High-Sided (Armed & Dangerous #3)(7)

“Has your dad said anything to you?” Sean asked, taking the seat across from me. He handed me a bottle of water and I guzzled it down.

After riding through the Tail of the Dragon, we’d decided to take a break at the Deals Gap shop, where all the bikers congregated after surviving through the curviest road on the east coast. The first time I’d gone through it was on the back of Logan’s bike, many years ago.

“Nope.” I huffed. “He continues to avoid me like the plague. He probably thinks if enough time goes by, I’ll forget. But I’m not going to let up.” It’d been a week now and my dad had basically disappeared. When I tried to call, he explained it by saying he wanted Sean and I to get used to handling the business on our own. What made it worse was, I knew he was talking to Levi behind my back. I had no clue why or what was going on. Even Levi had managed to avoid me.

“Hey, Kass,” a voice called out. I turned and smiled as my old high school friend, Janie, hopped off what looked to be a new sport bike and sat down beside me. We’d lost touch when we went to different colleges. Now she was back, working as an elementary school teacher. “How are you? I haven’t seen you around much in the last month.”

Her gaze found Sean’s and her cheeks flushed. She was a beautiful woman with bright blonde hair and gray eyes. I kept hoping he’d transfer his feelings for me onto someone else. Maybe there was something to work with here.

“I wasn’t in town much,” I said. “After my mom died, I spent most of my time at her house, cleaning it out.”

She rubbed a hand down my arm. “I heard about your mother. I’m so sorry for your loss. She was the best.”

I shrugged. “Thanks. We knew it was going to happen, but it was still a low blow.” Glancing over my shoulder, I nodded at the shiny new, silver Yamaha R6. “Is that new?”

Her face brightened. “Yep, got it a couple of weeks ago. It’s so much better than my last one. We should go riding together sometime. I’m meeting my brother and his friends here.”

I knew who they were, and needless to say, there was bad blood. Her twin brother, Brandon, was a good guy, but it was his friends who were the problem. A couple of them had tried out to race for my father, but he’d turned them down, leaving a bad taste in their mouths.

“Sounds good,” I said. “But you know I can’t ride with your brother’s friends. They don’t exactly care for my family.”

She nodded. “I know. I don’t understand it though. I mean, they got a spot on the Hendrix Racing team. I guess they wanted to be on the best.”

Sean scoffed. “They’re far from it.” I glared at him and he shrugged. “What? It’s the truth. We had about thirty racers try out and we could only take three. What’d they expect?”

“I agree,” Janie replied. “They just don’t want to hear it.”

More racers pulled into the parking lot, and thankfully, none of them were Brandon’s friends. But Levi was one of them. He parked his bike next to mine and lifted his helmet. From the look on his face, he was pissed. He stormed over and sat down beside Sean, intentionally avoiding my angry stare.

“Just save it, Kass. I know you’re angry with me,” he said.

I snorted. “You’re damn right I am. You can make it up to me by telling me what the hell’s going on. Why are you and my dad keeping things from us?”

Huffing, he ran his hands over his face. “It doesn’t matter now. The guy we thought could help turned us down.”

Janie nudged me in the side. “Is everything okay?”

I shrugged, keeping my focus on Levi, who’d finally met my gaze. “That’s a good question.”

“So who were you trying to get help from?” Sean asked.

Levi shook his head. “Nobody. Just forget it. Looks like we’re going to have to figure out the mystery on our own.”

Janie’s brows furrowed. “Mystery? Does this have to do with what happened to your pit crew manager?”

“How did you hear about that?” I gasped.

“Bad news travels fast in the racing world. I heard Mark and Jacob talking about it the other day.” Her brother’s friends hated me, and the feeling was mutual. It all started when I turned Jacob down for a date, and ever since, everything had gone downhill.

“Wait a minute,” I blurted, meeting Levi and Sean’s gazes. “Ethan said my father had enemies outside of the racing world, but what about the ones close by? The people at Hendrix hate us. What if they had something to do with all of this?”

Levi shrugged. “It’s possible, but why would they frame Ethan?”

“Good point,” Sean replied. “Makes no sense. Why go after him and not one of the racers?”

Huffing, I rolled my eyes. Surely, I wasn’t the only one who could see what was going on. “Because he’s one of the best mechanics out there. We have more to lose than our riders. Now that Ethan’s gone, he’s free to work for someone else.” But that wasn’t the end of our problems.

“That’s not all,” Levi sighed as the realization set in. “Now that we’re short a mechanic, your dad will have to hire someone else. We’ll have to put our trust into someone we don’t know.”

“Not unless we bring Ethan back,” Sean supplied. “All we have to do is prove his innocence. We have a starting point with Hendrix. Let’s find someone who can get in there and ask questions.”