Chapter One
Death-defying.She turned the phrase over in her head. The last act of the final show had to be something special. Spectacular. It’s what the audience paid for. Sure, there were people coming to the show for the first time, but there were also plenty coming for the second, third, and fourth time; the adrenaline junkies who got their fix vicariously by watching stunts like these. And that’s where Taryn Taylor came in.
She tilted her head and looked to her right. The bright red of the Golden Gate bridge against the clear bluebird sky was like a kid’s painting in primary colors. She’d always wanted to figure out a way to jump it, though the city most likely wouldn’t allow it. Taryn dropped to the temporary flooring they’d installed specially for the show and did a few push-ups to get the blood flowing. Her thick leather biker pants didn’t flex much, but as long as they kept her safe, she could forgive that.Safe.Think safe. She popped up to stand and looked across the roof and beyond to the piers of San Francisco. She was as safe as she could ever be while hurtling across the roof of the Alcatraz cell block, racing up the forty-five-degree angle ramp, and launching herself into the air for a roll before landing on a moving boat. Most of that was nothing new. Sometimes it felt like she’d done more three-sixties on her bike than the moon had gone around the earth.
Landing on the specially built platform of a speeding boat? That was fresh. And fresh was what she was famous for in the stunt world. Pushing the boundaries of what was possible on two wheels had been her trademark since she’d jumped her first row of buses. She shut her ears to the increasingly vocal niggle in her mind that questioned if this life still fulfilled her. That was just her brain’s way of letting her know she should keep coming up with wilder tricks or she’d stagnate. And if she stopped, if she allowed herself to stagnate? She may as well just stop breathing.
Taryn refocused on what she was about to do, what they’d been perfecting for the past six months. The trick was in the landing, like always. Any fool knew that it didn’t matter if you did four three-sixty spins if you didn’t stick the landing. And then came the flair. Hit the ground with flamboyance. Taryn closed her eyes and visualized the stunt: deploy the parachute to take the sting out of the speed, a one-eighty turn, and fifty feet of a wheelie back along the boat’s platform toward the island. Jump from the bike. Pull off her helmet. Take a bow. The crowd goes wild.
Easy.
Someone clapped their hand on her shoulder. “Ready?”
She opened her eyes to Andi, the stunt team’s owner, and Gwen, their engineer and math guru, at her side. “I’m ever ready. But maybe I should go over your calculations, Gwen.” Taryn wrinkled her nose and rubbed her chin. “If you’re off by one decimal point, it’s my ass that’s grass. We could postpone if you’re not one hundred and ten percent sure of your work.”
Gwen arched her eyebrow comically high. “I told you we should have tested the parameters here, but you wouldn’t do it.”
She began to flick through the pages and pages of numbers and letters Taryn didn’t understand, and nor did she care to. She fought to keep her laughter in her chest, and Andi punched Taryn’s shoulder.
“Don’t rise to it, Gwen,” Andi said. “We all know you will have checked your calculations for this stunt more times than Taryn has given the big O to lady fans over the past decade.”
Taryn grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. She wasn’t one to brag, but the little bit of her that remembered being the ugly duckling in school reveled in her reputation. And if she pulled this finale off without injury, she’d be seeking out some nocturnal company to help her come down from the mental high.
“Every time.” Gwen puffed out a dramatic breath. “I fall for your shenanigans every time. I get nothing but sleepless nights coming up to the final show, you do know that, don’t you?”
Taryn wrapped her arm around Gwen’s neck and kissed the top of her head. “And your insomnia means I stay alive. I know. You’re my angel.”
Gwen blushed adorably. “I’m not sure where my career trajectory took a detour to get me on the road to keeping you alive, but it wasn’t what I had in mind when I graduated from MIT.”
Taryn smiled at Gwen’s sweet attempt to cover up her obvious fondness with sharpened barbs. It was one of her many charms. “That may be so, but I am eternally grateful that you stick with us.” Taryn released Gwen and looked at Andi. “It’s probably time for a pay raise, don’t you think? She’s saving you a fortune every tour. Your medical bills would be far higher if it weren’t for our brilliant Gwen.”
“You’re teasing me,” Gwen said and narrowed her eyes.
“Only about the pay raise—Andi’s too cheap for that.” Taryn held Gwen’s gaze. “But I’d never tease you about how much you mean to us.”
“Hey.” Andi punched Taryn’s shoulder again, harder this time. “I’m not cheap; I’m careful. My financial sense is what kept us afloat during COVID. But on that note, I actually may be able to talk about more money, for everyone.” She tapped the long rectangular form in the pocket of her tight jeans.
“Is that a phone or—”
“Don’t.” Andi held up her hand. “Clichés aren’t your style. I got an email from the Cosmos in Vegas. They want to talk about a six-month residency. And there were a lot of zeroes in the offer.”
Taryn turned away and went to her bike for last-minute checks, as if she hadn’t already done them twice over. “Sure. Great joke, Andi,” she said without looking back. “Two weeks is my maximum in one place, you know that. That’s why I joined this circus in the first place.”
Andi laughed. “That’s what you tell people, but it was really because you fell in love with me.”
Taryn glanced over her shoulder. “I was in lust with you for two days maximum. I was in love with your Triumph Street Triple. She was a thing of beauty.”
“Until you totaled her trying to impress that millionairess in Galveston.” Andi grimaced. “Losing her was worse than any heartbreak I’ve ever suffered.”
Taryn snorted, grateful for the swing from an uncomfortable topic. “Like you’ve ever had your heart broken. I learned everything I know from you.”
Andi grinned and shrugged. “I’m getting old; I had to pass the mantle and all my knowledge on to someone.”
“Old? You’re forty-nine, for Christ’s sake.”
Gwen whistled loudly. “I hate to break up the bro-love fest, but… A Vegas residency would be amazing, Andi. You can count me in.”
Taryn clenched her jaw and pressed her thumb to the front tire. “Who checked the pressures? This feels a little soft.” She looked up, and Andi’s expression told Taryn she was clearly unimpressed.
