When we got to her red Ducati, she guided me to lean against it, draping the leather jacket over my shoulders before taking a longer look at me. “Did she hurt you?”
Other than an achy scalp, I wasn’t injured. But I couldn’t help my temper flaring after that confrontation — especially after seeing how relaxed Leo was in the face of it. “You tell me. Do you think that’s something she’s capable of?”
Leo’s gaze darkened. “If I thought that, she’d be walking out of that with a lot worse than a bite mark.”
Satisfied that I was fine, Leo placed a spare helmet over my head, buckling the strap beneath my chin with delicateprecision. “Come on, let’s give her some room to chill the fuck out.”
Hopping on the front of the bike, Leo held out a hand to guide me behind her. The bike was a little bigger than Spencer’s, but the knot in my stomach felt just the same. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get quite used to riding on the back of these death traps.
Beats dying by Dom’s hand, though.
One thing I’d figured out, at least, was hand placement. I wrapped my arms tight around Leo’s torso and leaned my head flush to her back, glad to have something solid to hold onto after my near-death experience.
Once I was locked in, Leo gave the handlebars a twist. I squeezed harder, steeling myself for the whiplash of careening down the driveway. But unlike Spencer’s joyride of terror, riding with Leo was calmer, the turns steadier.
We were still hitting pretty high speeds — I could tell that much by the way the trees blurred past us down the back roads — but instead of my chest tightening with that electric buzz of energy, I felt like I was soaring, untouchable.
It wasn’t long before we were out of the woods and pulling past the sign for Valemont. A lump the size of Mars grew in my throat at the sight of it, but at least this time I was prepared for the possibility. After all, in a mansion that was isolated, there were only so many places nearby.
It’s here or the woods, I guess.
For a moment, I wondered if we were going to the coffee shop Spence and I had dropped into, or maybe even the Glass Cannon. But Leo weaved through the backstreets like she was on a mission, leaving both of them in the dust.
I desperately wanted to ask what hole in the wall we were headed to that was even deeper into Valemont’s downtown than the Glass Cannon, but between the heavy helmet and the hum of the engine, there wasn’t a chance she would hear me.
So instead, I sat back and tried to relax, tried to release the responsibility of holding everything together to someone else. Leo was good at that, after all: holding things together. Making me feel safe.
Before I could get too lost in the feeling of calm that washed over me, we pulled up to our destination: the double-door garage of an auto body shop. I squinted up at the dingyLucky Strikesign plastered over the doorway and felt my heart sink.
Getting out of the house was always a good thing, but I wasn’t sure that being around a bunch of cars and mechanics was going to help the unease coursing through my veins. My mind drifted back to my dad’s hobby car. In another life, he would’ve loved to own something like this.
Too bad he only got the one.
Leo pulled the bike through the open door on the right. The inside of the shop was much cleaner than its facade — much louder too. Classic rock blasted from the built-in speakers in the ceiling. A handful of bikers in leather jackets hung around the back of the shop shooting the shit. And at nearly every work station, mechanics were elbow deep under the hoods of luxury sports cars.
Lamborghinis, Porsche, Maseratis: cars that easily cost more than the downpayment on a nice house.Fuck, they’ve got some bougie clientele.
But unlike every other mechanic shop I’d had the displeasure of visiting before, the place was entirely devoid of men.Odd…
Though, the more I thought about my captors, the more sense it made. After all, Leo could hardly stomach five minutes at the bar with Gabe. It was hard to imagine her taking kindly to some douche mansplaining engine parts.
Kinda nice, actually. Could probably get an oil change here without forking over half my rent money.
Leo rolled through to a quieter corner of the shop before flinging down the kickstand. As she cut the engine, I pulled off the helmet with a sigh. “Doesn’t this town have a bookstore or something I can go hide in?”
“It does…” Leo shrugged, pulling off her own helmet to look at me over her shoulder. “But I would argue a shop that’s open to the public isn’t the safest place for a girl hiding out from her crazy ex-boyfriend.”
“What, don’t think you could take him in a fight?”
Leo raised her eyebrow. “I think I already proved I can, darlin’. I don’t think you want to see what’d happen to him if I wasn’t holding back.”
Thrill hummed through me at the thought. “Maybe I do.”
Holding out a steady arm to help me off the bike, Leo let out a chuckle. “Okay, well maybe if you’re good, we can make that happen some time. Hell, I’ll even throw in a trip to the book store when we’re done. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds like a deal to me.” I smirked, grabbing ahold of her arm as I hoisted myself from the seat. Her biceps were rock solid even through the thick leather of her jacket. She didn’t budge an inch until both of my feet were firmly on the ground.
With my helmet off and my vision clearer than it was under the visor, I took a look around the shop. Overhead, square LED lights illuminated the entire workspace in a bright, even light — shimmering off of the polished, black concrete floors.
