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Am I really arguingwith a three year old?

“Yes huh.”

“Are not,”

Alley seemed to findhumor in the fact that I was arguing with a child.

“I want a hot dog.”

Lane and I walked over tothe infield concession stands where he proceeded to pick out his hot dog.

“I want that’d one.”

“Whichone?”The attendant smiled down at Lane when I asked the question of him.

“That’d one,” Hepointed in the general direction of the hot dogs.

“Can you be morespecific? There are like ten goddamn hot dogs on there.”

“Ummm...that’d one,” Lane pointed to thefurthest hot dog on the rack. “That’s the one I want.”

“I don’t see why youand Sway like hot dogs.” I grumbled paying for it. Lane jumped on my back again,hot dog in hand. “They’re just ground up lips and assholes. You know that,right?”

When Lane scrunched hisnose, I realized I probably shouldn’t have said asshole in front of him but itwas a little late to take it back now.

Lane shrugged his tinyshoulders. “I think libs and assholes taste good.” He admitted taking a bite.“Yep, good.Tasty.”

I was about to tellLane he shouldn’t repeat “asshole” but I didn’t get a chance before Alleyapproached us. “Hey buddy,whatchagot there?”

“Lips and assholes,they’redewicious.”

I flashed a grin hopingshe wouldn’t kill me.

“Jameson,” Alleyseethed through a forced smile. “Give me my son. Phillip is inside waiting foryou. Oh,” she smacked at my chest. “Don’t forget you have a radio interviewlater today with KPW.”

Lane jumped down andclung to his mother’s leg eating his lips and assholes. I snuck past theminside the hauler only to have Alley smack the back of my head.

Once inside, I tried toprepare myself as to why Phillip was here.

“What kind of statementdid she give you?”

Placing his briefcaseon the counter, he took a seat across from me in the booth. “Mariah gave awritten statement to the police as a plea bargain. She admitted to everything.”

“Everything?”I repeated trying toprocess his words. “What’s everything?”

“Their whole plan,”

“And that was?”

“Are you sure you wantto hear this?” His warm eyes held apprehension.

I nodded focusing.

“Darrin’s sponsor, WyleProducts, re-negotiated his contract at the beginning of this season. Theyactually contemplated releasing Darrin from his contract for his unsatisfactoryperformance last season. When this happened, Wyle took interest in you. At thetime you’d just won six races in a row in the Busch Series.”

I groaned in disbelief.His reactions to me in Daytona made sense now.

“When Darrin found outyou were racing in the Cup series at Daytona, he wasn’t so pleased. Then hisgirlfriend, of the last two years took notice as well. That started it forhim.” Phillip sighed looking over at me. “I don’t think this is over, Jameson.We don’t have a case against him right now but if he tries something off thetrack, we can get him. As it is, he’s governed by NASCAR. Besides the penaltieshanded down by them, no judge is going to convict him of anything more. I havean associate in criminal law who tried a case similar to this a few years agofor an NHL player and the outcome was similar. The judge dismissed the trialbefore it even began.”