Page 227 of Knot So Lucky

No—not my fault…

But he was driving my car, racing in my place, exposing himself to danger that was meant for me.

I try to narrow down the culprit in my mind. Who has the technical skill to create a remotely detonated device?

Who has access to our cars? Who would benefit from eliminating both me and Adrian?

"When's the final race?" I ask, voice steady despite the chaos in my head.

Luca looks into my eyes, and something passes between us. Understanding. Determination. The particular bond that comes from shared purpose forged in crisis.

"Three days," he whispers.

I nod, decision crystallizing with absolute clarity.

"I may have been lucky once," I say quietly, holding his gaze. "And I'm most certainly going to be lucky twice. Because Adrian gave us this opportunity to win. Gave everything…maybe even his life…to secure our spot in the championship. And I have every intention of doing exactly that. Winning. For him."

Luca nods slowly, something that looks almost like relief breaking through the grief in his expression.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, and the words sound wrenched from somewhere deep. "This has to be my fault. The pattern with Sera, now this. Someone targeting people I care about to hurt me."

"No." I shake my head firmly, ignoring the way the movement makes the room spin slightly. "You're not the target."

He frowns, confusion evident.

"What do you mean I'm not the target? Sera died. Now Adrian?—"

"Is the target," I interrupt, the realization clicking into place with devastating clarity. "Not you. Not me. Not even Sera, really. Adrian has been the target all along."

Luca stares at me, processing.

"Think about it," I continue, my mind racing through the pattern. "Three years ago, Adrian experiences a catastrophic mechanical failure. One that ruins his reputation, drives him from professional racing, makes him question his every decision. But what if that wasn't an accident? What if someone engineered that failure specifically to destroy him?"

I can see Luca following my logic, his expression shifting from confusion to understanding to fury.

"Then Sera," I continue. "She was close to you, yes. But she was also had access to your pack,which includes Adrian. You guys having an Omega will benefit him. Would make life easier for all of you. Also means if the relationship had progressed, she’d have access to you all, but specifically Adrian. Benefit from being his Omega, from the financial aspect of him being a billionaire to maybe even racing relations, though she wasn’t like me who’s in the field of racing and tech. What if whoever set up her demise was really trying to eliminate someone who might have noticed something? Might have figured out that Adrian's 'failure' wasn't actually his fault?"

“You’re trying to elude that Sera may have caught onto something or someone pulling the strings as she got closer to me and well…decided to eliminate her?”

“Maybe,” I say slowly. “We won’t ever really know, right? But then…”

"But then there’s you," Luca finishes, the pieces falling into place. "You're our Omega. Part of our pack. Working on cars he designs. Close enough to potentially discover the same patterns Sera might have seen…and wait. You haven’t bonded with him yet…"

"Exactly. He’s the last one…saving the best for last" I smirk despite the situation, despite the fear and fury coursing through my veins. "We've been looking at this wrong the entire time. Thinking the threats were about me being Omega, or you being Pack Alpha, or our racing success threatening someone."

I pause, meeting Luca's eyes with absolute certainty.

"But it's been about Adrian all along. Someone targeting him through the people he cares about. Using us as collateral damage to hurt him specifically…and what if Adrian picked this up long before we did? Which could be why we barely had instances together, but because he cooked and was always trying to makesure I’m well fed and hydrated, I didn’t notice he was trying to protect having long moments with me."

The realization hangs in the air between us, heavy with implications.

If Adrian is the target—if he's always been the target—then the detonation wasn't just about sabotaging our race.

It was personal. Calculated.

The culmination of a vendetta that's been building for at least three years.

"Who hates him that much?" Luca asks quietly.