Page 238 of Bend

For once, I’m not wondering how long any of it will last.

I’m not waiting for the next loss.

I’m not looking for the exit.

His hand drops.

I twist the throttle and launch.

The bike surges beneath me, the track opening ahead as everything else falls away. The first corner comes fast, and I hit it clean, then the next, letting instinct take over as the world narrows to speed and sound and the way the machine moves with me.

I’m not Evelyn’s secret anymore.

I’m not Wolfe’s replacement.

I’m not the girl living out of bags because staying anywhere felt too dangerous.

I’m a daughter.

A sister.

A mechanic.

A racer.

A Speed Demon.

I’m loved.

I belong.

And as I tip the bike into the next corner with the number three cutting through the wind, I smile inside my helmet.

I’m Echo Cooper-Shaw.

And I found my home.

THE END

Epilogue

Revel

By the time taco night actually starts, Reign and Lena’s new house already looks significantly less new.

There are shoes kicked into a pile by the front door, empty beer bottles collecting beside the sink, somebody’s hoodie thrown over the back of the couch and at least three people who have been told to use a coaster and are very clearly not using one.

The back doors are open to the ocean, music rolls through the house with the breeze, and the kitchen island is covered in enough food to feed the entire team twice.

Lena keeps insisting she didn’t make too much.

Which is a total fucking lie, not that I’m complaining.

“You realize there are only like nine of us, right?” I ask, lifting the lid off another container and finding more taco meat underneath.

Lena slaps my hand away with a serving spoon.

“Stop picking at it before everyone gets a plate.”