“What?” I shrieked the word, the echo of it harsh on my ears. “Those... those... argh! I can’t even think of something obscene enough to call them! Goddammit, Dixon! Goddammit!”
“I know, love, I know. But you have to admit, it was against the rules, and we did know that when we invited Vitale to go with us.”
“But he needed us! His dog needed us! And what about Anton? We gave Anton a ride, and no one said aword about that. Or about the fact that they left him behind. What about that?”
Dixon kissed the tip of my nose. “It isn’t against the rules to give a fellow racer a ride. It was only nonrace personnel that were forbidden.”
“Well, then, what about all the shit they pulled the whole race? Poisoning Melody—”
“We don’t know for certain they did that.”
“And breaking Rupert’s leg—”
“That very well might have been an accident.”
“And all the other racers who were done in some way or another.”
“Which also may have been accidents and cases of very bad luck.”
I took a deep breath. “If they get to file a complaint about Vitale, then we are going to file a countercomplaint about the damage they did to our motor. We have Anton as proof that they hurt the Flyer’s engine.”
Dixon smiled. “I’ve already done so.”
“We don’t get the money? Any of it?” I asked, blinking back my tears.
“I’m afraid not.”
“We don’t get to lord it over the bastard cheaters that we beat them without once doing anything wrong?”
“No, but we will know that. As will others. The TV audience will see that.”
A lone tear spilled out over my lashes. Dixon brushed it away. “It was all for nothing?”
“Hardly that.” He pulled me against his body and I let myself relax against him, wonderfully filled with joy despite the devastation of this news. “I found you. I will have you to wake up to every morning, and every night you will have your wanton way with me. I can’t think of anything in the world I want more than you.”
“Oh, Dixon,” I said, sniffling and laughing at the sametime. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Where are we going to live? In England or California?”
His expression shifted. “I work for my brother. We can live in England if you want.”
I watched him closely for a few seconds, discovering something that astounded me. “You really don’t like your job, do you?”
He shrugged. “I used to. Lately, it’s just... routine. All the machinery has been put in place. Alice—my brother Elliott’s wife; you’ll like her—she does a fine job running the tourist side of the estate, and I know she’d jump at the chance of managing the whole thing.”
“Which means you can do anything you want, right?” I asked, not understanding why he looked so uncomfortable. Was there something he wasn’t telling me? “What is your dream job?”
He was silent for a few minutes, then said slowly, “If you really want to know... what we just did.”
“A round-the-world car race?”
“Not the race itself—the traveling from country to country. Only I’d like to be able to stop and see places, rather than racing through them. I’d like to go back to Russia. And Kazakhstan. And Poland, and Arizona, and all sorts of places. I liked writing about our trip, too. I thought... I wondered... I don’t know if I can make a living at it, but there’s a thing called travel journalism, and I thought it might be interesting.”
I stared at him in openmouthed wonder for a moment. “Holy hellbells, Dixon! You want to be Nellie Bly, too!”
“Do I take it you approve of the plan?”
“Yes, yes, a hundred times yes.” I let go of him to do a little jig. “We can get a blog! Travel blogs are huge. We can go to exotic places, and take pictures, and blog about it, and then write reviews of places. Oh my god, this is perfect! We can write a book about our trip and combineour journals into it! Oh! Oh! I can write stories about the people we see when we travel, and you can write about the places, and put those into books, too! This’ll be so awesome! We’ll travel around and have sex in all sorts of fabulous places, and there’s nothing my dad can do to stop me, because I’ll be with you, and you won’t let me be kidnapped!”
He lifted me and spun me around, saying, “No one gets to kidnap you except me.”
