The Good Race: Book One of the Grayson Falls series

by A. M. Mahler

  Jackie recovered first. “This is my brother, Ethan. He just got out of the Marines and will be staying with us for a while until he figures out his next steps.”

  He figured now wasn’t the time to tell his sister—sisters—that he already had figured out his next steps—as long as Jackie and Danny were on board with his ideas. Now that he had met Natalie and seen her for himself, he knew he couldn’t leave Grayson Falls. She was protected by the U.S. Marshals Service, who had never lost a protectee before, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have trained family at her back—especially family with a badass dog trained to kill.

  “I guess that’s how you hurt your leg then?” Natalie asked.

  “Roadside bomb,” Ethan confirmed. “We were in a Humvee and my dog didn’t alert until right before it happened. It’s hard when you’re in motion.”

  “You’re a dog handler?”

  “I was,” Ethan shrugged. “I’m nothing at the moment. Still figuring that part out.”

  “Was your dog okay?”

  “Mostly. Bravo got banged up a bit, but he recovered physically. Unfortunately, he’s got PTSD now and wasn’t sleeping or responding to his new handler. I asked for him to be discharged with me. I should be able to pick him up at the airport in Boston any day now.”

  “He’s coming home to you?” Natalie’s eyes shone with tears. “Oh, it’ll be like those videos on the Internet. Are you going to film it?”

  “I was hoping I could just get him and go. Nobody knows I’m going to pick him up but you all. I’m not one for the spotlight and all that stuff. The military won’t tell anyone, either.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to meet him,” Natalie said. “Is he friendly?”

  “Usually,” Ethan said. “I mean, he is trained to detect threats. He’s sensitive to changes in mood and tension. If you’re nervous, he’ll pick up on it and go to work. If nothing seems amiss, he’s pretty relaxed.”

  Jackie began stitching up his cut as Natalie cleaned away the blood. He tried not to look at what they were doing. It’s not that he was overly squeamish. He had seen all sorts of injuries in various stages of healing in the hospital and in physical therapy afterward. But watching someone stick a needle in his skin always gave him the willies.

  “Natalie,” Jackie said. “We’re having a nice dinner tonight to welcome Ethan to town. Why don’t you come join us? We’d love to have you.”

  That was the first he was hearing of it.

  “Oh, I couldn’t impose,” she said, shaking her head. “Thanks for thinking of me, though.”

  “Please impose,” Ethan jumped in. “I don’t know anyone else in town. It’d be nice to make some friends.”

  “It’ll be really casual,” Jackie assured her. “No imposition at all.”

  “Okay, then.”

  “Fantastic! Could you run and check the schedule for our last appointment? I want to make sure I tell Danny the right time,” Jackie said.

  Natalie gave her an odd look. Maybe she thought leaving while they were in the middle of the sutures was strange, but she followed orders and left.

  “Smooth,” Ethan said. “Dinner?”

  “Ryan and Danny need to see you together. Genetics are strange. Ryan’s hair has turned more brown, like yours. I’m still blonde. I don’t think you and I look that much alike, but you and Natalie are dead ringers for each other. I wish we had some family pictures to go by. Maybe Zach will have them.”

  “I can’t believe I’m related to a major league baseball player. I guess I need to start following the Mavericks.”

  “Well, I can’t believe I’m related to a badass former Marine.”

  “Well, it’s useful for me to be related to a doctor,” Ethan said, holding up his newly sutured hand. “How many did I win this time?”

  “Twelve stitches. I keep mine small. Do you want something for the pain?”

  He made a show of looking down at his prosthetic and back up to Jackie. “I think I can handle it.”

  “I’m sure you can, but you don’t have to. So, if you need something, just say the word.”

  “I’ll live.” Ethan hopped down from the table.

  “Tell the others we’re doing dinner tonight.”

  “Will do.”

  Instead of heading straight home, he drove around town. It was small and didn’t have a ton to offer people that liked to be busy, but Ethan was a small-town person. He always had been. Stopped at the only light, he saw a banner for the annual summer picnic and softball tournament and smiled. Yes, he could definitely make this place his home.

  Twenty-Three

  DANNY SAT IN the stands of Ryan and Jackie’s new track with his heart in his throat and his body tensed. He couldn’t watch, and yet, he couldn’t look away. The two cars raced around the track at impossible speeds, getting so close he was sure they’d collide. One car would overtake the other, then the car in second rode right on the bumper of the car in front. He knew that if the front car hit its brakes, the other would be in the trunk.

  That is if there was a trunk.

  They also didn’t have mirrors. How the hell did they drive that fast and that close without mirrors? This was dangerous, and the woman he loved was in one of the cars. He’d long since lost track of which one. He’d like to ticket them both for reckless driving. When Jackie got out of her car, he was going to shake her and yell at her and hug the ever-loving shit out of her.

  Then he was going to ban her from getting into one of those death traps ever again.

  How could she do it, knowing her father had died in a race car? Did she think about it when she got behind the wheel? Clearly, from the skills he saw on the track, this was something the two of them had done before.

  He had followed Jackie and Ryan as they gleefully showed him around their new venture. It seemed obvious now that they would eventually stumble across something like this, and he knew they could do a lot with the place. From what he understood, it had done a good business before it had closed.

  What he saw was a place that needed a lot of work and maintenance. The buildings were worn, their paint faded. The bathrooms were one step up from a porta john. There was graffiti on some of the buildings and bleachers. The little playground off to the side by the snack bar was rusted and run-down.

  Jackie didn’t seem to care. She talked about the sounds and smells of summer with stars in her eyes. Greasy burgers and hot dogs, cotton candy and cheap beer.

  Danny saw overtime for his police officers. Did that factor into the place’s budget? Surely, they had to have police on hand? Where there was alcohol and competition, there were fights. How many sound complaints would he get? He made a note on his phone to have Norrie pull any and all police records pertaining to the track. He wanted to know what was coming down the pike.

  A man standing with his arms crossed over the fence below caught his eye. He wore a baseball cap and sunglasses. He stepped back and left one hand on the fence, putting the other on his hip. He seemed to be studying the cars closely. Was he a resident coming to check out the noise? Maybe he was one of Ryan’s employees, but Ryan hadn’t mentioned anyone would be coming up from New York, and he hadn’t converted the barn space yet.

  Then the man started looking around the track. To Danny’s eye, it looked like the guy was scoping the joint. His gaze literally traveled over the entire complex.

  Until it rested on Danny.

  Then the man started up the bleachers and took a seat right next to him.

  “You McKenzie?”

  “I am.”

  “Toby Willis.” The man held out his hand.

  It all made sense now, Danny thought.

  The man was studying Ryan and Jackie’s new investment, as well as Ryan’s new cars. Now that Toby was up close, Danny could recognize him a little better. Jackie had pictures of him around the house, of course, but Toby had retired from racing and was now a television commentator for the sport.

  “Heard a lot about you over the years,” Toby said
.

  Danny imagined that if his father deigned to communicate with him, he’d have heard a lot about Ryan, too.

  “I bet you have.”

  “From both of them,” Toby replied. “You helped Jackie during a time when it seemed like no one could reach her. I was sorry to hear about what happened later.”

  “I tried to contact her. When I couldn’t, I figured she wouldn’t forgive me and gave up. That is my biggest regret. I wish I knew why our letters never went through.”

  “Things were tough before email and texting. Who knows what could have happened? What’s important is you figured it out. You’re where you should be now. And I understand you’ve got some questions for me about Jimmy Reilly.”

  “I think it’s really more your son who has questions,” Danny said. “Jackie has let it go. She believes her father had a heart attack.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they said.”

  “Do you think that’s what happened?”

  Toby shrugged. He was saved from answering when the cars finally came to a stop. “Oh, boy. Here we go. She’s been all over his ass out there, trading paint, bumping him to get him loose. Make no mistake, son, if more women raced, things would be brutal on the track.”

  “All that was her?” Danny gaped. He had just assumed that Ryan was being the aggressive one. Jackie was gentle and quiet. Sure, she was a fast driver, but she wasn’t a hostile one.

  Toby threw back his head and laughed, patting Danny on the shoulder. “Ryan may be faster, but Jackie is much more aggressive. Racing’s in her blood. She may be quiet, but she’s hell on four wheels on a racetrack. I actually think she missed her calling.”

  Stunned, Danny watched Jackie and Ryan climb out of the windows of their respective cars and proceed to scream at each other. Jackie even shoved her brother a few times. Danny had never seen them argue like this before. Arms flailing, right up in each other’s faces.

  And damned if she wasn’t gorgeous.

  “Come on, son,” Toby said, standing up. “They’ll tear each other to pieces before too long.”

  “TOBY, THIS IS our brother Ethan.”

  Ethan was kicked back on the couch, reading the latest E.M. Holly thriller, but immediately pulled himself up and walked over to greet Toby.

  Ryan was always in awe of how Ethan seemed to adapt to his prosthetic. While Ryan was sure it wasn’t an easy transition by any means, watching how graceful he was, sometimes you could forget all about what he wore below his knee. Of course, Ryan was sure that Ethan never forgot it.

  He admired his brother. While their twisted family tree often made him mad, he couldn’t regret it bringing them Ethan and Natalie. Natalie was an introvert, like Jackie, and it wasn’t easy finding excuses to be around her to get to know her better without coming across as some kind of creepy stalker—which was exactly the kind of thing she was looking out for. Ethan was also quiet and introverted. He engaged in conversation easily enough and didn’t seem to mind being around people, but as soon as he was given the opportunity, he retreated to a quiet place, worked outside, or read. Ryan often wondered if that was as a result of his time in the Army. He didn’t imagine there was much privacy while you were deployed.

  “Sir,” Ethan said, shaking Toby’s hand.

  “Thank you for your service. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Ryan noted that Ethan passed the gratitude off, as he always did. He was a humble person. An injury like his could have broken other guys. There were always stories of veterans that became so depressed after injuries like those that they killed themselves or stopped leaving their houses. They just couldn’t settle in and become productive members of society again. Ethan didn’t seem ashamed of his handicap. In fact, it seemed as if he didn’t even think of himself as being handicapped.

  Ryan was proud as hell of the kid.

  “I’ll just head out and work on the coop while you all have your visit,” Ethan said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder.

  “Oh, no, please, stay,” Jackie said.

  “I’ve had my break,” he waved her off, holding up his book. “Spent some time with my favorite writer. Now it’s time to get back to work. The ground won’t till itself.”

  He dropped the book on the coffee table and then left the house through the back door.

  “Seems like a nice kid,” Toby said. “Meet any of the other ones yet?”

  Ryan and Jackie glanced at each other, a silent understanding between them.

  “Not yet,” Ryan said. “But we’re hopeful.”

  They would keep their sister’s secret, even from Ryan’s father.

  Danny appeared with three beers, a bottle of wine, and a glass. He gestured over to the couches so they could sit and be more comfortable.

  Ryan wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go. He had sent Eric’s report to his father after he’d received it and had recently voiced his concerns over Jimmy Reilly’s death. He wasn’t sure if his father knew that he had Jimmy’s car or not, but he had told his father that he had authorized the investigation to be opened again and that he had hired a team to run it.

  Toby sat down on the couch with a beer in one hand and rested his other arm along the back of the couch. “I got a call from some investigators.”

  “I gave you a heads-up on that,” Ryan reminded him. He propped his ankle up on his knee and leaned back, mimicking his father’s pose.

  “What’s this all about, Ry?” Toby asked. “What can be accomplished by reopening the investigation? The man had a heart attack. You go sticking your nose around places, and people are going to wonder why.”

  “Dad,” Ryan said, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees. “I have a very clear memory of you telling me that something wasn’t right that day. You said something didn’t feel right. I remember feeling it, too.”

  “There was a lot of tension in the garage back then.”

  “Over anything in particular?” Danny asked.

  Toby shrugged. “Drivers were always getting in each other’s faces, son. Rivalries would heat up. Teams would change, loyalties would change, sponsors would change.”

  “Jimmy was trying to change one of his sponsors at the time,” Danny said. “Did you know that?”

  “Jimmy and I didn’t talk anymore at that point,” Toby reminded them. “Who was he trying to win, anyway?”

  “It was who he was trying to lose, Dad,” Ryan said. “Mason Energy. Jimmy was trying to get out of his contract.”

  Toby pursed his lips and shook his head. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. Like I said, Jimmy and I weren’t on speaking terms at that point. The team owner handled sponsorships, not the drivers. If Jimmy was trying to get out of a contract, that would have been between him and his team owner.”

  “Why would a driver want out of a sponsorship?” Danny asked. “What would make you want to stop working with a sponsor?”

  “Wait a minute,” Jackie said. “When you said you were reopening the investigation, Ryan, I thought you meant you were looking into seeing if something malfunctioned with the car.”

  Ryan looked at his sister for a moment. She was putting it all together. All these years of believing what the racing commission had told her, but he could see that she now understood what he was looking for.

  “Ryan, do you think my father was murdered?”

  “I don’t know that he was,” he admitted. “I do know that he had sponsor trouble that year, and things were strange at the track that summer. Several of his pit crew carried guns and were hired security personnel. Then he died, and it just doesn’t feel right to me. Something was going on with him that summer, Jacks, and dying while racing would have been pretty convenient.”

  Jackie stood up and Ryan could see that she was shaking. She was pale, and that haunted look in her eyes had returned. Maybe he should have been more blunt with her along the way about his line of thinking. He knew he had shielded her, kept things from her that he knew would upset her. He was protective of
her, and he was never really able to shake that. He saw the repercussions of that now, however, in the way she absorbed the impact of what they were saying.

  Danny stood up next to her, whispered something in her ear, and ran a hand down her arm. She relaxed a bit, but not all the way. Danny had that calming effect on her. He always had. Ryan couldn’t soothe her the way he could. Danny just knew what to do, whereas Ryan was left floundering and reacted emotionally.

  As he watched his sister and his former nemesis, Ryan realized that it was time for him to step aside. Jackie had Danny now, and while she’d always have her brother, she didn’t need him in the same way she had all those years ago. In truth, she hadn’t in a long time. The girl that was afraid of her own shadow was gone, and the woman in her place might be quiet and introverted, but she was strong, capable, and could stand on her own.

  Maybe she really always had been, and it was his need to feel like he was taking care of her that drove him to the things he did. Had she been letting him do that all these years?

  He watched as Danny kissed Jackie on the forehead. Then they sat back down on the couch.

  “You should have told me, Ryan,” she said finally. “You should have told me from the beginning what you were thinking. I had a right to know. He was my father. And I have a right to know now. You will leave me out of nothing, do you understand me? I’m also taking over control of the estate. I know you’ve done a good job over the years, and it seemed important to you to continue to manage it, but it’s mine, and it’s time I take it back.”

  “I should have told you,” Ryan agreed. “But I couldn’t. I couldn’t cause you more pain. You can be mad at me for that, but if I had to do it all over again, I would make the same decisions.”

  Jackie sighed and turned her attention back to Toby. “What do you remember from that time?”

  “I remember the tension,” he said. “And I do remember that something didn’t feel right that day, but it was more a creepy feeling than actual fear. Listen, Jimmy was a paranoid son of a bitch. He always had security around. He was also one of the most popular drivers. It was hard for him to escape paparazzi and women throwing themselves at him, fans jumping the fence at his house. He was good-looking and he was racing’s star for many years. Most drivers just went with that sort of attention. It was the cost of doing business. But Jimmy had a little girl to think about. A little girl that he loved so much, he couldn’t bear to be parted from her. He didn’t have a lot of family, but he had you, Jackie. He wanted to be the one to raise you.”