Page 82 of Pay the Price

“Fuck,” Jace said.

The motorcycle’s engine whined as he pushed it to the limit, trying to keep the car from hitting us as we crested a hill.

My stomach dropped out from under me as we sailed over it, then tore down the other side.

On the left, the valley was spread out below us, only a few feet separating us from a sharp drop from the granite cliff.

We were going to die. The car would either run us off the road or it would force Jace to make a mistake. We’d either slam into the sheer mountain face on the right or plummet to our death off the cliff on the left.

Then the cliff was gone, replaced by sloping dirt that wound down into the woods. On the other side of the trees, a smaller road wound along a plateau halfway between the upper mountain road and the valley below.

“Hang on,” Jace said.

I had no idea what he planned to do. We were about halfway down the hill, the car gaining on us, when Jace jerked the bike to the left.

I kept my arms locked around his waist as we sailed over the embankment, then landed with a thud in the dirt. I felt it slip under the motorcycle’s tires as he maneuvered the bike down the hill.

Then we were in the forest, the motorcycle’s headlights cutting a path through it as Jace maneuvered the bike between the trees.

Chapter 50

Jace

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

I tried to maintain my speed as I navigated the bike through the woods. It wasn’t the first time I’d ridden through the forest, but the other times had been for fun, a challenge to soothe the adrenaline junkie inside me that used reckless behavior to shut off my mind.

This was different. I had Daisy on the bike.

I looked in the side mirror for the car and didn’t see it. I shouldn’t have been surprised. It would have been risky for the car to try and follow us down the dirt hill and into the woods. It had the advantage on the road, but it didn’t stand a chance against my S1000, a bike built for both speed and maneuverability.

“I think they’re gone,” Daisy said.

I focused on the path in front of us, not a marked trail, but an invisible one winding through the forest.

Finally, we broke free of the woods, emerging onto a smaller dirt road that cut across the mountain.

I turned left instead of right, doubling back in the direction of the compound, not wanting to meet up with our pursuers on the road to the house.It would give whoever had been chasing us time to give up, assume we were bunking somewhere else for the night.

The valley was on the right now, a handful of lights glinting from houses and other buildings below. A guardrail ran along the plateau, separating the narrow dirt road from the drop-off into the valley.

I saw what I was looking for up ahead and slowed to a stop at a turnout.

I pulled off my helmet and got off the bike.

“Are you okay?” I asked Daisy.

She unfastened her helmet and her chestnut hair fell around her shoulders. She nodded. “Are you?”

“Fine.” I bit out the word, then paced away from her as the adrenaline surged through my body. “Fuck. That was close.”

“What if they come back?” Daisy asked. She was still straddling the bike, looking sexy as fuck in the jeans she’d changed into after we’d gone tubing, the swell of her perfect tits visible under the thin fabric of her T-shirt.

I already knew that later, once the adrenaline of the chase had worn off, I’d be recalling the way it had felt to ride through the night with her on my bike, her arms around my waist, tits pressed against my back.

For a few minutes, it had felt like there was nothing else in the world, and I’d had the crazy thought that if we just kept riding, we could actually be together.

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