Legends and Lies by Katherine Garbera

met.

    Annie wanted to believe he was the kind of man she could count on. The type of man who’d always be there when she needed him. He seemed so rock-steady.

    But she couldn’t quite believe Jared was all he seemed and she remembered clearly that just over a month ago he’d accused her of doing something illegal.

    She tried not to dwell on that. Jared hadn’t known her well enough then to realize she’d never cheat. But he did now. She was slowly relaxing her guard around him, letting him see her as she really was. Not playing at being the kind of woman that would fit into his life perfectly. Not changing herself into what she thought he needed.

    She finished her assignment, checked out at the media center and went to find Dave. This loss was going to be hard to take. Not that they all weren’t, but he’d mentioned before the race that he’d wanted to win for Daddy, since he was here watching the race today.

    The garage was still off-limits so only those with a hot pass were allowed in. Annie was waved through and went to Dave’s garage. Vinnie and Dave were both talking to another official.

    “What’s going on?” Annie asked Dave when Vinnie walked away with the official.

    Dave looked tired and pissed off. He still had on his uniform but had unzipped it and she saw he had on her dad’s old T-shirt underneath. It was the T-shirt that commemorated their father’s first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series win. “Aldridge won that race on four tires that hadn’t been changed.”

    “So?” she asked, thinking that Dave was getting a little intense in his rivalry with Tucker. She hadn’t seen him so obsessed before.

    “So everyone else in the top five had at least two new tires on.”

    “And fresher tires normally allow you to go faster,” she stated.

    “Exactly. I should have caught him on that last lap,” Dave said.

    Her brother was pure brilliance when it came to those last laps of a race.

    “We asked the official to check the tires.”

    “What could Tucker do to his tires?” she asked. All of the drivers used the same tires and they were inspected carefully before they went on the cars.

    “We’re not sure. I’m thinking he used some kind of synthetic substance that would enable him to use his tires longer than normal.”

    “Oh. When will you know?”

    “Not until tomorrow.”

    She knew that all the top five cars were always inspected after the races, as well as a group of randomly selected cars from the rest of the pack. That was why the race standings were always unofficial until the following day. If anything out of the ordinary was found on the car the driver could be fined or disqualified.

    Dave left to join Vinnie and the officials, and Annie left the garage following her brother and taking pictures of the event.

    Everyone was mumbling about the complaint that Jenner Racing had lodged. She tried to catch Jared’s eye but he and Tucker were both talking to the officials.

    When he did glance up, he gave her a hard look before stalking away.

    Annie knew that the fact that they were both a part of rival teams mattered and Jared had just proved that. She found her brother and did her job taking photos of him, finding solace in her work so that she wouldn’t have time to think about the look on Jared’s face.

CHAPTER TEN
    THE INQUIRY THAT Dave had requested didn’t turn up anything illegal on Tucker’s tires. That had only served to drive a deeper wedge between the two men. Annie felt pulled in two directions.
    She’d flown home on Monday morning and there had been no call from Jared. In fact, he’d said nothing to her after Tucker’s win. She’d thought about letting this situation with him simmer until he brought it up, but that had been one of the things that had soured her relationship with Malcolm. Instead of confronting him with his infidelity she’d tried to ignore it and keeping it inside had ultimately caused her far too much pain. She wouldn’t let that happen with