Speed Demons Read Online Free Page A

and passionate at the same time.
    “My contract with my main sponsor, Besto Oil, stipulated that if I wasn’t back on my feet and able to drive, I’d have to find another car, another sponsor.” Evie’s smile clearly wasn’t a happy one. “So, I set the goal, what I had to accomplish each day to get my life back.”
    “Did your family stay with you? Your father?”
    “Mad Mal? Hardly.” Evie snorted. “He didn’t show his face after the first media frenzy died down. While there were photo ops, he was there, the doting father, but once the reporters directed their cameras to something else, he was gone. Well, after having given me his latest adamant speech about how I’ve chosen the wrong path.”
    “Doesn’t he want you to race? I mean, is he concerned for your safety, as a father?” Blythe could understand that a parent would freak out watching his kid ride a vehicle that could become a death trap.
    “Oh, no. It’s not that easy. Mad Mal thinks I should race, all right. He loves having a famous daughter. He hates NASCAR, though. He always pictured me following in his and Granddad’s footsteps.”
    “Your father wants you to race the Formula One cars?”
    “Yup.” Evie sipped her water, slamming the bottle back down on the counter hard enough to make Blythe jump. “In his mind, and in several other people’s, Formula One is the ultimate way to compete in racing. Formula One drivers are royalty. NASCAR drivers are the common man heroes, hardly worthy of his time. For his daughter to prefer the NASCAR circuit…it’s like an insult.”
    “Really?” Blythe wondered if Evie knew how much hurt was visible in her eyes. “He should be proud of your success, of how you’ve set one record after another, not to mention that you’re the best female driver, ever.”
    Evie snorted. “I wish. Not going to happen.” She jumped off the counter and placed her bottle beside the sink. She moved her hands in a restless pattern, until she seemed to notice her action and hid them behind her back.
    Blythe had to defuse the situation. “Is it all right if I take a few shots from the back porch?”
    While having their first conversation, she’d sensed Evie had shared as much of her life as she was ready to. Honestly, this was also about as much as Blythe could take.
    Pearl had labeled her socially awkward, at best, even a virtual hermit. But Pearl only said such things out of exasperation, or even desperation, when Blythe had disappeared to work on her photos. In the digital era, Blythe could withdraw to either the darkroom or her office, depending on which camera she’d used. That was where she was the safest and most at ease.
    “Sure. Go ahead. Just hold on to your equipment out there. The clouds are beginning to look scary.” Evie tossed her dark hair over her shoulder with a sharp twist of her wrist. “I think I’ll go check the Weather Channel, just to be safe.”
    “See you later, then.” Blythe knew she appeared aloof, but Evie actually seemed to appreciate the reprieve as much as she did.

Chapter Three
     
    Evie wanted to smack the TV remote against her forehead as she watched the Doppler image on the Weather Channel. How could the meteorologists have missed this? Living on the coast, Evie always kept the weather situation in the back of her mind, whether she was staying in Plymouth or on Pawleys Island. Nobody had breathed a word about this damn “Perfect Storm” scenario unfolding a few miles outside Provincetown. It was clearly heading straight for the East Coast.
    She jumped when the phone rang.
    “Hello?”
    “Evie, it’s Colleen. You’ve seen the weather news?”
    “Just looking at it, Colleen.” Evie sighed. “Guess you’re not going to make it, huh?”
    “Nope. Sorry, kiddo. Don and I have to board up this house as well as my mom’s. Looks like it’ll be pretty bad. The fleet is returning as we speak.”
    Colleen’s brothers owned four fishing boats, and she sounded relieved that