Page 96 of Send It
Suddenly, there’s no one else but me and the dirt.
Landon beats me for the holeshot but I’m right on his ass coming out of the first turn. I stay on him for the next few laps and I’m doing my best to find a different line to be able to punch the bike around him.
On the next lap, I take the inside on a turn where Landon has been taking the outside and manage to get past him. We ride like that for the next few laps and by the time the white flag is out, it’s still neck and neck. He tries at every corner to pass me and I do my best to block his ass. We both come over a jump at the same time but Landon cross jumps and my bike lands right on top of his. The handlebars pierce into my side as I roll over them and the pain is intense. I roll into the dirt and try my best to crawl off the track before another bike lands on top of me.
Landon is on his feet, off to the side trying to restart his bike and that’s when an audible gasp comes from the stands. I avert my eyes back to Landon and that’s when I see Colson.
He grabs him by the front of his helmet and slams him into the ground. I can barely hear over the buzzing of the bikes but once they all pass, everyone can hear.
“You motherfucker!” Colson yells. “You did that on purpose!”
Landon yanks his helmet off and slings it at Colson. Everyone is staring at them but then it’s like everything goes silent. The crowd is confused.
Landon looks at me and then goes back to Colson. “What the fuck?”
I’m still on my hands and knees. The pain in my side radiates up and down my body as I watch them fight, unable to really catch my breath.
“If you’re here,” he points across the track to where I am. “Then who is that?”
Ryan, both my parents, and Colson’s dad are all over here by now. Ryan tries to help me roll onto my back. He takes one look at me and freezes before growling.
“I fucking knew it.”
He unbuckles my helmet and helps me pull it off, my dark braid falling down my back and over Colson’s last name.
Fuck.
48
Colson
My anger fizzles out the moment I see the pain on Lincoln’s face when she takes her helmet off. I start to walk in her direction but I’m stopped by Reiss stepping into my path with a hard shove to my chest.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he growls. “That’s my fucking sister.”
Suddenly, the guilt I knew I would feel if he found out comes pouring over me like a bucket of ice water. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“You didn’t mean to dress her up in your gear and put her at the starting gate?”
So he’s mad because Lincoln raced for me? Not because I’m in love with her?
“No I did,” I clarify. “I didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”
Reiss pushes me again, “You wouldn’t have told me if Ihadn’t found out. I can’t believe you put my sister at risk like that. You even knew Landon would be after your ass and you still put her out there.”
I stare over at Lincoln who is having trouble getting up, our parents surrounding her. He’s right. I never should’ve let her race for me. No matter how bad she wanted to. I knew she could get hurt and I knew that Landon wouldn’t blink an eye to do it.
“I would never hurt her on purpose,” I say. “I love her.”
Everyone falls silent and Reiss pulls back with surprise. “You love her? You mean likelove herlove her?”
“Yes,” I breathe. “More than anyone else on this fucking planet, Reiss. I always have.”
“So you’ve literally been fucking around with my baby sister behind my back?”
“Yeah,” Landon says, entering the conversation with the picture of Lincoln and I filling the screen of the phone Jackson hands him. “See for yourself.”
Reiss takes his palm and knocks Jackson’s phone out of Landon’s hand, landing it about twenty yards down the track. His focus is still on me. “You lied to me.”
