Page 36 of Speed Trap

I let her go, missing her warmth already.

“You two look cozy,” Ryan commented. He stood beside me, his bulky arms folded over his chest. “Bit of a change from the usual, eh? Not that we don’t love Sunny,” he added after a spare glance at my face.

“You’re not the only one.” I pushed my hair off my face and gave him a rueful smile. “Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday.”

“Could have used you. We had a small issue with theft.”

“Again?” Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I remembered the last batch of sabotage. “We have to find out who’s doing this.”

“We did.”

Thatgot my attention.

“Yeah?” I pretended disinterest, flicked at a speck of dust that floated in front of me. “Who?”

Ryan snorted. “Kid from Jannie’s crew. Said he wasborrowinga few tools and he’d bring them right back. Like Team Germany don’t have enough of their own shit.”

“Hey,” I said in warning. “Don’t let your prejudice flow onto the rest of the team, old man.” But he was right; the German racer had an exceptional team and better financial backing. His workshop had a full complement of Snap On tools that could have paid the annual wages for half my team.

“I’m not fucking old,” Ryan grumbled. “But yeah, you’re right. Sorry. It shits me that no matter what I do something else is getting wrecked, other things are going missing. It’s fucked with our focus.” His lips pursed. “Yours, too.”

“Yeah, well. Shit happens.” I watched Sunny engage my youngest mechanic. A grin creased my lips.

Ryan’s gaze flicked between Sunny and me at speed, his mouth hanging open. “Hell, Hawk. There’s gonna be a shitfight over this when Benson finds out.”

I inclined my head. “I know.”

“That’s her career, boy.”

“Don’t youboyme. And she’s got a job here if hers fails.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

I said nothing and slid my hands into my pockets. Sunny read over a folder Benny had produced and flicked through it, nodding at intervals. Someone else might have been brain dead by now, their eyes glazed, but Sunny listened attentively to every word and engaged the younger man with respect.

My heart swelled in my chest. Ididlove this girl, so damn bad it ached.

“You’re fucked.” Ryan shook his head and sent me a sidelong glance.

I rubbed the back of my head with the heel of my hand.

“I know.”

Ryan was right, though I’d never admit to it. The team had lost its focus, and byteam, I meantme.I dropped Sunny off around the block from Benson’s garage and watched her walk away. My chest tightened with every step she took.

Leaving her near him riled me in a way I hadn't experienced before. He was a mean-as-fuck asshole and I hated that she worked for him, that she had to be anywhere near him, but Ryan’s warning rolled around my head.

In the end I sat in the driver’s seat and fumed, watching her walk away, and counted the seconds until I could feel her against me again. Throwing myself into my work and daily regimen—which had been utterly ignored in the last few days—felt better than good. Every spare inch of energy I could muster was thrown into tweaking that car—and its driver—to perfection.

I distanced myself from the activity, working through as though the driver were simply another well oiled machine who needed touching up and retraining and refused to feel the burn until the end of each workday when the exhaustion set in and I collapsed back into my own car and headed home.

Until the moment I saw Sunny again.

She kissed me every time, no matter how filthy I was, winding her arms around my neck as though I were the lifeline she needed. And for a few hours, between my house and hers, we lost ourselves to the pleasure of exploring each other, finding our geek together and forgetting about Benson.

It was a state I knew couldn’t last. Something pushed her away from me as much as I tried to draw her in—two similar ends of magnets repelling each other. I fought it, even if it seemed to be our nature.

I was fighting a battle I was scared I couldn’t win, that no degree of determination could force the result I wanted to achieve.

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