MAKE ME YOUR BITCH
BILLY
I have an early dinner with Mum at her hotel, which is also Frankie’s hotel. That’s a fact that doesn’t leave my head the entire time I’m there, in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, enjoying my steak tartare while Mum picks at a chef’s salad but concentrates more on polishing off the bottle of Malbec. Claiming to be wiped from her long day, she leaves me with the bill and a kiss on the cheek and heads off to her room, where I have no doubt she’ll order another bottle of wine for herself. I pay and head down to the lobby bar, where I decide to have a sparkling water and sit before heading back to my hotel.
From the end of the bar, I can see the front doors and the elevators. Frankie has to walk through the lobby at some point, right? She doesn’t, but just as I’m about to give up and go home, I spot Nick striding across the lobby carrying a take-out bag from a fancy sushi place I know and love. I intercept him just before the elevators. He stops and glares. “Princess Castera has a craving for sashimi tonight?”
“Rolls actually.”
“Cool. So can you do me a favor and—”
“No.” For a big, bulky guy, he sure as shit moves like a cat. He’s around me and punching the elevator button before I even have a chance to blink.
Luckily, the elevator is on a different floor, and he has to wait. “Look, I am not a bad guy.”
“When it comes to Frankie, you’re all bad guys until we can prove otherwise,” Nick grumbles.
I have no idea what that means. I don’t have time to ask. The elevator will be here any moment, and Nick will walk through me if he has to—and he can—so I have to stay on point.
“I’m a good guy. I want the best for Frankie, and I know I’m not it… right now. So don’t worry about that.”
Nick lifts one of his eyebrows but keeps his eyes straight ahead, not bothering to look at me. “That’s exactly why I’m worried about it. I know she’s finally given in, to some extent, to her inexplicable soft spot for you and so if you know you’re not right for her, why are you here. Why are youalwayshere?”
“She basically runs my career now, you get that right?” I say, annoyed. “Anyway, even if I didn’t need to be civil with her, I would want to be. She’s a good person. I like her. I just can’t be, like, a partner or anything. Not that she wants that. Anyway, I look out for her too, you know? I saved her once as kids and I was there for her today when you weren’t. Where were you, anyway?”
That gets his attention. He finally turns his head to me and ignores the elevator as it arrives and the doors slide open. “She sent me home early. I let her do that when I think she’s somewhere safe. What happened? She’s said nothing.”
“She and Antonio got into it.”
“Physically?” Nick somehow stands straighter and looks even bigger. I know there’s some Hulk shit about to happen.
“No. I mean she said no. But when I opened my door, she was kind of hunched over and leaning against the wall and rubbing her back,” I explain. Something I said seems to turn off the impending Hulk-mode.
“Thanks for telling me,” Nick says. “I won’t leave her alone at the track again.”
“You’re welcome. Now, can you do me a solid?”
“My entire job is to protect her, and you think I’m gonna tell you her room number?” Nick huffs out a sarcastic breath.
“How about you let me deliver the food, you can come with me, and if she tells you to get rid of me, than you can haul my ass out of there. Use as much force as you want,” I lift my arms in the air. “Make me your bitch.”
Nick is still frowning, but he’s also not moving. Not laughing in my face, not trying to get into the elevator without me. Instead, he takes a deep breath and gives me the smallest nod I’ve ever seen. I would punch both fists into the air like I do when I win a race, but then he might change his mind, so I simply follow him when he gets into the elevator. He hits the top floor, and we chug upward in silence.
I have so many questions for Nick because I know he knows her best. Maybe even better than Lucia. Nick knows why she limped today and why she doesn’t drink alcohol in public and why she hates racecar drivers. But I know he’s not all that thrilled with himself for giving into me on this, so I don’t want to push my luck. I stay silent until he hands me the bag of sushi outside Frankie’s hotel suite door, and then I thank him and knock.
“That better be food, I’m starving!” I hear her bellow through the closed door, and when it swings open, she has a smile on her face, which immediately evaporates at the sight of me. “What the fuck.”
“Hey love,” I smile. “We need to talk.”
Her eyes fly up behind me to her bodyguard. “If you wanted to be fired, you should have just asked.”
“Why bother firing a bodyguard you don’t actually use anyway?” Nick fires back. I am amazed at their brother-sister-like relationship. Also, relieved. The dude is big, rugged, good-looking in an ‘I will fuck you up’ sort of way, and the first time I saw him in photos, lurking around her, I thought she was doing him. Honestly, I’ve always wondered if there was hanky panky because it’s not unheard of in this world. People end up shagging whoever is closest and cutest out of convenience. It’s why people think I’m banging Clara.
Frankie’s beautiful face scrunches up in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Antonio accosting you. You don’t think I should know about that?” Nick asks and now she’s glaring at me with the fire of a thousand exploding racecar engines. Great.
“We both know that he’s not actually going to hurt me, physically, in the paddock,” Frankie replies coldly. “Thanks for sharing, James. Asshole.”
