Page 32 of Bullet
“Yeah. He was doing the whole protective best friend thing,” I replied. “It was cute.”
“He’s kind of a dork that way. He was always dragging me around through campus and stuff. Making sure I ate, making sure I socialized. He’s kind of a mom.”
I chuckled. “Pretty good mom.”
He nodded. “He got the job done, that’s for sure.”
“Well, I think I passed,” I said. “He said he was happy for us.”
“Oh, did he?” He leaned over to me. “Congrats on getting past my mom.”
Our lips melted together like they belonged that way and Harry’s hand found my leg under the table. A heat boiled up in the pit of my stomach that sizzled its way up to my ears and had them burning inside of ten seconds. “Let’s get out of here,” I huffed.
“You have no idea how badly I want to,” Harry said back, “but I have to hang around just abitlonger. We have a prospect test today, and I’m one of the benchmarks.”
“What does that mean?”
“Prospective members get tested on a variety of things over the course of six months to a year to make sure they’re up to the task of joining the Steel Knights. It’s a bunch of different stuff, but tonight, Nicky wants to make sure the prospects have the skills to handle their bikes. Bucky and I are two ends of the spectrum. When I open up, my handling gets better, when Bucky opens up, his gets more erratic, so we’re the benchmarks Nicky is gonna gauge the prospects against in a bike race.”
“Your handling getsbetter?” I asked in disbelief, forgetting for a moment that Harry wasn’t aware that I knew about his accident from a few years ago.
“Yeah?” he said. “My life and my bike are about the only things I protect with everything I’ve got, so when I’m really putting the pedal to the metal, I home in to make sure neither are at risk.”
That didn’t make sense to me. Darrien had told me multiple times about the accident, and he always said it was Harry’s erratic handling that caused it. “I’ll be interested to see it,” I said.
“Lucky for you, the race is starting in about five minutes.” He stood up from the table and stuck out his hand. “Come on. I’ll need my good luck charm there if I’m gonna win.”
My heart stuttered, looking up at Harry’s gorgeous face backlit by the bar lights, but I ignored it as I reached out and took his hand and let him lead me from the bar and out into the night air. Word of the race must have spread because the bar’s patrons were spilling outside in throngs as the prospects were already pulling out their bikes and lining up on the street. Harry yanked me toward him with a strength that burned me up, kissed me, and then left my side to go and get his bike. He and the other member, Bucky, joined the line of bikes on the road, and Nick walked over to see them off.
“All right kids, let’s be safe out there.” He pointed down the road to where the gas station about a mile down could just barely be seen. “You’re going down, circling the BP, and coming back. First one back wins, obviously, but it’s not all about winning, it’s about showing me you know how to handle your bike. Harry and Bucky are gonna be watching as well, so show us what ya got.” He pulled a gun out of the back of his waistband and stuck it in the air. “On your marks...” All the bikes rumbled up. “Get set...” A few of them throttled to showboat, and then Nick fired the gun and the roar the collective bikes let out was almost too much for my eardrums.
They fired up, kicking up dust as they did, and blasted down the road. Whether he did it on purpose or not, I wasn’t sure, but Harry immediately dropped behind. He wasn’t behind for long though, as he ducked down and picked up the pace. He started to close in on one of the prospects and cut in front of him with expert precision. He slid his bike in and out of the other racers like he was threading a needle and my jaw dropped.
He was right, his handling was astounding.
For as long as I could, I kept a watch on Harry until he was over the hill and out of sight. Everyone standing around started to murmur about who they thought was going to win. The rumble of the racing bikes could be heard for the duration of the race, but they couldn’t be seen for a few minutes. Eventually, however, the roar started to get louder again as the bikes came thundering back down the street. It was the only female prospect who was leading the back, and right behind her was Harry. He was like a bullet. He didn’t veer or waver at all. Despite the fact that he was probably going ninety or more miles per hour, he was driving perfectly straight and he was gaining on the other driver fast.
It wasn’t enough though, as she went blazing back past Nick at lightning speed, with Harry a few seconds behind her. They both went flying further up the road, as they worked to slow themselves down safely, and I watched as Harry decelerated at a much higher rate of speed than the other driver, and flip his bike around as if he’d been doing it since he was a child.
My whole body shook with fear and rage and every other negative emotion I could muster.
How could someone with handling skills of that caliber cause an accident that had made a car flip nine times? He had to just be driving recklessly for no reason. So it wasn’t even that it was an accident or a matter of road rage, when it came to that day and that car, Harry must have made an intentional decision to drive in a way that was dangerous for Darrien’s car. He didn’t seem like such a reckless and careless person, but as much as I wanted to confront him right then and there, I was shaking too much to do it. I got in my car and used the crowd gathering around the returned bikers as a distraction to make my escape.
I didn’t want to play around with Harry anymore. If I never saw him again it would be too soon.
Chapter Twelve
Bullet
The very first thing I did in the morning was check my phone, despite how angry that made me. I’d texted and called Celia a handful of times before finally falling asleep last night, and I didn’t get the best sleep in the world because I was so worried. People around the bar remembered seeing her get in her car and leave, but no one knewwhyshe left. Before the race started, she was chomping at the bit to get out of there and go somewhere private with me, so what the hell happened between when we last spoke and when the race was over to send her off?
There were no responses from Celia, so I threw down my phone and flopped back on my bed. I glanced over at the empty space and let out a frustrated grunt. Looking forward to coming back with her got me through the night; I just wished I knew why the sudden distance.
Was she ghosting me again?
I could draw a normal conclusion that it wasn’tmewho upset her. She was fine when I started the race, and she was gone when I got done. Did she just panic? She’d mentioned being wary of commitments, and the last time her feelings got the better of her, she ran off.
Maybe it was best to just leave her alone.
