Wheels and Nugget scanned the parking lot and the road, then got us moving again.
The whole time, Wheels had acted like nothing in the world could touch him.Like bullets, threats, and mysterious organizations didn’t mean a damn thing.It should have annoyed me.Instead, it was oddly reassuring.
Because beneath all that confidence was something else.Awareness.
Every time we stopped, he checked the mirrors.Every time another vehicle got close, his attention shifted.Every time we hit an intersection, he looked twice.The man might have been cocky, but he wasn’t stupid.
And right now, stupid people don’t stay alive very long.
I tightened my grip around his middle as the bike ate up another stretch of highway.
The leather of his cut was cool beneath my fingertips, and his shoulders remained relaxed, like this was just another ride.
The fact that I’d somehow ended up trusting a motorcycle club more than the people who ran my city was something I never would have believed a month ago.
Hell, a week ago.
Maybe even twelve hours ago.
Yet here I was, riding through the middle of the night behind a man I’d known for less than a day because he felt safer than home.
The thought made my stomach twist.
Home.Madison had always been home.
I’d been born there.Raised there.Gone to school there.Worked there.Everything I knew existed inside those city limits.
My parents had raised Novalea and me to believe Madison was special.Safe.
A community.The kind of place where people watched out for one another.Where neighbors brought casseroles when someone died.Where teachers spent their own money on classroom supplies.Where people cared.
My throat tightened.
Both my parents were gone now.Dad first from cancer.Then Mom three years later with a heart attack.
Just like that.Poof.Gone.
The two people who had always made the world feel steady disappeared.All I’d had left was Novalea.My sister and best friend.
Novalea taught fifth grade at an elementary school on the west side.She loved those kids like they were her own.Half the time when I called her after work, she’d spend twenty minutes telling me stories about science projects, field trips, and classroom drama.
The thought of her made my chest ache.I hadn’t called her.The less she knew, the safer she was.At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
The truth was I didn’t know if anyone connected to me was safe anymore.
The Ledger had made sure of that.
I closed my eyes for a second.The Ledger.Even thinking the name made me feel sick.
The city I’d loved my entire life had secrets buried underneath it.Rot.Corruption.Evil.The kind of evil that smiled at charity events and shook hands at fundraisers.The kind that hid behind expensive suits and polished reputations.The kind that ruined lives while pretending to help people.
And I’d stumbled right into the middle of it.
The motorcycle slowed slightly, and I opened my eyes.
Streetlights appeared in the distance.
Madison.
