Page 3

CHAPTER 3

Senna

“Come in,” I holler as the knock hits my door again.

“Please don’t be Dane. Please don’t be Dane,” I hiss like a mantra.

Anxiety tightens in my chest.

I’ve avoided Connor for a week, although he’s hung around my office, cracking his knuckles and huffing loudly. Ignoring his attempts to intimidate me or piss me off has become my Olympic sport, and the casualties have included my worn socks from my nervous tapping and the work trousers I’ve put a hole in from my relentless picking.

A grey-haired man with questionable dress sense pokes his head through the door.

“Uncle Ralf.” My face breaks into a beaming smile, and I run to my mentor. He embraces me, and for a moment, I still as safety and comfort overwhelm me.

“Little Boss,” he replies in his gentle German accent.

“You don’t have to call me that,” I say, gazing up at him.

“Senna, that’s been your nickname since you were four years old and bossing your brother and me around like the independent little thing you were. I will keep calling you that even after you retire.”

“Like you?”

“Like me,” he says with a grin.

I pull away, and I point at the chair. “Take a seat.”

“Still bossy, then,” he teases.

I offer a wry smile to the man my dad employed as a driver in the heyday of the Coulter Racing team. Once I have time to request them, photos of some of his many wins will adorn the walls of my office.

I settle in my seat. “Is this a flying visit, or are you back to advise the team like you used to?”

I lean towards him. Although Ralf has lost his love of racing and, some say, his edge, he is still the best man I know.

“I’m afraid I’ll be on a plane to the Caribbean in about four hours with Myles, but I got a feeling you might need me.” He relaxes in his chair. His belly, a sign of his happy retirement travelling the world with his husband Myles, tests the buttons of his neon pink and green Hawaiian shirt. While my dad calls daily to discuss progress, Ralf proves there’s life after racing.

“Dad phoned you, didn’t he?” My stomach drops.

Ralf shakes his head, which makes his bushy eyebrows resemble dancing feather boas. “Niki did.”

I pick at the bottom of my team shirt. The top half strains against my chest almost as much as Uncle Ralf’s strains against his belly. I wish I could blame happy living, but it’s because there are so few females working at Coulters that they don’t make a female-cut shirt. I need time to change that, too.

“But this is what I’ve always wanted,” I stutter, readying myself for battle.

“Inheriting a failing team and a car not fit for purpose and doing it all alone?” I bloody love this straight-talking man, even as he confronts me with the truth.

“Dad cut corners and focused on the short-term.” I cradle my head as I study my laptop, which shows an image of the car we’re unveiling to the press tomorrow at Shakedown—the day we’ll run the car around a track for the first time to make sure it stays together. “You know how big a deal tomorrow is. And I’m petrified by how Dad has decimated this team with his management over the last few years.”

Out of the corner of my eye, Ralf nods. “This team has been mistreated for years.”

“He doesn’t believe I can make this team a success.”

Ralf nods.

Gloom grips me.

“Little Boss, look at me,” he directs.

I lift my head slowly to study those big blue eyes and soft smile. He leans forward, his elbows on the desk. It’s one of his signature moves, and as much as I’m struggling to deal with my dad’s lack of belief in me, I still nod because Uncle Ralf is here, and he’s never doubted me.

“Your dad is an arschgeige.” I grin at the playful German term for dickhead. Ralf has said much worse to my dad during their arguments. “It was your dream to run this team. You’ve spent your life around this place, learning everything about how the cars work and how to get their greatest performance internally and on the track.”

“I know, but it’s not enough. I also know what it’s like to fail.”

He cocks an eyebrow and offers me a sour face. “And to come back fighting harder.”

“I presumed I’d get advice and not a pep talk. But you’re just like Jacs.”

He waves my comment away with his hand. “You kick arse while respecting the opinion of others. You know what it is to be a champion. Niki has lost the wide-eyed excitement. That moment came for me when I realised every drive could be my last. He’s not in the right place to be around this team. But you came through that.”

I hold my hand up to stop the ego-massaging chat.

“No, Little Boss, you need to hear this. I am here to remind you who and what you are.”

“Dad taught me never to show vulnerability in racing. I’ve tried to be a bitch boss with the team, but it’s not me,” I reply flatly.

“Exactly!” His voice booms around the office. “You are not your dad, and you can’t boss like him. You are a strategist, a car expert, a racing driver, and someone who makes things happen. You won awards for the team’s social media and branding. You pulled this team into this century when everyone else decided it was an old boy’s network and an extension of your dad’s deteriorating strategy. The mechanics respect you. Everyone respects you. So it’s time you respected yourself and ran the team like you know how because you are brilliant, and you will rule this team with an iron fist and a listening heart. And you will achieve it on your own because that is what you do.”

He shouts the last part with conviction.

Connor passes my doorway.

“Someone doesn’t respect me.” I nod in the direction of my liability.

I bloody hate him and his heart-fluttering body. That man in my team’s hoodie gives me a thrill that makes me clear my throat with all the anger I can muster.

Ralf turns his head. “Dane? He respects you, but he can’t show it. In fact, he respects you too much.”

I laugh off that suggestion.

“Trust me on that, Little Boss.” I open my mouth, but he silences me with more wisdom. “It’s your other driver you need to monitor.”

“Antoine? He’s harmless. He’s a punk with an ego bigger than his d…” Ralf cocks his eyebrow. “Not that I’ve seen it.”

“His ego?”

“No, his dick.” My face flushes. I’ve never liked Antoine, even when we raced together as teenagers. He’s a petulant child with an eye for danger and an attitude to match, but he’s all I’ve got.

“You need a partner. It will calm you. You need someone to care for you.”

I grind my teeth. “Would you say that to Niki if he was leading this team?”

Ralf rolls his eyes with a grin that reminds me of days karting with Niki and my parents. Ralf could outrace all of us, but instead, he’d coast behind Niki and me and note how we could improve to give us pointers later.

“Of course I would, and he’d probably listen. A boss doesn’t need a partner, but it helps. Your dad had your mum to support him. You have Jacs, but she has her own team to manage. You don’t even have Niki at the moment. Who else do you have to support you?”

“I don’t have the support you’re talking about, and I don’t need it.”

I’m not getting into this with my dad’s best friend. I have a vet in Australia who I see when I’m in town and need a hookup. The last time I saw him was after an argument with my dad. I don’t have relationships and never have.

I’ve only liked one guy enough to want a relationship, and that was a silly crush when I was seventeen.

There’s a knock at the door, and Connor walks in without my permission. My blood boils at his audacity, but I can’t help staring at his full lips and those damn grey joggers that hang off his hips. My gaze sticks.

No. I fix my jaw and glare.

My silly crush at seventeen ended the day I crashed because he didn’t care who he hurt. He was willing to do anything to get signed by a team and move from Formula Three to Formula Two. That’s what the other drivers told me when they visited me in the hospital, and he never explained otherwise, only blaming them and not apologising.

That’s when Connor went from the object of my affection to the person I hated. He’s why I’ll never have a relationship and why I’m all in to win the championship single-handedly.

Don’t show vulnerability. Don’t trust men who can break your heart. And don’t fall in love.

Connor Dane ruined my past, but I refuse to let him ruin my future.