Beneath the Redline
Chapter 1
Beneath the Redline
Zola
If you plant a knife in my back again
Orrenius,
make sure it misses the lungs. I can't wait to beat you on Sunday.
The air inside the Silverstone pit area garage was thick with the scent of heated racing tires, race fuel, and sharp, metallic tang of tension.
I look up to the race data screen drifting above my pit wall console.
My dark, almond shaped cat eyes remained locked on the wavy lines of data, even as my stepbrother’s shadow fell heavily across my desk.
I could feel his presence before I saw him, that handsome tall composure of a man carved from ice cold and his expensive fragrance filled the room.
Orrenius is twenty nine years old, a masterclass in dangerous mind games.
His short, coily black hair trimmed close to his scalp,shaping a handsome, sharp face that gives away absolutely nothing.
When he stepped into my private garage space, the surrounding noise of the mechanic's air guns suddenly sounded deeper.
"You're losing time through Copse Corner, Zola," he said,
His voice sounded deep and raspy, vibrating right through the carbon fiber section.
His intense grey eyes swept over my slumped shoulders, taking in the pressure of a woman carrying the dead weight of falling apart from the family legacy and a heavily damaged reputation.
“If you keep driving like that on Sunday, Arthur won't even need to damage your brakes to get you off the grid, the wall will do it for him.
Those words struck a raw, exposed nerve.
I slammed my pen onto the aluminum desk,the sharp bang echoing sharply in the confined space.
"My driving is fine,"I murmured”,
standing up to close the physical distance between us. Despite being five foot eight,I had to hoist my neck slightly to meet the gaze,but I refused to shrink.
Don't you dare mention my father's
name ever again in your life,like you don't know the exact leash he has wrapped around your throat, too. You think I don't see the way he looks at you?
“I said quickly the anger in me”
You are his favourite weapon Orrenius
His obedient little boy, trained to tear me down so he can keep his crown."
A dangerous, slow burning mocking smile flashes at the corner of Orrenius’s mouth, a ghost of an expression reserved entirely for moments behind closed doors, away from the prying lenses of the global media and the watchful eyes of our corporate handlers.
“pursue?" He took a step closer, invading my space until the heat radiating off his tall, athletic body wrapped around me like a physical weight.
The air between us instantly left us, the toxic workplace aggression transforming into that terrifying. We both pretended that it didn't exist.
I could have taken your father a long time ago if I wanted to sparrow
Instead I am trapped in this circus, watching the only person who matches my fury drive herself straight into the flames.
“Get the hell out of here before I will do something you will regret," I whispered,
my chest rising and falling against my race suit.
My heart pounded violently in my chest, and it had nothing to do with lap times or championship points.
It was the closeness of his grey eyes darkened, dropping for a second to my lips before snapping back to my eyes with a predatory intensity.
"Get out of my garage before I forget we're enemies."
he didn't move, Instead, he reached out, his long fingers brushing past my cheek with intense slowness.
For a terrifying second, I thought he would pull me closer to himself, shatter every boundary between us, and plunge us both into a dangerous temptation we've been fighting for far too long.
His thumb grazed my jawline,rough from a lifetime on a steering wheel, warm and impossibly gentle compared to the cold steel of our reality.
"See you on the track tomorrow,"he whispered against my ear,
But his breath brushed widely against my skin smelling faintly of mint. "Try not to crash before I get the chance to pass you “he murmured,
His voice is so low and tempting.
He turned sharply and disappeared through the back exit before I could say something.
heading toward the opposite team motorhome leaving me speechless as I stood still and dropped back into my chair,my hands trembling from the confrontation we had.
Then the telemetry screen blinked, the live data stuttered,and a small command prompt appeared in the corner of the monitor, one I hadn't opened
“Frowning,I leaned closer.”
It wasn't standard team software.
It was an encoded local override loop, the exact signature of the code that had nearly sent me spinning into a concrete barrier at 200 mph during the wet weather testing session last month.
My blood ran cold. The terminal wasn't connected to the team's external network.
It was directly connected to the Vespera family private biometric locked server hub hidden beneath the floorboards of their VIP motorhome.
With my hands shaking I tapped on a sequence key to trace the origin of the active data stream then a folder popped onto the screen, labeled with a single, coded file name
Orrenius Adoption Payload 004
My mind told me ignore it but the voice in my head keep telling me opened,opened it so i clicked open
I didnt see any racing telemetry files inside.instead,the screen populated with a scanned of a legal document dated twenty five years ago and a birth certificate with an infant name completely black out accompanied by a financial ledger showing a multi million dollar wire transfer originating from my father Arthur Vespera’s an unknown account routed directly through an eliminated shell company belonging to a rival racing dynasty that had mysteriously vanished from the sport overnight.
And right at the bottom of the ledger, a flashing text line decrypted itself in real time
Asset confirmed biological heir to the Caspian bloodline, current objective absorption and ultimate shutdown of the Vespera empire from within.
My blood ran cold,my breath caught in my throat Before I could process the words, the overhead lights in the garage flickered and died, plunging me into sudden, suffocating darkness.
