Page 55 of Green Flag (StormSprint #2)

Everly

MotoBike raced at a track in Melbourne that StormSprint didn’t. Nix had said multiple times that, though he missed Ciclati, he enjoyed the challenge of new tracks. Luca had arrived with the rest of MotoBike to practice, whereas Livie and Nix were coming later.

Nix wasn’t bothered about missing practice time.

But come Friday, I also realised I would need some practice. As an honorary grid girl for the weekend, I had to keep my positive reputation and having never been there… that wasn’t going to happen.

Livie and I went in for the day after they arrived late on Thursday.

We wandered around, getting to grips with our surroundings.

For once, she was wearing the VIP lanyard, and I was in the STAFF one.

She somehow remained in work mode despite the long island iced tea in her hand, forcing me to give her and her security detail a professional tour.

She nodded with encouragement but kept her poker face mostly intact.

But it didn’t impact me anymore.

I knew what I was talking about. She asked specific questions and I explained my answers until maybe a glimpse of a smile appeared. I was the most requested tour guide.

It had nothing to do with my looks or who my father was. There were no questions about my music or how their female relative loved my songs. It was simply because… I was good at my job.

I was good at something.

We came to the balcony of VIP, just above the pit box of Nix’s new team, leaning over to spy on our men.

They were sitting on deck chairs out in the sun, leathered and chatting away.

I loved him. I’d known it that night after the boat party. I’d known it before.

“They’re so cute together,” Livie mused. “I should probably get a picture of them. We need to update the socials on their bromance.”

“Livie, you don’t work—”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said and waved a hand at me as she took the picture on her phone and sipped her drink through the metal straw. “They’re not as cute as you two are, though.” Her brows rose in a silent question. Not outright prying, but curious.

She was always curious.

“We are cute,” I agreed.

“You never thought you’d get this attached, did you?”

I glanced at her, the question unexpected.

“I didn’t, no,” I sighed. “He told me he loves me. Or he tried to.”

She nodded, leaning back on the trellis of the balcony. “Tried?”

“I told him to say it if he means it. He tried again but… I think I was scared to hear it.”

“Why?”

I inhaled deeply. “Because… because I think love has been used against me before. The concept of it.”

“Sometimes people only prove what love isn’t,” she said gently, deep in thought as she swirled her drink.

“He’s what I want love to be.”

Her smile deepened. “Why can’t he be? I thought love was one thing and then… well, then, this asshole came skidding into my life and… turns out, what I had before wasn’t anything in comparison.”

How had I once thought there was something between Livie and Luca? I bit down on my lip to stifle my laughter. I was completely clueless about a lot of things.

But not him. Not now.

There was a commotion below us and Luca was standing, his face nearly as red as the stripe on his leathers, his chair collapsed on the floor behind him.

It was the same expression before he had stormed across the ring to beat ‘black shorts’ to a pulp. Instinctive anger. Primal fury.

We were too high to hear exactly what he said but everything in his rigid, tall stance screamed danger.

I took Livie’s hand, and she gulped down her drink. We ran down to them.

When we finally got there, everyone was at work just as they would be in our pit box.

But Luca stood glaring at one of the members in his purple Stratos team colours. Nix stood in front of him, slightly taller, his eyes darting between the two as he spoke in hushed tones to his ex-teammate.

Wherever and whenever, I always gravitated to him, as he was the centre of my calmness, but with that alarmed look in his eyes turning to savagery, it was something more than gravity. It was a nuclear force; something was wrong, and Luca looked explosive.

When his eyes met mine, they widened with panic, and that magnetic pull brought him forward to me too, where he led me back to the corridor.

“What’s wrong?” I hissed, following his lead.

The last thing I saw was Livie’s disgusted, angry face as she glared at the man she loved most.

“Who was that?”

He shook his head. “We’re getting out of here. I’m pulling out of the race.”

“Who was that?” I repeated, stopping and letting that gravitational pull freeze my feet to the ground.

“Fuck!” he shouted and turned away from me, his hands in fists. “Everly, I’ve got to get out of here or…”

“What?” I held onto his leathers and tugged him closer to me as he tried to avoid my eyes. “Luca, what?”

He swallowed, lip curling as he breathed deeply through his nose. “You know you heard a rumour about Pedro working for MotoBike?”

I nodded slowly, mind clear of thoughts.

“He did get a job. On Nix’s team.”

No. He couldn’t have. What team would…

“And if we don’t get out of here, you’ll be visiting your boyfriend in prison.”

I snorted as my heart warmed. Boyfriend.

Luca Mendes was my real, actual boyfriend.

And he loved me.

As I did him.

His brows knitted at my laughter. “I’m serious.”

“I know you are,” I said, trying to fight my smile.

“Because he’ll be dead. I’ll be a murderer.”

“Yep,” I said, taking his hand. I didn’t doubt for a second he was capable.

“I’ve already thought about how I’d do it,” he warned.

“Of course you have.”

His frown deepened. “You don’t seem to have an issue.”

“Nope, I don’t,” I said with a nod. “Because you wouldn’t get caught. You love me too much to get locked away from me. You’d break out for missing me.” I sighed, taking his other hand too. “Or I guess we’d have to get married. Is it just married couples that get alone time in prison?”

His blinks were frequent, but at least he was thinking about something other than killing. “Your mind works in weird and wonderful ways. But I guess you’re right. A murder and a marriage. I could get behind that.”

“But you won’t,” I said softly, lifting myself on my tiptoes, ready to climb him to kiss the dwindling anger away. “Because you’re not going to kill anyone, Luca. The only murdering you’re doing tonight is my pussy.”

He choked on a laugh and bent his forehead to graze mine. “You’re mine, Everly. I can’t stand there in the same room as that—”

“If anyone gets to throw a punch here, it should be me.”

He tugged me back with him to lean against the wall as a couple of workers came past us, shooting us awkward smiles.

When they were out of earshot, I said, “He hurt me, Luca. But it’s in the past. He can’t hurt me again. He wouldn’t dream of it with you around.”

His kiss on my forehead was warm as his breaths went back to normal, his hold on me remaining protective.

“What I want is to show him I’ve moved on and he can’t affect me — us — anymore.”

He breathed in deeply, then nodded. “Let’s get my shit out of the locker and we’ll go to the hotel.”

We held hands in the pit box and ignored everyone around us, and when Nix tried to speak to Luca, he only lifted a hand in response. “We’ll talk privately,” was all he said.

Pedro wasn’t there.

Like a damn ghost in the night, appearing and disappearing to make it seem like Luca’s sanity was slipping.

Nix had known. He should have said. But he hadn’t.

Why hadn’t he?

Luca changed and we left, swinging our joined hands the whole way home. In the taxi, his anger had evaporated into secretive smiles and glances my way.

“What are you giggling at?” I laughed.

“Thank you,” he said and placed his hand on my knee. “You calmed me down. I don’t know how you do it, but… you’re always exactly what I need.”

“I’m just that talented,” I said and flipped my hair back. “But that’s not what you were laughing at, acting all chuffed.”

“You said I loved you,” he beamed with a boyish grin. “You said I loved you so much.”

I rolled my eyes, but when they snagged on how happy he was, I felt the heat creep into my cheeks. “Yes. I guess you do.”

“I do,” he agreed.