Page 7 of Twisted Trails
Alaina.
She’s a girl. ACrews. ThatCrews.
It’s a sickening kind of clarity when it all slots together.
The crash.
Hercrash.
The one that ended her career and erased her from the circuit.
I never put it together, not even with her face, herpain, right in front of me.
Now I can’t stop seeing it.
The fierce way she rode, like every second on that track was a fight for her right to be there. The way she made the bike dance under her like it was part of her body. That riding style—reckless, fearless, too beautiful to be real.
And I didn’t see it.
I ignored every weird feeling because I wanted to be around her so badly to have her kindness and friendship.
My knees almost buckle.
How could I have been so blind?
“Somebody talk the fuck now! Did she just saysister?” Luc bellows, loud enough to snap me out of my trance.
“Go,” Greer tells Dane. “I’ll take care of this.” Dane looks a little pale around the nose, but nods at him before he leaves with the nurse. Luc steps forward to follow, but Greer blocks him. “No. We have to talk about this first.”
Luc clenches his fists, and I’m still juststanding there,staringat the spot where Dane disappeared, everything in me burning with the weight of what I just realized.
“Sister?” Luc snarls.
“Calm the fuck down, Delacroix,” Greer says, unflinching.
“Non.” Luc shakes his head, his voice rising. “Tell me what the fuck is going on here, or I’ll go and find out myself.”
“This is all…” Greer pinches the bridge of his nose, looking like he’s aged ten years in thirty seconds. “This is so fuckingsecret, okay? If you like her as much as you always say you do, you’ll keep your damn mouth shut.”
I finally find my voice. “It’s Alaina?”
Luc whips toward me, but I don’t look at him as Greer nods slowly, watching me for a reaction, bracing for impact.
Inside, I’m screaming, spiraling, and probably close to bleeding out. Outside, I give him nothing.
Because the guy I’ve been obsessing over, my only real friend after I swore I wouldn’t trust anyone again, lied to me for weeks.
Lied tomy face.
Knowing that my entire life was fucked by a lie.
“Alaina?” Luc says her name like he’s trying to make sense of it, to see how it feels around his mouth. “That’s her name?”
“Alaina Crews,” I say quietly.
The girl I never talked to all those years ago but always watched too much.
Greer crosses his arms and looks between us. “You guys have to keep it quiet.”
