Page 101 of Mafie Trials

Her features soften. “Our thing?” she asks. “I like the sound of that.” I nod while a rare smile stretches across my face.

“Let’s get started then.”

I walk her through how to make some pork loin melts with roasted red peppers, and she manages not to burn anything. Once we eat, I get everything cleaned up before grabbing my keys.

“Want to work on riding?”

She gets up from the table, nearly jumping out the door. While in our meeting, I had a special delivery made for her. Angelo helped me make sure it could be a surprise.

When she turns the corner to the cover our bikes are parked under, she stops dead in her tracks. A red and black Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak sits next to my Superleggera. I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her.

“I figured you were going to need your own bike if we went through with this plan. This is the fastest off-road bike they make. You will be able to literally take it anywhere.”

She spins in my hold and fuses our lips together. I hold her tight to me, soaking in her warmth as I wrap the custom-made black and red leather jacket around her. All of her nicknames are written around the right wrist.

“Alexi, this is too much.” I shake my head at her though.

“I plan to give you the world, Princess. This is nothing but a tool for you to use to set yourself free. Are you ready?”

???

We’ve been on the track for four hours now and the sun is starting to set. Evie is able to get most of the basic maneuvers down. She has great control. I help her confidence with taking sharp turns. The lean can be intimidating when you are only an inch from the ground, but the skill will help her learn to trust a drift if she were to need to turn around quicker than an opponent.

She stops next to me and pulls off her helmet, her silver hair fanning out. “How was that?” she asks.

“It was good. You could have leaned more, but we will work on it. I want to show you two other skills tonight that we will be projecting. First, I’m going to show you how to drift so you can make sharp turns or turn around quickly if needed. Then, I’m going to teach you to skitch.”

“That sounds safe,” she says sarcastically, causing me to laugh.

“Skitching is basically ghost-riding except your feet touch the ground. You have special shoes with titanium skitch plates that allow you to skim on the road while you duck down on one side of your bike. It’s only to be used if you are being shot at. On a bike, this is one of the only ways to protect yourself against gunfire.”

I toss my leg over my bike and put on my helmet then gesture for her to do the same. I ride next to her while I show her what I want her to try.

“Take this corner slowly,” I say as we approach the turn. “For drifting, you want to practice going straight, then lock up your back brake as you slow down. Get used to feeling the back wheel move around on you, then when you’re ready, lean into it and let it slide around you.”

We practice a few times before she gets frustrated. These aren’t basic things, especially for a new rider. Lev and Damien think I’m the perfectionist, but they clearly haven’t seen Evie try something new.

“Okay, I’ll work on that later,” she says, hardly refraining from tossing her helmet to the side. “How about that skitching thing?”

I laugh as we come to a stop. “You’re not ready to try that yet.”

“Show me and I’ll decide for myself,” she says in that brat-like tone of hers. I shake my head and grab the skitch plates from my leather jacket.

I kick up my shoes, which are custom-made to lock in the plates, and screw them in before revving the engine and giving her a wink. Once I’m going fast enough, I position myself like I’m ghost-riding with half of my body leaning over one side of the bike, then slowly position my feet on the ground as sparks fly behind me. I kneel down, letting my bike be my shield so she sees why I want her to learn this skill. When I’m sure she has seen the movements, I carefully maneuver my foot back over my bike and return to her side.

“You’re trying to kill me, I know it.” She shakes her head. “How in the ever-loving fuck am I supposed to learn how to do that in just a few months?”

“You get out here every day. I’m not letting you do this unless I know you can protect yourself. You’ll learn,” I get off my bike and approach her, flipping off my helmet and grabbing her chin, “because I’m going to teach you.”

She bites her lip. “Yes, Daddy.”

Chapter 39

Today’s the day. I’ve been getting away with texting my uncle for the past few weeks on an encrypted phone. But today is the day I need to set the scene. We need to make this believable. I’ve gone on a run, trying to squash some of the anxiety, but also to help add some panic to my voice for the call.

I’ve always found it easy to manipulate men. They usually only want one thing. And if you dangle it in front of them long enough, they tend to keep their eyes focused on the treat in your hand and not the giant hole you’re walking them towards. The only problem is it was easy with men I didn’t know. They couldn’t pick up on my tells or see the truth in my eyes. They were easy to fool.

My uncle, on the other hand, may be an idiot, but he isn’t stupid.

---