My breath hitches when I realize that time is running out and I can’t find enough strength and balance to deliver a blow hard enough to create a diversion.
I’m still struggling to get enough air into my lungs; every big gulp of air I take hurts as if my insides were on fire.
Something hard, hot and fleshy touches my inner thigh. I gasp when I realize that I’m a few seconds away from being violated.
I wish I could fight him, but all my energy is focused on breathing.
I don’t want this. I belong to Chance, Ares, and Lev.
Just the idea of Mason being inside me makes me gag.
“What the fuck? Jesus!”
Mason jumps away from me, recoiling when the first gush of vomit hits him square in the face.
The air I’ve been greedily inhaling went down the wrong pipe, and projectile vomit flies out of me in one violent wave after the other.
This would be the perfect time to get away, but vomiting and running at the same time is nearly impossible.
All my prayers are answered when the bathroom’s main door bursts open and Ares and Chance run into the room followed by another tall, very attractive man.
Chapter 8
Under Surveillance
ARES
Ineed to find the right time to talk to the sheriff.
Kirk Pullin has been in my life since I can remember. Heather’s dad was a young deputy when my family moved to Star Cove. An injury had ended Dad’s remarkable hockey career before he was ready to retire, but he came back to his native California with the plan of starting his own sports agency.
The Pullins lived in the big house next door. No deputy sheriff could have afforded a house in the most upmarket area in town, but Diane Pullin’s family is old money.
Dad and the sheriff love to tell the story of how it took him a few weeks to gather the courage to say hi to his hockey idol.
Eventually, one of Diane’s award-winning apple pies appeared at our front door as a welcome gift, and it broke the ice. Our families have been tight ever since.
The long-standing friendship between Dad and Kirk Pullin is our biggest asset in this case.
I’m confident that because of that friendship, Kirk will be amenable to agreeing to avoid a jail sentence for Chance, Lev, and Zara. I also hope that he’s going to help me break the news to Dad.
Keeping Star Cove motorcycle free has been important to my father to the point that it consumed him.
His entire mayoral campaign was centered on it. In the eyes of the political analysts and the electorate, he came across as passionate about road safety.
The reality is that after what happened to Atlas, motorcycles became a symbol of what our family had lost.
It was as if Dad believed that banning motorcycles wouldn’t just keep us safe, but it could bring Atlas back.
When he hears what happened, he’s going to be beyond furious. Over the past two years, his hatred of motorcycles has become an obsession to the point that there’s no way to predict how he will react. I wouldn’t put it past him to really demand that Lev, Chance and Zara face the consequences of breaking the law just like everyone else.
While I know that what they did was wrong, I also know that they didn’t have bad intentions when they got tangled in this mess.
The Gamma Delta Tau initiation would have been one single infraction if Fox and Morelli hadn’t seen an opportunity to bank on the ban. Chance and Lev felt like they had no choice from the beginning, and Zara wanted to protect them. This is going to be my angle when I speak to the sheriff. It’s nothing but the truth.
Working out a deal ahead of informing the mayor will be key in presenting the situation in the best possible light for my brother, my stepsister, and Lev.
I think that immunity in exchange for their testimony against Fox and Morelli will be the key to convincing my boss to be lenient and to help contain Dad’s wrath once he inevitably finds out.
