Page 107 of Rear View
He laughed.
My phone rang and my gut clenched. When I scanned the screen, the hope in my chest morphed to rage real fast.
“The fuck do you want, asshole?” I answered.
Alec’s stare sharpened when it locked on me.
“Come on, now, son,” my old man taunted. “Aren’t you gonna tell me you missed me?”
“How’d you get this number?”
“I spent the last eight years in prison, boy. You don’t think I can find things that don’t wanna be found?” There was a shuffle through the line. “You know what I want.”
My laugh was menacing as hell and twice as dark. “Guess you can’t find everything, then.”
He loosed a laugh of his own. “Your race seems to be going pretty decent.”
I inhaled, good and slow, to steady my fury. So, he was watching. Message received. “You ain’t gettin’ Ma.”
“We’ll see about that.” That shuffle again. “Looks like you’re busy now. We’ll talk again soon.”
Ending the call, I chucked the phone onto a tool chest to my right, stretched my neck and paced across the room. How the hell had the day gotten shittier?Christ!
“Was that Peter?” Alec asked.
“Yeah.” My jaw ground hard, teeth aching from the force. “It was him.”
“Prick.” He thumped a hand onto my shoulder. “You alright?”
My lone nod was sharp.
His arm dropped. “You think he’ll be a bigger problem?”
Peter Bosch still breathing was a goddamn problem. “For me? No doubt.” For us? My throat tightened. Shit. I hoped not.
Rubbing my temple with the heel of my hand, I shovedthe garbage that’d been my day to that box in the back of my head. The one that’d gotten me through living with Dad, Fallon’s death and juvie. I had a job to do, and a team relying on me. I’d finish the race and sort my trash later.
Yara checked her watch. “Dammit!” She whipped her arm around and called to the crew. “We’re shit outta luck, guys. Time’s up. Get the car down.”
I flexed my hands. Delays meant penalties and penalties meant time. No could do.
The team wrapped up and got the machine off the hoist.
Throwing on my helmet, I climbed inside. I locked myself into my harness, then two-footed the pedals as I eyed Alec. “Let’s do this.”
“You sure you’re good, man?” he asked.
No, I fuckin’ wasn’t. Between my old man, and dream girl… Jesus. The first one I could handle, but Ryah losing it on me, it barely made a lick of sense. I didn’t know what was up, but that reaction, it hadn’t been shy or self-conscious, that’d been fear.
“I’m good.” I pulled us out of the Parc Ferme and up to the stage start line as the clock counted down. I held my foot on the brake and revved the engine as I gripped the shifter.
Three. Two. One.
I snapped it into gear and punched the gas. Snow kicked up, filling the air.
Alec read off his pace notes. “Two right long into one left sharp.”
Pulling the e-brake, I cut the wheel, taking the first turn. I straightened out and cut hard, drifting into the second.
