Chapter 16
I Care
LEV
The luxury hotel’s bed is comfortable, but I can’t find a position that will ease the pain in my shoulder.
No matter how I turn, my shoulder is throbbing, and if I lean on it even a little, pain shoots all the way down my arm.
That Coach Harrison isn’t going to be happy is the understatement of the century.
Maybe chasing that dirt bike wasn’t my finest moment, but if I had caught up with it, I wouldn’t be feeling so stupid.
When I saw it coming onto the racetrack in my peripheral vision, I didn’t think about the consequences.
That driver is the same guy who hit Atlas while trying to hit JJ Smith, and if I had caught him, I would’ve answered the question that has tormented me and my friends for two years.
I can’t fight the feeling that there’s something, a vital detail, that’s there for me to analyze but it’s eluding me no matter how hard I try.
I mean, it must be the same person who hit Atlas, right? And since the only person who has a reason to hold a grudge against Zara is her ex, the person driving that dirt bike must be someone doing Fox’s dirty work.
Unless… I can’t believe that I’m even considering the possibility that Fox could have been telling the truth when he said that he had nothing to do with the incident in Bridgeport and that his bike was stolen and then used to illegally invade the racetrack.
If that were true, where does that leave us? Zara has been racking her head thinking about who could hate her so much that they followed her to Bridgeport and then bided their time until now.
The door opens, and I’m pleasantly surprised when my girlfriend walks into the room carrying an ice pack and a glass of water.
“Hey Zee,” I smile. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. I expected Ares to bring me the ice pack. But thank you for coming to see me and wish me good night.”
Zara sets the glass on the nightstand and opens her hand, showing me two white pills on her palm. “Here, take some ibuprofen and then get comfortable, and we’ll ice that shoulder. And I’m not here to wish you good night. I’m here to stay. Unless you’d rather have the bed to yourself.”
I look at the huge bed in the Country Club suite. “No, of course not. There’s more than enough room for both of us. And you know I would never say no to having you in my bed. I just assumed that you’d want to be with Chance tonight and that Ares would come to bunk with me.”
She rolls her eyes, chuckling softly as I take the painkillers she’s offering me. “If I had my way, Chance would have joined us, but he thought you’d need all the space you can get to sleep comfortably tonight.”
“I hate it when he’s right.” I laugh, because it’s not even close to being true. “But seriously, Zee. I’m not trying to kick you out, but Chance had a really rough night, so I thought you’d want to be with him.”
Zara encourages me to settle against the pile of pillows she arranges under my shoulders and then places an ice pack wrapped in one of the hotel’s luxury hand towels on my injured shoulder.
“Fuck.” I hiss, flinching away from the contact with the cold but sighing with relief after a few moments when the icy compress begins to numb the pain.
“I was worried about both of you.” She admits. “But Chance isn’t alone, so he said that I should be with you.”
Zara is sitting on the edge of the mattress, by my side. I cup her jaw with my uninjured hand. “I knew there was a reason why I’ve loved that asshole since we were kids. He always knows when I’m trying to be brave, but I need something. Or in this case, someone.”
Her gaze is soft as she turns her head to kiss the tips of my fingers. “If you needed me, why didn’t you say so?”
“Because I knew he needed you too, Zee.” I sigh. “But I’m glad he settled for Ares. I’ll have to owe him one.”
Her smile widens. “When you said that this thing with the three of us could work, I wasn’t sure. But now I see it. You and Chance care about each other so much that you’re always willing to put the other person first.”
That’s exactly it. “We do, Zee. But you’re always number one.
I hope you know that. We would do anything to make you happy and to keep you safe.
And I have faith that Ares will come around.
He loves me and Chance the same way we love one another, and he loves you more than it’s healthy or sane, just like we do. ”
Zara nods. “I really hope so.”
“I know so, sweet girl. And the proof is that he didn’t try to claim you for himself tonight but decided to take care of his brother instead. Ares needed you too, just as much as Chance and I do.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
I drop my hand as the ice pack and the painkillers begin to work their magic. “When we saw that bike coming for you, Chance choked and I chased it. Ares is trying to keep it together, but he was just as shaken as we were. But you know the way he is. He keeps his emotions locked up tightly.”
She considers my words. “I hadn’t thought about it, but I think you’re right. He always looks so strong, almost stoic. But he’s opened up to me more and more every day, and he has a soft, sensitive side.”
“He does.” I nod. “Seeing that bike tonight was probably harder for him than it was for all of us. Remember that he dropped out of college and put his entire life on hold to find the person who killed Atlas.”
“I wish you had caught him.” Her jaw ticks. “I’ve been up at night since that rider came back to try to figure out who might want to hurt me and why. But I can’t think of anyone who would hate me that much.”
I hate how troubled she sounds.
“If you can’t think of anyone, you know there’s only one person who was in Bridgeport that day and was present at every single race. Only one person who could have had the opportunity to find out that you were JJ Smith and who had beef with you after your breakup.”
Her beautiful smile is gone, and I vow to make Fox pay for that too.
“I know. And Cal wasn’t the man I thought he was when I had that childish crush on him. He proved that much when he tried to force himself on me. But hiring someone to kill me… I didn’t think he could hate me that much.”
I know what she means. When I look at Fox, I see a lowlife with a serious temper problem. “Yeah, I get what you mean. He seems more the type who would try to kill someone with his own hands rather than hiring someone else to do it.”
“I agree. But he’s the only person who was there in Bridgeport, and he’s here now. And he came back to get payback from you guys. It isn’t a coincidence that he managed to force you and Chance to race and that the mystery rider came back the second he was back in town.”
“Maybe Fox is more cunning than we give him credit for.” I muse. “Unless that really wasn’t him in Bridgeport and he’s just messing with you now as some sort of copycat situation. But that would mean that someone else tried to kill you in Bridgeport.”
Zara shakes her head. “There is really no one else who could have had the means and the opportunity to get on that racetrack back then. I trust DJ; he helped me fix that old Aprilia that my dad had left behind and then kept the Panigale I got as a graduation present in his garage. I had begged my dad for that bike for years. He didn’t make it to my graduation, and I guess he thought that amazing Ducati would soften the blow.
But the point is that Mom would have never let me keep it, and DJ didn’t hesitate to offer to hold on to it for me and to help me bring it to Star Cove when I decided to race at great risk for his future. ”
If Zara thinks her old friend from would never try to hurt her, I want to believe her. “What about his sister?”
“Wren?” she gasps. “Like DJ, she’s always been in my corner.
Besides, she was back in Shell Cove two years ago, covering for me with my mom by pretending we were having a sleepover.
And she’s been helping me at the racetrack once her brother told me he couldn’t help me anymore.
She helped me keep JJ’s identity secret, and she was there by the hangar when that mystery rider came back. ”
Zara is right.
“There is no one else. I didn’t know anyone in Bridgeport but DJ and Cal and his teammates two years ago.”
I nod. “So it was your ex hiring someone all along, or that was some kind of crazy fluke. If that’s the case, we’ll never know who invaded that racetrack back then, and Fox is just messing with you now to scare you.”
Zara
Lev is right.
I really don’t think there was anyone else who hated me so much that they would try to kill me.
A shudder works its way down my spine at the thought that I had decided to sleep with Cal that weekend. “I guess my mom was right that bad boys aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
“Should I be offended?” Lev chuckles. “I’ve always considered myself a bad boy, and I thought that’s why you liked me.”
“Ha.” I giggle. “Not even close. You, Chance, and Ares are what I thought a bad boy would be. You’re hot, you do dangerous things like riding bikes and playing hockey.
You look the part, especially in your race suits.
But once you scratch that surface, you’re the opposite of a bad boy.
You’re loving and loyal and amazing. I guess I wanted the bad boy exterior without the bad stuff after all. ”
His tone is teasing, but there’s a little underlying uncertainty in his next words. “Are you sure you don’t regret not going for someone bad to the core?”
“Positive. Cal cheated on me multiple times while we were dating.” I explain. “We’d have these blow out fights that always ended up with him justifying his actions, saying that if I didn’t put out, he had to get what I didn’t offer from someone else.”
The scowl that appears on Lev’s face reminds me of Ares. “What a fucking tool.”