I got to choose the model. Naturally, he wasn’t happy with my choice of something bigger and faster than the Sportster he’d tried to sell me on, but rolled over when I reminded him I could always go buy another speed demon with my own money.
And speaking of speed, we were coming up on a winding stretch of mountain road. Itching for a little rush, I hit the throttle and sped up, no doubt leaving an overprotective Torch muttering all kinds of shit under his breath.
His bike roared behind me and he soon caught up. I grinned at him and sped up again. Cornering the tight curves aggressively, I was practically daring the bike to slide out from under me as I tested the limits of its lean angle. Torch tried to keep up, but had a few extra pounds weighing him down.
Just my fucking luck, while glancing over my shoulder to see how far back he was, I missed a cop car hiding behind a bush right before the next turn. By the time I spotted the light bar on its roof, it was flashing red and blue and the wheels were inching forward into the road.
Son of a bitch.
It was too late to brake, but I eased up on the throttle and looked back again. With me slowing down slightly, Torch had made up the distance and was right on my heels. He rode up next to me just as we passed by the cop car and it pulled out behind us.
Fuck it, I’d always enjoyed a good chase. Torch was wearing a jacket over his cut and the law was too far behind to read our plates anyway.
At the tail end of the curve, I went to hit the throttle hard again, but this time my husband was onto me.
“Pull over!” he yelled, over the blaring sirens and growling of our engines.
“We can outrun him,” I yelled back.
“It’s just speeding, pull your fucking ass over!”
“Don’t be a pussy, come on!”
I waved facetiously, sped up, and broke away again, hoping he’d follow suit instead of doing the responsible thing.
Within seconds, Torch had caught up and was riding my ass. I could see him shaking his pissed-off head in my mirror.
We’d gotten about a quarter of a mile lead when I spotted a sign for an emergency exit. I pointed at it and made a u-turn hand signal to let him know what I was about to do. We both flipped a bitch, soon zipping by the cop going the other direction. I knew we were golden by then, he’d lose another half mile just trying to maneuver that bulky cage around.
Still, we had to get off the highway before he called for backup to intercept us. I’d noticed an empty rest stop a couple miles back and made that our target. I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off my face as we whipped down the twisty road, adrenaline and endorphins coursing through my blood and brain. After a mile or so, I knew we were at least three curves ahead of our pursuer. I could still hear the sirens faintly but had lost all visual.
As the sign came into view again, I gave Torch another signal to pull off.
It was one of the nicer rest stops I’d come across; the bathrooms were housed in what looked like a cedar cabin, surrounded by trees and picnic tables. Bringing my bike to a crawl, I maneuvered between bushes and pulled in behind the building so we’d be out of view from the road.
“Are you batshit?!” Torch roared as he pulled in behind me. “What the fuck, wife?”
I laughed and hopped off. “Relax, I’ll hack our police friends and wipe the dashcam footage if there is any. That was fun, right?”
“Babe, you just got that bike. It’s not a fucking crotch rocket like you’re used to, those curves weren’t a joke.”
“Oh, quit being a killjoy. It’s just physics when you factor in speed, angle, and center of gravity.”
“You’re gonna make me have a fucking aneurysm,” he seethed through clenched teeth. He dismounted, pulled his gloves off, and grabbed me by the waist. “And, by the way, none of that was appropriate for an old lady.”
I rose up on the balls of my feet and cozied up to him. “You’d be bored to shit with an appropriate old lady. Admit it, you love a rush as much as I do.”
As the sirens wailed louder, he spun me around and covered my mouth