mechanic

"And what will you have me do?" Malcom sounded a bit defeated as he talked, clearly tired.

"Manage the distribution of the businesses you recommended I buy." Keith knew that he wasn't the most proficient at managing businesses, although he was good in assessing people, seeing their value and using them optimally.. he wasn't the best at keeping a oversight of everything.

"Do you even have the money?"

"Its coming in each week.. enough to immediately invest in a couple of them." It was enough for him to retire within a year, even retiring now was a possibility with him owning the Dobbler and Downtown cab and co.

"You know what… ill agree if you can get me enough to start a serious operation.."

"That being.." Keith was curious as to how much Malcom wanted to start, also needing to asses his salary at the same time.

"At least ten.." Malcom didn't even hesitate at naming the amount.

"Mhh.. I can do that…" The only problem was the time constraints Keith had… he couldn't simply get that amount of money out of thin air.

"Just contact me when, now.." Malcom nodded to the door.. "Lets talk about the details another time.. I need some more rest before going back into it."

"fine.. but ill hold you to the deal when the time comes.." Keith got up from the chair, placing it back where he got it from before heading to the door..

"Don't worry about it.. I am a man of my word." Malcom mockingly adopted a posture as if swearing by his heart, as he gave a sly smile…

Keith just sighed, thinking that Malcom had way to much anergy for someone who was supposed to stay in the hospital for a couple of more days.

Going back down, Keith got into his car, checking his phone for anything h might have missed during the time spend in visiting Malcom.

Some messages had come in from Molly, who asked if he could come by again.. saying that she could feel secure with him by her side, sleeping better when he was around to protect her….

Keith didn't mind much… he had the time to go by, perhaps even stay the night, her apartment was central after all, meaning that he could quickly get back to any of his businesses… as he continued to brows, Keith received a message from Jeff..

[Yo, Keith. I heard that you haven't been attending any of those street races that were set up… you haven't forgotten about them have you, because in your time off the field a certain rooky has climbed the ranks, now holding the top position, I thought you two would battle it out, seeing as you have won from him one time, but I guessed you went on to do other things.. anyhow… I set something up… a small tournament, qualifiers are tonight, don't miss them.." Afterwards Jeff send in some details, giving a place and exact time for when the race would begin.. strongly devising Keith to go, or else give up the crown to the rookie..

Keith hadn't forgotten about the deal he had made with Jeff, racing in exchange for keeping the wheel's, sadly Keith had been focusing on other things as of late, letting the rookie, who had climbed up to champion stand on top alone, unchallenged by the other races, with only one stain on their record, one loss against him..

If Keith didn't show up, then that would be tantamount to bowing down, something Keith didn't plan on doing.

Checking the times at which the events would take place, Keith realised that he didn't have enough time to do both, so instead he chose to combine the two..

Calling molly, Keith thought about overing her dinner at a nice place instead of doing something at her place… but where…

["Keith… why did you call?"] She sounded calm, yet at the same time a little anxious.

"Well it is about tonight… I thought that we could maybe go out somewhere to eat… as I have some plans that will occupy me for most of the night.." While he fallowed her, he didn't think that he could continue to feed into her over reliance on him..

["Mhh.. can't you make a little more time for me.."]

"I can make some time for us to go somewhere during another day if that interest you more?"

["Lets do both.."]

"..sure… so do you want to go to… lets say, Seaside Savour.." Keith couldn't think of any other place then the restaurant he had been dining before, finding it to be suitable.

["Pick me up at seven.."] Hearing her words Keith realised that he needed to get a suitable car along with getting his own car set for the race tonight… The car he normally used was suitable enough, but Keith needed to make sure of some things before racing it against a so called champion…

"Ill be there." Hanging up the phone Keith started planning to instal a nitro boost inside of his car, gaining a big advantage against any other driver that had a similar car performance.

Sending a text of to Stacy, Keith headed southward towards La Mesa…

Driving past some gang members on his way, Keith quickly headed towards his vehicle warehouse.

Opening the garage doors remotely while driving his vehicle inside, being met by one person guarding the entrance as he exited the car… leaving it running as he looked for some of his employees..

The first one he saw was a giant of a women…

"Eva." Eva didn't say anything back, staring at him for a moment with her cold eyes, she had been serving in the military for some time, eventually getting into a conflict with her commander, causing her to gain a new outlook on life, eventually ending up joining Keith..

She only giving a resolute nod back to her boss. Afterwards heading back to her station to monitor the outside.

Part of the process of securing the warehouse was installing some camara's, with them all being wired to a central computer, along with his personal one in his office… Keith didn't use them much, only occasionally glancing at some times marked by the security members present inside of the building at the time..

Looking around Keith didn't see the other person that should be inside, he would have doubted if she was even there if he could hear her work..

"Alex… can you come here for a moment." The rolling of wheels responded before Alex, a short haired lady, wearing what was once a clean and uniform overall, now only with stains of oil and smudges of dirt decorating it as it hung from her waist, not covering her upper body.

Where instead a mostly clean white shirt hugged her modest figure, as beads of sweat trickled down her well divined arms..

"What's up boss?" she grabbed a towel to dry herself off, not minding the smears of oil that the towel contained.

"I need some quick modifications to my ride, so we will be working together to get it done before tonight." She gained a look of surprise, before thinking off the bigger problem.

"What about my other work?" If she was to delay her work then she would be a full day behind, either needing to work overtime to make it up, or lose out on profits for the entire week.

"I will help finish them up for this week, help get your lost time back.." Keith understood her plight, having already made time free to do the work that should have finished that day.

"Sure.. so what do you need?" She glanced at Keith, as he opened the trunk of his car… throwing most of his clothes in there to not get dirty.

"We got to make sure that the engine is tuned properly, and install a nitro tank.." Keith didn't pay her any mind as he was left wearing a sleeveless shirt along with his dress pants.. regretting the choice of clothing he had made in the morning.

"We don't got any nitro on hand.. so you either got to source them or buy them. Neither will be fast enough for us to install them now.." Keith sighed… he had expected this…. He didn't know what they had in stock as Alex herself managed it, but he had hoped that she might have it on hand.

"Can you get the nitro ordered with the other parts?" He asked, as he headed for the small office room.

"Of course I can." Keith entered the room, he had been there before, recalling some of the things the previous owners had left behind while hoping that they were still there.

"Mhh… well just get done what we can now…" Rummaging in the office, Keith produced a old pair of overalls, similar to the one Alex wore, only less vibrant as some of the colour had drained out of it with enough use…

"Sure thing boss." She threw the towel back to where it came from, before getting the tools they needed.

 Walking out of the office, Keith now wore the overalls the same as Alex, as it was a couple sizes to small to fit his frame inside of it…

Luckily it would do for now… with the sleeveless shirt being disposable if needed..

Alex and Keith placed the car inside of the work station, popping open the hood for them to begin…

"Can you start the engine for me." Alex took control of the situation, demoting Keith to a assistant as she begun to check on the car, seemingly underestimating his skill.

Keith didn't mind it to much, while he owned the building, it was Alex's palace so to speak… she worked there and had the chance to modify it to her own preferences… she was just that skilled of a mechanic.

"Sounds good to me…" Keith stopped the engine, finding the sound to be akin to perfect…

"No.. not yet.." Alex stopped Keith from moving on to the other things.

"Did you hear something amiss?" Keith had been inside of the vehicle, unable to listen closely to the engine.. but Alex had been seeing it operate first hand, so her catching something he didn't wasn't out of the question..

"No… its just…." Alex didn't touch the engine, although she seemed to want to spring under the hood to find out what was wrong.. the heat of the engine deterred her.

"Note it down for now… we will get to it once the engine is cooled off." Keith moved on, grabbing a piece of gear nearby before moving it to the back of the car..

"Get some stands for underneath, we are going to lower the suspension." The suspension of the car determined the comfortability of it, but also helped with the traction. A trade worth it for racing.

"You sure?"

"yes.. just pull them down a little, I don't want to feel every bump in the road.." They would only lower It by a bit, from a street level suspension to that of a racing one… any further and the bumps in the road would effect him to much.

"And here I thought you would prefer the comfort.."

"I do." Alex couldn't help but chuckle at Keith's response.

"What was the reason why you wanted to modify your car anyway?"

"Ill be racing tonight.. didn't have the time to do it for a while so only made a small name for myself, but it turns out that I beat the new champion once in his earlier races, so a friend of mine wants me to race."

"So you are the final contestant.." Alex looked him up and down, seemingly reassessing him.

"You know anyone else that will be there?" Her statement meant that she likely knew about the race beforehand… meaning that he could perhaps learn a bit about them before racing them.

"Kai is also racing… he actually complained to me about this mystery driver." She chuckled once again while remembering the conversation he had.

"Ah.. it bigger then I thought then." Keith didn't know how much work Jeff had put into organising it, believing that at most it was a set of two to three races.. with a final against the champion.

"Of course.. people have been looking forward to something like this for ages, you were just the excuse." While Keith hadn't been out on the street hearing the rumours first hand, he could imagine them wanting something like that, as in the street racing world, there would always be bigger events to wait for.