Page 38

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

_____________

SABOTAGE ALLEGATIONS ROCK FORMULA 1

And we’re not talking about switching the salt and sugar. Grayson de Clare, Team Principal of Paragon Racing, announced that the tyres of one of their drivers had been sabotaged in Sunday’s race. This was found after the driver had two repeated punctures and had to retire from the race. As of this moment, there are no indications of who is responsible. However, I don’t doubt that every team is taking steps to make sure this never happens again.

“You’ve got a thing for her, don’t you.”

The words from Ronan were a statement and not a question as he stepped up from where I leaned against the doorway of the garage. Which conveniently allowed me to see where Vanessa already sat in her car.

She liked to get in the car earlier than most drivers, myself included, claiming it helped her focus. Which, fair. But this week I didn’t think it was actually focus, it was nerves.

Vanessa was a certified badass. But anyone who claimed they had no nerves climbing into a race car was a damned liar. Was I afraid? No. There was a distinct difference between nerves and fear. Nerves were your body and mind keeping you alert in case the worst happened. Fear hijacked your system and forced you to make choices you might not otherwise make.

Fear could fucking get you killed.

But Nessa had every reason to be nervous. It didn’t matter that the garage in Espana had been ripped apart from top to bottom. We still had no idea who sabotaged her tyres. There were cameras, but there were also blind spots because filming tyre storage wasn’t a priority.

Every single tyre this week had been inspected. Pretty sure all the teams were shaken and had done the same thing. Mine had.

She was in the car so she could get her balance back. Remember who she was in the driver’s seat and banish last weekend from her mind entirely.

I glanced over at Ronan. “Not exactly a secret that I’ve had a crush on her for a while.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Crush my ass. This is more than that. You think you’re subtle, but you’re not. If she’s in the vicinity, you’re turned toward her. You watch her whenever you can. Last weekend when they told you about the tyres?—”

My memory flashed. Grayson had been waiting for me in the pit lane, and told me what happened. I’d ripped off my helmet and started storming in the direction of the Paragon garage before Gray held me back. It was Lars. I fucking knew it was him after that moment backstage a couple weeks ago.

There wasn’t any proof. The man had an alibi that was rock fucking solid, considering he was on camera pretty much the entire time when the tyres would have needed to be damaged.

That in itself was suspicious to me, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. And it was part of the reason I watched her now. If I had my eyes on my Omega, no one would fuck with her.

“Yeah,” I said, cutting him off. “Hold that thought real quick. I’ll be right back.”

Jogging across the lane, I found Grayson in his seat in front of the monitors. “Hey.”

“Your car is suspiciously empty, River.”

I laughed. “Yup. But I wanted to ask something first.”

“Go ahead.” He wasn’t looking at me, studying a paper in front of him on a clipboard.

I crossed my arms and made sure my back was to most people. “Ronan’s caught on to me and Vanessa. I’m trying to minimize it, but after last week I’m having a hard time reining things in. I want to tell him.”

Gray looked up then. No anger or questioning, just the same steady observance he usually held. “You think he’ll keep it quiet?”

“Ronan’s never given me any reasons not to trust him. Vanessa and he are friends from Formula 2, so she won’t care. And it will be good, for now, to have someone who can see when I’m staring at her too much.” I smiled, and Grayson laughed.

“You don’t need my permission. So why ask?”

I winced. “The NDAs.”

“The NDAs cover team secrets. Not personal ones.”

“Fair point.” Because of the conversation we’d had with the owners and the way we were intentionally keeping it quiet, I’d forgotten that. “In that case.”

“Good luck.”

I walked back over to Ronan and nodded my head at him, leading him to a back corner of the garage where our voices would be covered with noise. He looked at me expectantly. “I’m going to ask you to keep this quiet. Not forever, but for now.”

“Are you all right?”

Smiling, I relaxed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Perfect, actually. Vanessa is our Omega. When she met Grayson for the first time during her team announcement, they scent matched. We all did.”

The man’s jaw dropped open. “You’re serious?”

“I promise I wouldn’t joke about this,” I lowered my voice further. “But we also know the press would absolutely demolish Vanessa if she was suddenly with Grayson and me. Everything she’s worked for would be declared illegitimate. So we’re not telling people for now. Though I can’t wait to scream it from the fucking starting line.”

“Wow,” he said. “Well, at least I get why you’re staring at her now. Especially after last week. And the week before with Lars… Shit. Yeah.”

Finally, I let myself laugh. “When I tell you I’ve been dying every weekend being so close to her and not being able to touch her.”

“Wait a second. So at testing?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” He was one of the few people we’d actually lied to. Vanessa and I said we’d never met before.

He shook his head and glanced behind him. We only had a couple minutes now, and we needed to get in the cars. “No, I get it. I would have done the same. And of course you don’t have to worry about anything. Glad I can look out for her in a different way.”

My Alpha bristled. “I didn’t realize you guys were that close.”

Ronan gave me a knowing look. “Stop with the Alpha jealousy. There’s nothing to be jealous of. I love Vanessa like she’s my sister. We were the odd ones out, so we just kind of gravitated to one another.”

It took a second for the feeling to subside. “Sorry. The instincts are worse because I can’t fully act on them.”

“Hopefully they can throw you off enough that I beat you again.” He’d won the race in République Francaise two weeks ago, barely squeezing past me.

Bastard.

“Not a chance.”

“Still gonna try.”

“Do your worst.”

He clapped me on the shoulder. “Thank you for telling me.”

I wanted to tell everyone . I wanted to brag about the fact that this incredible woman was mine, and I woke up tangled against her skin this morning, even when we were caught by housekeeping. I wanted to bend her over the car and?—

“No problem,” I said, cutting off those thoughts. As much as I wanted to slide into my fantasies… Scratch that, I wanted to slide into the perfect, delicious heat of my Omega . I couldn’t. The car was waiting, and it was time to drive like hell.