Page 1 of Fast & Reckless
PROLOGUE
Will Hawley downshifted, desperately attempting to hang on to his car as the laws of physics tried to rip it off the track. But the shimmy in the back tires foretold disaster. He could feel himself losing control … the sickening lurch in his head, and in his gut.
This was a reckoning. Barreling toward him at three hundred kilometers an hour.
Will took three shuddering breaths, trying to slow his racing heart.
Focus.
But it was too late.
The downforce, the tire pressure, the fuel load … it was all going sideways. Will lost his sense of the horizon, unable to tell which way was up.
It’s over.
There was nothing left to do as a cascade of failures ripped through the race car and threw it into an uncontrolled spin across the track. Will’s existence was reduced to a blur of color, burning tires, and a deafening roar as the car careened into a wall and crumpled around his body.
Will felt a ringing in his ears as his vision briefly faded to black. Only one thought pierced the fog: This was the last time he’d ever be on a Formula One track.
Because his career was fuckingover.
1
THREE YEARS LATERLennox Headquarters, Chilton-on-Stour, England
Mira raced down the hallway of Lennox Motorsport, rubbing her thumb over the surface of her employee ID like a talisman. She glanced down at her new job title again.
Miranda Wentworth
Executive Assistant, Lennox Motorsport
This was real. She was back.
Mira stopped outside Penelope Farnham’s open office door.
“I did it,” she whispered, overcome with emotion.
A woman, tall, angular, and about Mira’s age, poked her head out of the office and raked her eyes over Mira with a lightning-fast glance. “You’re Miranda? The new Pen?”
“I guess so? Yes. I am. And Mira’s fine.”
“I’m Violet, from PR,” the woman said over her shoulder as she brushed past. “And you’re supposed to follow me.”
Mira hurried down the hallway after her. “But I’m supposed to find Penelope—”
“Yeah, well, this morning Pen’s doctor told her she was absolutelynotallowed to leave bed until her due date.”
“Oh. She’s not coming?” As intimidated as Mira had been at the prospect of meeting Pen in the flesh, not having her here to show her the ropes was infinitely scarier.
Penelope’s doctor-ordered bed rest had led to Mira’s last-minute hire, just weeks from the start of the Formula One season. Pen was, to put it mildly, a little freaked out about turning her job over to some total newbie from America. As Mira quickly packed up in LA and prepared to fly out to England, Pen had texted nonstop with instructions. Mira had already filled three notepads. And now it seemed like the job was about to become one hundred percent more terrifying.
