Dancing with the Devil

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Mackenzie poked Charlie in the ribs. “Charlie,” she whispered.

He grinned one of his smug told-you-so smirks. “I thought you said never to talk to you, But I knew you couldn’t resist me.” 

“How much would you pay me for my bike?”

Charlie frowned. “I don’t think I heard you. What?”

Mac pursed her lips. “I need to talk to you. Meet me back down here after lights out.”

He treated Mac to another self-satisfied smile with a wink thrown in. “Finally.”

“Don’t get any ideas or I’ll kick your ass.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re the tough girl now. What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Mackenzie folded her arms. “You want the bike or don’t you?”

* * *

Dante had snuck over to their cabin and he and Frankie wouldn’t stop whispering in the dark until finally Mackenzie told them she was feeling sick again. “I’m going down and crash in that empty cabin by the lake, so don’t worry about me if I sleep in, okay?”

A duet of, “Sorry!” and then, “Feel better! Jinx!”

Mac got her pack together and said, “You guys are such dweebs. I’m outta here.”

“See ya, Mac,” they said, then looked at each other and shrieked.

Mackenzie almost thanked them since they had created the perfect cover for her plan. 

If Charlie would go along.

Instead of heading toward the empty cabin, she carried her bike down to the docks, hoping Charlie had waited. He had.

“Did I hear you right?”

“How much?” Mac asked.

“What’s the trick?”

They sat at the end of the dock. Charlie leaned on a corner piling and Mac took the other one and faced him. Not for the first time Mackenzie noted how similar they were. They both sat with one leg bent at the knee, dangling over the water, the other stretched out straight on the dock. They mirrored one another, and it occurred to Mac that if they weren’t the same size, her custom bike wouldn’t fit him, and her plan would never work. It still might not.

“No trick,” she said. “But there is a condition.” 

“I knew it couldn’t be that easy.”

“You can’t tell anyone I sold it to you until the day after tomorrow.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows. “They’re idiots, Skater, but dontcha think they might just notice you riding my bike, and me burning the road on yours?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“They won’t see it because you’re not going to ride my bike, Charlie.”

“Why wouldn’t I ride it if I’ve just paid, um, $1,000 for it?”

Now it was Mackenzie’s turn to scoff. “Right. Like I’d ever sell it to you for a grand. It costs like eight times that.”

“Not with your pro discount. Besides, you want to sell it, so you must be desperate. Why, I don’t know, but my mama didn’t raise no butthead. Though my dad might argue that.”