Page 201 of Bend

He crouches enough that we’re closer to eye level. His voice drops, not soft exactly, but steadier than everything around us. “You did your job.”

The sentence lands badly.

I look away.

He knows why.

“I heard that after Wolfe too.”

Andre’s expression changes, but he doesn’t flinch from it.

“I know.”

“And doing my job didn’t save him.”

“No.” He pauses, letting that sit instead of trying to erase it. “But his bike didn’t fail either.”

My fingers curl against my knee.

“You know that.”

“I know.”

“Then stop checking because you think the fifteenth time is going to give you control you never had.”

That pisses me off because it’s true.

I look back at him. “Are you done being emotionally intelligent? It’s really fucking unsettling.”

“Completely done.”

He hands the wrench back.

I take it.

“One more pass.”

“One.”

“Maybe one and a half.”

“Echo.”

“Fine.”

He walks away before I can renegotiate.

The next hour disappears into prep, briefings and the slow build of tension that settles over the paddock as the first start gets closer. By then, Wolfe’s family has arrived.

I recognize his mother before anyone tells me who she is.

She has his eyes.

That’s the first thing I notice, and it stops me harder than the empty bay did.

She’s standing beside a man I assume is his father, both of them wearing jackets against the morning sun, and there are two other people with them who must be family. They all look exhausted in the way people do when they have crossed an ocean for the worst reason possible.

Andre sees them first and walks over.