by S. J. Sylvis
“What’s going on?”
“Answer me,” he demanded.
“Of course I know you care about me.” I gestured to the races behind his back. “Look at where we are. You're here because of me.” Ollie brought his forehead down to mine as I heard a car start up behind us. I knew he was up next. The final race. He assured me that it wasn’t a hard one and that Tank actually wanted him to win this one to show people that last week wasn’t a cheat, but of course, I knew it was.
“Just remember that, okay? Remember I’d do anything for you. I’d do anything to keep you safe and out of harm's way.”
Ollie’s arms wrapped around me, and it felt like a warm blanket draping over my body. For a second, I let myself fall into his grasp, relishing in the calmness I felt with him being so close, but then he pulled away, and I was torn in half.
“You’re not okay. Something is wrong. And I know Jason knows something, too. I can tell.”
Ollie ignored me, but I kept a hold on his hand. He glanced at Christian. “Get her out of here when shit hits the fan.”
“What?” I shouted. “No! I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Ollie wouldn't look at me.
Christian asked, “Do you know what you’re doing, Ol?”
Ollie nodded confidently. He pulled out his phone and slapped it into my hand as someone called his name. “Hold on to my phone for me. My dad is going to be calling shortly.”
“Ollie!” I demanded again, begging him to look me in the eye. He wouldn’t. He was avoiding my gaze, and I could tell it was hurting him.
“Ollie.” Hayley left Christian and walked to stand beside me. “Seriously, do you know what you’re doing? Tank is not someone you should mess with. Trust me on this.”
Ollie’s hand slowly fell out of mine. “I know exactly what type of person he is.”
“Ollie,” I urged again, beginning to feel defeated.
Instead of looking at me, he looked right past my head. “Eric, you know what to do?”
“I got you.” I craned my neck back and saw him standing behind me.
When I turned back around, Ollie finally met my eye for a quick second, but then he squeezed his eyes shut and quickly turned around and began heading to his car.
No!
I refused to let him do something that was clearly hurting him. I didn’t care about the consequences at this point.
His phone was clutched in my hand when I reached him. I threw my arms around his back and buried my head in his shirt.
“Stop whatever you’re about to do, Ollie.” My voice was near breaking, and his entire body tightened.
“Ollie, you’re up!” someone yelled from a distance.
Ollie turned around in my grasp and hugged me tight. When he wrapped his hand around my face, pressing it to his chest, I could hear his heartbeat. It was hard and fast as it echoed through my ears.
“I love you. Just remember that.” He bent down and kissed my forehead and peeled me away from his body. “Go. Now.”
Anger sliced through me. “No. I am not leaving.”
Ollie groaned, tightening his jaw again. The muscles were jumping back and forth along his temples. He eyed someone from behind before landing back on me. I felt doom approaching. “Don’t make a scene, Piper. Please.” He was all but begging me. “I need you to trust me.”
I do. I do trust you.
Christian appeared at my side along with Hayley. They didn’t move a muscle as we all watched Ollie walk to his Charger. My stomach fell to the ground with a thud. I turned and spotted Jason several yards away. Eric was now standing beside him. What the hell is going on?
“Why is Tank getting in Ollie’s car?” I snapped my attention back to the Charger. Ollie’s arm was hanging out of the driver’s side as he threw his head back and laughed at something Tank said—as if everything was fine.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Ollie’s phone vibrated in my hand. I saw several incoming texts from his father.
I swiped open the screen and read the conversation.
Ollie: I know you know I know.
Dad: Which is why I’ve been trying to talk to you for over a week.
Ollie: So it’s true…you’re not my real father.
Dad: I’m just as much your dad as I am Christian’s, no matter what.
Ollie: I just need to know something.
Dad: Ollie. I’m on my way home. We need to sit down and talk this through.
Ollie: Even though I’m not yours, will you still help me when I'm in trouble?
Dad: Ollie, you are mine.
Ollie: Answer the fucking question. Please. I need to know that when things get messy, you’ll be there.
Dad: Always. Now get home so we can talk. I need to explain.
Ollie: Call Michael in twenty minutes and tell him it’s time.
Dad: What? Michael who? The family lawyer?
Dad: Ollie?
Dad: Stop ignoring my phone calls. What is going on?
Dad: Son, are you in trouble?
Cars revved in the distance, and when I looked up, Ollie was staring directly at me. He knew I had read the messages, and he knew I was seconds from losing it. He shook his head slightly and mouthed the word, “No.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “What is he planning?”
I heard Hayley ask Christian, “Why does your dad keep calling you?”
“I don’t know!” Christian sounded agitated, but I kept my attention trained on that maroon Charger. “I don’t know what the hell Ollie is doing. He’s been so goddamn closed off. Won’t tell me anything. I’ve been trying to give him space like you said, but something isn’t right, Hayley.”
“No. Something isn’t right at all,” I mumbled, my hand covering my mouth. “This is all my fault.”
I looked down at Jason and met his eye. Why did I let him drag me into this? Why did I keep fighting for him? Was his safety worth mine? Were his life choices worth the destruction of mine? Or Ollie’s?
My head snapped back when I heard a girly, high-pitched voice counting down for the race. Panic seized my heart. My heart very well might have stopped beating. I felt my legs begin to take off, but I was quickly pulled back by strong arms.
“Piper!” Hayley got in front of my face as Christian held my arms. “You’re about to get run over!”
“He’s going to get in trouble, Hayley!” My voice was rushed. “I am not letting him take the wrap for something he should have never had any part in!”
I looked past her as I heard the cars taking off. Dust flew in every direction, taillights fading as everyone hollered.
“What do you mean he’s going to get in trouble?”
Christian continued to pull me back by my arms as people ran out onto the gravel road to watch the cars disappear. I almost shoved the phone in his face, but at the last second, I remembered that Ollie still hadn’t told him about being half-brothers. “He told your dad to call the lawyer!”
“What?” His hold began to loosen, and I was seconds from running to Jason to demand he tell me what was going on. But then I heard a frantic shout. “COPS!”
My hand shot to my mouth. Oh my God.
“Run!” Hayley grabbed onto my hand, and we ran after Christian, the tall grass whipping around my ankles.
I glanced back once, and through the billowing dust, I watched as Jason ran beside Eric.
Confusion slapped me in the face as Hayley and I tumbled into Christian’s Charger. It started immediately, and we were down the grassy field within seconds. Red and blue flashing lights swarmed the area in the distance, and when I flipped back around, my heart flying through my chest, I pulled Ollie’s phone out. I re-read the messages between him and his dad but paused when I heard Christian curse under his breath.
My heart stopped at the scene we were passing. There was Ollie and Tank, along with the other driver, standing outside their cars with their hands above their heads.
Guilt fell
over me like an avalanche. It was cold and painful, and I hated myself for getting him into this mess.
I pressed “Call” on the phone and felt nothing but remorse, even with Ollie looking completely unphased as he had cuffs slapped on his wrist. Tank was fuming; he wasn’t complying with the police, and that seemed to make Ollie even happier.
“Hello? Ollie?”
My voice cracked. “Mr. Powell?” I took a steady breath as Christian’s eyes flashed to mine in his rearview. Hayley whipped around with her mouth agape. “This is Piper. I think it’s time you call Michael. Ollie has just been arrested.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Ollie
I sat unmoving in a cold room with nothing but a metal table and chair. My hands were still cuffed as I leaned back in the seat, waiting for my fate. I felt eerily calm for having been arrested and thrown into the back of a cop car an hour prior.
Everything moved quickly after I pushed in my clutch and flew down the gravel road, and I had anticipated that, which was why I’d had everything planned the second I pulled up to the races. The only thing I hadn’t planned for was the dagger that had been thrust into my chest the second I saw how worried Piper was. My chest ached at the thought, and I was suddenly pissed that the cuffs didn’t allow me to rub the dull spot.
Tank was dead to me the second he gave Piper a sideways look that first night at the races, and ever since then, I’d been trying to figure out a plan to take him down while keeping myself and Piper both out of harm's way—especially Piper.
That was where Jason came in. He was the glue to our little problem. He was the one in between Tank, myself, and Piper. When I’d asked him if he was ready to dig himself out of the hole he’d dug, he was willing.
I just had to sit here and hope that he was following through with his plan. If not, then I was shit out of luck.
The door swung open as I acted casual. Our family lawyer, Michael, entered along with my father and a police officer. Shit.
“Good news,” Michael said, gesturing to my cuffs. The young police officer walked over and uncuffed me quickly. My hands fell with a thud, and I was thankful to be able to crack my wrists. As soon as the officer left the room, shutting the metal door behind him, Michael pulled out the other chair. “The guy talked. He did exactly what you said he would, and police are on their way to the premises now to corroborate the allegations.”
My father stood back along the door, but I couldn’t force myself to look at him. I pushed down the sick feeling that was crowding my stomach as I kept my attention on Michael. “And what about the racing? Where is Tank now?”
“He is in custody still. If what Jason says is the truth, it will be unlikely that he’ll even get bond. They’re pretty hefty allegations—killing a girl and making it look like an overdose? That isn’t something to play around with.”
I nodded. “And what about Jason? What do you think he’ll get?”
This was the trickiest part. The part that I was afraid to hear. Piper was going to be devastated when she learned that Jason was in trouble and that he had turned himself in to take Tank down. And I was the one that had pushed him to do it.
But what choice did he have? Jason would have never been free from Tank, not after he had gotten a glimpse into his world. When I’d first met with Jason, behind Tank’s back, I thought I had a solid plan, but Jason’s information made it that much stronger.
He beat Tank at his own game. Jason beat him to the cops. Jason was the better man.
This was his ticket out.
“Well…” Michael kicked a leg on top of the other, his shiny loafers catching the glare of the one hanging light above our heads. “It really depends on how good his lawyer is. But considering he was there the night Tank force-fed drugs down a girl’s throat and moved her body to make it appear as an overdose, he could get involuntary manslaughter. It’s going to help that he came forward, and if the other witnesses do the same and validate Jason’s story, proving Tank was the one to do it, he may get a lesser sentence. It truly just depends.”
I nodded, the ache in my chest still there.
“And what about him?” It was the first thing I heard my father say.
Michael chuckled. “Ollie is free to go after the paperwork is finished by the arresting officer.”
I laid my hands flat on the table. “Wait. What? I’m not in trouble at all?” That doesn’t make sense.
“You’ll have a fine to pay for racing, but that’s it. Street racing is illegal, but I was able to pull a favor. You’re the least of their worries, and to be honest, they should be thanking you for helping corner Tank. They wouldn’t have had a reason to arrest him if it weren’t for you asking him to get in the car with you.”
Exactly why I did it.
Michael stood up and clasped his hands together. “Well, my job here is done. Unless there is something else we need to discuss?” He looked at my father and waited a few seconds. “Okay, then.” He turned toward me. “Oliver, as much as I like the paycheck, stay out of trouble.”
I snickered under my breath as he walked out of the room and shut the door, leaving me and my father alone for the first time in weeks.
The impending doom was like an oncoming train, and I couldn’t seem to get myself off the tracks. My gaze stayed glued to the metal table as I counted backwards from one hundred. If I looked him in the eye, I was going to explode. Everything that I’d kept locked away was going to come spilling out. The longer I held this in, the bigger it became, and I didn’t realize that until recently. With nothing to distract me any longer, I was forced to face what I’d buried deep. I was angry, and confused, but most of all, I was hurt.
Finding out I wasn’t his son hurt. It sliced me. He was my only parent left, and we didn’t even share the same blood.
“Street racing? Really?” My father’s voice was stern, a tone he didn’t usually have to use with me, but I’d heard it plenty of times with Christian.
My heart beat hard as I reached up and took my hat off my head. I placed it gently on the table, and that was when I did it. That was when I looked at him.
He was standing back along the wall, his light-blue button-up shirt undone at the top. His dark hair wasn’t gelled down like usual; instead, it was standing up in several directions. He looked calm and collected with his hands tucked in his pockets, but I was certain he was fuming on the inside. My dad was a lot like Christian; they were blank canvases—you never had any idea what was going through their head.
“Why, son?”
A small piece of anger flashed throughout. “Son?” I turned away. “But I’m not actually your son.”
I heard him push off from the wall and scuffle toward me. “You are my son. Even if not biological.”
My nostrils flared as words began to claw up in my throat. The hold on my emotions was slipping. I knew this would happen eventually—that we’d have to have this talk, but for some reason, I wasn’t prepared.
“Did you know I found the birth certificate?”
I didn’t meet his eye, because from where I was sitting, I would have had to look up to him, and that didn’t seem fitting at a time like this.
He sniffed. “I had a hunch. That’s why I moved it.”
“So, who is my father, then? Because his name wasn’t listed.”
The chair in front of me screeched as it was pulled out. He sunk down in the seat and began rolling his cuffed sleeves up to his elbows. When I finally did gather the confidence to look at him, it was like looking into a mirror. For the first time in my entire life, we were the same. We were raw. There were no more lies, no more secrets. It was time. I could sense it. He had been in a similar situation a few months ago with Christian. But this time, he wasn’t going to hold back.
I asked again, this time keeping our gazes locked and loaded. “Who is my father?”
His eyes dipped away for a moment before they swooped back and pinned me to my seat. “My brother.”
My brows came together i
n an instant. “What?”
He sighed and ran his hand over his five o’clock shadow. “My brother is your father.”
My breathing halted. “You have a brother?”
What the hell is with people hiding their brothers?
“Had.” My father swallowed, and I heard the gulp from across the table. “I had a brother. He’s dead.”
A wide range of emotions flooded me, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly how I felt. It was a weird feeling finding out your father wasn’t really your father, but it was even weirder finding out that your father—who you’d never met—was dead.
That meant that, technically, both my parents were dead.
My hands came up and clasped together over my head. Nothing I wanted to say would come out of my mouth, which was probably a good thing. What was the right thing to say in this situation?
“He died right before you were born.”
My mouth opened, but then I quickly shut it, lowering my hands to the cold table.
“I felt wrong signing the birth certificate, because his death was so fresh in my mind. Things weren’t good with your mother and me, obviously, but I need you to understand something, Ollie.”
The word barely made it out of my mouth. “What?”
His blue eyes drove into me. “The second I laid eyes on you, I knew you were mine. I hated my brother for what he did, and I was angry with your mother, too, but that never, ever reflected onto you. You were my son then, and you are my son now. Do you hear me?”
The only thing I could do was nod. I nodded as my stomach tensed. I nodded as I squeezed my fists together. And I nodded as a million and one questions ran through my mind.
I needed to know the whole story, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. My mom used to be the light of my life. Even when she’d overdosed, I still thought the world of her. Christian and I blamed the accident and the injuries for her sudden abuse of drugs. We thought—and were told—that she had gotten addicted to pain pills because of the injuries she sustained, but last year, we found out different.