If there’s one thing that’s going to let you know how you really feel about someone, it’s walking in on them on top of their ex–girlfriend.
The door had been unlocked when I’d made my way up to Breaker’s place; I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but as soon as I got inside, I saw why he’d been so distracted.
I couldn’t see them at first, as they were lying just inside the bedroom door, but as soon as I got closer, I could tell for certain that it was her. I felt a wash of humiliation across my body, my skin prickling as I stared down at the two of them like that. He had her hands pinned up over her hand and was straddling her, her small form looking delicate beneath his. I closed my eyes for a moment, but the image of them both was imprinted in my brain. The man I thought I was falling for, and the woman who had killed my father. Double whammy. Didn’t get much more fucked–up than that.
“Jesus,” I muttered to myself. Thad had to have been lying. Breaker had clearly only wanted me out of this place so he could spend some time reconnecting with this Raven bitch. I clenched my fists, so hard I was surprised blood didn’t come trickling from between my fingers. I wanted to kick him off her and choke the life out of her there and then, to make her pay for what she’d done to my father. The best I could manage was removing myself from the situation post–fucking–haste, before I did anything that could be held against me in a court of law.
I grabbed for Breaker’s keys where he had dumped them on the table, and went for the door. He sprang to his feet at once – well, almost, as he kept one hand on her, as though not wanting to break the fantasy of their little encounter. I found tears pricking my eyes as I stormed back into the hallway and down the steps.
“Angel, I–“
I slammed the door in his face, not wanting to give him even the hint of a chance to explain himself. He’d pulled enough shit today. This is where it ended. Right fucking here.
As I stormed back out on to the street, I found myself face–to–face with the auctioneer. He was smoking, and quickly stubbed out his butt as I approached – as though that would be the thing I got him into trouble for when the cops got involved.
“Breaker’s bike, which was is it?” I demanded, waving my hand over the half–dozen or so that were parked outside the club. The auctioneer pointed to a slightly beat–up maroon number, and I fumbled with the keys to get the thing going. Dad had never allowed me a bike, but that hadn’t stopped me convincing the odd boyfriend to give me runs on theirs.
“Angel, stop!” I heard a voice from behind me, and turned to see Breaker coming down the building stairs. I didn’t stop moving. Tough shit. I was out of here once and for all, and I was going to take this place down without any of their help. I was going to see justice done for my father, and I had no interest in breathing in this shit stank for even one second longer.
I climbed on to the bike, started it, and pulled away from the club in a roar of dirty smoke and a screech of tires. My heart was pumping so fast I thought it might blow out of my chest, but I managed to keep my cool enough to figure out where I was going. Out of town, into the deserted forest that surrounded us, and then I’d looped back around to the police station once I’d shaken everyone. There were frightening odds that Breaker wouldn’t be the only one after me; Thaddeus would be chasing me to punish me for his humiliation, and the auctioneer would likely want confirmation that he wasn’t going to wind up in any trouble for his actions.
I tore through the streets, glad it was late enough that no one else was on them to pull me over. Not that cops bothered much with this part of the city – I could have been balancing on this bike on one foot and fully naked and no one would have bothered to stop me. I tried not to think too hard about what I was doing, because every time I focused on the fact that I was riding a motorcycle, I was positive that my nerves were going to give out and I was going to slide this thing into a wall.
I watched the speedometer pick up: fifty, sixty miles an hour, more, more, more. I heard the growl of an engine behind me, and glanced over my shoulder to see Breaker a dozen feet away, on a bike that had been sitting next to his one. Of course he could hotwire. Or snag the keys from someone else. This was what he did, after all.
I turned back to face the road, and swerved onto a street which led to the outskirts of town. We used to live out this way, far out from the city. I loved it here, once upon a time, but it had been a while since I’d wanted to come back. Too many memories of my father and the trips we’d make to go camping in the woods together. I forced them from my mind and pushed the bike faster, the air whipping through my hair and numbing my face completely. It was just what I needed at that moment – something sharp and painful, something to take my mind off of everything that had just happened. Raven, Breaker, Thaddeus, every tiny thing that had been fucking with my head since I had arrived in this awful place.
I could hear Breaker behind me, and glanced over my shoulder again to see that he had gained on me. His face was twisted with something that looked like regret, and the roads were empty save for the two of us. I pressed the bike to go even faster, the roar of the engine nearly deafening me. If he wanted to catch me, he would have to try harder than–
It all happened to quickly that I didn’t have a chance to think about what was happening. The bike hit something slick, and the front wheel skidded out from underneath me. I let out a scream of terror, but it was whipped away by the sound of the tire screeching across the road and off into the mossy underbrush, tearing up through the mud with an awful, guttural groan. Whatever instincts I had for this kind of thing kicked in at once; I managed to lunge myself free before the bike smashed into the thick, solid oak that stood only a few feet from the road. I landed with a thump, rolling a few feet as the sound of crumpling metal rang through the air about me.
I lay on the ground for a moment, my brain deafened by the screaming fear that seemed to carry me through those next few minutes. I moved each one of my limbs at a time, testing them out. Yeah, I was still alive. I wasn’t even hurt. I turned my head to the side and saw that the motorcycle looked as though it had been put through some kind of paper shredder. It was nothing but a miserable pile of mangled metal. I didn’t even want to think how fast I had been going when I came off the road, but here I was. Alive. As though I had business to take care of yet, and the universe wasn’t done with me.
I heard another motorcycle pull to a halt not far from me, but I could be bothered to turn my head. Seconds later, Breaker was above me, looking down at me with an expression of unadulterated fear.
“Angel?” he asked, his voice soft and careful, as though he was worried he was going to break me if he spoke too loudly. I looked up at him. I couldn’t believe that, even though I’d just been through the scariest accident of my life, my anger at him outweighed my fear at what I’d just been through.
“Are you alright?” He demanded, and I managed a nod. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked down at my body. I was remarkably unscathed, my clothes bearing the only real damage I’d suffered from the crash.
“Oh, thank Christ,” he muttered, and ran his hands over his face. “Never pull that kind of shit on me again, okay?”
Just like that, my brain seemed to snap back into gear and I began climbing to my feet.
“Angel, Angel, sit down, you must be–“
“No, don’t you fucking speak to me like that,” I snarled at him. “Don’t talk to me about not pulling that shit when you’re the one who got us into this mess in the first place.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” he sprang to his feet at once, following me as I made my way back over to the crashed vehicle. “I’m not the one who stole a bike and then crashed it five minutes later! Angel, you could have gotten yourself killed–“
“And what, you selling me off to Thaddeus without any rhyme or reason was completely safe?” I shot back.
“I was going to tell you why, and I promise, it’s a good–“
“Yeah, I know why you gave me to him,” I cut across him. “You wanted the name of the person who killed my father, right?”
He fell silent.
“Turns out Thad responds well to some physical persuasion,” I went on. “He told me in five minutes after I smashed his nose in.”
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Breaker threw his hands in the air. “Now he’ll be after us!”
“Yeah, like he wouldn’t have been before,” I pointed out. “And besides, you seem to have found a decent bodyguard.”
“What?” He seemed confused.
“Raven?” I cocked my head at him. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that she’s meant to be the one looking after you, but whatever works–“
“I didn’t bring her there!” He protested. “I didn’t want her in that place! She turned up, and I don’t know who sent her, but she had a gun–“
“Yeah, and you just so happened to have needed to pin her down just as I walked in, right?” I snapped back. “Nothing to do with the fact that you guys used to fuck and you need someone on watch for you?”
“Angel, I wasn’t fucking her.” He took a step towards me, and I could see a flurry of emotions in his eyes. Anger, confusion, defensiveness, guilt. “I don’t think she was there for me. I think she was there for you.”
“Why would she be–“
“Maybe Thad sent her after what you did to him,” He suggested angrily. “He’s not the sort of guy who lets that shit go.”
“Why would he think I would come back to you, after what you did to me?” I demanded. “He’d have to be stupid to think–“
“But you did, though.”