Hearts Under Caution

by Gina Wilkins

  Both Jake and Ronnie agreed to sign the napkin. Encouraged by his success, the boy demonstrated his knowledge of the sport by identifying Wade and Digger by name and asking the crew chiefs to sign next to their drivers’ autographs. He looked thrilled when they obliged.

  “We’d better leave now,” Wade murmured, motioning for their server. “Once it gets started, it’s hard to get away.”

  Sure enough, another few autograph-seekers hurried to the table after the boy’s approach. A couple of young women in tops that just barely covered their attributes vied for Jake’s attention, but he showed them no more interest than he had the others, to their obvious disappointment. One of them batted her lashes at Ronnie a couple of times, but a firmly cleared throat and a warning frown from Katie sent them on their way with their autographs clutched in manicured hands.

  Accustomed to racing celebrity clientele, the restaurant management put an end to the impromptu session then, escorting them out in a way that politely discouraged any further requests.

  Saying good-night to the others, Lisa, Wade and Jake climbed into the car Wade had rented for the evening. With Wade behind the wheel and Lisa in the backseat, they headed toward the racetrack. She realized that she was more tired than she might have expected. She only hoped she would be able to sleep in a strange bed—Wade’s bed.

  “LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. You’re at the racetrack on the day of qualifying, you have access to the garage where all the hot drivers hang out and you’re sitting in a motor home working?”

  “When you say it like that you almost make me sound dull,” Lisa teased her friend and coworker, Davida White, at just after noon on Friday. Bored and a bit lonely sitting in Wade’s motor home all morning, she’d called her office for an update and Davida had answered.

  “One would think,” Davida retorted. “Get out there, girl, and flirt with some of those hotties. And if you happen to bring me back a few autographed glossies, I won’t complain.”

  “The hotties are all too busy trying to get into the race to flirt this afternoon. But I could probably score you a few autographs before I leave, if you want,” she added, remembering how willingly Jake and Ronnie had signed the night before after dinner. “Anyone in particular?”

  Davida breathlessly named one of the most popular young drivers in the sport, adding that she wouldn’t mind having Jake Hinson’s photo, either.

  Lisa guaranteed the latter and promised to try for the former, making a mental note to ask Wade if he could help her out on that one. Davida was a good friend, and probably the biggest NASCAR fan Lisa knew back in Chicago. She was also the only one who made the connection between Lisa, NASCAR and her well-known father. Davida had kept that confidence to herself. This was the least she could do in return.

  “I’d really like to get back to work,” she said. “How’s the search for Norris coming?”

  “Not good,” Davida replied, her tone growing serious. “Someone took a drive-by shot at Joe Engler last night. Whoever it was got away, but everyone’s pretty sure it was either Norris or one of his buddies.”

  Lisa was horrified to hear the news about her co-prosecutor, who had refused to take a leave of absence from work despite the threats against him. “Someone shot Joe? Is he all right?”

  “He’s in the hospital. He’s going to be okay, but he was hurt pretty bad. You’d better stay where you are, Lisa.”

  Lisa moistened her lips. “Yeah. I guess I will.”

  Maybe she was a coward, but she had thought Joe was being reckless by staying on the job and in public view even after receiving several threats from Norris. Now she’d been shown to be right. She wished she’d been wrong.

  The pleasure robbed from their conversation now, Lisa and Davida spoke for only a few more minutes before Lisa hung up. She sat at the table behind her computer for several long minutes, staring blankly at the screen.

  Someone tapped on the door, making her jump about six inches. She took a deep breath to steady herself and checked the monitor before opening the door. “What’s up?”

  “I had a few free minutes,” Wade said with a shrug. “I thought I’d say hi. See if you needed anything.”

  She didn’t remember him ever taking even a few minutes away from work on qualifying day. “Thanks, but I’m fine. Don’t let me keep you away from your responsibilities.”

  His gaze was too shrewd on her face. “What’s wrong? You look like something’s bothering you.”

  She hesitated, then decided she might as well answer honestly. “One of my coworkers was injured in a drive-by shooting. They’re pretty sure Jesse Norris was behind it.”

  Wade’s expression went grim. “Why can’t they catch that guy? You’re the one who pointed out that it isn’t as if he’s lying low.”

  “No, but he’s had years of experience at evading the law. And he has help.”

  “Is there any chance he knows where you are?”

  “I don’t suppose it would be too hard to find out. But the odds of him following me here—and then getting to me if he did—are really slim, Wade. He’s probably satisfied that he scared me into running.”

  Wade must have heard chagrin in her voice. “You did the right thing, Lees. You couldn’t have stayed there.”

  “I know,” she conceded. “But I hate that he’s controlling my life right now.”

  “He’s not. You made the choice to go home—and you made the choice to join me here,” he reminded her. “You’re in control here and you have to let the authorities be in charge back there.”

  She nodded unhappily.

  “Look, why don’t you come with me for a while? You can watch Jake qualify from the top of the hauler. The car’s handling good today. We’re expecting a great run.”

  “I don’t want to get in your way.”

  “So don’t get in my way,” he said with a shrug. “Doesn’t mean you can’t watch the action.”

  She looked at the computer and paperwork sitting on the table, and then at Wade, who was waiting impatiently for her reply. “Okay,” she said. “I’d like to watch. Thanks.”

  He nodded. “Grab your ID and let’s go.”

  She donned the lanyard that held a plastic case displaying her garage pass. Officially authorized, she stepped outside with Wade.

  JAKE TOOK THE POLE. Ronnie qualified fifth, the third Woodrow Racing driver, Mike Overstreet, in the eleventh position, and the youngest driver on the team, rookie Scott Rivers, also in the top twenty.

  There was great satisfaction in the garage area that the cars had performed so well, but no one was more pleased than Jake. Wade could see the joy in his driver’s eyes, the anticipation of a championship that would validate his many years of hard work and sacrifice.

  He felt that anticipation, himself, of course. A crew chief shared in the glory when his driver won a championship. The entire team celebrated that victory, which wouldn’t be possible without all of them working together. If anyone had asked Wade any time over the past half of his life what would make him the happiest, he would have said it was being the crew chief on a championship team. And now that goal was in sight.

  True, there were still a few races to go until the final ten and the championship. Wade had learned long ago that there was no such thing as a guarantee when it came to racing. But Jake was sitting pretty in points and the crew was working like a well-oiled machine. Wade was as close to confident as he could be that this season would be the one.

  So why wasn’t he feeling more of the same jubilation the rest of the team displayed as they gathered in Victory Lane for the pole winner’s photo session? Rather than concentrating on the celebration—which would be short-lived, since they would be turning their attentions almost immediately to tomorrow’s practice session—he found himself constantly looking for Lisa. Reassuring himself that she was safe.

  So much for his promise to himself that she wouldn’t interfere with his concentration this weekend.

  He noticed that she had been taken under K
atie Short’s wing for the afternoon. They looked as though they were getting pretty cozy and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Were they talking about him?

  They made an interesting pair, the tall, thin, blond attorney and the short, chubby red-haired kindergarten teacher. Just looking at Lisa still made his heart skip a beat, something it had never done for anyone else. The thought of anything happening to her…well, it made it damned hard for him to smile for the photographers.

  “What’s the problem, Ice?”

  Wade glanced at Jake, who ran a hand through his helmet-tousled dark hair as he gave his crew chief a curious once-over. Not that his messy hair seemed to bother any of the women hanging around the perimeters of Victory Lane wearing Jake Hinson T-shirts and hoping to catch his eye.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  Jake’s eyebrows rose in response to Wade’s uncharacteristic distraction. “I asked what’s wrong. Dude, I got the pole. How come you’re not grinning?”

  In a low voice that couldn’t carry over the crowd noise surrounding them, Wade gave Jake a succinct summary of what Lisa had told him earlier.

  Looking toward Lisa, Jake frowned. “Damn. No wonder you look worried. Think we should beef up security around her?”

  “Smile,” Wade ordered him quickly. “And look away from Lisa. The media hasn’t actually connected her to what’s happened in Chicago yet, and she doesn’t want them to. So far the Chicago story hasn’t hit the national media. It’s just a local mess involving a thug with a vendetta against a low-profile prosecution team. If anyone were to figure out that one of those young prosecutors is Woody’s daughter, they’d blow it all out of proportion and Lisa’s folks would get upset.”

  Though Jake cooperated with instructions to smile and wave to his fans, he murmured, “She should probably consider telling them. This sort of thing tends to get out. You know what we say. There are no secrets in the racing world.”

  “She’ll tell them—in her own time.”

  Jake turned and clapped Wade on the shoulder, as though still celebrating their accomplishment that afternoon. “So all we have to do is keep her alive until she gets the chance to talk to them.”

  Wade knew it was meant as a joke—admittedly a dark one. He didn’t find it at all funny. The face Jake made after hearing his own poor jest indicated that he had spoken without thinking and already regretted the words.

  “Hey, Jake. Ice. Look over here, guys.”

  They turned simultaneously, automatically smiling for the camera. Wade only hoped the lens didn’t pick up the worry he suspected was reflected in his eyes.

  KATIE INVITED LISA BACK to her motor home for tea after the qualifying and Lisa accepted. Just in case he would be worried if she disappeared without explanation, she sent a message to Wade where she would be.

  Katie chattered nonstop from the time they left the uniquely stable-styled white garages until they walked into her motor home, which, for some odd reason, Katie referred to as “Clyde.”

  “Clyde?” Lisa repeated, glancing around the luxurious celery, butter and cream colored Prevost that made Wade’s motor home look almost modest in comparison.

  “Well, we have to call it something,” Katie said, as if it made perfect sense. “You know, like, I’m going back to Clyde now. And, if you need me, I’ll be with Clyde. You know.”

  Lisa laughed. “Okay. Hi, Clyde. Nice to meet you.”

  Giggling, Katie filled the teapot. “I know, it’s sort of silly. But when you spend as many weekends on the road as we do, you come up with all sorts of odd ways to entertain yourself.”

  At Katie’s gestured invitation, Lisa sank onto the soft, cream-colored leather sofa that dominated the salon part of the motor home. “So this is what you do during your time off? Travel with Ronnie?”

  She hadn’t meant for the question to sound critical, but she grimaced as she heard her own words. “I didn’t mean—”

  “I know what you meant,” Katie said matter-of-factly, handing her a cup and saucer. “I still have a life of my own. I’m a teacher—and a good one. I’ll probably go back to it someday. But for now, I want to concentrate on Ronnie and the baby.”

  “How did you meet Ronnie?”

  Katie smiled. “He was signing autographs at a car dealership in my hometown. I took my nephews to see him. One of my nephews got so excited that he spilled a snow cone all over poor Ronnie. I got flustered and I started apologizing and trying to wipe him off with my hands—and well…he liked it.”

  Thinking of the way Ronnie looked at his sweet-faced wife, Lisa had no doubt that he’d fallen hard and fast for her. “I’m sure he did.”

  “He asked me out right then. I almost said no. I mean, the guy was signing autographs, for Pete’s sake. No one ever asks a kindergarten teacher for an autograph, unless it’s at the bottom of a student progress report. But then he smiled at me—and I heard myself saying yes. Eight months later, we were married. Now we’re starting a family and I couldn’t be happier.”

  She took a sip of her tea, then continued reflectively, “I’m not saying it’s the easiest thing in the world, being married to a driver. The traveling gets old, but so does staying at home while he’s away for more than half the year. And although the cars are getting safer every season, I still worry every time he gets involved in a crash on the track. He works six days out of most weeks during the season, sometimes from dawn until long after dark. The money’s good, of course, but sometimes it feels as if we don’t have time to enjoy it.”

  Lisa remembered how rarely she saw her own workaholic father when she was growing up. “Are you going to continue to travel with Ronnie after the baby’s born?”

  “Oh, sure. Maybe not quite as much as I do now, but as often as possible. The NASCAR family programs are wonderful and the kids make so many good friends during all the activities that are arranged for them. I want Ronnie to know his kids and vice versa.”

  Lisa couldn’t help thinking again of her own childhood and how much she would have enjoyed traveling with her father and getting to know other children whose parents were obsessed with racing.

  “Besides,” Katie added impishly, “I like to remind everyone that my Ronnie is very much taken. I know he’s not considered one of the heartthrob racers, but I make it very clear that he’s all mine.”

  “I think Ronnie is as much a heartthrob as anyone,” Lisa replied immediately. “And I don’t think you have to worry about the women. Ronnie doesn’t see anyone but you.”

  “That’s what I keep telling him. You want a cookie or something? I’m always hungry after qualifying. Oh, who am I kidding? Since I got pregnant, I’m just always hungry. Period.”

  Though she wasn’t particularly hungry, Lisa accepted a cookie from her hostess. She hadn’t had much appetite since she’d been forced to leave Chicago, and today’s news hadn’t done much to change that situation. Still, the homemade oatmeal-raisin cookie was very good and before she knew it, she was eating another one while listening to Katie rattle cheerfully about everything beneath the racing sun.

  It was truly impressive how quickly Katie could move from one topic to another. She flitted from fairly innocuous gossip about other people on the circuit, to hints for cooking on the road, to Ronnie’s chances of making The Chase, to asking questions about Lisa’s job as a prosecutor—almost without pausing between topics.

  Gamely following the changes, Lisa talked a little about her job. She had no intention originally to talk about the circumstances that had landed her in her ex-fiancé’s motor home, but somehow the words just started tumbling from her. Maybe she was still in shock after hearing about Joe, or maybe it was just that Katie was such a receptive, sympathetic audience, but she had soon told the entire story to her new friend.

  “Oh, my gosh,” Katie exclaimed, her eyes wide. “I never knew your job was so dangerous.”

  “It isn’t—not usually, anyway. I mean, defendants often make blustering threats against the prosecutors, the judg
es, even the juries, but there’s rarely any follow-up. This guy, Norris, is just meaner, crazier and more determined than most—and he has friends who, for whatever their reasons, will do anything he asks of them.”

  “I don’t blame you one bit for getting out of there. I’d be scared to death.”

  Lisa sighed. “I told myself I didn’t want to run, but I have to admit it wasn’t that hard for my boss to talk me into taking a leave of absence. I thought I’d just stay with my folks for a few weeks, but then I worried about upsetting them, if not actually putting them at some risk by being there.”

  “Wow. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

  “I didn’t, either, at first. But then I got spooked one night and…” She shrugged. “It was Wade’s suggestion for me to stay in his motor home. I was hesitant at first, considering our history and not wanting to inconvenience him that much, but he can be persuasive when he tries.”

  Katie’s expression turned speculative. “Wade’s pretty private when it comes to his motor home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him even invite anyone inside, other than Jake and Ronnie and your dad. He must still care for you quite a lot if he was willing to actually let you live there for a few days.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LISA COULDN’T REMEMBER the last time she had actually blushed. Probably since about the time she’d been hopelessly infatuated with Wade. Yet she felt her cheeks warm a bit in response to Katie’s words, and she could only assume it was old habit that brought the color to her face. “He offered as much for my parents’ sake as for mine. He’s very fond of them.”

  “Maybe he’s still fond of you, as well? I mean, I’ve always wondered why a guy as good-looking and interesting as Wade didn’t have someone special in his life. Ronnie said it was because Wade’s too married to his job to make time for anyone else, but I had a feeling there was more to it than that. I didn’t know then, of course, that you two were engaged.”