Page 206 of Bend

“You trusted me with your bike. You trusted me in practice. I’m not asking you to stop being scared. I’m asking you to trust me anyway.”

His expression shifts.

For a second, he just looks at me, then reaches up and squeezes the back of my neck.

“You ride smart.”

“I will.”

“And you come back.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’ll do everything I can.”

He nods once and that’s enough.

Andre looks around at the rest of the team, then back at me.

“Then it’s settled.”

My chest tightens.

He gives me the smallest nod.

“Welcome to the Speed Demons.”

For a second, all I can do is look at him, then at Talon, Sayshen, Draygon, Thorne, my father, and finally Wolfe’s parents standing beside them.

Wolfe’s mother is still holding my hand.

Behind all of us, his bay is empty.

This is not how I imagined joining the team.

But none of today looks the way any of us imagined.

If Wolfe’s final race with the Speed Demons has to happen without him, then I can carry one small piece of it forward.

His place on the grid.

One final ride for him.

Andre reaches for his clipboard. “What number?”

“Three.”

He looks up at me for half a second, then nods and writes it down. “Three it is.”

Three.

Because somewhere in the middle of all this chaos, three men showed me what it feels like to be wanted without having to earn it first. What it feels like to belong somewhere, to take up space, to stop dimming myself just to make everyone else comfortable.

And yeah, one of them took a piece of my light with him.

A pretty fucking big one.

But whatever’s left is still mine.

And I’m done hiding it.