Thank you so much Beta Beth! Your destructions to fix my story were right on!!! Seriously folks, go check out her link as EJ Santry on my profile and READ her stories! To Caligraham, Thank you for plugging my leaks with peanut butter *frantically looking for flour, eggs, and sugar to make cookies* tee hee

**Once again, I don't own S Meyer's stuff. I do, however, own the books that are currently state hopping via UPS and American Airlines around this great country of ours!**

See my AN at the bottom

Blown and Confused ~ Chapter 4

BPOV

The next day dawned bright and clear. Not a billowy cloud in the sky. Perfect racing conditions! I was chasing after Edward, trying my damndest to catch up to him. He constantly had me staring at his back bumper and spinning tires with no hope of ghosting past him. Suddenly, I was cut off by a black-as-night stock car with a huge crimson red "V" as the only graphic showing on the car. With the pointy end of the "V" facing the hood and the legs flowing up and over the cab down to the back bumper, the crimson color seemed to shimmer in a macabre dance of swirling and twirling blood drops.

I braked hard, frying the tires off as it swerved into me, trying to push me into the wall.

What the HELL! Where did this S.O.B. come from? I didn't remember seeing him at the poles in the beginning of the race.

The car jumped ahead of me, still intent on pushing me into the outside wall of cement death. I was frantic to get away and tried every trick I had been taught. I even tried to draft up behind and slingshot around it to get away, but whoever was driving seemed to anticipate my every move. The driver of the car managed to change its direction just in time to keep me behind it.

All the other cars tried to give us a wide berth as they hurtled by in a blur. They were trying to avoid the impending collision.

I'm sure their crew chiefs were panicking right now. Mine was. Jake was screaming into my helmet-com to break away from whoever that insane, death-wish driver was. That jet midnight car was causing a pinball effect among the throng of careening tonnage.

The next thing I knew, I saw a blurred flash of russet brown fur running next to me. Whaa…? It was Jake in his werewolf form, running as fast as he could. He started crashing his massive body into my car trying to push me out of harm's way. Now it as time for me to panic! Oh my God! The crowd could see him! It's not every day you see a huge wolf, the size of a horse, running on a track keeping time with racecars. I was scared to death he was going to get hit by one of the other drivers.

Unexpectedly, Edward's car spun around, like something out of an action movie, facing the wrong way on the track, aiming straight for me. I'm pretty sure I had a heart attack right then and there. I could see him through his windshield, looking very determined to hit me. As I opened my mouth in a soundless scream, Edward, without warning, shifted to ram head-on into the offending black car. Both cars detonated into a fiery explosion!

Searing heat erupted around me as I drove through the carnage. Fire sucked its way in through my windows like a vacuum only to be pulled back out by a vortex of air akin to a back draft.

"Edward!"

Dazedly, I woke up in a heart-pounding terror with his name on my lips.

Bolting up frantically, I launched the bedside lamp to the floor with a crash, along with the bedspread and pillows. In the eerie umber-red burn shining from the alarm clock, I was reminded of the blaze of the inferno from my nightmare. As I reached down to pick up the bedside lamp, I thought I glimpsed a dark figure sitting in the chair in the corner. A scream bubbled in my throat as I fell to the floor while trying to grab the lamp to switch it on. I landed with a thud, muffled by the thick looped carpeting. Great, I can now add carpet burns to the list of injuries I frequently inflicted onto my skin!

Luckily the lamp still worked and threw sunny light into all the shadows of the room, only to find there was nothing or no one there. I sat for a moment, still on the floor, gathering my bearings and getting my short circuited heart as well as my breathing under control. I winced a little at the small twinge of pain in my ankle and the fresh burns on my knees as I got up from the floor to climb back in bed.

Grrr! I must have twisted my ankle a bit harder than I thought when I tripped over that front grill out on the track last night. That thought reminded me of Edward and his sweetness as well as Jake's reaction to seeing me with him. More detective work may be in order in the morning.

Right now, I needed more sleep. I was exhausted from tossing and turning all night. I leaned over and picked up the lamp, returned it to the table, and switched it off. The alarm clock on the nightstand glowed 3:43 am.

I gathered up the bedspread and pillows, stuffed my head under one of them and tried desperately to calm down enough to fall back to sleep. Amazingly, I went straight back to sleep, dreaming of a dazzlingly, deep copper-haired sex god.

Debussy softly brought me out of my sleep two hours later. My iPod was docked on the alarm clock and set to wake me up to Claire de Lune. It was my way to wake up centered. I would change it to something a little more hardcore once I was up and moving around.

I lay there humming off-tune for a while as I eyeballed the alarm clock. Hmmm...it just might have to pull a disappearing act into my suitcase. I could make it a home somewhere handy after we left town. My suitcase was pretty big and I mentally calculated how it would fit, along with the bathroom towels I was already going to swipe.

With a happily contented sigh, I counted my blessings that I'd get to race again today. I swung my legs off the bed and gingerly took a step to test my ankle and found that it didn't bother me at all. The carpet burns were going to sting like a bitch once I got in the shower. Never mind that I was going to have to skip shaving them. Blood was something I didn't handle well at all. Just the thought had me feeling a little faint.

I switched the iPod to my "get moving" playlist. As I headed to the shower, Rob Zombie's Dragula came pounding out through the small speakers loudly, almost blowing its poor little speaker guts all over the place. That song always got me pumped up for a race day.

The hot, steamy water coming from the shower head released the tension in my muscles as I reflected on my dream. I slathered myself in my favorite strawberry/cinnamon wash and massaged my legs, neck, and arms before moving my hands to my breasts and down the planes of my stomach and couldn't help the unbidden thoughts of Edward using his hands on me in just the same manner. My imagination started thinking of all kinds of ways that he could help clean me. Mmmm…

Then I remembered the ebony car with the blood red 'V' on it. The delicious meditations I had been enjoying evaporated like the water off of my hypersensitive over-stimulated skin. It must have been the post-race adrenaline spikes and crashes, as well as Jake's cryptic words to me last night, that had me all wound up again. It was a bizarre dream to say the least. But then again, I had always had some pretty fantastical ones.

After my shower, I threw my hair up in a messy wet bun, got into my clothes, and called Jake to meet me in the lobby. There was a Starbucks down there somewhere. I had noted it when we first checked in. I could go get my "inocu-latte" on. That's what Jake called my need to intravenously take in coffee in the mornings. Then I would grill him about his attitude last night.

He didn't answer the phone right away. After the fourth ring, I was about to give up and go pound on his door when he finally picked up.

There was only breathing at first. "Uh, Jake?"

A muffled reply from the other end said something that vaguely sounded like a snuffled "woof."

Then came a more alert, "Bells? God, what time is it? Holy shit! It's 6! Why didn't you call me earlier? What the hell?"

His sentences ran together quicker than my non-caffeinated brain could register.

"Sorry, wolfie, thought you'd be up already."

I grinned. This was going to be a good day! I never got the jump on him. He liked his sleep, but he was always up before me.

"I'll be over in five. Need your fix?"

"Don't worry, I'll go down and get it on my own. I'll meet you in the lobby. We have some time before we're late for the track." I let him off the hook easy.

"Bells, we need to talk when I get down there. Okay?" He seemed more alert, and a little agitated.

Not this again.

"Okay, Jakeys, I'll see you in a few."

Jakeys...hah! That always riled him up.

"See ya."

Wow, he didn't even rise to the bait.

After getting my steaming double-shot, white mocha latte in the lobby, I sat down, had an out of body experience worshipping my Starbucks coffee, and waited for Jake to come down. He didn't make me wait long. He loped past me, throwing me a quick raspberry, and went out to get the Caddy. That was one vehicle he was going to hate giving back to the exotic rental place.

Once we were on our way back to the track, he turned his head slightly to look at me but changed his mind and quickly turned back to the road. He opened his mouth several times before closing it again. The fish out of water look was starting to get old. He even turned a shade or two darker than his already deeply tanned skin.

I pasted on a saccharine-sweet smile and asked, "What's on your mind, Jakey? It wouldn't have anything to do with Edward Cullen, would it?"

Jake growled and turned an unbelievably sinister shade of purple. It wasn't the playful growling I was used to. And, his coloring was starting to alarm me.

Sheesh, what's wrong with me? I was really pushing my luck calling him that twice in one morning. Then to bring up Edward…ding dong, someone get the door, there's an idiot standing outside!

"Enough, Isabella!"

Rut-roh, George. What am I, twelve? He only calls me that when it's something really serious. It's always Bells.

"Look, I'm really sorry about yelling at you last night. But, I need you to understand something. You have got to stay away from that parasite."

He stressed that name out like a swear word. "He's not going to do you any favors out there. It's just that…Jesus, Bells, please tell me that you'll stay away."

I was seriously trying to tamp down the furious flush I knew was creeping throughout my neck. If he only knew the dreams and fantasy I had had about Edward…

"Fine, I'll try to avoid him, but if he talks to me, I'm not going to be rude to him. I am a grown ass woman and can make my own judgments," I snipped at him.

"Bella, God…please?" he pled with me.

"What more can I say? I said I'll steer clear of him, for now, but if he talks to me, I cannot be rude. Ever!" I used that last punctuated word as the conversation ender.

Thankfully, moments later, we arrived at our garage just as the crew was unloading the Wolf Racing car. We parked and I swiftly got out so I didn't have to say another word and headed over to the guys and Leah.

The smells of the garage brought on a wave of nostalgia. The solvents and the fuel were a mixture of pungent malodorous scents that tickled my nose and I reveled in it. Sick person that I was, I loved the smell of racing fuel in the morning.

It reminded me of Charlie and our stops along the way to the races in our old Chevy truck. I would jump out and stick my nose as close to the fuel nozzle as possible with out getting any on me. Of course, Charlie would get on to me for it, and once, he even caught me trying to taste it! After I was done shuddering and gagging, he laughed at me, shook his head, and said "Only you, Bells". Ahh…the good old days!

It made me miss my dad terribly and I made a mental note to call him after the race today. He was a man of few words except when it came to my racing. His excitement only made me feel my sense of accomplishment that much deeper.

I knew it killed him to not be here, but being the chief of police in the small town of Forks, Washington, was important. He would be out with me soon enough when he got his vacation time. Besides, he would DVR the race to watch me anyway.

Thunderous sounds of a race engine being barked up broke me out of my wool gathering as I glanced over two garage bays down and spotted Edward's various crew members working on his car. They seemed to move elegantly as one. Each step was deliberate, almost as if choreographed. There was a feline gracefulness to their every movement. There was no way to describe the way they seemed to move in slow motion.

They were already in their crew jumpsuits, and I was curious about the huge crest I could see on their backs. It seemed a little medieval, with some sort of scroll-like lion standing up in it. They were too far away to make out a lot of the detail, though. It should have seemed weird that they only had one sponsor, but, so did I.

They were all zipped up and had their gloves on. It was kind of chilly, so I guess that made sense. Although, it didn't seem that cold to me, or maybe I had just gotten used to my crew always walking around in wife beaters or short sleeved shirts. Wolves tended to run a little higher in temperature than regular people.

A huge bear of a man with a ball cap sitting sideways on his head was smiling and seemed to be trying to tease a small impish girl with spiky black hair. A gorgeous honey-blond man was standing very close to her and was grinning at the both of them.

The tiny girl didn't seem to be paying attention to the big guy's antics. In fact, she seemed to be a little dazed and was concentrating on something with her eyebrows drawn close together.

A tall, statuesque platinum blond woman had her back to me, bent over the hood. But the sudden rigid stance she took when she stood up showed that she wasn't sharing in the joke. She was holding some wrenches in her hands and was brandishing them like weapons. She looked like she was about to throw a tool at Mr. Burly. Then she made a cutting motion to her neck and the engine stopped.

I was slightly amused by the display of hostility, but disappointed that I didn't see a certain coppery-haired deity right away.

A pale silver-blond man walked up and spoke to the hot honey-blond.

Great, now everyone was identified by the color of his or her hair. And, why are they all so beautiful? Was that a requirement of being in his crew? They all had to look like some kind of pale super-modelesque gods?

Mr. Hot honey-blond stiffened and turned in my direction.

Uh oh…

My tires suddenly seemed to need to have a serious close up inspection and I dove down to the ground effectively bumping my burned knees. I could hear Jake whispering heatedly to Seth, Sam, and Quil on the other side of the car. They all growled deeply but so quietly, you felt it more than heard it. Their boots were the only thing visible and I was wondering what they were going on about.

They continued to bicker for a moment before they turned to sullenly glare at the people in Edward's bay. A fresh round of growls ripped from each of their throats as they noticed Edward's crew looking back at them peculiarly. Well, all with the exception of the tall, Bridgitte Bardot looking blondie. She just boldly glowered back at them.

So, what the hell? Not the guys too! What were they all being so secretive about? This was completely abnormal behavior for them. Well, other than being a pack of huge wolves.

Everyone's behavior was leaving me feeling a little bit blown and confused. I was not used to them ever acting this way. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

Seth would be my target. He was the easiest of the bunch to get information out of. I knew the others would not be forthcoming with any kind of "pack" business. Leah would be on lockdown with her lips. Yes, Seth would definitely be the go-to guy! A couple of well-placed scratches behind the ears and he was putty in my hands. Or maybe some lasagna, that was his all time fave. It would have to be later, though. Race time was almost upon us.

"Bells…get off the ground…NOW," snarled Jake.

I quickly stood, facing the guys, and fought back a wave of blood rushing dizziness as I heard that sinfully sexy, thigh tingling voice from behind me say, "Good morning, Isabella."

AN ~ Okay, confession time. I used to sniff gas as a kid when my parents would stop for it. I loved it! I know, I know, EWW right?

Also, pull your mind out of the gutter with the "Blown and Confused" title. I have this really cool shirt that says Blown and Confused on it with a cartoon racecar frying off the tires and flames shooting out of the "blown" engine and the exhaust. True story.

Up soon, more Edward and a little less Bella, maybe some Jake skin for some Jake lovers. It will be my little attempt at some sexy time.

Please leave me a little review, I would love to hear your thoughts! Leave some love or leave some ideas.

PS ~ Did anyone notice my Jetson's reference? No, it's not Scooby doo, it's Astro.