Page 60 of Green Flag
Her mouth was open, brows pinched together in alarmed pain. Her eyes flickered between the two of us and landed on him with frequent blinks.
“Pedro,” she said, standing tall, but her voice came out wobbly and twisted despite the anger in her closed fists. “You got my messages?”
Pedro’s shoulders lowered with a sigh. “I’mnothere for you.”
Everly stood back, opening the door further to the pit box. “So, who are you here for? Because not one person in here wants to see you.”
Through the door, I could see Livie talking to the camera crew but glancing over her shoulder towards us. I couldn’t see anyone else, though Pedro leaned forward as if preparing to answer her question.
If I were him, I wouldn’t dare.
“My new friend Luca,” he said, throwing a thumb my way. “He invited me down.”
It was her time to sigh, rolling her eyes at me. “If you wanted an invite, all you had to do was reply to my message.”
I didn’t think of myself as particularly dense, but it was when she said this, the way her voice softened, that I realised. This washim.
The only man she’d ever had sex with. The man who had worn her down so much that he had made her trust in people weak.
I looked him over again. Rich, yes. Attractive, without a doubt. Confident, dark and mysterious, tick. A fucking predator?Obviously.
Because she had been a teenager.
He had to have been thirty then. At least. If she wouldn’t punch him, I fucking would.
“If you’re not here for me, what are you here for? Dad won’t see you and—”
He clicked his tongue. “Not everything is about you, princess. Nothing about me has to do with you. Nor your father.”
I was never going to call her that again.
The venom in his words made my hands ball into fists. He was not about to talk to Everly like that.
Livie had stepped back into view before coming over with a worried expression. “Everything—”
“It’s fine,” Pedro snapped.
Oh hell no.
No amount of aggression — even the abruptness of his words — was going to stand in my pit box.
I’d defend any of my Ciclati workers to the death.
If he so much as dared to snap at Everly again…
I wasn’t ignorant of Ciclati, but Livie knew everything about her brand. Her eyes widened when she saw him and she glanced from him to me to Everly.
Everly didn’t turn around. “Just… just give us a second, please, Liv.”
I stepped past her into the pit box, trying to tear my eyes away from them. Livie didn’t let Everly close the door, instead placing the door stop in the way, despite the cameras around. She gestured for me to go towards one. “This is the one and only Luca Mendes,” she said before leaving me to speak into her radio, mentioning security.
I had to ask the producers to repeat their questions more times than was socially acceptable. My focus was on the hushed argument behind me.
And I tried to distract the camera team away from it, while also being heavily distractedbyit.
Everly was getting angrier, her hisses rising. Livie was back at my side as the camera crew and presenter started to pay more attention to the quiet commotion at the door than the interviews. “Ah look, here’s Arabella, our longest standing grid girl — she’s about to give some tours of pit lane — why— why don’t you show them, Bella?”
Arabella whispered something in Livie’s ear then tried to take off just as Everly screeched at Pedro before storming over.
