“Oh, before I forget.” She pushes up from the table and gathers up her pad and pen. “Ryder was in looking for you.” She rests her hand on my shoulder and squeezes gently. “I’ll bring you a burger,” she says before moving back to the counter.
• • •
Ryder is at his house, working on something in his garage. I don’t actually know what Ryder does, but when he’s not working or at the quarter mile with us, he’s in his garage but never lets anyone in. I’m not in the mood to figure it out tonight, so I rap my knuckles loudly on the wooden garage door.
“Ryder, it’s me. Meghan said you were looking for me?” I shout loud enough for him to hear through the closed door and wait. A muffled curse and a clang of metal sounds from inside before Ryder squeezes out a small gap in the door. Taking off a welding mask, which he tosses back into the garage, he then shuts the door. Odd.
“Yeah, so, there’s a race this weekend.” He pauses for effect, pulling off his gloves and stuffing them into his back pocket.
“And …” I nod, encouraging him to hurry up.
A sly grin spreads over his face; he’s enjoying making me wait. “It’s a rat run between two towns called the Gauntlet,” he says in a hushed voice, his eyes wide with excitement, and a tingle of anticipation starts at the base of my spine.
“The what?” I snigger at the silly name.
“I know it sounds stupid, but the route is along pitch black backroads and anything goes.”
“Wow, okay.” I can see why that makes it more dangerous. “You want to go watch?”
The sly smile spreads across his face, and he slowly shakes his head. “Better than that, I got us in.”
“You’re shitting me?” My eyebrows climb higher.
“Yeah, you and me. I know Causey’s busy so I didn’t ask him.” Ryder makes a face. “You up for it? There’s five grand up for grabs.”
My excitement mounts as I hear more. “Hell yes, I’m up for it.” It might be what I need to get me out of this funk.
“We’ll go tomorrow and I’ll show you the road, so you can get a feel for it. It’s dangerous,” he warns, as if that would put me off.
I flash him a wicked smile. “Even better.”
• • •
Ryder picks me up in his Chevelle the next night. Meghan isn’t home, so I don’t need to worry about making up an excuse about where I’m going. His horn sounds from the parking lot and I jog down the stairs and hop in the car.
“Is it far?” I ask once he starts driving.
“Nah, not far, but it’s out of the way. The start and finish line is the same place, an old farm.”
“A farm?”
“Yeah, it’s empty now. The building’s derelict, but there’s plenty of space for the crowd it draws.”
“Okay …” A knot of unease starts in the pit of my stomach at his words, and I move on. “What are you racing?”
“This.” He smacks his hand on the steering wheel.
“You’re fucking kidding me?” I ask, shocked, after everything he’s told me about this car and how it belonged to his dad. Not to mention the last time he raced in it, his mom took his keys from him.
“I know, I know.” He shrugs.
“You had better know what you’re doing,” I warn him. If anything happens to that car, I know he’ll regret it.
“Yeah, so do I,” he mutters out loud, and his grip tightens on the steering wheel.
As he drives, I try to take in the route, but the light is starting to fade, and with the tree cover making it darker, I struggle. There aren’t many landmarks, and I hope to God I’ll find my way around the circuit on the night.
“There is only one turn off, which will be blocked. From then on, it’s a straight circuit.”
“How do you know so much about it?” I wonder because Causey’s never mentioned it before. A shadow passes over Ryder’s face when he casts me a quick sideways glance and then it’s gone, but I don’t miss the way his jaw clenched.
“I’ve been out here before,” he mutters through gritted teeth.
“You’ve raced?”
“No, never raced. This will be the first time,” he clips out and I decide not to push it. This was his idea, but his initial excitement has waned.
Up ahead are two stone posts where gates once stood but now there is nothing. It is wide, but not wide enough for two cars.
“You need to be the first through there,” Ryder says as he drives between the posts and turns the Chevelle in a wide circle. “This is the start here.” He stops the car and I nod, focussing on the narrow gap ahead. He starts to drive back through the gates and along the road that makes up the Gauntlet. He takes it easy so I can get a feel for the route, but I know come tomorrow night I will have to rely on instinct and reflexes. It will be even darker and I’ll be going a hell of a lot faster.