Page 34 of Knuckles (Dragon Riders MC 4)
Then, I heard Justin hopping down the stairs. “Time’s up!”
I hoisted my bag over my shoulder. “Ready when you are!”
After shoving our shit into the oversized saddlebags he had on his bike, we took off again. Heading to, well, God only knew where at this point. All I knew was that I had to trust Justin. I had to trust that whatever had happened back at that bar, it meant we were about to get to safety. Where I could breathe for just a second. I still hadn’t even told JayJay about why I came to see him in the first place.
In some ways, I was glad someone else had a problem that seemed to be greater than my own at that moment.
I talked into my helmet microphone. “Where are we going?”
His voice sounded in my ear. “You just have to trust me, okay?”
“So, you can’t even tell me where we’re going?”
“No.”
I nodded slowly. “All right, handsome. Lead the way.”
With the sun hanging heavily in the sky, I started to sweat. But it didn’t stop me from hanging onto Justin. Some turns, my grip on him was the only thing keeping me from sliding right off his damn motorcycle. I didn’t complain, though. This man had already saved my life more times than I could count. The least I could do was show him that I was dependable in a high-stakes scenario.
After all, I didn’t need to be giving him any reasons to leave me behind.
Like he did when we were kids.
Stop it. You know why he left.
Yeah. Justin left because our foster parents kicked us out. Because they thought he was nothing but trouble. I knew better than to think he had intentionally left, especially with all of the post cards he sent me while he was on his wild trips.
It still hurt to think about it sometimes, though.
The memory of him dragging his trash bag of things out the door and slamming it behind him. While I was stuck in that house with them, ready to finish high school and get the fuck out of there.
Just trust him. Just trust him. Just trust him.
So, as the wind whipped around my body and the sun pushed more sweat down my brow, I curled as closely into his body as I could get and clung for dear life.
Hoping and praying that our destination came upon us sooner rather than later.
Because I needed a fucking drink.15KnucklesOne punch after another. It always seemed to be like that with this crew nowadays. For years, we kept our heads low after the first Fed ambush. We had taken painstakingly careful consideration of our operations and how we ran them. And we always—always! —kept our noses clean.
Because last time the Feds started watching us, Sly almost went down for some shit.
Man, I hope he’s okay.
I didn’t know why the fuck the Feds had their eyes on us, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Skeleton. Whether they had been watching for a while and found some of our pursuits, or whether they thought we were wrapped up in his shit, I wasn’t sure. My gut said the former, but my worries said the latter. The only thing that kept me grounded was Simone’s grip around my waist.
And the way she fisted my leather jacket.
“We’re here,” I said.
After flying down the highway toward our “emergency exit,” we had to snake our way through woods and dirt roads past old, abandoned cabins out in the middle of nowhere. In upstate New York, everything was either protected woods, city-owned woods, or wild woods. And it gave us a lot of places to duck and hide. I parked my bike in the shadows behind a dilapidated tree that had fallen to the ground and helped Simone off the back. And after pulling and tugging at our bags to get them away from the bike, I rushed around to find a dark green camo tarp.
Before tossing it over my bike and tucking the ends underneath the tree.
“Damn, I can’t even see your bike with that tarp the way it is,” Simone said.
I nodded. “Good. Hopefully, our trail goes cold here. Come on. And be careful not to step in any mud.”
She furrowed his brow. “Why mud?”
I marched toward the opposite end of the field. “Because the Feds can track you by your footprints now!”
I rushed over to the other side of the field and thanked my stars when I found it still sitting there. I noticed that the other trucks attached to camper trailers were already gone, which meant all of the guys had gotten out. That gave me some hope, but not a lot of it.
And Simone and I still weren’t safe.
“Come on!” I exclaimed.
I watched as she hopped from grass patch to grass patch, taking my words to heart. And damn it, if I hadn’t already loved this woman, I would have fallen in love with her at that sight.
