Dix slapped Thad on the back as he rolled to the start. The moment his light went green he’d be off. “Thad, you copy?”

 

“Five by five,” Thad said.

 

“How you feeling?”

 

“Great!”

 

“You got this. Nobody is even close to your best time. Thirty seconds,” Dix said, then went silent. He wouldn’t speak again unless Thad spoke to him first. Thad raced in the under six hundred class and would be number nine on the track tonight.

 

Thad watched the numbers spinning down on the timer. At one second he redlined the bike and dumped the clutch, crossing the timing light on the back tire three one-thousandths of a second after the light went green. Dix shook his head. Nobody had a faster launch than Thad.

 

They had five intermediate timers set up on the track. The first was at Porter, where the riders cross Porter creek following a hard right that leads into a long stretch with a series of left and rights that could throw off a rider’s rhythm with ease. Next came Knife, a fast right with a nasty bump in the middle that had put more than one rider in the weeds when the bike unloaded over the bump. Up next was Kink, where the riders have to make a sharp, near one-eighty, turn. Taken in first gear, this was the slowest corner on the track and where most races were won or lost. After Kink there was a long run on a relative straight before a series of turns that made the track look like a boot heel, hence the marker’s name: Boot. After Boot was Finger, the second slowest turn, another near one-eighty but this time to the left, a corner that had caught out many riders because of the sudden tightening of the radius in the middle of the corner. The final timing mark was Wiggles, a series of high-speed turns near the finish that a good rider could take flat out, but if you were behind at Wiggles, very few could make up any time in the final half-mile to the finish.

 

Dix watched the running board, writing down the number on his clipboard as it paused for five seconds, displaying the time at each interval so he could compare it to the leaders. Thad was kicking ass out there. Though he was slower than his best time, he was steadily pulling away from the other riders. Hurray for home track advantage! Unless he crashes, he can’t lose.

 

“Time!” Thad called.

 

“Don’t push it. You’re up almost a full second over the current leader.”

 

“Roger,” Thad said.

 

***

 

Dix was waiting for him as Thad rolled to a stop. “Riley. Guess who that is?”

 

“Who?”

 

“That’s Mr. Thad. He’s the winner so far.”

 

“Really?” Riley asked as Thad pulled off his helmet.

 

“Yes, really. How’s the track tonight?”

 

“Not bad. A little greasy. You think my time is going to hold?”

 

“Without a doubt.”

 

Thad held out his hand and Dix took it a firm handshake.

 

***

 

They had a forty-minute hold in the seven-fifty race as a rider took a hard fall and broke his leg. Marla, who attended all races to provide medical aid, was whisked to the scene where she applied traction to set the leg then immobilized it with a splint. The Cutthroats had several vehicles on site to take an injured rider into Douglas for medical treatment, but the rider, receiving Marla’s approval, decided he’d rather sit in the back of a truck so he could finish watching the races than receive immediate attention.

 

As soon as everyone was satisfied the rider would be okay, the racing resumed.

 

***

 

Dix sat on the tailgate of James’s truck, staring into the darkness.

 

“You going to be okay?” Daisy asked. Riley was sleeping in the truck and she and Dix were enjoying a moment. The Firechrome had been staring daggers at her all night, and would occasionally walk by to call her names, but they had done nothing to interfere with her mingling with the Cutthroats after Alex laid the law down to them. That, and because there were conspicuously armed Cutthroats shadowing her and Dix’s every move.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“This is where Kevin would be racing, right?”

 

“Yeah. He should be here kicking ass, just like Thad. And he’s not, all because of the fucking Firechrome.”

 

She wanted to kiss him and try to ease his pain, to give back some of the kindness he’d given her, but that was a step too far tonight. She was going to pay for this later with Leo, if she had to go back with him, but knowing Dix had come for her, knowing he still cared, getting to spend even a few hours with him again, would make the beating she’d receive worth it.

 

“Unlimiteds to the line please. Unlimiteds to the line,” Cale’s voice boomed out over the loudspeaker.

 

“I have to go.”

 

“I know.” She couldn’t leave it like that and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “I’ll be waiting when you get back.”

 

Leo watched as Daisy kissed Dix, and his blood boiled. She’d pay dearly for her betrayal, but not here. Later, when he got her home. As Dix moved away, Leo strode to meet him, three Firechrome following him. “She’s going to pay for that. I’m going to hurt her, Dix. Because of you, I’m going to hurt her bad.”

 

Dix whirled on Leo, making him take a step back. “If you touch her, I’ll track you down and kill you. You think I fucked you up the last time? Just wait until the next time.”

 

He turned his back on Leo and stomped to his bike. Thad helped him detach the frame that held the bike upright and he pushed it to the starting grid. The unlimited bikes typically had no starter, so all the riders were pushing their bikes.

 

Dix sat on this bike and fastened his helmet. He was seething, tightening his strap with savage jerks. Thad slapped him on the helmet. “Forget about him! Focus!”

 

“I’m going to kill him. I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

 

“Forget him!”

 

Dix glared at Thad then took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay.”

 

“You run your race, okay? They’re not leaving with her or Riley. You have my word.”

 

He nodded, then put on his game face. They still had forty minutes, but he liked to sit on the bike while he waited, feeling the lines of the machine, going over the track in his mind and get into the zone. Lightening flickered in the distance, and he hoped the rain held off until after the race.

 

***

 

Daisy, feeling brave with Chuck standing behind her, smiled at Leo. “Who’s fucked now, asshole?”

 

Leo stared at her. “He’s just the mechanic!”

 

“Oh, no…he’s much more than that,” she said and smiled. “And you’re going to have to race him. Oh, look, here comes Alex now.”

 

“Leo,” Alex snarled. “You said he was just the mechanic for the club. What’s he doing racing?”

 

“I…uh…” Leo stammered.

 

“You better be as good as you said you are.”

 

“Good at what?” Daisy asked. She was enjoying watching Leo squirm and wanted to twist the knife as much as possible.

 

Alex looked at her. “We’ll deal with you later. You’re Leo’s old lady and—”

 

“He told you that? We’re divorced!”

 

Alex glared at Leo, then turned his attention back to Daisy. “What do you know about his street-racing?”

 

“What street-racing?”

 

“Was he street-racing when he met you?”

 

Daisy burst into laughter. Leo’s big mouth had finally caught up with him and she was loving it. “No! He was working in a parts store!”

 

Alex turned to Leo.

 

“Alex! I can explain!” Leo cried.

 

Alex grabbed Leo by the throat, but security had suddenly developed a case of temporary blindness. “You lose, you die,” he said softly before he shoved Leo away. “Keep this piece of shit away from me!” he snarled as he started to turn away, but then turned back to Daisy. She was the only leverage he had left. “We’re not done,” he said before he turned and stomped away.

 

“Look what you’ve done!” Leo cried glaring at Daisy, holding out his hands as if beseeching God for mercy. “You’ve ruined everything!”

 

Alex scared her and she watched as he walked away before turning her eyes to Leo. “Fuck you,” she sneered before turning and walking, away as well.

 

***

 

Dix was first out in the Unlimted class. He hated going first but that was the luck of the draw. “One minute, Dix,” Thad said, his voice coming over the coms even though he was standing right there.

 

Dix nodded. It was time. “Light it up.”

 

Thad slid the starter into place and pulled the trigger. Dix’s bike barked to life and he removed the starter, handing it to another Cutthroat to put in Dix’s truck. Normally Kevin was Dix’s crew chief, but that duty had fallen to him.

 

“Com check.”

 

“Five by five,” Dix replied, pulling his visor down then racing the engine on his bike, the motor shrieking to its eighteen thousand rpm redline in fractions of a second with the sound of ripping metal.

 

As the starter clock counted down, he revved the bike to fourteen thousand, holding it there until he saw one, when he twisted the throttle to the stop and released the clutch, leaning hard over the bike to keep the nose down as he banged up through the gears, his bike screaming, straining for every bit of speed.

 

Daisy heard Dix wail away, the shriek of his bike unlike anything she’d ever heard before. It was amazing to her how fast the sound of his bike faded away, far faster than the other bikes, and she crossed her fingers, hoping he’d be okay.

 

Thad watched the numbers. Protocol was the crew chief didn’t speak unless spoken to, but Dix was pushing too hard. Yes, he was first out and had to set a blistering pace because he didn’t know how the other riders would do, but he was ahead of his own track record. “Dix! You’re pushing too hard!”

 

He didn’t expect an answer, and didn’t get one, but at the next timing marker, Dix had taken another tenth off his best time. At this rate, he’d be in the twelve elevens.

 

 

 

Daisy could just hear the cry of Dix’s bike and the rise and fall of the wail as he worked the bike around the track. She glanced at the timer board. She didn’t know the exact time he had to beat for the track record, but she knew it was in the low twelves, but the clock was only at ten forty-eight, and she could hear the bike rapidly drawing nearer.

 

Thad didn’t say anything, but Dix was within reach of a new track record. “Come on, come on!” he muttered, to softly for the mic to pick up.

 

Dix cleared Wiggles and dropped the hammer on the bike for the dash to the finish. He cleared the last rise, backing off the throttle for a split second as the bike left the ground to prevent the engine from over revving, then was hard back on the power the instant the rear wheel touched down again. He flashed across the finish line and stood on the brakes, banging down through the gears as the bike rapidly slowed.

 

Thad looked at the number again just to be sure. Dix had just set another course record, beating his old record of 12:13:046 by almost a half-second at 12:12:581. He quickly scrawled the number in the final box then circled it.

 

“Twelve…” Thad said, then paused just to torment his friend.

 

“I figured that much,” Dix replied in his headset.

 

“Twelve point five eight one,” he finished. “A new track record. Congratulations, man.”

 

“Thanks, Thad.”

 

“I’ll meet you at the truck,” he said before he turned and hurried to Cale with the news.

 

“Everyone! Dixon Montague has just set a new track record of twelve minutes, twelve point five eight one seconds,” Cale’s voice boomed out.

 

As Daisy began to bounce, jumping up and down as she clapped furiously, waiting for Dixon to appear, Alex grimaced.