Black Flag (Racing on the Edge) Read online

  I leaned over gently, pressing my lips to his. In an instance I remembered the feeling.

  “Mmmm,” he sighed, his tongue swept along his lower lip. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime,”

  He blinked his eyes opened, smiled at me, and then closed them again. His right hand wandered along the sheets, looking for mine. I took it, my chest tightened in happiness and relief that he was showing signs of being all right.

  “Are you...okay?” he whispered eventually, frowning. His worn vulnerable features held concern and confusion.

  “Yes,” I assured him. Nervously, I bit my lip looking at his face. “Jameson...do you remember anything?”

  His frown deepened. “Not really. I remember the race...I think.” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching again. “I won.”

  I tried to return his smile, but suddenly I was sobbing, clutching his hand, my entire body shaking with the force of my cries. I had no control over my emotions. They were now controlled by the baby.

  I was so happy to see him, awake and aware, and it weakened the tight hold I’d been maintaining on my mangled composure. I couldn’t lose him, not now, not ever. Burying my face in the bed sheets, I eventually became aware of his hand slowly stroking my head.

  “You’re...scaring me.” I realized he was struggling to sit up, and it snapped me out of my emotional shit storm. “What’s wrong?”

  “Don’t,” I sniffed, wiping my nose on my sleeve. “Stop, Jameson. Hold still. I’m sorry, I’m just so glad you’re okay.” I held my breath as tears threatened again, but I struggled until I had some semblance of control. “I was just worried about you.”

  He was fighting the dopiness from the pain meds, but the concern showed plainly in his eyes.

  I managed a smile, and he relaxed, not taking his eyes from my face. I could tell it was costing him. “You should sleep,” I whispered, touching my fingers to his cheek. I stroked down his arm, bare under the hospital gown. “I’ll be here when you wake up, I promise.” Sensing a restlessness returning, I was about to ask if he was all right when he spoke.

  His eyes held mine, but drooped sleepily. “Will you...tell me, please?”

  “Tell you?” I frowned. “Tell you what?”

  What would I have to tell him? Well, I have something to tell him but was now really the time?

  “Are you pregnant?” His voice was soft but I heard every word.

  Shocked, I bit my lip. He was tired but lucid.

  Searching his gaze, I knew I would be honest with him as I had always been. “Yes,” I whispered gauging his reaction.

  His lips twitched into a half smile nodding carefully, his eyes blinking as sleep began to overtake him.

  “Jameson?” I asked hesitantly. I didn’t want to push or upset him, but I couldn’t stand not knowing for another minute if he was okay with that.

  Would he still want me? Was he mad?

  This was hardly planned and not exactly what he needed right now but it happened and we couldn’t take it back.

  “Hmm?” He was fading.

  “Are you...” my voice faded into a barely-there whisper, and he forced his eyes to mine once again, “Are you...okay with that?”

  I stood in an agony of dread, anticipation, and fear. He stared at me intently for a long time, and I began to feel light-headed again, on the verge of tears, thinking the worst.

  Finally, his eyes shut and he sighed. A small smile curved one side of his mouth, and my heart leapt in true happiness for the first time since I’d watched the accident on television. It was my smile.

  “Yes.” he murmured.

  I pressed my fingers to my lips to contain my sobs once again, this time in joy.

  He breathed deeply, carefully, and his hand reached for mine. I squeezed it gently.

  “Everything’s...going to be all right.” He murmured.

  I stood watch over him until his body relaxed into sleep. Then I threw up again.

  When I walked out of Jameson’s room to let him sleep, I immediately walked up to Emma, who was now talking with Jimi.

  “Did you tell him?” I demanded interrupting their conversation. I should have felt bad but I didn’t. Not when I specifically asked her not to tell anyone.

  “Tell him what?” Emma looked at me confused as Aiden slung his arm around her.

  “Jameson,” I sighed harshly. “Did you tell him I’m pregnant?”

  “No,” she gasped and I then realized exactly how loud my voice was. Jameson’s entire family, including many members of his crew, gawked at me.

  Can you say awkward?

  “You’re pregnant?” Jimi, Jameson’s dad, and owner of his NASCAR Winston Cup team he raced for, asked with a look of pure shock. Jimi wasn’t the type of man to show shock but now, he was.

  “I...uh...shit.”

  What do I say now? Do I admit it? Do I say just kidding?

  Ah...crap...I think I’m gonna be sick again.

  My hand instinctively fell to my stomach as the rush of nausea hit me. I swayed trying to gain focus and something to say that didn’t sound stupid.

  Nancy wrapped her arms around me in a motherly way that only she could. “Yes, she’s pregnant but we don’t need the whole goddamn hospital finding out, Spencer...Emma.” She gave them both warning glares.

  “I didn’t say anything.” Spencer defended holding his arms up but immediately grinned in response. “I didn’t even know, until now.”

  “I know,” Nancy agreed. “But you will.”

  Spencer’s smile widened as he jerked me into a bear hug. “Spencer,” Alley, Spencer’s wife and publicist for Jameson, chided smacking his shoulder. “Don’t squish her!”

  “I’m not,” he argued setting me down. “I’m just excited to have another little Riley running around.”

  “Yeah, cause that’s all we need around here.” Jimi chuckled with a sarcastic edge. “Especially one with Jameson’s DNA involved.” He then reached his strong arm around me cradling me to his side to tuck me under his shoulder and then kissed my forehead. “Though I’m concerned about that,” he gestured toward Jameson’s room. “...reproducing...I’m happy for you guys.”

  I thought I heard him mutter something about the kid being conceived on his kitchen floor but I couldn’t be sure.

  “What did Jameson say?” Emma asked when Jimi let me go.

  “He smiled and said everything would be okay...I think it was the drugs talking.” I muttered picking at a hangnail on my index finger, really just avoiding looking at anyone.

  Being around five in the morning, my stomach was beginning to growl having not eaten all night.

  Emma and Alley looked down at my stomach, obviously hearing the thunderous noise. “Definitely Jameson’s kid in there,” Alley laughed. “We should probably get you some food.”

  With the help of Spencer, the boy could smell food being cooked a mile away; everyone went down to the cafeteria to find breakfast.

  Now that I knew he was alive and conscious, I felt the need to eat again.

  Nancy and Jimi stayed with Jameson until Jimi had to leave for Fulton, New York that afternoon. Jimi, being a World of Outlaw sprint car driver, was in the battle for the championship and couldn’t just blow off a race. Though everyone would have understand had he, it wasn’t in his nature to do so.

  That’s the thing about racing...it doesn’t stop on the account of lapped traffic. The race continues while your 200 MPH taped car, continues to get lapped—lap after lap—by faster cars.

  It was a lifestyle that never slept. A lifestyle this family knew well.

  “Jesus Christ, you eat like a pro wrestler trying to make weight.” Spencer’s eyes took in my heaping plate as we sat at a large table in the corner of the cafeteria. “Where do you put all that?”

  “Asshole,” I grumbled devouring my pancakes and bacon.

  Most of the team joined us for breakfast. Tate, another driver in the series, and Bobby, who’d stayed until they knew Jameson was all right,
left to prepare for Indianapolis this weekend where the series was heading next.

  When I glanced around at the team, I noticed their faces for the first time. Sure, they looked exhausted but that wasn’t what was alarming.

  Justin, Tommy, and Tyler, all guys on Jameson’s sprint car team, appeared unscathed but the rest all looked like they were stunt doubles in a Rocky movie.

  “What the fuck happened to you guys?”

  Spencer looked at Gentry, a tire changer for Jameson’s, but no one said anything.

  Alley piped up. “These lunatics decided to make matters worse.” Her lips pursed glaring toward her husband. “Much worse.”

  “We had a fucking right to.” Spencer barked eating his lucky charms. I’d never heard him so angry. “No one tries to kill my little brother and gets away with it.”

  His tone, rough and defensive contradicted the fact that he was eating cereal with marshmallows.

  Around that time, Emma finally noticed Aiden, Jameson’s spotter, was sporting a fat lip and black eye. Needless to say, she had her make-up bag out trying to apply foundation to her boyfriend’s face while he glared at her.

  “You’re lucky you guys weren’t arrested.” Alley added.

  Spencer glanced toward his wife menacingly. A look I’m sure she didn’t appreciate. “I would take jail any day for what I did to those assholes.”

  “What did you do?” I asked apprehensively sucking on a piece of pineapple.

  “Spencer beat the living shit out of Darrin’s crew chief, Frank.” Gentry perked up with excitement as he described the garage clearing brawl. “And I got some good licks in on their tire changer!”

  He went on to basically say that Bobby, Tate, and Jameson’s entire teams got into a gladiator style fight, in the garage at Pocono International Raceway.

  It made me feel somewhat better they defended Jameson but it didn’t change the fact that Jameson had been injured because of Darrin Torres.

  “I can’t believe this.” I voiced leaning my elbows on the table dropping my head. I was almost afraid to lift my eyes at that point.

  I broke out in tears when Spencer narrated how he found Jameson. Spencer apparently saw Darrin pull out of the pits after an argument with Frank.

  Kyle, Jameson’s crew chief, and Spencer were the first ones to Jameson after the safety officials. His car was pinned against the outside wall, while he was a mangled mess inside. It appeared that he must not have seen Darrin coming because his left arm took a hard hit. It would have been easy if the bones had just broken but instead they splintered in a way that now required surgery. And being left-handed, this would be a difficult recovery for him.

  Jameson was unconscious when they arrived and never regained consciousness until hours after he arrived at the hospital. The worst of his injuries appeared to be the punctured lung as the doctor said.

  “What’s going to happen to Darrin?” Emma asked putting her make-up bag away when she realized Aiden was about ready to cunt punch her if she didn’t stop trying to apply foundation.

  Tommy, a childhood friend and mechanic for his sprint car teams, in particular found this amusing. Milk was now coming out his nose. Spencer snapped a picture with his phone for future blackmailing.

  “I’m sure NASCAR will fine him but that’s the least of his worries.” Kyle added. “He was police escorted away from the track and booked in the county jail for reckless endangerment. Phillip won’t let him get away with this. Not after the conversation Alley heard in the bathroom.”

  “What conversation?” Emma, Spencer and I asked in sync.

  Alley sighed. “I heard Mariah on the phone in the bathroom. She said Darrin had enough of Jameson’s haughty disregard for his warnings. Mariah told the person he was going to take care of it during the race, whatever that meant...apparently now we know what that meant.”

  For months now, everyone had been warning Jameson Darrin would come after him. No one thought he’d do it on the track though. And I had a strong feeling Darrin’s girlfriend Mariah still had something to do with it.

  “Did you warn Jameson?” Emma asked dubiously, her features distorted.

  “Of course I tried...he didn’t want to hear it and then I let it slip about Axle.”

  Axle Taylor was a little boy who had leukemia that Jameson had been visiting for the last few months in Memphis at the Children’s Hospital.

  “You told him before the race?” Emma was now shaking her head in disbelieve. “Why would you do that?”

  “I wasn’t going to but I started crying. I never cry.” Alley looked ashamed. “He knew something was up.”

  I was confused as hell. “Wait,” I interrupted them throwing my arms up. “What happened to Axle?”

  Alley and Emma both looked at me with poignant expressions. “He passed away...Saturday morning.” Alley whispered looking down at her coffee cup, tracing the outline of the handle delicately.

  And then I started crying...hysterically. I was a mess. My only option at that point was to blame the hormones.

  Later that afternoon, I was back in Jameson’s room with tissues surrounding my emotional state of mind and staring at the paper.

  I read and re-read and then read again the article over and over again...it wasn’t nearly enough punishment for what he had done to Jameson. I glanced over at his motionless sleeping figure again and then read the paper once more. It was nowhere near enough.

  Torres suspended for post-race incident

  LONG POND, PA. – Darrin Torres, along with five Gibson Racing crew members from the No. 14 team, and Frank Rudd, crew chief for Torres, received a range of penalties for his involvement in an altercation following Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Pocono International Raceway, NASCAR officials announced Monday.

  Winston Cup drivers Jameson Riley, driver of the No. 9 Simplex Ford and Darrin Torres, driver of the No. 14 Wyle Products Chevrolet, battled throughout the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. Around lap two hundred, Riley pulled away to a two and half second lead when Bobby Cole, Riley’s teammate clipped the left rear of the No. 14. The remainder of the race was quiet until the last lap. Riley took the checkered flag and was currently making his victory lap when Torres left pit road and made another lap. The two cars collided right outside of the tunnel turn. No word was released as to why Darrin Torres went back out on the track. Gibson Racing has declined to comment.

  Riley was reportedly unresponsive when safety track officials got to him. He was later air lifted to Pocono Medical Center where he is listed in critical but stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.

  Following the incident Darrin Torres was escorted to the NASCAR hauler and later police escorted away from the track. Crew members from Gibson Racing, Riley Simplex Racing, and Banner Racing were involved in a pit road altercation after Riley was transported. It was reported that members from Riley Racing and Banner Racing, entered the pit of Gibson Racing where the altercation took place.

  Fines issued as followed:

  Torres, driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet, was fined $50,000 and suspended until Dec. 31 for his role in the post-race incident. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: damaging another competitor’s car after the completion of the race, use of improper language) of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rule Book.

  Frank Rudd crew chief for the No. 14, was fined $10,000 for violation of Sections 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 9-4-A (The crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his or her driver, car owner and team members).

  Crew member for the No. 14, Peter Fowler, was suspended from NASCAR competition until Sept. 17, placed on probation until Dec. 31, and fined $5,000. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation on pit road after the completion of the race, damaging another competitor’s car following the completion of the race, use of improper language).

  Crew member for the No. 14, Kevin Henderson
, was suspended from NASCAR competition until Sept. 17, placed on probation until Dec. 31 and fined $2,500. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation on pit road after the completion of the race, throwing an object at another competitor, use of improper language).

  Crew member for the No. 14, Jason Sole, was placed on probation until Dec. 31 and fined $2,500. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation on pit road after the completion of the race, use of improper language).

  Crew member for the No. 14, Mike Daniel, was placed on probation until Dec. 31 and fined $2,500. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation on pit road after the completion of the race, throwing an object at another competitor, improper use of language).

  Kyle Wade, crew chief for Riley’s No. 9 Ford, was issued a $5,000 fine for use of improper language, which is in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing).

  Crew member for No. 9, Spencer Riley was placed on probation until Dec. 31 and fined $2,500. He was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation on pit road after the completion of the race, throwing an object at another competitor, improper use of language).

  Cole and Harris fined and placed on probation.

  Drivers Bobby Cole, driver of the No. 90 Riley Simplex Racing Ayers Manufacturing and Tate Harris, driver of the No. 10 Banner Racing and Donco Oil, along with their crew chiefs, received varying penalties for their involvement in a garage area altercation following last Sunday’s race at Pocono International Raceway.

  Cole, driver of the No. 90 Ford, and Harris, driver of the No. 10 Dodge, were fined $10,000 each and placed on probation until Dec. 31. Ben Willing, crew chief for Cole, and Jeff Johnson, crew chief for Harris, were fined $5,000 each and placed on probation until Dec. 31.

  All parties involved were in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing: Involved in an altercation with another competitor in the garage area after the completion of the race) of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rule Book. Willing and Johnson infractions under 9-4-A also included the crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his or her driver, car owner and team members.