Hard and Fast by Raven Scott Read Free Book Online

other side of the pit stop. Only one car moved around the track at racing speed.
    Marco parked in the gravel near the track, and they both stepped out of the car. Lucas followed him toward the edge of the track where two men were standing, wearing matching gray coveralls, looking through a folder. He recognized them from the shop floor that morning.
    “How’s it going?” asked Marco as both of the engineers looked toward them.
    “It’s crazy,” one of the two men replied, looking confounded.
    “Lucas, meet Randy and Niles, two of the engineers on Alex’s team,” explained Marco, gesturing to the stocky, middle-aged man he first spoke to, and the second younger, more slender guy who was holding the folder. “Guys, this is Lucas Johnson, with our security firm, Fortis.”
    Lucas shook hands with the engineers.
    “Where’s Cotts?” Lucas asked. “I was hoping to get some more details on the work with Adam North.”
    Marco laughed as they all looked back out onto the track. “You’ll have to wait until she’s done testing her baby.”
    She? Lucas looked at him with a frown, but was distracted seconds later when a dark blue race-engineered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution zipped by them, clocking at least one hundred and forty miles per hour. The sound of the wind wake and tire traction hit him in a flash, but the motor and exhaust were whisper-quiet.
    “That’s your Cicada motor inside the Mitsubishi?” he asked, still feeling the power vibrating through his bones.
    Marco’s eyes sparkled like a schoolboy at Christmas.
    “That is it.”
    The four men stood and watched the car complete another couple of laps, each seemingly faster than the previous. Before the last pass, the older engineer, Randy, whipped his hands in the air.
    “They’re going to do a final lap at max velocity,” Marco explained.
    Lucas nodded, then stepped forward with the others to witness the results. He could feel the energy and excitement as the race car increased its speed coming out of the last curve of the lap.
    Suddenly, there was a loud bang and dark smoke surrounded the car. Sounds of tires squealing were mixed in with muttered and panicked curses from Marco and the two engineers. Within moments, they were all running toward the Mitsubishi, now spinning out in crazy circles up the straightaway.

CHAPTER 4
    The area was immediately filled with the scream of an emergency siren as a geared-up red 4x4 truck pulled out of a garage at the far side of the field. There was too much commotion for Lucas to see the cause of the explosion, or the damage to the vehicle and the people inside of it. But his instincts were heightened, and he scanned the open area for any sign of threats, attacks, or hiding culprits, prepared for all possibilities.
    Within a few seconds, the car pulled out of its dizzying spin to skid across the pavement until the rear end slammed into the short wall with a loud crunch. It was a chilling sound, prompting Lucas to refocus on the probable injury and damage to the people and assets inside. With his long, fast strides, he was well ahead of the others, reaching the collision site first, just before the safety team vehicle arrived, with a full firefighting system set up in the bed.
    The smoke had thinned out, revealing a shredded rear tire. But, knowing how highly flammable racing fuel was, and how unpredictable collisions could be, everyone was clearly prepared for the worst-case scenario—a gas leak that would come in contact with the extremely hot exhaust system, triggering an instant fire, maybe even an explosion. The safety crew got busy, quickly setting up the required equipment.
    “Alex! Bobby!” Marco was yelling from behind Lucas, and the firefighters and paramedics were shouting instructions to each other.
    The driver’s-side door opened just as Lucas was about to reach for the handle. A young man, no more than twenty-one years old, climbed out from between the heavy white bars of the full roll cage. His