Nobody.
I drag my eyes away from the screen, from that life. That girl.
“I stopped breathing that day. Not only physically but mentally. Biking was my breath, and it’s broken.”
I press a hand to my chest, like I might feel something to contradict that, but I don’t.
“My breath is broken. And nobody can live with broken breath.”
My voice shakes, and my lip trembles, but I keep going.Hedoesn’t need to be broken, and I owe him this.
“He killed me, Dane.” The words barely make it out. “He wanted to kill me, and he succeeded.”
Dane flinches. “He didn’t kill you. He just…”
I glance at the screen again, where Raine is holding the World Cup overall trophy.
“Took the wins from us,” I finish for my brother. “Erased us.”
Dane nods slowly. “Then let’s take it back, give them the same fucking courtesy.”
He gives his back to the television, turning all his attention on me, his voice firmer now. “You could train and get back in shape, back on track. If anyone could do it, it’s you. Set your mind on it and take that win from Isla. A couple of years from now, everything could look different.”He softens a little. “I’ll help. I’ll train you. Just help me out here, Al.Wantit. Take back what’s yours.”
“I don’t want it from Isla,” I snap, startling both of us with the intensity. “Fuck her. She’s a mouthpiece, a fucking pawn. This is his game. Raine’s.”
Dane’s mouth opens like he wants to argue, but then he stops, and a long silence follows. Just the sound of the television in the background, narrating Isaac Raine’s glory.
Finally, he says, “You know I’d help you take the winfrom him if I could. I would. But no matter how hard you train, you’ll never race in his categor?—”
“What if I could?” I cut in, sitting up straighter, the idea sparking in my tired brain.
What if I could?
Dane blinks at me. But I’m already there, chasing it.
What if I could race him? What if I could get to the final gate, line up right next to him, and rip that smug-fucking-smirk off his face with nothing but speed?
“Alaina… what?”
“I’ve been erased. So maybe that’s the way back in, as someone else, not Alaina Crews, but just a rider. Clean slate. Let them think I’m gone, let them all forget about me.”
Heshakes his head, frowning in confusion, but I keep going.
“I race under a new name in the male category. Nobody would think twice, not if I do it right. I’d get my body there. Cut my hair, train like hell, and then… play the part.”
He’s silent, but I know him well enough to know it’s not because he thinks the idea is ridiculous.It’s because he’s calculating, measuring the odds and me.
“You think people won’t recognize you?” he finally asks.
“Let’s be honest, it will take me years to get there. They’ll forget Alaina Crews completely by then.”
His brows furrow. “That’s a lot, Al. And risky as hell.”
“But it’s doable,” I say, and there’s something wild in my voice now, almost alive.“This way, I don’t just beat Isla. I beat him, right in front of everybody, but he won’t even see it coming.”
My hip throbs in protest like it’s trying to ground me, remind me of everything that could go wrong, everything that has gone wrong, but I breathe through it, because pain means I’m alive. Pain means I’m still in this.And if I have to bleedmy way to that finish line to show the world what he did, to prove to him that I survived?
So be it.
