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  Missy took a long sip from her beer and let it settle in her head before she spoke. “I want to amend our relationship.”

  “We have a relationship?”

  “A racing relationship. We’re anything but allies when it comes to the track.”

  “That’s because you’re cheap and you wreck people’s cars.” He raised his brows and she felt the guilt from doing so stir in her gut.

  “I’m not cheap.”

  “I’m only saying in racing, honey. Don’t get bent out of shape.”

  She gripped her bottle tighter. “I took you out for your own good. You walk with a limp because you crashed once. Or did that slip your mind?”

  Jake ran his tongue over his teeth. “Oh, I remember. You won that race, didn’t you?”

  Her heart slammed in her chest. “I had nothing to do with that accident.”

  “My car had been tampered with. They said it was the track, but c’mon. Something had been done to the car.”

  “And my guess is Justice had something to do with it.”

  Jake sipped his beer. “There’s no evidence.”

  “You shouldn’t die for your sport.”

  He chuckled. “What else is there in life?”

  Missy’s stomach clenched. Her own father thought that way, often so did her mother. Samuel Sheridan, senior, was a business man. The almighty dollar won over family dinners and his children’s events. Clarisse Sheridan was more interested in looking the part of God’s child in the public eye than she was being a doting mother. For both of them, their careers came before family. Family was only an asset toward their goals. For Missy’s father, she was the face and the skill. For her mother, she was the sinner she could fix—though her sins were mostly fictitious rumors.

  Missy pulled from her beer and looked down into the bottle. “There’s so much more to life. Don’t you ever think about that?”

  “I’m a driver. It’s what I think about.”

  She nodded. She couldn’t have expected anything different. “Right. I don’t know why I thought…” Where was she to go with that?”

  Jake leaned in and caught her attention. “You got something else on your mind?”

  She straightened her spine and sat taller. “No. I just want to make a plan to kick the asses of Maverick and Justice. We both need this win and we both need to walk away alive and unhurt.”

  “Only one of us can win. Who gets that honor?”

  “I guess the best driver does.”

  She watched the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile. “How do we line it up to take them out? Chances are they’re planning the same thing.”

  “I thought about that. We have to stay tight. We have to communicate.”

  “Pin them between us and shut them down.”

  “Right.”

  “Then we need speed and trust. Do you trust me, Missy?” he asked and she felt the sensation of the words as tingles on the back of her neck.

  When she looked up at him she had to take a breath. His eyes had gone dark in the dim light and she knew she was misinterpreting, but there was heat in his words. Do you trust me, Missy?

  “Do you trust me?” she asked and her voice had gone airy.

  He narrowed his stare at her. “Not in the least.”

  She let out a grunt and opened the cooler, tucking her unfinished beer inside. “That’s it. I don’t need this crap. You just go and…”

  Jake’s hand came into her hair and he slid it to the back of her neck while he pulled her to him. His mouth came to hers and silenced the bile she wanted to sling at him.

  His lips were warm and inviting. God, had she led him on? Did he think that’s why she’d come to talk to him, she wondered as she lifted her hands to his chest as if a force told her to do so.

  A rapid heartbeat drummed under her finger tips as his tongue slid through her lips. If he’d only been trying to shut her up, his heart wouldn’t race as hers did, and his breath wouldn’t carry so heavily on the air.

  She heard his bottle fall to the dirt below them as his other hand came around to the small of her back and pulled her even closer to him.

  It would be foolish to think this kiss was more than a distraction. Jake Walker was good with distractions.

  Missy lifted her arms around his neck and pulled him in closer as he deepened the kiss further.

  Did she care that it was going to be over in a moment? Did he really buy into those rumors that she slept around and he was thinking this was his turn? No. If he did believe that, he’d have made a more forceful move in his hotel room that night when he had her vulnerable and alone on his bed. But this time she’d come to him.

  Her head grew fuzzy with the thought. Oh, she’d put this into his head to kiss her like this. She’d made the first move by looking all sexy and bringing beer. But that had been the plan, right? She tried to remember as his lips moved from hers and traveled down her neck.

  How could she think of anything at all when his breath floated against her skin and made her mind fill with delicious thoughts of seeing him as God had made him.

  No, she couldn’t get sucked into this. She wasn’t the girl people thought she was.

  Her hands came up between them and she pushed him back before jumping off the tailgate. “I have to go.”

  Jake’s eyes were still dark. “Do you?”

  “Yes. I need to get out of here. I…I shouldn’t be here.”

  He jumped down and stood in front of her as if he were sizing her up. “Seriously, you just came out here to partner up with me to get those asses out of the race?”

  “Uh-huh,” she choked out not sure she believed it herself.

  Jake ran his hand over his chin. “Fine. I’ll be your ally, but if they’re behind us, I ain’t letting you cross that line first. I need that purse as much as you do. I’m not going to get all worked up with your sex play to get what you want.”

  She opened her mouth to argue with him, but no words came and the air stuck in her lungs.

  He watched her carefully before turning around and waking toward the building. “Night, Missy,” he called back before he disappeared inside.

  She was frozen. He did think she was some slut that wanted to win a race. But if she didn’t win that race her father wouldn’t let her drive. What had she done?

  She picked up the bottle he’d dropped on the ground and placed it in the cooler. Then she pushed the tailgate up and walked toward the door to climb into the truck. Her mind flashed to him moving in and kissing her. She spun around with intent to go inside and give him a piece of her mind. She hadn’t turned the tables, he had. That piece of…

  The lights in the main office of the garage turned off and a minute later she heard the sound of the engine roar to his pickup truck out back. Only another moment later he peeled out of the back lot and down the road toward town.

  Yeah, she thought again as she climbed up into her truck and started it up. She still wanted to give him a piece of her mind.

  If he wanted a race, he was about to get himself one.

  Chapter Seven

  Laughter filled the cab of his truck when he noticed the headlights in the review mirror. God, he loved toying with this woman, Jake thought. Perhaps he enjoyed it a bit too much. He wasn’t sure what had made him kiss her like that, but a part of him was glad she’d come to her senses when she had or things might have gotten complicated.

  He eased off the gas and watched the headlights grow brighter as they neared. They had exactly one and a half miles of empty road before they hit town.

  Missy’s truck came up on him quickly, and now he could see the shadow of her behind the wheel. It was time to see what she was made of.

  Just as she started around the side of him, Jake stomped on the gas and sent up a cloud of dust, causing her to fall back. But she didn’t stay behind for long. A moment later she came around the other side of him on the wide dirt road, and passed by him.

  “What in the hell?”

  Jake adjust
ed his grip on his steering wheel and pressed the pedal to the floor, but it had already been pushing as hard as the truck wanted to go. The dust she kicked up clouded his view. They were getting closer to the city line and this race was going to have to end. Through the cloud, he saw headlights now facing him and he slammed his foot on the brake. His truck fishtailed on the gravel before coming to a stop only ten feet from the front of Missy’s truck.

  Shoving it into park, he jumped out of the truck, leaving it running and the lights illuminating the dusty space between them.

  “What in the hell? Are you trying to kill us both?” He yelled as she walked toward him, her hands fisted at her side. “You are one messed up…”

  He never even got the word out and her fist came across his jaw.

  Jake staggered. “You’re crazy.”

  “You pulled that crap on me when I was trying to make a serious deal with you,” she said as she came at him again.

  This time he saw the swing and ducked it causing her to lose her balance.

  “Pulled what crap?”

  “You kissed me.”

  “And you kissed me back, honey. Don’t see where this is all my problem.”

  “You did that to distract me,” she argued as she circled with him in the glow of the headlights.

  “I did it because you came out to my shop looking all sexy like that was what you wanted.”

  Those seemed to have been the magic words to set her crazy on fire. She charged him, hitting him square in the chest with her head and knocking them both backward and down into the ditch on the side of the road.

  The air whooshed out of Jake’s lungs and he was quite sure a rock had embedded itself in his shoulder.

  A foot away, Missy cursed as she came to all fours and hung there for a moment catching her breath.

  “Like I was saying, you’re one crazy bitch,” he growled.

  “Don’t call me that,” she spat back angrily. “I’m tired of people thinking that.”

  “I’m in a damned ditch in the dark because you’re beating the crap out of me. What am I supposed to think?”

  She sucked in another breath and locked eyes with him. “You should think that I was actually here to help you.” She pushed up and staggered. “I don’t know why I bothered. You’re just a stubborn…ungrateful…”

  “Oh, hell, I’ve heard all the things you can call men. Don’t tell me you can’t come up with something without stuttering.”

  Jake watched as she charged at him again, knocking him backward into the dirt and landing on top of him.

  He let out a pained grunt, and he wasn’t sure she hadn’t let out a similar cry as she laid on top of him. Was she crying?

  Wincing, he lifted his hands to her face and brushed away the hair that curtained around them both. In the light of the headlights, he could see tears streak down her cheeks.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice only loud enough to carry to her ears.

  “Just my pride, Walker. Just my pride,” she said as she too winced as she rolled off him and then staggered to her feet.

  From his position in the ditch he watched her stumble to her truck, climb in, and drive away leaving him in a cloud of dust sitting on his ass on the road.

  Jake sat there long after her tail lights were out of sight. Slowly, he finally rose and got back into his truck.

  The sight of tears streaming down her cheeks had caught him off guard. He didn’t know women like her cried. He didn’t know they could be so warm and fragile under his fingertips as she’d been when he was kissing her.

  He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he thought of the kiss they’d shared. His entire body tightened as he thought about it. God, what he wouldn’t do to try that again.

  Jake put the truck into gear and headed down the road toward home. He supposed he’d need a cold shower to calm down his nerves and get any sleep.

  If she had truly come to build an alliance, then he needed to wrap his head around that race. Meeting with his sponsors tomorrow, Jake was going to have to be full of charm. Perhaps with Missy Sheridan as an ally, he could guarantee them a win and keep his sponsorship intact.

  Fine, he’d give in to her for the race. But he wasn’t going to let her win. He needed that purse, and he was going to bring it home.

  He laughed to himself as he drove toward home. If he won that race, would she come crawling to him again? Would she let him kiss her like that again or would she be looking to kick his ass?

  Jake’s stomach tightened. Either option was exciting at that moment.

  He licked his lips to see if he could still taste her. Then he blew out a breath. This was the last obsession he needed. The woman was trouble. But—he just wasn’t going to be able to help himself, he thought as he pulled into his driveway.

  Once inside, he turned on ESPN in his TV room and cranked up the sound. He heated up a slice of pizza from dinner days ago, and sorted through his mail.

  Bills, bills, and more bills. He threw the stack of envelopes on the counter and pulled a beer from the refrigerator.

  Walking back to his TV room, he plopped down on his couch, he kicked his feet up on the coffee table. He thought about the stack of bills he’d just gone through. Money wasn’t tight, he was comfortable. But if he had to foot the bill for racing after tomorrow’s meeting with his sponsor, it was going to become financially devastating.

  He seriously needed to think about his options.

  Jake sucked down his beer, let out a burp, and set the bottle on the table. He’d have to dazzle the sponsor he had and promise them a win.

  In order to win, he was going to have to work with Missy Sheridan and ensure they pushed Maverick and Justice out of the race, and if they couldn’t be pushed out, they needed to be kept behind.

  It was seriously too bad that every time he thought about the woman it irritated him. Sometimes it was because she was just a competitor, and he wasn’t supposed to like her. Then it was because she was a bitch that had caused him to lose three races. Or maybe it was because he’d found he had feelings for her and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with that. And the feelings weren’t just the ones that had him wanting to tangle the sheets up. These were deeper feelings—feelings of the heart.

  He bit down on his lip. The thought of her lips pressed there made his body heat rise.

  “Shit!” He dropped his feet to the floor and walked back to the kitchen to warm another slice of pizza. Maybe Bud was right. The tension between them was too thick.

  Well, Jake certainly wasn’t one to use a woman for sex, but what was he supposed to do? The thought of calling up an old friend that was a sure thing crossed his mind, but that wasn’t what he wanted. No, he wanted Missy Sheridan, and that thought alone had him hot and bothered, and pissed off.

  Chapter Eight

  Bud was waiting for Jake when he walked into the office the next morning, and he wasn’t looking too happy.

  His cigarette burned between his fingers, and his foam cup of coffee sat steaming on the ugly metal desk.

  “You’re here early,” Jake said as he let the door close behind him. “So that means the coffee is as thick as mud. I don’t know how you can drink it like that.”

  “Acquired taste.”

  Jake laughed. “So why are you here so early?”

  “Got a call an hour ago, and thought I’d better be here to stop you from wrecking the joint.”

  Jake narrowed his stare on him before sitting down in his chair behind his desk. “And why would I be doing that?”

  “Stout Farm pulled out, buddy. They want a win and they just picked up a new driver.”

  He could feel the heat rise in his cheeks, and it reached the top of his head before he leaned back in his chair and raked his fingers through his hair. The pulse in his wrists was visible as it pumped his anger through his body.

  Jake ground his back teeth together and watched the smoke from Bud’s cigarette rise as if it too were angry.

  “
I thought they wanted to meet,” he bit out the words. “They said they were coming in to talk.”

  Bud took a drag from the cigarette. “I guess they didn’t want to waste their time to drive out and tell us face to face.”

  Jake folded his hands and rested his elbows on the desk. His knuckles were turning white, but it was keeping him from doing exactly what Bud had though he might—bust the place up.

  “Who’d they pick up?”

  Bud crushed out the cigarette on the bottom of his boot. “What does it matter? We need to figure out what to do if you’re going to race in Atlanta.”

  “I’m racing, and who did they sign?” His words were now strained thin.

  Bud shook his head, and Jake knew his answer was going to send him through the roof. “Eddie Justice.”

  No amount of internal control could have kept Jake in his seat. He came up and moved right to the file cabinet, which he punched, leaving a dent in the metal and a throbbing ache in his hand.

  “Are you kidding me?” He stomped around the room. “What in the hell is going on?”

  “They need a win, Jake. Justice can deliver that.”

  “Because he has Maverick to push everyone out of the damn race.”

  “However he does it, he’s now got more money to do it with.”

  Jake moved back to the desk and pressed his hands to the top and leaned in. “Does this have anything to do with my dad?”

  Bud let out a snort. “This has to do with you losing.”

  “I need to know what my dad did to finance this place.”

  Bud stood and tucked what was left of his cigarette behind his ear. “Your dad believes in you and in this garage. You’ve made him proud. Hell, you make me proud.”

  “That’s not giving me an answer.”

  “You don’t need an answer,” Bud said as he pulled open the door. “What you need to do is find someone to foot the bill for that race. Win it, and get a new sponsor.” With that, Bud walked out of the office, through the garage, and out the back door.