Page 41 of Green Flag
But he was already walking away. My heart thudded until he looked back and gave me a dazzling smile.
To make up for it, I liked his last ten photos.
And when I glanced up, Bella’s brows were raised, waiting for me to speak.
“I, er…”
“You er what?” She was always fully loaded with attitude, but this was the confirmation I needed. She was my friend. This was a friend telling another friend off.
My heart warmed even as my brain panicked for what in the er I was.
“You used to date, didn’t you? Pedro?”
I’d expected most people to know, but staff were always changing in StormSprint — especially the grid girls — and it seemed like the topic of Pedro had been expressly forbidden.
I nodded, still trying to find the words.
Her nose crinkled as if our past relationship smelled terrible.
“He’s not the bad guy—”
She snorted. “Right. He’s the reason the Ciclati planes still get random searches from the FBI, CIA…” She shook her head. “You just confirmed he was the bad guy by saying you two were dating.”
The planes were still being searched? They couldn’t do that randomly; there had to be evidence of more drug trafficking, which meant…
Fucking bingo.
My frown was deep. “You—”
“Whereas, you two are cute,” Bella said, eyes swinging from Luca to me with pursed, contemplative lips. “Use him to let off some steam. But don’t expect anything more than that.”
“Why not?” Kind of a bit late for that advice.
“He’s only into casual hookups and… he’d only be doing it to spite Ciclati and wind up your dad.”
9
Chapter 9
Luca
The press behaved, so Everly didn’t have to throw a bad punch. I didn’t want to draw attention away from the injustice my cousin suffered, but I also didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so when they questioned me on the last race, I was more than enthusiastic with my answers.
I’d proven myself in Austria.
And Everly was grinning from ear to ear, nodding along on the tarmac.
So I started the race as calmly as I usually did and managed to place seventh. Which wasn’t my best, but far from my worst. Nix came fourth which was unheard of for him. He either came first, second, or in the back of an ambulance after crashing out. There was no in-between for him.
When it came to celebrating, he was nowhere to be seen. Neither was our media manager.
Ces had to fly back to Bosa for his sister’s birthday the next day, so he shouldn’t be out. Georges and Saliha were bickering up in his room and Frank was entertaining the grid girls, glowing after his win.
As the season wore on, I noticed the distance between me and my Sprint3 friends. We had different schedules, and now that I was in my trailer and they were still in the hotels, I hardly saw them.
I’d been neglecting my social duties a bit.
But that wasn’t an excuse when we were only three months away from the end of the season. With most of the contracts for next year being ironed out in the next couple of months, I might even have some of my old friends joining me in StormSprint, promoted from Sprint3 to Sprint2 and then to my league.
