Page 48 of Faster

Micaela was already sitting at the table, and she looked up at him with a questioning gaze.

At the beginning of the season, he would have gloated and given her a ton of shit about the crash.

But now, he could even locate a moment of concern for his ex-girlfriend.

Almost everyone on the grid had a scary crash at some point, and today was her day.

But that didn’t make it any easier on her.

Probably the worst race it could happen at—when they didn’t have a full complement of spare parts—but these things happened. He just didn’t understand why he was being brought in to get yelled at along with her.

His father motioned for him to sit, looking grim.

“We have a problem,” his father said, and Brent had to fight not to roll his eyes.

He got that they were a team and all, but the problem seemed to be much bigger for Micaela.

“And what does that have to do with me? That seems like a her issue.” He pointed at Micaela, who looked like she’d probably been crying, so it was kind of a dick move.

“And a you problem.” He didn’t point at his father—there appeared to be steam coming out of his father’s ears, and he didn’t want to lose a finger.

“It’s a team problem,” Liam said. Micaela stayed silent and didn’t return the glare Brent gave her. “We have one driver who’s been performing extremely well—”

“Yeah, until she crashed into the wall during a practice session.” Brent shouldn’t feel so smug, but it felt good to not be the fuck-up for once.

He hadn’t gotten to use his petty muscles very often since hooking up with Paola.

She’d look at him like she disapproved of him and then wouldn’t have sex with him for a few hours.

His father didn’t let the interruption stop him. “And one driver that’s been inconsistent, at best, during the course of the season.”

That shut Brent up. Despite his cooperation with the publicity part of his job, his race results had barely improved.

He’d made it through the latter parts of the qualifying sessions, but Micaela had beaten him during every race this year.

If his father wasn’t the team principal and majority shareholder in the team, he’d be worried about his seat.

Given the way Liam looked at him right now, he should probably be worried about his seat regardless. At least for this weekend. Brent forgot he was smarter than the way he behaved sometimes, at least when it came to how Liam was going to react to things.

Something in the back of his mind tickled when Liam glanced at Micaela. His father used to look that way at pictures of Brent’s mother. Always when he’d thought he was alone. It was the most unguarded he’d ever seen his father.

And he was looking at Micaela the same way.

After that, a lot of pieces fell into place in his head—why Micaela hadn’t tried to get him back, the amount of time the two of them spent together, why Micaela came on their summer vacation.

Fuck.

“How long have you been railing her, Dad ?” He put emphasis on the last word. He wanted his father to really consider the ways in which this was a betrayal.

Something white hot burned in his veins that wasn’t jealousy. It was more like humiliation. He felt as though he might throw up. He’d been with Micaela for years. He had to wonder if she had been sneaking around with his father before this season. Before they broke up.

Finally, Micaela spoke up. “It wasn’t supposed to—”

“Shut up.” Brent didn’t want to hear from her.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” his father said. And this wasn’t a dad telling his son how to behave. This was a man who was defending a woman he cared about—a woman he loved.

If it was possible, he felt even sicker, hearing his father talk that way about his ex-girlfriend.

“It’s only been a few months, and it’s over.” His father sighed and leaned back in his chair. He covered his eyes with one hand. This was embarrassing for all of them.

Brent looked like a fool and a cuckhold. Liam looked like an old lech. And Micaela looked like a slut. And it was so surprising and out of character.

“And now you’re going to give her my car for the weekend so your girlfriend can win the championship?”

There was a long pause before Liam said, “It’s what’s best for the team.”

Finally, he looked at Micaela. He barely stopped himself from saying exactly what he thought of her.

There was no doubt in his mind that he was the wronged party in all of this, but Micaela was almost a second victim.

Her father had been such a dick to her for her entire life that she couldn’t resist an older man being nice to her. An older man in racing.

“Did you fuck him to get back at me?”

Her eyes were shiny, as though she was going to cry at any moment. He knew what it took for her to cry. Even though he thought she was a scheming whore, he knew she was tough as nails. She’d always had to be. Maybe she felt a little bit of remorse—or more likely, regret.

She shook her head. “No. It was never about that. You didn’t even play a part in it.”

That was almost worse than her saying she’d seduced his father purely out of revenge. It meant she’d seen them side by side and decided that Liam was better.

That was the core of it for him. He would never measure up to his legendary father—not in racing and not in anything else.

At that moment, he just needed to get out of the room.

“We still need you on the team, son.”

Brent sneered. “Like fuck you do.” He stood up, and his chair hit the thin walls. In an hour or two, there’d be a story about how he had thrown a chair when his father had told him he couldn’t race this weekend.

And Paola probably wouldn’t even try to keep it out of the news. It wasn’t like she was his girlfriend or anything. They were just fooling around and there’d been no discussion about where it was going. He was utterly and completely on his own.

He wanted to go home. And not his father’s house outside London. He wanted to go to the little apartment in New York he’d bought and paid for himself. Sure, his father had given him the seat, but he’d proven he was talented enough to be there. He’d earned his place.

“I’m going to leave on the next flight out.

” His father hung his head, seeming resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to pretend they were a cohesive team in the wake of this disaster.

“I’m not going to say anything to anyone.

” He didn’t want the press to find out his father had been fucking his ex any more than the guilty parties did.

“Thank you,” Micaela said.

“It’s not for your sake.” He wished he didn’t care that this made him look foolish. A part of him would love to see Micaela ground to dust because of this, but it would just be too humiliating.

He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew he couldn’t spend one more second with either of these people.