I nod. I swear, Sofia is a genius just like Tom. She remembers absolutelyeverything. I heard her tell an engineer earlier not to forget to call his son to see how his orthodontist appointment went, and then when we were talking about last year’s testing, she didn’t just remember the order of the drivers, she remembered theirexact lap times. All twenty of them.
Crazy.
“Go on and head out,” she says. “The team’s got it from here.”
I thank her, shout a goodbye to the others, and then all but sprint out of there. I brought all my stuff from my hotel already, so I can just head to the airport straight from here. It’s five fifty-seven p.m., which means I have at best an hour before I have to leave.
The paddock is quieter now, with only a few people milling around. It was warm earlier today, but it’s cooled down quite abit. I’m shivering slightly in only a T-shirt as I hurry toward the Harper motorhome.
A guy with a Harper T-shirt on is coming out as I approach.
“Hey, man,” I say, trying to sound as normal and non-spy-ish as I can, “do you know if Travis Keeping has left yet?”
“Not sure, sorry,” he says.
The door swings closed behind him and he heads off. I lurch forward and pull on the handle, but it’s already locked. There’s a keypad that beeps angrily at me when I press Open.
I spin around, but the guy’s already vanished. I could go in through the main doors, where their cafeteria is, but when I passed it just now, their team principal was sitting outside talking with one of their engineers. I can’t exactly sneak by in my very obvious Crosswire T-shirt.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
Someone clears their throat behind me. “Can I help you?”
I turn. Heather is standing there, watching me. She’s got a black Harper shirt on, and her long, dark brown hair falls in loose curls over her shoulder. Her expression isn’t unpleasant, exactly, but I think this must be how a mouse feels when it runs into a snake.
I’m also almost completely sure she knows about me and Travis. Like, not just that we dated, but that I dumped him and was mostly a total bastard.
I swallow hard. “I was just... wondering if Travis left already.”
Her eyes narrow slightly. “Oh.”
She doesn’t say anything else. I clear my throat awkwardly. “Do you... know if he has?”
“Yes.”
Another silence. “Yes, he’s left?” I say. “Or yes, you know if he has or not?”
I think she’s not going to answer me, but finally she says, “He’s still here.”
A rush of relief runs through me. “Oh. Well—can I talk to him?”
She tilts her head. “Depends. Are you going to be a dick?”
Yeah, she definitely knows everything.
And damn it, I really like her.
“No,” I say honestly. “I’m not.”
She scrutinizes my face for another minute and then nods. “Alright, then.” She leans past me and punches in the keycode. The door clicks open. “His room’s at the very end of the hall, on the left.”
“Thank you.” I shoot her a thin smile and head inside. She doesn’t follow me in, which I’m grateful for. Inside, there’s a long narrow hallway lined with doors. I pause for a moment to rub my palms against my shirt and try to slow my racing heart.
I’m about to start walking again when a door clicks open and Matty steps out into the hall.
He does a double take when he sees me standing there, and then something shifts in his usually cheerful face. And seriously, doeseveryoneknow about me and Travis? Because Matty definitely does. He looks me up and down and then gives me this really sharp, predatory smile. I wait for him to speak, but he just leans against the wall with his arms crossed, staring at me.
The tips of my ears are on fire. I clear my throat and move to step around him. “Excuse me—”
