My Motorcycle Guardian

Chapter forty-three: I did not kiss you. I gave you a peck.

I stomped the man's face, shattering his nose. Before he hit the ground, I turned tail and sprinted for the door.

My heart pounded in my chest, terrified at what I would find.

I grabbed onto the door jam to stop myself from flying into the street. I hung out with wide eyes as Noah spun in a circle on his bike. Smoke rose from the skidding wheels as he spun around and around. My eyes moved to the right and I saw a third man standing behind a bush, gun raised as he tried to hit Noah.

I cringed at every gunshot, thinking that every shot would be the one to finally hit him.

"Noah!" I screamed. Noah's helmeted head jerked towards me, but I couldn't see his expression through the tinted visor.

Reeving the engine, he shot towards the gun man. The man dove to the side, barely escaping the hot, still smoking wheels.
My eyes widened as the smoke drifted past the painted flames along the edge of the bike.

The Heat rides tonight. Despite the situation, the corner of my lips twitched upwards.

From someone else's point of view, it would look like Noah was some sort of ghost rider. Smoke bellowed from his tires, the realistic flames seemed to come alive, and his black leather jacket seemed to melt into the night.

Is it safe to have that much smoke coming out of your tires? I thought just as my eyes locked onto his tires. There was a contraption clipped to the inside of his bike, right above each wheel. It was barely visible, but I instantly knew what it was.

A movie smoke maker.

But why? My answer came to me as the third man began coughing, fanning the front of his face as he struggled to take aim through the smoke.
Noah rode in tight circles around him, making the smoke thicker and thicker.

My eyes widened. He was giving me a chance to escape.

"CJ!" I raced back inside the house. "CJ come on!" I yelled. I paused on the threshold.

The first body of the man was slumped against the wall, his head hanging limply to the side as CJ crouched beside him. "I can't find his pulse!" He cried, hands flying along the man's neck and arm.

"I-I think I killed him!" CJ sobbed, hands shaking.

My breath caught, and I glanced over at the second man to see him lying in a heap on the floor. Good. The pain had finally brought him down.

I jogged over to CJ and slid to my knees. "What you did wouldn't have killed him." I muttered, shooing away CJ's trembling hands. I grabbed the man's beefy wrist and pressed two fingers to his warm skin.
His pulse thrummed against my fingers; faint, but still there.

"You just knocked him out." I scoffed, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear and pinning CJ with a knowing look.
"And even if you did kill him, it'd be in self defense. He had you by the throat." The image of the man choking CJ flickered into my mind, and I quickly chased it away, not wanting to see my friend that helpless ever again.

I glanced over to the second man, and chewed my lip in thought.
"Noah's out side distracting the third guy-"

"There's more?!"

"-so we have enough time to run." I finished, grabbing CJ by the hand.

Together, we left the house. The sounds of gunshots and an angry engine tore at our ear drums as I pulled CJ along the side walk.

"Doesn't anyone in your neighbor hood have ears?!" I hissed, amazing how no one was leaving their houses to see the commotion, or at least peeking out a window.