Chapter forty-six During the Break
Chapter forty-six
During the Break
Angel tossed a salad together while Stewart grilled chicken breasts out by the pool.
The boys would appreciate lunch being ready when they got back to the house.
Davey, Tim, and Tate Jordan had spent most of the day out at the track and she expected them back soon.
Tyler made himself busy working on his old bike in the garage.
Since Tate's boyfriend didn't come along, Tyler seemed to keep the others at a distance.
Angel wasn't sure why. Tate seemed like a nice young man and Tyler got along well with Tim.
She took the huge bowl of salad out to the pool area, and put it on the table.
Davey's pool area was screened in, keeping the majority of flying insects out.
A delicate breeze managed to get in, but Angel wouldn't complain about that.
Despite standing right next to the water, hot sweat dripped down her back and along her hairline and she seriously thought about jumping in.
"Hey, guys!" Tyler called.
"Hey! What's up?" Stewart gave a shake of his tongs and a sip of his beer.
Tyler opened the decent sized refrigerator stocked with cold drinks next to the grill and pulled out a beer. "Want anything, Angel?"
"Water. Please."
He brought her back a bottle of water and sat on the padded bench next to the table.
There was seating for about six or seven, depending on how close you wanted to get around the table and six or seven additional lawn chairs, including two nice sized loungers around the rest of the pool.
Angel sat next to Tyler on the bench, looking out over the water.
"So, why aren't you out at the track with the others? " she asked.
"Needed a break," he shrugged flatly.
"Doesn't have anything to do with Tate Jordan?" she asked, narrowing her eyes, suspiciously.
Tyler laughed. "No. I just felt like chilling out. Like I said, taking a break."
"You work on Davey's bike all the time. How is working on bikes taking a break?"
Tyler laughed and took a long swig of his beer before looking at her with a twinkle in his green eyes. "Believe me, Angel, it is."
She shook her head. "Come on. Let's get a dip in the pool before the boys get back.
" She wanted Tyler to relax a little and a quick swim would be perfect, but she had ulterior motives as well in the form of the sweat dripping down her back.
She had to cool off. She didn't know how Stewart could stand in front of the grill so long without a care.
The water refreshed her quickly, and after splashing each other and swimming around a bit, the other guys showed up.
All three of them approached the pool area barefoot and stripped down to their riding pants.
The rest of their gear had probably been abandoned by the back door where Davey kept a ton of extra gear.
He'd threatened to dress her up and drag her to the track, but as much as she loved the bikes and loved the sport, she was not about to get up on one of those death machines. She'd leave it to the pros.
Everyone loaded up their plates with chicken and salad. Tate and Davey skipped the dressing, but everyone else loaded it on. Angel dumped a load of Ranch dressing on her salad. "I'll have extra to make up for you two," she laughed.
Davey rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He was getting used to her teasing him about what he ate. She knew it must be hard to forego all the good stuff everyone else got to indulge in, so she tried to lighten it with humor.
Once everyone was digging in to their food, Angel cleared her throat. "I have some news," she said, getting their attention. "I heard from Darla this morning."
"That's our sponsor, Apex," Davey filled Tate in.
"Their lawyers filed assault charges against Parker Shannon and Cole Lindt," she continued. "They're also sending me paperwork for Tyler to sign."
Tyler's head popped up and he swallowed hard. "What paperwork?"
"They want you to sue KTM for firing you. We have several witnesses. Cody Barret, Mickey Hun, and a few others that were around."
"I don't know about this," Tyler wiped his hands on a paper towel and set it down on top of his plate. She didn't mean for him to lose his appetite.
"Listen," she said, resting her palm on his forearm.
"We don't expect it to actually go anywhere.
The lawyers said it's mostly for additional ammunition.
Extra bite, if you will. Along with the assault charges, plus this law suit.
They'll have to make some kind of deal to reel these guys in.
Stop the harassment. Ultimately, that's what we want, right? "
"Yeah," Davey said. "I don't want them to do jail time or anything like that. Just leave us the fuck alone."
Tyler sighed and clasped his hands together in his lap. "I guess."
Stewart chimed in, reassuring the guys. "Hey, they know what they're doing. These are top notch lawyers. Let's let them do their job and we can go back to doing ours."
"Exactly," Angel added.
Tyler agreed, but still seemed reluctant about it and Angel couldn't blame him at all. They all just wanted to put the ugly mess behind them. With a little luck, the threats would stop as well, once the KTM officials realized what was really going on, they'd get a grip on their boys.
Her own boys, Tim and Tate included, finished their lunch and changed into swim trunks.
They planned to spend the rest of the day in the pool.
Tim would make them do laps, though. It wasn't all play.
Angel hoped they'd get a little fun in, but she had started to realize that what these guys did was their life, their passion and for them it was all fun, whether it was riding the bikes, working on them, or working out in the gym.
Davey had told her once that the entire purpose of his father installing the pool in the first place was for him to add swimming to his workouts.
Stewart plopped down next to her on the bench and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Hey, Mama!" he said, teasing her.
"Oh sure. I never thought I'd be Mama to a bunch of grown men," she snorted, making Stewart laugh.
He pulled her close and kissed her, sliding his tongue between her lips.
Stewart was never big on public affection, even when it was just the team.
It made their work life easier, and she was okay with keeping it behind closed doors.
This kissing in front of everyone was new.
She pulled away first. "What's got into you, studly? "
Stewart laughed. "I feel at home. Relaxed." He leaned in closer, breathing heavy in her ear and sending delicious tingles down her spine. "Plus, it turns me on when you get all mama-bear over the boys."
Angel laughed. "You're crazy!" She pushed him away, playfully. She didn't care what was getting him worked up; she certainly planned to take advantage of it. Angel grabbed Stewart's hand, and tugged at him. "Let's go take a nap."
Tyler woke up and stretched his hand out to find a cold, empty bed.
Davey hadn't woke him for their usual pre-workout sex, and that bugged him a lot more than it should.
He bit down on his bottom lip, wondering what Davey was getting up to with Tate Jordan in the workout room.
He could imagine Tate all sweaty, chest exposed, pumping iron. That had better be all he was pumping.
Tate had said his boyfriend couldn't get off work to join them, but Tyler would never have let Davey go off and spend his break with a bunch of other hot guys without him.
Then again, Tyler had never had a regular job and his breaks always coincided with Supercross.
Still, he couldn't imagine Davey going off without him.
Maybe not understanding the other man left Tyler suspicious, but he wasn't going to sit back and let anything happened, either, if that was Tate's intentions.
Davey had never been in another relationship.
He was bound to be clueless about these things.
Tyler got out of bed and pulled on a pair of silky shorts that fell just above his knees and Davey's Superman shirt, just to remind his lover of who they were to each other.
He crossed the darkened living room. The sun just started waking up and casting long shadows across the floor.
He followed the hallway past the other guest rooms to the stairs at the back of the house that led down to Davey's gym.
At this early hour, that's where Davey would be, on the treadmill or hitting the weights.
The door squeaked as Tyler pushed it open.
Davey stretched out on a bench with a lot of weight stacked on either end of the power bar.
He was pressing more than he normally did.
Tim stood behind him, spotting. Across the space, Tate stood in front of the wall to wall mirror with much lighter weights on the curl bar.
Tyler released a long slow breath that he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. No hanky panky going on. They were working and Tyler admonished himself for thinking otherwise.
"Hi guys!" Tyler said. Tim gave him a short wave, but the other two just grunted.
"Fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I'm hitting the pool.
" Feeling a bit foolish, Tyler ducked out quickly and jogged back up the stairs.
How stupid of him to think Davey would let something happen.
Tate was a good guy and Tim wouldn't let anything happen either.
Tyler wondered if his jealousy had reared its ugly head because he missed Davey.
They had crashed, skipping sex the night before.
They'd played and worked hard the day before and both were tired.
So missing sex again this morning was strange for them.
He knew Davey was all about focusing on his training, determined to win races.
He wanted to win the championship this year and nothing, even sex with Tyler, was going to stop that.
It left Tyler feeling a bit neglected. Since they'd moved in together, they'd been fucking like the proverbial bunnies.
Things were settling down. He couldn't expect the frenetic pace to continue.
Determined not to pout about it, Tyler grabbed his sketch pad and headed for the pool.
He liked to doodle around enjoying the morning sun.
The desert heat wouldn't kick in until a little later in the day.
Living here was different than Colorado with cool nights and mornings, and afternoon heat unbelievably scorching.
Colorado was almost always colder than Southern New Mexico.
He thought about inviting his family to The Ranch for Christmas this year instead of leaving them to freeze up there.
Tyler's phone started buzzing, interrupting his thoughts. He set his sketchpad on his lap and pulled out his phone. Andy's number flashed across the screen. "Andy! What's up?"
"Hey, sorry to bug you on break, but uh, this is important."
"What?" Andy still worked for the KTM team as Cole and Shannon's lead mechanic. Tyler's stomach instantly knotted, knowing something was not right.
"I heard Parker and Cole talking about you."
"So?"
"It's bullshit, Ty. They're planning something. I think they're gonna hurt Davey. Fuck him up on the track after the break."
Tyler pulled his knees in to his chest. His sketchpad fell to the ground and he didn't even bother picking it up.
Davey getting hurt on the track was Tyler's worst nightmare.
He thought it had come true already, but thankfully Davey had only sprained an ankle.
Those two homophobes could cause a lot of damage to Davey or someone else that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Assholes!"
"Yeah, Parker was goading Cole on. Saying all kinds of nasty shit."
"I don't want to know, but, uh, they might not even be racing, Andy."
"Why? What's going on?"
"Lawyers are involved, and uh, I can't talk about it."
"Okay. Just so you know, Cole had to have stitches under his eye. You totally did a number on his face. Are you and Davey okay?"
Tyler started pacing along the tiled floor in front of the pool. "Yep. Never better. This is all just getting so out of hand."
"It must have felt good to let loose on that jackass, though. That was a long time coming. Ty, he shouldn't have fired you like that."
"Doesn't matter."
"It does."
"Well, we're suing KTM for it. I'm probably not supposed to tell you that."
Andy laughed heartily. "That's great, Ty," he finally said after calming down. "Cole is such an idiot. Listen, I can be a witness for you. I was standing right outside the pit when it all went down. I heard all of it."
"When he fired me?"
"Yes, but what Parker was saying and all.
I'm done with this shit. If KTM doesn't clean it up, I'm looking for a new job.
But, just so you know. This is all Parker.
Not that Cole's not an asshole, but Parker's been goading him on since the beginning.
He's the one that showed Cole that picture and told him not to take your shit. Actually, he said Homo-shit."
"I guess being a homophobic asshole is a requirement to be on the KTM team."
"Hey, don't lump me into that crap. I'm straight as a board, but I don't give a fuck who you sleep with, dude."
Tyler sat down on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the cool water. "I know, Andy. You've been such a good friend and I appreciate it. I gotta go, though. I need to have a talk with Davey's manager."
"Okay. Call me if you need anything, bro."
"Will do." Tyler ended the call. Nothing Andy had said was news to him, just confirmation of what they'd suspected.
Parker Shannon was the king douche and he was dragging Cole along with him, not that Cole was resisting any.
He was dragging 250 racers in on it too.
Hell, they were probably who Shannon had got to vandalize the RV.
Shannon was a heap load of bad news any way you looked at it.
As soon as Angel and Stewart got up, he'd let them know what Andy had said.