Despite having a couple of bruises on both her body and her dignity, Ashley was very satisfied with the night’s work as she got home. That wasn’t quite how she’d intended to do it, but it looked like the weeks of frustration were coming to an end. She’d managed to get that dumb broad of Matt’s so thoroughly mad at him that there was a good chance that she’d dump him, which would leave the field open for her. After all, did that fat sow with the big gazongas actually deserve a boyfriend, anyway? She’d stood in her way for weeks!

For that matter, did that big dumb racer gearhead even deserve a girlfriend? As far as she could see, his only purpose in life was to help her get revenge on that little middle school brat who had stuffed her into the wall and cost her a ton – her freedom, her car, her allowance! It was embarrassing for her to have to beg rides, to beg for money, to beg to be let out for a night! Her! Ashley Hitchcock! That little brat couldn’t expect to do something like that to Ashley Hitchcock, of all people, and get away with it!

Now, she seemed to be close to having what she’d worked and schemed for all these weeks – a tool that she could use to put the little brat in her place, which was hard into the wall. Just one more push and she’d have that Larissa bitch back in whatever hole it was she’d crawled out of. With any kind of luck at all, that one push would wrap that dumb gearhead around her little finger. Once he’d done what she wanted, he could go back to his hole, too; she couldn’t care less. There were more important things to deal with! Good grief, there was a cheerleading camp coming up soon, and pretty soon it would be time for cheerleading practice. As head cheerleader, she intended to run things around Bradford High the way they should be! That little middle school brat would be a freshman this year, which was to say, on her territory. She could be squashed like a bug and no one would mind. And Ashley intended to be the one doing the squashing, right after the brat had embarrassed herself by smacking the wall as hard as it should be smacked – which was at least as hard as what she’d done to Ashley, if not harder.

Just one more good push . . .

*   *   *

In spite of feeling like she was close to her goal, everything wasn’t easy for Ashley. She knew from talk around the pits that Matt and Larissa usually went racing at some place called “Moonshine Valley” on Sundays, but she wasn’t real clear where that was and suspected it might not be a real good idea to show her face anywhere Larissa likely went, anyway.

Approaching Matt during the day, during the week, at his job was obviously out, for what she intended to do. She needed to get him alone for the next step; having someone around – anyone around – was not going to work anywhere near as well. That meant that she had to try to catch him in the evening in Paddington, which was unknown territory. Although she knew where he lived, and that he lived with his parents, she didn’t know when they might be gone. Still, it was worth taking a pass by there in the evening some time just on the odd chance that they might be gone while Matt was at home. In fact, it might be worth two or three tries before she had to approach him at work. The one thing she didn’t dare do was to let Larissa get over her snit before she struck.

Getting out of the house, and getting a car for the run to Paddington in the evenings though – that was going to be tough. Monday night was a total waste, her folks were home all evening, and she couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse to get away.

Tuesday was much, much better. This was near the longest of summer days, and around here that meant light until about ten at night. While she was stuck at home on Monday evening, she heard her parents make plans for the next evening – after they got out of work, they’d go out to the Country Club, play at least nine holes and with luck eighteen, and have a late dinner in the bar. If things went like they usually did, they might hang around the bar until after eleven, having three or four more drinks, and sometimes playing cards with friends.

In other words, she’d have plenty of time. That left wheels, and that was almost a non-problem. Her mother almost always rode with her father on the golf and dinner outings, since he often had a couple more drinks than he ought to have for driving. She did, too, but she was a more conservative driver and they’d never been caught. Of course, her mother would take the keys to her Chrysler, but that meant nothing – Ashley had had spares made a long time before, just in case something like this came up. Now, if Matt would be there alone . . . this might be the night.

*   *   *

As luck had it, Matt was indeed alone. That hadn’t been the plan, but after he got home from work, one of his dad’s biker buddies had called up and suggested they get on their bikes and go for a ride, since it was such a nice night and all. Matt figured that the ride, possibly a stop at a biker bar and some beer would eat up several hours. That meant that he had several hours alone to think, and right then he needed the time alone to do just that. He usually thought best when he was working on his car, and that needed to get done anyway. He went out, moved his dad’s car out of the garage and onto the street, and moved the 17 Pony Stock inside where tools were handy. He got the hood off and stared at the engine, wondering what to do first, his mind rolling over what had been going on.

The meeting with Larissa at Tillie’s on Sunday hadn’t gone well. She was still pretty hot under the collar over what had happened at Bradford Saturday evening, and she was still insisting that he give up running at Bradford, points championship or no points championship. After a lot of discussion, he’d been able to get her to back off just a little. He’d have to tell that blonde bimbo to her face in front of Larissa that she was history, to not get near either of them again, or his present girlfriend was going out the door. If he wanted to keep going with Larissa, then he was definitely going to have to do something positive to keep her.

The problem with that was that this whole hassle was starting to make him wonder if it was more trouble than it was worth. Larissa was being pretty possessive, and hey, at his age, wasn’t he entitled to play around a little? After all, blonde babes didn’t throw themselves at guys like him very often! She was choice, no doubt about it. With Larissa in such a snit, maybe it was time to think about greener pastures.

He still had the note from Ashley that she’d given him weeks before, the one with her phone number on it. Maybe he ought to give her a call, he thought, see what was on her mind. Maybe he could figure out if she were just playing with him, or if she meant it. Women, there was no way of telling, that was for sure, but maybe it would give him some idea of where he stood.

Eventually, he realized that pondering it wasn’t going to solve anything, he might as well work on the car a little. Maybe that would make things seem simpler. He turned away to grab a socket arm and a 7/16ths socket from the tool chest, and turned back to the car . . . and to Ashley. She was standing there wearing one of those short, short skirts he’d become so familiar with, and a belly shirt with no bra; he could see that from the bumps on the front of the shirt.

“Hi, big boy,” she said in a husky, sexy voice. “I finally get you alone. Haven’t you wanted to be alone with me?”

“Well, yeah, I wanted to talk to you,” he said slowly. “I want to know what the heck is going on, anyway.”

“Well, it’s like this,” she grinned. “I want you. And I’ve wanted you for a long time.”

This didn’t make sense. “What would a babe like you want a guy like me for?” he asked. “You’ve got class, I’m just a racer and a grease monkey.”

“I want you,” she purred, “because we can do some wonderful things together, and you can do some wonderful things for me.”

“But why?” he asked. “This has caused me a lot of trouble so far, and I don’t know why.”

“Because you’re worth it,” she replied, putting her arms around his waist. She stepped backward a step so her beautiful round butt was backed up against the fender of the car. She gave a little jump so she was sitting on the fender, then spread her legs so he could get another quick, familiar panty shot. Then, as she pulled him in to kiss her, he realized he wasn’t going to get a panty shot because she wasn’t wearing any.

*   *   *

Over the course of Monday and Tuesday Larissa had calmed down a lot. Maybe, she thought, she’d over-reacted. She didn’t trust that Ashley bimbo as far as she could throw a fit, but maybe Matt had just been stupid, not trying to step out on her. After all, when it came to women he could be as stupid as a man could be, and that was pretty stupid.

In any case, she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until proved otherwise; for the moment, anyway.

Because she’d still been carrying a pretty healthy head of steam, she hadn’t called him on Monday night, when she usually did on her break. Besides, they were busy and she didn’t really have the time anyway.

It was still a couple hours till her break tonight, but she was starting to feel bad about not calling him. Just about that time, a delivery order came in for up in that neighborhood, so she decided to kill two birds with one pizza. Once it got out of the oven, she told Candy that she’d do the delivery since she needed to get out in the fresh air for a moment, and since Candy understood how that worked, she told Larissa to take her time.

She delivered the pizza first, mostly because it was on the way, then drove over to Matt’s house. She saw the garage door was open, so figured he had to be working on the car, which was nothing new. Then she noticed the cars parked on the street, and that got her curiosity up.

One was Matt’s parents’ Impala – no surprise there. But the other one . . . was a white Chrysler.

With a sinking heart, she walked around to where she could see the plate, hoping that it wouldn’t be the number that Chuck had e-mailed her about. But it was: Ashley’s mother’s car!

She couldn’t believe her eyes, but there it was. The bimbo had to be here! With the sure and certain knowledge that her thing with Matt was now over, she felt that she still needed confirmation, so she quietly snuck up to the garage, where she could hear voices.

There was the bimbo sitting on the fender of the 17 Pony Stock, her legs spread wide, her skirt up around her waist, with Matt grinding his pelvis into her crotch as they were having a hot, hot kiss. If they weren’t doing the dirty right now, it didn’t look like it was going to be long.

Larissa stood there for a moment, a river of thought cascading through her mind. She was a little amazed to realize that she wasn’t so angry that she’d have shot both of them if she’d had a gun, which she didn’t. Face it, she thought. You knew this was coming. Now here it is. Deal with it – which meant that since Matt had screwed around, he was going to have to pay the piper. She would make sure of it.

Without saying a word, she turned and walked quietly back to the delivery van.

*   *   *

Telzey was sitting in the Austin living room, watching the taped replay of the Pocono race, which had been run Sunday afternoon. Since even the serious NASCAR aficionados agreed that the two Pocono races were usually the most boring of the season, it should come as no surprise that Telzey was half asleep against Will’s shoulder, paying very little attention to the race. Will was paying even less; in fact, he was snoring a little.

The ringing of the phone wasn’t enough to really wake her up; she was only vaguely aware when Ginger said, “Chuck, it’s for you.”

Chuck hadn’t been doing real well in the staying awake department himself, but was a little less sleepy than Telzey as he got up and headed over to the phone on the kitchen wall. She paid even less attention his end of the conversation, which was limited: “Yeah? . . . Ohh, no. You sure? . . . Wow, what a bummer! . . . Yeah, I said I would, I meant it, I will . . . On the main drag, on the south side, yeah, I can find it . . . Just a second.” He put the phone to his shoulder and said to his parents, “Larissa just broke up with Matt. She wants me to haul her car down to the shop so he can’t louse it up, and the sooner the better.”

“Well, I guess it was coming,” Ray shook his head. “Can you do it, or do you want me to go along?”

“I think I better go by myself,” Chuck replied. “She, uh, well, she uh . . .”

“I get the picture,” Ray smirked. “Take one of the track trucks rather than mine. You have any idea when you’ll be back?”

“Don’t know,” Chuck said honestly. “It should only take a couple hours for the car, but Larissa . . .”

“Like I said, I get the picture,” Ray said. “Try not to be too late or you’re going to be dragging your butt all day tomorrow.”

“I’ll try,” Chuck promised, and turned back to the phone. “All right, I’m on my way. I’ll have to pick up a truck and trailer, so it could take me a little while. An hour at least, maybe a little more . . . Yeah . . . Hang in there, Larissa. At least you know what you’re dealing with now.”

*   *   *

It took an hour and ten minutes by the clock in Paddington Pizza for Chuck to get the truck and trailer, and make it to the parking lot outside. Larissa was waiting inside for him, looking pretty dejected and trying to drown her sorrows in a Diet Coke. “Jeez, Larissa,” Chuck shook his head. “I’m sorry this had to happen.”

“In a way, I’m not,” she shrugged. “I mean, I saw it coming. It’s just, well, the not knowing for sure. Now that I know, I can deal with things.”

“Still, it’s got to hurt,” he replied.

“Oh, it’s hurt since Saturday night. You heard what happened?”

“Yeah, I had a call from Joe Wolsley,” he replied. “If I’d known it was going to come to that I’d have called track security. Like I told you, that woman is nothing but trouble. I had to learn that the hard way.”

“Well, I didn’t know it was going to come down to a scene like that,” she sighed. “But I guess I’m glad it did. It got things out in the open. Now I can put it behind me.”

“I know I came to get your car, but are you going to give up racing, or what?”

“I don’t intend to give up racing,” she said. “I may take a week or two off, simply because I probably shouldn’t shove him into the wall when he passes me, and if I’m in the pits when she’s there I’ll get into the world record cat fight. But I don’t intend to let this screw me out of racing. I enjoy it too much, even if I’m not all that good at it.”

“I can keep her out of the pits,” he said confidently. “I probably should have arranged it before, but I didn’t think it was this serious.”

“How can you do that . . . oh, I get it, it helps if your name is Austin.”

“Right, you got it,” he smiled. “So that’s not an issue. Do you want to go get your car?”

“Actually, I’d just as soon wait a little while,” she said. “I’m here by myself, and even though I don’t expect a lot of business I can’t close up yet, not without getting Candy mad at me. Besides, I’d just as soon the car disappears without him knowing about it, and that means we’ll have to wait ’til people are asleep.”

“You mean, steal the car?” he smiled.

“Well, sort of,” she nodded with the first grin she’d had all evening. “It’s kind of hard to call it stealing when it’s your own car you’re taking.”

“That’s true, I guess,” he shrugged. “So we’ve got some time to kill then.”

“Probably an hour,” she said. “How about a pizza to pass the time?”

*   *   *

Since Larissa had been expecting that this caper would become necessary, she’d done some planning in case it came to pass, but luck worked its way into the equation, too

After she closed the pizza shop, she had Matt follow her in her street car to an unlit factory parking lot on the south side of town, where they left the truck and trailer. From there, they drove to a place a couple blocks away from Matt’s house, and got out and walked from there.

When she’d been there earlier, seeing Matt and Ashley getting it on, she’d had the good sense to notice that her car was sitting on the ground, not the trailer. That would have complicated things a lot, but when they’d been loading on Saturday night before the incident with Ashley, she’d made sure that her car went on last, which would make it easier if she had to get it off the trailer. Now, since Matt had taken it off to get to the 17 car, he hadn’t bothered to put it back on the trailer. It was just sitting in his yard, easy to get to. All they had to do was walk up to it.

Larissa checked briefly to make sure her helmet bag and the bag with her driving suit, gloves, and shoes was still where she’d left it, under the trunk deck next to the fuel cell and battery box. She’d been leaving it there for weeks now, using the reason that Matt’s truck bed was a little too greasy and she didn’t want to mess things up. It was several hundred dollars worth of gear that she really didn’t want to replace.

After that, it was just a simple matter of reaching in the open window, taking the car out of gear, and steering it while she and Chuck gave it a shove. Since it was downhill to the street, it didn’t take much of a shove. Once they were out in the street, she crawled into the driver’s seat, locked the removable wheel into place, and steered while Chuck got her rolling. He had to push hard for a few feet before hitting a spot where the street sloped away slightly, and from there on he just had to run along behind while the car gained speed.

It was still rolling when they got to Larissa’s street car, so he hopped in, started it up, and followed the darkened race car as it rolled a couple blocks farther down the street. As it hit an upgrade and slowed, Larissa flipped the kill switch to on, hit the starter, and drove away. The car was loud, but since it had a vestigial muffler it wasn’t too bad if she kept her foot out of it. She was mostly worried that the cops would spot the light-less, license-less race car rolling down the street. While she might have been able to outrun them, at least on the left hand corners, the huge “57” on the side made it all too identifiable.

Fortunately, the cops appeared to be at the all-night doughnut shop or wherever it was that the local cops hung out, so they made it to the factory parking lot without incident. It took Chuck a little guiding her with a flashlight to help, but in only a couple minutes they had the car on the trailer. It only took another few minutes to get it tied down and ready to go.

“That,” Chuck commented as he finished the tie down, “was easier than it had any right to be.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I was just so darn sure we were going to wake up his parents and get a butt full of rock salt. Oh, well, it’s done now.”

“I’m glad you waited until now to tell me,” he smiled. “Well, I suppose the next thing for me to do is get this beast out of town and back to Bradford.”

“I guess,” she agreed. She paused for a moment, then asked quietly, “Chuck, is there any chance I could go home with you tonight?”

“I suppose,” he said. “What do you have in mind?”

She let out a long sigh before she replied in a shy voice. “Maybe it might not be the best thing for Matt to know where I am when he wakes up and finds out my car is gone.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he said. “But you’re thinking something else, too.”

“Well, yeah,” she admitted. “Chuck, I really don’t want to be alone tonight. I’d just like someone to hold me, nothing more, just to know that someone still cares.”

“I can do that,” he said softly. “You want to leave your car here, or someplace else?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I don’t really want to leave it here. I’ll have to drive it back when I decide to come back, but I don’t want to have to drive down there right now. I’d . . . I’d rather have someone I can talk to, especially tonight.”

“That’s gonna be . . .” Chuck started, then smiled, and started again. “That’s gonna not be a problem,” he laughed. “That is a two car trailer, after all.”

Ten minutes later they were on the road for Bradford, with both of Larissa’s cars on the trailer behind them. Larissa was snuggled up next to Chuck, feeling grateful that she had someone to snuggle up to.