Page 21 of Crash Course Omega
But it just isn’t my day. I’m so obsessed with not getting in second that I’ve already fucked up twice and had to box in the pit lane to change my tires six laps before I was scheduled to, shooting me down to fourth.
Jaxx is back in sixth, so there is no way that asshole is cutting me up. I just have to keep my foot down, brake right, and turn on point.
I’ll overtake on the next straight before we pass under the lights.
Plus, I want to make sure Jaxx can’t make any snarky comments about me not trying.
I get pissy about placing second, but this is Vegas. This is one of the big ones, and standing on the podium here means so much more to me than any of the other races out there.
And not just because the entire track reminds me of Harmony.
Vegas is where she received her first offer for F1, and Vegas had been the real first race of her career.
And telling her I loved her as she came down from the podium holding her trophy was the best feeling in the world.
At least there’s no smiling billboard like in Brazil. I thought that meant I’d be free of her, and I could just focus on the track.
Even though they’d replaced it with another Etihad plane sponsorship, I still glance up at the billboard on the other side of the lights, expecting to see her smiling down at me.
And instead, I see something so much worse.
Because my gaze skips to the Grace paddock, and I catch a shock of long ginger hair that I’d recognize anywhere.
Slamming my pedals, I screech into the corner, nearly losing control of the car.
I don’t brake soon enough and almost send myself spinning.
I gasp, heart flying into my throat. The force nearly crushes me as I turn so hard I swear I'll snap the control.
Jacob will kill me if I total the car because I got distracted by his sister.
As I speed away from the Grace paddock, pure anger blazes in me, and my body roars along with the engine.
Because she shouldn’t fucking be here. She said she was never coming to another race again because of me. Because I ruined everything for her. Even though the Graces were born racers, I was the one who killed her love for it.
Harmony said I fucking destroyed her life, and she never once thought about how it would affect me. She just flung all her painat me, grabbed her bags, and left. The only time I saw her again was at her retirement interview, and they put me four seats away from her where I couldn’t see her.
Because I was so furious I couldn’t even say a word.
And because I missed her so fucking much that it hurt to even look at her billboard in Brazil, let alone see her.
Which is why I speed away as quickly as I can.
Knowing that she’s up there, knowing thatmyomega is in the paddock watching me race, sends a new kind of rage blaring through me.
It feels like she’s looking down on me.
I’ve never won. Not before her, with her, or after her. Not once have I won a fucking race, and I’m becoming a washed-up has-been that stayed on the team because I’m friends with Jacob.
And now she's here to gloat, to prove to me that “there’s more to life than racing”. That’s what she said before she walked out of the door.
I grit my teeth as a growl rumbles from me, and I put my foot down.
“Jacob, how close is P2?”
“1.9 seconds,” he says. “And it's a Cuba Libre. You can do it if you push.”
“What about Jaxx?”
