‘What the fuck?’ I growled.
‘You got away with invading her territory once tonight. Fist laid out a few of her soldiers. You’d be walking through two loads of soldiers with wounded pride, with the possibility of one trigger-happy schmuck itching to put a few bullets in you before you can reach her.’
‘I’d love to see them try,’ I snarled.
‘Oh, they’re cum-brained enough to try at some point. But let’s not make it easy for them,sì? You concentrate on getting through first and second practice tomorrow and let me work out the logistics.’
Impatience clawed through me. Now that the seed of seducing myself free of her had taken hold in my brain, I wanted to get the show on the road. But my brother was right. While I’d been confident Fist could handle the task I’d set him, I knew we’d ruffled Mancinelli feathers. Between that and Rafaelle blowing the kneecap off Yalcin’s minion, perhaps we’d tested the Almighty enough for one night.
I slammed my head against the headrest as Fist turned left towards our hotel instead of right towards Maddelena’s.
Rafa slapped me on the shoulder. ‘You’ve waited over ten years. What’s another twenty-four hours?’
8
CESARE
‘The latest upgrades seem to have made the improvements we need.’
‘Seemto have?’ I echoed, my voice projecting what I really thought of the bullshit assessment. The team meeting had barely started and my gut was already churning.
Brazzo, my chief engineer, curled into himself and darted a furtive glance at me.
He was an engineering nerd, plucked from the research bowels of a luxury sports car manufacturing company and onto the frontlines of a dynamic racing team. The man had zero charisma and was terrified of his own shadow. But he was highly intelligent, when he wasn’t cowering beneath my gaze. Usually, I left Bibi to deal with him, but the stakes were too high to coddle the fragile sensibilities of my engineer.
I felt Bibi’s glare.I glared back.What?
Cut it out, hers replied.
I sighed. ‘Go on,’ I encouraged Brazzo, despite sensing I wouldn’t like what he said next.
Free Practice One had been a little above uneventful. Sure, the new parts we’d brought had made the car sing. But that songwas just above mediocre at best. An overture when I wanted the aria.
‘It tallies with what the wind tunnel predicted. We saw a total benefit of three-tenths of a second at four different corners of the circuit. The specifics are on the printout in front of you.’
Renzo picked up the sheet, eager to devour the raw data, while I ignored it. ‘I drove the car for the better part of an hour this morning. I know exactly what it feels like. What I want to know is why didn’t the upgrades bring us closer to the Mancinelli car?’
The other engineering crew fidgeted in their seats, none of them eager to leap up with an answer. But I knew.
‘Let me guess. Because they brought the exact same upgrades we did and have seen greater gains?’ My buzzing phone had appraised me of those facts long before the dedicated pit lane reporters had creamed themselves in announcing it to the world. ‘So the goddamn janitors around this place know more about what our competitors are doing than you fucking lot?’ I seethed.
Bibi sighed, her sharp gaze imploring me to cool it.
Fuck that.
If I was staring down the barrel of another shitty race weekend, I was most definitely going to spread the hurt around. I barely felt the sting from the hands I slammed down on the table.
I took a little selfish comfort in the flinches that rolled around the table, though. ‘I’m done fucking around with this bullshit, so I’ll lay it all out there. We have a mole feeding vital information to our competitor. From our work in the wind tunnels, to what upgrades we have in the pipeline, to our race strategy, to what everyone on this table is having for breakfast tomorrow.’
Shocked gasps rippled around the room. I watched everyone carefully, but dammit, either the culprit was very good or I was barking up the wrong tree in the wrong forest.
Bibiana’s jaw dropped right before cold fury billowed from her eyes like an avalanche. Her expression promised endless retribution.
‘If the mole is in this room right now, know that I’ve known what you’ve been up to for weeks now. My advice to you – turn yourself in. I might just let you—’ Bibi loudly clearing her throat pulled me back from making a publicly incriminating threat.
Don’t get caught.
I clenched my fists on the table. ‘You might think you have a credible reason for taking this path. You do not. You’re just making things worse by making me hunt you down. So the ball is in your fucking court.’
