Chapter 7 Over the Edge
The engine of the Kawasaki Ninja screamed under us as Jaxson pushed the machine to its absolute limit. The rain was a solid wall, blurring the jagged edge of the mountain into a void of pure blackness.
Behind us, the twin headlights of the black SUV bounced violently, blinding me through the rearview mirrors as the vehicle tore through the brush, determined to run us off the cliff.
"Jaxson, it’s a dead end!" I screamed into the intercom, my knuckles aching from how hard I was gripping his waist. "The bridge at the overlook is out!"
"I know!" his voice crackled back, deadly calm, laced with a terrifying edge of pure adrenaline. "Trust me, Avery. Tighten your grip!"
I buried my face into the wet leather of his back, closing my eyes as the bike hit the smooth, cracked asphalt of the abandoned highway. The roar of the V8 engine behind us grew deafeningly loud. A sudden, violent jolt rocked the bike—the SUV’s front bumper had clipped our rear tire. The machine fishtailed, the tires losing traction on the slick, wet pavement.
Jaxson swore, his powerful thighs clamping against the tank as he manually wrestled the bike back into a straight line. Instead of slamming on the brakes, he pinned the throttle.
The headlights cut through the dark, illuminating the sudden end of the road. The asphalt simply stopped, breaking off into a gaping fifty-foot chasm over the roaring Blackwood River below. The remnants of the old wooden guardrails were splintered and rotted.
The SUV accelerated, trying to pin us against the edge.
"Now!" Jaxson roared.
Instead of veering left or right, Jaxson swerved toward a rusted, heavy steel construction ramp left behind by the highway crews years ago. The bike struck the metal incline at ninety miles an hour.
For a terrifying, weightless second, the roar of the engine vanished. The sound of the storm died. There was nothing but the rush of the wind and the sensation of soaring through the empty air, suspended over a lethal drop. My stomach dropped through the floorboards of my mind. I held onto Jaxson like he was the only solid object left in the universe.
Behind us, a deafening crash echoed. The heavy SUV couldn't make the jump. It struck the barricades, its tires screeching as it spun out of control, slamming violently into the rock wall of the mountain in a shower of sparks and tearing metal.
The Ninja’s back tire slammed onto the solid asphalt on the opposite side of the chasm with a bone-jarring impact.
The bike skidded, the rubber smoking despite the rain, before Jaxson expertly brought it under control. He didn't stop. He drove another hundred yards into the thick canopy of the lower mountain trails, completely out of sight of the overlook, before finally killing the engine.
The sudden silence of the forest was deafening, broken only by the steady thrumming of rain on my helmet.
My body was shaking so violently I could barely unclamp my arms from his waist. Jaxson ripped his helmet off, his chest heaving as he breathed in the cold air. He turned around on the seat, his large hands immediately coming up to grab my helmet, pulling it off my head to force me to look at him.
His gray eyes were wide, wild, and blazing with a raw, primal energy.
"Are you whole?" he rasped, his voice rough and deep as his gaze swept over my face, searching for any sign of injury. "Avery. Talk to me."
"I'm... I'm alive," I choked out, my voice trembling.
A dark, breathless laugh escaped his lips. Before I could process the movement, Jaxson hauled me forward by the waist, lifting me off the back seat and pulling me right onto his lap. The physical contact was explosive. I was soaking wet, shivering from the cold, but the heat radiating off his body was an absolute furnace.
"You're insane," I whispered, my hands resting against his chest, feeling the frantic, heavy thudding of his heart beneath his wet shirt. "You could have killed us."
"But I didn't," he murmured, his gaze dropping to my lips, his thumb tracing a slow, burning line along my jaw. "They think we're dead at the bottom of that river. We just bought ourselves time."
The adrenaline from the jump was still coursing through my veins, hot and volatile, blurring the lines between terror and desire. Jaxson leaned in closer, his dark hair dripping rain onto my face, his presence completely consuming me.
"The Vice Principal wants the drive, Avery," he whispered against my lips, his breath warm and intoxicating. "But he has to go through me to get it. And I don't plan on letting you go."
