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CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

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Charlie Amor: Welcome back to Formula 1 and the penultimate race of the season. The fight for the Constructors Championship is all locked up. But the Drivers? There’s all to play for still.

Geoff Askew: I’m sure team management would prefer a less volatile ending to a season, but the fans, and let’s be honest, we , love a good photo finish.

Charlie: Absolutely. It all comes down to these last two races. I have every confidence River Daniels can pull it out of the bag and make it a hat trick. But Ronan Phillips has been absolutely stunning this year, and Lars Bachman isn’t far behind.

Geoff: As we say often, anything can happen. Let’s wait and see.

“You still taste like me,” River groaned, pushing me back against Elias and kissing me. “Driving me crazy.”

I laughed, leaning back into Elias’s hold in my driver room. “Pretty sure I still taste like both of you.”

This morning had been a hot tangle of limbs and mouths before we left the hotel. But none of us had been quite ready to let go.

Kissing River back, I finally broke free of them. “All three of us have places we need to be,” I said. “If you want more later, you know where to find me.”

“As if we could ever have enough,” Elias whispered. He squeezed me once more and dragged River to the door. “Good luck, beautiful.”

I just rolled my eyes and smiled as he pulled River, still staring at me, out of sight. Though we were all insatiable, they also hadn’t broken their promise, and neither had I. We didn’t tease each other through the bond while we were here. Thank goodness. Though both River and I had briefly reached out and prodded at the other before the last race. Just to see how bad it could be.

We stopped that immediately.

Annika fell into step beside me, grinning like a cat.

“Good morning?”

“You could say that.”

I laughed. “How’s it going?”

“Right now? Or with Ronan?” She laughed at my expression and shook her head. “It’s going well. We’re having a good time.”

“A good time like this is a thing that might turn permanent? Or a good time like you’re going to call it quits after the season?”

“I’m not sure. But I hope it’s the first.”

“I’m happy for you,” I said. “And it makes me feel better, honestly, since I haven’t been around as much.”

Annika waved a hand. “You’ve had so much going on. Don’t feel bad.”

“I do miss you, though.”

She smirked and handed me my water bottle. “Then it’s a good thing you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”

I gave her one more suspicious look, but finally nodded, smiling. “Fine. But we’re still doing a trip without the boys. Yours or mine.” In the off season Annika and I had started taking a week to go somewhere fun, and I was entirely unwilling to let that tradition go.

“You got it. And it better be somewhere nice now that you’ve got a big girl salary.”

Snorting, I bumped her with my elbow. “Your salary is just fucking fine.” Grandpa made sure of that, even from the grave. The paperwork he’d given Grayson made sure I didn’t have to worry about paying Annika or Oliver for the next five years if they kept working for me.

I was sure I hadn’t found the true depth of preparations he’d made yet, because that was who he was.

“We’ll pick something badass,” she said. “Ring?”

My bonding ring went into a little pouch she wore around her wrist while I raced.

Holly Buchanan stood near the paddock with her camera, though it was clear she wasn’t on air at the moment. She glanced up and saw me. “Vanessa?”

I nodded to Annika. “See you in there.”

“Two more races,” she said. “Kick their asses.”

“Will do.”

I couldn’t move up in the standings, but I could make sure I didn’t fall any further and stay in fourth place. As a rookie? Practically unheard of.

Holly smiled at me. “Thanks for stopping.”

“Doesn’t look like you’re filming, so…”

“In a couple of minutes. I wanted to ask you for a quote on something.”

I laughed. “On no.”

“This is too long to quote, so I’ll show you the video. It’s from a few days ago.” Holly turned her phone toward me, showing me a man in a hoodie and a backwards baseball hat in front of a microphone. It looked like he was across from someone, but the video didn’t show who.

“What is this?”

“A podcast. They focus on sports in general, but a lot on racing.” She hit play.

“It’s safe to say that the Vanessa Lennon experiment has failed. You can come at me with all the data you want about audience metrics rising, but that happens any time there’s drama. It happens when there’s a good rivalry. It happens when the stakes are high. And sure, maybe she’s had a few good races. But nothing about this season has convinced me that we suddenly need women in racing.

“Why? Because everything is about that . From the proposal on the podium to them making note of every first she has, it draws unnecessary attention to the person instead of the racing itself. Which is the whole point.”

There was laughter off camera, and something I couldn’t hear.

“Women have enough shit we don’t get to be a part of. They don’t need this too. I’m not convinced she would be as good as she is if she were driving a slower car, and I’m fucking tired of having to talk about her and how amazing and groundbreaking it is. We all know she’s only there because she’s sucking De Clare’s dick. Can’t wait for her to fuck up so badly they have to fire her even though she’s the Team Principal’s Omega.”

I could hear the other person now. “Well, it seems like someone already tried to take her out.”

The man on camera rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Someone should try again. Not that I wish harm on anyone, but there’s got to be a way to fix this situation. Look at all the drivers who deserve a chance in that seat? I’ve got a list as long as my arm, not even including racers who are already on the grid.”

Holly shut off the video. “You get the picture.”

“Is the whole thing just bashing me?”

“They go into detail about who would be a better fit for your seat. Which, according to them, is about half the grid. But yeah. Basically you’re all that’s wrong with Formula 1, and if you weren’t in the picture, all would be right with the world. Lars was on the episode before this one. I don’t recommend you listen to that.”

“Got it.”

“Can I grab a quote?”

“On the record?” She nodded. “If I listened to everyone who didn’t believe in me, I would have never made it past go-karts. My racing speaks for itself and I’m going to continue to race to the best of my ability, no matter what.”

Holly nodded, typing on her phone. “That’s perfect, thank you.” Then she glanced up at me. “Off the record?”

“Off the record, for fuck’s sake, don’t they have anything better to do at this point? It’s getting old.”

She snorted a laugh and failed to hide it. “Honestly, I’m with you. But be aware that even if they seem quieter, they’re not. They’re just talking to each other and not doing it publicly.”

I sighed. “Maybe after the season they’ll cool down.”

“I doubt it.”

“Me either. But thank you for the heads up.”

Not that there was much to do about it. There would always be people who hated me. The best defense was to keep doing exactly what I was doing and performing at a level that made their criticism seem ridiculous.

I pulled on my gloves and went to Grayson quickly. “Hey, Holly Buchanan just showed me a video of a podcast that’s really going to piss you off. Nothing we need to respond to, but if PR doesn’t already know, they need to.”

He frowned. “What is it?”

“Vanessa Lennon is the downfall of the sport of racing, part one million. Same old, same old.”

Both he and Beck smiled. “Thank you, little one. Date night tonight?”

“Hell yes.”

They were taking me to their favorite restaurant here in Brasil. Grayson added that it had a unique bread he loved. It sounded incredible. And normal. We had plans. That alone kept the smile on my face. With very little at stake in these last two races, racing was fun . River was stressed as hell trying to win, which made it fun to mess with him. But me? This was the best.

“Radio check.”

“Loud and clear,” Beck said. “Seventy-one laps. Weather is clear with nothing on radar, but I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure, love.”

Down our bond, I threw the equivalent of an elbow to his ribs, and I felt the answering laughter in return.

Power thrummed through the car and me.

Lights out.

I got past Lars on the start, which made me laugh, though I tried to keep it off the radio. This was a fun, twisty track. But it also had a long as hell straight that let you build up speed. The best of both worlds.

At one point, Ronan squeezed past River, putting us next to each other. I wanted to ask Beck what he’d give me if I beat River this race, but I kept my mouth shut. That was a conversation meant for only us and our pack.

“How do the tyres feel?” Beck asked.

“Pretty good. They’re starting to go.”

A brief silence. “Race scenario two for the pit stop. Be prepared in five laps.”

“Got it.”

Because this track was hard on tyres, there were multiple ways to play the race. It was better to be flexible.

River got ahead of Ronan again, but we were all on top of each other. Now we were starting to lap those at the back of the line, blue flags flashing on the monitors and marshals waving them in front of us.

“Lapping Arnault, Santiago, and Gendra. They’ve been instructed to let you pass.”

It wasn’t fun being lapped, even if the rules said you had to let someone by. I’d been there. Not often, but there wasn’t a racer out there who hadn’t felt the burning sting of having a blue flag waved at you.

Behind me, Lars gained quickly. “Is Lars trying to lap too?”

“He is.” There was a pause, then Beck swore under his breath. “Lars pitted early. He’s on new tyres.”

Which was why he was breathing down my fucking neck. I wasn’t letting him by unless they point blank ordered me to for the sake of his standings. Until then, he could stay back there.

We lapped the cars one after another, the others sliding by them around the biggest, softest curve on the track heading into the straight. Perfect.

I surged on the gas, putting distance between Lars and myself even as I passed the final car I needed to lap. Almost to the turn, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the blue flags anymore.

Something hit me.

The car jerked to the right, wheels hitting the curb and gravel. The wheel spun and I tried to get it back, but there was too much speed coming out of the straight and not enough time. There was no pulling out of this, no controlling the car, and I was headed straight for the wall.

I closed my eyes.