Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Maggie—
“What the hell was the urgency?” Derek asks, digging the keys to the garage out of his pocket.
It’s seven thirty in the morning, and it took me twenty minutes of begging and some added bribery to get him out of bed to meet me here.
“I want to go riding today. Seeing my bike yesterday gave me the bug. You know how it is.”
He grins. “Yeah, I know how it is.” He checks the blue sky and rolls up the garage door. “Looks like it’s going to be a good day for it. Want some company?”
“No thanks. I already have some people I met online that I’m going to ride with.” The lies are starting to come easily these days.
“Give me your car keys.” He holds out his hand, and I drop them into his palm. He gets in my car and backs it up to the aluminum trailer they use for hauling their bikes to events.
Once it's hitched up, I push my bike onto the back, and we secure it down with straps.
“You’re gonna need to stop and fill up. We drained the tank when we hauled it out here,” Derek advises and goes and gets my old helmet off a shelf next to theirs, then follows me to the driver’s door of my car.
Taking the helmet and tossing it in the backseat, I turn and give him a hug. “Thanks for getting out of bed for me.”
He gives me a wink. “Don’t forget you owe me a tin of chocolate chip cookies.”
“I won’t.” I slip behind the wheel, and he shuts the door.
“Be safe out there, okay?”
“Always.” I pull out, checking the trailer in my rearview mirror. It’s been years, but seeing my bike behind me takes me right back to the last time I raced, and I can’t help the happiness and excitement I feel.
When I pull into the alley behind the bar, Sully is leaning against a pickup truck with a dirt bike loaded up in the back of a trailer .
He’s not wearing his cut this time.
There’s another guy standing near a Harley.
I stop behind them and get out, grabbing my helmet from the backseat as he straightens.
“This your truck?” I ask, approaching.
“Nope. Borrowed it from a brother.”
“Where’d you get the bike?” My eyes trail over the motocross bike on the trailer.
“Borrowed that, too.”
“You’ve got brothers who ride motocross?” I ask.
“Nope.”
“Then where…?”
He bops my nose with the tip of his index finger. “I’ve got my ways. You ready?” His eyes sweep over my outfit.
I’m wearing the riding clothes I used to ride in. The shirt used to be loose, but now my chest mostly fills it out.
“I remember those.” He gestures to the neon green and white shirt and pants. “They still fit.” His gaze trails over my hips.
“Sort of. I probably need to get a new set.”
He focuses on my boobs and grins. “Yeah, maybe.”
I slap his arm. “Stop it.”
He’s dressed appropriately in an outfit I’ve never seen him in before, so either he borrowed it, too, or it’s new. He’s in gray and orange with bold letters across the chest that say wicked good.
His shoulders look broad and his hips look narrow, and the pants make his ass look really wicked good. I grin at my own internal joke.
“What’s the smile about?”
“You just look cute.”
“Cute?” He clutches his chest. “An arrow through my fucking heart. You’re supposed to say I look badass.”
I chuckle. “Fine. You look badass.”
“Damn right, I do.” He jerks a thumb at the other guy. “Leaving the prospect to watch the bar while we’re gone. Plus, he’s got plumbing skills. I noticed the ceiling behind the bar was dripping. Might have a water leak. Could be from when they shot the ceiling.”
“Oh.” I’m embarrassed I didn’t notice, and hope Rock doesn’t think I’m doing a bad job. I look at the man. “Thanks for taking a look at it.”
He nods. “No problem.”
“Give him your keys.”
I hesitate, and Keno cocks a brow.
“You can trust him, Six.”
I pass them over, and the prospect goes inside.
Keno moves to my trailer and unloads my bike, putting it on the same trailer as his.
I fold my arms and throw out a hip. “Why are we taking your truck? Why not my car?”
He pauses strapping the bike down and rolls his eyes. “Are you seriously giving me a hard time about this? The truck is bigger, and it has more towing capacity. Plus, the clearance of the undercarriage is better. You’re driving a Chevy Malibu.”
He’s right, and we both know it.
“Fine. But only because you’ve already strapped it on.”
He jumps down from the trailer and folds up the ramp. “Is it that hard to just agree with me?”
I stick my tongue out at him and head for the passenger side.
He beats me to it and yanks the door open.
“I can open my own door, Sully.”
“Not while I’m around,” he replies.
I climb inside, and he shuts my door, then walks around the hood and slides behind the wheel.
As he starts the ignition, he stares at me. “Names Keno. Say it.”
It’s my turn to do the eye roll. “Keno.”
“I don’t go by Sully in this town, understand?”
I shrug and look out the window. “Whatever.”
“Hey.”
I turn back. “What?”
“There’s only one time and place you can call me Sully.”
“When we’re alone?”
“Nope. When my dick’s inside you.”
Oh, boy. That sent a jolt right straight to my lady parts.
He grins like he knows it. “Did you just get wet at the thought?”
I turn away, my face flaming. “Shut up and drive.”
Two hours later, we pull in at Dry Gulch Motocross Park. It’s a small place, but it’s the closest to Rock Creek Raceway’s layout as we could find online. It’ll work for today. I need to shake the dust off and hope I still can do this.
It’ll be embarrassing if I’m a complete failure today.
We pay to enter and Sully—correction Keno—finds a place to park in the gravel lot.
I hop from the truck, and the two of us work together unstrapping the bikes and rolling them off.
Keno has a five-gallon red plastic gas container with a big black nozzle, and he fills both our tanks. “That should give us about two hours of riding time, depending on how hard we go at it.”
“Since neither of us has done this in a while, that should be enough for today,” I reply.
He puts his helmet on and tugs his gloves down his hands, then swings his leg over his bike and looks over at me.
“You ready, Six?”
I grin and nod.
“Let’s hit it.”
We roar onto the track that loops back and forth over the winding, hilly course.
There are only about half a dozen other riders out here today, so we’ve got plenty of room to get used to the bikes and the track.
Exhilaration floods me. God, I’ve missed this.
I keep pace with Keno until my nerves relax and the bike feels like slipping on an old pair of worn shoes. It all comes rushing back, and it’s like I never quit.
After a few laps, Keno and I race, and he hangs right with me in every turn and we trade places back and forth for two laps, but by the third lap, I’m beating him in the corners and the distance separating us increases to twenty yards.
When we stop, pulling off the track, I’m off my bike and jumping up and down with excitement, my hands in the air.
He stops beside me and gives me a high-five. “You’ve still got it, girl.”
His praise warms everything inside me.
“Let’s go again,” I say excitedly.
We ride for two hours, then load the bikes back on the trailer.
I’m feeling exhilarated when we climb in the cab.
“I forgot how much I loved riding,” I say.
Keno turns onto the highway and looks over at me.
“I forgot how good you are. You’ve got skills, Six. You know just where to take a corner, and you’re fearless out there. I love how you don’t let the other riders intimidate you.”
“I wish I’d been able to keep it up when I was younger.” I stare out the window, remembering how vehemently my brothers opposed me being on the track.
“I wish you’d gotten the support and encouragement you deserved, including from me.
I’m sorry if I didn’t do more to stop your brothers when they raised such a fuss about it like a bunch of fucking pussies.
I should have shut that shit down, and I didn’t.
I’m sorry. Hell, your father should have shut them up. ”
“Maybe he felt the same way.”
“I don’t think so. I saw the pride in his eyes when he watched you run. I think he always thought your brothers would get some of his talent, follow in his footsteps on the circuit. They never had it. But you?” He turns to look at me. “You had it, Six.”
“I registered as MC Laroche for the race. I didn’t want them to know I was a woman.” That same old fear is there—the fear that I’m not good enough, that I’ll never be good enough. I get butterflies just thinking about going up against the real talent on the circuit.
Keno looks at me, and he reads me like a book.
He knows what I’m feeling. He’s quiet for a moment.
“Whatever it takes, Six. I bet that last name meant something to them. The name Tommy Laroche is still remembered. He was a real trailblazer in the sport. I always wondered why your father never got any sponsorship deals later in life.”
“He wouldn’t play their game. And the booze probably played a role.”
“How’s he doing, by the way?” Keno asks.
“He died last year.”
“I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard.”
“I didn’t know until after. I didn’t even get a chance to go to the funeral.”
“What’s going on with your brothers?”
I don’t want to tell him they’re in town. It would just cause trouble, so I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re running his old shop.”
I hate that I’m lying to him, but it’s for the best. Besides, Keno is a nomad. He doesn’t stay in one place long.
We drive in silence for a while, but there are questions burning inside me that need answers.
Finally, I turn and study his profile.
He feels my eyes on him and turns to look at me.
“Why did you leave?” I whisper, unable to keep silent.
He drags a hand down his jaw, his entire body language going from relaxed to uncomfortable. “A lot was going on. Stuff you didn’t know about.”
“I heard you that day. I know about Remy… what he did. I heard you tell Derek he’d raped a girl.”
“I wish you hadn’t. You didn’t need to hear that.”
“He should have paid for that,” I whisper.
“I wish the woman had reported it.” Keno stares at the road. “I would have testified against him, Maggie. In a heartbeat, and it would have torn us all apart.”
“Not you and me,” I protest.
That brings his eyes back to me. “You say that, but I would have been responsible for putting him in prison. You really think you wouldn’t have looked at me differently?”
“You wouldn’t have been responsible for putting him there. He’d have done that to himself. I think it would have brought you and me closer. If my father and Derek stood against you, I’d have been on your side, standing with you against all of them. How did you not know that?”
He doesn’t reply.
We’re quiet for a few miles, but I can’t let things go. “How did you end up with the Royal Bastards?”
“Bought a bike after I left. One night I met some of them in a bar. Started hangin’ around their clubhouse. After a year, they asked if I wanted to prospect.” He shrugs. “It seemed like a good fit.”
How was the man I remembered and a notorious biker club a good fit? My expression must show my confusion, because he takes in my face and laughs.
“I get you don’t understand, but this life suits me.”
“Where did you join? Where were you?”
“There’s a chapter in New Orleans. I didn’t go far, Maggie.”
“I wish I’d known that. I wish you’d have come back.”
“I couldn’t.”
“I needed you.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I should have been. I thought about you all the time.”
I stare straight ahead and try not to get emotional, strengthening my armor with the memory of how badly he’d hurt me when he’d walked out on me, and that’s what it had felt like at the time.
Like he’d abandoned me. I took it personally.
How could I not? He’d ripped my heart out.
I lick my lips. “It didn’t matter. I left town not long after, and it was the best thing I ever did.
So, it all worked out the way it was supposed to. ”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I actually do.”
I feel his eyes staring at my profile. He may not be the same man I remember, but I’m not the same person, either. I’m tougher. I’ve had to be. I learned I could only count on myself, and that lesson has served me well. Needing people only gets you hurt.
We arrive back in Durango, and Keno turns down the alley.
We unload my bike in silence, and I park it under the fire escape.
Keno frowns. “Is that where you keep it?”
“For now. It’s usually in storage, but I’m going to be needing access to it to practice, so…”
He gets something out of the back of the truck. “Here. Use this.”
He passes me a chain and padlock with a key hanging out.
I take it. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah. It’s no big deal.”
I secure the back wheel to the metal post then straighten. “Thanks for taking me up there.”
“I had fun,” he replies, coming to stand right in front of me. His hand lifts and brushes the hair from my cheek. “You’re probably gonna be sore tomorrow.”
I grin. “You, too.”
He flashes his teeth. “Probably so. You want to go again the day after?”
I laugh. “Sure.”
“Give me your phone.”
I pull it out, and he punches in a number. A second later his phone chimes.
“I’ll call you.”
“Okay.”
His eyes lift to the bar’s back door, and he bangs on it.
A moment later, the prospect opens the door.
“Let’s go,” Keno orders, and the kid steps out. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. Fixed the leak. It wasn’t a big problem.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“You’re welcome, ma’am.”
“See ya, Six,” Keno says.
“See ya, Keno.”