Riley was sleeping in the truck and she and Dix were enjoying a moment. The Firechrome had been staring daggers at her all night, and would occasionally walk by to call her names, but they had done nothing to interfere with her mingling with the Cutthroats after Alex laid the law down to them. That, and because there were conspicuously armed Cutthroats shadowing her and Dix’s every move.
“Yeah.”
“This is where Kevin would be racing, right?”
“Yeah. He should be here kicking ass, just like Thad. And he’s not, all because of the fucking Firechrome.”
She wanted to kiss him and try to ease his pain, to give back some of the kindness he’d given her, but that was a step too far tonight. She was going to pay for this later with Leo, if she had to go back with him, but knowing Dix had come for her, knowing he still cared, getting to spend even a few hours with him again, would make the beating she’d receive worth it.
“Unlimiteds to the line please. Unlimiteds to the line,” Cale’s voice boomed out over the loudspeaker.
“I have to go.”
“I know.” She couldn’t leave it like that and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “I’ll be waiting when you get back.”
Leo watched as Daisy kissed Dix, and his blood boiled. She’d pay dearly for her betrayal, but not here. Later, when he got her home. As Dix moved away, Leo strode to meet him, three Firechrome following him. “She’s going to pay for that. I’m going to hurt her, Dix. Because of you, I’m going to h
urt her bad.”
Dix whirled on Leo, making him take a step back. “If you touch her, I’ll track you down and kill you. You think I fucked you up the last time? Just wait until the next time.”
He turned his back on Leo and stomped to his bike. Thad helped him detach the frame that held the bike upright and he pushed it to the starting grid. The unlimited bikes typically had no starter, so all the riders were pushing their bikes.
Dix sat on this bike and fastened his helmet. He was seething, tightening his strap with savage jerks. Thad slapped him on the helmet. “Forget about him! Focus!”