A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the late update, I've been bogged down with a lot of work as of late, I'm taking my AS exams next week, ahhhhhhh! lol, anyway, to keep me sane and to keep you all happy, here's another update from me and my dear friend Elenhin. Thanks for letting us know your opinions on the story, we really appriciate the reveiws. :-)

Keep it 'tween the ditches now, ya hear?

Luke slunk dejectedly into the Boar's Nest, waving half heartedly at some of the guys and girls who shot him bright smiles and yells of his name. He sunk into one of the chairs round an empty table by the bar and put his head in his hands. Not one of the people in the racing spots he had visited had heard anything about this supposed NASCAR opportunity. He had never directly mentioned the race, just in case this whole thing was legit and it was being kept secret for a reason. He just briefly asked them if they knew of any NASCAR opportunities that had come up over the past few days. Each one he had asked had said no.

He looked up as a hand laid itself on his shoulder and his gaze met Cooter's weary, but always cheerful face. Cooter sat to Luke's left and rested his elbows on the table, looking down at his lap before sighing and looking back to Luke.

"From the ways you's actin' I'm guessin' you didn't find nothin' either?"

"Not one single speck of grease…maybe this whole thing is just one big secret? I mean anyone lookin' to start a team would want to be selective about their drivers…if everyone knew then they would get swamped…"

"It's a possibility Lukas….but how likely is that?"

Luke sighed and brought his face away from his hands wearily, crossing his arms on the table. If Cooter hadn't managed to find a single thing about this race with all the contacts he knew that were directly involved with racing, Luke wasn't holding any high hopes that they were going to find anything that would prove to Bo this race wasn't the real deal.

This race meant such a lot to Bo, and to see his heart and spirit broken was something that Luke always hated to do. He didn't want to have to do it; he prayed and prayed that this race really was what the two guys had Bo so firmly believing in. But somehow he had the gut feeling that it just wasn't, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise.

"It ain't…I just don't know how to break it to him…I mean we ain't got no proof 'ceptin a gut instinct and that won't be enough to convince Bo."

Cooter placed a friendly hand on Luke's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. He understood just how much his and Bo's relationship as cousin's closer than brothers meant to Luke, and having to do this would either mean it grew stronger or it would be taken completely the wrong way and would put a massive strain on it instead….and both feared, because they knew Bo so well, it would be the latter.

Luke absentmindly watched Daisy making her usual rounds, smiling and playing along with the playful banter and usual rowdy comments from the local guys. From what Luke could see there was no one new to the small bar, and so he wasn't alert for anyone to be trying to take advantage of Daisy, he just watched in order to try and take his mind off of Bo.

"So…everythin' set fer Saturday huh?"

Cooter sat up a little straighter as the slight ting of the phone caught his ear and the statement after it followed. He looked over to Luke who hadn't seemed to have noticed and quickly elbowed him, at first receiving an irritated glare, until he started to hear what was being said. He leant casually on the table, turned away from the conversation that was going on a little way behind him, Cooter following suit.

"Yep, all driver's lined up and ready ter go."

"I still can't believe you signed up that local hic to run this race though."

"Well why not, you saw the kind o'drivin' he did. With him runnin' the course, he's bound ta bring in a lot of money for the Boss."

Luke sat up a little straighter, guessing pretty much straight away which 'local hic' the two guys were talking about and it took all of his self restraint to stop himself leaping up and giving the two men a smack in the mouth each there and then.

"Well yeah but what if he finds out and chickens out like them other drivers last race? Once they got wind of how many people wound up in the hospital or at the pearly gates they all went and fled, which is why we's in this situation with Boss in the first place."

Cooter saw Luke visibly tense as the words 'hospital' and 'Pearly Gates' came up in the conversation and he swallowed as the both of them started to realise just what a mess Bo had really gotten himself into.

"He won't. Can't ya tell he needs the money? Did ya see his face light up when we told him about the amount?"

"Well yeah but I still don't like it…what if he actually wins? Ya know how Boss always likes to make sure his cars win or it's our heads on the block."

"He won't win….not when his car suddenly blows or his tyres burst or somethin' like that. The plan is fool proof, it's worked a dozen o'times 'afore. No one round here knows about this race, so no one can warn him right?"

"I guess…"

"Now come on, we's been here long enough, we need to get back to the Boss. He'll skin us alive if he finds we's been slacking."

Cooter instantly stood hard on Luke's foot as the guys walked past him, seeing him losing to the temptation to stand up and hurl himself at the two now laughing guys walking out the door. Luke's attention was successfully diverted long enough for the guys to make a getaway, but the look that Luke gave him plainly said 'I'm going to get you for that later.'

"I knew it…I just knew there was something wrong with them!"

"Yeah and once again you's was right buddy roe…but goin' after them now ain't gonna help none. We still don't know everythin'…"

"Well all I know is Bo's in trouble and that's the most important thing to me at the moment."

"You think Boss is in on this?"

Luke frowned towards the doorway that lead to Boss' office and stood up, leaning his ear against the door, before stepping away shaking his head.

"Nah he can't be. He's in there with Rosco talkin' bout LuLu….those two fella's said they's was goin' to meet 'The Boss'….

"So now there's a whole 'nother Boss in town?"

Luke sat down again, frowning and stroking his chin, raking his brains to try and think what it could possibly mean, but all that he could see in his head was Bo smashing into a wall in the General, or Bo's heart broken expression when he told him of the phoney race. He slammed his hands on the table, startling Cooter and started to think out loud.

"Alright….so we know that there's a lot of money hangin' on Bo losing the race and they plan on sabotagin' him and the rest of the driver's to ensure that…"

"But why would they want a specific driver ta win? Why bother askin' for competitors if that's all they's gonna do?"

"I don't know….they must have a lot to loose if they's tryin' that hard ta…."

Cooter instantly recognised the unmistakable shine of realization in Luke's eyes, as he sat up straighter, his jaw dropping slightly as he leant back in his seat.

"Cooter that's it….it's gamblin'…it has ta be! By puttin' a high class driver like Bo against his lower class driver, all the bettin' money everyone has on Bo as the better driver will be lost when the sabotage takes effect and Bo loses!"

Cooter had to stop and think through everything Luke had just said, at first not really grasping Luke's logic, but eventually after another run through he understood.

"Luke we gotta stop Bo enterin' this thing now more than ever. This is serious, if the police got wind of this he's….Luke he's…"

"Yeah, gonna violate his probation by joinin' in criminal activity…"

Both men sat silently at the table, neither one saying anything as they considered the danger of the situation. Finally Luke spoke, in no more than a whisper.

"This is gonna hurt him Cooter…."

"Ya can't not tell him Lukas. Its better ta have him heart broken fer a couple of months than see him lyin' dead and buried in the ground forever or locked behind bars for life fer somethin' he didn't even realise was goin' on."

Luke nodded, taking a deep shaky breath. He stood up with Cooter and headed outside, slipping into General Lee and revving up the engine, waving a thankful goodbye to Cooter and heading back home, listening to the powerful growl of the stock cars engine.

"Oh General….I just don't know how to tell him…."