He tapped my hand, reminding me to hold on tight, and I clung to him, trying to suppress a scream as the bike jumped forward. The helmet made a noise trying to connect it, and I tapped the side like I had last time.
“How’s it going?” a girl asked. I turned my head, seeing the blonde waving at me from the bike next to us.
“I’m Evie, Rook’s sister. Doing okay?”
“Rook has a sister? And yeah, I think so. How long does this go on for?”
“A few miles. Aiden said some of them are following us, though. You might want to let go of Rook a little,” she said with a laugh. “He might not be able to breathe.”
“Well, he’s trying to kill me going this fast.”
“Right now they are trying to get us not killed. Rook’s good. He won’t wreck or anything unless someone else majorly fucks up.”
The bikes slowed a bit, enough I could sit up and catch my breath, but I apparently wasn’t supposed to because Rook smacked frantically at my hands again.
“Get down,” Evie said. “I think they are going to try and lose them before we… You know.” Evie moved her thumb across her throat, insinuating they would be cutting their throats. “Just hold on and don’t let go until Rook tells you to. And I’m getting off because I don’t want to hear you scream.”
“What do you—” The click echoed at the same time Rook took off. I did scream.
I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the speeds we were going as the wind whipped against us. Then I realized I had on Rook’s helmet. He had nothing, and we were going faster than I think I had ever gone.
So I screamed again.
Twelve
Rook
Ihad barely made it another half mile down the road when the roar of the two bikes behind us grew louder. The headlights bounced off the small mirrors, and I knew they were too close now. My heart pounded, a mix of adrenaline and fear surging through me. The idea of Regan caught in any crossfire made my stomach flip in an uncomfortable way.
I decided it was time to give up outrunning them. I couldn’t see anything at this speed without a helmet, and my stomach churned at pushing Regan this fast when she didn’t even know what she was doing. At least she had stopped squeezing me to death a mile ago.
I signaled to the rest of them and pulled off, parking my bike far back as Aiden, Hero, Mason, Kane, and Zack pulled up next to me.
Aiden rolled to a stop, pulling off his helmet, his eyebrows jumping up as Evie grinned at us. No one would have expected Regan to show up at Syndicate. Hell, I hadn’t even been expecting it, let alone expected her to be on my bike tonight.
Mason was the one to speak up, though. “Look who you found,” he yelled with a grin, looking at Regan, as the other twobikes roared coming down the road. “Does she need me to take her the rest of the way?”
“Mason, if you so much as joke you are taking her home, I will—” My words were cut off as the other two bikes rolled in behind us. It was good for Mason because I at least had somewhere else to put my anger at his suggestion.
Regan looked at me with her big brown eyes and red lips, my jacket hanging heavy on her shoulders and the headlights casting her in a glow and I wished I could enjoy it a second longer.
“Mason,” I said. “Take her if you need to. Don’t fucking touch her, though.”
He gave a sharp nod, no humor in his face this time, because he knew exactly what I meant. He would get Regan out of here if anything went wrong.
“Don’t get off the bike unless one of them or me tells you to,” I said, pointing at Aiden and then Mason. “Got it?”
She nodded and swallowed, her lips pursing together tight.
I had no time to talk it over with her as the two guys rolled up on their bikes. Hero stepped up next to me.
“I can take the one on the left,” he said, making me shake my head.
“Just keep it under control. No gouging or mutilation. I want it over fast and as clean as possible.”
I vaguely knew who they were. They were a group like us, working for anyone who needed them. Currently, they were working against us, though, and as much as I would love to bring them back to the garage to figure out who had been stealing the drugs we kept getting hired to find, I didn’t have the time or energy tonight with Regan here.
We were paid extensively by anyone who hired us, and we tried to keep who we were quiet, but apparently word got out somehow we were working against them now. It didn’t normallyhappen, but we were becoming well-known enough we would naturally be one of the first places these guys looked. We all knew it could be a consequence of what we did, and we all already knew how to take care of it.
