Before I could think about all the other alternatives, people started to pile out of the bar.
“They’re headed back, but the storm is right behind them too.” announced Curtis.
I noticed that not only were people exiting the bar, but they were leaving all together. My heart began to sink. A storm that would drive people away from seeing who won the race had to be bad. I was scared for Desmond and for Theresa.
I knew that I could fix anything on the car, but I couldn’t replace Desmond. Headlights rose out of the dust, coming in fast.
“There,” I said in a hushed tone.
The remaining people looked and started to talk amongst themselves. I didn’t know if it was the cars or the storm following close behind them that was making them talk, though. From the looks of it, the storm was the hot topic now. The drivers came rushing in, parking their cars and climbing out. The crowd, still larger than I had realized was cheering.
Desmond was the clear winner to my relief. I couldn’t contain myself as I ran to him and he engulfed me in a bear hug.
I could see the damage to the cars right away. Thankfully most of it looked pretty much cosmetic. I didn’t wait for the two men to start their banter. Instead, I wanted to make sure that Theresa was still okay underneath the hood.
The look on Luke’s face though stopped me dead in my tracks. It sent chills down my spine. Desmond didn’t see it though as he spun around to the crowd, they were cheering on their champion.
“Oh, Luke my man, I look forward to having you and your boys polish my girl up,” said Desmond with a smile and a hearty laugh.
Luke laughed, “That’s a small price to pay. If I were you, I would be more worried about whether or not your “girl” is ever going to race again.”
The smile fell from Desmond’s, and he glanced back at me. I had no idea what Luke was talking about, but he looked pretty sure of himself. I jogged to the hood and unsnapped the latches. Right away, I felt my heart drop down to my stomach. I didn’t need to hear Luke’s words, but I couldn’t drown them out of my head. The silence around us was deafening.
“What the hell is he talking about Amber?” asked Desmond in a low voice.
“Oh, sorry Desmond. Let me fill you in. See, a sandstorm won't ruin a car unless someone left off a filter.” said Luke.
He climbed into his car, his crew already loading up to leave. “Just let me know when you want that washing, pal.”
Luke’s tires squealed off into the night, and I felt Desmond’s eyes on me. They were boring holes into me. In all my years of racing, I had never used a heavy duty filter. They were nothing but dead weight. I did, however, always know to put one on. I checked where the filter should have been under the engine, and my face went pale. There was nothing there but sand, caked into the opening and sealing it shut like glue.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“Amber,” said Desmond in an eerily calm voice. “What the hell is going on?”
I rose back up to stand in front of him. I couldn’t find the words. In my head, I imagined that this was what a veterinarian might feel like when they had to tell someone their pet wasn’t going to make it. The longer I waited, the more I saw his temper building up inside of him.
For the first time in my life, I was speechless. I couldn’t find the words that I knew were going to break his heart. I needed to speak, but my throat was dry.
“Amber!” he yelled, his hands started to shake.
I shook my head, “I’m so sorry Desmond. The engine is completely locked up with sand. I, I just don’t know if I will be able to get it clean.”
“Of course, you can,” he said lightly. “Right?”
“Desmond,” I started. I knew I would have to tell him but I didn’t want too. “There is a chance that I won’t be able to fix this. The engine may be completely ruined. If that’s the case, then even with a month and unlimited funds, I still wouldn’t be able to make it run like it did before. Theresa would be done for.”
He shook his head, “No. You will find a way.”
I smiled at his faith, but I had to face reality. “Desmond, the chances … they aren’t good. I have no idea how much is packed in there.”
He wasn’t fazed though as he continued to shake his head in denial. “Curtis is towing her back to the shop. Tomorrow, we will look at it with fresh eyes and see what we can do okay?”
“Tomorrow may not give us enough time to fix any problems,” I said to him.
“They delayed the race for three days. Apparently, this storm is a lot worse than anyone knew. It will give me time to hunt down Luke, and beat him to within an inch of his life too,” said Desmond.
“No, you will be giving him what he wants.” I said to him before adding on, “Wait until after the race. Then even I will help you.”
He laughed, but I could tell that underneath his cool exterior he was stressing out. He knew as well as I did that the damage was bad. Theresa would need a miracle if she were going to run in the race. The extra time bought us a little help, but we would need a lot more if things were as bad as I thought.
15
Desmond
I hadn’t been up that early in at least five years. Not since long before I started my racing career. No one wanted to watch a race take place at nine in the morning, so for me, there was never any reason to be out of bed before ten.
Today was different, though. I knew that Amber would be in the shop and starting to take apart Theresa early in the morning. I didn’t blame her. Even with the three days’ grace that we had gotten because of the storm, she still seemed pretty worried about the car.
When I arrived and opened the door at six in the morning, I wasn’t surprised to see Amber already working on the car. She turned to look at me as I walked in. “Hey, I didn’t think you knew what six am looked like,” she said playfully.
I smiled, “I have been known to very rarely get out of bed.”
Even with the friendly banter going back and forth between us, I could tell that she was worried. I had never before seen her so concerned about anything, especially not about Theresa. I looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing, but I didn’t know enough to be of much help.
Sure, I knew the basics, but from where I was standing everything just looked like it was covered in sand. There was no way that I could tell if she was fixable. All I could do was stand and watch as she worked.
After a little while, I found my patience starting to wear thin. I hadn’t gotten up so early so that I could sit in a shop and not talk about what was going on with the car.
Clearing my throat, I started, “So, what have you found?”
She rolled her eyes, “Nothing yet. I am still just taking things apart.”
“How long do you think it’s going to take?” I asked her.
“I have no idea Desmond; it could take hours,” she replied, already with a short temper.
“I was just wondering. What do you think happened out there?” I asked Amber.
She sighed, “Isn’t it obvious? Luke removed the filter.”
I made a noise, and she looked over at me and asked, “What?”
“Well, don’t you think that is something that you should have checked?” I asked her.
Now she glared at me. I had no idea why. It seemed like a pretty straight forward question. Mechanics were supposed to keep an eye on their cars, especially with someone as shady as Luke walking around the place.
She laughed, “Right, and when was I supposed to do this? Between him grabbing my ass and you kissing me before you raced off?”
I had no idea why she was getting so upset. “I just don’t think that it would have been hard to give everything a quick once over is all.”
“Then do it yourself next time,” she hissed at me.
I fell silent. It didn’t seem like she wanted to talk as her hands dug further into the car. She pulled out small part after part and set them carefully in order. I would never be able to remember wher
e all the small pieces went, but she seemed to know that everything had a home and where that home was.
“Have you found anything yet?” I asked again a little while later.
Her attitude wasn’t any better, “Yeah. Sand.”
I shook my head; I wasn’t in the mood for her humor at all. “I don’t even know why you wanted me to race him in the first place really. He was just being the same jerk that he always was.”
“Are you kidding me?” She asked. “You wanted to race him too!”
“I don’t know why.” I muttered weakly.
“I don’t know, maybe because he called me easy then insulted your car?” Amber said, her voice almost a yell.
“Yeah,” I muttered again, “Theresa.”
Before I knew what was happening, a tool was flying at my head. I jumped up from my seat and glared at her.
“What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your damn mind, Amber? You could have killed me!” I screamed at her.
“No, if I wanted to kill you, I would have aimed for your head. You better change your attitude and stop trying to pin everything on me. Got it?” she yelled right back at me.
I looked at her in stunned silence. I didn’t realize that she was taking everything I had said personally. In my mind, I was just doing what I always did when something went wrong. I was just talking about everything. As I replayed the conversation in my head, I realized how I must have sounded. Really though, as long as Theresa was okay, then nothing else would matter.
Amber and I would hit our stride once again; we just needed to win the final leg of the race. It didn’t matter what had gone wrong. She was all I needed any more, her and the Grand Nevada win of course. I let my mind drift, but it didn’t do me any good.
Each time Amber made a sound, I was pulled back into what she was doing, waiting for any information on how long it would take before she could fix Theresa. I had confidence in her skills but the night before still had me spooked.
As I watched her work, I felt every single turn of the wrench, wondering what the outcome was going to be.
Suddenly, Amber froze. The bolts were all removed, and I watched silently as she pulled off a large casing from the engine. The color drained from her face as she looked at me. I knew something was wrong; something was very wrong.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m so sorry Desmond. The interior engine filter is ruined; it couldn’t take the pressure of all the sand,” she replied to me.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, well that’s not so bad, you can replace it, can’t you?”
She nodded her head. “I can replace the filter, but it won’t do any good. The entire engine is seized up from the sand. There is no way I can get the parts in three days.”
My mouth felt dry as she spoke. Her words hit me, but they wouldn’t sink in. I felt like the world was closing in around me. I had been so close to having everything. This race was going to be the final stretch for me, the last charade before leaving the world of race cars. I had it all planned out until last night. Until Amber pushed me to take that stupid bet. If I had just let it go and walked away, none of this would have happened.
My eyes darted to her and narrowed. “This is all your fault.”
She looked shocked. For the first time since I arrived, she set her tools down and stepped away from the car.
“What?” she said in a whisper.
“This.” I repeated, waving to the sand, “This is entire thing was your fault. If you hadn’t of pushed me into that stupid late night race, then this wouldn’t have happened. Or if you had bothered to check the car. This whole situation is your fault. Luke has never gotten to me like this, at least not until you came around. I can’t believe that you let this happen!”
She didn’t say anything; I thought it was because she knew I was right. For the first time since I had met her, Amber was silent. I didn’t know how to react without her banter coming back at me. I picked up the wrench she had thrown at me and launched it across the room in the opposite direction of her and the car. The sound of it hitting the window and shattering the glass was deafening.
“I have worked so hard to get to this point in my life. I put everything on hold. My parents died in a car crash, but still I pushed through the pain to follow my dream. My father left me Theresa when he died. He knew that she was my whole life, and you have taken that away from me. You and that foolish bet of yours. I hope you are happy with what you have done.” I ended my rant and spun around.
As I stomped out the front door, I could hear the crew waking up from the sound of the glass breaking, but I didn’t turn back around. I didn’t want to deal with any of them. With Theresa gone, there was no reason for me to deal with any of them anymore. I had never, in all my life, failed at anything I put my mind to. This was a first for me. Now I was going to have to forfeit the race all together.
Just as I reached the outskirts of the track, my phone started to vibrate. I looked down and saw it was Glen. The fact that he was up so early was startling to me. He was like me, never one for mornings. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but I knew him well enough to know that he would just keep calling. He had friends on the pit crew; I could guess what the call was about.
“What?” I barked into the phone.
“What the hell man? James just told me that you ripped into Amber?” Glen mumbled, obviously still half asleep.
“Theresa is dead. She can’t be fixed after last night, so yeah, I ripped into her. It was her fault; she was the one who wanted me to race.” I told him.
Each time I said the words, I felt like a child. I slowed down as I started to realize that I had approached everything wrong.
“Dude, Amber is a saint to you. She didn’t jack up Theresa. You went into that race on your own free will. With fifty people around, who knows how Luke even slipped that filter off to start with?”
His words made sense, but I wasn’t ready to admit that just yet. I knew that I had taken out my anger on the wrong person. Amber hadn’t done anything wrong, but I had treated her worse than I had ever even treated Luke. Thinking about everything that I had said to her, I cringed again.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
Glen chuckled, “Yeah Desmond, you screwed this one up pretty bad. If you have feelings for her, you better find a way to fix it and fix it fast. James said you almost made him want to curl up in a ball and die. He heard the whole thing, and he’s a tough fella.”
“Yeah, I was a real dick.” I agreed, “What am I going to do?”
16
Amber
I couldn’t believe everything that Desmond had just said to me. My heart felt like it was breaking into a thousand little pieces. For the first time since my father’s death, I felt a tear run down my cheek. How could he have been so mean? I stood there, in stunned silence while the shop around me started to wake up. It was still early, but Desmond’s outburst must have woken the entire track.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to pull myself together. Everything he said was right. I was the one who had pushed him to enter the race, and I should have checked the car before he left last night. When had Luke ever not taken the opportunity to show Desmond just how much damage he could do to Theresa? Now, it was too late. There was nothing that I could do to fix the engine.
I stood there, looking like a fool and wondering what was going to happen next. I didn’t want to leave without winning. It was the reason I came. I was going to have to close down the shop because of this. Without the income that this win would generate, there was no way that I could keep things going any longer. It was a wonder that things hadn’t gone south before now. I knew that there was nothing left to be done.
For a long time, I just waited for someone to come pull me out of the pity party that I was having for myself. I knew just as well as anyone, that no one was going to come and fix everything for me. I was going to have to fix this myself. Finally, like a light going off in my head, I snapped out of the daze and loo
ked back at Theresa. I couldn’t give up, not on her. She meant everything to Desmond.
It may have been my fault that she was in her current state, but I was the best mechanic around. I would find a way to bring her back to life, even if it meant that I would need to rebuild everything and drive to Africa to get the parts needed to do it.
No matter what happened, I was going to make sure that she was ready for the race in three days. There was no other way; it was the only way for me to show Desmond how sorry I was and just how much I cared. Then, once the race was over, we could part ways and never see each other again.
I dropped everything that was I doing and went to the small office area in the makeshift mechanic’s shop. Plopping down into the chair, I pulled out my phone. The parts that I needed were uncommon, but with a little bit of luck, I would know someone who had them.
I started to look through the contacts in my phone, wondering if anyone was going to be awake so early. It didn’t matter, though; this was something worth waking up for. They would love to help me out and I knew it.
“Thanks Frankie,” I said two hours later. “Yeah, I know, I called him too.”
I said goodbye to the last of the contacts in my phone and tossed it down onto the desk. It had been hours of making phone calls to every mechanic that I had ever known. The parts that I needed though were rare. I couldn’t just walk into an auto parts store and grab them off from the shelves. At least one was a custom item. Theresa could run without it, but it would give the other cars around her a huge edge to beat her out. Plus, it didn’t do me any good without all the other parts that I needed.
My phone vibrated on the desk, and my heart jumped a little bit. Maybe someone had found something! Looking down, I sighed. No such luck.
“Hey Diana now’s not really a good time,” I said to my sister, crestfallen.
“Wow. You sound terrible!” she replied.
“Yeah, it’s been a pretty awful day and night,” I replied.
Dirty Fighter: A Bad Boy MMA Romance Page 22
