Page 63 of Start Your Engines

I freeze. She’s not in Australia. A zip of joy fills my heart. But she still hasn’t contacted me.

Niki’s babbling overwhelms my thoughts. “Since Hungary, she’s slept at the office every night, and when I called her, she talked non-stop about who will replace Antoine. She blames herself for what he did. She’s not sleeping. I doubt she’s eating, as Jimmy is away, and if not for the mandatory break, she probably wouldn’t be in Dorset. I need you to take care of her.”

“I can’t. She’d have messaged if she wanted my company. She doesn’t need me. She’s an independent adult.”

I want to explain that if he cared so much, he shouldn’t have left her with a mess and should have come home and been with her. But I hold my tongue because Niki’s suffered, too.

“Please,” Niki begs. My friendship with Niki is breaking. I’m hiding more from him than telling him, yet when he begs, I listen. “Please, if you’ve ever cared for Senna, reach out to her.”

I care about her too much.

“I’ll consider it.”

Niki’s thank you as he hangs up hurts my heart. The guy believes I can help Senna, but I’ve left the team, which leaves her in the lurch. And all I want is to finish the kiss we started in the bar.

These aren’t supportive, caring thoughts.

But she hasn’t called me. Maybe she’s got nothing left to say to me.

Fluffers mews. He’s gotten into the garden. Of course he has, the little bastard.

I storm out, ready to give him hell.

He’s playing with a bee!

His little white paws are swiping at it. He opens his mouth but misses. Thank God. I want to run and grab him, but he’ll run off. I need to give him space so he’ll come to me.

“Fluffers,” I call out. But he continues to jab and snap at the bee. The way he dances around it and swipes would be cute if it couldn’t seriously harm him. Can a sting kill him? I pull myphone out of my pocket and search for cats and bee stings while monitoring him out of the corner of my eye.

My sweaty fingers slip off the screen several times, but as I get to a page, Fluffers makes a noise that makes my blood go cold.

The bee has gone, but Fluffers’s paw presses against the ground.

I creep closer and grab him. Pulling him into my arms, I see what was under his right paw—a dead bee. The cat I’m meant to protect was stung, and I can’t get to the vet because I don’t have a car.

I can’t lose this cat as well as everyone else. I bloody love him.

My heart is frantic as I rock him.

My throat burns, and I will myself to calm as I call the one person I shouldn’t.

The words fly out of my mouth as soon as the phone connects. “Senna, I need you.”

CHAPTER 31

Senna

“Senna, I need you.”Connor’s line repeats in my head as I race to his holiday home. I take the country roads faster than I should. His voice was ice cold.

I’ve nearly called him a hundred times since I got his resignation, but he was clear that he was done with the team and so done with me.Please let him be okay.I can’t have him hurt. Since his crash, I’ve avoided him for more than guilt. Knowing how I felt about him scared me to my very soul. I can’t let him in only to lose him again.

As I do a handbrake turn in his driveway, I see his folded body at the edge as he cradles Fluffers.

I jump from my Porshe and rush to him. Tears stream down his face as he rocks the cat.

“Are you okay?” My voice wavers.

Connor shakes his head, and barbed wire tightens around my heart. I cup his face with my hands and make him focus on me. “Connor, please tell me what’s wrong.”

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