55. Kiera
KIERA
I didn’t see Leo’s bike again until we pulled up to a nearby intersection. But as I turned to face her, I realized it wasn’t Leo at all: just a matching black motorcycle with two riders. All of our outfits were perfectly matched, setting us up for a switch down the road.
Only once Spencer hit the gas did Leo’s bike join us.
As soon as we moved forward, I checked behind us. Three black Escalades appeared.
Clicking my helmet’s comm button, I let my lovers know what was happening. “We’ve got company.”
Spencer checked her rearview and revved her engine, speeding up as Dom’s bike joined us. Exactly like Leo’s, Dom also had a backpack rider. In a line, the three bikes looked exactly the same.
As we weaved through the streets, more Violence bikers joined us. I wasn’t sure how Dom had been able to source more than a dozen matching motorcycles, outfits, and riders but I knew it would make all of this quite the puzzle for our tails.
I trusted Spencer’s body as she leaned the bike around corners and between cars. Holding on to her, I felt my center of gravity shift with each movement.
“Keep it tight.” Dom’s voice boomed in my ear through the intercom.
As we reached the edge of town, a line of backed up cars slowly shuffled through a traffic light. We had one shot. Once we were on an open road, it’d be a lot harder to out-maneuver the clunky SUVs.
Revving the gas, Spencer leaned forward and pushed us through the intersection just as the light flipped to yellow and then red. A rush of motorcycles flowed through the junction, a hum of engines zipping past.
The SUVs blared on their horns but couldn’t find their way around the line of cars trying to turn left.
A wave of relief washed over me as we reached more open roads. Our gaggle of bikes were gaining speed, the motorcycles weaving between each other and changing positions in the crowd.
“That was easy.” Leo’s voice was hesitant, her head turning to check behind her.
But a loud humming overhead drew my eyes up. “Look up.”
The Violence bikers, all of them a conglomerate of helmets and armored suits, looked up and spotted the fleet of drones overhead.
“SUVs were a distraction.” Dom growled. “Follow the plan.”
We’d accounted for this. Knowing better than to believe a tech genius would just give us an automobile tail, we made sure that everything we did would be untraceable.
The buzz of the drones was loud enough to hear over the engines of the roaring motorcycles, even as Spencer sped up and zipped around the light traffic on the two lane road.
Clinging to Spencer’s back, I tried not to get nauseous as she weaved between the other bikers. My stomach dropped into my ass every time she hit a curve, our bodies shifting together as we took the corners.
I couldn’t imagine the view from overhead being any less dizzying. As we drove, our route took us under long overpasses. That was where our motorcycles did the most rearranging.
At the edge of the pack as we entered the overpass, Spencer hit the brakes under the cover of the concrete and moved us to the opposite end of the motorcycles. Another biker filled our original place.
Just as we fell into place, the sun broke over the overpass and we were back in open air.
The wind was beating into me as I tried to focus on where everyone was.
Each overpass gave us just a few seconds of signal interruption that would hopefully make tracking our movements — even with slowed down footage — nearly impossible.
Over the intercom, Dom gave us the next order. “Long overpass, incoming. Hit the brakes. Swap riders.”
Each biker nodded their agreement as we approached. It was an overpass formed by the bridge that crossed the Hudson river, it gave us about 200 feet to swap our riders and rearrange before getting back on the road.
But we would have to move quickly, the drones would lower from the sky to see what we were doing if we moved too slowly.
Overhead, I could hear the drones continuing on our projected path, losing track of us for just a few seconds.
As soon as the bikes came to a halt, backpacks and riders hopped off. It sent my mind reeling to watch them mix and match. Even I was losing track of who was who. If Spencer hadn’t reached her hand out to me, I wouldn’t have even been sure it was her.
Helping me off the bike, Spencer started to move me toward Leo’s bike. But I froze, unable to move.
“Bunny, let’s go.”
All I could do was stare at her through my visor. We’d gone over this a hundred times, we’d figured out exactly what would need to happen, who would be on which bike.
Still, my feet refused to move.
“Babe, we have to move.” Spencer pleaded, giving my arm a light tug. When I didn’t move, my chest heaving with anxiety, Spencer stepped closer and squeezed my hand.
All of Leo’s tricks wouldn’t work. There was almost nothing to hear, the engines’ loud roaring making it impossible to hear anything else. There was nothing to taste, my mouth dry from nerves.
Overhead, the drone hum grew closer, they’d realized they’d lost us and came back to investigate.
In the intercom, Dom growled. “Get her on a fucking bike. The drones are close.”
“Fuck.” Spencer’s voice came through my helmet muffled, not through the intercom. Lifting her hand to her mask, she flicked her visor up, revealing her dark eyes and the vague shape of her nose. “Kiera, look at me. I need you to get on the bike.”
Overwhelmed with comfort knowing that it was really her — really my Spencer — my body finally decided to move. “Okay.”
Spencer’s hand had moved up to my bicep, tugging me toward Leo’s bike as she flipped her visor back down.
As soon as I was put on the motorcycle, everyone’s engines revved. I pressed my head into Leo’s back. A reassuring, gloved hand reached back and squeezed my thigh.
I’ve got you, Princess. I knew it was what she’d say if everyone wasn’t listening in.
I watched Spencer hop back on her bike, giving the dozens of other masked bikers a nod.
On her mark, the bikes started to move forward again just as the drones lowered into the tunnel. We’d made it by just seconds.
If our plan had worked, the drone operators would have no idea who to follow. Our matching bikes and matching armor would have already made it hard to track but we’d swapped places a dozen times.
With about ten drones overhead, we knew we needed to start splitting off, confusing them enough and forcing them to pick who to follow.
Leo’s bike moved quickly, everyone anxious to get back home and out of this panopticon.
As we approached a fork in the road, half of our bikers kept left while the rest of us peeled off right. Above, the drones split in two.
Five down. Five to go.
There were about twelve bikes in our group, enough to divide up the drones fairly easily. But we’d have to be smart about how we did it.
We drove like that for a couple minutes, still swapping places and maneuvering around each other to stop them from tracking us easily.
At another intersection, two more of our bikers peeled off. A drone followed them down the road. Each of us would arrive at a safehouse The Oracle had set up where more changes of bikes and riders would be waiting.
It would be easier to smuggle everyone out that way, divided up in small groups. Dom had arranged most of it, only asking The Oracle for resources. But the plan had been devised in Dom’s mansion between games of poker and swimming in the pool.
The remaining ten bikes pulled up to a warehouse, the doors pulling open as we approached. Leo brought the bike to a stop at the center of the empty hanger. Despite the blacked out windows, we all kept our helmets on.
Once all of the bikes were inside, the warehouse doors were closed by a VV biker who stood on standby.
Climbing off the bike, I tried to get my bearings as the masked bikers started to shuffle to new motorcycles. They matched the same ones we’d ridden in on but there were six additions.
Every backpack would drive themselves to their final location.
Including me.
They’d given me a simple route, one I was repeating to myself when I’d shower at night. It was the reason Dom had insisted on teaching me to ride. This bike would be easier than the Grey Ghost, lighter and more agile. But it also meant keeping my own balance would be even more important.
All I had to do was drive myself to the Rubyfruit bar in downtown Valemont. Then we’d all pile into a car and drive home.
My chest grew tight as Leo guided me to my bike, holding my hand as I got positioned. “You’ve got this, Princess.” She tried to comfort me.
But I wasn’t so sure that I did.
Hardly able to breathe, I was starting to realize just how impossible this was going to be.