Read One Last Hold for Free Online Page B

“Yes?” he answered.
    “It’s Caitlyn. I hope I didn’t disturb you.” She paused, and he imagined her drumming her fingers together, one of her quirks despite her grit. Then, he imagined her drumming her fingers across his chest. “Damn,” he muttered, then realizing he spoke aloud, said, “How did you get this number?”
    “I was wondering if we could meet up sometime after your race on Sunday, or Monday if it’d be better.”
    “How’d you get this number?” he asked again. This was his private number, reserved only for his team.
    Caitlyn ignored him and ploughed on like she was reading a speech she’d written and rehearsed. “This is strictly professional. The magazine I work for is a weekly entertainment magazine based in Austin and the surrounding areas. Every few months, we focus on at least one, sometimes two, major celebrities and usually a mainstream personality also. Sometimes we join them in their daily schedule and write about it. If not, then we join them in whatever function they will allow us and they grant us an interview on their day-to-day living.”
    She paused, and he detected a note of hesitancy in her voice. He didn’t mean to make this hard on her, but what did she expect? Wesley didn’t know what to think of Caitlyn and her sudden arrival in his life at the most inopportune time. And she’d threatened to write the story that could destroy him. How did he know she hadn’t already?
    Maybe she and Chad were involved with each other and were going to blackmail Wesley. He had no secrets from her since she’d been such a big part of his life. She could have shared them with Chad even knowing how important it was to keep those secrets just that—a secret.
    No, Stupid. He knew Caitlyn better than that. Didn’t he? Sometimes, things changed. People changed.
    He’d have to ask Adam if he’d given Caitlyn his number. If not, maybe Chad had it and gave it to her before he died.
    “So which one am I?” Wesley asked. He couldn’t imagine Caitlyn harnessed enough evil to kill. He didn’t imagine her popping up ten years later, out of the blue, with a motive other than what she described.
    Unless it was true about a woman being scorned. And if it was, shouldn’t he find out?
    “Do what?” she asked.
    “Am I major or mainstream?”
    Judging by the websites out there, you’re pretty major.”
    “Don’t think that just because we know each other that I’ll give you information I haven’t given the other journalists.”
    “It’s not hard for anyone to find out anything about you if they truly wanted to. The thing is, with such little information out there, it’s easier for people to make up stories about you.”
    “You know talking with the paparazzi causes made up stories.”
    “I’m hardly the paparazzi.”
    Wesley didn’t reply. Caitlyn knew his deepest, darkest secrets. She should understand why he was afraid and thanks to Chad’s antics before his death, the media generally hated him.
    It hadn’t taken much to find out about her. She’d never been married, never had kids. It appeared her career was her life. Maybe his story was the spike in her career she was searching for. He’d be damn if he allowed his past mistakes known, no matter how much he owed her, and he feared that would happen.
    Wesley shifted and pulled the phone a fraction from his burning ear. Her breath fluttered through the line. He shut his eyes, imagining her breath on his skin, and swallowed.
    “Humor me, Wesley,” Caitlyn demanded. “I’ll come to every race for the next few weeks to appease my boss. You couldn’t prevent that from happening anyway. Then you promise to meet me sometime afterward to give me a short interview, so you can prevent the wrong information from being printed.”
    *
    Wesley thrust his right leg into the driver’s side window of his black and yellow racecar, pulled his other leg through and guided his body into the cockpit.
    Everyone had shared a heartrending moment