Black Flag (Racing on the Edge) (42 page)

Anger pulsed through
me, trembling and begging to be released. I
wanted
to kill him.

I
wanted
him to
die the most painful death imaginable for even touching her and my child.

“You have to be the dumbest
motherfuckers I have ever met.” Spencer said darkly shaking his head, taking
another step closer to Mike.

Dad, Kyle, and Van
stood by protectively by the entrance to the bar, blocking anyone from coming
in.

Darrin chuckled as he
took another drink of his beer casually as though he wasn’t fazed. “You don’t
have it in you to kill me.”

“Watch me.”

I was so angry I wasn’t
paying attention when he swung, hitting me in the jaw. I couldn’t feel it. I was
numb. I jumped on him and began hitting him as hard as I could and envisioning
Sway’s broken body with every punch. Darrin struggled violently underneath me
but his attempts were useless. He knew where to hit me though, and connected a
few blunt blows to my ribcage; I could feel the sharp pain shooting throughout
my body as my rib snapped under the pressure.

It was nothing compared
to the pain I was already feeling.

I welcomed the pain.

I wanted to feel
physical pain over this crushing emotional pain.

Spencer had knocked
Mike unconscious. He
laid
bleeding profusely from his
mouth; appearing to be missing some teeth.

Darrin squirmed under
me again and I punched him once more, shattering his jaw, knocking him
unconscious, but I couldn’t stop. I kept hitting him and repeatedly slamming
his head against the ground until I felt someone pulling on me.

I wanted to kill him.

I wanted him to feel
the pain I was feeling
...
the physical pain Sway
was feeling.

I needed to kill him.

I needed him to feel
this too.

My gaze shifted behind
me.

Aiden.

“Jameson, you
have
to
stop.” Aiden urged me wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “You’re killing
him.”

“That’s
...
the fucking point, Aiden.” I growled
back, continuing to hit Darrin.

The fury had consumed
too much of my rationality.

I had no control left.

Aiden grabbed a hold of
my suit yanking me backwards with the help of Kyle.

“Stop
Jameson!”
He yelled. “If you kill him now, you’ll never see her.”

He was right
...
I knelt there trying to calm down and
stop the scene from replaying in my mind but couldn’t. The images wouldn’t
stop.

I fell back to my
knees, struggling to breathe, covered in Darrin’s blood. He was starting to
stir slightly. I had half a mind to kill him now, but restrained myself. I
couldn’t leave Sway.

I reached down and
yanked him forward by the collar of his soaked black t-shirt. Blood spilled
from his mouth as he tried to speak but couldn’t.

I struggled with myself
not to just snap his neck and end it. But then again, I didn’t know if that was
something that actually worked or it was just in the movies.

“Don’t you ever touch
her again, you hear me?” I leaned closer. “Do you fucking hear me? Next time,
you will not be walking away from this. I will kill you! Do you understand?” I
growled into his ear as Van walked in. I don’t know how I expected him to
answer, he was out cold.
Maybe even dead.

“I’ll take it from here
Jameson. You need to leave before someone realizes you were here.” Van advised
slowly walking over. “Jimi is waiting for you.”

Spencer and I shuffled
toward the door.

“What are you going to
do to him?” Spencer asked Van, wiping blood from his hands with his shirt.

Van ran his hand across
the back of his neck, his eyes hard and tense as he looked into the darkness of
the parking lot. “It’s probably better if you two just leave.”

14.
                 
Fuel
Pump – Jameson

Fuel
Pump – A device that pumps fuel from the fuel cell through the fuel line and
into the carburetor.

It wasn’t supposed to
be like this.

We were finally happy,
together, loving each other the way we should have been all those years—it’s
not fair.

Why couldn’t we have
the happy ever after, the fairytale she wanted? Didn’t she deserve at least
that much?

This just didn’t make
sense to me, when would enough be enough?

“Jameson Riley, we need
to ask you a few questions. Come with me please.” I looked up to find a stalky
officer standing in front of me. He was dressed in street clothes but I could
tell by his demeanor, he was a police officer. Or maybe it was the badge he
flashed that gave him away?

I sighed heavily as I
stood and walked with him to a private room.

We had just arrived
back at the hospital where the police were waiting. I wasn’t surprised.

He led me to a small
conference room, opened the door and motioned for me to enter.

“My name is Officer Tim
Henley.” He said taking a seat. I sat down across from him. “I’m going to ask
you a few questions here.”

I nodded when he placed
a tape recorder on the square wooden table angled toward me. The room was small
with all white walls, I squinted at the brightness the room had on my irritated
eyes.

“Can you tell me what
happened last night?” He asked reaching forward to turn on his tape recorder;
clicking his black pen obsessively.

My thoughts wandered to
last night.

It was now two in the
morning and I still hadn’t slept or seen Sway. I was still dressed in my
driving suit that was now covered in blood, Darrin’s blood. I was also supposed
to be back at the track in less than six hours for the race that was cancelled
yesterday. I needed sleep but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. No, that wasn’t
happening with these thoughts.

After we had left the
bar, Van had left with Darrin. He was still unconscious and at that point Van
was actually wondering if I had, in fact, killed him. Unfortunately, the
motherfucker still had a pulse. Mike was so scared when he woke up missing
teeth that he left and told the police he fell. I wasn’t sure we’d ever see him
again.

“I think you know what
happened.” I replied sarcastically. If he thought I was really going to lay it
all out, he was out of his mind. I wasn’t admitting to shit. In my mind, I did
nothing wrong.

“Riley.” He breathed
through his nose and reached turning off the tape recorder. “I know what
happened, I’m not an idiot. I know who Van Lambert is as well.” He held up a
file. “Van Lambert, age thirty-two, ex-Navy Seal, specialized in Special
Reconnaissance missions for nine years. Phillip Clemons hired him as your body
guard.” He placed the file down on the table. “I’d like to know what happened
and why Darrin Torres, who is wanted for attempted murder, is now missing.”

I stared at him with a
blank expression, my body radiating tension. Like I gave a shit who he knew or
what he knew.

“Just cooperate with us,”
Officer Henley suggested. “I’m sorry for what happened to your fiancée. Please
keep in mind though that I also have an investigation to do here.” He shook his
head. “Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that given the chance, I
wouldn’t have reacted the same way if that was
my
fiancée and child.”

I looked away, crossing
my arms over my chest, feeling the pain once again. He had no fucking idea what
I was going through. He had no idea the pain I was feeling right now.

“But Jameson, I have a
job to do here and I would really appreciate some cooperation,” He intoned
leaning forward to turn the recorder back on. He reached for the folder in
front of him and I caught a glimpse of the photos inside. There was my Sway,
bloody, broken, and naked. The photos must have been taken when she first
arrived as part of the investigation but just the sight of them had me
hyperventilating.

I looked down at my
hands in my lap, trying to control my breathing as tears started to fall.

“Were you there when
Emma Riley found Sway?”

“No.” I said with
virtuously. “I was in my race car. The race was on a red flag when Emma Riley
found her.”

“So you are a NASCAR
driver?”

“What in the hell does
that have to do with anything? I mean, don’t you have more important questions
to ask besides my career choice?”

“Fair enough,” I think
he knew I was in no mood for small talk. “How did you know where to find Darrin
Torres?”

“I didn’t,” I mused
shrugging indifferently. “I got lucky.”

“Were you at Boars
Tavern at approximately 10 PM?” He made a few notes on his white note pad, his
eyes watchful of my every movement. Like any trained detective, he was waiting
for me to give him a clue.

“Yes.”

“And what happened
while you were there?”

“Darrin and I had a
discussion.” I smiled wickedly.

His lips twitched into
a small smile. It was pretty fucking evident by my appearance more than a
discussion took place. “But you don’t know where Darrin is at now?” Officer
Henley looked up at me. His confusion was transient as he took in my dark
stare.

“I have no idea where
he went when I left the bar.” I answered.

“When was the last time
you saw Van Lambert?”

“He was with me at the
bar.” I ran my fingers through my sweaty hair. “I haven’t seen him either since
I left the bar.”

“What time did you
leave the bar?”

I shrugged. “I don’t
really know but I would say it was around 11pm.”

“If Mr. Lambert is your
body guard, why wasn’t he with Sway?”

“We agreed for him to
have the week off since I, or a family member would be with Sway this weekend.”

“So you haven’t heard
from him since the bar?”

I shook my head. “I
didn’t say that.” I smiled darkly.

“You’ve been in contact
with Mr. Lambert?” He scribbled a note as if this would be his answer.

“Yes, we spoke about an
hour ago. I asked him to please come to the hospital to keep an eye on Sway.”

“Where is he?”

“I didn’t ask him
that.” I told him. “He just said he would be here tomorrow sometime.”

Henley leaned forward
again and turned off the recorder. “Well I can tell you that Darrin is missing,
but something tells me you know that already. There is a warrant out for his
arrest and when he does turn up, he’ll be going to jail for a long time for
violating a restraining order. It’s a serious crime. He will also be charged
with attempted murder of Sway, as well as your unborn child as well. As far as
the other charge
...
it’s pending a test.”

My fists clenched
immediately at the word that had been haunting me
...
rape.
I looked at him intently; I could have burned
a hole through him. Slowly, I leaned forward against the table, waiting for his
eyes to meet mine. I could be one scary motherfucker if I wanted to be. Right
now, I needed to be.

“Are we finished here?”
I asked then laughed manically. It was becoming apparent that I had seriously
lost my goddamn mind at that point.

“Yes, you may go.” He
tipped his head the direction of the door. “I hope your fiancée makes a full
recovery.”

I said nothing, the
door slammed behind me.

Spencer and Aiden were
waiting in the hallway for me when I walked out; both leaning against the wall.

“Is everything okay?”
Aiden asked hesitantly, his forehead glistened with sweat.

“Just calm the fuck
down, Aiden.” I turned toward Spencer. “Give him some sleeping pills or
something.”

He’d been a nervous
fucking wreck since we left the bar, convinced we were all going to prison for
life. Emma got him hooked on some TV show called CSI. He was sure some
forensics bullshit was going to put us all away.

I was moments away from
bitch slapping him.

We weren’t in the
waiting room a few minutes when a doctor appeared asking for me.

“Are you listening to
me Mr. Riley?” Dr. Clayton asked when I approached the critical care units with
him. Our pace seemed stalled.

I was trying to listen
to him, really I was. He was explaining how Sway and the baby were doing. But
as his lips moved, I couldn’t hear the words being spoken. I shook my head
trying clear my thoughts as if that would help. There was no clearing my head
right now.

“Sway is being sedated
at the moment. She’s woken up a few times but whenever we tell her about the
baby, we have to sedate her again.” His eyes were just as watchful as the
detectives had been.