Free Chameleon Soul (Chequered Flag #1) by Mia Hoddell

forced me back into the chair.
    “No, you’re not running away from me.”
    I folded my arms and leaned against the back of the sofa, glowering at him.
    “You are strong, Raine. You’re still here and fighting. There has never been a point where you said you wanted to give up. Every day you’ve fought through, every nightmare you’ve awoken from, has made you strong. None of it has beaten you, and I’ll be damned if I let all of my hard work go to waste because my jackass of a brother shows up.”
    I arched an eyebrow. “Your hard work? I thought you said it was me.”
    “Mostly you. I do get a little credit.”
    Rolling my eyes, I leaned forward to hug him. “Thank you,” I whispered into his ear. I wasn’t sure I believed him, yet it was nice to hear someone had faith in me. God knows I didn’t have any in myself.
    Dustin held me tightly for a second, and when he pulled back I didn’t like his expression. “Does this mean you’ll come to my race?”
    “No, I was serious about the recluse thing.”
    He puffed out a breath. “I’ll pay you.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “How much?”
    He straightened one arm. His fingers swept a tendril of hair back behind my ear, and when he pulled it back, he held a fifty pence coin in his hand. “That enough?”
    I snatched it from his hand, flicked it up, and swiped it out of the air. “Try adding a few more zeros to that. Then you’re somewhere close.”
    “Sorry, you’re not worth that much,” he teased. “How about heads you go, tails you stay?”
    I looked at him dubiously. I wasn’t leaving it down to luck. I didn’t like making bets, taking chances, or not being in control of decisions.
    “No?” Dustin’s eyes sparkled mischievously at my silence, instantly making me suspicious. “How about I buy you a bag of fudge?”
    Damn him for knowing my weakness. I looked down at my nails, feigning disinterest.
    “Two bags?”
    He knew he had me. I was no longer declining or complaining.
    “Three?”
    “Five. Buy me five proper sized bags, none of this half full crap, and I’ll go. But I get to choose the flavours and I’m not leaving the garage.”
    He held out his hand for me to shake. “Deal.”
    I shook it, my stomach churning like there was a trapeze act spinning in it.
    What had I agreed to?

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
    Teo
     
    I was hunched over the magazine on my dining table, staring at the pure, unadulterated terror on Raine’s face as she cowered into the wall when my mobile rang. I still couldn’t figure out what I’d done to put that look on her face.
    Slipping it from my pocket, I clicked answer and brought the speaker up to my ear.
    “Yeah?”
    “You owe me big time,” Dustin’s voice rang out from the other end.
    “Why? What have you done?”
    “Cleaned up your mess and got you a second chance.”
    I scowled out into my garden, my eyes following a bumblebee around the flowers my gardener had planted in my absence. “Did I miss the beginning of this conversation?”
    Dustin let out a strangled groan. “The articles. Raine saw them and freaked out. She wasn’t going to leave the house and that probably included being around you too, seeing as you were the cause of it all.”
    Fear seized my heart, squeezing it tightly. “Hattersey’s the one behind it all.”
    “You don’t think she knows that? That’s the whole root of the problem. She refuses to be used again.”
    “What do you mean, ‘again’?” This conversation felt like I had a lot of information missing. The only conclusion I could draw was that Hattersey had somehow pulled this shit with Raine before without me knowing.
    An icy shiver snaked down my spine.
    Was he the reason she left me?
    I hadn’t considered it because it hadn’t seemed important at the time, but she had given Aston a funny look in the factory the other day. And the further I delved into the past, the more certain I became that it had to be something to do with