#Junkie (GearShark #1)(75)

“I told him to shower. He smelled,” Trent replied.

We all laughed, and Ivy plopped down next to her daughter. “He got up and trained with Romeo this morning.”

“Are you going to be at pancake Sunday this week?” Rimmel asked, coming into the room, Romeo right behind her.

Trent looked up. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“We missed you last week,” she said.

“Sorry. Drama at Omega.”

“What’s going on?” Romeo asked.

Trent shook his head once. “Nothing. Same old crap. I handled it.”

I didn’t think Con trying to toss him off of his throne was nothing, but I wasn’t going to say anything. He barely talked about the frat all weekend, other than to tell me what happened. I was starting to think there was more to it than he said.

“I know I don’t go there anymore, but I’ll still come over there and help you smash heads if I got to,” Romeo answered.

Trent smirked. “Thanks, man.”

“I have to go get ready for class.” Rimmel made a face. “Last semester ‘til we graduate!”

“Amen.” Trent replied and got up to hug Rim. She was swallowed by his size, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was used to it by now with Rome. “I’ll see ya later.”

“Yes, come hang out this week,” she insisted, pulled back, and went up the stairs, but Romeo hung back.

He held his fist out to me, and I pounded it out with him. “Good luck today.”

“Thanks.”

After a few more minutes of hanging with the fam, Trent and I grabbed a quick bite out of the kitchen and hit the road.

I had an interview to get to.





Trent

GearShark magazine was no joke.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there, but it wasn’t what we pulled up to.

They sent an entire team to set up for the photo shoot and interview. There was a photographer, his assistant, a stylist, a makeup artist, and the writer doing the article. There were also a few guys on their crew who basically just set everything up and would take it all down when we were done.

It was more than I realized went into a magazine. Especially a car magazine. But then I found out one of the reasons: this wasn’t just an “ordinary” article.

Drew was going to be on the cover. He was the feature story for the issue. In addition to the article and photo shoot, Gamble bought some ads in the magazine for the new division, and they were taking shots and photographs around the track for potential use.

Joey was here. Her Skyline was freaking sweet-looking up close. And there were several other indie drivers that were well known at the speedway here and on the streets. One of them was Arrow.

I didn’t mind him… much. He was just a kid.

But I was sure as hell glad Lorhaven wasn’t around. I bet it was a real thorn in his side he wasn’t here right now. He was probably dying to know what was going on.

Such a shame he was banned from the speedway.

Not.

From the minute we got there, people milled about. The owners of the speedway were there, mostly out of the way to observe, but occasionally they would jump in and answer questions or to show some of the crew around.

There was a table set up near the trailer the crew brought with a whole spread of coffee, bottled water, donuts, and trays of snack food.

Everything was outside today. The photo shoot was on the track. They had lighting set up around the Fastback, which was moved to the photo location (by me). There was also another small area where they planned to take photos of Drew, off to the side. It was set up with a large white background and floor. It too had big lights everywhere.

Drew was swept off almost immediately. They were putting makeup on him, which he hated and I found funny as shit. I took some sneaky photos with my cell of the makeup artist doing his face and texted them to the entire family.

He was gonna be pissed. Ha-ha-ha-ha.

There was a wardrobe woman there who kept holding up shirts and outfits, but when I took Drew over a cup of coffee (I took pity on the guy… He was wearing foundation), the stylist was saying she loved the look he was already wearing.

I took advantage of it and told her Ivy Forrester of People styled him this morning. Turned out the stylist subscribed to Ivy’s channel online and was totally fangirling. She declared he would just wear what he had on. Drew made sure Ivy would be listed in the credits of the shoot for her contribution. She was gonna be thrilled. Of course, he would change into something else for a portion of the shoot, so the stylist that was here would also get her credit.

“Think he needs some mascara?” I asked the makeup girl as I pretended to scrutinize Drew’s face.

Drew glared at me. “Don’t you have manager shit to do?”

“Making sure you look your best on your first magazine cover is manager shit,” I replied innocently.

The makeup artist giggled. “I was thinking maybe a little blush, too.”

Drew blanched.

I took out my phone and snapped another pic. Then I took a selfie with the makeup girl and the stylist. I made sure I got Drew scowling at the three of us in the background.

Fun times.

“You’re fired,” Drew told me when we were done taking selfies.

“Aww, Forrester, you’d never be able to find anyone else to take my place.”