Page 104 of Road to Redemption

“Oh, enough,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m disappointed. I know you’re not the sharpest, but I never expected you could be so cruel. This is no way to talk about your future father.”

“I’d rather be cruel than complacent!” I hissed. “I can’t believe you’re willing to bury your head in the sand for a few dollars. I’m sure you’re just itching to be on the ground floor when they go public. Plug your ears with enough cash, drink yourself to sleep, and you might be able to forget your new mansion is built on a foundation of fraud and sex crimes!”

I clenched my fist, letting my fingers dig into the edge of the table. As soon as the mention of the IPO passed my lips, I knew I’d fucked up. All I could do was hope that the slip up went over Maura’s head. Though from the way she tensed at the far table, I knew it wasn’t missed on Leo.

She tensed at her own table, palms pressed to her seat like she was ready to leap into action. Holding my gaze through her sunglasses, she tensed her jaw as if to ask, Do you need an out?

I shook my head as subtly as I could manage, taking a deep breath as I returned my gaze to Maura’s scrunched up face.

Her lips were pursed and her brows furrowed as if she’d tasted a moldy lemon. “The way you treat your own mother! It’s disgusting, you should be disgusted.”

“Oh, I’m disgusted,” I laughed. “And why are we pretending? You’ve never been much of a mother to me, Maura.”

She gasped, clasping a hand to her cheek as if I’d slapped her.

And despite my best attempt to keep my head on straight, to remember exactly the kind of mind games she played, I couldn’t help it; genuine or not, the sorrow welling up in her eyes tugged at my heartstrings.

My first instinct was to comfort her. But while our time apart hadn’t made me impervious to feeling sad for her, I knew better than to let myself get sucked into the trap.

As much as it broke me to admit it, I knew there was no getting through to her. She’d already made up her mind; preserving her comfort was worth more to her than doing what was right.

More important than me, even.

I took a deep breath, trying to commit her face to memory. Then, swallowing down the burning sensation at the back of my throat, I spoke to her calmly. “I hope one day you chose yourself over these men. But I can’t keep choosing you over myself. I love you.”

Before she could respond, I stood from the table and stormed out of the diner. Leo wasn’t far behind me, but by the time she reached the door, I was already on the back of Spencer’s bike.

“You okay, Bunny?” She asked, voice thick with worry as she looked at me over her shoulder.

“No,” I said shakily, pulling the helmet over my head and snapping the strap into place. “Please, just get me out of here.”

She didn’t need to be asked twice. As soon as my hands wrapped around Spencer’s waist, she pulled out of the parking lot. Leo — having slipped out from the shop and mounted her own black bike — was following close behind us.

It wasn’t the first time they’d rescued me from my old life. But unlike the alcohol-fueled adrenaline rush that had forced me into their path before, this moment hit me with sobering weight: my mother was well and truly lost to me.

55

KIERA

I didn’t see Leo’s bike again until we pulled up to a nearby intersection. But as I turned to face her, I realized it wasn’t Leo at all: just a matching black motorcycle with two riders. All of our outfits were perfectly matched, setting us up for a switch down the road.

Only once Spencer hit the gas did Leo’s bike join us.

As soon as we moved forward, I checked behind us. Three black Escalades appeared.

Clicking my helmet’s comm button, I let my lovers know what was happening. “We’ve got company.”

Spencer checked her rearview and revved her engine, speeding up as Dom’s bike joined us. Exactly like Leo’s, Dom also had a backpack rider. In a line, the three bikes looked exactly the same.

As we weaved through the streets, more Violence bikers joined us. I wasn’t sure how Dom had been able to source more than a dozen matching motorcycles, outfits, and riders but I knew it would make all of this quite the puzzle for our tails.

I trusted Spencer’s body as she leaned the bike around corners and between cars. Holding on to her, I felt my center of gravity shift with each movement.

“Keep it tight.” Dom’s voice boomed in my ear through the intercom.

As we reached the edge of town, a line of backed up cars slowly shuffled through a traffic light. We had one shot. Once we were on an open road, it’d be a lot harder to out-maneuver the clunky SUVs.

Revving the gas, Spencer leaned forward and pushed us through the intersection just as the light flipped to yellow and then red. A rush of motorcycles flowed through the junction, a hum of engines zipping past.