Page 68 of Kiss & Collide
“She’s flying in for the race. She’ll be in the garage with your parents.”
His stomach dropped. “Why the hell is she going to be in the garage?”
Violet got that hard, obstinate look on her face as her eyes cut to the Pinnacle staffers still working in the room. “This way.” She jerked her head to the hallway off the reception room. He followed her down it and into a small temporary office at the end. She shut the door and leaned back against it.
“Madison is supposed to be your girlfriend,” she said patiently. “Your parents are here. It would seem weird if shewasn’there.”
He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “I just … I don’t like involving my parents in this. This is my job, not theirs.”
“Explain it to them. They can play along, right? I’m happy to give them some coaching—”
“No. I don’t want you coaching my parents on how to behave around this stranger I’m pretending to date. It’s fucked up.”
“You don’t need to be embarrassed about it. These sorts of things happen all the time.” Her calmness was infuriating, like he was just one more item on her to-do list, one more public relations issue to be managed.
“Not to me. Not to them. I just don’t want her here, in that part of my life.”
“Well, it’s already arranged. She’s arriving tonight. We’ve put her at your hotel so—”
“Violet, no. If everybody thinks I’m there with her, then I can’t come see you, and—”
“So don’t come see me. You shouldn’t anyway. Not when she’s around. If you were seen—”
“Fuck that. I don’t care.”
“I do. It’s my job to care.”
“I’m not just a part of your fucking job!” He was only aware as the words were coming out of his mouth that he was shouting, the sound echoing in the tiny space.
Up until now, she’d maintained that expressionless professional face, refusing to even look directly at him. Now her eyes snapped up to his, blazing with anger.
“Youaremy job. I’m not going to forget that and neither should you.”
There was a little alarm buzzing in his head, trying to warn him to shut up and stop pushing her, but he wouldn’t be thedriver he was if he listened to the caution warnings that held most people back.
He took a step closer, crowding her against the door. “This—what we do—this is not a part of your job, and don’t you dare pretend otherwise.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he barreled on. “Don’t pretend like you don’t want me. Don’t pretend you don’t care.”
Her hands came up between them and she shoved hard against his shoulders. He stepped back out of her space as she pushed away from the door.
“Sex is just fucking, Chase. And don’tyoupretend otherwise. You want a nice girlfriend to introduce to your fucking happy family, call up Madison and leave me out of it.”
Then she spun around, wrenched the door open, and stormed out. This time he didn’t follow her.
28
Chase hurtled through a tricky turn complex, trying his best to clear his head and focus on the track in front of him. But his thoughts kept returning to that fight with Violet the night before, over and over again. Was that what that even was? Had he and Violet just had a fight? Could you have a fight with someone you weren’t even technically dating?
He’d woken up mad today and honestly, he still was. Frustration welled up in his chest with nowhere to go but out on the track. Generally it was bad to let anything from the rest of your life get into your head during a race, but maybe the anger was working for him today. He’d been driving aggressively from the instant the lights had gone out and was sitting in eleventh place as a result, which was a minor miracle for Pinnacle.
He couldn’t even bring himself to think about Madison watchingwith his familyin the garage.
So he did what he did best: drove. He’d come into today expecting the usual fight for his life, but Rabia was beginning to tame the unpredictability that had plagued this car when he’d first climbed into it. Each update seemed small on its own,but they all came together out on the track. He could feel the balance coming back.
“Okay, Chase,” Emil said into his ear. “We want you to push now.”
Time for some really aggressive driving, which was fine. Today he felt like he had nothing but aggression, and for once, the car was responding to it. “You got it.”
He flipped a switch, turned a rotary, and adjusted his brake balance as he headed for Turn One. He peeled another half a second off Elian’s time up ahead. He was getting ready to launch it through Turn Fifteen again when Emil crackled in his ear.
