Page 3 of Furious
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?”
“No. The bikes were owned by Star Arrows. And the company was in the twins’ names. Remember Adam, their head mechanic? He took the bikes and has them in Shell Cove, too. He was always hoping that Ares would return to racing, so I’m sure he’s still holding on to them. I’ll pay him a visit. The bikes Dave gave us were old and not real racing bikes. I’m sure Fox will come to race with something better, thinking he’s going to have an advantage. We’ll show him that we are one step ahead of him.”
His analysis of the situation is right. Fox will show up with a top-of the range racing motorcycle, and he’ll expect us to race on the old Beamers he’s keeping in that hangar.
“You said we. Even if I agreed to do this—and I haven’t agreed yet—you’re getting ahead of yourself. Where would we keep our bikes? They’re still illegal in town.”
Chance has always been really good at thinking fast on his feet. That’s what makes him a great hockey player and a great racer.
“Your garage. Your parents are never home. If we park our bikes behind your car and keep them covered, they’ll never know.”
He’s probably right. But the situation is still risky. “Sure. They take their cars to and from work, and they never come into my own garage. But how do you plan on taking our bikes to campus?”
He has an answer for that, too. “In the back of my truck. We’ll cover them with some tarp or something.”
I play devil’s advocate. “They’ll stick out like a sore thumb, even covered.”
Chance insists. “I know it’s not ideal to lay them down flat, but I’ll put something under it to make sure they don’t get damaged. We both have rooms in the Gamma house now, and we’ll have the excuse of moving some of our stuff for the nextfew nights. So we’ll throw other things in my truck bed and that should be a decent decoy. After all, no one has any reason to suspect the mayor’s son to own a motorcycle in town, right?”
I bark out an incredulous laugh. “Holy shit. Remind me never to cross you, dude. But I guess that works.”
There’s a beat of silence before Chance gives me a way out. “Lev, you don’t have to get involved in this if you don’t want to.”
I appreciate the sentiment, but this isn’t how things work between us. “We’ve always had each other’s backs, Chance.” I say. “The fact that I think this is a fucking terrible idea and you should never have agreed to another race doesn’t mean you’re doing this alone.”
He smiles. “I know. We’re each other’s ride or die.”
After all we’ve been through, those words sound like an omen we should have seen coming two years ago in Bridgeport. “Yeah. Let’s try to avoid the dying part if we can. Let’s win the next race, send Fox back to whatever shit hole he crawled out of and return those bikes to Shell Cove.”
Chance agrees. “That’s the plan. Of course, it goes without saying that we need to keep this between us. Ares can’t know about it. Same for Heather.”
“Yeah. It would put Ares in an uncomfortable position. And Heather would probably go straight to her daddy.”
I can’t even blame Heather too much for how much she hates motorcycles. Since losing Ares, she’s never been the same again. It’s like a part of her died that day in Bridgeport.
“What about Zara?” I ask.
Chance blinks, confused. “What about Zara?”
“Do you think we should tell her?”
“Absolutely not.” He doesn’t even think about it. “Why would you tell her?”
I don’t have a real answer to that question.
I’ve never had a girlfriend, but I feel that I shouldn’t keep any secrets from her. “I guess if Fox is in town, maybe she should know? So she can watch her back?”
Chance sees the situation under a different light. “I think that’s even more reason not to tell her. If she knew what we’re doing, do you think she would stay away from the race?”
Fuck.
I think Chance is right. “Probably not.”
“Exactly.” He nods. “And that would put her in the same place as Fox. Besides, if things go south and we get caught doing this, I want her to have plausible deniability with our parents.”
