After blocking the elevator door so Tito would have to take the stairs, I got a head start on our race to Goose’s house. Taking the back way was less scenic – and required traveling along some poorly paved sections of road – but the shorter route secured my place in the record book as being the man with the faster bike.

Using his palms as a squeegee, Goose ran his hands over his freshly buzzed hair and then wiped them on his jeans. “Why’d you come running up here like that?”

“Tito...” I heaved to catch my breath. “Race.”

“You raced Tito?”

I pressed my hands against the thighs of my jeans and nodded. “Yeah.”

“From the shop?”

I nodded. “Uh huh.”

He glanced at my bike, and then looked at me. “Well, you’re clearly the winner. Why’d you come running across the yard like that? Shit, you look like you’re going to have a heart attack.”

“Wanted to…make it look…like I’d been here for...a while…when he got …here.”

He shook his head and reached for the handle of the shovel that was at his side. “You’re an idiot.”

“Sometimes.” I wagged my eyebrows. “Yeah.”

“Sometimes?” He laughed and then pushed the shovel into the sandy soil. “You’re a full-time idiot. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”

“What the fuck, Brother?”

“It’s the truth.” He gestured toward the pile of tools at the side of the ditch he was digging. “I’ve got to dig a hole big enough to drain the entire line and give me enough room to solder in a new coupling. Grab a shovel, Speed Racer.”

I reached for a shovel. “Little prick put in a big inch kit, and he was bragging his little midget ass off about it, saying how fast it was.”

“A Dyna with a one-hundred-and-ten-inch motor is going to be a fast son-of-a-bitch.”

My eyes went wide. “One ten? I though he was going to a ninety-six?”

“Nope. Jugs, heads, pistons. The whole kit. It’s a one ten. Hell, his bike weights, what? Six fifty? Yours is eight hundred, easily. No comparison, really. He should have whipped your ass.”

I pushed the shovel into the soil, and then stomped my boot against it. “I knocked his fancy little laptop on the floor, kicked him over when he reached for it, and then blocked the elevator door. It was good for a five-minute head start.”

He tossed a shovelful of dirt into the pile. “You understand winning a race like that isn’t winning, don’t you?”

“It might be cheating, but it’s Tito. He needs his ass kicked.”

“You’ve been on his ass since we were kids. One of these days he’s going to go ape-shit on your ass and wad you up in one of those arm bar things. He’ll break your arm off and beat you with the bloody stub.”

“He’s fun to fuck with,” I said. “I always end up on top.”

“You end up on top because he lets you.”

“The fuck he does.”

The sound of Tito’s exhaust echoed in the distance. Goose cocked his head the side. “Speak of the devil. Here he comes.”

The unmistakable drone from the high-performance Harley engine grew closer and closer, and then appeared to stop making progress. After a moment of idling, the engine quit.

He looked at me and grinned. “Sounds like he stopped down there where your sexy dick sucking friend lives.”

Goose lived at one end of a long block, and Kimberly at the other. With the change in elevation of the road – and the distance between the two homes – seeing her house from his yard was impossible.

“Probably got pulled over by the cops for speeding,” I said.

He wiped his brow. “Probably poking his fat dick down her throat as payback for cheating on the race.”

I’d purposely come in from the opposite direction, so I wasn’t sure if she was home. My jaw tightened at the thought of him being there.

“He knows better,” I said.

“You said in the meeting you were done with her.” He scooped a shovelful of dirt from the ditch and tossed it aside. “I’d say she’s fair game.”

I’d said the same thing in Baker’s office thirty minutes prior. Despite what I’d said, the thought of Tito’s dick being in Kimberly’s mouth caused my blood pressure to skyrocket.

“She’s not fair game,” I said through my teeth.

“Hell, this can wait ten minutes.” He stepped out of the ditch and tossed the shovel aside. “Let’s run up there and see what’s going on.”

I tossed my shovel beside him and then turned toward my motorcycle. “If his dick’s in her mouth, you’ll need that shovel to bury his dumb ass.”