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I could move on. I deserved to know why she broke off a two-year relationship the night I was leaving for the second leg of the Formula One calendar via a phone call . It was what made me run after her, but the reaction I received in the corridor freaked me the fuck out. Even though Nadine had blocked most of my view, the words Raine had screamed wouldn’t stop circling in my mind.
    Did I really repulse her that much? And why did she think I’d hurt her? She had been the one that caused an unbearable pain to shred my heart.
    I blew the air from my cheeks and pushed off the wall I rested against. Retreating in the opposite direction of the conference room, I headed back to the car park. I wasn’t going to give anyone the enjoyment of watching my tentative facade crumble before their eyes. Neither Raine nor I needed a reporter sticking their nose into our business.
     
    * * *
     
    It was two hours later when Zeke found me pounding the punching bag in my home gym. I’d been repeatedly pummelling it for the last half hour after I’d realised running wasn’t doing anything to burn off my mood.
    “It’s a good thing we’ve got four weeks off. Slipping gloves on over those knuckles would sting like a bitch.”
    I paused mid-punch and glanced down at my hands. The skin around my knuckles had cracked open. Now he’d pointed it out, there was a stinging sensation starting to radiate out over my hand.
    When I stepped away from the bag, he smirked at me. “Wise choice.”
    Zeke sat down on one of the benches, resting his elbows on his thighs so his hands hung down between his legs. “What’s got up your ass?”
    I picked up my water bottle and gulped down half the contents as an excuse not to reply. There wasn’t much I could hide from Zeke, though. We’d been together throughout my final years of karting and the lower formulas. He’d received a contract to race in Formula One with Sabre a year earlier than me and was one of my closest friends on the circuit, unless we were racing. When that happened, he was nothing but another driver I needed to beat.
    “Nothing. Had a bad day at the office. Did you know Dustin got hauled away by the cops last night? The dumbass hit on Aston’s latest bimbo.”
    A roar of laughter burst from Zeke, and he ran his fingers through his short, black hair. “No shit?”
    “Oh yeah. I don’t know what he was thinking. Now Hattersey’s out to get him.”
    “If anything, he’s using Dustin to get to you,” Zeke said. “It’s all mind games, Teo.”
    “Don’t I know it. It’s not going to work this time.”
    He looked me dead in the eye. “Exactly, so what’s really eating you? Because I know you don’t put this much thought into your brother’s life.”
    I leaned against the wall, folding my arms and crossing my legs at the ankles. “Raine showed up at the factory earlier. Her friend fell right into the conference room and then there she was.”
    Zeke’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack. “Raine, as in your Raine?”
    “She’s not my Raine. She hasn’t been in a year.”
    “You get my point.”
    “Yes. Raine Wilkins was at the factory.”
    He looked thoughtful for a moment then blurted, “How’d she look?”
    “Seriously? That’s the first thing you ask me when my ex mysteriously appears then legs it like she’s trying to outrun my car when I go to speak to her?”
    “She ran?”
    “Is there something wrong with your hearing today? Yes she ran, like a crazy person.”
    “Well, I would too after seeing your ugly mug.”
    I didn’t join in with his laugh, and it faded into a sigh. “I meant, what did she look like as in her emotions, not her body, because it would have taken a lot of work to ruin the figure I remember her having.”
    A warning growl rumbled in the back of my throat. She may not have been mine anymore, but I wasn’t going to have Zeke talking shit about her. He had a reputation worse than mine, which was saying something.
    “She looked beyond