Fifty Shades Of Red | Charles Leclerc

9. Winning

                          Hailey's pov

I walk towards my motor home to get ready for qualifying but meanwhile I can't stop thinking about the conversation I had with my team principal.

I still don't know how to feel about it.

A part of me is angry that Christian even asked me to do such a thing but the other part of me feels like I should just do what I'm told in order to survive this long season and to fully be accepted by everyone.

No matter how hard I try, everyone still looks at me like a rookie driver and nothing more. I'm so tired of it, tired of having to prove myself to the world.

I open the door to get in my private driver room when suddenly a pair of hands wrap around me, pushing my back harshly against the door.

"You just couldn't help yourself could you?"

I look up, when I see Charles' face only inches away from mine, his eyebrows furrowed in an angry expression.

"Charles?" I ask confused "How did you get in here?"

"Cut the bullshit Hailey, you really had to go and ruin it for me." Charles' grip on my waist only tightens which begins to scare me a little.

I've never seen him this mad. Ever.

"You can't be in here, you'll get in trouble." I try taking his hands off of me but he pushes me against the door again. We're so close that at this point I can smell his cologne.

"Don't you understand?" Charles yells in my face "With that stunt you pulled, you already did get me in trouble!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Charles chuckles in a sarcastic way and turns his head to the side before facing me again.

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, I know what you did!"

I only stare at Charles, trying to figure out what I did that made him so mad. How is it possible that this guy is always mad at me about something? If anything, I should be the one who's mad, not him.

"Maybe this will freshen your memory." Charles says while pulling his phone out of his pocket and shoving it in my face.

I look at his phone, a news page is opened and a picture of Charles kissing the girl from last night is displayed everywhere. I scroll a bit down and see some terrible things written about Charles, about how he is jumping from one girl to the other. Several similar articles are posted as well.

"And this concerns me because....?"

"Oh please!" Charles takes his phone from my hands "Don't pretend like you didn't take that picture and sold it."

I look at him in disbelief. It's not my fault that he hooks up with strangers and gets mad and because of it he ends up on the news.

"I did not take that picture and I did not sell it or whatever you think I did." I try explaining to him as calm as possible.

Charles starts pacing around the room, fidgeting with the bracelets he's wearing.

"Why do you think I was the one who did that? There were other people there but you're not questioning them, you're questioning me so why is that?" I ask, stepping closer to Charles so he stops and looks up at me.

"Because you hate me, and you want to ruin my career somehow, considering you can't beat me on track."

He's so full of himself and I'm so over him.

"Get out!" I open the door and stepping aside, giving Charles enough space to walk out.

He stands there for a few minutes, only looking at me.

"Nothing is more important to me than winning."

"You know what? I'll gladly take this championship from you."

"Come and take it then." He looks at me like he's challenging me, like he's daring me to do just so.

I keep my head high so he can see that he doesn't intimidate me while Charles walks towards the door and leaves.

I immediately close it behind him and lean my back against it. I can feel a breath of relief release while I think about the entire situation. This is it. I'm never going to let Charles Leclerc walk all over me again.

Still not over what just happened, I force myself to get ready since qualifying is starting soon.

—-————-

I take my helmet off while walking towards the garage once qualifying is over. Max ended up on pole position for tomorrow's race, which was kind of expected, followed by Charles whose p2 and I got p3. I'm not too mad about it but I definitely want to beat Charles tomorrow on the race.

Before I can walk inside the garage, I see many reporters, engineers and more gathered around in a place. There's loud noises from everywhere and cameras that are being pulled out. Usually I'd think this is normal, however today it's busier than ever.

I approach them to find out what's going on. In the middle, there is none other than Charles Leclerc, who is looking quite stressed and is trying to run away from the reporters who are suffocating him.

"Hailey, go inside, now." Christian tells me when he spots me in the back with a concerned look on his face.

What is going on?

I quickly walk inside the garage which is almost empty except from Max who is standing there, looking at what is happening outside.

"Max, what's happening?" I approach Max and he turns to look my way.

"They saw him."

"Saw who?" I ask confused.

"Charles...they saw Charles walk out of your private room."

Suddenly my breathing starts to quicken and I can feel a bit of sweat running down my forehead.

Shit. This is bad. Very bad.

"Hailey." Max calls my name and my attention shifts to him again "What was Charles doing there?"

"Max he was just...we were-"

"Hailey come with me." Christian walks inside the garage and indicates me to follow behind him "You got some explaining to do."

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