Page 33 of Octane

“I stopped by the office on my way home from the track. I ran into Miles Cosgrove, and we got to talking. We ended up on a conference call with my father.”

“What did you talk about?”

“You, mostly.”

My heart drops into the pit of my stomach. The dread I feel whenever I’m near Daniel swirls around inside of me. I rub the sweat from my palms off on my dress pants.

“Oh?”

I barely get the one word out, and when I do, my voice is hoarse, barely audible.

“You requested to work one day per week once your season begins.”

Maybe that’s all this is? They came to an agreement to let me continue working during the racing season. I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of a cliff, grasping for something to hold on to, knowing even the slightest wind will send me plunging to my death. I look at Daniel expectantly and wait for him to continue.

“They don’t feel that you working only one day per week is helpful to their team. They asked me how I felt about it, and I mentioned your recent blunder with Dawson Brands. I told them you’re struggling now, working only three days per week. If you’re only there one day, I imagine having someone catch you up each week would create more work for my team.”

“But when I started, you only wanted me to work one day per week.”

Daniel holds my stare, and I’m helpless to tear my eyes from his.

“Well, I’ve changed my mind. So we’re letting you go.”

“What?”

“Did I stutter? You’re fired.”

With his last words, I feel the wind push me off the proverbial cliff. So that’s what this is? I’m not stupid, I know there was no meeting. Miles Cosgrove barely comes into the office as it is. He prefers working from his yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a different, much younger, gold digging girl each week.

This is Daniel’s way of punishing me for telling him no at the track. It’s psychological warfare. He’s taken away something else that he knows is important to me. And knowing him, he won’t stop until I have nothing left. I wanted to stay at the company because I don’t know where racing is going to take me. It’s one thing to get signed to a team, but racing well and winning is something completely different.

You have to win to get paid. Obviously, I want to win. But what if I don’t? What if the small nest egg that I’ve been secretly saving dwindles down to nothing? I’m trying to break free from Daniel, and earning enough money to do so is the only way. I need to be able to support myself, to stand on my own. I don’t want to have to rely on Daddy or my sister to help me. I’ve never been on my own. I don’t even know who I would be, independent from Daniel.

But the closer I get to my dream, the more the fire inside of me continues to grow. I’m going to go out there and show everyone who Sawyer Stone is. I’m going to prove that I belong on the track and that everyone was wrong about me.

Especially Daniel.

Racing is the one thing in my life that he can’t control. It’s all that I have, and there is no way I’m going to let him take that from me too.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JACKSON

My leg is bouncing up and down uncontrollably as I sit in the reception area of my office, waiting for Sawyer to arrive. Once she finds out there isn’t actually a team meeting, she’s probably going to be mad at me. I just hope she gives me a moment to explain.

I check my watch again.

6:57 p.m.

I hope everything is okay. And I hope that asshole doesn’t try to come with her.

Shit.

I didn’t even think of that until now. What if he accompanies her? He’ll see that no one else is here. This could be a disaster waiting to happen. The words she spoke in her office last week come back to me.

“I really have to let you know that you’ll do more damage than you think by coming here.”

Immediately, I try to come up with an excuse for why I needed to see her in private. The elevator dings just then, announcing her arrival. I stand and walk behind the reception desk. I don’t want to be in her face as soon as the doors open. Pretending to read something on the desktop, I hear footsteps enter the lobby. Looking up, it’s hard to hide the relief I feel when I see her by herself.

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