Chapter Three
Kace handed over the keys to his garage and shoved the anger and broken pride so far down his groin hurt. The sun beat on his neck and added too much heat to the fire already in his veins.
The new owner palmed the set of gold keys with a smirk. Kace wanted to punch him. The garage he had owned for the better part of fifteen years and a staple in Backwater would be torn down, and a fruit-bowl chain would go in its place. Everything he had worked for was gone. He had lost his racing career and now his business, which included his apartment above it. He was a thirty-six-year-old man with nothing to show for himself except a concussion. Stupid. He should have listened to Trevor that day on the track. He would have been driving in the pros as the end of the season wrapped up. Instead, he had a headache that wouldn’t quit, not that he would admit to it, and his family up his ass every second.
“I want to get out of here before they take the Ryker sign down. I can’t watch that.” He turned to his brother.
Gage pressed his lips in a thin line. His sheriff’s uniform was crisp with a perfect crease down the leg. His regulation shoes polished to a shine. Just like Gage. He did everything by the book and had an honor code that was impossible to live up to. Being the oldest, Gage often stepped in as a father figure to him and his two other brothers. Their dad had been gone so many years Kace barely had any memories left of him, except for the one where his dad would remind them that men pushed through their pain, real or in their hearts, and kept working. His father had believed in that philosophy so much he had dropped dead from it. Unfortunately or not, he agreed with his old man. Rykers never quit. For anything. Which made losing his garage all that much more painful.
“It’s going to be okay.” Gage patted him on the shoulder.
“Really? When? Because as far as I can tell, everything that could go wrong has.” The anger filled his words with its blistering bile, and he could do nothing to stop it. The concussion symptoms screwed with his moods.
“Kace, wait a second.” A voice he’d known all his life called out to him from across the street.
He hung his head but forced his gaze up because Gus McAlpine would expect as much from him. Gus lumbered over to them with a wide smile that reached his rheumy eyes. Old age hadn’t slowed Gus. He had as much horsepower as a Hemi engine.
“Hey, Gus.” Gage stuck out his hand. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too, Sheriff.” Gus pumped Gage’s hand with his meaty one. “Can I have a word with your brother?”
“You bet. I’ll wait for you in the truck. Take your time.”
Gus waited until Gage was tucked inside the truck before turning to him. “How are you holding up?”
“What’s done is done.” What was the point in talking about his problems? He’d lost any chance to race, and he had neglected his business through the early part of the summer because of all the racing he did this season. He should have taken better care of his business. Maybe he would still have it.
No, that wasn’t the case. The medical bills from his accident a month ago had rolled in minutes after he came home. He needed the money to pay off his medical expenses, so he’d sold his building.
He wasn’t about to take any money from his family even though they had all offered to help him. They meant well, but his pride couldn’t take another beating.
“There will be other garages.” Gus shoved his hands in the pockets of his blue cardigan.
Someone looking at Gus would see a man who appeared to spend his days sitting in his rocker waiting for grandchildren to come and visit. They’d be dead wrong. Gus had no children of his own. His only love had been racing. He understood Gus because nothing could turn his head the way a race car could.
“Not for me. I’m through.” As soon as the concussion was gone, if it ever went away, he would consider leaving Backwater. He needed a new place. Somewhere no one knew him. For once he wanted to be anonymous, to blend in.
Cars drove down the street while they stood on the sidewalk in the hot sun. The heat made his head pound. A few cars honked, and the drivers waved. Yeah, he was ready for something different. Anything different would be good. The new owners of his garage pushed through the door out into the parking lot. His stomach twisted as they carried a ladder toward the sign.
“Don’t give up on racing just yet. I have a proposition for you.”
“I’m not interested.” He wanted to get out of there and go home to the guest cabin he’d moved into on the ranch. There he could be alone and not have to listen to the electric drill unscrewing the nuts from his sign right now.
“You haven’t heard what I’m going to say yet.” Gus stared at him with his hands still in his pockets.
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t need any help. I’ll figure things out.” He had no idea how he would figure things out at the moment. But he did need to lie down for a little while. The pain in his head turned his stomach. He hadn’t had any breakfast. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“I know a couple of guys starting up a team. They are looking for investors and a driver. I told them about you. They’re interested if you are.”
Another driving opportunity. His respiration shifted gears. He hadn’t thought he would get another chance to drive this season—or ever, for that matter. He was aging out of the sport and had no sponsor. His chance to race with the pros had vanished when he crashed. His curiosity got the best of him. “Who’s the team?”
“Probably haven’t heard of them. Kelly Skye and Gil Koyfman. They’ve been trying for years to get a sponsor, but no luck. They decided to start their own team. Just enough guys to get the car running. I raced with Kelly’s granddad back in the day. He’s a good kid.”
“They won’t win.” The opportunity was too good to be true. Small teams didn’t stand a chance against the big ones with all the financing. Racing was like every other sport that way. The team with the bucks always won. They could afford the best players.
“They could with you behind the wheel.” Gus offered a conspiratorial smile.
“Which race are they thinking of getting in?”
He had no right to ask questions like that. Considering the way his head hurt all the time, he shouldn’t drive, but no one knew how much he still suffered. He also didn’t have any money to invest in a team.
“The Southern November.” Gus wagged his bushy eyebrows.
The biggest race of the season. He could have a comeback. He wouldn’t have to go out in shame and embarrassment. The clang of metal turned his head. The new owners of his building junked his Ryker sign in the dumpster. He bit back a curse. “Do they want to see me drive?”
“I showed them footage. They want you. They’re a one-car team, and they’re a long shot, being new and all, but you’d get to drive. If a big sponsor sees you do well in that race, you’ll be able to name your price for next year.”
“How much do I have to invest?” He couldn’t believe he was even considering this. Where would he get the money? But another chance to drive? How could he pass it up?
“Five hundred K.”
“I can’t do it.” A sharp pain sliced through his stomach. “There is no way I can get that kind of money. I just sold the fucking garage.” He pointed as if Gus didn’t know what had happened. He had allowed the possibility of one more race around the turns to sweep him up in a fantasy. Sure, he would do anything to drive, but that amount might as well be five million.
“I have an idea. May be harebrained even, but hear me out. What if you asked Jett to invest for you?”
“No way. I’m not asking my brother for help. And besides, Jett has his own set of money problems right now. Thanks, Gus, but the answer is no.” The dream had been nice for a second, finishing his career with his head held high and not in flames of humiliation.
“Think about it. I’ll be in touch.” Gus patted him on the shoulder and wandered down the street toward the storefronts.
Kace walked over to Gage’s truck and slid into the passenger seat. The quick movement made the world take a second too long to straighten out before he could slam the door shut. He fought the waves of nausea with long, slow breaths.
The doc had said stress would make the concussion symptoms worse, and the doc was right. The dizziness still snuck in when he didn’t expect it and knocked him off balance. The headaches left him running on empty. He couldn’t control the anger or the anxiety.
Gage kicked over the truck. “That was a mighty long conversation. Is Gus all right?”
“Yeah. Just cooking up crazy ideas. You know him.” He didn’t want to tell anyone what Gus had said. Not yet. His family would be dead set against him driving. He had never crashed that badly before. This time was more than they could take. His mother had said she didn’t want to lose another son to something senseless. Her boys were supposed to grow old and die after her. He would hardly equate race-car driving to the gang violence that had taken his brother Ajay, but he couldn’t make her see reason.
“Do you want to grab lunch?” Gage pulled out into traffic.
He resisted the urge to look back at his garage. Not his. Theirs. “Don’t you have to go back to work?” Blowing off an hour or two might do him good, but he wasn’t sure he could hide his symptoms for that long. The stress of losing the garage was making him feel worse. Sleep was about the only thing that took the edge off the pain.
“I can take off a couple of hours for my brother.” Gage punched his arm.
Of all his brothers, Gage treated him the same since the accident. He appreciated that. Jett and Lock watched him for any signs of trouble, as if he might crack and shatter. They wouldn’t even let him take out a horse for a ride because the doctor had said he had to stop all activities that could jostle his head. Instead, he took Silver Bell, the family horse, for walks through the pasture as a way to get some exercise. He and Silver Bell had a lot in common. They were both old and sick.
“I’m not hungry. Can you drop me back at the ranch?” It wasn’t a total lie. The headache took his hunger away. But he really wanted to ponder what Gus had said to him. Could he possibly find a way to invest in this team? If it was his only way to drive again, then yes, he’d find a way. Driving was the only thing that mattered to him.
“If you don’t want to grab lunch, I’ll break away from work early today. I could help with your workout.” Gage hit the signal and turned right.
“I can handle it. Thanks.” His therapy always went better when he had someone to help him, but he didn’t want anyone around tonight. Tomorrow he’d take Gage up on his offer. Maybe tomorrow he’d think less about losing the garage. No, he wouldn’t. He might be able to fake the not caring more.
“Kace, man, I know this sucks, but you’re going to be okay. You’ll start another business. Maybe one of the racing teams will need a spotter.”
“I don’t want to be a spotter.” He could never go back to racing and only watch. Not when he had been so close to having it all. Let someone else stand in the tower. Someone like Trevor, who had been a good friend to him for years. He hadn’t been much of a good friend back. He had ignored all Trevor’s texts and calls since the accident. He couldn’t face him. He had screwed up by not listening to Trevor and cost both of them their jobs.
He needed to feel the muscle of the car under his legs and the roar of the crowd when he won. Nothing beat that. Nothing. No one would understand that, except maybe Gus. And Trevor.
The tree-lined roads sped past in a blur of reds and golds. The racing season would wrap up with the end of fall. That gave him only a few months to get better and find the money for this team. He should check them out first, but he’d been a fool not to jump at his only chance.
“Are you still feeling dizzy?” Gage gave him a sideways glance as he turned left.
“What makes you ask me that?” He worked hard to not let on when the dizzy spells came at him, but nothing got past Gage. It was his superpower and his most annoying quality.
“I don’t know. You’re holding yourself still, like if you move, something will break. You don’t want to get something to eat.” Gage waited at the stop sign for his turn to go.
“I’m not dizzy.” He was dizzy. He was dizzy every damn day.
“Are you sure?”
“Stop acting like Jett and Lock. I’m fine.” He clenched his fist but stopped from hitting anything. That was progress.
“Okay, sorry. Maybe you’ll get a chance to drive next season when this whole thing is behind you.”
“Is that your way of saying I should give up? Because I don’t need you to take on the father role right now. You’re excused from that job, in case you didn’t know.”
“When have you ever listened to me?” Gage said, not taking the bait. Because he always seemed to know the right thing to say.
He ignored Gage’s question. Most of his life, he had looked up to his oldest brother. Gage had taken over the role of man of the house without missing a beat. He had leaned on Gage more times than he could count, and Gage had always been there. “I told you I’m through.”
“I don’t believe you. You’ll find a way to drive if you can. Just promise me you won’t get behind the wheel of a race car if you aren’t back to one hundred percent. This family has had enough trouble. We don’t want to lose anyone else before his time.”
Ajay would always be the stain on their family. If Kace died in a racing accident, his death would destroy his family, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to race again. Gage was right. He’d find a way, and that chance might have shown up in Gus’s offer.
“Do you ever regret not working at the ranch?” He stole a glance at his brother.
“You didn’t answer me. Promise me you won’t drive if you aren’t ready.” Gage followed the car in front of them around the turn, edging closer to the bumper. His brother liked speed too.
“Gage, enough. Why do you keep hounding me? My career is over. My life is over.” As of this morning, he had lost everything, including his self-respect. If he had made different choices, maybe played it safe and worked on the ranch instead, he wouldn’t be faced with no direction and no purpose now.
Gage pounded the steering wheel. “Your life isn’t over.”
“You don’t understand. Everything I’ve worked for is gone. You have your life. Stay out of mine.”
“Do what you want.” He slammed the turn signal.
He wanted to race again. He’d sell his soul for one more chance. He stole another glance at Gage with his clenched jaw and white knuckles on the wheel. He had pissed off his brother. He hadn’t meant to. Not really. He acted like an angry asshole all the time and struggled to make it stop.
“Do you ever regret becoming the sheriff?”
“Now you feel like talking?” Gage’s words had a bite of sarcasm, but the corner of his mouth twitched. Gage never held a grudge. Basically, he was a saint.
“Just answer the question.”
Gage turned onto the driveway for the ranch. The familiar surroundings of tall oak trees with colored leaves that lined the drive became hazy from his messed-up vision. Fall was a busy season on the ranch. Hell, every season was a busy season. Guests came yearlong to unwind with nature and the Rykers. He wished for once a bunch of strangers weren’t hanging around.
“Today I love my job. But some days I wish I did something else. Like the days I think I found a lead on those guys that robbed the ranch this past summer, and then that lead turns to shit.”
“You’ll find those assholes. They won’t get away with what they did to us.” He rubbed the spot on the back of his head where one of those robbers had clocked him with the butt of a gun. The family ranch had been robbed during their Fourth of July celebration. That incident had probably given him a concussion, which would have made his head injury in the car crash worse.
“I sure as hell hope I find them. I want to be the one to arrest them and send them to jail.”
“You will. Drop me by the main building. I’ll walk the rest of the way. I need the exercise.”
If he couldn’t find a way to race, he would be forced to work on the ranch as he had when he was a kid. He never wanted to be a rancher like his dad.
He had wanted a different life.
The idea hit him like a T-bone crash. He could sell his portion of the ranch. That much acreage would be enough money, but he’d have to convince his brothers to let him do it now and not later. Driving blindfolded might be easier than convincing Jett to give up land. Each brother owned a portion of their hundred-acre ranch, but it wasn’t meant to be sold. His father had inherited it from his father, and their mother expected it to go to the next generation of Rykers, which right now was only his niece Izzi. He had no intention of having children. He could give his piece to Izzi, but if he sold what he needed to invest in this team, Izzi would still have plenty of land left over. No one would miss his fourth of the property. Not even the guests.
Gage pulled into the guest parking lot by the main building. “Are you coming to dinner tonight?”
“You’re going to be there too? And Calista? How about Izzi?” Izzi was the only one he could handle besides Gage.
“Just me and Calista. Izzi is going to a friend’s house.”
“You’re letting up on the rules? Well, hell, Calista really is the best thing that ever happened to you.”
Gage sat up straighter and adjusted his shirt collar. “Yeah, she’s good for me.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” He faked sticking his fingers down his throat and opened the door. The world tilted again. If the thought of Gage madly in love didn’t make him want to vomit, the vertigo certainly would. “Actually, I’m happy for you. Really.”
Gage deserved to have the love of his life. Maybe someday he’d find what Gage and Calista had. After he made it to the pros, though. Which could mean never.
“The new employee, Tara, is coming too,” Gage said. “Jett wants to introduce her to everyone.”
He would have to work hard to control his emotions in front of company, especially a beautiful woman with a spitfire temper. He didn’t have the energy for that. “Apologize to Mom and Jett for me. I’m beat. After I finish my exercises, I’m going to take a shower and call it a night.”
“Isn’t Gus coming?”
“He didn’t mention it to me. How did you know he’d be there?”
“I’m the sheriff. I know everything that goes on in this town. So I’ll see you later?”
“Fucking Gus.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”