Page 9 of Smooth Sailing

The “rules” being no drugs and treating your women, kids and brothers right, and that was it.

“Not the bad kind” of outlaw.

Harlan threw back some more beer and settled in.

Because…yeah.

Harlan was intrigued.

Very intrigued.

Diana

Tucson, Arizona

Several years earlier than Harlan and Rush’s conversation…

But also a Saturday.

The college administrator came out of her office, gave me a look I couldn’t decipher, and then said, “Your father wants to have a word with you. You can use my office.”

She smiled a tight smile, and I could decipher that.

Nolan Armitage wants to have a word with you, you come in on a weekend to have that word with him. He wants a private word with his daughter, you let him use your office to do it.

As I passed her, I mumbled, “Sorry.”

I couldn’t stop myself. It was habit. I did it a lot when Dad got involved.

She said nothing and closed the door behind me.

Dad was standing there, and when he had picked me up earlier to bring me here, I knew he wasn’t messing around. It was the weekend, and he was in a full three-piece, look-at-me-I’m-important!, custom-tailored suit.

“Well, that was costly,” he sniped.

I was confused.

“I’m sorry?” I asked.

“Taking care of your situation required a donation that was costly.”

My…

Situation?

I shook my head. “Dad, I don’t?—”

“Fortunately, it’s early in the semester. They’ll be removing you from the class you share with that young man…”

That young man?

Not, that absolute cretin who attacked my daughter in her dorm room?

“…you’ll be re-enrolled in it next semester,” Dad went on. “And this situation will be expunged and not reflect on your record…or his. It will be as if it didn’t happen at all.”

My mouth dropped open as my lungs hollowed out, mostly because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Really, Diana,” Dad carried on. “What were you thinking, studying late at night with a young man who made it clear he had a crush on you? Of course he’d read that particular situation a certain way.”

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