Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
The last twelve hours have been absolute insanity. From the crash to the emotional rollercoaster with Lana, to everyone and their mother storming into my hotel room, my head is spinning.
But somehow Demi’s explanation still takes me aback, the cherry on top of the most chaotic day I could ever have imagined.
The room erupts in noise, confusion, and shock, and beside me, Lana just shakes her head and sighs.
I look at her, confused both by Demi’s words and Lana’s lack of response, and she smiles.
“Demi loves a dramatic reveal, and she’s never going to be able to top this one,” she says, almost exasperated. Despite myself, I laugh. After a moment, my dad shakes his head and stands.
“Everyone stop,” he says, and like magic, the room quiets. “Now, can you please repeat yourself…?” He starts, realizing he never got Lana’s partner’s name.
“Demi,” she says. “And I said that Mel cut the tires. We have a camera in the trailers. After our most recent intervention of an attempted sabotage, I think they may have realized someone was watching the trucks more closely, or maybe it was the added inspections. Either way, yesterday morning, she entered the trailer where Lana’s truck was being held for transportation and slit Lana’s two rear tires. ”
“No one would have questioned her being in there if they saw it,” my dad says, voice low as realization hits, since Mel is in charge of facilitating DeLuca Transport for Monster Smash.
“Exactly, which is why she wasn’t even trying to hide herself. We also have microphones in there, and I was able to hear parts of a conversation with someone, cooing about how she had it covered, seemingly flirting.”
“Jordan?” I ask, remembering Tyler and Oliver’s words, and what I saw before the crash. “They were fighting in the pits before the show.” Demi shakes her head and smiles at me.
“No, but good eye. That was picked up on the microphones in the toolboxes too, which gave me my next direction.”
“There are microphones in the toolboxes?” Oliver asks, looking horrified.
“Yes, which is how I know you’ve been fucking Courtney on yours.
That’s kind of gross, Oliver. There’s dirt, like, everywhere.
She’s going to get an infection.” Demi says, looking at him with a disapproving look.
A bright blush burns on his cheeks, and I snort out a laugh.
“Anyway, the argument wasn’t just a lovers’ quarrel: it was Jordan telling her things have gone too far, and Mel explaining that she handled things herself since he couldn’t. ”
“So it’s Jordan and Mel?” Phil asks, confused.
“I can’t believe Mel would do that,” Dad murmurs, sounding both hurt and disappointed.
“I think Jordan is just an idiot who got wrangled into this with promises of stardom and a pretty woman. It seems like Mel was making him a lot of promises and possibly telling him that if he got Rome out of the way, it would be easier for him to win.”
“What was his excuse last season?” Tyler murmurs, and I bite back a laugh.
“So what you’re saying is Mel is the brains of the operation?” Dad asks.
“Well…” Demi says, tipping her head. “Yes and no.” I look around the room and catch all of the men looking irritated.
“Hey, babe, you should really do this a bit quicker. They’re not used to your dramatic storytelling, and if you don’t get to the bottom of it, they might snap on you,” Lana suggests gently.
“See, this is why I don’t work with men,” Demi grumbles. “They just don’t get the art of storytelling.”
“I know, Dem, but just humor us this one time.”
“Fine,” she says with utter exasperation before laying out the facts.
“Mel was involved with an Indy driver. When Rome was relegated to Monster Smash, the Indy driver in question convinced Mel to start messing with things. Based on the reports Rome helped us sort through earlier, he’s been messing with Rome for much longer than we expected when we first arrived on this mission. ”
“How much longer?” my dad asks.
“A year at least,” I explain, voice low, but my eyes are locked on Demi. “Is it Levi?”
“God dammit, Rome!” Demi groans, looking like a kid whose birthday candles were just blown out by someone else. “Why would you steal my thunder!”
“Is that a yes?” I ask, looking at Lana, who nods. My stomach drops, but I also feel vindicated—I fucking knew that guy was an asshole, though I never knew it ran this deep.
“Levi?” Dad asks, trying to piece things together. His brows furrow, but then a low, pained groan falls from his lips. “Fuck.”
“From what I’ve gathered, he and Mel have had a bit of a fling.
She was on the phone while she was cutting the tires, telling Levi-baby,” Demi gags.
“That’s what she called him—that she was going to guarantee Rome loses his shit and gets suspended.
I think they assumed that a suspension from a second circuit would be the final nail in the coffin for his career. ”
The strangest mix of emotions moves through me.
Validation.
Panic.
Fear.
Joy.
Utter gratitude.
And it doubles and triples when Lana leans into me. I look down at her, giving her a small, grateful smile. I know that she was here for her job, that this wasn’t entirely for me, but I can’t help but feel it was fate.
“So, what next?” Tyler asks. “We just go get Mel and lock her up?” Demi looks at him thoroughly, entertained.
“No. If we do that, there’s a good chance we won’t get to the bottom of the issue. For all we know, she won’t cave and will go down without taking Levi with her. We need to pin this directly on Levi, ideally by getting a full confession,” Demi says, looking smug.
“And how do you do that?” Dad asks, looking skeptical. When Demi and Lana share a knowing smile, I already know the answer, and I probably won’t be terribly fond of it.
We spend hours in my hotel room, my dad insisting on having dinner brought in for everyone, even though Lana insists she’s okay to go out to eat.
Before we start working on a plan, Lana and Demi swear everyone in the room to secrecy, with Demi telling them she has dirt on each of them that she would be happy to use if need be.
I don’t know if it was an empty threat, but from what I know of Demi, even if she doesn’t currently have dirt, it wouldn’t take much at all to find it.
By the time I kick everyone out so Lana can rest, we’ll have a game plan to get a confession from Levi.
My dad makes me promise to get lunch with him the following day, something I agree to without the usual nervous dread that accompanies lunch with him.
Just another way Lana has changed my life for the better, I suppose.
“How do you feel?” I ask as I finish cleaning up paper plates.
Lana makes fun of me, saying she wouldn’t have expected me to be a neat freak at first glance, but I can’t settle down unless everything is sorted and put away.
And considering the day we’ve had, I really need both of us to settle in and sleep well.
“Pretty good. This is the best and worst part of an assignment: when you have it all figured out, but you still need to get the intel required to lock it in.” I step toward the bed where she’s sitting up, tapping on her phone.
She’s in my tee, and her hair is a mess on top of her head. She’s never looked more beautiful.
I shake my head and laugh, crawling up to her on the bed.
“I meant physically. How do you feel physically, Lana? You were in a bad crash today.” She gives me that soft look.
“Oh. Good. Great, actually. I keep forgetting that it even happened.” I settle in next to her, pulling her into my side.
“I know,” I say, giving her a meaningful look, because just earlier, when she was showering, she tried her best to get me to join her and, in her words, fuck me against the tiles, pretty boy.
While sex might not be out of the question as per her doctor, something tells me that sex against a wall very much should be, considering her bruised ribs.
“I’m fine, Rome. Really,” she says as if reading my mind. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Someone has to, and I’m taking that as my job,” I tell her. “Especially since your job has been taking care of me for the past few weeks.”
“Speaking of which, Demi just texted to say we can get out the news about our breakup tomorrow morning, so this will probably be my last night in your bed for a bit.” I groan into her neck and sigh.
“Well, better make it worth it. I slept like shit last night.” Her fingers glide through my hair soothingly, and she smiles down at me.
“Me too.”
“After this is done, we’re going away for a week.”
“We are, are we?” she asks with a laugh in her voice.
“Yes,” I say, nodding. “Somewhere no one can reach us. Somewhere you can wear a bikini and not much else.”
“Mmm,” she murmurs. “I think I can get on board with that. Gabriel usually gives us some time off after we close a case.” My body stills, the thought of her moving on to another case still sour in my mouth, even if it’s what she wants.
“And I’m going to need at least five incredibly public appearances complete with borderline inappropriate PDA once this is done, to tell the world that we’re not broken up,” I say begrudgingly.
The decision Lana and Demi made was that, tomorrow morning, a blind item about Lana and me breaking up would go out, stating that my outburst led me to want to focus on driving.
Even the mere idea of the words churned my stomach, and my first instinct was to tell her no, that we could find another way.
But when I saw how much the Mavens believed in their plan, I went along with them, refusing to step between Lana and her work.
Three days later, Tyler and Levi will be going to a restaurant together, with Tyler reaching out to ask about the dropped breadcrumb of Tyler coming to race for Indy.
Lana will be sitting at the bar, “waiting for her girlfriend.” The hope is that Tyler can point Lana out to Levi, and that he won’t be able to resist the chance to get under my skin by trying to hook up with my “ex.” If everything works perfectly, which the women seem confident will happen, Lana will enter her number in Levi’s phone and grant Demi the necessary access to all previous communications, hopefully giving her what she needs to tie him to the previous sabotages.
It all sounds a bit idealistic to me, and I don’t quite understand why we can’t just bring everything to the cops and let them deal with it, but Demi and Lana are confident it will work, and I trust them.
“Deal,” Lana whispers, a soft smile on her lips. “You know, you’re being a real trooper about all of this.” Her hand rests softly on my cheek, and I lean into it just a bit, closing my eyes and taking in a breath.
“To be fair, all of this is to keep me safe, so there’s that.
But really, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I tried to tell you what you can and can’t do?
” Her face goes contemplative for a moment before she smiles, as if she just came to terms with something unexpected.
“Did you expect me to argue this?” She hesitates but eventually shakes her head.
“No. I don’t know. Maybe? You’re very protective of me, and I’m basically going to flirt with your enemy and the man who’s been trying to hurt you for months now.” I shift up so we’re both on our sides, facing one another, and I tip her chin to ensure she’s looking at me.
“Do I love the idea of pretending to break up with you? No way. Do I love the idea of you spending time with that asshole, especially considering what he’s had a hand in?
Absolutely not. But I will never tell you what you can and can’t do with your life, Lana.
You’re Lana—my fierce, self-assured, badass girlfriend.
You wouldn’t be you if you were okay with me bossing you around.
” She lifts an eyebrow, and I grin wide.
“Outside of the bedroom, at least.” She returns it, then leans in to press her lips to mine.
“I told you I’d take care of all the versions of you, Lana.
The badass, the little girl, the racer, the soft, emotional one.
This one is the Maven, who doesn’t need much protection at all.
So instead, I’m just going to sit back and watch in utter awe of you.
An easy task, if you ask me.” She smiles, then shakes her head in disbelief.
“I think you’ve officially graduated from boyfriend school,” she hums with a smile.
“Well, good. I only plan to do it once.”