Forrest paused and slapped his hand on his hip. He wore black pants that hugged his legs perfectly and a tight gauzy white shirt that wasn’t for riding at all. I slipped off my jacket and handed it to him. He pulled it on enthusiastically, apparently fine with dirty biker clothes when there was an actual bike on hand. Happiness twisted in my chest. Maybe he would like to ride with me more often. “That’s it? Follow my lead?” he asked. “Isn’t there more to it?”
“No, it’s not like it’s hard.”
He laughed. “Unlike some things—”
“You will not get on that motorcycle,” Rourke barked from nearby, and we both flinched. Forrest turned toward him, and I watched him go over to where Rourke stood near their super-nice Italian car, envying the easy way he strolled, like everything in the world belonged to him and he was completely happy with himself. Maybe he had things right and I had them wrong. So he’d been a whore, so what?
I was scared a lot, and mad a lot, but… I never felt the way helooked,like he felt—comfortable. He laughed and rested his hand on Rourke’s chest, and I shook my head. I’d never been easy with even one other person the way he seemed to be with everyone. My stomach sank and I couldn’t stop it.
They talked so long that I’d had time to run a check on the bike and put on my riding gloves before Forrest made his way back over. “Let’s go! Make me a biker, little brother.”
“You might be the youngest brother,” I said quietly, trying to smile at him, but not quite making it.
“Nah.” He patted the top of my stolen helmet. “I’m the older twin. I know these things.” He smacked down the shield on his helmet.
“Hmmm,” was all I said to that, and I got on the bike. It was fun and strange as he slung his leg over the seat to get on behind me. He held onto my shoulders and carefully put his feet on the passenger pegs. I took a deep breath.Confident. I can do this. He can flirt, and I can ride.“I’ll need directions,” I said over my shoulder.
“Delighted to give them to you. Follow that expensive car.” He patted my shoulder, and I rolled my eyes, a bad habit I was picking up from him. I brought my baby roaring to life and Forrest whooped behind me.
Rourke had made it into the driver’s seat of his vehicle, and he put down his window to stare at both of us. His jaw twitched, and I had a feeling he was losing his mind, but he only nodded at me once before he pulled out of his parking spot. My hands were steady on the handlebars as I followed him, and even though I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing, Forrest rubbing at my shoulder was nice. I’d already turned out to be a disappointment to so many people, I didn’t want to let him down, too, so I carefully followed Rourke away from the clubhouse, toward New York City and the Exotic Virtue.
2
Hunter
The lights of the big city turned the night into a hazy, golden never-ending twilight, and they were coming up fast ahead of us, brighter than ever. We were on the right-hand side of a six-lane freeway that would have made me cautious if I was riding by myself, let alone with a passenger, when the bike shuddered.
The headlights behind us beamed like spotlights in my mirrors and had me sweating, even as cold wind whipped at me. Forrest slapped his hands to my waist, which fucked with my balance for a second. My heart hammered. The bike started to lose acceleration. On my left-hand side the traffic seemed to be doing three-hundred miles per hour. I groaned and Forrest squeezed my middle, but all I could do was head to the safety of the shoulder with the little acceleration I had left, while cars behind me laid on their horns.
“What’s wrong?” he called forward as I pulled to a stop on the side of the road, and I hung my head.
“Think the chain broke,” I yelled back to be heard over the traffic that kept pushing along next to us. The breeze from the passing vehicles blew his hair around as he took off his helmet and shook his head.
“Is that bad?” Forrest asked, leaning forward as I put my feet down to steady the bike for us.
“Better than a blown tire in that traffic.”
Forrest hopped off the bike, and after I dismounted, he set the helmet he’d been wearing on the seat. I wasn’t surprised to see the Alfa Romeo that Rourke was driving pull over to the roadside some distance ahead of us. If he had his eyes that glued to the rearview mirror, it was a wonder he hadn’t wrecked on the way here. I was shocked when Rourke reversed the car along the shoulder, driving in a perfectly straight line against the frantically honking traffic, until he stopped directly ahead of us. He glared at me in the side mirror as if it was my fault the goddamned chain had snapped, and all the calm I’d found on the ride evaporated. I was already fucking stuff up here.
He got out, a tall, impressive figure in his suit, and walked back toward us, snagging his arm around Forrest’s waist as soon as he reached him. He looked him over like I’d done something bad to my own brother, and I immediately felt like hell about it.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the chain,” Forrest said, and actually sounded like he knew what that meant. Maybe he did. I bent down to study my Street Glide, and sure enough, after minimal poking around, it was clear I’d lost the fucking chain. It was the only thing I’d thought could cause deceleration like that.
“Fuck, I’ve never had this happen before. Usually when you go this far you bring extra bike parts….”
“But we left in a hurry,” Rourke finished for me, and I nodded, staring at his shoes instead of his face. I wasn’t scared of him, exactly. He seemed friendlier to me than most other people, I figured because of Forrest, but when he ran a hand through the longer dark hair on top of his head, scowling at the night sky as if he wished he could shoot me and toss me into the oncoming traffic, the little hairs on my arms prickled on end. I hated being on the wrong side of someone who maybe had a reason to start swinging their fists, especially here, where I didn’t even know the city. I had nowhere to run.
My breath sped up, and I jumped when Forrest rested his hand on my shoulder, smiling. He tapped on my borrowed helmet, and I slipped it off. “That was so much fun. This sucks, but we’ll fix it, right?” He turned to look at Rourke, who nodded and dragged his phone out of his pocket.
“I have a tow number,” Rourke said, and he seemed to have cooled down to something more along the lines of regular irritated, which maybe the situation called for. I hated that I was on edge. I’d never been out of New Gothenburg before, and this first trip already wasn’t going well.
“That’s okay,” I said, but my gut sank. I had enough money for gas to get home at the end of my visit, and maybe fix the chain, too, but I couldn’t do those things and pay for a tow. I glanced along the freeway. “I could leave it here and come back with the fix.”
They both looked at me like I was insane.
“What?”
