A Courtesy Call (Green Division Series Book #2) Read online

  *****

  Raleigh’s foot jittered under the table. The table and a glass of water on it shook as a side effect. It was 8pm and she sat all alone at Markus’s Grill. She’d only been recognized by four tables full of patrons, all men of course. After obligatory small talk, they’d acquiesced her request for privacy. Jen didn’t answer the text message she’d sent asking where the hell she was. Raleigh had a feeling Jen’s intention all along was to stand her up and leave her to flounder alone. The bitch. She too wanted to bolt. Run. It’s Jen they’re came to visit anyway.

  Before she could follow up on her panic, a hostess led Mike and Cass to the corner booth where she sat.

  Great.

  “Hi again.” Cass smiled star struck.

  “Good evening,” Mike said.

  “Hi.” Raleigh avoided eye contact with Mike.

  “Where’s Jen?” Mike asked.

  “Um, good question.” She again looked at Cass as she spoke. Where is she?

  Mike took notice of the shaking table and her furtive behavior. What reason would she have to be nervous? Maybe she’s on drugs. His own nerves were from her fame, they had to be. And it drove him up a wall.

  “I’ll call her. Excuse me.” Raleigh hastily walked to the ladies room and rummaged through her purse.

  “Where are you?” She asked in an elevated voice.

  “I got caught up in traffic and decided it would be easier to turn around and come home.”

  “You live a mile from here! I’ll come pick you up.”

  “I don’t feel well.”

  “You feel fine!”

  “This is your mess Raleigh, not mine. You entertain them.”

  “Jen—”

  “Bye,” Jen cut her off and hung up. Raleigh cursed her phone. What the hell am I going to do now?

  *****

  “I think we’ve been stood up. We should have called before imposing on her,” Mike reiterated his earlier suggestion.

  “Something must have come up.” Cass scanned the restaurant. “Remember how happy she was when we talked to her on the phone last month? There’s no way she’d ditch us.”

  “Maybe that’s all she wanted. To talk to us and get closure,” Mike said. Cass frowned. “And then we show up unannounced. I can’t blame her.”

  Cass shook her head. She didn’t buy it.

  “Why don’t we order?”

  “We should wait for Raleigh.”

  “It’s been twenty minutes. I’m sorry hun, but I think she ducked out when she realized Jen wasn’t coming.”

  Cass scanned the room.

  “I’m glad she did to be honest.” Mike looked down at his menu. “I think she might be on drugs. Always fidgeting and won’t make eye contact.”

  “Dad—”

  “I know you like her and all because she’s famous but its best we don’t visit with her.”

  “Dad—”

  “She’s been in the news for fighting, among other things. I don’t follow her little career, but I did see that on the news. She’s not the kind of person we should be socializing with, celebrity or not.”

  “Dad!”

  “What?” He looked up surprised by her tone. Raleigh stood silently at Mike’s side just out of his peripheral vision. “Oh…” Open mouth, insert foot.

  Raleigh stood stoic, her head held high and face void of emotion. She heard every word he’d said about her. It hurt more coming from his lips.

  “To set the record straight, I don’t do drugs and never have. I have nearly two decades worth of drug tests to prove that. Kinda part of being a driver. Yes, I’m not perfect, far from it. I’ve made mistakes and I have been in the news, but that’s because I live under a microscope. Look behind me. How many people are staring?” She challenged him. “It’s a question. How many people are looking at my back?”

  Mike looked behind her. There were more than a dozen people blatantly staring including one who took a picture with his phone.

  “I didn’t realize you were standing there,” Mike said. Jackass, you’re making this better. Mike thought as the awkward words escaped.

  “What he meant to say is he’s sorry,” Cass tried to mediate.

  “It’s alright, I’m used to it. Comes with the territory.” With success came drawbacks. Public scrutiny was one of them.

  I want Aiden. He’d asked for the weekend off to spend with visiting family so he was off limits.

  “I did talk to Jen. She’s under the weather and wanted me to apologize for her. So there, message passed along. Enjoy your dinner.” Raleigh reached for her purse.

  “I’m sorry,” Mike finally admitted. He’d been blindsided with her sudden appearance and further embarrassed when she’d overheard his attack.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Raleigh moved toward the exit.

  “Dad! I can’t believe you!” Anger boiled from Cass’s hushed voice. “Fix it! Apologize to her.”

  “I did.” Mike picked up his menu and had no intention of furthering his interaction with Raleigh.

  “No, you hurt her feelings.”

  “I highly doubt I hurt her feelings. I’m just a peon. Like you said, she’s a famous race car driver.”

  “I saw the look on her face. I’m a girl, I know that look.” She cocked her head to the side. “Talk to her.”

  Mike put the menu down and looked over his shoulder to the lobby. Raleigh opened the exit door and walked out.

  “Dad…” Cass pleaded toward Mike’s decency.

  Mike shook his head and stood up. He hurried through the crowd and walked out to the street. Great. Rain fell loudly on the cement sidewalk, thunder rolled in the distance.

  “Wait!” Mike yelled as she walked toward a small parking lot down the street.

  Raleigh rolled her eyes and continued to walk. Yeah, I want to continue this damn conversation.

  “Raleigh, wait.” He jogged to her. She didn’t slow. “Let me apologize.”

  “You don’t need to.” She reached her Audi and unlocked the door.

  Mike’s words hit a nerve.

  “I don’t know you and I was—”

  “You’re right. You don’t know me.” She turned and faced him. The old Raleigh bubbled up. The Pennsylvania Raleigh. “You don’t know a damn thing about me. You see me in a five second clip on SportsNight and all of a sudden you think you know my life story. This is why I make fucking SportsNight. It’s because of people like you who says things like you just did and I react to them. I’m not entitled to stand up for myself without making the damn news.”

  She looked behind her and saw a couple staring. She shook her head and bit the side of her cheek. “Goodnight.”

  “You’re right. Everything you said was right.” He agreed. Mike was drenched. Bone soaking drenched. If he was going to be drenched for the rest of the night, he was going to make the field trip outside worthwhile. He needed to amend his slip of tongue for Cass, not for Raleigh.

  “I had no place to say the things I did and I’m sorry. I’m honestly sorry. I wouldn’t be standing in the middle of a thunderstorm apologizing if I didn’t mean it.” It was the truth, even if he had an ulterior motive. “Come back to dinner. My daughter will hold a permanent grudge against me if you don’t. She idolizes you.”

  “You clearly don’t want her to.” Raleigh hated that his opinion meant something to her. She’d never properly met the man. His words should mean nothing. There had been worse said about her by far better people.

  Mike hesitated.

  “I’ll keep an open mind. I hope you can do the same and forgive my indiscretions.” He smiled temptingly.

  The sound of rain pounding on the cement broke the utter silence between them.

  “Tell her to come by the garage tomorrow. I’ll give her a tour.”

  “You’d do that?” Wow.

  “Call the office and they’ll make arrangements.”

  “Thank you.” Mike was surprised by the offer. Floored to be more precise.

  Ral
eigh sat in the Audi and it revved to life. Mike walked hurried back to the restaurant. He towed himself off in the restroom then walked back to the table. When he came back to the table alone, he wasn’t warmly welcomed by Cass’s hostile body language.

  “She isn’t coming back.”

  He slid into the booth; his drenched pants squeaked across the pleather seat.

  “Better. She’s invited you to the team garage tomorrow.”

  “Shut up! You’re not serious!”

  *****

  “He doesn’t like me.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, he doesn’t even know you.” Jen brushed her teeth on the other end of the line.

  “He’s seen me on the news, so he knows it all.”

  “Raleigh...”

  “What?”

  Jen sighed deeply.

  “Don’t be so sensitive. You live a public life. People only see the side of you the press show them. To the people that matter, we know that’s not you. And if he knew the truth, he wouldn’t think that either. Maybe you should, I don’t know, tell him the truth.”

  “He knows a version of the truth.”

  “You, my girl, should have been a lawyer.” A male voice echoed in the background. “Jack just got home so I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “I see where I stand.”

  “Mhm, behind Jack’s firm behind.”

  Raleigh laughed. “Talk to you later.”

  *****

  When they returned to the hotel Cass was a non-stop chatterbox. Raleigh’s promise had turned her into a giddy little girl. Mike wasn’t as excited. They’d come to see Jen, not the bad girl race car driver.

  “I still can’t believe it. I don’t. I mean, thank you. I don’t know what you said to her so she would give us a tour, but wow.” She sat on the foot of his bed, Mike was deep in thought. “What are you looking at?”

  Mike ticked away on Cass’s netbook.

  “Doing a little research.”

  “Yeah.” Cass knew what he was researching. “I’m going to bed. Don’t stay up all night investigating.”

  “I’ll try.” He smiled at her.

  “Night.” Cass walked out of his bedroom to hers.

  He typed her name into Google and results flooded back:

  Team Irving Driver Dawson Hospitalized For Alcohol Poisoning; Dawson Fires Fourth Co-Driver; Irving Places Dawson On Six Month Probation; Pennsylvania Bar Reports Brawl Involving Raleigh Jo Dawson; Dawson Comes Back For Win Following Tragedy; Dawson To Return After Fatal Accident Involving Fiancé;

  Investigation Concluded In Dawson-Davenport Rally Circuit Crash; Horrific Crash Claims Life Of Irving’s Lucas Davenport

  Mike stopped scanning and clicked on the last link.

  ....Dawson overcorrected and lost control of the Impreza. The vehicle rolled down a steep embankment several times before coming to a rest on its hood. Safety measures failed and the vehicle caught fire. Dawson was pulled from the vehicle by team Volkswagen’s Ren Matusuka and brought to safety with minor injuries. It’s been reported that Davenport was pinned inside the vehicle and crews were unable to extract him before flames fully engulfed the vehicle. It is a sad day for all in the racing community. SportsNight will keep you up to date with the breaking news.

  Mike went back up the list and clicked on another link.

  The official cause of the accident was listed as driver error. Dawson entered turn number fifteen at an unsafe rate of speed. Average speed for corner fifteen is rated at 62 miles an hour. Dawson entered at double the rated speed. Dawson’s vehicle lost traction and drifted left, Dawson over steered to correct the error. The vehicle rolled down a 40 degree grade and after six full revolutions impacted a stand of trees on the passenger side.

  Mike read a few sentences further and then stopped.

  Dawson has been released of any liability in this accident and found not negligent. Further details are not being released to the public.

  How the hell could she be found not negligent? The cause of the accident was gross negligence. She entered the corner at twice the speed it was rated for. Mike shook his head. She bought her innocence.

  This girl was the perfect role model for Cass. A woman on the edge, substance abuse issues, and who’d been involved in a serious accident which obviously screwed her up, judging by the articles. Maybe he could think of an excuse to back out before the tour…

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Raleigh punched it into fifth gear and drifted through the corner.

  “Slower, slower!” Jon yelled.

  Raleigh didn’t respond. She’d driven the practice course a million times tuning the car in. She knew what she was doing.

  Another few passes around the track and they stopped at the garage.

  “She’s perfect,” Raleigh said to Kris, the crew-chief, as he leaned into the window.

  Jon took his helmet off, pulled himself out of car, and stalked away.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Kris asked.

  “The usual.”

  “I feel for you.” Kris patted her helmet and waved her into the garage. Aiden stood inside the impeccably maintained garage.

  “Aiden!” Raleigh clapped, ran over, and hugged him. Since the alcohol poisoning incident, she’d dropped his nickname. She realized what Aiden meant to her. He wasn’t her servant and that was what the name Jeeves implied.

  “Yuck, Miss.” He wiped himself off. “Glad to see you too, but you’ve gotten my new blazer dirty.”

  “I missed you.” She kissed his cheek.

  “Well, good to know I’m appreciated.” He straightened the collar of his shirt. “There is a man named Mike and woman named Casey waiting in the office. They said you were going to give them a tour?”

  Raleigh slouched. “Mike came too?” She’d extended the offer to Cass, not to Mike.

  “That’s what he stated his name was.”

  “Can you bring them back?”

  “Yes.” Aiden walked through the door connecting the office to the garage.

  Five minutes later Mike and Cass were led through the door by Aiden.

  “Hi guys,” Raleigh tried to receive them warmly.

  “Hi Raleigh,” Cass beamed. Mike stayed in the background.

  “Do you want to check her out?” Raleigh motioned to her car.

  “Do I? Of course!” Cass couldn’t walk fast enough to reach Raleigh’s side.

  “Slide in.”

  Cass did so and sat behind the wheel taking it all in.

  “Is that a spare?” Cass pointed to another blue Subaru in the line of cars.

  “Yeah, that’s my backup. Hopefully I won’t have to use her.” Raleigh smiled. Cass stared at the car blankly. “Do you want to go for a ride?”

  “Yes,” Cass didn’t hesitate in answering.

  Mike casually chatted with Kris. From his vantage point, he couldn’t hear what was said in Cass’s conversation with Raleigh.

  Raleigh hit the garage door opener.

  “We’ll get you a helmet and one of my suits.” She looked like she’d fit into one. Cass climbed out of the vehicle. “Follow me.”

  Cass followed and Mike watched like a hawk. They disappeared into an unmarked room and returned roughly ten minutes later.

  “Woah, woah. What do you think you are doing?” Mike walked over to them.

  “She’s taking me for a ride.” Cass slid into the passenger seat.

  “No, she’s not.”

  “Yes, she is.” Cass put the helmet on. She looked like a pro dressed in a fire suit and fire shoes. “You don’t honestly expect me to turn down a ride in her race car, do you? Maybe she’ll give you a ride too.”

  Doubt it. Both Mike and Raleigh shared the same thought.

  Raleigh walked around to the driver’s side where Mike stood.

  “She’s not going with you,” he said sternly.

  “How old is your daughter?” Raleigh crossed her arms. She was tired of Mike’s condescending demeanor.

  “Nineteen,”
Mike answered.