Lukas walked away.
She watched his retreating back in utter disbelief. Never in all the years that she’d spent building her career had anyone refused to speak to her.
‘Come with me.’
She startled at her producer’s words, spoken right beside her. Uneasiness crept in her belly. What had Lukas said? She wanted to know what was happening but didn’t dare speak as she followed him to the OB van.
‘Everyone out,’ he instructed, leaving Katherine alone with him. Then the door slid shut.
‘We took you on because your lecturer vouched for you,’ her producer said. ‘Asked us to give you a chance. But that means nothing if the drivers won’t talk to you. You’re no good to us if thereigning championwon’t talk to you. You’re done here. You’re fired.’
‘What?’ Katherine cried out in disbelief, utterly shocked at the gross overreaction. ‘You can’t be serious. You can’t just fire me! I’ve done my job. Who doesn’t want to talk to me?’
‘Lukas Jäger. He’s competitive. He’s always competitive, always going to be in the title hunt, which means we’ll be speaking to him a lot. That makes you a liability. So yes, I can fire you.’ He stated it as if Katherine’s world imploding made no difference at all.
‘Did Jäger actually tell you this?’ Katherine demanded. She didn’t understand why he would refuse to speak to her. Even if he was secretly against women in the sport, he had given interviews to women before. So why was he singling her out? Regardless of his reasons, his word shouldn’t be enough to get her fired…but she suspected what was really going on.
‘Or is this a convenient way for you to get rid of me? Don’t think I haven’t noticed how I’m the only woman reporting on Alpha One for VelociTV, or the way you all speak about the handful of female correspondents here. How you think the female strategists and engineers are somehow a liability. Just be honest!’
‘First of all, yes, Lukas did say that to me. Second, you’re no longer employed, so I don’t care what you think. If you’re going to be sensitive about it, go cry on some talk show. Give me back your pass. You’re out of here.’
Katherine pulled off her lanyard, tossed it at him and threw open the van door. As she walked away, she tried to leash the utter devastation coursing through her. She’d gotten to live her dream so briefly before having it ripped from her, thanks to a misogynistic ass who happened to drive a car well.
That was fine, because this wasn’t the end. She would find a way to show the world exactly who Lukas Jäger was.
CHAPTER ONE
The clacking ofquick-fire typing on a mechanical keyboard died with an enthusiastic punch of the enter key.
‘Done,’ Katherine said to herself in the stillness of her home office. The sounds of London beyond the window returned in full force after the vacuous silence of moments before. The shelves of her office—lined with books and Lego plants, the only type she didn’t kill—rematerialising as she came back from the place she disappeared into whenever she wrote an article. She was exceptionally proud of this one. A feature on Lukas Jäger, former Alpha One champion, currently without a drive for next year, and the man she hated more than anyone else.
Katherine was arguably one of the most popular journalists in the paddock. But it hadn’t always been that way. She’d worked hard to become a key part of the presenter team of the official broadcaster, Aero TV. A position that had also won her her very own column on the network’s sporting site.
It hadn’t all been smooth sailing. Lukas Jäger was the reason for that. The reason she had been fired from her first position as an on-track correspondent for VelociTV, a smaller, but well-respected motorsport news network.
She still remembered that day three years ago when he’d taken one look at her, turned around and walked away. She remembered the hope that had filled her when she saw her producer talk to him, thinking that maybe he would convince a media-shy driver to give her five minutes of his time. But that had never happened. That day her producer shattered her dream.
You’re no good to us if the reigning champion won’t talk to you. You’re done here. You’re fired.
Reporting on Alpha One had been Katherine’s dream job, the sport a point of connection with her father. Something that was just for the two of them. Growing up, it was during those races that he’d noticed her, given her the attention she so craved but wouldn’t ask for. Then because of an entitled chauvinist, that dream had almost died before it had even really begun. And she couldn’t speak about her experience because she’d had to make sure another network or publication would hire her afterwards. One where a ‘sensitive woman’—which the misogynists would undoubtedly call her—might be no more welcome than at VelociTV.
To protect her dream, she’d had to remain hireable.
Now here she was, writing a feature on the man whose name had constantly been churning in the rumour mill, whether he would secure a drive next season or if his career was over. And she hadn’t held back.
Regardless of how Katherine felt about Lukas Jäger, she was a professional and, giving her article a once-over, she was satisfied with the balance of her reporting. She had presented the facts. Feeling more than a little pleased, she submitted her article, then took a look at the gold smartwatch on her wrist.
She smiled. ‘I’ll be early to dinner.’ A dinner with her family that she had been looking forward to all week. Well, it was more her parents that she had been keen to see.
She picked up her phone to send a message to the family chat to say she was on her way when she noticed her father’s message.
Dinner is postponed. Paige got into a spot of trouble. Sorry. Love you, Kittykat.
‘Of course,’ Kat breathed. Her high from moments before dulled into the ever-familiar disappointment that came attached to mentions of her sister. Her twin sister. People often thought twins had to be close. That they would have to be alike and have a near telepathic connection, but that had never been the case with them. Where Katherine had succeeded, Paige had languished. When Katherine had chosen the path of academics and responsibility, Paige had chosen to party and move in the wrong crowd. And yet Paige was the one doted on by Christopher, their big brother. Paige was the fun one Nicholas—her younger brother that Katherine had helped raise—wanted to spend time with. Her parents had focussed most of their time on her siblings, especially Paige, because they needed it more than her.
Katherine was used to this. It wasn’t a big deal, she always had work to do.
And as if the universe had heard her thoughts, the phone in her hand began to ring, flashing her producer’s name.
