Book 2: Beginning Again -Carlos Sainz

Chapter 42

Marie excused herself from the garage, walking towards the back area quickly. As soon as she stepped outside, she was met with a body crashing into hers.

"Oh, god, sorry," Marie said as she backed away and looked up. She swore the blood drained from her face the minute her brain recognized the man standing in front of her. "Chad? What are you doing here?"

"Baby, you ruined my surprise! I had a whole thing where I was going to sneak up behind you in the garage," he said, holding onto her arms as she froze in front of him. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

Marie studied his face. It hadn't been long since she last saw him, but there was something off about him. His hair was slicked back, he wore a nice-looking suit, and the way he looked into her eyes felt... empty. He felt less human.

"I'm surprised to see you. Why are you here?" she repeated, trying to wriggle her body out of his grasp. He only gripped her arms tighter.

"I'm in Japan on business. Some of the guys from the firm wanted to come to this thing and I remembered that you would be here. Is your dad around here somewhere? Ol' guy always loved me."

Marie couldn't hide the confusion on her face as she looked around, seeing that the entire back alleyway was clear of people, only a few that were too far out of earshot and eyeshot to see what was going on.

"Uh, I don't think he's here today," Marie lied, hoping that she could pass it off.

"Hm. That sucks. Looks like he'll just have to talk to us later," Chad said as he pulled Marie closer to his chest. Marie recoiled as much as she could, partially because he was covered in a personal-sized cloud of cologne.

"Chad, can you let go of me?" Marie asked, still trying to fight out of his grip.

"What do you mean, baby?" He said, looking down at her as if she had just said something ridiculous.

Marie managed to free herself, finally, and backed away from him, still keeping eye contact.

"What I mean, is that we broke up. You broke up with me, then tried to get back together with me, which I denied. Also meaning you have no right to show up here out of the blue and... touch me."

Marie could feel the bite in her words, the flames shooting out of her eyes. She had let go of a lot of her anger, but she knew it was still there when she needed it.

"So I'm going to ask you once to leave. You don't have to leave the paddock, but leave the Ferrari garage and go meet up with your friends, wherever they are. Don't make a scene, Chad."

He stood there, chest expanding and contracting with quick breaths. Marie knew him well enough to know when he got angry, usually when he didn't get his way.

"You don't even want to know about the job that I got? The one that pays me buckets of money?" He started walking towards her slowly, but Marie chose to stand her ground. "You don't want to know how I'm doing? How much money I spent on this watch?" He pointed at the gaudy solid gold watch on his wrist. Truthfully, it made him look like an old-school mafia boss in a bad way. "God, you really were always so selfish. You always just had to talk to everyone at the bar, flirt with all of the guys until they wanted you and then brushed them off. Just like you did to me when I was willing to take you back this summer. You're just a selfish, good-for-nothing, dumb, whore-"

The last syllable of his words were cut off by a loud crunching sound. Marie watched as Chad stumbled backwards, raising a hand to his now bleeding nose. His eyes were shocked, looking at the blood as it pooled in his hand.

"You fucking bitch, you broke my nose!"

"That was a great hit."

Marie looked to her side, shocked to see that at some point, Carlos had arrived. He stood there, close enough that Marie could feel him trying not to put his arm around her. She looked up at him still, not finding the words to say anything. He looked to her hand, taking it in his gently.

"I'm gonna need to grab some ice for this hand, but not until this guy is taken care of."

The protective energy radiated off of Carlos, as much as he tried to hide it. He looked over to the guy, looking like the trope of a bad movie. Hunched over, nose bleeding all over his suit. He locked eyes with Carlos, which brought him to a standing position.

"Oh and here he is, Carlos Sainz. A mediocre driver who will never measure up to the expectations put on him by his family or his team. I don't know what you're doing with her, man. She's such a fucking disgu-"

A much louder sound rang out as Carlos' fist connected with his face. The sound of his body hitting the pavement rang out into the air, followed by his groans. Carlos walked over to him, standing over his body.

"Say what you want about me, but you wouldn't fucking dare say a word about her. She was too good for you the minute you met and you're just proving it right by being here. If you contact her again or show up here again, I will personally see to it that you are thrown in jail."

Marie stood, clutching her hand, shaking. There were way too many emotions to process, especially the pain that radiated from her knuckles. She had punched a guy. Carlos had grabbed a security guard to help throw Chad out before he ran back over to Marie. He placed his hands over hers, causing her to stop shivering for a moment and feel the warmth. She looked up at him and stared deeply into his eyes.

"Is, uh, is your hand ok? Can you drive?" Marie said as she turned over their cupped hands to examine his bloodier one.

"Doesn't hurt at all. I didn't have to hit him that hard since you had already broken his nose," Carlos said with a smile.

"Wow you must think I'm so violent now," Marie said as she looked down to her hand again.

"It was insanely fucking hot," Carlos said in no louder than a whisper. He put his good hand on the small of her back, waiting to see if she would flinch or move away. Instead, he felt her relax into his body as he quickly walked her inside.

"Let's get some ice," he said with an unprecedented smile.