Driven

Chapter One

Sawyer reclined in the seat of his racing simulator and pulled off his gloves - immediately feeling the sting of air conditioning on his sweaty hands. He flexed them in front of his face, bringing blood back to each of his fingers after being restricted from the thick leather. As he looked around, he shifted and arched, feeling tightness in the muscles of his low back and legs. It'd been a long off-season, he still wasn't used to putting in full hours in the simulator.

However, pre-season testing in Spain was fast approaching, he wanted to get ready to hit the tarmac without interruption.

That meant a few things, hours in the simulator, hours in the gym, and hours in bed. He'd had his fun throughout the winter - exploring beautiful places with beautiful people. However, in his first pre-season meeting two months ago - team principal Karl Wagner pinched the slightest piece of fat on his bicep below the cuff of his short-sleeved shirt.

"You got fat, Sawyer." He growled gruffly in German-accented English. The older man's eyes squinted behind coke-bottle glasses that made them look much larger on his thin and pointed face. Sawyer raised an eyebrow and pulled his arm away.

"Missed you too, Karl." He muttered in amazement, sliding his hand from forward to backward in mild discomfort. No one could have called him "fat", surely no one who'd seen him diving off the bow of a yacht in the Maldives. Sawyer was the perfect image of a racecar driver, all lean muscle and rippling abs - with swim trunks that barely stayed on his hips. However, he'd enjoyed his offseason vacation, and of course, had enjoyed a beer here and a Christmas cookie there. His muscles had benefitted from the added nutrition, rounding and filling out so they popped.

However, in a world of racing, added weight, be it muscle, bloating, or as Karl called it, "fat," was a disadvantage on the track. To add insult to injury, Bastien LeBlanc, his rookie teammate, showed up in tip-top shape, getting wonderful attention from the boss.

As he left the meeting, Sawyer initiated a conference call with his personal trainer and his nutritionist, who scrambled to have a workout regimen and a month's worth of food delivered to his house. Everything that sparked joy, from wine to Oreos, was evicted from the house in a black garbage bag.

Sawyer took a pull from a water bottle beside the simulator and looked at a TV mounted on the wall. His manager and brother, Cameron, was watching the F1 channel, staying up on news for the upcoming season.

Karl's face appeared on the screen - the start of a press conference.

"Cam," Sawyer said with urgency, pulling himself out of the simulator with excitement. Without any further prodding, Cameron turned up the volume so they both could hear.

"As the team principal at GWT Racing, I am happy to announce that we have acquired Mack Thomas, former lead engineer for Rennen Motorsport," Karl announced on the screen. Sawyer balked at the news, furrowing his eyebrow and looking over his shoulder at his brother.

"He's announcing that we hired an engineer?" Sawyer asked. "That's weird."

"I guess when you're hiring the best engineer out of Formula 2 it makes news," Cameron shrugged, taking to his smartphone to start investigating. "Rennen was a shit team before he started."

"Rennen didn't have any money," Sawyer scoffed, toeing off his racing boots to walk barefoot across the white carpet of his living room into his kitchen. The space was dominated by a white marble island, the rest of the room made up of dark grey hardwoods and stainless steel appliances. He unscrewed the top of his water bottle and filled it from the filtered tap in the door of his fridge. When he tapped the opposite door, a massive screen appeared, showing a live-feed of its contents.