“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.