I erased the distance between us, crouched before her legs, and tilted her chin up with my knuckle. “I meant what I said about my choice. I’ll walk away from the bet and everything else as long as you’re at my side.”
She placed her hands on my face and touched her brow to mine.
I closed my eyes, and silence settled through the room, filling the space with an impending decision. Things always felt more intense in the quiet, all the other senses working harder to perceive what wasn’t heard.
When I looked up, I caught the full impact of her blue eyes, the skin around them smooth and relaxed. Her lips were parted rather than pinched in a line. I waited with my pulse in my throat to hear what she would say.
She caressed a palm over my whiskered jaw, her gaze searching. “The race is October twenty-seventh, isn’t it? The date on the watch. Tomorrow.”
I grinned. “He took months to place that bet. I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to bite, so I laid on the pressure and put an expiration date on the offer.”
“Time’s up,” she murmured. She chewed the inside of her cheek, exchanged a look with Collin, and they both turned to me, smiling.
A prickle of excitement surged through me as I rose to my feet.
For the next hour, we made a plan. I would race and win. Then Kaci and I would disappear while Collin turned over the evidence against Trent and the others.
“What if you don’t win?” Her stunning wide eyes stared up at me, as if she were imagining the horror of Trent actually winning all that money and the damage he could do with it. “Who are you racing against?”
“I’ll be racing you.”
27
Logan
Weeks of studying Kaci’s every reaction in the office had taught me how to interpret her silence. Sitting on the couch beside Collin, she tightened her fingers around his hand and pulled it into her lap. Her tongue pushed against her teeth, her lips not quite lifting, but her smile glimmered in her eyes as she looked up from beneath thick blonde lashes.
She wanted to race.
My heart drummed wildly at the idea of chasing her to the finish line, but it didn’t dispel my worry about the danger it put her in. The possessive, protective part of me needed her to reject the idea. She could crash the bike or get caught in a police trap or…fucking hell, all those perverts gawking at her ass? If one of those biker bastards hit on her or tried to touch her at the starting line, I’d lose my shit. A reaction that would shatter the pretense that we were racing competitors and nothing more.
Collin’s initial smile flattened, and his brows knitted together. If he was realizing some of my concerns, he didn’t seem compelled to voice his objection. Perhaps he knew as well as I did how much she wanted this.
I’d debated the wisdom of putting her in the race. Benny was supposed to be the challenger but her skill set would be more valuable in the background, monitoring the race and coordinating the diversion I had planned for the escape.
Kaci tilted her head, her eyes never leaving mine. “Isn’t the competitor already determined?”
“Yes. The race has been billed as the undefeated Evader versus the underdog Lady Silver.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Lady Silver, huh? You really had this all planned out.”
“I had to. Challengers are chosen days in advance.” Investors submitted their racers. There was a voting process, but in the end, money talked. “Benny and I put down a lot of cash to sponsor Lady Silver’s placement.”
Hype over a female challenger had already created a buzz of early gambling. As expected, the betting odds were spectacularly against her.
I sat on the couch beside her, sandwiching her between me and Collin. “If you have any hesitations about this, Benny will ride as Lady Silver. She knows the maps and the racing equipment, and she can handle a bike convincingly enough to pull it off without drawing suspicion.” I touched Kaci’s hair lightly and moved to the sensitive skin at the side of her neck. “You don’t have to do this.”
She lifted her gaze, her expression serious. “Oh, I'll race you. And I guess I can take one for the team and let you win.” Her lips twitched. “On one condition.” The power of her full smile electrified my pulse. “I want a helmet like yours.”
An incredible feeling of weightlessness flowed through my veins, and I knew this was just one in a series of moments with her that would change my life for the better. She had me by the balls, the heart, and every other vulnerable bit of my body. She could have my air as well, because I couldn’t breathe without her. I hoped to hell I’d never have to.