AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In fact, it even seemed as if they were having a civil, normal conversation. At one point, Pony ran his hand along one of their racing bikes, as if admiring it.
Did he know them? Had he been playing dumb earlier, when Black Tooth had pawed at her? Maybe it had all been a setup, something to test her, to see how she reacted under pressure.
Agent Harris had told her early on that criminals often pressure-tested people that were new to them, to see if they could be trusted. Or, to see what they were willing to do. Would they break the law, or would they draw a line and in doing so reveal themselves as an undercover operative?
In any case, it was strange for Pony to be doing any of that.
When he came back to her, she said, “Making friends?”
“Hardly,” Pony said with a little laugh. “I just wanted to see if they were going to be an issue.”
“Are they?”
“Doubt it.”
The mood between the two of them had changed. Just a few minutes earlier, it had been heavy eye gazing and her losing herself to the magnetic pull of his eyes and his arms.
But now, after this weird chit-chat that Pony had just had with the biggest assholes available, that magnetic pull had dissipated. In its place, was the simple sense of self-preservation that always filled her mind while trying to survive undercover.
There wasn’t anything more to learn here. Staying in this situation could only continue the risk of exposure, so Piper decided that she needed to take a step away and re-assess her next move.
And try to sort out her feelings for Pony, far away from those eyes and those arms, where her logic might actually have a tiny chance of taking over.
“Well, I’d better be getting home,” she said. “School night, you know?”
“Right, right,” Pony said. “I’ll catch you at the clubhouse, then?”
“I’ll be there.”
He watched her as she got back onto her bike, revving up the engine and pulling out of the parking lot before her hormones could take over again and rob her of her damn senses. They traded a wave, and she was off, speeding away from the racers and Pony and all the feelings that she’d just had.
On her ride home, the strangeness of Pony’s conversation with the tweakers kept eating at her. It kept raising questionafter question. Did he know them previously? And how did Pony know about this race in the first place?
There was only one thing she could do. Get more information.
And that meant following him.
7
“Why do you needmycar?” Carly said.
“I told you,” Piper said, “I need to follow somebody.”
“Somebody who?”
“I can’t… it’s work stuff, Carly. I can’t tell you all of the details.”
“Is it that hot guy you went to go race with last night in your leather scuba suit?”
“It’s not a scuba… nobody said he was a hot guy.”
“Uh hunh,” Carly said with an unbelieving snort. “I’m sure you dressed up like that for a real uggo. Probably drools, picks his nose…”
“Carly.”
“And it’s really unhealthy, following him around like a stalker.”
“Very funny,” Piper said. “It’s called surveillance.”
