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“Don’t you? Are you really going to deny it? Both Axel and I already know it was you.” We were pretty sure, anyway. And I really, really wanted her to admit it. Out loud.
She huffed, rolling her eyes. An act. I saw the tinge of worry in the widening of her eyes and the faint lines around her mouth. “You don’t know anything.”
“So why don’t you tell me? I know you’re the one who arranged for the fake pictures and video as well a hacking into his bank account.”
“I never touched his bank account!” she exclaimed.
Well, that was easier than I’d thought it would be. With difficulty, I held back any hint of my triumph.
“But you did the other things. I mean, hell, Marta, you practically gave me proof on a silver platter back in Cherish Cove.”
“Look,” she growled. “You think you’re pretty smart, but you don’t know how to play this game, little girl. This is the big leagues, not some small town dirt track.”
I raised an eyebrow, taunting her. “I’m not very into games, anyway. I just want the bullshit to stop.”
She shook her head. “Axel had his head up his ass too much to notice my advances, anyway. If he’d just embraced the bad boy press he was getting, let us edge up his image, I could have shielded him from Darius.”
“Are youkidding? That’s what it was all about? Making his image more exciting? For what?”
“I told you that you didn’t understand the game. Certain sponsors like some edge.”
“I don’t understandyourgame.” I understood Marta was a crazy ass bitch. That, I didn’t question. I didn’t need to be her brand of crazy to be able to understand her.
She waved her hand with its blood-red manicure. “More press. More attention. More people betting on if he’ll win or crack under the pressure. I would have been the good woman drawing him back from the edge. We would have been the circuit’s power couple. NotJack and Diane, two kids from the heartland.” She rolled her eyes, and I had to bite back a laugh. Crazyanddramatic.
Besides… Axel with Marta? They couldn’t be more different. No, they wouldn’t be like me and Axel. They’d certainly be a mish-mashed odd couple, though.
“You think Axel is too boring?” I asked, picking that angle and ignoring she’d had designs on my man. “Clearly, you don’t know him well. He’s anything butboring.”
I sighed happily as if remembering his loving, steadfastly acting as if she weren’t looming over me. She wouldn’t cow me. I had no doubt I could take her out faster than those heels could topple down these bleachers, though. I wasn’t worried. The most I’d get was a bruise. If that.
“I’m not the only one who thought so. If he could have just played along, he wouldn’t have gotten fired.”
I glanced out at the track. The 18 wasn’t racing around it anymore. He was probably in the Pressure Racing hauler meeting with his new team while they worked out any of the car’s remaining bugs. There were probably some kinks since it was the backup vehicle, the primary one trashed yesterday.
I shrugged. “Seems to have worked out okay, though.”
She blew out a disparaging breath. “Right. Driving for a cut-rate team.”
“Your opinion.”
“Facts, little girl.” She shook her head. “Darius’ crew knows how to make a car win. Axel could have been the best, if he’d just turned the other way a time or two. Could have gone and won it all this year. Now, it’ll be Darius’ new driver. We’re out to win it, and we’ll be leaving Axel choking on the dust.”
“You seem awfully sure of that.”
“Yep.”
“Wanna share, because Ax is a top driver. A new car won’t change that.”
She scoffed. “A new car will make all the difference.” She smirked. “Enjoy your visit to the big leagues. You’ll be back on the dirt tracks before you know it.”
“And you? What are you planning? Hooking up with another driver?” The woman might dress like she shopped at Saks, but I saw the avarice in her eyes. She was after a purse and not the kind on a shop rack.
Her shoulder lifted, her lips curling into a Grinchy smirk, before she spun on the ball of her foot to click away on her ridiculous footwear. Louboutin would be ashamed.
“All you need to know is, I’ll be taking care of business, just like always,” she sneered over her shoulder.
“Great,” I called after her. “I’ll look for Teddy in the gossip pages.”
