Page 188 of Green Flag
Everly Bacque was everything.
Two men in black shirts and earpieces shouldered their way through the crowd to my side.
“She punched me,” Pedro said to them, lazily gesturing to my girlfriend. “Sheassaultedme.”
“Because he tried to make a move on my very underage sister!” she cried, pointing at him. “He’s a paedophile.”
The two men looked at each other in bewilderment.
Fia had looked on silently, but she jumped down from her stool and said to the men, “I’d check his phone if I were you. If he’s had the intelligence to delete his dirty little messages — which I doubt — you can look at mine.”
Everly spun around to stare at her sister, eyes wide. She cocked her head to the side as if to say, ‘ex-fucking-scooze me?’
The men took Pedro by the arms, escorting him out to his relatively calm cries of innocence.
Livie was ushering people out of the small room with a sweet smile, and Everly crushed her sister in a hug. “Did he—did he touch you?”
She scoffed, pulling back and rolling her eyes. “C’mon, Ever. As if I’d let him.”
Her perfect eyebrows furrowed in question.
“He thought he had me wrapped around his little finger,” she laughed. “But it was me. That man got himself tied up in knots.” She lifted her little finger to emphasise her point. “All I had to dowas like his comment on your post and — boom — he was in my DMs, and I was acting clueless. I had to pretend I hated you, and slagged you off a bit, so maybe don’t read those messages, but he fell for it bad. I’ve got loads, though. I have enough messages to prove he’s a… what did you call him? A fucking piece of filth.”
She lifted her phone and swiped through. There were hundreds of messages.
“I told Dad I was going to meet my bio-dad here and instead I met up with wankstain,” she explained. “I just happened to record our entire conversation at the bar. No one fucks with my sister, so I did what I could.”
Tears gathered in Everly’s eyes and she pulled her sister into her arms.
“You’re creasing my dress,” Fia scolded, but she hugged her back, resting her head on Everly’s shoulder.
“It’smydress!” Everly laughed-cried, holding her sister tighter.
* * *
Pedro didn’t get prison time like he deserved. He was put on the sex offenders list and wasn’t allowed the internet for five years. MotoBike fired him and numerous articles followed explaining exactly why.
He was ruined.
It wasn’t enough.
Nothing would be enough.
But Nix had him under constant surveillance, waiting for him to make one wrong move to put him in prison.
We’d find something eventually.
Everly tried to put him behind her, but she started therapy sessions to break down exactly what had happened to her and how to process it.
And in my therapy sessions, I discussed how I wanted to help her.
Whilst also helping myself.
We toured the world. StormSprint always meant we were on the move, but we didn’t stay still. There were nearly 200 countries in the world, and we were going to tick off every one. Together.
But the scariest for us was Italy. Specifically, Verona. Precisely, Nonna Imelda’s house.
There wasn’t a world for me without Everly Bacque. Neither was there one where I didn’t race, nor where I didn’t love my family.
