My Mafia Brother’s Car Framed Me? Chapter 02

My Mafia Brother’s Car Framed Me? Chapter 02

I didn’t look back.

Any real rider knew you never swapped unknown bikes on brutal terrain.

Slight differences in seat height, brakes, throttle response, and suspension could prove fatal on a steep gravel incline, let alone on a machine with obvious mechanical failures.

I just wanted to catch up to the main pack and call Damian to confirm.

Theo wasn’t letting up.

A dark shadow cut sharply from my left, aggressively cutting off my line.

Instinctively, I cut the throttle, grabbed the front brake, and slammed my right foot down to plant the bike.

My rear wheel slid two feet across the loose rock, stopping inches from a sheer ditch at the edge of the trail.

A fraction of a second slower, and I would have gone over the cliff with my bike.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through my armored base layer.

“Theo, are you out of your mind?!”

He parked sideways across the track, ripped his helmet off, and glared at me without a trace of remorse.

“This is an official pack ride, not your personal runway.”

“You usually pull your shit just because you know how to ride, and nobody calls you out on it. But Hailey needs help today, and you’re just charging ahead for yourself?”

I stared at him in utter disbelief.

“She’s riding a mystery bike that’s clearly broken, trying to dump it on me. I say no, and that makes me selfish?”

Theo’s face darkened.

“She doesn’t have the stamina, but she’s still gritting her teeth to keep up with the pack. Can’t you step up and help her like a real brother for once?”

In the MC, full-patch members were called “brothers” regardless of gender.

Yet whenever they needed my obedience, I was a “brother.”

Whenever it came to lane assignments, voting, or club resources, they never failed to remind me I was just a woman.

A cold laugh escaped my lips.

“If you’re so damn loyal, why don’t you swap with her?”

Theo’s eyes flickered.

“My bike has the pack comm relay installed. I can’t swap.”

“There are over a dozen bikes climbing behind us, and we haven’t lost the tail,” I locked eyes with him. “What’s your rush?”

His tone suddenly softened.

“Vivienne, I’m not picking on you. Hailey’s situation is special right now.”

A special situation.

The voice from the comms flashed through my mind: She’s pregnant with Theo’s child.

It felt like an icy hook ripping through my chest.

For two years, Theo had been attentive to a fault.

When I got sick, he’d pull an all-nighter, driving across state lines just to bring me warm food.

On my birthday, he booked a Manhattan hotel a month in advance and swore I was the only woman he’d ever love.

Now, just to force me onto a death trap of a bike, he had nearly rammed me off the cliff.

I swallowed the raging emotions and asked, word by slow word:

“Theo, I’m asking one last time. Why won’t you swap with her yourself?”

His last thread of patience snapped.

“Because I’m the Prez! I’m responsible for this entire club!”

“And you’re just a member. Obedience is the oath you swore when you put on that Iron Raven patch!”

I looked at him, feeling an overwhelming chill at how foreign his face had become.

“Listen closely.”

“I’m not swapping.”

The moment the words left my mouth, a heavy slap cracked across my face.

My helmet was tucked under my left arm, giving me no chance to block it.

The left side of my face went numb instantly, leaving nothing but a sharp ringing in my ears.

I froze in place.

Growing up, even Don Lucchesi—a man feared by everyone—had never laid a finger on me.

Yet Theo had just struck me in public for Hailey.

In the distance, the roar of multiple engines echoed up the trail.

Realizing we had dropped behind, dozens of bikes from the main pack were turning back down the slope.