Free High-Sided: An Armed & Dangerous Novel by L.P. Dover

me?”
    Richard nodded. “Not only as an asset to the company, but as a friend—someone I can trust. Please say you’ll forgive me. I was being a jackass.”
    Ethan stared at us both and blew out a heavy breath. “All right, I’m in. I’ll start back tomorrow.”

Kassidy
    F or the past two hours, I sat on my back porch and did nothing but stare at the mountains. If I went back to the shop, I’d no doubt see Logan again. I couldn’t risk being cornered by him. The only problem was, I couldn’t evade him forever. Sooner or later, he’d come after me. He was relentless when he wanted something.
    My phone rang and I groaned, thinking it would be Logan. It wasn’t. “Hey, girl,” I answered.
    “Hey, how are you?” Janie said.
    “Tired,” I replied. “It’s been a bad week.”
    Her voice grew softer. “I know. I just wanted to give you an update about Hendrix.”
    “Go for it,” I said, sitting up straighter in my chair. Any news was better than nothing.
    “As you know, I’ve been hanging around Mark a little more. And let me tell ya, you owe me. Big time. He can’t seem to talk about anything but himself and racing.”
    Mark was an arrogant douche, so that didn’t surprise me. “I’m so sorry, Janie.”
    “No worries, I’m happy to help. I don’t think Hendrix wants Ethan though. I know you had a theory that Hendrix wanted him gone from your team, so he could snag him up.”
    “Yeah.” It was one of my thoughts, but there was no telling what was going on.
    “I heard through Mark that Hendrix has no plans of hiring another mechanic or anyone on their pit crew.”
    Sighing, I leaned back against my seat. “I’m stumped then.”
    “But,” Janie blurted, “they are going to hire another rider. Apparently, word got ‘round that some new riders came into town. Hendrix is looking for new blood.”
    “Great,” I grumbled. “More asshats to add to their ranks. Why does your brother even hang out with them?”
    She huffed. “Good question. He seems to think they’re good guys.”
    “I beg to differ.”
    “I totally agree with you.” The line grew quiet, then she cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind, I want to ask you a question.”
    “Go for it.”
    “Is Sean single?”
    I couldn’t help but giggle. “You like him, don’t you?”
    “I don’t really know him, but he’s definitely easy on the eyes, and he seems like a good guy. You always had a way with the nice ones back in school.”
    “Sean is a great guy. I don’t like to waste my time with douches. To answer your question though, yes, he’s single. Maybe we can all go out to dinner soon.”
    She gasped. “That would be great. I’d love to get to know him better. He doesn’t seem to be interested in me though.”
    I didn’t know what to say to that. I definitely wasn’t going to tell her it was because he was still in love with me. By getting them together, I hoped it’d get his mind off me.
    My phone beeped and I looked down to see Sean’s name come up. “Janie, do you mind if I call you back later? I have another call coming in.”
    “Sure. Keep me updated about dinner.”
    “Will do. I owe you one anyway.”
    “No problem. I’ll talk to you soon.”
    We hung up and I clicked over to Sean. “Hey.”
    “You okay? You left pretty pissed off.”
    “I’m fine. My father finally told me the truth about what was going on. Did you know he had a gambling problem?” When he didn’t comment, I knew his answer. “Dammit! Was I seriously the only one who didn’t know?”
    He sighed. “No. Your sister doesn’t know.”
    “How did you find out?” I felt betrayed, especially since Sean was one of my closest friends.
    “I overheard my mom talking to Donnie about it a few years ago. She thought she could help him get it under control. Obviously, something helped for a while, but is he doing it again? It almost seems like someone’s trying to send a message.”
    “He said he’s not. So whatever’s going on, it