*BAM*
The sound of Alex slamming the door of his SUV shut rang even louder in the stunned silence that had taken over the place. But he didn't let the gazes fixed on him carry incomprehension for long.
Pulling himself up the stage with one hand, he waved Lance over with a smile as he walked straight to the equipment control side to type on the keyboard of the laptop connected to the sound system and the filming system. The image on the giant screen flickered, then changed from the track to the view right outside, taken from above. By then, Lance had arrived beside him.
As he took the microphone from him, the image on the giant screen panned away from the truck with a tarp-covered bed that had stopped outside at some point, and continued down the road until an intersection that was supposed to be closed.
A murmur suddenly rippled through the crowd, carrying the astonishment that could not be muffled.
Sharon's eyes widened, as she recognized that section of the road, only, at that moment, it was brighter than it might have been even in the day.
It was a section of the road that should have been closed for work, as she heard earlier in the day on the radio. She had even driven past a few road blocks on her way here. But now, looking at the image on display, there was no trace of work in progress. It was more like…
The image moved down the brightly lit sections of blocked road, going from fast to slow, then snapped back to the entrance of the club, making Sharon also snap her head back to Alex who had walked to the center of the stage at some point.
The blonde's breath got stuck in her chest, and the crowd fell into an anticipatory silence.
Alex's eyes flickered through the crowd, then his smile widened, looking natural under the attention:
"We play, but we have rules. We have fun, but we never touch anything legally or morally wrong, much less drugs, or…"
He left the rest unsaid, but the fired up crowd fell into an uncharacteristic quiet. Gone was the previous feeling of anticipation.
Alex moved his gaze over the crowd, finally letting it rest at some point as his smile turned into a calm curve at the corner of his lips. His smiling voice went low, with a calm depth that brought out a sentimental layer different from what Sharon experienced the night she tied him to a chair.
"We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't do drugs. We just play, and we just have fun. But since you have promised your mother, I will respect that. Tonight, let's go for one last round, just you, Lance, and I. Even if you will never again be able to touch what has taken the place of your dream, let us feel the wind tonight, then rip it apart. For your last ride, a professional race right on the roads of this city, so that you will remember it every time, every day you will see them. What do you say, Tyler Darkhope?"
Alex was not speaking to the crowd anymore. He was speaking to just one person this time, and all the heads turned to the young man leaning against the bar with his arms folded across his chest.
Put under the spotlight, Tyler tightened his jaws, his eyes fixed on Alex, and the giant screen right behind the latter. Emotions kept under tight leash rippled within his eyes.
Alex responded to the gaze with a smile, then raised his hand to point upward. At that moment, the sound of rotors suddenly became audible, sounding as if they had just come alive, and a helicopter turned from a far away dot to a clear object descending from the sky. It descended onto the empty track at the same time as the door of the truck on the screen was opened, and the driver, shorthaired and in a mechanic's outfit despite being a female, came down.
When she looked upward at the lens focused on her, Tyler's breath got stuck into his throat. He took a deep breath, and under Alex's smiling gaze, he pushed himself away from the bar.
The gesture was his answer. Alex's smile widened. Turning around, he threw the microphone at Lance and walked off the stage, past his SUV, and to the transport chopper. The door of the aerial vehicle was opened from inside. Taking the first two dark big suitcases on the metallic floor, he turned around and walked back. Passing by Lance who had descended the stage to follow him with excited anticipation, he tossed the suitcase in his left hand to him, then walked to Tyler.
The crowd parted before the latter, quiet but intense. Even without the full story, they had picked up enough information from Alex's words. They each had their own circumstances, their own baggage which would one day catch up to them, inevitably, like Tyler's now, or worse, just an emptiness waiting for those who had nothing besides this world of excitement and fun where they could at least find some companions. So the gathering suddenly felt less like a party, and more like a ceremony, a farewell.
As he walked out of the crowd, Tyler came to a stop before Alex. The heir of the Lenner family grinned, then pushed the second suitcase into Tyler's bosom. He turned and took the third and last suitcase from the flight crew who had been following behind him, then continued on his way with a single sentence:
"Follow me."
The crowd watched in respectful silence as the trio walked into the interior of the club. A few minutes later, they came out decked in complete racing outfits, Alex on white, Lance in black and Tyler in red. Helmet under the arms and hands gloved, they walked out of the club.
There was a moment of pause, then the crowd hurried after them, leaving everything behind. Arriving outside, Alex looked at Kim whose expression was flat, with no trace of the previously suppressed melancholy on her face, then he turned to the now exposed back of the track.
Smiling at the three race cars on the trailer, he turned to Tyler, and pulled his stout friend's attention away from the tomboyish mechanic with his words as he pointed at the three race cars gleaming under the lights of the night. In a firm, smiling voice, he confidently announced:
"This is my gift for you, my farewell to you."