No, I wanted power but the real kind, the kind that was deeply rooted in fear and reverence, power and genuine cleverness that kept you at the top of the greedy pile of bodies that had tried and failed around you.
Zeus’s kind of power.
The kind built on blood, sweat, threats and tears in credence of a lifestyle based on freedom of expression, brotherhood and defiance of the man just because he was the fucking man.
That was real power worthy of sacrificing your kids, their health and dreams for.
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.