She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 48

Loyce stood in the pit lane, rain streaming down her visor.

Hugo checked the live weather feed. “Summit’s starting to clear.”

“Not so fast,” Loyce said. “When I flew over earlier, I saw a huge bank of dark cloud forming up there. I’m betting we get hail.”

Hugo’s smile turned sharp. “That girl on their team has never driven anything like this. If you’re right, and she’s anchoring for them, they’re done.”

Through the first legs, Hugo’s team and Lester’s stayed neck-and-neck, separated by only fractions of a second.

But that was by Loyce’s design. She deliberately managed the pace and timing to delay her own final-leg launch, aiming to hit the track at the same time as Quiana. She wanted the last leg to be a direct comparison—no excuses, no hiding.

By the time the fifth driver reached the summit, the sky, just beginning to brighten, soured in an instant.

Only twelve cars remained on the course. The drizzle turned into hail. Hail the size of fingernails hammered the cars, rattling the bodywork like gunfire.

“Loyce, visibility’s under thirty feet!” the fifth driver, Kaden, said shakily over comms. “Braking distance is at least triple!”

Quiana swallowed. “The summit… what’s it like up there? Did it clear?”

Lester let out a hard breath. “No. It’s worse. Hail, low visibility, sudden as hell. We can’t swap the order now even if we wanted to. So be careful, and whatever you do, don’t let Loyce pass you. Right now, she’s the only threat.”

Quiana nodded hard, trying to look composed, but her hands trembled on the wheel.

“Why is Loyce anchoring too?” she thought, panic and rage twisting together. “If I lose... if I lose to her, what will Lester think? What will the team think? What will my fans think?”