Chapter 8 - Leap of Defiance
The pedestrian path was barely three feet wide, separated from the roadway by a rusted steel guardrail and suspended over a hundred-foot drop into jagged river rocks. It was designed for hikers, not an eight-hundred-pound touring motorcycle.
""Jax, no!"" Clara screamed, realizing his intent.
""Trust me!"" he roared.
Instead of braking, Jax twisted the throttle to its stop. The Harley screamed as it surged forward onto the bridge. At the last possible fraction of a second, Jax locked the rear brake, kicked the tail out, and bounced the front tire off a collapsed section of guardrail where an old repair had left a ramp of crushed timber.
The motorcycle launched into the air.
Clara squeezed her eyes shut, pulling Leo against her ribs with every ounce of strength in her body. For a suspended, weightless heartbeat, the world fell utterly silent. Then, the heavy tires slammed down onto the narrow wooden planks of the walkway with a bone-jarring impact that rattled Clara’s teeth.
Wood splintered beneath their weight. Jax fought the handlebars as the machine bucked, fighting for traction along the edge of the abyss. The shooters at the roadblock scrambled, their firing angles ruined by the heavy steel truss of the bridge superstructure. Bullets pinged harmlessly off the rusted iron girders around them.
The bike cleared the far side of the trestle, sliding sideways across the gravel shoulder and crashing through a rotting wooden gate that marked an abandoned logging road. The suspension groaned, but the tires held.
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Jax didn't slow down. He plunged the motorcycle into the deep shadows of the forgotten forest trail, disappearing beneath the dense, overhanging ferns and pines. Behind them, the sounds of the highway faded into the primeval silence of the woods.
Jax finally pulled the machine to a halt beside an overgrown clearing. He killed the engine. The only sounds left were the heavy panting of the adults, the ticking of the overheated engine block, and the steady, quiet breathing of the infant.
