Page 119 of Close Contact
And I couldn’t fucking wait for a woman to end their careers.
I securedthe steering wheel and strapped myself back in. My hands were steady now—steady in a way they hadn’t been before Callum’s crash. The fear had scorched out of me. What was left was something colder. Resolve slithered through my bloodstream like steel.
They’d created a monster without even knowing.
“I’ll be back at the garage in a moment,” I told them calmly, almost deadly.
My team principal Henric’s voice came through my headset. “You stopped mid-race, Aurélie. I’ll have to ask the FIA if they’ll even let you finish.”
I snapped my visor down and pulled back onto the track. I trusted Callum to handle the FIA, not Henric. “That’s your job, isn’t it? And while you’re at it, go ahead and ask what they plan to do about Morel. I warned them this would happen, and they didn’t listen. Not to me. Not when it mattered.”
Silence.
I coasted along the track slowly, following the required speed limits. It was slow enough that it gave me time to look up at the big screen and watch the wreckage. Time to think about what could’ve happened if Callum hadn’t survived.
“This isn’t the time to bring that to them,” Henric said finally.
I laughed. Laughed, because otherwise I’d scream.
“Really? Why don’t you ask the team about when he shoved me earlier in the garage? Or when he damn near clipped me in the pit exit. The man has a vendetta against anyone who dares to challenge him—especially if they’re younger, or French, or female.” I paused, then twisted the knife. “And if the FIA won’t listen to their drivers when they say they don’t feel safe, maybe they’ll listen when a world champion nearly dies. Watch the playback. Then come find me.”
I shut off the radio before he could respond. I completed the lap and entered the pit lane. All the drivers and teams turned to watch as I passed. I waved—calm, cool, unbothered—as I pulled into my spot and killed the engine. I climbed out and yanked my helmet off, sweat plastering my braids to the back of my neck.
Henric was already waiting, arms crossed. I walked straight up to him, standing tall even though I had to crane my neck.
“I told you to stay in the car,” he barked. “This isn’t some romance novel where the girl throws away her career for the guy.”
My chest tightened, but I didn’t flinch. “You think I give a shit about a romance novel? I just watched the man I love almostdie,” I said quietly. “I would’ve done the same for any driver on this grid.” I paused, thinking of Marco’s laugh and Kimi’s quiet steadiness. The brothers I’d chosen. “Well, anyone worth saving.”
His nostrils flared. “You screwed up. You’re too much of a liability.”
I didn’t back down. I was so far past the breaking point. “You want to talk about liability?” I sneered, my upper lip curling back in disgust. “Morel’s the one putting lives at risk. And you want to stand here and makemethe problem? The same way you’ve done all season when you realized I was more than a puppet and a pretty face?”
He jabbed a finger in my face. “Youarethe problem. You broke protocol.”
I stepped closer until that finger was nearly touching me. “I broke protocol because protocol isbroken. And if you’re too afraid to say it, fine. But I’m not, because I’m not a pussy just because I have one.” I shoved his hand away.
Henric tilted his head, his cheeks turning ruddy. Yeah, that one got under his skin. “Take some fucking accountability, Aurélie. You’re too much of a distraction. Nothing but a media circus and, as I said before, a liability.”
Liability. That word again. As if I was a risk, instead of the goddamn warning shot.
I grinned, but it felt far from kind. “Well, it’s a good thing Ferrari didn’t think so.”
His brow creased. “What?”
I let it drop casually, as if I wasn’t about to shift the entire tectonic structure of this fucking garage. “I signed with them after I won in Monaco. Four years.” I folded my arms across my chest and everything silenced around us. Kimi’s head whipped toward me. Mechanics froze mid-motion. Henric paled. “You know, while you were off interviewing other drivers for my seat.”
The admission settled like dust after a controlled detonation.Good.
Henric shuffled away from me, blinking. I met his eyes and delivered the final blow. “I stayed quiet because I wanted to finish the season with dignity,” I said quietly. “But make no mistake—I don’t owe you shit after the way you’ve treated me.”
The lightsin the medical center were too bright, breaking through the haze that had settled in my head. My body ached, every movement feeling like daggers. I could still feel the phantom weight of the harness digging into my shoulders and hear the crunch of metal echoing in my ears, the loss of consciousness when my final thoughts had been of her.
When I’d first come to, I couldn’t feel my legs. Just dead weight. No sensation, no movement. For a horrifying, soul-piercing moment, I thought it was over. Thought I was paralyzed, that my career was gone, that my life was changed… forever.
It was why I needed Aurélie to finish the race. She couldn’t risk her career too.
The safety crew had told me the cockpit had to be dismantled to get me out—my legs were pinned so tightly between thecrushed panels that the hydraulic cutters took minutes to work. Minutes I didn’t have.
