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“Am I? Gosh! Thanks for explaining my job to me. That’s awesome. Jackass.” She glared at him. “What the hell?” she snarled.
“Look, someone has already taken a run at you. There’s no need for you to stick around so it can happen again. It’s daylight and you’re safe by yourself here at the hotel for the moment. Everyone is heading to the track. Pack your things and head back to Munich. You’ll be safe there and out of harm’s way.”
The way to get her out of here was to be a dick. He couldn’t think while around her. Period. At least not with his rational head. That was the problem with Greer; she totally consumed his mind when they were together. To get through the rest of this weekend he needed a clear head. Then he could deal with the fallout of losing team members. But if something happened to Greer, there was no way in hell he’d recover.
“So, you’ve decided for me that it’s time for me to leave to be on the safe side. Is that it?” She shook her fist at him. “This is about you and me and has nothing to do with Moore’s death. You want me gone.”
He deserved her wrath. And he was about to up the ante to be sure she stayed mad at him. “Yes! You’re right. I want you gone. It’s been fun, but let’s face it, Greer, you’re going to go back to your life and I’m going back to mine. You made your choice seven years ago, and it wasn’t me.” Why did those words still hurt like hell? “So, let’s not play some stupid game now and pretend it’s all alright. It’s not. We’re done. Go home.”
With that, he grabbed his sneakers and went down the stairs and out the door. He wished he hadn’t had the room next door, because he wanted to stomp around a bit.
Two minutes later, he was in the shower, letting the hot spray ease the ache in his muscles. Too bad it couldn’t ease the pain in his heart. He’d been necessarily harsh with Greer. Maybe too harsh, but goddammit, what the hell did she expect? He’d done the right thing. He needed her to be gone so he could focus on the team.
* * *
A short while later, he pulled into the paddock. He greeted his brother and sister in the trailer along with Mario and the other two drivers. “How is everyone doing today?”
There was a chorus of “fines,” but it was subdued. That was alright with him. He felt that way, too.
“Hans, let’s talk about some of your work yesterday,” he said as he sat down next to the man. Dalton spent the next hour going over things with Hans and then with Tatum. Rory had been right. After reviewing some of the footage and the data from the sessions yesterday, Tatum was going to be a bigger problem. He had a lot more bad habits to break. Still, neither one was a total nightmare. He could work with them.
When he was done with the drivers, he stepped outside the trailer. “Jordana,” he called out as he stood in the watery sunshine. It was chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining.
“What’s up?” his sister said, walking to the foot of the stairs from the garage.
“I reviewed some of the data from yesterday.” He smiled at her. “Looking good. Really good.”
A grin lit her face, and she glowed. “Thanks. That means a lot.”
“Tonight, if you want, we can go over a few things. I mentioned a couple areas to Rory, but if you want more detail or anything, I’m available.”
He didn’t want to force his sister to accept his coaching. His father had done that with all of them, and it had made for a rough ride. Parents shouldn’t coach their children when it got to a certain level of play. It just screwed up the kid. He wasn’t Jordana’s dad, but was probably the closest thing to it. He wanted her to make the choice.
“I’d like that, Dalton. I’d like that a lot.”
He found himself smiling again as he watched her go back into the garage. Maybe having his little sister drive for them would be a good thing. Mario came out on to the steps behind him, and Dalton grabbed his arm as he was about to pass. “Do you have the video footage from the cars when they were in the garage the other day? The morning before Moore died?”
Mario frowned. “Yeah, I can get it for you, but why?”
“I just want to take a look. Send it to me from all three cars.”
“Will do.” Mario continued down the stairs.
The session was about to begin, and the trailer emptied out. Dalton sat down and pulled up the video Mario had sent. The first one from Hans’s car was short. It hadn’t been turned on for very long before he got in and went out onto the track. But the other two were longer. He watched each of them through once. By then the session had finished and everyone had tromped back in.
It was another two hours before he had a chance to sit down and look at the videos again. This time, he put two laptops side by side and watched the videos simultaneously. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he’d know it when he saw it, or so he hoped. Both cars had been facing out to pit lane so he couldn’t see the back of either one, which is what he really needed, but he watched as people went back and forth in front of the cars.
He was there along with Greta and Gus, Mario, and the whole crew. Catching sight of James on screen made Dalton feel like puking. The mechanic had been in his early twenties. Just a kid with his whole life ahead of him. Dalton put down his coffee mug and rubbed his face. Maybe this was pointless. But then he went back to staring at the screen.
James was in front of Moore’s car. He was talking to someone. Dalton turned the sound way up, but it was still muffled. He was smiling and laughing. James then said something about the jacks and opened the hood and was lost from view. Dalton looked at the other screen. Gus was standing off to the side in front of the screens, talking to Mario. They walked out onto pit lane. No one else seemed to be around. A couple of minutes or so later, James closed the hood, and that was the last time he was on camera until Moore was getting into the car.
“Anything?” Rory asked as he came in to get his laptop. He still had his fire suit on.
“Nothing. How’s it going out there?”
He nodded. “Good. Hans is making slow and steady progress, which is what we want to see. Tatum is still taking too many risks. He’s spun a few times, but he’s not getting it. It’s going to be a hard road with him. He got into it with Jack from Johnson Wright earlier. I don’t know what got into his Wheaties this morning, but he’s out there being reckless as hell, too.”
“Everyone is pushing. We all want to be number one. How’s Jordana?”
