I was willing to play the power game, but only if I was doing it by Zeus’s side and playing it his way.
I was distracted by my rebellious thoughts when I heard the piercing scream.
One second, I was in the parking lot of EBA about to get into my car and the next second I was on the ground, my face crushed to the rough pavement and my hands and knees scraped up from the fall.
“You slut!” a girl shrieked from where she dug her knees into my back. “You disgusting filthy slut.”
Um, okay, what?
I tried to wiggle out of her hold but she was strong.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked even though I had a horrible sinking suspicion.
How many girls would blindside someone with a side tackle in a parking lot and call them a slut for everyone to hear?
A biker’s girl, that’s who.
“Harleigh?” I asked, straining to turn my head in order to look at her.
It was at least half an hour after the game had finished but these sorts of things were a social occasion in Entrance as much as anything else and people still lingered, mingling. People, including my parents who were frozen in horror at the scandalous sight before them.
“It’s Harleigh Rose, bitch,” she said as she pushed my head back into the ground. “And if you think you can fuck my dad and get him in trouble with the cops or something, you are so fucking wrong.”
“Harleigh Rose,” I tried again as the asphalt rubbed my cheek raw. “Let me up and let’s talk about this somewhere private.”
“Fuck private. You want the world to know you’re fuckin’ my dad so you and your dumbass family can attack The Fallen. Why the fuck else would you disappear under the fuckin’ stands for everyone to see?” she hissed in my ear, thankfully low enough for only me to hear.
I was officially tired of this. Despite the cancer, I was still strong. A lifetime of ballet dancing gives you the kind of mean strength that’s hidden in long, lean muscles. I used it to buck up to my hands and knees then toss Harleigh Rose off me.
Immediately she got back to her feet, her thick blond-streaked brown hair a crazy mess around her sneering face.
“I don’t want to fight you, be reasonable here,” I told her, holding my hands up in the universal gesture of pacifism.
She spat at me. “Touch him again and I’ll do more than fight you. You probably think you’re too good for the likes of us but it’s the opposite way around.”
I shook my head at her and spoke in a low voice because people were converging on us and I knew there were only bad endings in store for Harleigh Rose.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about and if you’d just give me a second to explain or find Z—” I tried.
And failed, because the next second she was slapping me across the face, one of her rings cutting me across the cheek. “Don’t you dare say his fucking name when you’re trying to con him!”
I staggered back, blinking rapidly so I missed the chaos as men erupted out of the gym doors and flooded the scene. I bent over to plant my hands on my knees and blink the tears out of my eyes when two hands lifted me up and spun me around midair so that I was deposited on a broad, hard back.
Mute.
He stood strong with his booted feet spread apart, glaring forward at the scene but keeping me at a distance from it. Officer Lionel Danner, my parents, and Zeus argued with each other while King Kyle Garro held back his struggling sister.
“Mute, put me down, I need to get in there,” I told him, trying to wriggle out of his hold.
His hands were iron shackles around the backs of my thighs. “Stay.”
I stopped struggling because it was fruitless, my cheek hurt like a motherfucker and I didn’t want to miss anything else.
“Your daughter is a menace, Garro,” my dad was claiming, his finger pointed like an ineffective weapon at Zeus. “This is what happens when you raise girls in a gang.”
“Girls get worked up over boys all the time, Mayor. Not sure this is anythin’ to write home about,” Zeus drawled.
“Danner, aren’t you going to arrest this girl?” my dad demanded, turning to Lionel when he failed to rile up Zeus. “She assaulted my daughter.”
Lionel’s usually stern face looked years younger when he fought a smile as he did then. “Mayor, I understand you’re angry, but really, I think this was a harmless bit of teenage drama.”
“Detention then, at least!” my mother tried, her hands shaking as she pressed one to her heart and one to Bea’s shoulder to bring her even closer to her side. “Your daughter needs to understand there are consequences to attacking someone. Maybe in your… home or wherever it is people like you live…you encourage behavior like this but in the real world, it’s completely unseemly.”
I thought it was funny that my parents were so staunchly defending me when they didn’t even know I’d been saved and piggybacked by one of the very bikers they hated so much.
I rested my cheek against Mute’s shoulder, my chin in his neck. He stiffened for a second then rested his head lightly against mine. My heart melted even in the midst of this chaos.
“H.R., you gonna do somethin’ like this ever again or have you learned your lesson?” Zeus called to his daughter, his voice mild like he was bored with the conversation and was only placating my parents.
They noticed and both their jaws went tight with anger.
“I’m on my period,” Harleigh Rose admitted with a defeated scowl.
Zeus nodded like that explained everything. “Look there, my girl’s on the rag. ’Course she’s feeling emotional. I think we all can understand that, can’t we, Officer?”
I laughed into Mute’s neck.
Officer Lionel looked about ready to laugh himself, but he schooled his face admirably and frowned at Harleigh Rose. “I’ve picked you up more times than I care to count for minor offenses. Let’s not level up to a bodily assault charge, okay?”
To my surprise, H.R. blushed and ducked her head so that a soft curtain of hair partially hid her expression. “Yeah,” she muttered petulantly. “Whatever.”
“Looks like this thing is all cleared up, then. I’ll just be takin’ my daughter home and we’ll let you folks get on your merry fuckin’ way,” Zeus said magnanimously, already moving his family to the other side of the parking lot. “Okay, Mute, let Louise go.”
I giggled again as I slid from Mute’s back and made my way back over to my parents who stared at me in horror.
“Louise,” my mother breathed. “Are you… friends with one of those men?”
I smiled at her, pulled a highly entertained Bea into my arms and started walking toward the car. “Yes, Mum. Mute’s been one of my best friends for ages now.”
“Ages?” Phillipa echoed as she followed us to the car, casting a fearful glance over her shoulder at Zeus and King, standing so fierce and proud on the other side of the lot beside their huge motorcycles.
I understood her fear. They were like gargoyles, horrifying at first sight in their ferocity but utterly beautiful up-close, intricate with detail and gruesome because their role as guardians called for them to be so.
I was glad my mother feared them. She had cause to.