Page 10 of Fighting For Light
“If you ever speak to her like that again, I will bury you under the dragon’s back and ride over you without a second thought. Do you understand me?”
He gasps, and I squeeze harder.
“Kai,” Cordelia says. I lift my other hand, holding her back behind me.
“I said, do you understand me, Deacon?” I ask with a cold voice. He nods again, and I release him. Deacon sputters, trying to catch his breath, and looks between me, coach, and the team. No one says another word.
I turn with my back to Deacon and face Cordelia. Her eyes are wide and a little glassy. “Are you alright?” I ask her. She bites her lower lip and blinks the tears away.
“Yes,” she says with a raspy voice. She takes a step back and glances at Reece. Coach nods to me with serious eyes. Cordelia spins on her heel and walks away from the group. I grab my drink and chug it. Reece explains what could have been done better. He lays Jennings out extra and then sends us all to ourtrailers. I wanted to get a shower and then work on my bike, but I would only burst into flames again because it’s so hot. So I stay put and fix my rear brake disk that got a little loose.
I grab a different wrench from my toolbox and lean over, fitting it onto the bolt as shoes crunch on the gravel. I look up to find Reece standing with his hat still shading his face.
“Thank you,” he says.
Standing to my full height, I toss my wrench on the top. “For what, coach?”
“If you didn’t do something, I would have socked him myself or worse. So, thank you for standing up for Cordi. She’s embarrassed right now, but I won’t tolerate anyone speaking to my daughter that way.”
“And neither will I.”
He grunts in agreement and walks around my bike, putting my wrench in the correct place. “We need to be on the road by six tomorrow morning, or we can leave tonight. What do you think?”
We might as well get to the freestyle competition. It will give us more time to prep. “Let’s get everyone packed up and head out within the next couple of hours. What’s the point of waiting around?”
“I agree. I’ll go let the guys know.” He turns and starts to walk away. I hesitate, but my mouth opens before I can shut it.
“Hey, coach?” I call. He turns and takes a step back under our team’s tent. “If he touched her, I would have killed him.”
“I would have helped you bury the body, Kai,” he says and walks away.
Cordelia is my best friend, she’s really my only friend, aside from my brothers. She’s the only one who has paid attention to me and couldn’t care less what my last name is. When we were younger, she figured it out but didn’t ask me much about it. Probably because I shut her down a few times too many. I don’twant to talk about it because I have to deal with it every day. My last name is a blessing and a curse. It protects me in some ways because it makes my family and me harder to get to. Our success placates my father because it makes him look good. But it also puts a target on our backs to his enemies. So I will be damned if I drag Cordi any closer to me because I would obliterate anything in my path if something happened to her. I would not rest until every person associated or otherwise was in the ground. She may not be blood, but she and coach are my family.
***
Our five-trailer caravan heads up to Nevada, where the freestyle competition is happening. Freestyle is different by nature because it relies on technique with speed. It’s all about the trick, the style, and the difficulty. It’s one of my favorite parts of motocross. Letting go of the handlebars and fly in the air as gravity takes over is an indescribable feeling. It’s like jumping out of a plane with no parachute, and it all happens in a breath. I haven’t experienced anything better.
The sun has long set, and it’s just me in the truck. I prefer the quiet, the solitude. I’d rather have it on a bike because I prefer being outside than in a vehicle for this long, but I deal. Once we get there and get settled, I’ll get my R7 out and take off for a couple of hours. I get restless and the only way for me to work through everything is to ride it out.
My phone rings through the sound system, and I hit the button to answer. “Hey, Liam. How is she?”
“Hey, brother. Mom’s good, honestly. I don’t think she was all that bothered. It was more us.”
Anger surges in my chest, and I take a deep breath. Sheshouldbe concerned about what’s going on. She is clearly being watched, and I can’t shake the feeling this is just the beginning.There is something else coming, and I hate that I’m not there to be prepared for every eventuality. Liam would never let something happen to Mom, but there is safety in numbers. Emerson is only twenty minutes away. He could be there quickly. Regardless, it would take me a few hours, even if I flew to get back home to California.
“She should be bothered, or maybe we should just move her,” I suggest.
“You and I know she isn’t going to move if she doesn’t want to.” Liam sighs. We’re both quiet for a moment.
“Does she know what we did?” I ask him. Guilt churns in my stomach. We don’t tell Mom how we get information. She did put in the time and money to train us, knowing what we are up against, but I can’t help but think about the nature versus nurture argument. Part of me feels like my brothers, and I had to become this because we had no choice. Our father put us in the position to have to either learn how to fight back or die trying. We may still die trying to protect each other, but at least we know what we’re doing now. The other part of my conscience says, since we are choosing to do this our way, there are always consequences to our actions. We will pay the price one day, but what would you do to protect your family? There are no lines, as far as I’m concerned.
“She’s not an idiot, Two. You know she is well aware and just doesn’t want to ask questions, and she knows I won’t answer them,” Liam says.
We’ve called each other One, Two, and Three since we were young. I consider them our alter egos of sorts. We have to become One, Two, and Three to do what we do. It’s wise to keep her out of the loop on things like that. “Where are you at now?” he asks.
“On the way to Nevada. We’ve got a freestyle comp.”
“Ahh, man. I love watching you. I wish I could come.”
