Page 84 of Hunter

The tattoo on my chest ached as I crouched down to her height, reaching out to touch her.

She was warmer than I had expected, but cooler than I remembered. She was a little more than scrap metal now, her paint long since dulled and chipped. Most of it had scratched off on the asphalt from where she had skidded across the road. Her chromes had rusted, and her oil tank had burst, a dark stain on the floor where the last traces must have leaked.

I had fixed bikes in the past. I was good at it, too. But this old girl, even the most skilled mechanic would retire her. At least she had seen a life.

I had often bitched about Noble’s obsession with Ruby, but I had also always known where he had been coming from. The bike was a legend. She hadn’t roared to life; she had cried like the firebird painted on her body, and the way she had flown on the roads had been smooth and effortless. Hell, I would have loved to have shown Adair this girl in her prime.

Since the accident, I hadn’t looked at her. I couldn’t bear it. She had been shoved to the back of my mind like she had into this shed. Just like the letter.

Days after Noble’s death, a letter had been sent to me. It had been arranged should anything had happened. It wasn’t much.

Look after Ruby for me, bro. She means everything, was all it had said.

Noble hadn’t been the most literate, but I had expected a few more words. The location of the information would have been nice. Never mind the letter or the information to take down our number-one enemy, just make sure the bike was okay. However, I had no doubt a Runner’s spy had long since checked the contents before I had even known of its existence.

Noble, you dipshit. You only ever loved Ruby.

I remembered Mallory had told me that Noble had given her a ride. I wondered if she knew how much that bike had been worth to him. How much her memory meant to me now.

I ran my hand across her seat. “Adair should have inherited you,” I said, the image of it woven into my mind with ease.

I bet he would grow up to be a spitting image of a young Noble. He would have fit on Ruby like a glove, like Noble had. He would have offered to take all the girls for a ride, like Noble. Get crazy stalker fans, like Noble.

Except, Adair would have Mallory, and she would fuss at him, and the girls would all laugh until Adair shooed her away. Then Mallory would huff before walking off and into my arms where I would assure her the boy would be fine.

“You can never know that for sure,” she would say. And no matter how old we got together, I would never be able to convince her otherwise. That was the kind of mother, the kind of woman, she was. Too compassionate for her own good. Too caring. Too kind.

Too sweet for all this shit on her shoulders.

I pulled my hand back and sighed again. “Brother, you’ve dropped me in a huge pile of shit. Worse than even that time during Christmas dinner.” I reminisced about all the trouble Noble had managed to drag me into as kids, always leaving me to clean up after him. “If your ass were here, I’d make you sort this shit out yourself. Maybe you’d do better by Mallory than me.”

A big part of me knew that, even if Noble were to walk through that door, I wouldn’t give her up. She was mine now. And I was hers.

Somehow, looking at the bike gave me strength to move on.

“Never look back.” That was Noble’s motto. He even had it tattooed across his shoulder blades. So, for now, just this once, I would listen to my idiotic, wild, big brother. I would swallow my pride and put all my shit with Wolf to rest. Wolf would get his punishment later, but until this Hell’s Runners shit was over, I needed a brother. I needed my president.

I also needed my girl.

That meant it was time for an apology. A big one. One that would result in hot make-up sex and her moaning as she took my cock so deep in her …

My brain shorted as my knee knocked into Ruby’s side. The pile of metal wobbled on wrecked wheels until it came crashing down against my calf and knocked me to the ground with a resounding crash.

Dust flew in the fucking air again, relentless in its attempt to suffocate me, as I dug myself out from under her body, shuffling to jerk my leg free.

I hissed at the blood rising through my jeans and cursed at the throbbing pain. I was bleeding a steady drip onto the floor, a small puddle beginning to form. It stretched across the ground until it met a wall of paper, which absorbed it like a starved desert.

I looked at the envelope on the ground, its yellowed paper turning a muddied red. It was pinned beneath Ruby’s exhaust, near the torn saddlebag and mangled wheel. It hadn’t been there when I had first come in.

I reached for it, an old memory resurfacing. It was a conversation between me and Noble, him telling me his crazy idea about secret compartments for Ruby after seeing the new007film.

I could hear my heart thumping in my ears. I felt almost cold and numb as I picked up the envelope.

Look after Ruby for me, bro. She means everything,Noble’s letter had said.

She means everything.

I slipped my hand under the damp lip of the envelope, finding a carefully folded letter inside. I pulled it out, my eyes moving in a smooth, fluid motion across the words. There were more pages than I had anticipated, printed on almost tissue thin paper so they all fit in the one envelope.

---