Page 32 of Furious (The Six Six Six Rule #2)

I take one of the sandwiches out of the bag. “Extreme sausage and some hash browns.” I unwrap the sandwich and open it, putting a couple of hash browns inside. “Hash browns into the sandwich, just the way you like it.”

I place the sandwich on the ground in front of my brother’s smiling face. Dad chose his graduation photo to memorialize who Atlas had been. I think he would have preferred a shot in his race suit, but I knew Dad would have never agreed to it.

“I also have something else for you.” I grab the small black plastic bag. “Today would have been our first legal drink. Remember how we planned to go to every bar in town and order a beer? Since we can’t do that, I brought the beer for you. Cheers, brother. Happy birthday.”

I open the bottle and take a small sip. The cold liquid soothes the lump in my throat, at least somewhat. I pour the rest of the beer on the grass and leave the empty next to the food.

“Do you mind if we eat our breakfast with him?” I turn to look at Zara.

“Of course.”

She helps me set the blanket down in front of the gravestone. When we lower ourselves onto it, she sits close enough that our outer thighs are touching. I didn’t even know how much I needed to feel her warmth. But this is the thing with Zara. She always seems to know what I need.

We eat in silence and it’s perfect. If Atlas was here, he would do all the talking. That was our thing. He would give voice to all our plans for the future and without him, I think my future is sitting right by my side in a pretty white sundress.

ZARA

I listen to Ares telling his twin brother about what he’s missed in the past two years.

It isn’t hard to see how hard this is for him to even be here. I stay close to him, but I don’t say much.

Ares has been dreading his birthday. Every year this day has become a reminder of what he has lost. I didn’t know Atlas that much, but I’m honored that he wanted me here with him.

We eat our breakfast side by side on a blanket on the patch of grass in front of Atlas’s grave.

When the food is gone, Ares busies himself with collecting all our empties.

“I would like to stay a little longer. Is that ok with you?” he asks me.

“I’m here for as long as you want.”

He leans back, stretching onto the blanket. “Come here.” He pulls me down with him and I go willingly. Sitting on the soft grass under this odd plaid blanket, tucked into Ares’s side, is oddly comfortable.

“I hope you don’t think I’m a weirdo for bringing you here,” Ares finally says. “I just realized that this is our first date, and I took you to a cemetery. Maybe I should have asked you first if you were ok coming here.”

He lowers his gaze, but my fingers trace his jaw, encouraging him to look at me.

“If you had asked me, I would have said yes.”

The corners of his lips quirk up in his typical barely there smile. “I don’t know how you do it, princess.”

If he’s teasing me, I walk right into his trap. But for once, I’m not worried about winning a verbal sparring match with him. “How I do what?”

“How you always do and say what I need you to do and say. Since Dad told me and Chance that he expected us to treat you like a sister, I’ve been conflicted.

His wishes aren’t the only obstacle in our way.

There are Chance and Lev, too. It would be easier to walk away, but I can’t.

It isn’t just because I like you and I need you.

I’m not an easy man to be with, but you seem to know how.

You know when to push me, when to fight me, when to hold my hand.

You make it extremely hard not to fall for you. ”

The way Ares is looking at me is everything. Everything I’ve always wanted, even if I didn’t know I needed it.

“You make it hard not to fall for you, too.” I admit.

His silver irises have stormy blue spots in them, and all I want is to get lost in their depths.

“I know there are a lot of things to figure out between us,” his voice is a low, deep rasp that reverberates in my chest, causing my pulse to quicken. “But not today. Today, I just need you to be with me. Do you think you can do that?”

I don’t need to think about it. I just nod.

“My birthday has been painful for the last two years. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Today is the first time I don’t hate it. Because you’re here. My sweet princess.”

His lips find mine and our kiss is brief and shallow, but it finds its way into my heart.

I know I’m not just falling for Ares. I fell for him two years ago, the second he stepped between me and Cal to save me.

What I can’t be sure of is if Ares will be able to accept that I feel the same for his brother and for Lev.

There’s also something else that’s been weighing on my heart and I need to come clean about it. I need to confess that I was on that racetrack two years ago. While I’m not the one who hit Atlas, I was the target of the stray bike that caused the accident.

I don’t know that for sure, and I can’t prove it, but that bike belonged to Cal’s team. He was furious with me after I left him to stay with Ares and his team. It isn’t a stretch of the imagination to think that he would pay someone to hurt me.

Whoever went after my Ducati on that racetrack must have known I was JJ Smith.

I’ve been obsessing about that for two years.

DJ was the only person who knew I was racing.

He helped me fix Dad’s old bike, brought it to Bridgeport and registered me for the race.

He’s been my friend for almost ten years.

He’s someone I would trust with my life.

So the only possible conclusion is that someone else must have known that I was racing.

Cal is the only person who could have guessed it. The night before the qualifying race, I stayed in his trailer.

When Ares found him trying to force himself on me, Cal had just walked in on me when I was changing back into my street clothes after the qualifier.

He wanted to work off the adrenaline from the race by having sex and came looking for me when he hadn’t found me in the paddock.

It’s ironic that when I had followed him to Bridgeport, I was planning to sleep with him.

I changed my mind when he became pushy and aggressive for no apparent reason.

He kept asking me where I had been, why wasn’t I where I was supposed to be, watching the race like a good girlfriend.

It felt like an interrogation. Back then, I thought he was just jealous, but maybe there was more to his reaction.

Maybe I hadn’t closed my bag fast enough when he came into the trailer.

He might have seen the race suit and the helmet.

I had rushed out of his trailer with the intention of finding DJ and to give him my bag to keep until the race, but Cal had followed me outside.

That’s when Ares saw us struggling and intervened. When I refused to stay with him and cave to his demands but followed Ares and his brothers, he felt slighted.

Cal is a vindictive man. I had witnessed that trait many times in the few months I had been dating him.

If I’m right, while I’m not directly responsible for what happened to Atlas, I was the catalyst for the moment that destroyed Ares’s life.

I’m terrified that when I tell him, Ares’s feelings for me will be tainted forever. But I know I can’t start a relationship with him without being completely honest. I need to tell him.

Just not today. I want him to have the best birthday he can possibly have, and digging up the most painful part of his past would ruin everything. My reasons aren’t totally selfless, of course. If telling him might mean losing him forever, I want to have this day together, too.

A fat drop of water lands on my shoulder, pulling me out of my own thoughts.

I lift my face to look at the sky and another drop of rain hits my forehead. It’s followed by another one, and another.

“I guess that’s our cue to leave.” Ares gets back on his feet, offering me his hand to help me up.

We work quickly to fold the blanket and clean up the food and the beer. “Come on,” Ares takes my hand as the rain falls faster and harder. “Let’s go before we get drenched.”

Running back to his jeep is pointless, because by the time we’re in the car, we’re both soaking wet.

This time Ares doesn’t offer to let me drive. He opens the passenger door for me and then gets behind the wheel.

“You ok, princess?” he asks. “You look a little cold over there.”

I look down my body, hugging my middle to conserve a little body heat. Thank fuck my dress is lined or the white fabric would have become see through.

“I’m fine. You?”

He runs a hand through his short blond hair.

“I’m good. Let’s go home before we bump into someone we know.

There were no flowers, so Heather hasn’t visited yet.

I came here early because I know she plays golf with her dad every Saturday morning, but we don’t want to cut it too close.

If she sees us, she’ll insist on tagging along and there’s only one person I want to spend my birthday with. ”

“Let’s go.” I agree. “I already had one hell of a time explaining myself to her when she saw me kiss Chance.”

Ares merges back into the old, less frequented coastal road, but rather than following it up the hill toward our parents’ house, he drives in the opposite direction toward downtown Star Cove, where his apartment complex is located.

“What did you say to her?” he asks.

“I said it was a dare, and she believed me. But she was so mad when she thought I was cheating on Lev.”

He sighs. “I’m not surprised. Not many people know this, but the first year they were dating Atlas fucked up.”

“No way. They looked so in love.” I’m truly shocked.

“Look, I’m not justifying my brother’s actions.

He shouldn’t have done it and he knew it.

But at the beginning of their relationship, Heather’s parents were really strict with curfews and with how much time they allowed Heather to spend with Atlas.

Heather was just fourteen when they started dating, so I don’t blame Kirk and Diane.

But imagine how all those rules must have felt to a hot-blooded sixteen-year-old boy. ”

I glare at my stepbrother. “You say you aren’t justifying him, but you sure sound like you are.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not. He fucked up, and he knew it. I just thought that they were way too young to get so serious. I wanted to party and fuck around, so I didn’t get into a relationship. It was as simple as that.”

“I respect that. And I respect Heather’s dislike of cheaters.

I don’t condone it either. I’ve seen firsthand how my dad’s constant cheating hurt my mom and destroyed our family.

But I didn’t feel like explaining my relationship with each of you to her.

We all know what’s going on and that’s between us. ”

Ares agrees with me. “That’s right. Besides, there’s going to be nothing to explain once you make your decision.”

His words weigh on me like a lead balloon. I need to tell him that I don’t know if I can ever choose, but this isn’t the right time. Ares asked me to be with him today, and I want to make his birthday as happy as it can be.

“It’s still raining.” He says, parking a short distance from his apartment building. “And I don’t have an umbrella like a complete dumb ass.”

“It’s ok.” I shrug, looking at my drenched dress. “We’re already wet. What’s a little more rain?”

He reaches out to tuck a lock of wet hair behind my ear. “Thank you for being so easygoing, princess. A lot of women I know would be in a foul mood about ruining their hair.”

“As long as you don’t make fun of me later when my hair is a tangled mess, I don’t care.

” I say, missing his touch when he moves his hand away from my face.

“I’m just relieved that we made it here without bumping into anyone we know.

Especially Scott. Wait, he isn’t going to show up here to wish you a happy birthday, right? ”

“No, he won’t. The past two years, this day has been about what we lost for all of us more than being about me.

I coped with it by getting blackout drunk.

Dad distracts himself with as much work as he can handle.

Thank fuck Chance has Lev. Dad and I are assholes.

We’ve been so wrapped up in our own misery that we left Chance to fend for himself. ”

I don’t know what to say. “You heard Lev, they’re gonna hang out. But maybe you should check on him later. Just to let him know you’re thinking about him.”

Ares nods. “That’s an excellent idea, princess. But for now, we need to get out of this car and make a run for it. It doesn’t look like the rain is easing up. If anything, it’s raining harder than before.”

I was so wrapped up in our conversations that I hadn’t noticed that we’re in the middle of a legit torrential downpour. “Maybe we should wait a few minutes and see if it gets a little less like Noah’s Ark is about to come by?” I shudder, my wet dress stone cold against my skin.

“I doubt it.” He says. “When it rains like this, it can last for hours, maybe overnight. Remember that storm we had a few weeks ago? We have a lot of them in the fall. If you don’t want to get out in the rain, I can see if I can find an umbrella.

I don’t know if I own one, to be honest. When I moved out of Dad’s house, I took with me just the bare minimum.

He was so upset that I was going, so I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

If I can’t find an umbrella, I can get you a raincoat.

The sheriff's department issued us some as part of our uniform.”

I look outside again. “No, it’s just a couple hundred feet to your door. If we make a run for it, I’ll be out of these clothes much faster than if I wait here.”

Ares’s hand is on his door. “Ok, then. At my three, we make a run for the door. One, two…”