2. Keira
CHAPTER 2
KEIRA
“ M ake sure the press area is set up,” Keira called to the members of her staff. “They’re going to want a place to interview the drivers, and I’m not going to have them trying to grab people for interviews in the middle of walkways and disrupting foot traffic — that’s right, over there is great. Has anyone checked the merchandise stands? I heard they were out of T-shirts.”
“I don’t know how you always stay on top of three things at once,” her intern, Meghan, said, grinning at her.
“Well, I’ve been doing this a long time,” Keira said. “It probably seems harder than it is because this is your first year working for me. But I’ve got it down by now.”
“What should I be doing?” Meghan asked. “I feel like I’m not being useful right now.”
That was probably a fair read of the situation, though it was far from being Meghan’s fault in any way. Keira always found it difficult to rely on interns knowing how new they were to the racing scene.
Still, Meghan was good, and Keira owed her a chance to learn the ropes of event management. “Why don’t you go check with merchandise?” she asked. “See if they still need those shirts, and then when you’re done with that?—”
“Did I hear someone was looking for a task?”
Keira closed her eyes briefly and forced herself not to groan aloud. “What are you doing out here, Kevin?” she asked. “Don’t you have a race to prepare for?”
Her older brother sauntered into view. His race suit was unzipped to the waist and hung loose, revealing the fitted tank top he wore beneath it. He carried his helmet under one arm.
Keira found it difficult not to roll her eyes. He always had to show off. This was classic.
“Well, it’s a while until my heat,” Kevin said. “It seemed like a perfect time to meet with some fans.” He smiled at Meghan. “Are you one of my fans?”
Meghan beamed at him.
“She’s my intern, Kevin,” Keira said sharply. “Believe it or not, not everyone is here to fawn over you. She has work to do.”
“Well, maybe I can help out.” Kevin grinned at Meghan. “Did I hear something about merchandise?”
“I’m supposed to go make sure they have the T-shirts they need,” Meghan said, her voice distinctly more high-pitched than it usually was.
“I’ll go with you,” Kevin said with a smile. “I can sign some product. That will be fun, right? I’ll even get them to give you a free hat.”
“Kevin, you’re not allowed to give away merchandise,” Keira called after him, but the two of them were already walking away. She gritted her teeth. Meghan getting a free shirt was fine, but it would be just like her brother to start passing them out to every pretty girl who came by, and they couldn’t have that.
It was her family’s fault that Kevin had such an inflated sense of his own importance, she thought as she made her way back over to the press area. It was Keira’s own choice that she had always been involved in racing — the family passion — in a behind-the-scenes capacity. She loved event planning and had no interest in getting behind the wheel of a car. The trouble was that a hallmark of a great event organizer was not being noticed. Her brother was the flashy one, speeding around the track. Keira’s role was, and would always be, far more subtle.
For the most part, she was content with that. But it wouldn’t have killed them to recognize her hard work once in a while, and it might have deflated Kevin’s head a little bit.
“Excuse me, are you in charge here?”
The voice, breaking into her thoughts, spoke with an accent she didn’t recognize. She looked up and found herself face-to-face with a man who had big dark eyes, thick hair, and dark skin — he looked Middle Eastern, she thought. And by the sound of that accent, he was a long way from home.
It had stirred something in her. He was attractive, she realized — and it had been a long time since she had thought of any guy in those terms. She was too busy to consider dating, especially when every time she did put herself out there, it ended in disaster.
“I’m Keira,” she told the man, extending her hand to shake. “I’m one of the event organizers, yes. Are you a journalist?”
“No.” He cocked his head to one side. “What gave you that idea?”
“You’re in the press area.” Was that not obvious? She would have thought the microphones and cameras would have given it away. “Where are you trying to be?”
“I’m not really sure,” he admitted. “I’m interested in the way this event is run. I’m wondering if you can tell me a little more about how you put things together and what your role is here.”
She stared at him. What did he think this was, some sort of job interview? “I’m a little busy,” she told him. “I haven’t got time to explain everything I do to keep things running.”
“Just a short explanation, then,” he said, as if she hadn’t just told him no.
“You’re going to have to return to your seat,” she told him. “You shouldn’t even be in this part of the arena.”
“Oh, I don’t have a seat,” he said. “I’m not here to see the race, exactly.”
“This is a ticketed event,” she told him. “You can’t even get in here if you don’t have a ticket. Let me see yours.”
He shook his head and spread his hands. “I don’t have one.”
“Then how did you get in?”
“Your door guard likes money.”
“My door guard — are you talking about the gate agent?”
“The man with the…” He made a gesture with his hand. After a moment, Keira figured it out — he was miming using one of the handheld ticket scanners.
“So let me see if I’ve got this straight,” she said. “You bribed your way in here?”
“I paid more than the cost of a ticket.”
“You didn’t pay it to the organization, you put it in the pocket of the man working the gate.”
“Who arguably needs it more than a racing organization worth billions.”
“Is that what you’re here to talk to me about?”
“No,” he said. “I want to know the details about how this event is run. That’s what I came here to learn.”
She threw her hands up. “Why?”
“I’m interested,” he said simply. “I’m an interested party.”
“You’re an interested con artist, is what you are. If you really cared about the race, you would have bought a ticket — which you can obviously afford based on the story you just told me — and come in legitimately like everyone else. The event isn’t even sold out. Why didn’t you go through the proper channels?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t seem that important.”
“Oh my God.”
“Look, I don’t want to bother you,” he said.
“Well, so much for that.”
“I’m serious. Let me shadow you today,” he suggested. “Just let me follow you around while you do your work. Maybe ask a few questions, but nothing more intrusive than that. You won’t even know I’m here.”
“I definitely will.”
“All right, you will, but it won’t be a problem. I promise I’ll be less annoying than you’re worried about. I really just want to understand what goes into an event like this — what someone like you needs to do in order to keep it running smoothly.”
Keira hesitated for a moment, torn.
On one hand, she really didn’t want to give this man what he wanted. God knew he didn’t deserve it. He had handled this all completely inappropriately, and she should really be calling security to drag him out of here.
But something was stopping her.
She didn’t want to believe it was the fact that he was good-looking, although that was on her mind. She couldn’t help noticing him — but then, she told herself, nobody could have helped that. It didn’t mean that she was forgetting how to be a professional.
No, there was something else about him — something that enticed her to let him stick around in spite of the fact that he was deeply annoying, had bribed his way in here, and was definitely going to get in her way today.
It was the way he was looking at her, she decided after a moment’s consideration. She wasn’t proud of it, but he had won her over by looking at her as if she was interesting and by talking to her like her job was important. When was the last time someone had paid more attention to her than to Kevin? Whoever this guy was, whatever he was doing here, he hadn’t even made an effort to try to meet the drivers. He wanted to know about what she did.
Keira knew her reaction to that was a little vain, but she couldn’t help it. It felt good to be seen.
“All right,” she said. “You can shadow me today. But you better not make a nuisance of yourself.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” he said, but he was grinning as if the whole thing was a joke, and Keira had to turn away so that he wouldn’t see her roll her eyes. He wouldn’t do that? That was all he’d done so far!
“You’d better tell me who you are if you’re going to be following me around,” she said.
“My name is Kareem,” the man said.
“Where are you from, Kareem? That’s not a Nevada accent.”
“No, it isn’t.” He smiled. “I come from a country called Qalmar, but I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t heard of it.”
“I haven’t,” she admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know much about geography.”
“Even if you did, you might not know Qalmar. It’s very small. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve dreamed about motorsports coming to Qalmar, but of course nothing like that has ever happened — so in the end, I decided to come here.”
“You came all the way from Qalmar to see the Spritzer Cup?”
“It’s one of the biggest races of the spring.”
“There aren’t many big races at this time of year. It doesn’t have a lot of competition for that title.” She looked at him, more confused than ever. “If you’re that interested in racing, why wouldn’t you buy a ticket? Why wouldn’t you go watch the races instead of hanging around here with me?”
“I will,” he said. “But I’ve seen races before. What you do — that’s something I’ve never gotten a look at, and I’m interested. That’s all. I’m sure it won’t be any trouble for you to show me around.”
“You’re sure of that, are you?”
“Oh, relax.” He smiled at her. “Come on, what were you doing before I came in?”
“Setting up the press area. Which you then proceeded to barge your way into.”
“Well, fortunately, the press aren’t here yet, so no harm done! What will happen when they arrive?”
“They’ll be able to interview any of the drivers who are willing to give up a little bit of their time.”
“They’re not required to do that?”
“Not unless they have endorsement contracts that require them to, and that really has nothing to do with me,” Keira said. “If they have sponsorship deals, part of those deals might include a requirement to give an interview and mention their sponsor.”
“Oh, I’d love to know more about how those deals work,” Kareem said. “How does someone connect with a potential sponsor?”
“For drivers, that generally happens through their agents,” Keira said. “As for me, when I look for sponsors for the race each year, it involves calling around to past and potential donors. I keep a list.”
“Can I see the list?”
“No!” She burst out laughing. “What would you need to see that for?”
Kareem shrugged and said nothing.
And Keira was left thinking, There is something more about him. Something I haven’t figured out yet.
She didn’t know what he was doing here, what had caused him to travel all the way from Qalmar — wherever that was — to attend a race he wasn’t even watching. But whatever his reason, there was something very unusual about him, and if he was going to spend the rest of the day shadowing her, she was going to need to keep a close eye on him.