Too Late: Desired By The Rival Boss

Summer

el on the industrial fringe o

stale tobacco and ch

e deadbolt was solid, and the window looked out over the parki

threadbare mattress, my

agnostic window for Me

cache was hold

2023 season, with the dashboard still disp

g log showed

hts at face value, he'd think

ent to my contact list, and systematically block

t Me

ke S

r Ben

n road captain, offic

apped the small piece of plastic between my thumb and fo

, prepaid burner

had its original SIM. Sponsors and race off

ramped bathroom, and splashed

ed mirror looked pale, with dark circles

yself to fit into the passenge

ing success while he took the trophies, the sponsor

towel, grabbed my jacket, and pulled

e industrial corridor to a tw

loy padlocks, a tactical door brace

into the biting desert air, a

under the buzzing neon sign of a mach

s wore lea

ered patch featuring a snarling tim

ge Motorc

their t

fiercest rival on the desert racing circuit and

hin up slightly, catching my e

too long. Maybe he'd seen me

n't f

room, set up the door brace, an

s. I still checked under the bed and beh

rganizing the timestamped cryptographic pro

graduate research at the University of Nev

search. Under our written agreement, Mercer Racing

ategy software, I had the paper trail to destroy him

phone vibrated against

single text message from

ine without the Red Basin escort. Found t

caught in

followed imm

mpires for a man who can't read a

the glowin

Nevada who operated with that kin

Whit

d muscle, calculating intelle

ion and brute force, Chase ran Whitmore Mot

souvenir from a territory brawl five years ago-a

one screen for a l

ed steadily ag

ken bird hiding in a corn

a storm hits, some bird

ht into the tee

phone, my thumbs hove

a single

, an isolated telemetry server, and a dy

it

r for my new prepaid SIM. "U

later, my personal phon

oor behind the salvage yard. Nine