Page 1 of Furious (The Six Six Six Rule #2)

True Lies

CHANCE

“ I wish Coach Harrison didn’t have such a hard-on for early practices on a Saturday morning.” I yawn, wishing I could have my coffee in an IV. “There isn’t enough coffee in the world this morning.”

I don’t get the sympathy I was hoping for from Lev. My best friend takes a sip from his own mug of coffee. He’s glaring at a spot in front of him on the kitchen table as if the dark wood had done something to offend him.

“I thought you were the morning person between the two of us,” I chuckle. “But I must have been wrong. Do you want more coffee?”

The words die in my mouth the second Lev lifts his gaze to look at me.

It turns out he isn’t grumpy because he’s tired. He’s pissed off. At me.

“What?” I ask, but maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

The only reaction my question has is to make a muscle on Lev’s jaw pop. I’ve rarely seen him so angry.

“We wouldn’t be so tired,” he bites out. “If we hadn’t spent last night racing motorcycles right outside campus.”

“Ah, that’s why you’re acting like someone just pissed in your cereal.” I confront him. “What were we supposed to do? We’re freshmen and if we want to bond with our teammates, we need to pledge Gamma Delta Tau. Is it my fault if our president chose a motorcycle race as our initiation task?”

Lev shakes his head. “Last night isn’t even the biggest problem. Do I have to be the one to point out the elephant in the room?”

It’s a rhetorical question, because he doesn’t wait for my answer before continuing.

“We walked right into a trap. When I first saw those bikes hidden in that abandoned hangar, I didn’t know what to think.

I wondered why our frat president had risked bringing motorcycles within city limits.

I know that Gamma initiation tasks tend to be questionable.

So we can share a secret with our brothers and that should guarantee our undying loyalty.

But there’s a difference between questionable and downright illegal. ”

I can’t help but chuckle at Lev’s choice of words. “Spoken like the true son of two lawyers.”

I pipe down at Lev’s withering glare.

“What I don’t fucking get,” he says with a vehemence that’s completely out of character. “Is how can you be so fucking cavalier about the shit storm we just got into? Calvin Fox has always been bad news. No one missed him after… Bridgeport.”

Fuck. Just the mention of that day makes me want to punch something. My fingers clutch my coffee mug with such force that I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter in my hands.

Lev knows we don’t talk about that day in this house. It’s been like that since we came back from Bridgeport without Atlas.

That’s why what he says next shocks me to my core.

“He had no choice but to retire from racing. He wasn’t the one who hit Atlas’s bike, but after he kept racing while another rider was down and the race had been officially suspended? No team would touch him with a ten-foot pole. No matter how hard he tried.”

It’s my turn to glare at my best friend. “Shut the fuck up, Lev. Stop talking about it.”

“No.” He slams his empty mug on the table. If he leaves a mark, Kelly will be furious. “We’re going to talk about it. We need to. I know you, Scott, and Ares have decided that Atlas’s name shouldn’t be spoken in this house. But it’s unhealthy, if you ask me.”

Lev and I have had our differences over the years. We’ve been best friends since I can remember, and we’ve always fought like brothers. But we’ve never come to blows. Today could be the day, though, if he doesn’t shut up. “Lev, I’m fucking warning you.”

He raises his voice. “No. You need to fucking listen to me. I don’t care if it’s uncomfortable and I don’t care if it hurts. I lost someone too that day. I know we aren’t blood, but you, Ares and Atlas, have always been brothers to me. I miss him too.”

I know he does. It still doesn’t change the fact that just hearing his name brings that pain back to the surface.

The only way Dad, Ares and I have been able to keep breathing, has been by shoving the pain and the loss as deep down as possible.

Every time someone mentions what we lost, though, that pain comes back to the surface.

It’s raw and dark and, unless we shove it back into a tight sealed compartment, it’ll swallow us whole.

“Different people grieve differently.” My tone is now pleading. “You have to respect the way we chose to grieve.”

He grabs my forearm, forcing me to meet his gaze. “If you keep burying it where you can’t reach it, it’ll never fade away. You can’t run away from pain and loss, Chance. Because no matter how deep down you shove it, it’ll always be there. Waiting for you. You can’t outrun pain.”

Maybe I don’t want it to fade away. Maybe if I let it become a painful memory that doesn’t burn like a branding iron, then I’ll lose my brother forever. At least now, every time someone even hints at our loss, that raw pain makes me feel closer to Atlas.

Shit. I realize that Lev is right. It’s fucking unhealthy. “Lev, I just can’t. I just don’t—I’m sorry.”

There’s a beat of silence between us. “We’ll talk about this another time. But we need to talk about what happened last night. You agreed to race Fox. Nothing good can come from that.”

He isn’t wrong. “I agreed to race again before I knew that Fox was Dave’s brother.”

Lev sighs. “Yeah. And that was a stupid choice, even before you knew Fox was involved. What I was trying to say is that Bridgeport meant the end of his racing career, too. Don’t you find it suspicious that he’s back in town? Especially when he knows that motorcycles are illegal in Star Cove?”

I haven’t given it much thought. “You heard Dave.” I shrug. “If something is forbidden, it’s more exciting. People will bet higher to see us racing.”

“You don’t need the fucking money, dude.” Lev bites out. “Why the fuck would you risk breaking a law your father campaigned for?”

I’m surprised by my own answer to that question.

“Because he’s always laying down the law.

Not just a mayor. No motorcycles in town, no talking about Atlas.

No involvement with Zara. Get good grades, play hockey, be the fucking perfect son.

He’s lost one son, and he couldn’t keep Ares from dropping out of college and joining the sheriff department.

So I have to be the one to fall in line. Fuck that.”

LEV

Jesus Christ.

I think Scott should fire the therapist his sons have been seeing since Atlas’s death.

I’ve suspected that Chance was harboring resentment toward his father, but the depth of his anger is a surprise to me.

“So you think that going back to racing is the answer? A big fuck you to your father? Is that what being with Zara is about, too?”

“Yes, and no.” He says.

This is bad. I have a problem with Chance doing something stupid that could hurt him or bite him in the ass in the end. But I can’t stop him from racing if that’s what he wants. Zara, however, is a completely different matter.

If he hurts her to prove something to his father, I don’t care that he’s my best friend. I’ll kick his fucking ass.

“Dude.” I’m shaking with fury. “Zara doesn’t deserve to be a pawn in whatever game you think you’re playing with your father. If you hurt her, I swear to God, I?—”

Chance cuts me off. “Why would I ever hurt Zara?”

“You just listed all the things your dad is dictating in your life. You said?—”

“I know what I said.” He sounds really pissed now. “Maybe I’m racing because I want to piss Dad off. I don’t know. Maybe I missed riding a motorcycle. We all grew up riding and it was taken away from us without asking how we felt.”

The fact that he managed to avoid mentioning Ares or Bridgeport isn’t lost on me.

“Zara is a different story.” Chance adds. “I wouldn’t try to be with her just to piss off my old man. I care about her. I think about her all the fucking time. I want her. But it’s another thing Dad wants to control.”

I see his point. “So, what are you going to do? Rub it all in Scott’s face? The racing and sleeping with Zara?”

“Fuck, no. What I’m saying is that I’m done letting someone else dictate what I should do. What I should think. What I should fucking feel. I care about Zara. I want to be with her.”

That’s some progress, at least on one front. “So you figured out what you want?”

Chance nods. “I’ve always known what I wanted. I just hated the idea of disappointing Dad. But I can’t stay away from her. I don’t want to. And I want to make Calvin Fox apologize for how he acted that day on the racetrack.”

I can’t help but state the obvious. “I doubt he’ll apologize for being an asshole.”

He doesn’t disagree. “I know. That’s why I want to race him. With men like Fox, there aren’t going to be any apologies. The only way to make him sorry is to beat him at his own game.”

I don’t like this one bit. “You’re right. But I wouldn’t be a good friend if I didn’t warn you, that this is a dangerous game. Not just if your father catches you. Last night, we raced on Dave’s bikes. Are you going to trust Calvin Fox with your own safety?”

My best friend might be impulsive, but he isn’t stupid. “No. I already thought about it. We need our own bikes.”

I open and close my mouth, trying to make sense of what he just said.

“Don’t even try to lie to me about it, Lev. I know you’re renting a garage in Shell Cove and the bike you used to race on is there. I can get my old bike back, too.”

This is news to me. I never asked Chance and Ares what they did with their own bikes. “Really? Didn’t your father sell them?”