“Palmer, Steve, I’m the sheriff of Lake Renegade. Put your guns down and get on the ground or we will shoot you,” Salvatore says. He’s a few feet away with his deputies closing in from the sides.
Steve immediately drops his gun and falls to the ground.
“What are you doing, you moron,” Palmer yells at Steve.
“I said, put the gun down, and get on the ground.”
Palmer laughs. “Shoot me. Please. Give me a reason to sue you. Fucking hillbilly cops.”
I don’t know why he thinks he could sue Sal for shooting him. I just want to get my family out of this without them getting hurt.
“I’m not going to tell you again. Drop your gun, now.”
Palmer swings around and tries to aim his gun at Salvatore. There’s a loud bang, and we see Palmer drop to the ground. I turn and gather Sawyer and River in my arms and get them off to the side. When I look back, I can see Palmer reaching for his gun, but then Salvatore and his deputies are there, handcuffing both of them.
“You fucking shot me. I’m going to make sure you lose your fucking badge,” Palmer screams at him.
“It’s a good thing we have all of this on video.” Salvatore chuckles. “I have a feeling you’re going to be spending a lot longer than five years in jail.”
“Fuck you. I’ll be out in less than a year. And I’ll be back to take my son.”
“Oh good. We can add threatening to kidnap a child to your list of felonies.” Salvatore smiles.
“Suddenly, I’m a huge fan of cameras,” Georgíos says to me.
“Me too.” I laugh.
EPILOGUE
Emerson
After what happened last week with Palmer and Steve, I wasn’t able to ask Sawyer to marry me. I didn’t want that memory to be tainted with Palmer’s asshole ways. River’s been having nightmares since that day too. The first night he woke up screaming, saying that the bad man was going to kill me. It took a while to get him calmed down. I can’t wait for Palmer to go to trial, right now he’s in prison, starting his five years for lying in court. I heard it’ll be a few months before his court date for him threatening us. They’re trying to schedule it with my racing schedule. And in five months, we get our summer break. Which is a month off from racing. So the prosecutor put in to have the trial date start that first week.
Thankfully, when this happened, the Lake Renegade Sheriff’s Department had just started using their body cams. So everything that day was recorded. It makes everything a lot easier when you have video proof. It was hard to watch the footage. I was so focused on Palmer and Steve, that I didn’t knowwhat was going on behind me. Georgíos took care of Sawyer and River and you can hear River sobbing when Hugh, one of Sal’s deputies, got closer to us. It kills me to listen to that.
This week we’re back racing in Brazil. And I have the best surprise for my girl. It’s been really hard to keep it a secret. But I have the rest of my crew in on it. I’m surprised they’ve managed to keep their mouths shut, usually they’re all gossiping to each other. I told them they’re worse than my family with secrets.
Speaking of my family, almost half of them are here for this. I wish I could’ve done it back in Lake Renegade, but I just didn’t have time to set it all up again. So some of them are a little annoyed with me. But it’s okay, I’ll find a way to make it up to them.
Today is practice and qualifying. Right after qualifying, my plan will go into motion. First, I need to get through doing my job. Because now I not only race for myself, I’m racing for my family. Five hours. That’s how long I need to focus. For some reason it’s dragging along, it already feels like it’s been five hours. But I’ve only done FP1. Fucking hell, this is torture.
I finally get through it, and all we have left is qualifying. My bike feels good today, and I end up with pole. I’m so fucking happy. Today is a good day. And now to finish it off with asking Sawyer to be my wife.
After I debrief my crew, I take Sawyer’s hand and walk out of my garage, pulling her with me.
“Where are we going?” she laughs.
“Come on. Stop dragging your feet,” I say as I pull her faster. We stop and face the stands with the fans in it. We were able to get my fan club a section in front of my garage. I have Sawyer facing her back to them, I smile and kiss her. I peek up at the stands and see them putting their signs up. Showtime.
Sawyer
Emerson’s acting weird and I can see all the other racers and their teams coming out of their garages. What the fuck is going on?
“I love you so much,” Emerson says to me as he kisses me.
“I love you too.”
“Thank you for making me a da and for giving me a life I never knew I needed.”
