Chester's prediction was proven. Fern slightly lost balance when he was slowing down before a semi circular turn. A small mistake but enough to let out an opportunity to Chester. Not wasting the opportunity, Chester took over and made his last velocious drift in the race. Last segment, a short one, before the finish line. The dark purple car was approaching, but it didn't have enough remaining distance to catch up. It was a 0.2 second time gap. Cheeto and his Shelby won the race.
Under the light of cars headlights, people around the finish line cheered for Chester, who was famous as Cheeto around Los Angeles street race. The Lane Devil was back on the street after almost three months unseen. They're craving for his stunning actions. But no one knew what was behind the devil's absence.
Three times drifting that created three perfect circular tire prints on asphalt was performed by Chester. Inevitably the performance caused smoke with burnt rubber smell. The Shelby's engine roar was followed by his fanatics' engines roar. The air was horribly hazey, but people liked it. And a drone soaring up above didn't want to miss the attraction.
Not so long after, came a Ram with Buck and Dongwoo inside. Followed by another truck from the opponent's team.
Chester got out of Shelby and was all the way surrounded by people. As if he was a celebrity of the lane.
Netta clicked her tongue, seeing her man untouchable is always suck. Her lips pinched in sour face. "Somebody got to stop this."
"You ain't got to be this pissed if he wasn't your boyfriend." Kiddo mocked then sauntered to the crowd and yelled. "Alright, everybody, it's enough! Give him some space, our man needs his privat space."
"Nah, Kid. You know we're craving for his attraction!" complained one man amongst the crowd.
"Yeah, give him some more minutes with us!" said another.
"Cheeto ...!" Kiddo called Chester, a bit impatient.
"Hey, yo!" Chester's voice was almost buried under the crowd's noise. "Alright everybody, we'll be partying tomorrow. Or ASAP. You know how to keep up. Now let me take care of some little business." He hi-fived with his fanatics before leaving the crowd.
The Velox team joined altogether and brofisted with each other. Then they met Blitz.
"Here's your bounty." The Blitz's captain threw a car key to Buck. "The money is in the dashboard."
Buck sauntered toward a car that was ridden by one of Blitz member. A red GMC truck was awaiting at the roadside. The car beeped when he pushed a key button. He entered the car and checked up inside the dashboard drawer. A bulked small black plastic bag was in there. Buck opened the plastic bag and found five bundles of one hundred dollar-bill with some legal documents. "Beautiful." He mumbled.
"Hey, Buck?" called Netta, when Buck was getting out of the truck. She was with Chester. "Can I bring the truck home? Just for tonight. I'll send it to our garage tomorrow."
"What? You know we've dealt that every car we win from bets will be brought to the garage for some checkup. You can have it, when you need it, but when the checkup is done."
"Come on, it's just a truck, not a racehorse. What kind of checkup? He's all fine."
"Legal, calibration, stuff .... I don't have to explain, you know it all. We sell good cars, not cars with problems." Buck took a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket's left side pocket. And tucked one of them in his mouth. He lighted it.
Chester grabbed Netta's waist and tried to sway her. "He's right. You got to wait. It'll take only a week, the longest."
"Just for tonight, I promise it'll be at the garage before lunch. It's only a few hours." Netta insisted.
"Babe, let's just go home and have a party."
"No, Cheeto. Wait."
"Why are you so dogged? Cheeto, tame that girl. You're her tamer, right?" Buck stared at Chester while his mouth was bursting out smoke.
"What the hell?! Tame me?!" Netta yelped. She got herself out of Chester's hold and was moving close to Buck and ready to drop a punch on the man's face when Chester caught her hand. "I'm not fucking feral animal!"
"Whoa ... whoa ... she's really a feral cat." Kiddo cut in with a mock. "Go tame her. We ain't want this cat to be gone wilder. Do that magic shake."
"Shut the fuck up." Netta scolded.
Dongwoo chuckled.
"Come on, Babe. We better go home. You don't want to celebrate my winning?" Chester dragged Netta away from Buck and the truck.
"Let go off me! Let me give this asshole a lesson." In the first place, Netta tried to hold on where she stood, but Chester pulled her stronger, so that she ended up moving away. "Our winning, Cheeto, not only yours!" She abruptly swung Chester's grip off her hand.
"Yeah, ours, you're right. Come on."
The racing spot was getting quiet as one by one of the autofreaks teams stayed up.
Chester speeded away from the place with his Evo and Netta beside him. Consecutively behind him were black Shelby, red GMC, and gray Ram.
"Why do you want the truck so bad? You never wanted a car like this before."
"It's a truck ...."
"We've had Ram. What's so special about the truck?"
"It's like ...." Netta stuttered. "Lucky 13. You won your 13th race, while people believe that it's a number with bad luck."
"You believe the such myth? Funny."
"Cheeto~"
"Just wait 'til the time is yours. And sorry, I'm not going to stay tonight."
"Again? You make it like we're not dating. And what about the celebration?" Netta grunted. She obviously showed her disappointment.
"I just remember I got to deal with some stuff. I'll be ...." Chester noticed something at the moment. He knows Netta wouldn't be happy if she knew that he'll go home, to Willow Park. He understands that having no family to come home is such difficult.
"What?"
"No. Just some task, social experiment as I told you."
~*~
YOU ARE READING
LARSSEN'S LANE: Grey
Mystery / ThrillerChester Henry was a criminology student at a university in Irvine, California. But as a smart student, he had a rare hobby-street racing. One day his family was slaughtered by a psycho serial killer. The culprit was then found dead at the same place...
