In the Fast Lane by Audra North Page A

“I thought I told you to stay the fuck off the motherfucking channel!” She knew she was being too harsh, but all the rage she felt at Tom had nowhere else to go at the moment.
    “Don’t you know any other words, sweetheart? Not that I don’t like it when you talk dirty to me.”
    And why did he always seem to respond to her frustration like that? With a smooth, low, sensuous voice and innuendo that threw her off. She hated the way he said things like that. Hated the way the words made her body respond, as though she were naked and laid out beneath him begging for his touch, instead of behind the wheel of a high performance machine that could be run off the track any second. Tom continued to bump her, though he seemed to be getting bored and was starting to pull ahead a bit.
    No. It was one thing to give up a position to Colby, whom she respected and even revered. But it was something else to be pushed down by someone like Tom.
    “Pull tight on the corner and you’ll lose him, Kerri.” That was Lee.
    “You can do it, Kerri.” Ranger again, but this time his voice was serious. The drawl was gone, and for the first time, he’d called her by her name. She felt an odd thrill zip through her body.
    “Get ready; you’re going in keep it straight for a little longer you’ve got the space you—” Lee’s words were fast and breathless, and she could practically see him pressing the binoculars so hard against his face that he’d end up with red ring marks. She waited until the last possible minute to cut the wheel hard to the left, leaving Tom with no choice but to slide to the outside of the track and shake loose. She zoomed ahead, laughing.
    “Nice job, sugar. I knew you could do it.”
    This time, Ranger’s voice on the line made her grin. Thank God he couldn’t see her face. He might think she actually liked him.
    She decided to ignore him. “Car’s still loose in and loose out. Tight in the middle.” She swung out of the curve, noticing that Tom was now two cars behind her. Serves the sonofabitch right.
    “We’ll see what we can do when you pit.” That was Grady. “Eight more laps until the first scheduled stop. Until then, just try to maintain.”
    “Roger that.” The line went silent.
    Kerri raced.
    *   *   *
    Ranger was next to Grady in the pit, wearing heavy-duty headphones. Those engines were loud . When they’d all driven in to the pits for the first scheduled stop, it was like hearing a thunderclap from inside his brain.
    He’d done as Grady asked and stayed up on the booth, out of the pit crew’s way, even though he’d wanted to go down to Kerri to see if she was all right. He wanted to kill that asshole who’d been attached to her right side for the entire straight right before the first stop.
    He’d asked Grady about it.
    “That’s Tom Nolan. He drives for Granoff Racing. That’s the second biggest operation behind Riggs Racing. He’s also a tiny little shit who talks a lot of smack and drives dirty. Earlier in the season, he was telling everybody that most of the time Kerri wouldn’t have the killer instinct to be great, but to watch out when she was on the rag.”
    Ranger had fumed. Nolan deserved to be beat down for talking so crudely about Kerri.
    But Grady had seen the dark look on Ranger’s face and given him a wry smile. “Thing about Kerri is that she doesn’t let it show how much it gets to her. She’s good about that, but no one seems to notice. They’ve labeled her as a hormonal head case because she’s a woman, when the truth is that I’ve seen some of these guys throw the biggest hissy fits in history over the smallest things. Kerri’s never pitched her helmet at a crew member or hauled off and punched someone after a race, but she’s seen as the queen of tantrums when she so much as throws her hands up in the air in frustration.”
    Grady let out a huff. “There was one reporter who was badgering Lee a few months ago and Kerri told him to get lost.