Authors: Shantel Tessier
DASH
DASH
BY: Shantel Tessier
Unforgettable
Copyright © 2014 by Shantel Tessier
All rights reserved.
Editing by Jenny Sims of
Editing4Indies
Cover design by Sommer Stein at Perfect Pear Creative
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
DASH
I squint my eyes to get a good look at the car that stands out in the oncoming traffic on this California freeway. It looks like any black Charger, but something about it seems off...
Blacked out windows.
Blacked out rims.
Blacked out lights.
Solid black.
I watch it through the dark tinted visor of my helmet as it passes me. I glance over quickly, in time to see brake lights come on before it comes to a quick stop and turns into the center median. Then I see the colorful lights come on that are hidden in just the right spots.
“Fuck,” I cuss into my helmet.
Just as I suspected. It’s a cop!
I look down to the speedometer on my bike and see that I’m doing ninety-two in a sixty-five. Fuck!
I reach back and tap the thigh of the girl who is sitting on the back of my bike—signaling to hold on. I feel her knees pull in on my legs as her arms wrap tightly around my waist. Her big ass fake tits, a high school graduation present from her parents, are against my back just as I rev the throttle more. I can pretty much bet my left nut that she’s yelling at me through her helmet right now to slow the fuck down. But it’s too late. I’ve already decided to run and now I’m committed to it.
I look down quickly to see I’m going well over a hundred when I look in my side mirror and notice the Charger gaining on us. I need to get off the highway and try to lose him in a neighborhood on some backstreets. I see an exit up ahead and decide at the last minute to take it.
I look both ways and run a red light when I see both directions are clear. I swerve through traffic quickly as my adrenaline pumps. I know this road. I’m only about a mile away from my best friend Blake’s house.
I take my next right and see a cop car pulling out in front of me. His lights come on as well.
Shit! Of course, the cop on the highway has called for backup.
I let off the throttle and pull on the brake. I turn into a gas station, and without stopping, I exit out of the opposite side, getting back on the road.
I see another cop coming from the opposite direction. Fuck! I should have just stayed on the highway, but I didn’t want the possibility to get stuck in traffic.
Fuck it! I need back on the highway.
I go to take the on-ramp, but there are already cops there as well. I’m fucked. I look over to the ditch. I could take it. It’s not that deep. The bike could get me through it and back onto the highway in no time. They would never be able to catch me. But Valerie tightens her body around me, reminding me she’s also on the bike, and I won’t risk her life.
I bring the bike to a quick stop. The front of Valerie’s helmet hits the back of mine from the force due to my last-minute decision to surrender.
She starts to climb off the bike before I can even get my feet on the ground, almost knocking us over. I watch as she frantically pulls her helmet off and throws it to the ground. I cringe as it hits the concrete. Couldn’t she have thrown it behind her in the grass? Stupid bitch.
I climb off quickly as well. I’ve been in this situation enough to know that the police will fucking tackle your ass while you’re still sitting on your bike. And all that does is knock your bike over, and that pisses me off. Cops are dicks anyways, but they are ten times worse when you try to run from them and they catch you.
I take my helmet off as well and set it on the ground. They are also known to cut your helmet off. This one is my favorite—no way will I let that happen.
“Hands up in the air!” a police officer yells with his gun raised and aimed right at me. By now other cop cars are coming to a stop to join the show—lights flashing and tires squealing.
I raise them with a heavy sigh. Can’t they see I’m not packing? Where in the hell would I keep it? I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
“Is there a problem officer?” I ask with a cocky smile.
Valerie lets out a cry, and I turn around to look at her. Tears run down her face leaving a trail of black mascara and eyeliner. I’ve always felt like she wears too much makeup. “What’s wrong?” I ask her.
“Seriously?” She screeches. “You’re a jackass, Dash!” she cries. “You shouldn’t have run. Now we’re getting arrested.” She drops her head but keeps her arms raised. “My parents are going to kill me,” she adds, and I roll my eyes. She never has been much of a risk-taker. Or an adrenaline junkie like myself. Why did I once date her? How is that saying? Opposites attract. Maybe I was just attracted to her big ass fake tits.
“We got him.”
I spin my head back around to look at the officer who is walking to me as he speaks into his radio that’s connected to his uniform.
“Yes sir,” he responds to the person on the other end of it.
He reaches for my raised arms and yanks me toward him before he shoves me forward. He then grabs the back of my neck roughly and throws the front of my body over the back of his cop car. “Fuck!” I mutter under my breath from his force.
He yanks my arms behind my back and proceeds to place me in handcuffs as he reads me my rights. He doesn’t need to inform me of them though. I’ve been in this situation before. Hell, I’ve totaled a car and two bikes in my twenty-two years. And have had my license revoked a handful of times. I always get out of it though. Money talks. And that is one thing that I have plenty of.
DASH
I stand in a jail cell with my hands still cuffed behind my back as I look around. “Where is the girl who was with me?” I ask the officer who sits behind the only desk down here eating a Twinkie with his coffee. They placed us in separate cop cars when they hauled us in. I was immediately thrown into a cell alone, but I don’t know where she was taken to.
He looks up at me for a few seconds with his brown eyes before he turns his attention back to his afternoon snack, ignoring me.
I huff as I sit down on the hard bench. I try rolling my shoulders but can’t due to the cuffs. “Isn’t this illegal?” I ask, referring to the cuffs.
“Let’s talk about illegal…” a man’s voice I don’t recognize says.
I look up and just then a man comes around the corner of the cell into view. His silver hair is combed back and his dark brown eyes almost look black but the smile on his face is friendly and my eyes widen.
I know exactly who this man is. He’s Mr. Knight. He used to be one of the world’s biggest Formula One race car drivers. He retired and started his own racing team.
“I’m sorry?” I question, confused as to what he’s doing here and what he means by
let’s talk about illegal
?
His eyes drop down to the papers sitting in his hands. “Erik Dashling.” He says my name with a smirk as he skims over the information on it. “Seems you have a need to break the law, son. Wanna explain to me why you were clocked by an officer doing a hundred and thirty on the interstate today?”
One thirty? That’s all? My 1,000 will do every bit of two hundred. Easily! But I also had a passenger who I needed to think about. “It was a nice day for a ride,” I decide to say with a smile.
He lets out a chuckle at my sarcasm. “Yes, I guess it was.” He places the papers behind his back and straightens his stance in front of my jail cell. “I’ve been watching you for a while,” he announces, and my eyebrows shoot up. “And I have come to a decision.”
“A decision?” I ask standing up from my bench.
He nods. He then lifts a hand and the officer behind his desk drops his Twinkie and jumps up. He walks over to the cell and opens it up. I stay grounded to my spot wondering what the hell is going on when the cop finally walks over to me. He spins me around and undoes my cuffs.
I rub my sore wrists as I turn back around to face them both.
“I’m giving you a spot on my team,” Mr. Knight says with a friendly smile.
I look between the two of them in confusion. He wants to make me an errand boy… “Community service?” Wouldn’t be the first time I have had to do some sort of community service for my endeavors. It will definitely be the first time it’s something I will enjoy though.
He shakes his head. “No. I’m offering you a job,” he clarifies before he straightens the jacket to his Armani three-piece suit. “Like I said. I’ve been watching you for a while. And you are exactly what I need. I’m starting a new race team. A motorcycle race team. And I want you.”
This can’t be happening. There’s no way Johnny Knight is offering me a position on his race team. I’m the kind of guy who would be a liability. I’m dangerous and sometimes out of control. People have a hard time with my sarcasm and say I’m hard to work with due to my inability to follow rules. “I have a record,” I say in all honestly.
He shakes his head. “
Had.
It’s clean. As of now.”
“How did you…?” There’s no way! Even my father can’t get shit off of my record, and believe me, he’s tried.
He smiles. “Son, I have a lot of pull in this town.” I watch the officer nod his head, and he looks over at me. “And I promise you. If you produce half of what I know you’re capable of, I will take care of you. This isn’t a handout. I will work you hard to produce the results I want.”
I run my hand through my hair as I release a deep breath. “I don’t understand. Why take the chance with me?” I ask in all seriousness. He has to know more about me than just my record.
“You think I got where I am today without taking risks?” he asks with a smile.
I shake my head as I look away and a thought comes to my mind. “Where’s Valerie?” His brows crease. “The girl who was with me?” I need to know where she is at before this conversation goes any further.
“Oh, your girlfriend? I had a car take her home. She was not in trouble for your joyride today.”
I don’t correct him on Valerie being my ex. I just nod once again before speaking. “Thank you, Sir.”
“So. Do we have a deal?” he asks, already reaching out his right hand to shake.
A deal? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, I’m twenty-two with a rap sheet longer than my left arm and a very powerful and rich man is standing in front of me offering me the chance at my dream job. “What’s the catch?” I ask crossing my arms over my chest, refusing to shake his just yet.
“Don’t push your luck, boy,” the officer growls.
Mr. Knight lifts his hand to silence the officer as he smirks. “I like a man who wants to know all of his options before he takes a deal,” he says to the officer, but his dark brown eyes stay trained on mine. “The catch is that whenever you are on the streets—whether it be in your car or on your bike—you abide by the law. I don’t want you arrested or to get even so much as a speeding ticket. No drugs and no alcohol. I don’t want you showing up for a race or practice runs hung-over or exhausted or fucked up. You are no use to me in a hospital or jail.”
“That’s it?”
He nods. “That’s it. Do we have a deal?” he asks once again.
I give him a big smile as I uncross my arms and reach my right hand out. “Deal.”
He smiles as he firmly shakes my hand. He then reaches into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulls out a card. “I will send a car for you tomorrow afternoon. Be ready for it by two o’clock,” he says before turning around.
“Be ready for what?” I ask, placing it in my back pocket of my shorts.
He turns back around and gives me a smirk. “To sign your life away,” he says jokingly, but I have a feeling he’s being serious.
I look up at the officer once Mr. Knight is out of the room. “He owns you, boy,” is all he says before he goes back to his desk, opens up his drawer and sets my wallet and cell on top of it next to my helmet. “Here you go. And your bike is sitting out front for you.”
I take my stuff and hightail it out of there. But before I get on my bike I make a call to my best friend, Blake.
“Holy shit man. I heard what happened. Valerie called me crying,” is how he answers his phone.
I roll my eyes. I bet she called him. Anytime she can play the victim, she does. “No big deal,” I respond. “Hey,” I say before he can say anything else. “I’m having a party tonight,” I say with a smile. I was just given the opportunity of a lifetime, and I’m not gonna fuck it up. But I haven’t signed anything yet. So tonight I’m gonna live it up one last time.
“Your place?” he asks.
“Hell no. I’m not throwing a party at my house.” During the last party we had at my house, a fight broke out and the neighbors called the police. Guess I shouldn’t have beat the shit out of the guy on the front lawn for everyone to see. But in my defense, he was making out with my girlfriend in the living room for all to see. So he deserved it.
“Okay. Your parents,” he suggests, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “They’re out of town. And I can call this girl I’ve been seeing. Jackie. She has this hot friend that I know you would love to hit.”
Bingo!
“Great idea.” Even though nothing is written in stone with Mr. Knight, I want to celebrate. And I know just how to celebrate. Some alcohol and a woman underneath me who is anyone but Valerie.