She nodded. “That’s right.”
“But not Formula 2?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“So, what are you doing here?” he hissed.
Dario and Casey were obviously uncomfortable. Rocco wondered if one of them was going to say something to come to her rescue. It turned out they didn’t need to.
“Hmm,” she said, placing her finger alongside her cheek and then gazing up. He imagined her eyes opening wide but he couldn’t be certain since they were hidden behind those shades.
The shades were fitting, given she was about to throw him some.
“I seem to recall someone else going straight from Formula 3 to Formula 1 without racing Formula 2. Who was that?” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, that’s right. It was you. So, you tell me. What areyoudoing here?”
CHAPTER FIVE
NICO
What did he say after you said that?” Charles asked as he placed the bowl of popcorn between them and handed one kernel to Templeton perched on the back of the sofa.
“Nothing,” Nico said. “He told Casey he wanted to try out the car I’d been driving. I should have left. There and then.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t,” Nico huffed angrily.
“How’d he do?”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
Charles grinned. “That good?”
Nico frowned. “So he had a faster time. He had the advantage of going after me, and I wasn’t going all out.”
She grabbed some popcorn, and the three of them, including Templeton, sat gazing out into space as they munched.
“Do you regret it?” Charles asked.
“Regret what?”
“Scamming all that money off him.”
Why should she? Especially after the way he’d acted today. She didn’t feel bad about what she’d done, not even a little bit. Although that money was still sitting in the top drawer of her dresser. She didn’t feel right about spending it. But she could hardly give it back to him.
“Okay,” Charles said. “I see by thatBowserlook on your face, the answer isno.”
“What?”
“King Koopa?”
Nico frowned.
“Grand pooh-bah of the Koopa race?”
Nico threw her hands in the air. “Oh, of course, now, I see.”
“Mario’s archnemesis!”
