Joker (Hell's Ankhor #8) - Aiden Bates Page 0,50

better than I did.

“You ready?” he asked as he revved the engine.

“As I’ll ever be,” I said.

Joker pulled the bike out of my driveway and onto the narrow, two-lane highway. Luckily the roads weren’t crowded, but Joker didn’t break the speed limit in the way I had a feeling he usually did when he was riding on his own.

The wind rushing in my ears, the vibration of the engine beneath me, the strength of Joker’s body against mine—the bike wasn’t just a way to get around. Joker maneuvered the bike with practiced ease, gliding around turns and picking up speed on the downhills. The air smelled clean, woodsy as we wound through the mountainous terrain. It was so different from being in a car. I felt more connected to the road, to the landscape, and to Joker in front of me. The bike demanded my attention in a way a car didn’t. I understood it better now, how someone could get hooked on this sensation. Could like it enough to center their life around it.

I wasn’t sure if it was the ride itself I liked so much, though, or just the chance to press my chest against Joker’s back. Either way, I could get dangerously used to this.

17

Joker

I pulled my bike into my usual spot and shut off the engine. The ride hadn’t cleared my mind at all. If anything, I’d only gotten more nervous on the familiar ride from Junee to Elkin Lake with Brennan’s arms snug around my waist. I could do this commute in my sleep, at this point—the ride, the parking spot, the big automatic glass doors, the friendly faces at the reception desk, the visitor’s badge, the elevator ride.

But I’d never brought anyone with me, not once. No one even knew I did this. And I still wasn’t sure what had possessed me to invite Brennan along, despite my intrusive fantasies of doing so. It’s not something I’d ever actually planned on doing. It’d been an impulsive decision—I didn’t want to cancel my visit today, but I didn’t want to say no to a date, either.

I guessed part of me didn’t want to hide this from Brennan. I liked him a lot, and he’d given me so much already, letting me use his workshop and tools and all of that—I wanted to give something back in return.

And it felt easier to bring him here, to show him this part of my life, rather than talk about it. I wasn’t quite ready to talk about Parker just out of nowhere. How could I even bring it up? But maybe this would help open the door to that conversation. Be a way that I could let him get to know me a little more.

I just had to hope the kids wouldn’t spill anything about my reading skills—or lack thereof. Now there was a conversation I wasn’t planning on ever having with Brennan. Someone smart and successful like him? There was no way he’d want to be with me if he knew that secret at this point. I could only hope he’d like me enough to look past it eventually, if the truth came out down the line.

If we ever got to that point. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. It was too dangerous to hope.

And anyway, maybe if I just kept working with the kids, I’d eventually pick up enough to skate by without ever having to tell Brennan or the other club guys. As long as Jonah kept his mouth shut, too, I could maybe get away with it. He hadn’t brough it up to me again, but I knew it was on his mind. He’d started treating me a little differently—he was a little nicer to me, a little more… considering. Like he was keeping an eye on me. I resented it. I didn’t need a babysitter, or anyone to look at me like I might need rescuing.

But I kind of liked it, too, at the same time. Knowing someone might have my back if worst came to worst and the truth did come out. He’d saved my ass once already, hanging on to the sign dimensions, but I really, really hoped he wouldn’t have to do it again.

“A children’s hospital?” Brennan asked as he tugged the helmet off. He looked cute with the helmet-head, his red hair sticking to the sweat at his temples. He peered at me curiously.

“Yeah,” I said, and rubbed the back of my neck. The nerves got suddenly worse. “Maybe