“Have to be.” He shrugs. “I can’t be delicate about it. I know what I want. I am aggressive and confident. No one wants a cautious driver.”
“But at the same time, you don’t want to cause accidents.”
He scoffs. “No one wants to cause accidents, but they happen. A few years ago, I got taken out, which caused me to spin, and I ended up in the side of one of the other boys causing him to flip the car. We drive over two hundred miles an hour, most of the time on narrow tracks. It’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s our fault, sometimes it isn’t. But I just feel like with Cowan, he will do anything to fuck my race up.”
“That’s just because you want this so badly,” I whisper, “and that’s okay to feel like that. As much as I want to say he wouldn’t do that, there are some knobheads in the world that would do anything to use you as a stepping stone in their career.” I huff, reaching for my glass and swallowing the contents down. I wince.
“Has that happened to you?” His head tilts to the side slightly.
I shake my head. “But it’s like any job, right? I’m just little old me. Can’t even string a sentence together and haven’t been able to in a few years, and yet here I am, sitting in Australia about to embark on this crazy ride and for what? Ugh.” I face palm myself. This wasn’t meant to be about me, and yet it’s circled right back around.
“You’ve got this.” I feel his hand on my knee, and I ignore the way my body pricks with anticipation. My skin pebbles, a gorgeous shiver dancing over my flaming skin.
“I doubt it,” I whisper. “I am just going to be a hindrance to you,” I say, slowly dropping my hands from my face.
He is staring straight into my soul. He is perched on the edge of the leather seat, elbows resting on his knees.
“You’ll never be a hindrance, kid,” he murmurs. “And I swear, this book…” He pauses and imitates a rocket taking off with his finger.
I don’t want to tell him that two minutes into orbit it will crash and burn.
“We’ll see.” A fake smile masks my lips before we decide to call it a night.
Chapter Thirteen
Royce
QUALIFYING
This.
This is what it’s all about.
This moment, just as you’re lowering yourself into the cockpit of the car.
Your mechanics are rallying around you, keeping the tyres warm and finishing their final checks. The engine vibrates under you, your fingers tingle as they lock around the steering wheel. You wait for this moment for what feels like forever.
This is where I was born to be. I’m free as a bird when I am tucked in here. No outside noise. No distraction. Just me and the car.
Revving the engine, the noise sends a chill down my spine. The adrenaline is pumping through my blood, and Marcel checks in on the radio.
“Radio check,” he says, his voice soft and smooth.
“Yup, loud and clear.”
My guys pull the blankets off the tyres as I am called forward, rolling the car out and getting the green light to pull out of the pits.
Fuck, it feels good.
The team spent all day yesterday fixing upgrades and checking it over. I just hope to fucking God that it’s the one because it’s parc fermé now so if there was anything, we’re fucked.
“Okay, Royce, let’s do this.”
The same quote echoes through my ears as I fly onto the track, clean air in front of me. I needed to keep my tyres warm and drive like my life depends on it. I can’t afford to be knocked out; I need to be in Q3. Anything less would be soul destroying.
Shifting through the gears, I fly down just past Clark Corner, the engine purring as I down shift into sector three.
“Fastest sector two, Royce.” Marcel’s voice is calm and collected and I smile.
