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Dave and Tucker left together to find the officials. Annie wanted to find Jared, but suspected that just because everything was hopefully going to be settled between Dave and Tucker, that didn’t mean their problems were solved, especially since the one thing that had become a wedge between them was her family. And she had no idea how to take them out of the equation.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Jared’s cell number but he didn’t answer. She didn’t blame him; he was probably still mad at her. She was mad at herself for letting the behavior she’d learned from her marriage mess up her relationship with Jared.
She’d found a man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Yes, she thought, she did want to spend the rest of her life with him. No matter that he couldn’t become chummy with her family. She already knew she loved him and she needed to let him know that.
But he was going to be busy with the officials and Tucker. And she should…
She didn’t want to think about it anymore. She loved Jared and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She couldn’t wait to tell him. If he couldn’t forgive her, then…well, then she’d convince him.
She left Jared a message that they needed to talk and to call when he could. Then she sat in one of Dave’s chairs and stared at her phone as if that would somehow make it ring.
“LET’S GO, JARED. Tucker has some new information on the car,” Billy said.
Jared pushed to his feet and followed the other man out of Tucker’s hauler. They went to one of the NASCAR trailers. An official waited for them.
“Everyone’s up there. We’re waiting on one other guy.”
“Who?”
“Rob Mandelay.”
“Who’s that?”
“Our catch can man,” Billy said as he climbed into the trailer conference room. There were five people already in the room. Tucker, Dave, Vinnie, a NASCAR representative and an official?Marvin.
“What’s going on?” Jared asked as he took a seat at the conference table.
“Dave had a confession from Mandelay that he messed with the carburetor,” Tucker said.
“Damn, I hate that I was right and it was one of my guys,” Billy said.
“Me, too.”
“We don’t know that anyone’s right, yet,” Marvin, the official said. “We need to talk to Mandelay and see what he says.”
Jared understood but he wasn’t too sure that this confession would clear Tucker. “Did he say why?”
“Something about proving his loyalty to me,” Dave said.
The door opened and Mandelay walked in, accompanied by a second official.
“What’s going on?” Rob asked, as he looked at all the faces around the table.
“We need to talk,” Marvin said.
Rob glanced at Dave and then at Tucker. Jared thought the other man was running through his options.
“About?”
“Don’t, Rob. We know you’re the one who messed with the carburetor,” Billy said.
“Because he said so,” Rob said, pointing to Dave.
“Hey, man, I’ve got nothing to gain from saying that it was sabotage,” Dave said. “Aldridge is my number one competition so if he stays out of the race I’m a shoe-in to win. But that’s not what NASCAR is about and it’s not what I’m about. Tell these men what you told me earlier.”
Jared found a new respect for Dave. Rob shrugged then pushed to his feet. “Yeah, I did it. I changed it out so that Aldridge would be fined and possibly suspended.”
“Did anyone ask you to do it?” Marvin asked.
Rob shook his head. “Not directly, but I thought if I could help Dave win the championship, he’d be more apt to hire me.”
“Did he hint that if you somehow sabotaged Tucker’s car he’d hire you?” Marvin asked.
“No. But we go way back and I know that loyalty is something that all the Jenners reward.”
“Not blind loyalty. You should have been true to your driver. That’s what we reward.”
Jared realized that Annie was the same way. That she was looking for loyalty to her, not blind, just steady. That she wanted a man she knew would stand by her side and not leave her stranded.
After the NASCAR officials put their heads together, they announced their decision. “Aldridge, your crew should work on readying your car for today’s race. Marvin will go with you for an inspection.”
“You’ll have to start in the back,” the NASCAR official added.
Jared knew that was because Tucker had no official qualifying time as he’d been disqualified. It didn’t matter. He was relieved that Tucker was starting.
There was an official announcement thirty minutes later that the race would be delayed an hour and that Aldridge would be racing today. No more was said officially. The press and media people were swarming around the pits and the garages trying to get more information on what had happened, but word had come down that they wouldn’t answer any questions until after the race.
