Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
I wake before the sun’s up. My biological clock is terrible at sleeping in, which is something that, based on the soft breathing beside me, Roman doesn’t struggle with.
I try to settle back to sleep, both because I’m comfortable and because we were up late last night, but I know it’s a lost cause.
My mind can’t stop rolling over a new angle for the case.
It’s been sitting there since my conversation with Rome at the mall, a small moment that didn’t fit into the narrative Demi and I had.
But what if it was because our narrative was wrong?
What if we’re stuck on this case not just because we’re coming at it from the wrong direction, but because we’re focusing on the wrong timeline?
Knowing there’s no way I’ll fall back asleep, I slowly slide out of Rome’s warm embrace, melting when he grabs my pillow and pulls it into him.
Once you get through his tough exterior, he’s like a big puppy, cuddly and sweet.
Part of me thinks I should wake him, let him know where I’m going, but I don’t.
I want to get to my room with minimal distractions, and Roman is nothing if not a distraction.
But also, I kind of like the idea of seeing how he reacts to being left alone the morning after.
It seems even now that we’re some version of together, I won’t stop pushing at his buttons.
Quietly shuffling in the dim room, I grab his tee off the floor, slip it over my head, and pull on my shorts. Then, I use the bathroom and get an idea. It’s incredibly nondescript for the most part, other than an electric blue toothbrush sitting on the counter. Smiling, I take a mirror selfie.
Before I hit post on my social media as a story, I add a text overlay reading, “ready to kick @romanempire’s ass today!”
Finally, I quietly leave his room, a smile on my face and a spring in my step as I walk toward my own hotel room.
“So how was it?” Demi asks when she opens the door for me before I even get there, probably watching the hotel’s CCTV to catch my approach.
“I can’t lie, I didn’t think you’d be here this early.
” Her face goes contemplative as I walk in, slowly closing the door behind me so it doesn’t slam.
“Oh my god, was he bad? Did he—” she rambles, clearly misreading my silence.
But it’s not because last night wasn’t amazing—I’m simply already in Maven mode and need to blurt out a theory.
“What if we have it wrong?” I ask, dropping her into the middle of the conversation I’d been having in my mind.
“What, you shouldn’t hook up with him? If you’re worried about Gabriel, you know he doesn’t really care about that kind of thing. He—” I shake my head, trying to keep us on track, to hang onto my train of thought.
“No, no. The mission. What if we have it all wrong?” Her face snaps from a teasing friend to something altogether different.
“In what way?”
‘What if…” I ask, trying to sort through my thoughts. “What if it started earlier?” I turn to look at Demi, who is watching me with intrigue. “What if they didn’t start when Rome came here, but it followed him here?”
“What are you…” She stops, tipping her head as if weighing something before her eyes widen. “They could have started earlier.” I nod eagerly, relieved she sees where I’m going with this.
“He’s an asshole and he’s arrogant, but he’s careful.
Checks for things like wedding rings, tan lines, people trying to trap him.
He knew he was on thin ice last season and was playing it safe, just he’s been doing here.
He’s neurotic, Demi.” Guilt chases the words, and I shake my head.
“Not in a bad way. In a good way. In a safe way. Fuck.” She smiles and shakes her head.
“You don’t have to justify it, Lana. I get it. He’s protective of himself.”
“He wouldn’t have hooked up with a married woman if he knew.
He isn’t actually the bad boy.” She lifts an eyebrow.
“Okay, well, maybe a little,” I say with a soft smile.
“But not in that way. Not in a wants-the-attention way.” Finally, I tell her what Rome shared about his early years in Indy, about leaning into the image to feel like he had some control, to feel like he wasn’t just the guy whose dad owned the team.
Part of me feels like I’m betraying his trust, but also knowing there’s no real way around it.
I’m here for work, and I need to do what I have to do to keep him safe.
At the end of the day, this is what makes that kind of entanglement or relationship hard while on the job: the job always comes first.
But I can’t help but think that he’s had enough people use him over the years—will he see me as doing the same?
“What if someone is trying to further the bad boy image so it hurts his career? Make him look like he’s unredeemable.
What if someone saw it was becoming an issue and wanted him out?
” I ask once I finish my thought. Demi’s face is blank as I ramble, causing me to second-guess myself.
“Is this making sense to you, or am I compromised?” Nerves tumble in my stomach, and relief follows when she shakes her head.
“No, it makes sense. I think I’m just trying to wrap my head around this new angle. What would the motive be?”
“It could be anything. Someone mad he’s in Indy, thinks he doesn’t belong there. Someone who wanted him to leave Indy. Someone who just plain old hates him. Maybe they wanted to ruin his career and then got upset when he found a backup?”
“That would make sense as to why trouble followed him here,” Demi says, tapping a pen to her chin. “Who would have access to both circuits?” My gut twists with my first answer.
“His dad owns the transportation company Monster Smash uses to bring the trucks and equipment around the country.” I hate even to bring it up, since despite their clashes, Rome idolizes his dad. It would hurt him deeply to find out he was the one behind everything that’s been going wrong lately.
“Do you think that he would do this?” I lift a shoulder, a sinking stone in my gut.
“Everyone’s a suspect. Rome tried out for the team blind—no one knew who he was. Maybe his dad didn’t think he’d actually get in, but once he did, he was annoyed? Wanted to get him off his team, but didn’t want the fingers pointed in his direction?”
“What about another driver?” she asks. “Someone who wanted him out?”
“There’s clearly bad blood between him and Levi.
” She nods, jotting down the name. “And Levi seemed to be friendly with Tyler. What if they were working together? What about one of the board members who didn’t like him being there?
” The options are endless, and unfortunately, we haven’t even touched this new avenue.
It’s almost like starting the mission completely fresh at this point.
“For this theory to have footing, we need to confirm incidents occurred at Indy. The first reported sabotage we have happened after he joined Monster Smash. We don’t know of anything earlier, but we haven’t been looking.” I nod, following along, but then she hesitates, looking at me with confusion.
“Liam told us that he was to target multiple drivers, but only Rome suffered. It would have to be someone who either knows or is in charge of the show schedule.” Beyond the small amount of intel Liam gave us, everything from him has been a dead end.
All banking and cell data have come back to burners, and it seems Liam asked very few questions when taking on the job.
“That could be a lot of people,” I say, biting my lip.
“We don’t have access to Indy the way we do here—how are we going to find out about any other incidents?” She pinches her lips, looking hesitant and contemplative.
“We could bring Roman in, tell him everything.” My stomach seizes, not because I don’t think that he would have something to tell us—I’m almost certain now that I’m putting pieces together that he would be able to point out different potential sabotage that happened before his suspension—but because I don’t want to ruin this bubble he and I are in right now.
We’re so new, and so fresh, and this could absolutely destroy this tentative thing between us. I like it too much to do that.
“That’s the last resort,” I say, biting my lip. “I don’t think bringing him in just yet is the right call.” Demi’s brows furrow.
“Do you still suspect him?” she asks, surprise in the words, but I shake my head quickly, definitively.
“No, it’s just… he’s just getting his confidence back after the crash. I’d like to let him live in that peace before we tell him we think someone is after him.” Her lips tip into a knowing smile.
“You are so far gone,” she says. I don’t argue it because I think I am, though I don’t quite know how to handle that realization.
“Are incidents at Indy reported the same way that they are here?” I ask.
Everything regarding maintenance and updates to the trucks over the past three years is monitored and logged in a system, including any incidents, no matter how small.
It’s been useful in identifying which issues are normal and which might be something bigger, as well as confirming that the issues Monster Smash is facing are relatively new and seemingly began when Rome came.
“I could check,” she says. “Normally, it would take a long time, but I actually have already gotten a head start on hacking their system.” I raise my brows in surprise.
“You have?”
“Well, while you were out getting your back blown out—”
“Demi!” I gasp, throwing a pillow at her, and she grins with a shrug.
“I don’t hear an argument, and I can’t wait to hear all of the gory details once we handle the boring work. But last night, someone leaked to a tabloid that Rome failed a drug test.” The world stops.
“What? There’s no way. He wouldn’t do that,” I say, though it feels like a weak defense: I don’t actually know him that well to attest to that, even if my gut says it’s not true, and I always trust my gut. “Right…?”
“You’re right—it’s fake. I was able to hack in and find that his most recent test came back clear, as did every test he’s ever done for Indy, but the timing is suspicious.” I nod, agreeing, relieved that my intuition isn’t off.
“Okay, so someone leaked it on purpose.” Demi nods, and I sit with that, mulling through thoughts aloud.
“The theory that someone is working to ruin his reputation still stands. A failed drug test, or even a rumor of one, would shake the public’s trust and perception of him.
But who would do it?” Demi lifts a shoulder, but since she’s been sitting on this info longer than I have, I know she already has a theory. Demi always has a theory.
“My top contenders are Tyler, Jordan, and Courtney. If he’s really been that hurt about the supposed abandonment when Rome went to Indy, Tyler would make a lot of sense.
That’s my top contender.” Even though he’s the most logical suspect, guilt settles in my gut because, despite his tumultuous relationship with Rome, he’s always been kind to me.
“Courtney?” I ask. The woman has given me the ick since we first met her, far too into talking to the guys and far too invested in their careers, but I thought that was just part of her personality and more of a me issue.
But if not…
“Remember when you overheard Phil saying he loves when Rome came back to ride for Monster Smash because ticket sales improved?” I nod, even though that was over a month ago.
“It stuck with me, and for a while, we had Phil on the list. But the further we get into this, it doesn’t track.
He might want Rome to be stuck driving here, but he wouldn’t want his drivers to be scared.
But who else looks good if there’s a lot of press and tickets are selling? ”
“His publicist,” I murmur. “You think she could be creating drama to make her job easier or more exciting?”
“It’s not my strongest theory, but we’ve seen stranger situations.
And with this new leak, it strengthens that case.
He used to come back for one-off appearances, right?
” I nod, slowly following her train of thought.
“What if when he was here, she saw the press skyrocket? What if she got praised, promised, given a raise, but then wasn’t able to maintain that level of intrigue?
It would make sense that she’d want him out of Indy and back where he started.
If I were to guess, I’d say Rome is going to take a quick drug test this morning, refute the rumor, and have Courtney do a full press circuit on it to squash it before it travels too far.
” My stomach churns, hating that this is the chaos Rome is going to wake up to.
“Another opportunity for her to flex her skills,” I sigh. “Okay, what now?” Somehow, I feel even more scattered than before, despite feeling like we have more solid leads than ever.
“I can start trying to research and find if there’s a system that monitors reports in IndyCar.
I also want to dig further into the Monster Smash system, see if I can find anything new.
Maybe some unexplained incidents from before he came here, or a few more that we haven’t linked.
I also don’t think any of the other drivers are off the list. All of them could have the same motive as Tyler and Jordan.
” I nod, and my stomach tenses when she looks at me with sincerity in her eyes because I know I’m not going to like whatever she’s about to say, no matter how gently she says it.
“You need to continue getting close to him.”
“I wasn’t planning to stop,” I murmur, though discomfort swells in my stomach, making me glad I haven’t had breakfast yet.
“You know what I mean, Lana. I need you to find casual ways to ask him about life before he came here. Anything he noticed, anything that he thought was odd. If he thinks this all could have started earlier, if he ever had issues at Indy.”
“Demi,” I start, that unease now a pulsing, living thing, festering in my veins, dancing in my gut with the guilt that seems to have moved in.
“I know. I know, it’s hard and it feels icky, especially since I think you’re really cute together. You’re good for each other. But first, we have to figure out who is doing this, so we can make sure you actually have a chance at a future with him.”
She’s right.
I like Rome. In a way, I can see a future beyond this mission, but if we can’t figure out what’s going on, something could take that chance away from us.
So I have to stick to the mission. I have to see what information I can get out of him without raising suspicion.
I have to continue to abuse his rarely given trust.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.