Page 13 of Bleed (Two Wheeled Psychos #4)
Birds chirping in the trees outside my window and the fresh smell of autumn should be refreshing to wake up to, but nah, not today. Today I have to take the next step in my directive, and I’m still not sure how I’m going to do that.
I don’t want to end her. I want to love her. I don’t want to hunt her, but I do want to stalk her.
Is there really a difference, idiot?
I do want to make her pay for her transgressions, but not in the final deadly way.
I just haven’t decided what I’m going to do once I get my hands on her.
I know now at least I do have to take her, and make her mine, either in love or death.
It’s a fucked-up situation that I knew would eventually come to fruition the longer I stayed in this lifestyle.
You only get to play God with others for so long before God spits back at you and makes you pay.
“For fuck’s sake.” I say to myself, rubbing my face and getting out of bed, stretching everything in me, thankful for the super hot shower I took to clean off the grey matter from me before bed.
Without having to go to the restaurant, I take my time getting another shower, washing my beard and trimming it up, then getting my coffee.
Sitting down with my steaming mug at the kitchen table I grab the blurry photos I have of the Recluse, and for the first time I see the similarities.
I can’t believe that I let a change of hair color fool me.
I should have noticed the little things that I used to in her.
Granted there’s nothing of her face, but still I should have recognized her.
“I’m coming for you today, honey. This time, there will be no walking away with your friend.
I’ve already eliminated one, does Allie have to be next?
” I say to the photo in my hand, then crush it in my fist before throwing it across the room into the trash can like I’m making a successful free shot. “Score.”
Grabbing my keys and forgoing my riding jacket and gloves, I leave my apartment, wanting the ride on Luna to clear my head and prepare me for what I imagine I’ll have to do, all while hoping it goes better than I fear it will.
I can feel myself becoming unhinged again as I ride the elevator down to the garage and stroll across the cement floor to my girl. I’m a swirling pot of emotions, like I’m spaghetti boiling in a big pot, all bubbly and chaotic.
I still love her, but I’m pissed that not only did she leave me, but she’s the fucking Recluse. I’m in turmoil over having to kill her and wanting to make love to her. I want to make her pay for what she did to me, but I know I won’t be able to do it when I catch her.
“Fuck my life.”
Luna fires up like a damned goddess on the first press of the ignition, like she knows that I don’t have the patience for anything this morning.
She rumbles out loud, echoing her growl around us in the garage, speaking for me before I even have my helmet on and tightened.
She sounds like a monster, yelling out my pain into the cement building.
The sounds of her exhaust blast around us as I kick her into gear and race towards the street, spitting out into traffic like a madman, with my thoughts everywhere else besides a safe ride.
Horns blare at me, and a car swerves behind me, but I couldn’t give a flying fuck, I need to get to her and get this over with.
I’m tearing through the city, weaving in and out of traffic with my visor open, letting the air blast me in the face, trying to wash me clean of all the shit that swirls in my head as I ride.
Cars and trucks move out of my way when they can as I accelerate faster and faster towards the city center and where I know she’ll show up at some point today.
I can just feel it. Even though she’ll be grieving the news of her boyfriend and bodyguard.
On highway 277 one vehicle on my left side, a blacked-out Expedition, moves over, and to my surprise a sportbike spits out from the side of it, replacing its place in the lane, pacing me.
“Jesus Christ.” I shout into my helmet as it comes insanely close to me, close enough that if I reached out I could touch the rider.
It’s blacked out too, as is the rider who has on a tinted visor but is riding squid just like me. His black jeans and t-shirt make him blend into the bike, looking like one of the mythical four horsemen riding out from hell.
The SUV falls in behind me, speeding up, until he’s riding my ass like he’s a date rapist who wants to fuck me doggie.
“Motherfucker.”
The bike next to me, a one-liter Beamer swerves closer then recedes to the middle of his lane telling me that this is going to be a two wheeled dog fight, most likely to the death.
“Come on then you cunt.” I yell, pointing at him, letting him know that I know what he’s up to.
He rev bombs the bike, lurching forward, then careens towards me, leaning deep into it, coming within an inch of brushing my leg before he pulls away again.
I grip the handle bars harder and twist the throttle, lurching me forward, getting ahead of him by a tire length, but with his 1000cc bike he’s on me again in less than a breath.
“Fucking A!” I shout, leaning to my right, cutting off the sedan on that side, jolting into their lane to get away from the threat of the biker in black.
I know the Scarpino family sent him and the douche canoe in the SUV behind me that changes lanes with me, knocking the sedan off the side of the road onto the shoulder where it comes to an abrupt stop before hitting the barricades.
They’re here for me, because she knows who I am.
She sent them, I’m sure of it. Because she knows I’m coming for her.
She’s more conniving than I’ve ever given her credit for.
Slapping my visor shut, I lean forward, flattening myself as low as I can to the gas tank and pull back the throttle as far as she’ll go.
Luna screams loudly, and I take off like a bat out of hell, leaving the SUV in my dust. Unfortunately though, the biker keeps up with me.
He’s gaining on me again too, and I’m running out of room to go anywhere with the heavy morning, rush hour traffic stopped ahead of us.
I could lane split, but at these speeds and with a tail, it would be more dangerous than anything. Heaven forbid one of the cagers cuts lanes or opens their door, it’d be the end of me in an epic way.
Looking around, I’m out of options besides two of them. Stop and let him have me, which, ummm, fuck no, or take the next break in the sound wall on the right, off the highway, through the grass, over a hill, and onto the pedestrian bridge.
“Motherfucker!” I scream as I launch off the paved road and onto the grassy knoll.
The bike tries to grab the grass, spitting chunks of it out from behind her rear wheel, making me wobble and shake. It’s like being on a really shitty wooden roller coaster, the kind that hurts your back and shakes your insides, and not in a fun way.
“Come on Luna baby, you’ve got this.” I say to my girl, pushing her harder and faster through the tall weeds, trying to keep her forward momentum as they smack at my legs and try to wrap around her chain.
The black biker is behind me, I can hear him, and his bike is struggling just as much as my Luna. I can almost feel the power of his engine moving the air around me as I fight to keep upright and going straight.
The gas tank comes up as I come down over a little bump in the field, smashing up into my nuts, making me expel all the breath in my lungs, yet I still hold on and fight forward.
The grass will be ending soon, and the next challenge will be upon us, getting across that bridge without running over hundreds of tourists on the bridge.
“We’ve gotta get him off us baby girl.” I yell to Luna as if she could either hear or understand me. “Any ideas?”
She bucks forward, her handle bars cranking to the left on another divot or ridge in the grassy area and I have to fight her, but then, I realize she’s doing what I asked.
“You have a plan baby girl?”
The ground levels out again and my tires grab the ground, pulling us smoother and faster through the unpaved area, then like hitting glass, we sail out onto the two-lane pedestrian bridge.
I’m hitting the button for the horn aggressively, and waving my arms for people to move, weaving back and forth, accelerating and decelerating trying to avoid a collision with any humans or the little dogs they walk on lazy man leashes.
The bridge flexes under my wheels as the black biker follows us and gains speed again.
“Now what Luna?” I ask my girl, before going back to shouting “Move!” to all the people who see me coming and freeze in place.
He’s catching up, and his front tire glances off Luna’s rear one.
My bike shakes, and I fight to keep her going, and he comes in again.
I’m yelling and screaming and running through so many ideas in my head as to how to get out of this situation, but nothing makes sense. There’s nothing I can foresee working.
“This is it baby girl.” I say to the bike as if I were saying goodbye to a lover.
I’m going to die on the bike that I love. I guess if I have to go, this is the way to do it. I always knew her and I would be together forever, I just never thought forever would end so soon.
Like an act of God, Luna stalls, her engine completely cutting out. My speed drops instantly and I hold on tighter, waiting for the death wobble, but it doesn’t come. What does come, is the black bike whizzing past us, the rider looking back over his shoulder, probably as confused as I am.
“Goodbye my girl.” I cry out, closing my eyes, accepting my fate.
Just as I’m about to kiss my big ass goodbye, Luna roars back to life, without me doing anything. The sneaky bitch is my fucking saving grace, pulling me straighter and leveling herself out until we’re racing behind the other rider, gaining on him like how he gained on us.
“Yes! That’s it my girl!” I yell in surprised excitement, slapping her tank and caressing it quickly before I twist the throttle and lurch up onto the black rider’s ass.
“Your turn motherfucker.” I scream, holding the bars tighter, tapping my foot into the next gear, preparing for impact.
People scatter on the passageway as the cars below on the city streets are oblivious to what’s happening above them. It’s utter chaos as I ram the back tire of his bike, making him wobble and fight for control as I hold on for dear life, letting Luna do her own thing.
He weaves back and forth, fighting against the shakes, and I pull back, knowing where this is going. A typical young rider he is, full of balls but not experience. He fights it, leaning back and forth, accelerating, but loses control.
The liter bike hits the wall on the side of the lane, flipping the back up into the air, tossing him forward off the bike and over the edge of the bridge.
He’s gone over before the bike even falls down on its side at the wall, the wheels still spinning, the pieces of its fairings still raining down like chunks of hail in a storm.
“Holy fuck.” I yell, braking as fast as I can without tail spinning or losing control.
Coming to a stop about twenty feet in front of the accident, I hop off the bike and run back to where he went over, tripping over pieces of his bike that still rattle around on the ground.
I’m not prepared for what I see when I get close, but his gloved fingers are holding onto the cement wall, his body hanging off the edge, his feet dangling down over the traffic below. It’s awesome.
Pausing, I stand there leaning over the bridge ledge, watching him as he hangs there. Not once does he beg for help or try to reach out for me. He knows his fate. He’s failed at the job he was given.
“Here, let me help. I’ll end your misery faster.” I laugh as I make a fist and raise it into the air, not able to see how wide his eyes probably are under that tinted visor.
His knuckles crack loudly as I punch down on his fingers, making him yelp in pain, but he holds on, until I hit him again and again, pounding on his hands until his fingers slip and he lets go.
His drop to the road below seems to take forever, like it’s a slow-motion scene in an action movie, that is until he drops far enough down that the big, blue rig coming has no choice but to smack into him with its windshield.
Like a bug he splatters on the glass, breaking it, and bursting into a shower of blood and guts as the trucks tires and brakes squeal, but it’s too late. He’s road kill.
“Try harder next time Scarpinos.” I say, shaking my head and walking back to Luna, leaving the chaos and destruction behind me.