Which meant this would only get worse for me if I couldn't shake them soon.
I whipped a U-turn and headed back for the railroad tracks. I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket, and I knew damn good and well who it was. Rae. Probably calling to see if I’d gotten away yet. Wanting to know if I was fine. If I was hurt. If I needed anything.
Fucking hell, she deserves better than all this.
“We’re coming for you!”
“You won’t get out of this alive!”
“You’re an asswipe, and you’ll stay an asswipe until we side-swipe your ass!”
They yelled at me. Taunted me. Actually made me fearful of what was to come. I turned back around, soaring away from the railroad tracks again as the car skidded to a stop behind me. I grinned as I threw it into gear. I felt my bike rumbling underneath me as my speed picked up. Sixty. Seventy. Eighty miles an hour. The wild whipped around me, cradling me and harboring the fugitive I’d become during this entire debacle.
God, if you get me out of this alive, I’ll stop fucking around.
I was desperate. Because as I heard that bullshit white car gaining on me, I wondered if I’d ever shake them. If I’d ever get them off my damn tail. If there was anyone on this planet that wasn’t in God’s good graces, it was me. Well, my entire family. Because let’s face it, my father needed to be included in that group. But, if he or she was listening—and he or she believed in mercy—I needed a massive chunk of it right about now.
“Come on,” I growled.
As I soared over the Adderscape Bridge, I breathed a sigh of relief. The Riverbend outer city limits ended about a mile up the road. Which meant nothing but clear, straight roads for miles. I looked down at my gas tank and smiled. I still had three-fourths of a tank. And there was no way in hell those idiots would outdrive me in the gas-guzzling low-rider they had. If anything, I could keep traveling from city to city. Heading nothing but north until they ran out of gas or pulled over for some.
So, with that plan in mind, I set my cruise control to eighty-five.
Because even if I’m clocked for speeding, those fuckers will be, too.
I shook my head. “You never should have picked that fight, Clarke.”
It never should have happened. The second we hit my bike, we should have been on it and headed somewhere else. I made us sitting ducks with my inability to do anything but devour Rae’s body. Rae’s presence. Rae’s giggles and her curves. By sitting out there in an empty parking lot, I made us vulnerable to attacks. Attacks I was all too familiar with.
I sighed. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
And truthfully? The last thing I needed right now were more enemies. I had Roy and that asshole ex-posse back at the school. Because I knew damn good and well they weren’t friends of mine anymore after my outburst. And while I didn’t mind ditching those little bitches for something better, it’d make the rest of my senior year a pile of steaming shit. They’d torture me. Roy would take my place, so to speak, puff out his chest, and target me just to look like the big man on campus.
The question was, would I let him attack me? Or would I retaliate?
And outside of all that, Rae’s friends hated me. Allison and Michael. Hell, my own father hated me. The only person right now other than Rae who put up with my presence was Cecilia. And that’s only because she had to. My life was fucked, and I knew it. All because of some girl. Because of some night where my mouth started running and some girl started opening up and then my dick slipped and fell between the sweetest pair of legs to ever wrap around me.
Because you love her.
The thought startled me so badly I felt my bike wobbling. The motion snapped me from my trance, and I heard the car of idiots behind me laughing. I turned off the cruise control and swerved off the road, giving myself a second to catch my balance. Catch my breath.
Love?
Had I really fallen for Rae Cleaver?
“Get him, boys!”
I heard car doors open and I pushed off the grass. I got my bike back onto the road and took off, only I wasn’t going in the right direction. I didn’t care anymore, though. I’d stayed stationary long enough for those assholes to get out of their fucking car. That was something I could capitalize on.
“See you later, dickweeds.”
I flew back in the opposite direction, approaching the bridge again. I forced my mind to concentrate, but it still had a tendency to wander. I mean, when the fuck was I going to catch a breath with people? When were the people in my life going to stop beating me up and start enjoying me? All I wanted was for my father to stop being such an asshole and my stepmother to actually give more a shit, instead of stepping in when she thought my father was hitting me a little too hard.
When would the school stop giving up on me and start trying to help me?
Go
tta start helping yourself, Clarke.