by Evelyn Glass
She smiled and handed him his race helmet. “Do one more thing for me?”
“What?”
“Fuck him. Fuck him as hard as you can.”
Dix grinned. “Count on it.” He took his race helmet so he’d have more protection and the communication gear so Thad could talk to him. He kissed her one more time, then smiled. “I have to go. I have some fucking to do.”
Daisy smiled. “And when you’re done, you’ll have some more fucking to do back at your trailer.”
Dix chuckled. “What about Riley?”
“He can sleep on the couch.”
***
Leo sat, staring at the green light. Fat drops of rain were beginning to fall in a splash here, a splatter there, and he hoped the rain would hold off until the race was over. He never liked riding in the rain, and he damn sure didn’t like riding at his limit, on unfamiliar roads, in the rain.
This was his last chance, and he knew it. If he failed again, he knew he’d be stripped of his colors at the least, killed at the worst. He knew Dix was a much faster rider and would, eventually, catch him. He’d proven that when he ran him down on the street. His only hope was to make the most of the head start and hope Dix couldn’t catch him in time.
“When you’re ready,” Cale said, the start light turning green. “We’ll hold Dix for two minutes after you cross the timing signal.”
Leo revved the bike, spinning the rear tire as he held the bike on the front brake, before releasing the brake and rocking away into the night. It was showy, and loud, but ultimately a waste of time. Dix crept to the starting line, watching as the clock counted down.
“You’ve got this,” Thad said in his ear. “He’s slow as shit.”
“On this pig, I’m not exactly going to be a rocket,” Dix replied. Waiting, watching the clock count down, the two minutes felt like an eternity.
“Just run your race. I’ll feed you updates. You should have plenty of time to think.”
“Ha, ha, you asshole,” Dix growled, but Thad was right. Compared to his MotoGP bike, the Harley would feel like it was dragging a weight.
“He just passed Porter,” Thad said.
Dix didn’t answer, bringing the revs up on his bike. The minute the light went green he whacked open the throttle, released the clutch, and was away, the Harley bellowing its war cry as he began running down Leo.
The first real corner he encountered, the low-slung Harley scraped, hard, unloading the tires briefly and upsetting his line. He gritted his teeth as he gathered up the machine and charged out of the corner at full throttle. Come on, you slow piece of shit! he growled to himself as he urged the bike to go faster, twisting the throttle so hard his hand ached as he tried to wring every drop of speed possible from the bike.
He danced the bike through the bends, staying on the racing line, millimeters from running off the edge of the road on each side as he straightened the curves as much as possible. The Harley had good torque down low, but quickly ran out of steam on the top end. Great for street riding but not so good on the track.
“One thirty-two,” Thad said as he rocketed over Porter, and Dix smiled. He’d gained twenty-eight seconds on Leo at the first timing marker.
He battled his way along the undulating pavement, grimacing every time his bike touched down, pushing the bike as hard as he could. As he approached Knife he could feel the brakes starting to fade, the road biased pads not up for the punishment he was dealing them on the track.
He arrived at Knife, the ugly bump in the center of the corner making the bike shudder briefly before steading down as he rolled back on the power.
“Thirty-Eight.” Thad said.
“Roger that,” Dix replied. He was reeling Leo in, but his bike was paying the price. His brakes were beginning to fade badly, and he had to bleed off so much speed for every corner because the big Harley simply didn’t have the lean angles of the sport bikes. His only consolation was Leo was working under the same limitations.
He reached Kink, the nasty right-hander, but the lack of brakes tripped him up and he went into the corner hotter than he intended. He leaned the bike hard over, unloading the tires badly as the bike touched down and sent him skidding toward the edge of the road. He held on, allowing the bike to grind of speed before snapping it upright at the last moment then going hard back to the throttle.
“Nineteen,” Thad said.
“Okay, but I nearly fucked myself there. My brakes are going,” Dix panted as the big bike clawed for speed.
“Save your brakes! You’ve got him!”
With half the race behind him, he’d erased seventy-five percent of Leo’s lead. But he still had to pass him and, on these roads, that wouldn’t be easy without the high-end charge of the race bikes.
He caught a glimpse of Leo just as Leo entered Boot. The long run with no braking should have given the binders time to cool, so with the rain still holding off and the road dry, he ran deep into the corner before applying maximum braking, praying he didn’t end up in the weeds.
The brakes held and he leaned the bike through the series of turns, the bike touching and scraping lightly as the suspension worked. He was riding right on the ragged edge of the hog’s lean angles, but it paid off as he could see Leo ahead of him as he began his run to Finger.
“Five seconds, Dix!”
“I see him,” Dix muttered, willing a bit more speed out of his overworked bike.
The run from Boot to Finger had a series of turns, a nice straight stretch, then another series of turns before the kink that was Finger. Their bikes were too evenly matched for Dix to close much on the straight, but when Leo reached Finger, Dix went in deep, praying he had enough brake left. He did, and though he wasn’t close enough to pass Leo under braking, he was right on his ass as they began the run to Wiggles.
Thad watched the timers flash the two rider’s times. Dix’s time was much lower because, but the numbers appeared on the board at the same time. Thad said nothing as Dix must be crawling up Leo’s ass and he didn’t need the distraction.
Daisy gripped Thad’s arm when he didn’t right anything down with the timers paused. “Everything okay?” she whimpered.
Thad covered the mic with his hand. “He’s caught him. He has about three minutes to pass him before the finish line.”
“Can he do it?”
Thad grimaced. “He doesn’t have a lot of time to set him up, but if anyone can, it’s Dix.”
She hurried to the truck to check on Riley, and after peeking through the window to see him still sleeping peacefully, she scurried back to Thad, her heart in her throat.
Dix made several attempts to pass on the straight between Finger and Wiggles, but his bike simply wasn’t enough faster on the straight to get past Leo’s blocks. When they reached the first of the left, right, left corners that formed Wiggles, he tried to take Leo under braking, but his brakes were mush and though he passed him, he ran wide, allowing the slower Leo to get the jump on him out of the first corner. It took the next three turns to close the gap back.
Thad shook his head as Leo’s time popped up a fraction of a second before Dix’s. He was sure Dix would take him at Wiggles, but he hadn’t managed to do it.
“What?” Daisy asked when Thad slumped.
“I thought he’d take him at Wiggles, but he didn’t.”
“What does that mean?”
Thad looked at her. “It means he’s out of time.”
Dix knew he had one more last chance to pass, but it was going to be a hell of a risk. He began to feint left, then right, setting Leo up for his final desperate attempt to pass. Leo began blocking, a fact he was depending on. He feinted right again, then left, but this time he kept going left, forcing Leo farther and farther left to maintain the block. At the last possible moment, he dove right, their bikes leaving the road as it fell way.
Leo never had a chance as the road dropped away in a slight right hand bend. Already at the far left side of the road, when his bike touched down
he was in the grass and not a man on the track could save it then. He went down with a crash, man and machine sliding until they hit the tree line.
Harleys were never designed to jump, and when Dix’s hog landed, it bottomed both the front and rear suspension. The shock traveled through the bike, the heavy machine shuddering as it struggled to shake off the impact. Dix kept the power on, trying to fight his way out of the wobbles, knowing if he cut power now and changed the balance of the bike he’d never save it.
It was the longest two seconds of his life, trying to muscle the motorcycle around the corner while the bike fought just as hard to throw him off for his ill treatment. Finally, he prevailed, leaning harder right to bring the hog back to the race line. He released the breath he didn’t even know he was holding, then checked his mirrors. All he could see was the ground, the mirrors knocked out of place by the impact of his landing. He risked a glance over his shoulder, but there was no headlight behind him.
“Rider down! Rider down!” he called, knowing Thad would start the medical team rolling. He may hate Leo’s guts, but he wouldn’t leave him to die on the track if he didn’t have to.
“You okay?” Thad asked just as he flashed across the finish line.
“Yeah. Leo lost it on the yump,” Dix said, using the club’s nickname for that nasty little surprise near the end of the course.
“I thought you had lost when you didn’t take him at Wiggles.”
“I had no brakes left. I went in too hot and couldn’t hold the pass.”
He rolled to a stop beside Thad and Daisy and removed his helmet. Daisy leaned in and kissed him long and slow, then hugged him before she kissed him again.
Cale appeared and held out his hand and Dix took it. “Don’t do that shit ever again, ever. But I’m glad it worked out.”
Alex watched, but Leo’s time never appeared on the race board and he turned to Ted. “Kill him,” he snarled before he turned away.
Everyone looked up as nine Harleys rumbled to life, the Firechrome leaving in a phalanx of sound and fury as the sprinkles started again. “They didn’t even say goodbye,” Thad said as they roared way.
***
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
James chuckled at Dix waving a checkered flag as Riley roared past in his go-kart. Designed and built by Dix and James for Riley’s seventh birthday, it was fitted with a rebuilt 50cc engine and transmission from a Honda Z50, coil-over shocks and off-road tires. Painted a vibrant yellow and outfitted with lights, roll cage and a four-point harness, the go-kart was the envy of all of Riley’s friends.
“Maybe we should build those things, too,” Dix chuckled as he returned to the machine shop. “Riley’s going to wear the tires out.”
“Maybe. But I think we’re going to have our hands full at first. Let’s not bite off more than we can chew.”
“I hope you’re right,” Dix said as he looked at the lathe sitting on the pallet. He and James had just put the last of the milling machines onto pallets to move to their new shop. The moving truck would be there tomorrow to take the equipment across town so they could be installed in the new M&M Racing Engines shop.
“Trust me,” James said. “We already have an order for five engines from Yasar Racing. Once we actually begin turning engines out, more orders will follow. People are reluctant to place an order until we prove we can deliver and they see if the engines meet their performance and reliability specs.”
Dix nodded. “I can understand that. You’ve done this before, but it’s a big jump for me. You can’t blame me for being nervous.”
“Dix,” James said quietly, “you’re one of the finest engine builders I’ve ever seen. At least as good as I was. Don’t worry. This is going to work.”
James smiled to himself. He and Dix had talked about building racing engines before, but it wasn’t until recently they had decided to move ahead with the plans. Dix had wanted to build them in the Recycling yard, and his reasoning was sound. Why spend the money for a new shop when they had one right here? But, as James pointed out, nobody was going to spend a hundred thousand dollars for an engine build in a junkyard.
So over the past nine months they had built a new shop, a twenty thousand foot facility complete with a room that would eventually house their dynamometer. It was a beautiful, state of the art facility that would impress even the most jaded petrolhead. It was more building than they needed now, but it would give them room to grow without having to expand the building.
“I guess,” Dix said softly. He trusted James like he trusted no one else, but they were biting off a big chunk and he was afraid he was going to choke on it.
“Don’t worry! You have more important thing to worry about right now.”
Dix smiled. “I know. It’s the reason I’m doing this.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
James smiled as he thought back to those long conversations he and Dix had as Dix tried to sort out his feelings for Daisy. Dix had gone racing one more time, then hung up his spurs. Daisy hadn’t asked him to quit, but she didn’t have to. He still had his MotoGP bike, now on display in the lobby of the M&M Racing Engines building, but he rarely rode it any more. He kept his hand in racing by acting as Crew Chief for the rest of the Cutthroats, but he no longer competed.
James missed having him around, but he was glad he’d found someone. Eight months after defeating Leo to secure the club’s, and Daisy’s, future, he’d purchased a small house on the beach on the north side of town. The house was small, only thirteen hundred square feet, but he didn’t want or need a lot. Three months after that, Daisy and Riley left Prineville and moved in with him.
James had never seen Dix happier than he has been since Daisy had moved in with him. Daisy either, for that matter. Now it was like old times, except instead of Dix stepping off the school bus, it was Riley.
“You have everything?” James asked.
Dix nodded. “You sure you don’t want to be there?”
James shook his head. “No. This is for you three alone. But I expect to hear all about it tomorrow.”
Dix laughed. “Count on it.” Dix watched James a moment then took the three steps to pull James into a hug. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For…everything. For everything you have done for me. For being here when I needed someone. For being you.”
James stepped back and looked a Dix. “Dixon, the pleasure has been all mine, I assure you.”
Both men turned when they heard the jaunty honk of a Beetle horn, watching as Riley raced by his mother, waving as he passed, before turning the corner and disappearing into the bone yard again. Dix smiled. He was going to miss that little Bug. It seemed so…Daisy.
Daisy waved, her smile beaming, as she got out of her car and shut the door. She’d had the car painted back to its original blue a few months before she moved in with Dix, after her finances began to improve. Now it was one color again, but it had required nothing else other than routine maintenance since. Now she was making good on her promise to pay James and Dix back every penny for the repairs on her car. They steadfastly refused to give her a price, so she’d gone on the internet and done some guessing, but she was going to slap the last payment in their hands tonight. Moving in with Dix had been a huge help financially, allowing her to pay the debt off much sooner than expected, and she was going to take everyone out to celebrate.
“Hey, babe,” Dix said, pulling her in and giving her a smooch.
“Hey yourself,” she replied then pulled out of his arms. She dug in her purse a moment then came up with two envelopes of cash. She’d found out after the first payment they wouldn’t cash the checks she’d written them. “For you,” she said, handing one to James, “and one for you.”
Both men took them with muttered thanks. They had long since given up arguing with her about it, but what she didn’t know was the cash was going straight into a college fund account for Riley.
“Who’s in the mood to celebrate?
” she cheered.
“Celebrate what?” Dix asked, looking at James.
“Paying off my debit to you two.”
“Oh,” James said and chuckled. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Jeez, Louise! I want to! I’m buying! Come on, you hardly every go out with us. It’ll be fun!”
James smiled but shook his head. “I would like to but I…uh…have a few more things to do in the shop so we can move tomorrow. How about this weekend?”
She grinned. “Okay, I’ll take a raincheck then. Deal?”
James grinned. “I’ll take you up on that. It’s not often I have someone as beautiful as you want to take me out to dinner. We’ll leave Dix at home to watch Riley.”
