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Loyal. It’s a good attribute, but it doesn’t feel good right now.

The hope I felt crumbles into ash.

It was Luca’s voice I overheard in the garage. His I overheard talking about not making more mistakes.

He did fire Dekker, he did arrange to sabotage the second ARI car, and now he wants my silence. In return, he won’t be an obstacle.

My fingers flex on the railing as the cars come back from their formation lap and prepare to start the race.

One red light.

Two.

“This is bigger than you,” Luca intones softly, persuasively.

Three.

“Hundreds of people are involved. Some are people you care very much about. People I know you don’t want to hurt.”

Just like there are people who’d kill to know about this. Ignite, for one.

“So tell me, Shay MacDonald.”

Four.

“Are you loyal?”

Jameson’s words from last night come back. I’m in this now. It’s his future, not only mine. My stomach drops.

Five.

“Think quickly,” Luca urges.

The starting lights go out.

41

Shay

The rumbling in my stomach isn’t hunger. Even though I’m half asleep on the plane, my fingers, my toes, even my nose vibrate.

“You okay?” Theo brushes a piece of hair out of my face. “You were twitching.”

I blink my eyes open to find the younger Ashford perched in the seat opposite me. The jet is at cruising altitude on the way home from São Paulo. I’m curled up in my seat with a blanket tucked around my legs.

ARI took the driver’s title. Ignite took the team championship.

Luca got what mattered most to him.

It still wasn’t enough.

I’m still replaying the conversation with Luca even as the hours bleed into one another. If you can call it a conversation.

He made me an offer. A bribe, really—delivered in that cool, expectant tone of someone used to the world falling in line.

I blink, realizing Theo’s still waiting for me to respond. “Sorry, I might have drifted off.”

“Sleep is good.” He nods to an empty glass and grabs a bottle of water from a side shelf, holding it out. “But you need to hydrate at altitude.” I take the water from him.