Chapter 24
REMY
“Ghost” by Minute After Midnight is blasting in my helmet as I cruise down the highway when it cuts out for a moment.
“Rider connected,” a disembodied female voice announces in my helmet.
Weird.
I know for a fact that none of the guys are out on the road right now. They’re busy taking care of business, but there was no way I was going to miss the monthly stunt meet for work. How many people does it take to torture information out of a fae, anyway?
Colt was less than pleased by me dipping before the job, but that’s nothing new. My twin disapproves of most of my life choices. It’s like he thinks I’m still that scared boy I was after the attack.
But I’m not.
It’s been a long time since our mom was killed and I was fucked up in the process. While I can’t say that I’m healed or any shit like that, I’m grown and living my life the best I can. I don’t need my older brother babysitting me at every moment of the day or passing judgment on my choices.
What I need is to be treated like an equal in our valor.
Rook and Hal do a good job of that, but Colt and Azrael still act like I’m their annoying kid brother.
While I’ll never be as strong as Azrael or Colt, I’m an accomplished fighter in my own right and have taken down hundreds of fae.
I can hold my own against the world, and I just wish they’d realize it.
Sighing, I look around for whoever I connected with. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Colt skipped out on work to follow me to make sure I’m okay.
While I thankfully don’t see his bike anywhere, I do spot what looks a hell of a lot like Lark’s bike a ways in front of me. The black leather jacket, black jeans, and chestnut braids flying behind her make me pretty sure that it is, in fact, Lark.
My heart starts pounding so hard at my excitement that I can barely hear myself think.
But that’s just how it is when I see her. My already hyper self goes into overdrive until I’m practically bouncing off the walls whenever I’m around her. I wish I could cool it a little because I know I’ve embarrassed myself in front of her, but oh well.
This is just how I am.
Hopefully she likes how I am. If she doesn’t, well, let’s be honest. I’d change everything about myself for that woman. But I don’t want to have to. I want her to like me for me, as cheesy as that is.
“Lark?” I call into my helmet, loud enough to be heard over the wind noise. At nearly ninety miles an hour, the wind is surprisingly deafening, even with the helmet.
She whips her head around, looking for the source of the voice in her own helmet. When she spots me, she stares at my bike for a long moment before facing forward and hesitantly responding. “Colt?”
Opening the throttle, I speed up until I’m almost even with her. “Close but, no, it’s Remy. I can see why you’re confused when I must’ve jacked Colt’s helmet by accident. I know we’ve never connected our helmets. Although, we should totally fix that.”
“Oh, sorry.” Her soft voice crackles through the speaker. “Um, nice to see you?”
I chuckle at how awkward she sounds. “You, too, love. So, whatcha up to tonight?”
I do happy wobbles as I wait for her to answer, enjoying talking to her probably a little too much. She glances over at me and laughs at my weaving around.
I can’t help the stupid grin plastered to my face at making her laugh. It feels good to be causing joy instead of frustration, like I usually do.
She shrugs, the movement a little stiff in all her gear. “Not much. Just riding around.”
“Well, in that case, you wanna come with me to a stunt meet? You can watch people do all sorts of cool tricks, and I can even teach you some if you want.” I waggle my eyebrows at her before realizing she can’t see it with my tinted face shield.
While humans need to change to a clear visor at night, I can see perfectly fine with my smoky one. And I’m way too lazy to fuck with swapping visors daily, so I just leave the darkened one on twenty-four seven.
She’s silent for long enough that I worry I said something wrong. When she does eventually respond, she sounds almost wistful. “That sounds fun, but I don’t wanna impose. I’m sure you’re meeting up with friends, and I doubt you want a random girl tagging along and making things weird.”
She’s right that I’ll be meeting some buddies from outside the valor there. But I couldn’t care less about them if it means I get to spend time with her. Lark will always come first.
And she must’ve not been listening to anything I said last night if she thinks she’s a random girl to me. We’d also never bring a random onto our valor’s lands, around our siblings, or to meet our parents. She means a hell of a lot more to us than she apparently realizes.
Instead of saying any of that, I try to reassure her in a way that won’t have her freaking out or thinking I’m too much. “You aren’t imposing, alouette. It’s the more the merrier at these meets.”
After a long pause, she nods. With her helmet on, it makes her look like a cute bobblehead. “Then, yeah, I’d love to. Where is it?”
I do a little victory dance on my bike at her agreeing that has her laughing again. “Awesome! It’s in a warehouse district on the outskirts of Willow Bend. You good just following me? Otherwise, we can pull over, and I’ll give you the address.”
“I’m good following behind you. As long you can restrain yourself from smoking me, that is,” she teases.
“I’m riding one of my stunting 600s, so no smoking happening tonight.”
“You can still leave me in the dust on a similar displacement bike if you’re skilled enough. And you seem like you know what you’re doing with bikes.”
I preen at her praise, but I have to disagree. “I focus on stunting, not going fast. While I can out stunt any of the guys, Hal and Azrael will both hand my ass to me on the track."
“Hmm, not sure I believe that, but I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
My chest puffs up in pride at her thinking I’m a better rider than Azrael and Hal, even if she’s wrong. It’s rare anyone thinks I’m good at anything, really, so I’m going to soak up her confidence in me while it lasts.
We keep the conversation light as we ride fifteen minutes to the warehouse district. When we pull off the highway, we wind through streets lined with silent warehouses that have seen better days. While most of the warehouses are operational still, the area is abandoned by nighttime.
I feel the thumping bass of the music in my chest before I see the meetup.
I smile when I finally see the chaos of the event—hundreds of bikes, swarms of shifters and other supernaturals, music so loud I can barely hear my own thoughts, and under glow illuminating everything in shades of blue, purple, and green.
“Wow,” Lark breathes as she gets a good look at the barely organized chaos. “It’s like Fast and Furious but with bikes.”
I snort, but she’s not wrong. It does look like something out of a movie, with the glowing bikes and people crammed into every available square inch of the massive parking lot. Leading us around the outside of the meet, I find a spot big enough for both of our bikes before parking.
After Lark maneuvers into the space, I turn off my bike and climb off. Walking over to Lark, I offer her a hand to help her off hers. She hesitates for a moment before placing her palm in mine and letting me steady her as she dismounts.
“Thanks,” she mumbles into the comms before shutting it off and taking off her helmet. I do the same.
I’m not too worried about anyone stealing my helmet here, so I clip it around my handlebars. She follows suit.
I grin down at her, enjoying the pretty blush that paints her pale cheeks as I do so. “No problem. So, whatcha wanna see first?”
She looks around with wide eyes before turning back to me. “I… really don’t know. I’m not sure what all is going on here. Maybe you should pick?”
“How ’bout this?” I offer. “I’ll show you around, and you just let me know if there’s something else you wanna check out. Deal?”
Her lips tip up into a half smile that melts my heart. “Deal.”
Grabbing her hand and linking our fingers together, I lead her toward the action. I figure she’d rather see riders doing cool stunts than people showing off their expensive bikes. If she wants to look at overpriced machines, all Lark needs to do is look at our collection.
Hell, any one of us would let her ride any of our bikes. All she has to do is ask.
Lark gapes at the first stunter we see. “Is that guy drifting his bike?”
Glancing over at the dude on the bright blue bike drifting to the cheers and applause from onlookers, I look back at her and nod. “Yep.”
Her eyes are comically wide as she watches him, completely enthralled. “That’s crazy. I didn’t even know you could do that on two wheels.”
A little part of me is jealous that her attention is fixed so intently on another male. But I shove that part down. Lark’s free to look at anyone she wants, even if it drives me crazy.
When I get my jealousy under control, I say, “There’s a lot of cool stuff you can do on bikes. It just takes practice.”
Before she can respond, Axel catches sight of us and comes bounding over. He’s a cheetah shifter and lives up to his animal counterpart with his love of anything that goes fast. “Remy! What’s up, man?” His amber gaze swings to Lark and heats with interest. “And who is this?”
With shaggy blond hair, unique amber eyes, and standing only a few inches shorter than me, Axel has no problem picking up women. And I have no problem with that, as long as he stays the fuck away from the one tucked into my side.
Lark offers him a small wave and uncertain smile. “Hi. I’m Lark.”
“I’m Axel, and it is very nice to meet you,” he practically purrs, causing Lark to flush. A low growl rumbles out of my throat at his obvious interest in her. His blond brows jump up in surprise. “Is she your girl, Remy? I never thought you’d be a one-woman type of man.”