Page 36 of Bleed
“Hey baby. You good?”
“Never better. You think he’s gonna follow?”
“I’m certain of it. Antonio will get him to if there’s any hesitation.”
“Good.” She says right before she leans forward, cranks her throttle, and speeds up, going down the street as fast as her life depends on it, because in the eyes of my boss, it does.
I follow behind her, tailing her, getting closer then falling back. When she weaves between cars, I take the same path, making sure to stay on her six. Not only does it need to look like I’m chasing her, but she’s pulling off some daring maneuvers, and that in itself could get her killed. You never know when a cager is going to change lanes without a turn signal, or brake check you, so I’m trying to keep her as safe as I can while appearing to be hunting her.
The plan’s working, I know this when I look in my side mirror and see the Range Rover close behind me. When I change lanes behind her, he changes along with me, tailing me closer than he should be for safe driving, but I know he’s trying to get as good of a view as possible, probably hoping she crashes the bike and becomes ground beef on the road.
I have to make sure to keep myself between the SUV and her. I can’t take the risk that he’ll take it upon himself to take her out. It would be in his best interest for the family if he did. She’d be gone and they wouldn’t have to pay me my fee, but that won’t work for us.
I rev Luna harder, getting closer to her rear wheel, leaning side to side to keep everyone back. It looks like I’m trying to intimidate her, but what I’m really doing is making sure Valentino doesn’t get any views of her and how she leans. I don’t want him knowing which direction we’re going to go in until it happens.
“Baby, up here, take a right onto Magnolia Street, then a left onto Spruce.” I say into my helmet, knowing she can hear me through the Cardo system in hers.
“Already on it babe.” She answers back with such a bright and cheery disposition. She’s really enjoying this.
God I love her and her adrenaline junkie attitude.
We race down Magnolia after spitting out into the flow of traffic, leaving the other cars in our wake, but Valentino stays right on my ass, keeping pace with us.
If it were open roads with no traffic, the bikes would lose him in seconds, but I really don’t want to play too much with death by going that fast and reckless around other vehicles. I do want to get back home tonight, and with both her and I in one piece each. Plus he needs to see her die. It’s the only way to keep her alive.
The roads get bumpier as we go further from the residential area of the city and into the more industrial parts. Houses with big green yards turn into office buildings, then change again into warehouses and new construction. It’s the perfect area to make this work, one where we have privacy, yet enough open space for him to see her demise and believe it.
Coming around a corner, I see where she’s going; she’s leading us into the under-construction development that will eventually become an urban mall. It’s a vast space filled with the framework of some of the larger stores, and the perfect place to offer the obstacles we need to make the chase believable but enough emptiness for Valentino to follow with the much bigger SUV.
“You still good with this?” I ask her, watching her pull into the vacant lot to a massive structure of exposed steel beams and bare rebar.
“Let’s do this.” She hollers back, way too excited for the chance to “die”.
“That’s my good fucking girl.”
Chapter Twenty
The SUV behind me is getting closer, bouncing over the rumble of the construction site as we tear through the lot towards the urban jungle of rebar and steel beams. I’m making a good show for Valentino as I follow Dani, weaving around debris and equipment, revving Luna loudly and making hand gestures for him to keep following.
He needs to see me “kill” her for the plan to work, and I need to keep him right on my ass for that. Things are going to move fast once we get off the bikes and into the maze of the building. Having Antonio in the truck with him is just an added bonus. He can play commentary in his ear while he watches the scene unfold, quenching any doubts my boss may have about the authenticity of the hit.
We’re racing towards the skeleton of the future shopping mall, where we can get on foot and take the show to the next level. I’m just hoping that Valentino doesn’t decide to finish the job for me as a precaution. That’s another reason I wanted Antonio with him. An extra pair of hands can never be a bad thing.
Dani comes to a stop about a hundred feet in front of me, tossing the bike down as she jumps off of it, and I just know she’s cringing inside about the scratches that’s gonna leave on her wrapped fairings. I already promised her that with the hit money I’m going to get I’ll have her repaired and back to perfect when this is all done.
She stumbles a step then takes off on foot into the structure, running as fast as she can, not bothering to look back for me as I pull Luna up next to the discarded CBR.
“You can run, but it’s no use.” I call out after her as I put down the kickstand and slowly get off my bike.
I watch as her black and pink jacket disappears behind a wall of metal, smiling inside at the hunt that’s about to ensue. The chase is one of my favorite parts of taking a mark, and even though this one is fake, the stalking, finding, and bringing down is real.
My adrenaline is already pumping as I step over a pile of junk, making sure not to catch my boot on any shrapnel. She’s already a good distance ahead, and my slow movements are deliberately allowing her a nice head start to make the chase not only look better but be more fun too.
The Range Rover comes to a screeching halt behind me, and the sound of two doors slamming shut follows almost instantly, as well as the sound of an assault rifle being cocked.
“Fucking asshole. Of course you came armed like a bad ass.” I groan to myself as I try to both ignore them and keep a proverbial eye on them as well.
I can’t have him deciding to take her out from afar, but I don’t think he really will, because then it’s not me doing the kill and his plan will fall apart. Unless that is, he decides to just off us both himself.
