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

him.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Dustin said, drawing me from my thoughts.
    “Of course it matters. I have a right to know.”
    “Then you’ll have to ask Raine. I only phoned to say I’ve managed to get you a second chance. She’ll be at my race tomorrow, and you’d better not fuck it up a second time. Keep the press away from her, Teo. I won’t be able to pull this off again.”
    “Dust—”
    He hung up, cutting off my question. What the hell was going on?
     
    * * *
     
    Dustin may have wanted me to ask Raine, but I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t tell me anything. From the snippets of information I had, I’d gathered whatever happened had been big enough for her to leave me over. That didn’t give me much hope of getting her to spill her guts. Therefore, I was on my way to see the one person who I had no doubt knew everything. I didn’t need anyone to confirm it out loud; in my heart I knew Aston was involved. It had his twisted MO all over it.
    I raised my fist to knock on his front door when the wooden panel was removed. For a split second Aston’s face registered his shock then slid into a mask of suspicion.
    “What are you doing here?”
    At my side, my fist twitched as if begging me to lose control and punch him. In that moment I couldn’t think of anything that would have given me more satisfaction than seeing him sprawled out on the floor with a bloody nose. However, that wasn’t going to get me the answers I needed.
    “What did you do to Raine last year?”
    He stepped from the house, forcing me to move out of his way. With his back turned, he locked the front door and then began striding down his path as if I wasn’t there.
    “Answer me, Hattersey. What did you do to my girl?”
    “She hasn’t been your girl in a long time, Coates. I thought you knew that.”
    “Because of something you did. What was it?”
    I shouldn’t have reacted. It went against everything my team wanted from me, but Raine came first. She always had.
    “Who said I did anything? You just can’t handle the fact that she didn’t want you any longer. You’re looking for an excuse and blaming me.” He moved to open the door to his black Mercedes AMG when I slammed my hand on it to stop him.
    “You stay away from her, understand? If you want to go after me, do it. But you leave Raine out of it. I don’t know what shit you pulled, and you had better hope I don’t find out because if it comes back to you I will ruin you.”
    “If you want to know what happened to her and who caused it, I would start looking a little closer to home.”
    I dropped my hand, my mind scrambling to process what Aston had said. I didn’t buy a word, though by the time I’d figured that out he was already driving off.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
     
    Raine
     
    Two Days Later–Race Day
     
    For Dustin’s sake I’d kept my nerves in check all morning. Having qualified on pole, he didn’t need worries about me distracting him from the race. Dustin was a brilliant racer, deserving of a Formula One seat in my eyes, and for that to happen he needed to win. Because of that, I didn’t start nervously chewing on a piece of fudge and warily eyeing people until he was in his car and completing the formation lap.
    Mercifully, I had a seat in Dustin’s garage and away from the press. He’d got me into the venue unnoticed and that’s how I wanted it to stay.
    “I see you still have a weird obsession with that stuff then. Some things don’t change.”
    I stiffened at the deep voice that came from behind me. My hand stilled in the white paper bag I was reaching into to retrieve another piece of the vanilla cherry fudge Dustin had delivered on.
    Teo moved from the doorway beside me and hopped up onto the counter I had claimed as my seat. It was at the back of the room and I could see everything and everyone…well I thought I’d been able to. I hadn’t been expecting anyone to come through the back