Chapter 19 ~~
“I should have punched his teeth out!”
“Delana calm down!”
“I cant Kevin! I can’t believe he would do that to his own brother!”
“There is more to this then we know. He told us he had no choice and even though I agree that its still no reason… we gotta listen to him or Jr could get hurt!”
“Do you actually believe him?”
“Hell no!”
Delana threw her hands up into the air in frustration.
“Then why aren’t we doing something?”
Kevin sighed and leaned into the counter.
“I… I guess cause I’m trusting an Earnhardt even if I don’t want to.”
There was a slight paused between them.
“Fine…” she sighed. “We’ll wait then.”
Kevin gave his wife a small smile and pulled her into a hug.
“Can I just tell you how turned on I was when you gave him that black eye?” Kevin said into her hair as he tried to ease the tension.
“Like I said! I should have punched his teeth out!”
Kevin giggled slightly before the door swung open.
“Tell me why we aren’t doing anything!!” Tony Stewart yelled at them while entering the bus.
“Hello to you too Tony…” Kevin said while pulling out a bottled water from the fridge.
“Jr’s like… prolly 5 busses away and we’re sitting here with our thumbs up our Asses!”
“We are gonna wait!” Kevin spat in frustration. He slammed the bottled water down on the counter causing water to gush out of the top.
“Since when did I become the ring leader anyways!”
He didn’t get an answer. Just some dumbfounded looks.
“Here was the deal since you two don’t remember. Kerry said the guy was dangerous and in total control. He warned us not to tell anyone or DO anything or he might hurt Dale! I’m not willing to risk that! Are you?”
“Of course not.” Delana sighed. “We just want him safe is all.”
“Yeah… we realize we are supposed to act like we don’t know but its just tough.” Tony said defeated.
“Alright then… I don’t know what he’s got planned but I have an idea. So Tony? Be careful of that 8 car today… I have a feeling its gonna need our help.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The world came back to him as he felt something touch his head. He let a groan escape his lips and reached out to stop whatever was causing a stinging feeling coming from the cut on his head that he got in the crash.
His blue eyes fluttered open to find Kerry sitting next to him, dabbing the cut with a washcloth.
“Stop.” He winced, pulling away from his touch.
“Jr I gotta get the blood off of your head. It looks horrible.”
“Too bad.” The younger Earnhardt said while pushing Kerry’s hand away.
“We have to put something on it too. It might get infected.
“NO!” Jr said forcefully. “Leave me ALONE!”
Suddenly Kerry’s strong hands grabbed his shoulders and sat him up swiftly so he was eye to eye with his brother.
“Jr listen to me please? I’m sorry! I really am! And I’ll make it up to you I swear! You just gotta trust me!
Jr stared coldly into his eyes. Giving off a hatred so intense that Kerry couldn’t help but involuntarily shiver.
“I’m serious… Dale… he wants you to drive today.”
Junior slowly let his jaw drop to the ground in shock. He wanted him to race?
“And I have to go do more dirty work for him to make this happen. I promise everything will be ok though. I wont let him hurt you anymore.”
Jr pulled himself out of Kerry’s grasp and sat along the side of the bed. His head was placed in his hands as he closed his eyes in mental pain.
“Your words mean nothing to me anymore Kerry. You might as well not be in the room. And I would actually prefer that… Leave me the hell alone.”
“You heard him… Leave him the hell alone so you can do what I told you to do.” A voice said from the door.
The brothers looked up to see Ron standing in the doorway with a Budweiser uniform under his arm.
“Hurry up and get your ass movin! You don’t want that kid getting to that meeting do you?”
“No.” Kerry whispered. He glanced at Jr one last time before leaving the room.
“And as for you…” He threw the uniform at him forcefully. “Put that on and get ready. Your gonna win today or else!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve paced in his hauler for what seemed like hours. He couldn’t get the picture of that red truck out of his head. He let it happen again… he let someone hurt his friend, his teammate… and now he was forced to race today with such a terrible burden weighing down his mind.
He looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. He had 10 minutes till driver instructions.
“I guess I’ll go now… “ He said out loud. There was no reason to sit there any longer and beat himself up. Maybe if he was in the company of others things would be better.
He walked towards the front of the bus and was about to open the door when he saw a familiar figure sprint by. He pushed open the door.
“Kerry! Hey!!” he yelled out, getting his attention.
“Cant talk now Steve!” Kerry yelled back and kept running.
“What the hell was that about?” He mumbled to himself and continued his walk to the drivers meeting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hank! Wait up!”
Hank Parker Jr stopped and turned around to find Kerry Earnhardt jogging up to him.
“Hey buddy! How are you?” Hank said with concerned eyes.
“I’m pretty good.” Kerry said while trying to give the best genuine smile he could muster. He knew what he had to do and he hoped God and even Jr would forgive him for it.
“That’s good.” A confused look came over his face. He was expecting Kerry to be somewhat upset about The news about Jr’s crashed truck and with him no where to be found. But it was like Kerry didn’t even know about it. “I was headed to the drivers meeting.”
“Yeah I know you were… I was hoping I’d catch you before you did.”
“ Well you did! What’s up?”
“Someone’s here that wants to see you! Follow me.”
Hank looked a little confused.
“Huh? Who wants to see me?”
“You’ll see. Come on.” Kerry started to head back in the direction he came from but Hank didn’t follow.
“I cant Kerry. I gotta go to the meeting. I don’t want to be late. Can I do this later?”
Kerry sighed. He knew it wasn’t gonna be that easy... but he was hoping it would be so he didn’t have to do what he was about to do next.
“Juniors here.”
Kerry shut his eyes for a second to take in the fact that he just blurted that out as Hank’s eyes grew wide in excitement.
“He’s here? OH WELL then ya should have said so! How is he? Is he ok?! He came to watch the race? Does everyone else know? Where is he?”
“He’s back at my couch. He said he wanted to talk to you before the meeting. Not sure about what. Maybe the car.”
Hank clapped his hands in happiness and started walking towards Kerry.
“Then lets go!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Feeling better today?”
Jr sat on the couch looking out the tinted windows at the crowd going by. He thought he saw Steve but wasn’t too sure. It was kind of far off.
“Hey! I’m talking to you! Don’t zone out!’ Ron said throwing a pillow at Jr’s head from across the bus.
“Wonderful” Jr’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. Honestly he did feel somewhat rested. But his body was still sore from the crash and his stomach burned as he moved. He had a headache too… but that was turning out to be normal now. He took a few Tylenol and luckily it was starting to kick in.
“Now let me get this straight with you… your gonna get in that car and win today… or I’ll have to use this.” Ron leaned back in the chair to pull the handle of his gun out of his pants just enough for Jr to see it.
“So your gonna kill me if I don’t?” Jr said crossing his arms over his white t-shirt. His eyes were slits giving off that Earnhardt glare.
“You… Your crew… Your friends……. Your brother.”
Jr shook his head at the psycho mans threat and looked back out the window.
“Your insane… there are a lot of factors in winning races. I haven’t even driven the car yet.”
Ron shrugged at him.
“Your problem… you figure it out.”
The two were interrupted as the coach door swung open. Ron got up and pulled out his gun as Hank and then Kerry walked in.
Jr saw Hank and his eyes got wide as the two locked eyes.
“Crap.” Jr muttered as he lifted himself slowly out of the chair he was sitting in.
“Junior!” Hank said happily. He started to make his way over to his friend when something grabbed him by the neck from behind and forced him down to the ground.
“Asshole!” Jr yelled as he went over to help his friend back up. But Ron was having none of it and pointed the gun at Jr directly at head level.
“Back up Earnhardt.” The ice in his voice sent chills up Jr’s spine.
“Hey what are you doing!?” Kerry yelled from behind Ron. “We did NOT discuss this!”
Ron spun around and caught Kerry in the side of the head with the end of the gun, sending him flying into the side of the bus wall.
Hank whimpered, still being held down on his knees, at the sound the contact made and looked at Jr with pleading eyes.
Jr’s fists were clenched. Every muscle in his body was tense as he watched Kerry hold the side of his head in pain. Finally Ron let go of Hank and ordered him to stand up.
“Quit your whining and get me the rope.” He pointed the gun at Kerry to get him to get up.
“You better pump your friend here with information about the car if your gonna win today. And I suggest you do win… or you’re friend here will be in pieces.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“He better have a good ass reason for not being at the drivers meeting!” Tony Sr. said as he threw a rag across the garage. The crew was going through the last minute preparations to push the car out to the line and there still was no sign of Hank.
“Well lets get the damn car out to the line and then worry about that damn kid!”
“He’s here!”
Tony spun.
“Where the hell you been? Why weren’t you at the drivers meeting! Now we gotta start in the back! And why are you wearing your helmet? You ain’t in the car yet!”
Tony stood there expecting an answer but he got none.
“Well?!”
Finally Kerry spoke up for the mute Budweiser driver next to him.
“Hank wasn’t feeling too good. He’s having pre-race jitters.”
“Pre-race WHAT?! How long you been racin boy? And now you get the jitters?”
The shoulders in the Bud uniform shrugged and Tony sighed.
“Well then lets go… I’m telling ya.. you kids are gonna put me in my grave soon.”
“Um… Tony? He wants to get in the car now. He doesn’t wanna walk in front of everyone.”
Tony turned back around and gave them both a confused yet suspicious look.
“I ain’t even gonna press the issue… I’m too pissed off.. get in the car.”
The older Eury crossed his arms giving a stern look as the driver walked over to the car. He sort of paused a moment before slowly lifting his leg into the window. The movement, even with the helmet on, looked like it was painful and Tony stepped closer to the car.
“You alright?”
The helmet covered head nodded slowly and the other leg was flung up into the car followed by the rest of the body.
Tony Sr. Stood with fused eyebrows watching the bud car get pushed away to pit road. Something wasn’t right here but he just didn’t know what.
