The faceless number 18 - the wild wolf and his pack

truth and trust

*Riana*

Last night had been kind of weird. I had managed to break away from 18 at some point and had finished fixing the bike. He had remained sitting the whole time, watching me. I had been able to feel his eyes so clearly that a shiver had run down my spine every time. I hadn't let it distract me anymore, though, but had simply done my job. I had to get the bike done and had finished it, albeit very delayed, before I had left.

Whether 18 had stayed, I didn't know. In any case, after I had changed, he had not been in the pits, but I had not looked for him either. I had only switched off the light and had then driven back to the hotel.

Completely overtired, I had crawled out of bed again this morning and was now standing next to the motorcycle. On the other side Tom.

His words were still ringing in my ears.

I would not betray him. Even though I was secretly dying to. This asshole actually deserved to be exposed, but I wouldn't be the one to blacken his name. Sooner or later it would come out on its own.

Alessio stood in front of us with a smile "So, how did you guys get along?" he asked.

"Very well.", Tom said hastily and grinned broadly.

"Oh really?", Alessio's gaze slid to Tom, then to me and back to Tom. I could see he knew what had happened. How come, anyway.

"Yes. We finished pretty quickly. Wasn't Riana?", Tom said over to me.

I didn't answer. Alessio looked at me, then looked back at Tom "Then explain to me what was broken." he said calmly.

I didn't dare look to the side, but could see out of the corner of my eye that Tom was blushing. From the other direction, I felt the piercing gaze again. 18 was there too. I felt his gaze travel down my neck, across my back to my ass, then back up.

"I'm waiting, Tom," Alessio said.

"Riana can explain it much better," he pressed out.

"Is that so?", Tom looked to me and I immediately explained what had been broken.

"Thanks Ria.", he turned back to Tom "Do you know how I know you couldn't have known? I checked the security cameras to see when you left. I wanted to know how long it took you guys. You left shortly after we did. Ria was still here for a long time.", Tom puffed audibly, but didn't dare to contradict the senior engineer.

"You will be given a new task tonight. You'll carry it out on your own," Alessio said, turning to me again "Why didn't you say anything, Ria?"

"Because the job is done. It doesn't make any difference if it was me alone or with him.".

Alessio smirked "Let's see if you really did the job first.", he stepped up to the bike.

Of course I had tested it last night and so I wasn't surprised to hear the engine purring like a kitten "Very good.", he looked at Tom "Really weak performance to leave your teammate hanging like that. We work as a team here. All of us together. Either get that through your head quickly, or you'll be out of here faster than you can look.".

With those words he ended the morning meeting and everyone started doing their job.

Pietro, Jeff and I got ready at our position, shortly after the start of the third free practice to change the tires on 18's car. They had tried something new in his set up and it seemed that it was not very gentle on the tires.

So we got into position and waited for him to come in.

Then everything happened really fast. I pulled the tire down and spun away when I was hit from behind. I flew forward a bit and hit the pit wall. Thanks to the helmet, it only banged loudly once, but I was hit again from the side at the same moment, this time much harder, and I hit the asphalt with my helmet. There was another loud bang in my head. My ears were ringing.