Page 94 of Rogue Riders Duet

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.”

He shakes 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 bleed my way to that finish line to show the world what he did, to prove to him that I survived?

So be it.

He took everything from me.

Now I’m going to take everything from him.

Dane stares at me, his expression like he’s seeing a ghost come back to life. And then, he nods.

“If that’s what you want, then yeah. I’ll help. I can do that. We can do that.”

I exhale, and for the first time in a year, the breath feels real.

“And after that, it ends.” I look at my brother, but he’s gone as still as a statue. “When I’ve won, when I’ve taken what he stole and made him choke on it, I want to be done.”

Dane’s mouth opens, but I keep going.

“If I come back… if I train, if I fight, if I bleed and break and still claw my way to the top, if I make it all the way back just to crush him, then that’s it.”

I stare at him. Let him see it in my face, the honesty, the promise.

“I don’t want a life after that. Hell, I don’t have one anymore, not really.”

Dane’s voice is hoarse. “Alaina…”

“This isn’t about healing,” I whisper. “It’s about justice. Revenge. I want him to pay. I want him to see me win and realize he didn’t bury me, that he failed. That I’m still here, only to ruin him, and bury myself afterward.”

Dane looks like I’ve pulled the air from his lungs, but he’s seeing something else too. He’s seeing me, for the first time in months, sitting upright. Because for the first time since the crash, I want something. Not healing or peace, just vengeance.

Even if it means war.

Even if it means the end.

“Swear it,” I demand. It’s not fair, none of this is, but I need him to agree. I need permission to carry this weight without the expectation of surviving it. “Swear that when it’s done, you’ll let me go.”