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Evelyn didn’t care who he did it for She only cared that she was a success at her assign we’ll need to do is ithin your schedule I kno busy you are"

They paused while the waitress brought their breakfast Evelyn dug into her oatmeal and fruit while Gray pounded down sos, bacon, pancakes, hash browns, and biscuits

"Where do you put all those calories?" she asked

"What?"

"That’s a huge meal"

"Oh I work out, and I also sweat it all out in the car It’s usually over a hundred degrees in there"

"My God That can’t be healthy"

He shrugged "You get used to it"

No wonder he had a body like that, so tall and lean But today he wore jeans and a tight T-shirt showing off some serious muscle "So it’s like a sauna"

"Yup"

"You have to stay in shape to drive a car"

He scooped up the last of his eggs with his fork, then finished off his orange juice

"You can’t control a three-thousand-pound raging beast at a hundred and ninety s tingled at the endearh I freely ad industry is soe that, won’t we?"

"I suppose ill The more I know about what you do, the better equipped I’ll be to integrate you into your father’s can"

"And won’t that be fun"

She pushed her bowl to the side and studied him "I sense some hesitation"

"Not just so my heels the entire way"

"I can ith that"

"Okay I just wanted to be up front about it"

She liked hienda for today?"

"Teaet back to DC"

She gave him a blank look "Uh, no Perhaps I didn’t outline the parah"

He frowned "I don’t understand"

"I’ned to you, Gray, and only you, from now until the election I’ll be with you the entire way"

FOUR

GRAY ALWAYS LIKED TO BE HANDS-ON WITH HIS TEAM, not leaving anything for the up in the garage and checking out the cars they’d use for the races

Now that they were in Kentucky, he was overseeing the tea for both race teams, and he had control They went over the wreck last Sunday with the crew and ine teaain, that steps would be taken to ensure the engines for both cars would be in prime shape for the race this weekend

Gray always kept a s, from tire inventory to which crew members would be on board for the next race Everyone attended the s It was mandatory If you didn’t show up, you were replaced on the crew or the , Donny, his other driver, broke his crew out for their own y for their car, while Gray did the sa ell and everyone was puood car and he knew he had a good chance for this season So did Donny, but Donny was easily distracted Which reminded Gray that he needed to have a chat with him After Donny did his practice runs on the track today, he’d pull him aside and have a talk with hi Gray hoped he wasn’t sick, because that was the last thing they needed He wanted both his cars to do well this weekend

He went up to the track where Donny was driving away to start up his practice run

After a war about Donny being sick, because he was taking a fast lap He had control of the wheel and had precision and confidence on the turns that Gray had never seen before fro driver

Impressive as hell And one of the fastest runs Gray had ever seen the kid drive

Good He needed to be great, because Gray had invested a lot of , so Donny was going to have to do well Gray didn’t have a lot of tiood"

Alex Reed ca his practice run at the sa tiether back in Oklahohtens out, he could be a great driver"

"Who hasn’t had their head up their ass at that age?" Alex asked "Remeht?"

Gray laughed "Ah The good old days whenwas someone else’s problem"

Alex slapped him on the back "I still drive for someone else’s race team, buddy

It’s still soo out on your own"

"Asshole"

Alex laughed and walked away He knew better, too Alex was as driven as they came, as focused on success as anyone he’d ever known He put everything he had into racing, into winning, because it was all he had Gray at least had the option of walking away from all this He was lucky that he had rown up dirt-poor and had raced his way into success Without racing, he had nothing Gray couldn’t iine what that must be like