Read Online Untrained Eye by Jody Klaire - Free Book Online Page B

sitting
punching numbers into a computer all day?”
    Frei shoved me by the arm out of the door. “You have a great way
of making friends.”
    “She started it.”
    “She’s a Harvard graduate with three degrees, math, medical
sciences, and engineering.” Frei strode on down the road. I followed after her.
“She lost both legs in an automobile accident and her own promising military
career.” She rounded a corner, leading us down an alley. “She also lost her
husband in the same accident.”
    Okay, so I wasn’t so mad at her anymore. “All I did was grin at
her and say hi.”
    “And I’m saying that you could have gone in there with a million
dollars and chocolate but she would still act the same.” Frei led us over to
two very cool-looking motorcycles. “You’re not going to win the bitch of the
year contest with her. She’s had fifteen years to perfect it.”
    “You tried?”
    Frei shot me a grin, sliding on her trademark aviators. “One
competition I was happy to lose.”
    She tapped the bikes. “These are Harley Davidson Breakouts. Pure
perfection on wheels. A twin cam 110B engine. An Electronic Sequential Port
Fuel Injection and Electronic Throttle Control. It has a 6-speed Cruise Drive
transition.”
    She’d lost me. To me it looked like a cool bike, big black with
chrome on it.
    “It’s a soft tail,” she said as if that would clear things up.
    It didn’t. I couldn’t even see a tail.
    “In other words, it rides like it looks.”
    Why that made me drool, I had no idea.
    “Good, you’re with me.” Frei slung her leg over one and slipped on
her full face helmet. She pulled a leather jacket from the seat behind her and
slid it on. “You getting on or drooling at me, Lorelei.”
    “Kinda a bit of both,” I mumbled, attempting to get on the second
bike with some kind of grace. I’d ridden dirt bikes before but never anything
like this. Frei handed me a helmet and tapped the seat behind me to alert me to
the leather jacket.
    “Am I getting lessons in how to look cool or somethin’?”
    Frei pressed the side of her helmet and the glass slid up. “You’re
getting lessons in how to ride. Both cold and hot weather. We’ll head out down
the mountain so you can learn to handle any condition.” She held my gaze with
an unyielding one. “You know bikes pretty well. You look better on a bike. So
this week, I’m teaching you how to act like you look.”
    “Which is?”
    Frei pressed the button again and her visor slid back down.
“Badass, Lorelei. Badass.”
    I heard her voice in my ear and jumped. It was crackly just like
when Renee had talked to me on the helicopter. I listened as she ran me through
how to ride the thing. A dirt bike didn’t have this kind of power. I turned the
key and felt it rumble into life.
    I was in love.
    “You’ll thank me even more when we hit the open road.” Frei led us
out of the parking lot and onto the street. Folks cast admiring glances as we
roared past. I made the decision that I could get used to travelling on a bike everywhere .
    “How come Renee ain’t with us?” I asked. When we did anything, it
was the three of us.
    “She doesn’t like bikes.”
    “This another of those perspective things again?”
    Frei kept alongside me. It felt kinda good to know she was taking
the time out to help me. She was head of the whole base, a general, she had
better things to do.
    “Renee gets freaked out. If she catches you riding one, she’ll
more than likely lecture you.” Frei’s bored tone told me that Renee had
lectured her a fair amount.
    “Why does that make me like it even more?” I asked. It was a dumb
reaction, I was sure. A rebellion maybe, I didn’t know.
    “Because you get it.” Frei roared her bike as we left the main
drag. I opened the throttle, rumbling off after her. “When you’re on the road,
you’re free.”
    I’d not felt like this since I was a kid. Free. I did get that.
    Yeah, free.

 
    Chapter 10
     
    THE CEILING FAN whirred