Chapter 294: Get Away From the Car
Mia was the one who found out first.
She had been half-asleep on the couch after Lucas left, phone loose in her hand, still thinking about the quick goodbye and the kisses by the door, when the same post appeared across three different fan pages at once.
TODAY. FINALS. 9 AM.
She sat up so fast the phone nearly slipped from her fingers.
“Guys.” Her voice was already rising toward the stairs. “Guys, it’s today.”
Daisy came down first, still in yesterday’s clothes, hair messy from sleep. “What’s today?”
“The finals. Lucas is playing today.”
That was enough to pull Debbie into the doorway, toothbrush still hanging from her mouth. “Today today?”
“Today today.”
None of them needed a longer discussion after that.
They had known he was going out. He had told them that much before leaving, even hugged them and kissed them by the door. What they had not known was where. Twenty minutes later they were dressed, hair fixed just enough to look decent if someone pointed a camera at them, and heading out through the gate. Mia had already booked a ride on her phone while the other two finished getting ready. There was no chance they were sitting at home once they realized the biggest game of his life was happening two towns over.
—
The ride to Northlake University took almost an hour.
Most of it was Daisy complaining about the driver’s music and Mia refreshing the arena page every few minutes like the information might suddenly change. Debbie sat between them with her arms folded, already restless, watching the roads shift from familiar streets into the thicker traffic near campus.
By the time they reached the gates, the noise from inside the building was loud enough to hear through the closed windows.
“That’s insane,” Debbie said, staring up at the arena. “There are actual lines outside.”
“That’s Lucas for you,” Mia answered, grinning despite the crowd.
They stepped out of the car and joined the stream of people moving toward the entrance. Somewhere near the main doors, Debbie spotted a small concessions stand and immediately dragged the other two toward it.
“We need snacks,” she said. “I’m not sitting through a whole finals hungry.”
Nobody argued.
A few minutes later they walked away with two large popcorns and three drinks balanced awkwardly between them, weaving back into the thickening crowd.
That was when Debbie stopped walking.
“Wait.”
Mia glanced back. “What?”
Debbie was staring across the parking lot, past the ordinary sedans and pickup trucks, toward a car that did not belong in that sea of average vehicles at all.
“Isn’t that Lucas’s car?”
Mia followed her gaze.
The matte black Bugatti sat near the far end of the lot, unmistakable even from a distance. Clean lines. Expensive stillness. The kind of car that made everything around it look cheaper just by existing.
And three men were standing around it.
At first it looked harmless enough.
Three guys around an expensive car. The kind of attention a Bugatti always pulled in a normal parking lot. From a distance it could have passed for admiration, curiosity, maybe a few photos before they moved on.
But the longer Debbie watched, the less normal it looked.
They were not taking pictures.
One kept glancing over his shoulder every few seconds, scanning the lot like he was checking for witnesses. Another crouched near the driver’s door, gloved hand running along the window seam with too much focus. The third stood slightly apart with something long and dark held low against his leg, half-hidden under his jacket.
Debbie’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s not normal car-watching.”
Mia frowned. “You think they’re trying to~”
She never finished the sentence.
The man near the door pulled his hand back and lifted a hammer.
—
Debbie dropped her popcorn first. Kernels scattered across the pavement as she broke into a full sprint. Mia was half a step behind her, drink forgotten in midair, already shouting before she had covered half the distance.
“HEY!”
The man with the hammer barely turned before Debbie slammed into him. Both hands locked into his hair and yanked hard, dragging him sideways off balance. He yelped more from shock than pain and the hammer hit the ground with a sharp metallic clatter.
“GET AWAY FROM THE CAR!”
Mia went for the one by the door like she had been waiting for an excuse. She did not push him once and stop. She lunged, shoved him flat onto the pavement, and followed him down, nails raking across whatever skin she could reach. The second he tried to sit up, she shoved him back again, dominant and relentless, refusing to give him space to recover.
“Stay down!”
The third man froze for half a second, staring at the two girls suddenly attached to his friends like a problem he had not prepared for. Then he moved, not toward the car, but toward Mia.
“Get off him!”
He grabbed for her arms, trying to drag her off the man on the ground. Mia twisted, clawed, and refused to release her hold, turning the whole thing into a messy three-body struggle right beside the Bugatti. Debbie was still latched onto the first guy, screaming into his face while he tried to peel her hands out of his hair without escalating.
All three men were busy now.
None of them were touching the car anymore. They were too occupied trying to control two furious girls who would not back off.
“Get off me ~ get OFF~”
“I don’t hit girls,” one of them muttered through his teeth, trying to twist free of Debbie without actually striking her.
“Then don’t touch his car!” she screamed back, tightening her grip.
—
Daisy stayed still for only a few seconds before deciding pure screaming would get further than another pair of hands in the fight.
She turned and ran for the entrance, shoving past the ticket line, ignoring a security guard calling after her, and burst through the doors into a wall of noise so thick it nearly stopped her in place.
The arena was packed. Every seat filled. Every voice raised. Somewhere down on the court, Lucas was mid-possession, moving through defenders while the crowd roared his name like it was the only word left in the building.
“LUCAS!”
Her voice disappeared into the noise.
“LUCAS, HELP!”
She kept shouting anyway, waving both arms over the railing, until a large man two seats down turned toward her with an annoyed scowl.
“Sit down, lady. You’re blocking the view.”
Daisy rounded on him without missing a beat.
“Are you serious right now? With that fat body taking up two seats, what business do you even have complaining about a view?”
His mouth opened, then closed. A few people nearby snorted with laughter. He sank back into his seat without another word, suddenly very interested in the game again.
But it still had not gotten her any closer to Lucas.
Daisy turned back toward the crowd, breathing hard. Shouting was useless here. She needed bodies. Actual people who could move faster than her voice could travel.
—
She stopped trying to explain the emergency properly and changed tactics.
The nearest cluster was a group of guys in Ashford jerseys, already hyped from the game, loud and restless between possessions. Daisy put on the most worried expression she could manage and stepped in close.
“Hey,” she said, voice soft and urgent. “I really need your help. Some guys are trying to break into Lucas’s car outside. You know, Lucas. The one destroying everyone. I don’t want anything happening to him after the game. Can you help me? Grab your friends too. Please.”
That was all it took.
A couple of them exchanged sharp looks.
“Wait, seriously? Somebody’s trying to jack his car?”
“Right now,” Daisy said. “Please.”
Within a minute she had seven of them following her, jerseys and all, jogging toward the exit like she had handed them a personal mission. Some looked ready for a fight. Others looked more interested in being seen as heroes. She did not care which, as long as they moved.
—
By the time they reached the parking lot, the struggle had gotten uglier.
Mia was still attacking, still refusing to let the man beneath her recover cleanly, but the third guy had managed to lock a hand around her wrist and was dragging her backward with real force now. She screamed and clawed at his arm, body twisted, still trying to stay attached even as he hauled her off.
Debbie’s patience battle was collapsing too. The man she had grabbed kept peeling her hands away with increasing roughness, jaw tight, clearly done trying to stay gentle.
The third man shifted his grip to both of Mia’s shoulders, ready to throw her hard enough to actually hurt her this time.
That was the exact moment seven guys in Ashford jerseys came sprinting around the corner of the lot, Daisy right behind them, arm outstretched.
“THERE! That’s them!”