Page 19 of Rush
Marco wandered off to his side of the garage while Savi pretended to be engaged in a conversation with Kodie and Faith, not taking in a word they said about social media schedules or content ideas. That was the last thing on her mind, and it shouldn’t be that way. Work needed to be her number one focus. Was Jesse a distraction?
She was entitled to be happy and to have a personal life, butwasshe happy? She was Jesse Montalvo’s dirty little secret, emphasis on the dirty. If the public managed to link her to the photos, the team could drop her, and they would have every right to do so.
The cabin was supposed to be a sanctuary, somewhere she and Jesse could live as normal a life as possible, and that had been taken from them. Where else were they supposed to go? How were they going to be together now? Was all this worth losing everything?
‘Savi?’ Faith waved a hand in front of her face.
‘Huh?’ She blinked, snapping out of her daze.
‘You on the same planet as us?’ Faith laughed. ‘I said what about a video of you, Kodie and Miko doing a tour of all the different food trucks here at the circuit?’
‘All of them?’ Savi winced. That was a lot of food they probably shouldn’t be consuming during race week, when they were supposed to be eating nutritional, whole foods only. She hadn’t even picked up an energy drink this week.
‘Yeah, you could share. I heard the stone-baked pizzatruck does a mango and ricotta one. Lucie and I will finish your leftovers.’
‘Mango on pizza?’ Savi fake gagged.
‘Don’t knock it until you try it!’
‘Can’t believe they’re allowed to sell something like that at a racetrack in Italy. Does Marco know about this? He’s anti-pineapple, can’t imagine how he’d feel about mango.’
‘Marco is keen to try it, Lucie on the other hand? Acted like someone had died when she saw the menu.’ They laughed. Lucie was born and raised in Los Angeles with Italian heritage and was the perfect combination of a classic California girl and a stereotypical fiery Italian.
This one conversation was enough to drag Savi away from conjuring up every worst-case scenario and she did the one thing she knew how to: threw herself into work. She was underneath the car with a mechanic, looking at the chassis, when Marco called down to her.
She scooted out to find him crouched over her. ‘When did you last speak to him?’
‘Who?’ she scowled, quickly shutting her mouth when he side-eyed her mechanic in a silent signal that he couldn’t say the name out loud with people around. ‘Oh. Yesterday.’
‘How did he sound?’ Marco asked.
‘Stressed…’ How else would he sound at a time like this?
‘Stressed enough to send someone out here?’
‘He what … ?’
‘There’s a guy here. Says he knows you. Blake something.’
She shot to her feet and pulled Marco out of the garage with her. ‘Where is he?’
‘Team HQ. More importantly,whois he? Because he’s not just here for you, Savi.’ Marco looked nervous. ‘He wants to speak to me, too.’
‘What?’ She was more confused than ever. ‘He’s Jesse’s PR rep.’
‘Well, he knew my name and who I was and told me to come and get you. Said he’d wait all day if he had to, and that Jesse sent him here to talk to us both. He seemed serious enough that I abandoned what I was doing, so this had better be worth it.’
‘What the hell?’ She peered through the tinted windows of the team headquarters and saw Blake sitting there with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, looking very relaxed. He usually did, because it was his job to be calm in a crisis.
‘You can keep standing out here if you want but I’m going in there to find out why I’m being dragged into your shenanigans.’
Marco scanned himself in and held the door for her.
‘Savi, good to see you.’ Blake stood up and reached out to shake her hand, shaking the crumbs from his suit jacket.
‘Hi, Blake,’ she smiled. ‘This is Marco De Luca, but I hear you’ve already met.’
Marco shook his hand and had barely sat down before Blake stopped him. ‘Is there somewhere more private we could go? A conference room or something?’ He glanced around at various team members occupying the tables, all within earshot.
