Racing for Freedom - By Bec Botefuhr
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For everyone who believed in me, who knew that I could do it even when I didn’t believe it. My family, friends, co-workers and everyone who said “You can do it.” Thank you.
For my husband’s patience and love, and for not hitting me over the head for all the hours I have spent working on my novels. For my gorgeous daughters who are the best children a mother could ask for.
For all my fans, for their encouragement and belief, for their kind words and amazing hearts. You all make this possible for me.
Thanks to Coverit Designs for the amazing cover of this book. Thanks to Melissa Diamond for being the MOST amazing reader I could have. Thanks to Dawn Martens for reading, being honest and helping me with the editing. You gals are my rocks. I love you.
THIS IS A STAND ALONE NOVEL - IT IS NOT A SERIES.
This book is set in Australia, the authors home town. I hope I’ve made most parts of it understandable to my overseas readers. Thank you.
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Prologue
People want a simple life. What they don’t realize, is that life is never simple. Even if there was no war, no heartache, no pain, and no bad things to happen – life still wouldn’t be simple. You could walk down the street, fall, breaking your leg. Your simple life just became a whole lot different. You could have an accident tomorrow, and it could change everything. Someone could die, someone could be born, someone could cheat, and someone could get hurt. Simple, is never an option. Not really.
I wish for simple often, at least, the logical part of my brain does. I wish I was just a normal girl. I wish I had normal friends. I wish I had a boyfriend that would take me out, open doors for me, kiss my cheek like a gentleman and make love to me on rainy days. I wish my mother never died. I wish my dad never had that accident, it changed everything. I wish, often, that things were different. But they’re not, and life is how it is. We are dealt the hand we’re meant to have, and we’re forced to deal with it.
My life is so far from simple, I don’t even remember what simple feels like. My life, became anything but simple the day Slade Devaroe entered it, he came like a hurricane. He threw heartache and love into my life, in the most complicated of ways. He became my everything, and yet, he was the thing that broke me.
Chapter One
“Dash, baby, will you go get me some bourbon?” My father calls from the couch.
I’m in the middle of filling out a university application form. The pen is poking from my mouth and I’m mumbling angrily to myself. I don’t understand half these questions. I don’t even know why I’m applying. I guess I want to do something aside from racing, and this is my best bet. I raise my eyes to my father, and he smiles at me. I smile around the pen and nod. How can I say no? I forgot how to say no to him a long time ago. He stands and his body is angled slightly to the left.
My father was once a stunning man. He had broad shoulders, thick arms, a dazzling smile, and a woman to adore. Then the crash happened. The crash that changed everything. Now he walks with a limp. He rarely leaves the house, instead, opting to drink himself into oblivion most nights. I think it’s the only way he can sleep. I don’t blame him. I’ve contemplated it many times too.
My father, was a world champion race car driver. He won the championship three times. He raced every day and night, committing himself fully to the world of racing, and, go figure, it was an everyday car accident that stole his dream and his wife. Life is horrible like that, sometimes it’s sent to try us, in the cruelest, most gut wrenching ways. My father never had an accident on the track, but one rainy night driving home, changed everything for him.
“Sure dad,” I say, smiling.
His smile widens, as though I’ve relieved some sort of pressure in his mind. His brown eyes