Page 35 of Risk

“Okay,” Cal drew out. “Is someone spying on us? Stealing trade secrets?”

“They spied something, alright. Not company secrets but your secret,” he gritted out. The muscle in his jaw ticked as his gaze went back and forth between the two of us.

All the blood drained from my face as I sat painfully still.

“How could you be so stupid? I had my suspicions that I tried to ignore because I know you’ve been going through a difficult time after your wreck. I understand that more than most, but we have rules, and you blatantly disregarded them.”

“What are you saying?” Cal pulled back from the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You can’t be sleeping with your therapist. Both of you know better.” He turned then to look at me. “Do you want to lose your license?”

“No, of course not,” I answered hoarsely. “I—”

“Save it. I hate to do this, but…” He shook his head, and a look of sadness came over him. “We’ve got to let you go, Aspen. The message said that if you’re at another race, then they are going to send the video to the board and get you fired.”

Cal took two furious steps toward him but then stopped himself. “Who sent the video? How do you even know it’s us? I want to see it,” he barked out. His face turned hard as he stood in front of his boss.

Colton kept his eyes on me but handed his phone over to Cal. He hit play, and I heard our voices and waves crashing in the distance. Someone had caught us when we were in Malibu. That was the only possibility. I didn’t want to watch it. Instead, I watched as Cal’s face became every shade of red there was. At one point, I thought his head might pop off.

“You can’t deny it,” Colton said when Cal handed him back his phone.

“When did that asshole send this?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does to me. He’s trying to ruin me. Ruin us,” Cal’s voice broke on the last word.

“It wasn’t long after Udo had to come in. I hate to do this because you’re the best driver out there, but what choice do I have?” Cal shook his head furiously before he stormed over to the door. “Where are you going?” Colton asked when Cal’s hand was on the doorknob.

“I’m going to smash his fucking face in and get every copy of that video,” he seethed. I’d never seen him this mad before. It wasn’t something I liked coming out of him.

Colton stepped up behind him and placed his hand on Cal’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter if there’s a video or not. I know the truth, and there’s no undoing that. Don’t do anything that you’ll regret and wind up ending your career.”

Cal hung his head and nodded. When he turned around, he couldn’t even look at me.

“Jon’s already got you a plane ticket back to Barcelona for tonight. It will be waiting for you when you arrive at the airport. All you have to do is show your passport.” Colton said before he turned away.

The look of disappointment on his face made my heart sink. I was going to be gone in a matter of hours and leaving Cal behind. I was supposed to go back to his house with him until we left for Brazil. Now everything was over. The man I’d fallen so deeply for couldn’t even look me in the eye.

“What about me? How am I supposed to drive?” he asked in a voice that sounded so much like a child that I had to hold back a sob.

What would happen to Cal? Would he be able to race without me? Would he be in danger?

“You should have thought about that before you stuck your dick in your shrink.” Colton let out a frustrated sigh. “There were very few stipulations, and the main one was to not sleep with your therapist. We can find you someone else. A male therapist, perhaps.”

“Are you sure I won’t fuck him too?” Cal gritted out. “I didn’t sleep with her because she was convenient, Colt. What we have is real. We were going to come to you and tell you about us.”

But not until the season was over. Our time at his place had been magical. Cal showed me he was a little bit messy when he doesn’t have housekeeping coming in to pick up after him every day. He also showed me how loving, attentive, and sweet he was when we didn’t have to keep our distance from each other. We walked along the beach each night as the sun went down, had sex on every available surface in his house, and fell asleep in each other’s arms each and every night. I never wanted it to end, but now it was gone.

“I’m sorry, Cal. It’s too little, too late. She needs to head back to the hotel and collect her things.”

It was then he finally looked up and made eye contact with me. His blue eyes were sad as he took in my state of shock on the couch. I hadn’t been able to move from the moment Colton started talking. He walked over and held his hand out for me to take. My shaky hand took his as he helped me to stand. Cal wrapped his arm around my shoulders and muttered how sorry he was into my ear as we stepped out into the hall.

It killed me that Callum couldn’t even look at me for longer than a few seconds. For once, I had no idea what he was thinking. We headed back to the hotel in silence, and he didn’t say a single word to me. He watched me from the couch with sad eyes until I had everything packed up and was ready to head to the airport. Alone.

When I wheeled my luggage to the door, he finally took action. Coming up behind me, Cal wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled his face in my hair.

“I hate this,” he said on a choked whisper. “I won’t let him report you if it’s the last thing I do.”

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