Page 2 of Twisted Trails (Rogue Riders Duet #2)

“ Putain , I know that!” Luc explodes, cutting me off with a swipe of his hand. “I fucking know we weren’t friends, but you and your goddamn smirks, your scowls, the way you teased with your eyes, I don’t even know why, but it made me faster, okay? It made me hungry. You made me want to beat you.”

You made me want to do a hell of a lot more than beat you.

My gaze snaps away from his flushed cheeks at the unwelcome thought.

What the fuck?

I always knew Luc was hot, the kind of hot that made your mouth go dry and your pulse tick up, but I filed it away as trivial. Background noise. Just something to clock, not act on, because he was Luc-fucking-Delacroix. He is loud, cocky, and surrounded by women like they were just another sport.

And definitely straight.

That banter between us, the smirks, the sharp words, the eye contact that always lasted a second too long.

I figured it was just a byproduct of our rivalry, something to keep us hungry.

And it was, but maybe it was also me, flaring like a live wire around him, and throwing jabs to see what he’d throw back, not because I hated him, but because I wanted his attention.

And he gave it to me.

Over and over , he reacted. He looked.

Until last year.

“You’re a fucking asshole, and a coward. And a—” He cuts himself off, but the next word still comes out as a bloody bullet. “Rapist? Really , Mason?”

It doesn’t matter how many times I hear that word, whether it’s whispered, yelled, or spat in my direction, it always lands as a punch to the ribs.

Luc’s breathing is harsh beside me. “You look like a fucking Greek god,” he spits. “You could have anyone, but you go and take what’s not offered? Are you insane? ”

“I’m not a fucking rapist!” The words rip from me, raw but crystal-clear.

Luc’s anger burns out, and he sighs like the idea of me being innocent is more tiring than the alternative.

“Everybody else says you are.”

“Yeah?” My hands curl into fists in my lap, nails biting deep into my palms like maybe if I bleed for it, it’ll be enough, and the pain will be penance for something I didn’t even do.

“Well, it’s not my fucking problem if you’d rather believe everybody else than me.

Just because there are rumors doesn’t make them true.

Do you really think your precious Petit would hang out with me if he believed I was a rapist? ”

This just proves that I could scream until my throat tears open, and it still wouldn’t make a difference, not unless someone wants to believe me.

And Luc?

Luc never wanted to.

His brow furrows like he’s considering it. “Then where are those rumors coming from?”

The fight leaves me then, too, and I just give him the truth, voice flat. “I have no idea why she said it. Crews thinks maybe Raine wanted me gone. I don’t know. I’ve stopped pretending to understand any of it.”

“She was your girlfriend,” Luc counters, like that proves something.

“ Exactly, ” I bite out, anger boiling over again that quickly. “As if I’d force myself on my own girlfriend! I wouldn’t do that to anyone, but especially not to someone I thought I was in love with.”

My breath is just as ragged as Luc’s is now, and I try to calm down and find the thread of reason, but it’s gone. There’s no reasoning with him. Maybe there never was. But it seems some part of me wants to be heard, so I keep going .

“I needed you just as much as you needed me to bring my best game, maybe more, but I would have never believed something like that about you without talking to you first. Without asking. ”

That’s the part that’s been killing me.

He never asked me whether the rumors were true. He just started hating me like everyone else.

And I never thought he was like anyone else until then.

Luc scans my face, but then he turns away again, fixing his eyes back on the road.

We drive the last stretch in tense silence, and my stomach clenches when we pull into the parking lot.

Our clothes drip and shoes squelch as we jog to the hospital doors.

As soon as we’re inside, Luc steps up to the reception desk and launches into rapid-fire French.

I don’t understand shit, only catching him saying Allen Crews, and my stomach twists all over again.

The receptionist frowns down at the papers in front of her, lips moving around words I don’t understand, then finally says, “ Oui, Crews,” followed by more in French that might as well be static.

Bambi.

Something is stirring in my ribs again, the feeling close to that of butterflies being drowned in worry, and I should probably figure out what the hell that means, but not now. Not yet.

Not until I know he’s okay.

Luc turns to me. “ Petit ’s already here. She said we should go to the waiting room.”

That’s not good enough.

I shoulder past Luc to the receptionist. “How is he?”

She glances up, brows furrowing before she answers in broken English. “I cannot tell you. Please wait with family.”

Luc doesn’t give me a chance to lose my shit. “Come on,” he mutters, grabbing my arm and steering me away. “I know my way around here.”

“You’ve been here before?”

Luc shrugs and releases my arm as we walk. “I was a regular guest here all my childhood.”

“Falling off your bike?”

He grins. “Bikes, trees, houses.”

“ Houses? ”

Luc just winks, and goddammit, my heart stutters like the idiot it is.

We round a corner, and Luc stops outside a waiting room, eyebrows shooting up at the raised voices coming from within.

Dane and Greer have their backs to us, and Greer is standing statue-still with his arms crossed tight over his chest, shoulders hunched, teeth chattering loudly enough that I can hear them from across the room.

“What did they say?” Dane’s signature Crews intensity is locked in, drilling into Finn like he’s trying to extract the truth by force. “Why didn’t you call soo?—”

“How is he?” Luc asks, cutting Dane off as he steps into the room.

I follow right behind him.

Dane turns around and glares at us. “What the fuck are you two idiots doing here?”

Luc just crosses his arms over his chest. “I asked you a question.”

“I don’t fucking know. I just got here too,” Dane snaps, jerking his chin toward Greer. “Finn flew in with Al.”

My head whips toward Greer. He had already finished his race, so how the hell did he get back up the mountain that fast?

What the fuck ?

A nurse steps into the room, clipboard in hand, eyes sweeping across the four of us. “For Crews ? ”

“Yes.” Dane stomps toward her.

The nurse’s eyes widen as she takes him in, and then the rest of us.

“Who’s family?”

Finn steps up beside Dane without hesitation, but Dane doesn’t spare him a glance as he says, “I’m Dane Crews. I’m her brother.”

Her?

“Is there news?”

Brother.

Suddenly, I’m not standing in the sterile, too-bright waiting room. I’m back at yesterday in that pocket of trees where Mini Crews cried into my shoulder, telling me Greer acts like a second big brother.

The nurse shakes her head. “That would be for the doctor to tell you, but your sister is awake. You can go to her room now, and the doctor will meet you there.”

“Your sister ?” Luc hisses at Dane.

It hits me hard all at once. The realization is like a freight train to the skull.

Weeks of moments collide into something new in the span of seconds.

Dane Crews’ sister.

Allen. Al.

Alaina.

Every inch of my body goes still and cold, everything inside me crashing and malfunctioning as the realization slams through me.

The short kid with a strange voice that never quite fit the bravado.

Too-long lashes, wide brown eyes, that impossibly pretty face that always looked like it belonged somewhere gentler than this brutal sport.

The way he flinched when I got too close, the tension in his body when my hand got near his chest.

His obsession over his bike, trusting me with his pain before I even earned it, and looking at me like I wasn’t poison.

That kid.

Alaina.

She’s a girl. A Crews. That Crews.

It’s a sickening kind of clarity when it all slots together.

The crash.

Her crash.

The one that ended her career and erased her from the circuit.

I never put it together, not even with her face, her pain , right in front of me.

Now I can’t stop seeing it.

The fierce way she rode, like every second on that track was a fight for her right to be there. The way she made the bike dance under her like it was part of her body. That riding style—reckless, fearless, too beautiful to be real.

And I didn’t see it.

I ignored every weird feeling because I wanted to be around her so badly to have her kindness and friendship.

My knees almost buckle.

How could I have been so blind?

“Somebody talk the fuck now! Did she just say sister? ” Luc bellows, loud enough to snap me out of my trance.

“Go,” Greer tells Dane. “I’ll take care of this.” Dane looks a little pale around the nose, but nods at him before he leaves with the nurse. Luc steps forward to follow, but Greer blocks him. “No. We have to talk about this first.”

Luc clenches his fists, and I’m still just standing there, staring at the spot where Dane disappeared, everything in me burning with the weight of what I just realized.

“ Sister ?” Luc snarls.

“Calm the fuck down, Delacroix,” Greer says, unflinching.

“ Non. ” Luc shakes his head, his voice rising. “Tell me what the fuck is going on here, or I’ll go and find out myself.”

“This is all…” Greer pinches the bridge of his nose, looking like he’s aged ten years in thirty seconds. “This is so fucking secret , okay? If you like her as much as you always say you do, you’ll keep your damn mouth shut.”

I finally find my voice. “It’s Alaina?”

Luc whips toward me, but I don’t look at him as Greer nods slowly, watching me for a reaction, bracing for impact.

Inside, I’m screaming, spiraling, and probably close to bleeding out. Outside, I give him nothing.

Because the guy I’ve been obsessing over, my only real friend after I swore I wouldn’t trust anyone again, lied to me for weeks.

Lied to my face.

Knowing that my entire life was fucked by a lie.

“Alaina?” Luc says her name like he’s trying to make sense of it, to see how it feels around his mouth. “That’s her name?”

“Alaina Crews,” I say quietly.

The girl I never talked to all those years ago but always watched too much.

Greer crosses his arms and looks between us. “You guys have to keep it quiet.”

“And why is that? Give us something here, Papi ,” Luc says, blowing up again. “Why is she lying ?”

“She’s not lying, she’s?— ”

“ Fuck this! ” Luc shoves Greer out of the way and charges past him into the hallway.

I don’t think as I follow right after him, because yeah, fuck this.