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Kalie watched a couple of mechanics scramble away from the cars. She wondered idly what it would be like to have to depend on someone else to tell her if her car was running properly.
    Flexing her fingers on the steering wheel, she eased her car into the favored slot, mentally counting down the last sixty seconds.
    The flag dropped, and her focus narrowed to the first critical corner. She needed to get there fast, and she needed to avoid the heavier cars that would jostle for position. There weren’t a lot of rules out here, and some of the drivers would target her just because she was female, and because she’d been showing them up for years. This wasn’t a popularity contest, and she’d made her share of enemies.
    She rounded the first corner in a good position. Two cars had made it ahead of her, but she’d heard the sickening squealing of metal on metal behind her that signified more than one car was already out of the race. She didn’t look back.
    The course was a loose circuit through the roads on the outskirts of the city. A mixture of corners, long straight stretches and engine-testing hills ensured that the cars would have a good workout. After the first corner, the cars started to spread out, which suited her just fine. She planned to hang back just behind the leaders until just before the end. As long as she didn’t lag too far, she’d be able to swing to the outside and blast past the lead cars before they knew what hit them.
    She let her senses expand, keeping a close feel on how the car was running. That was the one wildcard here. Her ride had to be running at peak in order to pull this off. So far, so good.
    * * *
    The truck came out of nowhere. One moment, she was cruising along with seven car lengths between her and anyone else on the road, the next this behemoth of a truck on steroids was right beside her. With the roughest part of the race just around the corner, the last thing she wanted was to compete for space on the blacktop with something that outweighed her by a factor of three.
    Damn.
    This was what she got for concentrating too much on the car, and not the other drivers. Dropping a gear, she slammed her foot down on the throttle and brake. The engine screeched as the car shed speed and fell back.
    The truck-from-hell must have been anticipating that move, though, and matched her. There went the theory that it was just a coincidence. It started to move sideways, trapping her between its bulk and a high cement block wall. Not a place she wanted to be.
    He’d expect her to try to outrun him, and it might even work. While the truck had bulk in its favor, her vehicle was lighter and faster. The question was could she get clear of him before he smeared her all over this wall?
    Maybe. If she managed to outwit him first.
    Instead of accelerating, she took a deep breath and repeated the braking maneuver. This time, she managed to drop a full car length behind the truck before the driver reacted. And while he braked to get back into squishing position, she jerked hard on the steering wheel and got herself into the outside lane. Calling on every bit of horsepower under the shiny blue hood, she accelerated sharply. She needed to get the hell out of here.
    The corner came up fast, and she had to do some pretty slick juggling to stop her ride from sliding off the blacktop. She didn’t have time to check on the whereabouts of the truck, or anyone else. When the car quit its bucking and sashaying, she breathed in a deep sigh of relief. It was short-lived.
    The black truck roared up behind her, bumping her hard. Shit! She dropped a gear and tramped on the gas, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t possibly manage to outmuscle the damn thing, and it looked like he could match her ride for speed as well
    Sure enough, black filled her rearview mirror again as her car rocked from another direct impact. How many more of those would she be able to take? At least the car was behaving this