Page 22 of Green Flag (StormSprint #2)

Everly

Pedro hadn’t even glanced at me in the pit box. He’d simply continued his conversation with Luca, who had been laughing along until his eyes flickered to mine.

But Pedro had seen me. He’d liked the picture of me in the Ciclati uniform. He’d messaged me. He’d received my messages and he knew I worked here.

But as Luca was dragged away to the cameras, I didn’t cower. When I looked over my shoulder, Livie gave me a soft, concerned smile, and when I shook my head, she went into action. I could see her walk to the back of the room and talk into her radio. With her and Luca behind me, I still felt safe.

With them, I would be able to rationalise, to stay intact, to breathe.

“You got my message then,” I told him, crossing my arms and trying not to glare at Pedro. But he was looking straight past me to the cameras. We were just out of eyeshot by the door.

At home last week, I’d managed to sneak onto Dad’s emails in his office while he was out.

Frustrated, I’d decided I had to be looking in the wrong place.

The whole time, I hadn’t considered Livie to be involved at all.

But when I’d looked at their latest email… I’d realised maybe I could be wrong. Very wrong.

Because she explained a shipment route from Helsinki to Dubai to Lisbon.

Which made a total of zero sense.

A five-thousand-kilometre detour?

Then, when I looked at the full manifest sent by the travel team, something had been offloaded in Dubai two weeks ago —same weight, same crate ID, new batch numbers.

We didn’t work in Dubai.

What made absolutely no sense was that Ciclati was a Portuguese brand. Head office was in Lisbon. The bikes were built in Lisbon.

So what the fuck was happening in Dubai? In a moment of weakness and confusion, I’d messaged him.

“I blocked you after, but yes, I saw your message.”

Prick.

“You should have heard me out.”

I tried not to sound desperate, even if that was how I felt. Now I finally might have something, I didn’t know what to do with it.

And I was still yet to get Nixon alone.

“You’re on your own,” he snapped. “I’ll remind you that it was you who put me in prison. I don’t want to go back over what your dad did. For very little reward.”

“I would have thought putting my father in prison was reward enough,” I told him, arching a brow. No one hated my father more than he did.

His gaze slid to mine. There was temptation in his eyes. It was something I’d always seen in them whenever he looked at me.

To get what I wanted, maybe I’d need to be the girl he’d known before. Besotted. Naive.

“I need help,” I whispered, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“You always did look best when you were scared.”

But I couldn’t.

Oh god, he was truly vile.

“You think I’m scared of you? I’m not even with you. You won’t even help give me the simplest information?” Give me proof Dad was the drug dealer, not you.

He wanted what he shouldn’t — couldn’t — have.

“You’re not with anyone,” he ordered and grabbed my elbow, tugging me forward.

The physicality wasn’t a surprise. What caught me off guard was his voice. The demanding tone that weakened my knees when I was younger and made me nod along like the good girl he wanted me to be.

But I wasn’t her anymore.

I wasn’t a girl anymore.

I yanked free from his touch, my hands in fists.

And yet I couldn’t do it.

Because I might need him still. He was the only one who might hate my dad as much as I did.

I whipped my hair back and, with the confidence my cowgirl boots gave me, strode over to Luca and kissed him senselessly.

There wasn’t a thought in my head before it. Just anger and need.

But, really, there was a tiny part of me that wanted his protection. And, within StormSprint, there was no one I trusted more.

Maybe I should have thought it through before doing something so impulsive in front of everyone.

In front of the cameras. The hard launch of our ‘relationship’.

And hard it was.

Teeth clashing, mouths fully parted like he wanted to devour me after holding back for so long.

“Arabella, the tours,” Livie said, voice higher than usual. “The tours!”

We still didn’t pull apart. I didn’t want to.

Bella had commented, more than once, about how cute Luca was. Livie and he had a strange relationship that I couldn’t quite figure out…

And I wanted to stake my claim. Like the small bruise he’d left on my neck the other week.

Holding his arms, I lowered so my feet were planted completely on the floor. His hands were still tangled in my hair as he said, “I wasn’t done, Everly.”

My heart was racing, my mind blank with the lack of oxygen from our kiss.

I’d kissed Luca Mendes in public. In front of the whole documentary crew.

Shit.

This might tank the investigation. Or fast-track it. Either way, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.

“Bravo!” Pedro called, clapping slowly, but it was seconds before Luca was escorting him out of the building.

Luca would be easy to love.

The documentary crew onslaughted Livie with questions as my breathing steadied, but she remained unflustered, sending them on their way with Bella for the tours and mentioning how much of a packed schedule there was to get through.

But she turned to me with a lethal gaze. “Everly Bacque, what have you done?”

Saliha shuffled in her seat at the side, watching on with a grin. She might as well get out her popcorn.

“I…” had no words.

She shook her head and gestured me through one of the doors, throwing a pointed look at Saliha, who only laughed harder.

She was taking me to one of the meeting rooms, tapping on her iPad as we went.

“Am I about to get told off?” I laughed nervously.

Her eyes snapped up to mine before she went tap tap tapping again, stopping at a door that I opened.

“You’re about to be interrogated.”

She didn’t even give me a second to sit my ass down before she stood behind the seat opposite me and asked, “Should I be expecting a sexual harassment suit?”

“Sorry?” I gasped.

Did that not look consensual?

“Everly,” she pressed.

“No!” I cried before thinking back to how, yes, I may have not given Luca much choice there. “I mean, no. Of course not.”

“Good.” She sat down. “How long has this been going on?”

“It hasn’t really been going on…”

She cocked a brow. “Try lying to me again.”

“It hasn’t…” I started, almost scared. “Really been…”

“So, hiding him in your hotel room five weeks ago when he should have been in his trailer at 8 am wasn’t ‘going on’?”

Oh, damn it, she was good.

My face was heating. “I didn’t realise you knew he was there.”

“I heard him laugh.”

My coughing fit hadn’t covered anything.

“He’s on his way here, so if there’s anything you need to get off your chest—”

Her iPad lit up in front of her, and she sighed before unlocking it and scrolling.

“Faster than usual,” she muttered to herself before turning it around.

@HotCiclatiNews: Seems Nix isn’t the only one falling for his grid girl this year. Luca Mendes and his grid girl, Everly Bacque, are in behind-the-scenes footage of StormSprint’s upcoming documentary.

Beneath the tweet was a picture someone had snapped of us in the moment.

“At least it’s a good photo,” she said and then she paused, her mind turning, her eyes dancing across the room, deep in thought and then landing on mine with a smile. “Are you together?”

“No,” I said quickly. “There’s not a relationship. We’ve just hooked up a couple of times.” Kind of.

There was a knock at the door that didn’t make Livie move in the slightest. She must have been messaging people for what she deemed a crisis.

Luca walked in, looking a little frazzled.

His golden hair was tousled in the way I liked.

He was the exact image I pictured whenever I thought about him a little too much.

Like in the shower that morning.

“I just walked into your dad,” he said to me before sitting at my side.

Great.

“He… er, wouldn’t look at me. Said he would keep my contract going but that I would be benched forever and that he needed a gin.

” He breathed out deeply. “He more screamed it rather than said it. His face went all red like Clifford the Big Red Dog. Like poppy red. I think I should have called a medic.”

Livie tried to hide her smile, then became all business. “Is Velazco out? Did anyone see him? Take any pictures?”

He shook his head. “Dropped him off with security. He went willingly.”

“You could have laughed a little quieter when Livie came to my door,” I chided as Livie sighed with relief.

Luca frowned, casting his mind back and then laughed. “Oh, yeah. You don’t have the best spatial awareness, Everly. You practically held the door open for her to see me. I gave her a little wave.”

Livie nodded and really couldn’t hold back her laugh, which she then tried to turn into a cough, but I was glaring at the two of them.

“Ex-fucking-scooze me?”

He shrugged. “We can contain this, right? Just tell Cris it was a wind-up.”

Livie tapped her screen and showed him the tweet.

That now had fifty likes and over twenty comments.

“Maybe not then,” he sighed and sat back in his seat.

“And there’s the little fact the documentary crew filmed it,” she grumbled. “Could you two have been a little more subtle? I don’t know, held hands at first? Warmed your dad up a little?”

“Hey, she kissed me!”

My brows were low as I lightly slapped him on the arm. Livie’s comment about sexual harassment stuck with me. “ Hey , you enjoyed it!”

“You did say you ‘weren’t done’, Luca,” Livie sighed. “So, you have both made your bed. Now that we don’t have Clara and Nix, I guess we have you two.”

“We’re not anything—” Luca started, a little too eagerly.

“You are now,” Livie said firmly and waved her hand over the iPad.

She had a point. We definitely looked like something.

“It’s a good thing I’ve had a minute to think this through,” she said with a few nods, pausing to articulate her idea. “We need something for the media to focus on other than Pedro somehow getting into our pit box.”

She seemed to really care. But was that just because she didn’t want the limelight back on the drug trafficking?

Luca shuffled uncomfortably. “You two are dating. You’ve kept it under wraps for obvious reasons. Your relationship shows there are no troubles between Ciclati, your dad, and you, Luca. Despite what’s happened.”

Luca shoved his chair back. “No.”

That stung.

“Sorry, have you not seen this, Luca? You two are together now. I’m telling you why this is going to happen and how we will get this to work for both of you and Ciclati.”

Luca frowned, but I leaned in.

If I could trust Luca — and if I could trust anyone here it was him — a fake relationship might mean I had an ally. Someone to work with. Someone to give me an alibi.

“Everly, you need an actual music video for your single. It needs to be StormSprint related because of the documentary so… ta-da, Luca, you will be in it. The two of you will be young, cute and in love. And it will help build Ciclati’s reputation again.

If Luca can see past what happened to love you, Everly, well… ”

“No,” Luca said again. “Because it’s not true.”

Bile rose up my throat.

“Tell Twitter that,” she said, leaning back in her chair. She refreshed the feed; it now had nearly 200 likes and over seventy comments.

“Romeo and Juliet style,” Livie continued.

“A Shakespearean tragedy,” I told her. “That isn’t a love story. It’s infatuation.”

Her eyes held mine. “This whole damn thing is a tragedy. You’ve made your bed. Now you’ve got to lay in it. Together.”

Luca laughed and shook his head. “This is insane. My family would never believe this.”

I turned in my chair. “You could tell them it’s not real. But the rest could work. If my dad’s talking about benching you forever… maybe he’ll let you out of the contract early. If we make a spectacle of ourselves.”

Livie closed her eyes, breathing deeply through her nose. “I did not hear that.”

But the light was back in his eyes.

“So no one can know it isn’t real,” I assured him. “No one but Livie.”

She nodded. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Luca cocked a brow at her, but she nodded. “ Anyone. ”

“Okay,” he said and nodded just as the door was thrown open.

My dad stood there with a large gin glass in his hand, Abbé looking over his shoulder with the brightest grin. He was buzzing, standing on his tiptoes to see the drama over his boss’s shoulder.

I tried to keep my vision on him, but Dad’s face was so red it was a spectacle that couldn’t be ignored.

“ Break up ,” he demanded in French. “ Break up right now. ”

“ Non. ”

“ How long has this been going on? ” he barked and Abbé ushered my dad into the room, shutting the door behind him.

I think Abbé could hear that his vintage bike had exploded and he’d still be ecstatic at the mayhem.

“Two months,” Livie said confidently in English.

“Since the beginning of her contract?” Dad bellowed, face as red as Luca had described, breathing like a bull ready to go for Luca in his red and green leathers.

Luca blinked slowly and itched his shoulder as if his boss wasn’t about to explode into smithereens in front of him.

Dad passed his glass to Abbé and got his phone out of his pocket, immediately going to his photo app.

I looked over the glass. There were no bubbles. Just straight gin.

He shoved the picture that had clearly been making the rounds into Luca’s face. “I’m certain I told you not to breathe the same air as her! This is a lot of breathing her air.”

Luca tilted his head to the side, looking the photo over. “Actually, I’d say we’re not breathing there.”

There was movement. Dad went to rush Luca, who was trying not to laugh, and Abbé shoved the glass on the desk before holding Dad back.

“Luca,” Abbé scolded.

He shrugged. “Glad we’ve got this hashed out.”

“But we haven’t,” Dad snarled. “I had to find out from Nix. Who took great pleasure in telling me. Maybe he’ll have to be my new favourite.”

Luca scoffed, standing up and shaking his head again. “Okay.”

“Everly is no longer your grid girl.”

He walked past him. Abbé’s hold on Dad’s arm was more of a comfort now than a restraint.

“Okay,” he said again as he opened the door and walked out.

And guilt made my heartbeat echo.