Page 43 of Furious (The Six Six Six Rule #2)

Furious

CHANCE

“ D ude, pull yourself together.” Lev hisses as we skate back to the bench at the end of our shift. “Before Coach decides that betting on us was a mistake.”

He’s right. I’ve missed every assist, I’ve been out of sync, slightly late for every play so far tonight.

The entire game is like a flash in front of my eyes while I have an internal meltdown about Ares’s parting words earlier today.

He hinted at something Lev and I have been keeping from Zara. Something he thinks would be a deal breaker if she found out. There’s no way he knows about the races, right?

I mean, if he did, the abandoned road at the end of campus would have been swarmed by police last week. But what else could it be?

For a second, I think he knows about my one mistake with Heather.

But I don’t think it’s that. Maybe I should tell Zara about it, but I’m afraid of how she would react since she’s become good friends with Heather.

It happened only once, way before I had any idea that she would be back in my life.

I’ve been carrying a lot of guilt about channeling my grief by sleeping with my late brother’s girlfriend.

There were no romantic feelings involved there.

It was just a way to feel closer to Atlas, but all it did was to make me feel worse.

What if I tell her and Zara decides she doesn’t want to be with me anymore out of some sense of loyalty to her new friend?

It would be totally pointless, since Heather and I have agreed that we’re much better as friends.

I don’t think Ares knows about it, anyway. I never told anyone about it, not even Lev, and I doubt Heather told him since she and Ares are like oil and water.

Besides, Ares talked about something both Lev and I are supposedly keeping secret from Zara. It can only be the races.

The game is over in the blink of an eye. We lose.

Coach doesn’t even come to chew our heads off in the locker room. I’m relieved, but all my teammates think it’s a bad sign. Whenever Coach Harrison doesn’t yell after a loss due to a sub par performance, it’s because he’s planning some cruel and unusual punishment.

I’m not even worried about that. Whatever Coach wants to do to us, I definitely deserve it for being too distracted to give a decent performance on the ice tonight.

“Did you see Zara’s text?” Lev asks, showing me the latest text in our thread with Zara. “She’s not feeling well, and she’s skipping the party tonight.”

I saw that. “She said it isn’t anything serious, ‘girl problems’. Maybe we should skip the party too and bring her some chocolate and some extra supplies in case she’s running low?”

As her stepbrother buying her tampons and snuggling with her under a blanket to keep a heating pad on her stomach would probably be weird; but as her boyfriend, it’s exactly what I should do.

Lev knows too. “I wish we could. There’s nothing I would like more than to put on a rom-com for her and spend the night pampering her and making sure she feels better. But you know we can’t do that. Of all nights, tonight is the one time we can’t skip.”

He’s right. We made a deal with Mason and a deal with a Morelli isn’t to be underestimated; at least judging by the reputation that family has in town.

“I know.” I sigh. “It’s our one opportunity to get out of this mess once and for all. But I don’t want Zara to think we don’t care about her.”

Lev agrees with me. “Yeah. Let me text Heather and see if she can deliver some stuff to Zara from us. Maybe she can keep her company until we’re back.”

The party at the Gamma house is in full swing by the time we get there.

Everyone is still shaking our hands and slapping our backs despite the disastrous game.

Star Cove is an amazing college, not only because of the top-notch education it offers.

Our school spirit is unparalleled, and that’s especially true when it comes to how much everyone loves the hockey team.

“What did Heather say?” I ask Lev, grabbing a can of soda from a cooler in the kitchen.

“My message was delivered, but she didn’t read it. She’s probably here somewhere with her Zeta sisters and not even looking at her phone.”

I bet he’s right. “I don’t like the idea of Zara being home alone when she isn’t feeling well.

Dad and Kelly are at a fundraiser tonight,” I muse.

The only thing that was good about playing like shit tonight was that Dad wasn’t there to see it.

“And that stuff usually drags on and on, but Ares has the week off from work. Do you think we should ask him to go check on Zara?”

“Hmm,” Lev considers my words. “We all need to have a conversation with him when tempers aren’t flaring as much as they were earlier today.

He left pissed off and I think he owes Zara an apology for how he spoke to her.

If she’s not feeling well, having Ares scowl at her like she’s done something wrong probably isn’t what Zara needs right now. ”

I exhale as the knot of tension in my stomach gets tighter with every passing second. “Did anyone ever tell you that being always right is fucking annoying?”

He grins. “Someone has to do it.”

It’s getting late. Dave and the others are going to start trickling out of the backyard very soon. “Let’s get this over with.” I whisper. “I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling about tonight. What if Ares knows?” I finally say it out loud.

“I’ve thought about it.” Lev reassures me. “You know your brother. If he knew, he would be obligated to report it and the whole thing would have been shut down.”

“But what else could he have been talking about earlier, then? What else does he think we’re lying to Zara about?”

Lev claps my shoulder to reassure me. “Maybe he thinks that we’re lying about being ok with sharing.

Every time I tried to help him get some time alone with Zara, he had this skeptical tone when he thanked me.

Maybe he thinks that we’re pretending to agree on Zara not choosing to single him out.

So that we’d have to fight just one another once he walks away. ”

It makes sense. That’s exactly like Ares would think.

However, that doesn’t ease the knot in my stomach. “How are we going to deal with Smith? The guy’s more slippery than an eel.”

We begin walking toward the end of the backyard. “I’ve been thinking about it. Ideally, we’d find him before the race and talk to him. Maybe he’s interested in racing for Morelli, anyway. He would be guaranteed to get paid as opposed to now.”

“What if he isn’t? The guy acts like he has something to hide.”

Lev’s brows lower, his expression determined.

“Then we drag him in front of Fox and Morelli, kicking and screaming. I don’t care.

Last week, Smith arrived at the last second, right before the race started.

If he shows up late again, you and I do anything in our power to stick close to him.

Especially toward the end. Whether Smith wins or loses tonight, he might try to disappear again. We can’t let him.”

Anxiety rears its ugly head. “What do you mean? We can’t cause an accident. If anyone gets hurt, we can’t really go to the hospital.”

“It shouldn’t come to that. Both our bikes should be faster than Smith’s Ducati at top speed.

We just need to close down on him if he tries to get away.

I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but I bet Morelli had a plan for that, too.

His family must have their own doctors, who probably know not to ask too many questions. ”

My best friend is right again. I just need to make sure I don’t choke again like I did a couple of weeks ago. We can end this tonight if we both play our part.

ARES

What the fuck is this?

Blending in with the crowd at the Gamma party was child's play.

The house was so full that no one noticed an extra guy in a hockey jersey and a baseball cap.

I kept an eye on Chance and Lev, keeping my distance and hiding my face into a solo cup filled with water, pretending to be one of the tipsy people who support the Cove Knights whether they win or lose.

Luckily, I didn’t see Zara, Heather or Angela, the only people who could really blow my cover if they spotted me.

I knew I was onto something when I noticed a few hockey players sneaking out of the house from the backyard once the party began to die down.

It was harder to stay hidden once people started leaving, but thankfully, almost everyone had consumed enough booze to make them less observant.

Of course there was underage drinking at the party. I wasn’t surprised about that. If the school really wanted to clamp down on that, I bet most of Greek Row would be deserted.

Chance and Lev, however, didn’t seem to be drinking like the rest of their teammates and frat brothers.

That should have probably made me feel good that they weren’t being stupid—every team member who drinks despite being underage is risking their spot on the team and Dad would kill Chance if he got in trouble with his coach—but for some reason, seeing them drinking soda rather than beer made me even more suspicious.

When they finally left the house from the same door at the end of the backyard fence as some of their teammates, I followed.

I knew something was definitely going on when they walked to the most remote part of campus, past the ice arena and the football fields, right into the woods.

If I had to guess based on every college movie I’ve seen in my life, I would assume that they have some kind of fight club situation going on; or even worse, some kind of secret society thing.

If they’re doing drugs, or worse, encouraging girls to take drugs to take advantage of them, I’m going to kick their asses.

Both situations would explain why they were meeting with someone like Morelli, and why they kept it a secret from me and from Zara.