Page 86 of Skid Spiral

I didn’t even have time to really worry. Lou dropped and rolled on the gritty pavement, pressing her body into the hard ground. The flames hissed as she smothered them, smoke wisping off the special poncho.

The second the worst of them were out, she yanked the poncho right off and stomped on the lingering flares of fire for good measure. Then she chucked her gas and ski masks into the smoldering heap.

She spun around, a grin stretched across her shining face, and swiped at the gel smeared across her jaw and cheeks with her sleeve. “We did it. We fucking did it!”

“You did it,” I had to say. “That was fucking spectacular, Lou.”

She pumped her fist in the air and bent down to snatch up her cast-offs. “Can’t leave any evidence around. Let’s get back to the car. I’ve got to skate! We’re going to have to break a few speed limits to get to Dellville in time.”

“We will.” I silently resolved that I would get her there unharmed and on time, no matter what I had to do. “Don’t even worry about it.”

But of course Lou leapt into the driver’s seat before I’d even loped all the way to the car. She shot me a sassy grin that lit up her dark eyes, and my heart skipped a beat.

As I dropped into the seat beside her and leaned back with her slam on the gas pedal, an undeniable realization sank deep into my gut.

I’d let the cheeky attitude she’d had since she was a teenager, her size, and our age difference lull me into thinking she was still the same girl I’d been protecting for years. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

She was a woman now. I hadn’t let myself see just how confident and capable she’d become. Sure, she was nineteen and technically an adult, and I’d told her I knew all that, but since we’d gotten into town, she’d shown an assurance and sense of strategy way beyond those years.

She was every bit the leader her mother had wanted to mold her into. She could hold her own against forces even I would have avoided tackling.

How could I have still seen her as a victim too vulnerable to take care of herself? How could I have treated her like one, even after she’d made this bold bid for independence?

I glanced over at Lou as she lifted a hand to wipe away a little more gel from her neck. Her eyes gleamed, but there was a distance in them now, as if her mind were miles ahead of us already.

She’d put the situation with the gang behind her. I could tell by her expression that she was entering that realm of grace and balance and beauty, the space in her mind where I could never join her.

It was a place reserved only for skating, for the art that had truly left its mark on her soul. Niko and Jasper might belong there, but I sure as hell didn’t.

But God, did I wish that I did.

That was the worst part of the revelation that’d just struck me. In all my refusal to see what was right in front of me, I’d pushed her away, turned down her advances.

I’d known that she’d wanted me, and I’d felt the same desires humming through me every time I looked at her in the past year, but I’d decided I knew best. That I needed to protect her from myself.

As ifIcould possibly be too much forherto handle. So totally fucking absurd.

But it was too late to take back the decisions I’d made now. What the fuck could I even offer her? Reminders of the life she longed so badly to leave completely behind?

She’d found something good with two men who understood the most important part of her existence so much better than I did. All I could do now was watch while the knowledge of my mistakes tore my heart out.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Luciana

Rafael glancedover at me from behind the steering wheel. “That’s the arena up ahead. Are you ready?”

I peered at myself in the mirror on the sun visor and smoothed down a few errant strands of my hair that were threatening to escape my ponytail. My pulse was outright thundering now, but I couldn’t see anything to be nervous about in my appearance.

Rafael and I had switched off driving halfway to Dellville, when I’d briefly ducked into a service center restroom to scrub the last traces of gel off my skin. The high of my victory over the wannabe gangsters had carried me careening along the highway that far, reveling in the lingering adrenaline and the thrum of the engine, but it’d been a necessary transition.

Because all the rest of my prep I’d carried out while Rafael handled the Grand Marquis like a race car, weaving through the thickening traffic. In the less busy stretches, I’d squirmed out of my stealth gear and into the skating outfit that was only a temporary costume until Jasper and I saw how this initial routine landed with an audience. While my bodyguard had been cruising swiftly but steadily, I’d tamed my hair into this sleek ponytail and applied some basic makeup.

All thoughts of the other performance I’d put on today had gradually faded to the back of my mind. My routine on the ice called for grace and elegance, nothing like the violent chaos I’d just created.

Some kind of celebration should be in store, but not until Jasper and I made it through the qualifying round and had that to celebrate too.

Ifwe made it through the qualifying round.

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