CHAPTER 36
Travis
I double check my rental car’s GPS to make sure I’m going in the right direction. I’ve been traveling on this isolated road for nearly thirty minutes.
The navigation system tells me that I have another ten minutes before arriving at my destination. My hands squeeze the steering wheel.
Only a handful of people know why I’m in Italy instead of on my flight to Austria for my next Grand Prix. Hours after winning in Barcelona, I received another fucked-up note. This one was a picture of my wrecked car in Monaco with the words:
Did you think this was an accident?
Since the note was left among my belongings in the paddock, it had to have come from someone with easy access. With over a thousand people on the Amato racing team alone, not to mention the extraneous reporters, track staff, agents, and publicists who pass through the paddock on race day, it could’ve been anyone.
Since then, my Uncle Brutus has made contact with Luciano Farina.
He’s said he wants to meet with me. Which is why I’m in Italy.
“Dad,” I answer the call through the car’s Bluetooth system.
“Are you there yet?”
I drop my gaze to the GPS again. “Seven minutes.”
“I don’t like you going by yourself,” Dad says, his voice sounding grim.
“I’m not alone,” I remind him. My family’s security team can pick out my location right down to within a few feet.
“You know what I mean. What if it’s a set up and no one can get to you in time?”
It’s taken me until now to recognize the tone of fear in my father’s voice. Now that I’m close to becoming a father myself, I understand it a hell of a lot more.
“This isn’t a set up,” I tell my dad. “Farina wants to tell me something in person.”
“Are you sure he’s not the one making these threats?”
“Uncle Brutus checked that when he found Farina.”
“I don’t like it.”
The nervousness in my dad’s voice is the only reason I don’t tell him I know what I’m doing.
“It’ll be over soon.”
A second later the GPS beeps, telling me I’m less than a minute out.
“I’m here,” I respond. “I’ll text when I’m done.”
“Call,” he insists. “Love you. Be safe.”
I make a right turn off of the main gravel road, which is surrounded by forest, onto a long driveway. The asphalt delivers me to a large, two-toned brick and stone house.
The house sits at around six thousand square feet, a huge wraparound front porch and four massive windows in which the main door sits in between.
Out of my car, I glance around at the spread of nature and quiet that surrounds the home. In the distance, I can hear flowing water and the songs of birds in the trees.
The sound of the wooden door opening catches my attention. A woman dressed in white scrubs with a light blue badge clipped to her shirt pocket stands there, awaiting my approach.
My stomach tightens in anticipation. I’ve never seen this woman before but the badge on her shirt says that she’s some sort of nurse.
