Bridging the Gap (Pride Road Trip 2026 #7)
Prologue
Weston Aames
Man riding bike
“Dude, seriously. I can pay you a month’s salary if you just give me a warning ticket. I’ll slow down when I go through the village in the future, I swear.”
Officer Mark Hammond stared at me for a long moment before he smirked. “So, you wanna add attempted bribery to the careless and reckless driving charge that I’m going list on your ticket? You were doing eighty in a thirty-five mile an hour zone on the main street through the village, Mr. Aames.”
The urge to roll my eyes was strong, but that wouldn’t help me gain the officer’s empathy.
It would likely piss off the cop, and that wouldn’t go well for me.
Officer Hammond had stopped me too many times to count as I sped through East Hampton to our beach house. He likely had no concern left for me.
The sermon from Hammond was always the same: “You wouldn’t be able to stop the car for a mother and child in the crosswalk. You’d kill them. Do you want to live with their deaths on your head for the rest of your life? That’s not something one would easily forget.”
The booming voice of Claude Aames pulled me from my thoughts. “Officer Hammond, I can’t say I’m happy to see you again. What’s my son done this time?”
I should have called Mom instead of Dad, but she had a charity event in Manhattan.
Dad had just returned from a trip to Chicago to meet with clients, and I knew for sure that Dad coming to pick me up at the East Hampton Police Department was the last thing he wanted to do—or what I wanted him to do.
“Eighty in a thirty-five, Mr. Aames. This one can’t be ignored. He offered to pay me a month’s salary if I let him go. I’m considering adding the bribery charge.”
Of course, the cop had to throw salt in the wound. My father was a stickler for doing things the right way. My attempted shortcut wouldn’t go unnoticed.
God, he was going to take my car away. I’d just graduated high school in May, and now I was going to be stuck for the summer without transportation.
At least I wasn’t completely on foot. My ten-speed bike was with me in East Hampton. Maybe a summer riding my bike around town would appease the old man?
I adjusted my face to offer an expression of shame when the cop came to get me out of the holding cell. Hopefully, Dad would take pity on me and not impose too stiff a penalty for my latest transgression.
"Let’s go, Mr. Aames. Your father is here and you’re being released into his custody. You’ll receive a summons from the East Hampton Justice Court regarding an appearance to answer the charge of careless and reckless driving.”
He unlocked the cell door and stepped aside. I walked through the opening and into the jail waiting room where Dad and Uncle Edmond were standing, neither of them appearing happy with me.
Nothing was said while I signed the papers and confirmed I’d received my wallet, car keys, and cell phone. Once we were outside the police department, the silence was broken.
“I don’t know what the hell to do with you, Weston.
You can kiss the car goodbye. Edmond will drive it back to Manhattan and sell it, so you better get used to walking.
The house manager has been instructed that you’re not to have any visitors at the beach house over the summer, and you’re not to leave the property until you move to New Haven in August.
“One of these days, Weston, I swear, you’ll regret all the bullshit you’ve caused. Your brother and sister didn’t give me a tenth of the trouble as you.”
My half siblings, Claude Junior and Claudia, were from my father’s first marriage. Those names were truly fucked up, but that was my father in a nutshell. Everything was about Claude Aames, and I was grateful my mother stepped in when it came to naming me.
CJ and Claudia were in their thirties, both working for Dad at Aames Investments, which was Dad’s way of controlling them. No way was I going to work at the family business. When I got out of college, I was moving far, far away from my family.
I was my own man, and I always would be.