by Brook Wilder
Elle swallowed against the sudden dryness of her mouth glancing quickly to her side. She did have speed to her advantage. If only she could surprise him. Before she’d even realized it, she was moving, shoving her entire body weight into an old barrel that stood by the door. Luckily, it toppled at the exact same time that Scorpion leapt for her and it caught him hard in the shins. He went down in a storm of curses and Elle took off.
As fast as she could, she ran.
Chapter 28
Elle could hear yelling and shouting behind her but she didn’t let it stop her as she bolted through the front door, passed a stunned Scorpion and booked it as if her life depended on it. Because she was pretty well sure that it did. She froze for a moment as she made it outside but her instincts kicked in again, veering her to the left and a copse of trees that she was pretty sure looked familiar. At least, she hoped they were the same ones she’d entered through. She prayed with all her heart that Honey was waiting just beyond, the motorcycle running and ready to go.
Because as she made it to the edge of the tree line, she could already hear the revving of motorcycle engines. Her heart leapt up into her throat as she realized what that meant. They were chasing after her. They wanted to find her, and catch her and bring her back to the man who’d offered to buy her. Somehow, that was even more abhorrent in her mind than the way Scorpion had threatened her. Either way, not good.
Elle didn’t look back. She never once looked behind her. She couldn’t. Partly because she was too afraid to see an entire biker gang charging after her, and what that would do to her already tattered morale, but because the tree line grew denser and steeper and more precarious with every frantic step.
It slowed her tremendously, trying to navigate the rocky ground but she knew a twisted ankle was the last the she needed just then. The only thought that went through her head was that she had to get the heck out of dodge, but the combination of panic, adrenaline and fear weren’t making that any easier for her either.
The path got so steep that Elle had to grab at tree trunks and low hanging branches just to keep herself going and she mentally reminded herself to thank Hot Wheels for giving her boots to wear instead of high heels. It had probably saved her life. Elle nearly snorted to herself. She was obviously losing it. Thinking about footwear at a time like this? Cah-razy.
Keep it together, Electra. You got this! For some reason the fake name she’d given as her own had stuck with her. If she remembered correctly Electra was a bad ass crime fighting superhero. She could be that, right? Sure, why not. She did just go head to head with the leader of a notorious biker gang after all.
She forced her focus back to the path in front of her for a moment and looked around with a gasp. Somewhere, in her panicked flight or fear induced delusion that she was actually a crime fighting super hero, she’d lost track of the way back to Honey. Elle was so turned around that she wasn’t even sure if she was still heading towards the road. Everywhere she looked she was surrounded by trees and an ever sloping ascent. Not good. So not good.
A sudden sound caught at her ear and still running on adrenaline fueled instincts, Elle ducked. Quickly, she crouched behind the nearest tree large enough to shield her body and it wasn’t long before the sound was drawing closer.
She held her breath, not even daring to breathe as the footsteps came closer and closer to where she was hiding and she fought the urge to squeeze her eyes shut tight. If someone was going to try and take her, or hurt her, she was damn well going to stare them straight in the eyes.
Two men, lower members of the biker totem pole by the look on their faces told her that most of the members had probably headed in another direction. Elle waited, still holding her breath as they gave a cursory search of the area before turning around and heading back down the slope.
After a long, tense moment when she feared she might actually pass out from lack of oxygen she was able to draw in a gasping breath and lean back against the tree for momentary support. She needed to find Honey. And fast. She didn’t think her nerves would survive another close encounter.
Elle stood on shaky legs, and began climbing once more. Constantly she doubted herself as she backtracked, hoping to spot any familiar landmark that might lead her to where Honey was and away from the men that she could still hear searching for her not that far off in the distance.
Her lungs were burning and fear had started to eat away at the false, adrenaline fueled courage when she heard another sound and froze. A moment later, it came again and if she hadn’t been so terrified that she could barely move she would have jumped for joy. It was the sound of cars driving by. She’d found the road!
It took her two minutes to clear the dense tree line and another two to run towards where Honey was pulled over on the shoulder. Elle waved her arms wildly as she ran towards him but by the seriously concerned look on his face, he was already aware of the men chasing close behind her.
“We have…to go.” She panted exhaustedly and Honey barely gave her time to get on and throw her arms around his waist before cranking the engine. They jerked forward and Elle couldn’t’ hold back the squeak of surprise as they went from zero to sixty in what she was pretty sure was a world record. That’s what it felt like anyway.
This time, Elle really did squeeze her eyes shut tight, partly from the wind whipping at her and partly because she desperately did not want to see just how fast the very hard pavement of the road was moving underneath them. It was a terrifying ride, made even more so when they rounded a bend in the highway and she could fee Honey’s yelled curse reverberate all the way through her.
“Fuck!” The word was lost almost instantly on the wind, taken and carried away, lost forever but he was slowing. She could feel that he was slowing and that scared her even more.
“Why are you…why are you slowing down? No. No, we should definitely not be slowing down.”
“Just relax,” Honey tossed back over his shoulder. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have an entire gang on his tail. With that thought she moved to peak around him, his big body blocking most of the view of what was in front of them and she had to swallow a curse herself. Ahead of her she could see six bikers just pulling out of the unused access road that lead to the front of the Nomad’s warehouse. And they were obviously searching for something.
“Just play it cool.” Honey said as he slowed enough to make a U-turn. The reduced noise of the wind was the only reason that she could even hear his words, “We’re just out for a ride in the nice weather. Nothing else.”
“Honey, what do we do?” Elle asked, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice but as he turned the motorcycle back towards the direction they had come from, she prayed that the engine was loud enough to drown out her fear. She didn’t want Honey to know.
“Just hold on tight, okay?” His voice was hard as he spoke, rife with tension and something else that she couldn’t place. “Hold on tight to me and don’t ever let go.”
Elle thought for a moment that she heard a double meaning in his words, but then he was revving the engine and pushing the throttle and they took off like a fighter jet down a runway and she couldn’t think at all. At least, not of anything except trying to follow Honey’s directions. She clung to him, on the back of the bike as she was there was nothing but a too small stainless steel bar that kept her from sliding right off. But even still, she didn’t let go.
She held on for dear life, her arms wrapped around his waist, her chest completely fused against his back and her fingers digging into the leather of the front of his jacket. She had a strangle hold on him, or at least as much of him as she could grasp and then she made the fatal mistake of looking behind them.
“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. Honey. Honey! They’re following us! They’re following after us! They didn’t buy that we were just out for a ride in the nice weather I think that suspicious U-turn tipped them off. Oh no. Honey! They are behind us!” Elle had to shout the words as loud as she could to be heard over th
e sound of the roaring engine and whistling wind, and even still most of her words were caught by the wind and dragged away to be lost forever, but she knew that he’d at least gotten the gist of her message because she could feel his whole body tense against hers.
“Close your eyes, Elle!” She thought she heard him shout right before he glanced back over his shoulder at her. “And whatever you do, don’t you fucking let go of me!” There was a desperation in his dark gaze, a desperation that had her doing what he’d asked before she’d even realized it. And so, a second later when he gunned the engine and whipped around the next curve, she didn’t see just how close they had come to the ground as he’d leaned to follow it or the biker’s that were gaining on them from behind.
Her whole world was black, and noise, and Honey. And she wished as hard as she ever wished for anything that they would make it out alive.
Chapter 29
It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes but for Elle, perched on the narrow back of the bike as it soared to lightning fast speeds, it felt like an eternity. Honey had driven them farther and farther from the main road, utilizing instead the twisting and turning switchback roads that canvased the mountainous area.
She was completely lost, her face was going numb from the cool wind constantly rushing past it, and she was pretty sure her fingers were permanently stuck in the claw like shape they had formed clutching Honey’s jacket. She hadn’t moved since the chase started, but after a harrowing hairpin turn her eyes had popped open wide and then they been stuck that way too, as if she were being constantly surprised. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most comfortable motorcycle chase she’d ever experienced.
Elle almost snorted out a laugh at the thought and then stopped herself. This is it. I’m finally losing it. The thoughts echoed through her head but it was like it was somebody else’s voice, somebody’s voice that she didn’t recognize anymore.
She glanced back, against her better judgement.
“Honey, we’ve only got three back there now. Where did the other three go? Honey?”
“Fuck.” She heard him curse and for once, she whole heartedly agreed, “They split off, trying to get ahead of us. Well, too bad for them, I know this area like the back of my hand.” Honey growled the words, almost too low for her to hear but in the next instant all she could think about was holding on and keeping her seat as he made a quick turn to the left, and then the right.
“Did we lose them?” He shouted the question and Elle felt a spark of hope as she looked behind her and didn’t see anything coming around the jagged cliffs, but a moment later they appeared.
“No. They’re still behind us Honey. We need to do something or we’re going to be trapped.”
“I know that!” He shouted back, his voice hard with frustration, “Okay I’ve got something but you’re gonna have to trust me, okay?”
She nodded hastily, but then remembered that he couldn’t see her.
“I trust you.”
“Okay, then just hold on and don’t let go, whatever happens.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” At this point, Elle was pretty sure it would take actual surgery to get her hands unclenched from the fabric of his leather jacket, and her arms were locked in place like a vice.
He kept going at full speed, still headed forward and Elle wondered for a moment what he was going to do. And then he really wondered as the three missing biker’s reappeared in front of them.
“Uh, Honey? Honey!” Elle shouted, as if he couldn’t see them. Fear lodged in her throat making it impossible for her to say anything else, to do anything else except what he’d told her. Hold on. And trust him.
It came surprisingly easy, the trust. Like it had always been there, and it had just taken this ridiculous situation to realize it. But she really did. She trusted him. With her life, and more importantly, with her heart. The thought shot through her, ringing like a cannon blast and it distracted her so much she didn’t realize that the biker’s in front of them were closing in until she looked up.
“Honey, what the heck do you think you’re doing!” Elle shouted, or she tried to shout anyways. The wind kept beating at her words, at her face, making it hard to speak let alone yell at the idiot for letting them get trapped. But there was a manic joy in his voice as he shouted one word back to her.
“Chicken!”
Chicken? Chicken! It echoed over and over and she could see it now. Three bikers behind them, three bikers in front of them. Honey wasn’t planning on getting caught, he wasn’t even planning on slowing down. He was going to try and ride straight through the ones in front of them and hope that the bad guys got out of the way before they reached them.
“Honey, you are…you are…a complete idiot! Honey, what the f–!” But her startled words were cut off as they neared. So close now that she could see the glares aimed straight at Honey and her. Elle closed her eyes, just hoping to make it through alive and as they all came together the noise of the combined motorcycles sounded like a plane engine passing them by.
Wait a minute! Passing them by? They were still alive? Oh my god, they were still alive. They had survived it. Honey’s mad plan had actually worked. Elle threw a quick evaluating glance behind her at the mass confusion as the bikers had to veer out of each other’s way, shouting curses at each other, and at them.
As Honey made a series of quick turns and the sound of the other motorcycles faded to silence behind them, a strange feeling surged through Elle. She was buzzing with adrenaline and a sort of wild happiness that had her laughing out loud as they escaped their would be captors and she couldn’t seem to stop it. She had never felt so…free before.
After another twenty minutes of incomprehensible twists and turns on the side roads and truck access roads that crisscrossed this side of the mountain, Honey began to slow down. Eventually, he pulled over behind an outcropping that blocked their view from the road and parked the bike with a long exhale.
He slid off, closing his eyes as he leaned against it and just breathed deep of the fresh, mountain air.
An unexpected sound broke the peaceful silence. A giggle. Her giggle. Elle slapped a hand over her mouth in shock and Honey looked over at her, confusion lighting his dark gaze first but as another small giggle escaped his mouth tilted up in that lop-sided way of his and laughter shone from the depths of his own eyes.
“You think that was funny?” He asked, tilting his head to one side as he stared at her, still grinning. She shook her head.
“No!” Elle said aghast but she couldn’t hold back her laughter, breaking up her words and making it hard to speak. “It was terrifying.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Honey moved so his hip was leaning against the side of the bike. She was still astride the back and now they were so close her thigh was nearly brushing his.
“Yeah,” She said, breathless now, “It really was. It was so close!”
“It was. Too close.” Honey leaned forward, closing the small amount of distance between them, “Don’t ever do anything like that again, okay?”
“I promise I won’t,” Elle replied heartily, but then added, “Only if I have to.”
Honey looked at her for a long moment. “I guess that’s as good as I’m going to get, huh?”
Elle nodded her head, her gaze trapped in his and suddenly her heart beat started racing again. Not from fear, or from adrenaline, but just from him. Honey reached forward, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear in a move so full of tenderness that it had her chest going tight and tears stinging the corners of her eyes. And she knew. Like a bolt of lightning striking her. She knew.
“I love you.” Elle said, the words falling out in a jumbled rush. Honey froze, his dark eyes suddenly intense on hers.
“What did you say?”
“I–I love you.” Elle repeated the words, with more confidence now and her whole body filled with warmth like sunshine breaking through the clouds. “I didn’t…I didn’t understand before. I just d
idn’t realize it but I think…I think I’ve known for a while now too. You just scared me. I’m not–.”
“Not used to sharing your feelings with people?” Honey finished her sentence, interrupting her. But she slowly nodded.
“Yeah. I’ve just…” She looked away, forcing herself to break eye contact. It was too hard to say what she needed to say staring into his dark, melting gaze. “I’ve been alone for so long, Honey. I don’t know– I didn’t know how to let anyone it.”
The hand that was still tangled in her hair by her ear slid down until it was cupping her cheek, caressing her skin with his thumb, back and forth, as he drew her eyes back to face his.
“I know, Elle.” He huffed out a small sigh, a soft laugh, “I know…Thank you.”