Chapter 126 Sisterly Betrayal of a New Variety
Having Leslie beside her on the pit box was calming in a way. When the green flag dropped, Andrea took hold of her sister’s hand and watched Case take off, getting ahead of the field easier than expected. Thoughts of what Sarah might’ve done to his car vanished as he rounded turn two.
Then, everything went to pot on the racetrack behind him.
“Oh, no!” Leslie squealed, squeezing Andrea’s hand so tight, she thought her fingers might burst.
A hand flew to cover Andrea’s mouth. She knew Case would be all right because he was far ahead of the wreck, but Charlie was back there, and there was no way to tell whether or not he’d make it through the accident.
It wasn’t really an accident, though. Andrea could tell that the moment she saw that it was Gordo’s car flying out of control. His front right tire was bouncing everywhere, hitting another car’s windshield, flying up against the wire fence that protected the crowd, before slamming down on the hood of another car and then bouncing off several more.
As cars tried to avoid the flying projectile, several of them collided with each other. Andrea tried to find Charlie amid the smoke and chaos, but it was getting impossible to tell which car was which, even with the jumbotron zoomed in on the wreck. Every once in a while, she thought she’d caught a glimpse of his car, but it was impossible to tell until all of the moving pieces came to a rest and the smoke started to clear.
Then, beyond the turned cars and the collisions, the parts and the chaos, she saw a few cars come creeping through the wreckage and catch up with the end of the field.
“There he is!” Leslie exclaimed, pointing at one of the cars still moving.
“Thank God!” Andrea said, letting go a breath she’d been holding ever since she first saw the caution flag fly.
Over the radio, she heard Charlie’s voice say, “I think we’re okay. Might have a bald spot or two, but new tires should cover it.”
“Ain’t a lot of people that lucky,” his crew chief, a guy named Wilson that Andrea had only met once, said back to him across the team radio. “It’s gonna take a while to clear this.”
The red flag flew, which stopped the cars from moving on the track and also prevented the teams from doing any work on their cars. Case was fine, she knew that. And Stewart Antony, whose car was next to him, had also gotten through without a problem. Of the field, it looked like about half had managed to get by with no problems. Another ten or so would need minor repairs. Gordon Jones would be out of the race before the first lap was over, and at least five more cars would be headed to the garage, done with their Daytona dreams before they’d started.
Andrea sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly through her nose. “What’s the matter?” Leslie asked.
“I know Sarah did this.”
Leslie raised an eyebrow. “How can you know that?”
“She was spying on Case earlier this morning. His car had a slight problem. Jones is her other ex. It just makes sense.”
“You shouldn’t accuse anyone of something like that without knowing for sure, especially not your own sister,” Leslie said, giving Andrea a look that said she should be careful.
“Half-sister,” Andrea corrected. “Why are you defending her?”
With a shrug, Leslie said, “We’ve been talking on the phone some. She’s not all that bad.”
“What?” Andrea could hardly believe what she was hearing. “You’ve been talking to Sarah?”
“Yeah. She’s my sister, too.”
“Leslie, you do know she tried to kill me? Maybe more than once.”
Leslie’s disappointed look intensified. “You don’t know that for sure. Besides, she said she didn’t put that stuff in your coffee.”
Andrea felt as if she didn’t know the person sitting next to her at all. How could Leslie be so willing to accept Sarah, just because she was her half-sister?”
Not wanting to start an argument with her sister on such a big day for her, Andrea turned her attention to the track and the cleanup. The idea of Leslie being friends with Sarah left a sour taste in her mouth, but she knew Leslie well enough to understand this was not something any amount of reason was going to talk her out of. Leslie would just have to see for herself how awful Sarah could be.
Andrea could only pray Leslie didn’t get hurt in the process.
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