“You tell me.” I roll my eyes. “I know I’m not exactly innocent in this situation, but Ares makes up his mind about things without even letting other people explain.”
“That’s exactly the problem.” Lev agrees. “Even Atlas used to tell him that he needs to be more forgiving. And not just with others. Ares is tough on others, but he holds himself to some fucking impossible standards and carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
That’s exactly how Ares is.
My mind goes to the tattoo of Atlas with a globe on his shoulders that my stepbrother recently got. While the design portrays Atlas holding the heavens on his shoulders, that picture describes his personality to a T.
“I just hope that the night will help him see that there’s more than one side to this situation. I know I fucked up by not telling you guys that I was on the racetrack that weekend in Bridgeport, and I’m sorry. But I hope you believe me when I say that I have no clue who the person who hit Atlas is.”
Chance takes my hand, pulling me closer. “I know. We believe you, baby.”
“I don’t know anyone who might want to harm me. And I haven’t even started processing that it happened again.”
Lev closes the ranks on my other side, pressing me closer to him and Chance. “We need to figure it out, though. They’re obviously out to get you, Zee. So it must be someone who has been watching you this entire time.”
I’ve given it some thought during the ride home. “The only person I can think of is Cal. The attack in Bridgeport was on one of his bikes, and he was furious with me after I ditched him. Even though he looked genuinely surprised earlier tonight when he saw that I was JJ Smith.”
“So he’s a better actor than he is a racer. I don’t think that motherfucker has one honest bone in his body.” Chance says.“And he doesn’t even have the guts to come after you openly. It’s exactly what I’d expect from a coward like him to get someone else to do his dirty work.”
That’s true. “Yeah, that’s how he’s always acted. The day I met him a few years ago, he was being questioned after a race in San Francisco about some damage done to another team’s bikes. He had gotten into an argument with their team captain over something stupid before the qualifiers and the day of the race, and the guy’s bikes were all fucked up.”
“I remember that!” Lev says. “They couldn’t prove anything because Fox had an alibi, but you’re right. We spoke to those guys. They were a team from Sacramento. They thought Fox got one of his maintenance guys to sneak into the other team’s paddock and damage those bikes.”
Chance nods. “So it’s Fox’s go to, getting someone else to do his dirty work. But I can’t believe you were at that race and we didn’t get to meet. Did you race? I don’t remember hearing of JJ Smith before Bridgeport.”
“I was there with DJ and Wren’s family. They were visiting his grandmother in the city, and I tagged along and convinced them to go see the race. DJ was helping me restore my dad’s old Aprilia and my pride and joy, the Ducati. I wasn’t ready to race yet, but I wanted to see how things worked in the Super League since my only racetrack experience was with the MotoGP. Not racing of course, but I grew up following my dad whenever possible.”
Chance traces my jaw with gentle fingers, his blue eyes dark and intense. “It sucks that we didn’t meet that day. If you had met us before meeting Fox, maybe now we wouldn’t worry about your safety and you wouldn’t be forced to race for Morelli.”
I know what he means, but this isn’t how life works.
“It’s hard to tell. Yes, maybe we’d have met and we would’ve ended up here together, anyway. But there’s also the possibilitythat things had to happen the way they did to bring us here today.”
Lev knows what I mean. “Yeah. If Zee hadn’t met that piece of shit before us, we wouldn’t have stepped in to yank Fox away from her. And without that tragic incident during the race, Scott would have never run for mayor, and he wouldn’t have hired Kelly as campaign manager.”
“I like to think that I would have asked Zara out before Fox did,” Chance says.
The idea is nice. And maybe in some alternate universe things happened that way. “All I know,” I say to both of them. “Is that I’m glad we’re here tonight. And I hope you can forgive me too for not telling you I was JJ. I genuinely have no idea who hit Atlas, so knowing about my racing alias wouldn’t have helped you figure out what happened.”
Chance tips my chin up with gentle fingers, looking into my eyes. “I understand that, baby.”
“I’m sorry about not telling you straight away when I started racing here.” I continue. “I was never planning to race again until after college. If Mom found out now, she’d cut me off financially, and I want to graduate and learn how to design my own motorcycle one day.”
“What about your dad?” he asks. “He’s a legend in the racing world. Wouldn’t he support your dreams?”
There’s a pang in my chest at the thought of my father. “He’s never taken me seriously. And he isn’t the only one who thinks that women can’t be faster than men on the racing track. That’s why I pretended to be a guy.”
Lev pulls me out of Chance’s arms and into his own. “I hope you know that Chance and I don’t feel that way. Aside from the fact that you were faster than us plenty of times since these races started.”
His praise makes me happy. “I know. That’s one of the many reasons why I love you guys. But what I was trying to say is that I trust you. The reason why I didn’t say anything is that when I saw that Cal was forcing you to race, I thought that if I could be there without him knowing, I could find a way to help you get out of it.”
“Is that why you made that crazy bet earlier tonight?” Lev asks.
“I knew he and Mason were cheating and that you owed them money, so I thought I’d win and pay off whatever they wanted.”
Lev sighs. “That was sweet of you, Zee. And without that bike coming out of nowhere, you would have won.”
“We aren’t mad at you, baby.” Chance adds. “We love you for trying to help us. It’s funny in a way that we didn’t tell you about the races to protect you. We didn’t want you anywhere near your ex.”
