Chapter 124: The Formula 1 Chaos
Kayden
"Leo and Miller should be arriving in..." I paused, checking my wristwatch. "In ten minutes, according to what he told me a few minutes ago."
Rhys let out a groan beside me, his fingers drumming a restless beat on the steering wheel.
The air in the car was cool, but the tension radiating off him was enough to fog the windows. "Isn’t that exactly what he said a few hours ago? That he’d be here?"
"I..." I tried to speak, but Rhys was right.
We had been waiting in the VIP lot of the circuit for what felt like an eternity, and I could already hear the roar of the engines from the practice laps echoing in the distance.
We had come to watch the Friday qualifiers, but that wasn’t the main reason why I had come.
I came just to watch Nico Park, Leo’s distant cousin who was on the Red Bull team. I had always wished to meet him, but due to conflicting schedules, Leo was unable to plan a meeting, or maybe he just didn’t want to.
"That fuckass doctor—and don’t get me started on Miller—why the hell are they both late?" he groaned, his fingers still drumming on the wheel. "He actually made us arrive here earlier, almost got bombarded by noisy Iron City reporters."
The reporters were the last thing I expected, especially since this wasn’t our city.
When we finally left the yacht and pulled up to the hotel where the team had booked our rooms, the sidewalk was already swarming with them, as if they had received information we would be arriving soon.
The second the car door opened, the air was filled with the blinding flash of cameras and a wall of noise that made my ears ring.
"Kayden! Rhys! Over here!"
"Rhys, care to comment on the photos of the yacht?"
I kept my head down, my heart pounding against my ribs as we pushed through the crowd.
They were relentless, shoving microphones toward our faces like weapons.
"Are you two official now? Is this the team’s first ’on-ice’ couple?" one woman shrieked over the microphone.
"Rhys, did the Captain finally claim his star newbie?" another voice yelled, making my skin crawl. "Is there a reason you’re together instead of being with your teammates?"
None of us responded, and fortunately for us, the team’s bodyguards arrived quickly, blocking the reporters from reaching us, and we had no choice but to enter the car again because the peace of the hotel could be disturbed.
The nightmare was nothing compared to the mobbing from the reporters.
My notifications were a literal blur of tags, our identical posts, and endless speculation.
Twitter was melting down, and the shippers were having a blast seeing us together, and there were some mean comments.
"They are not dating. Kayden Vale is with him to steal his position."
"He is an attention seeker!"
"Rhys is a household name, and he doesn’t deserve him!"
I had to shut my phone when I couldn’t take it anymore, but Rhys, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be affected by what was happening.
Then, while waiting in the car, Rhys got a call from Miller, asking us to leave first because it was hard to move, especially with the reporters still blocking the entrance.
And now here we were, waiting for hours.
"If Leo doesn’t show up in the next five minutes, I’m pulling into the paddock without them," Rhys said through gritted teeth.
I reached over, resting my hand on his thigh. "Relax, Captain. Leo is just being... Leo, and besides..."
I cut my words short as a loud engine drowned out the distant track noise.
A sleek sports car swung into the VIP lot, tires screeching slightly as it pulled into the space directly beside us.
I pointed through the windshield. "There."
I reached for the controls and wound down the car window, the humid air filling the cabin.
The engine beside us died with a final purr, and the door swung open.
Leo came out first, entirely too calm for someone who was hours late. He was dressed in a sharp, charcoal-grey tailored suit with a crisp white shirt underneath—no tie, the top buttons undone to keep it from looking too formal for the race.
"How is it going?" he asked as he adjusted his glasses.
I frowned at him, and then Miller stepped out from the passenger seat after him, and unlike Leo’s stiff formality, he was wearing a heavy designer black hoodie and a pair of pristine dark-wash jeans.
"Oh, look who we have here?" Miller said excitedly. "It’s the internet sensation," he chuckled.
Rhys scoffed and got out of the car, then he pointed toward them. "You both had us waiting here for hours!" he yelled, then lowered his voice as cars started pulling up.
"Yelling will not recover the time we spent in transit, Rhys," Leo responded, adjusting his glasses again. "Technically, the delay was caused by the two of you. My arrival was as efficient as the variables allowed. If you had stayed at the hotel, we would have been on schedule."
Rhys scoffed. "That still doesn’t change the fact that you were late!"
Leo shrugged. "You could have just left if you wanted to, and I would have come to pick Kayden up."
"Don’t tell me what to do," Rhys fired back.
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but I stepped in between them to stop their never-ending fight, but I wasn’t the only one. Miller also came in between them, raising his hands, and together we both muttered,
"That’s enough."
Rhys folded his arms, looking away, while Leo just stepped toward me, wrapping his arms around my neck.
"I called Nico this morning and planned for you to meet after the race," he muttered.
I squealed, letting out my inner fanboy moment.
Miller and Rhys exchanged looks, then turned back to me.
"What the hell is making you this giggly?" Rhys asked.
I grinned at him and looked into Leo’s face. He nodded at me to go on, and then I slowly whispered the words.
"I am meeting him!" I said, shouting excitedly.
"You are meeting who?"
"Nico Park!"