Page 95 of Fast & Reckless
“Where is she?”
“Avoiding that pack of wolves, no doubt.”
“Violet.”
“I think she’s in the garage, but—”
“I have to go.”
“But you have a press conference!”
“I can’t. Tell them to read this and go askBrodysome fucking questions, for once.”
“Will!”
But he didn’t hear the rest of her screeched protest. He was already pushing through security personnel, dodging around satellite trucks, jumping over piles of cables, and climbing steel barricade fences to make it to the Lennox garage.
Crew members stopped to stare as he ran past. Some called out in concern, but he didn’t stop to explain himself. He couldn’t explain it yet, because he didn’t know exactly what was happening. But he was determined to find out.
In the garage, he found her, standing between the twin Lennox cars with Harry, scribbling something on her notepad as Harry rattled off instructions. Harry trailed off as he spotted Will coming to a stop, breathing hard.
“Will? Something wrong?”
Every mechanic in the garage stopped what they were doing to watch, too.
Mira whipped around, eyes going wide at the sight of him. Seeing her face again after this miserable week without herwas like coming up for air after having been underwater for too long.
“Not sure yet,” he said to Harry without looking away from Mira’s face. “Can I get a minute, Harry?”
“Sure, Will. What’s the issue?”
Now he did look at Harry, shooting him a look he hoped the older man could interpret. “I meant a minute with Mira. Alone.”
Harry scowled, looking from Mira to Will as if he was considering arguing. Then he turned to address the mechanics. “Quit gawping and get back to work!” he barked at them, before stomping out of the garage.
Every pair of eyes immediately swiveled away from them.
“I read the interview,” he said with no preamble.
“Oh.”
“Mira, why did you do it?”
She sighed, dragging a hand through her loose hair. God, how he’d missed that hair. He’d missed every single thing about her, from her dimples to her ankles, from the way she chewed on her bottom lip when she was nervous to the way she whispered his name when she was close to coming.
“I got tired of hiding from it. So I put it all out there. If people are going to judge me, then at least it can be on the truth. My version of it, for once.”
His chest ached with a mix of pride and pain. What she’d done was brave. Reckless perhaps, but brave. “You know some people are still going to think the worst, no matter what you do. Trust me, I know.”
She let out a huff of laughter. “Oh, I know. Read the comments section if you want a little taste of the worst of humanity. But lots of people have been really kind, too. A few peoplehave reached out to me, to make sure I’m all right, and plenty of people think Brody is a scumbag. Even more think you were totally justified in kicking his ass. So mission accomplished, I guess.”
He shook his head. “No, Mira. I would never want you to put yourself out there like this on my account. It’s not right.” In truth, it made him feel sick to think she’d done this for him. Ever since she’d told him the whole story in Austin, he’d wanted to protect her from getting any more hurt and now, because of him, she’d offered herself up as some sort of sacrifice.
“It wasn’t for you. Well, notjustfor you. At the end of the day, it was about me. I’ve been living my life like I was ashamed. Like everything they said about me seven years ago was true. But I’m done believing it or apologizing for something I didn’t do.”
“You never should have had to.”
She dropped her eyes to a patch of concrete just in front of her feet, and she hooked her hair behind her ear. “Did you read through to the end of the interview?”
