Page 25 of Cocky Secrets

“Show that beast how it’s done! You’re a Martinez! I told you! You were made for this!” Dad laughs, voice filled with pride.

With each turn, each acceleration, I grow more confident, my nerves replaced by pure awe. I’m not just a passenger anymore. I’m in control!

We drive until it feels like we should probably head back. But a part of me wants to keep going and never, ever stop. After longer than we maybe should have been gone for, we pull up in front of Bear’s home. I park on the street, next to Dad, tug my helmet off, red hair flying free as I send a huge smile up to Bear. “That was so much fun! Thank you!”

Dad dismounts. “You did great, Sage. I’m really proud of you.”

I beam, “Thanks, Dad,” feeling a rush of affection for him. He’s not normally this complimentary. First Atlas, earlier. Now me. He should spendmoredays shopping for Harleys. To make sure he knows how much I appreciate him, I say, “I couldn’t have done it without your guidance.”

Dad chuckles, shaking his head. “You had it in you all along. Just needed a little push.”

And that push was being told I couldn’t ride my bicycle anymore.But I leave that without saying it.

Bear and Dad discuss how much the bike will be sold for, and money exchanges hands, cold hard cash taken from bad people I never met. That’s primarily how The Ciphers make a living, taking it from guys who don’t need it anymore, or misused it. Sure, sometimes the innocents they save give them money in gratitude, but not usually. Those people tend to not have much, but the bad guys do and The Ciphers feel no guilt in helping them part with it.

The business aspect of today’s exchange is taking place while I wait, seated on the burgundy Harley, my fingers tracing its smooth gas tank as I admire how the sun turns the dark shade of red into ruby. “So pretty,” I whisper, feeling like my cage has been left open and no one noticed but me.

Did Dad notice?

Did he see I felt I was trapped in one? Is that why he did this for me? Why he went against what Mom wants? Or does he simply love motorcycles and this was a fun day he sorely needed? I raise my head to ask him, but notice him heading inside.

“Sage, gonna use the toilet.”

I nod and watch Bear direct Dad on where to go. “When you walk inside that door,” he motions to the one inside the garage, “turn left and it’ll be the first door on your right.”

The instant he’s sure we’re alone, Bear swaggers up to me, radiating sex appeal. “Your mom not gonna be happy?”

“I’m thirty. She can’t stop me.”

“Almost thirty,” he corrects.

“I’m not a child.”

Bear stares at me until a smirk tugs at his kissable lips. “You’re a woman.”

Heat clenches my core. “She’ll get used to the idea. But youdidtell me you weren’t selling. I didn’t make that up.”

Bear nods once, sunlight transforming his eyes into a kaleidoscope of amber, bronze and gold. “I wasn’t going to. But…”

“But?” I ask.

“But now you and I can go on that ride.”

My head tilts in utter confusion. “No, we can’t! How?”

“I can’t come grabyou, but when you ride away from home on this beauty, who knows where you’ll end up? They’ll have no idea.”

The door opens inside the garage and Bear walks away from me, calling out to Dad, “Just told Sage the title is inside my truck.” He reaches into the passenger window, flips open the glove compartment, grabs the officially stamped piece of paper, a pen, walks back and holds out his palm as a table, signing away his Harley Davidson just so we can go riding together. I am stunned as he hands the signed title over to me, holding my gaze. “All yours.”

Does he mean the Harley.

Or…him?

Dad, now at his hog, has a huge smile on his face as he tilts his head back and calls to the heavens, “Freedom!”

I blink in surprise. “Is that why you did this for me, Dad?”

My father meets my eyes. “I didn’t like how sad you looked last night. Everyone deserves freedom, especially my baby girl.” He mounts his Harley.

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