The Biker's Rules novel Chapter 40

***POV – Damion

The next moment Jackson comes crashing from behind and falls onto me, almost causing me to lose my balance.

"Shit!" My first thought is that the guy must be drunk or something. I help Jackson back up and he wipes his hand under his nose, then he looks at it covered with blood. He turns a lighter shade of pale, Jackson can t stand the sight of blood.

"What the fuck?" He growls. He s definitely not drunk, someone attacked him.

"Hey, Grimm, you better keep your little friends out of our space! I ll see you in the race." A lean bald-headed man with loads of tattoos all over his body shouts, leaning from behind the one van. It s Graham Scott, Honda s top rider and a real asshole. I know he just wants to get into my head before the race, but it s not going to work. Most of my opponents try to rattle me before a race, hoping that I ll lose focus, so I m used to it. Actually, it just has the opposite effect. It makes me want to win more.

"Yep, I ll see you." I salute him with a smile cause I know he chose the wrong brother to land a fist on. Jackson might be the more silent one of the lot, but he s a force to be reckoned with, well all the Blackburn brothers are for that matter – but Jackson is stone ass scary when he s mad. Before old Graham knew what hit him, Jackson s fist lands on his chin, throwing him off balance and onto the van. Jackson jumps onto him and lands a few fists on his face before I manage to pull him off.

Graham s teammates pick him up and help him back to their tent. I salute him with a big grin. Dean swears, running in a circle like a beheaded chicken, and then he disappears inside the tent. I take a look at Jackson s nose and at least it s not broken. He takes off his shirt cause it s stained with blood and I hand him a clean one from my bag.

Like I said before, all of us have some kind of demon lurking beneath that we get to control with our adrenaline junky quests, but when someone pokes that beast it will come out from the shadows, like just now with Jackson. But together we ve learned to control it, keep it from running rogue. It s a secret between us, something we try to keep hidden from the people we love, something that we share just with each other, something that keeps our broken parts from shattering. And believe me when I say that we re all broken in some fucked up way.

Although doing death-defying stunts help us, it never seems to heal any of us. The effect of the adrenaline always wears off in the end. But lately, it s as if I m getting addicted to another even more lethal drug, aka Melaena. And I want to overdose on it time and time again. I follow Jackson to where the rest of the group is sitting and take a seat behind Mel. Her eyes are on her brother holding his bleeding nose closed with his fingers.

"What happened?" Ilkay asks while examining his brother s face.

"Honda team doesn t seem to like Jackson, but he showed them." I laugh and all the guys give Jackson high-five s with big smiles, but the girls seem kinda lost.

"So, bro, could you get to the bottom of this?" I look at Enrique, gesturing with my head to the girl sitting there like a zombie.

"Well, I m not the Enrique she met last night, so all I can think of is that you ve been set up. And are anybody else thinking D?"

"I think you can expect some pictures leaking into the news to ruin your reputation," Ilkay says looking worried. I quickly peer at Mel, wondering how she s coping with all this, and the look on her face makes me want to punch some walls.

Dean walks up to me with a big smile.

"Grimm, the organizers are not going to file charges. Go get ready." I get up and the whole group gives me encouraging hugs and I hold on to Mel a little longer.

"Good luck, Grimm," she murmurs in my ear as I let her go unwittingly. I take my gear from my bag and get dressed. My team outfit like usual consists mostly of black - black biker pants and a red and black jersey with my surname, number, and team logo on the back. On my helmet is the Reaper skull logo, the same as my tattoo. My clothes also bear my other sponsors' logos and names.

My chosen number is 13, my sister s birthday, the 1st of March, and it seems that it might be my lucky number. I start walking the track to relax and see what I m up against and where I can take risks.

I always feel most alive just before a race, this is who I am and who I ve always been and it s what I m great at. I ve started riding MotoCross races when I was around 3 years old, and since age 16 I was a 450cc A-class rider, winning the championship that year and almost every year since. I still do MotoCross, mostly for practice, but MotoGP is my main focus these days. I started competing in Moto2 racing when I was 14, and you guessed it, I won the championships two years running. Then I moved on to MotoGP, becoming the youngest rider to ever win a championship at age 18 in my very first season, breaking about five records with it. Yep, I m a double champion – both for MotoCross and MotoGP. I ve won a staggering 3 championships already and I would love to break Giacomo Agostini s record of 15.

I came in fifth place last year, having to miss too many races because of a crazy accident, but at least Sean won his first championship for the team. They call our team for practice runs and I walk over to my black Reaper 450cc dirt bike. Sean is already waiting for me on his bike. I smile at Graham, boosting confidence and cockiness, my main strategy – own the ring, be the boss. My smile increases when I see the hint of fear in his eyes. I suppose his manager gave him an earful about his reckless behavior and the warning.

"Put me down, you buffoon!" She screams and Sean drops her a little too unceremoniously and she ends up landing on her butt. We all laugh at her shocked face. Logan pulls her up and she glares at my poor teammate. Sean on the other hand stares at her as if it s the first time he sees a girl. This is going to be fun. Kiara will probably kill Sean before the end of the day. I bump his shoulder to get him out of his haze and he blinks a few times before looking at me.

"That girl sure is fucking pretty. Just like yours." He says softly and we both turn our heads to look at Mel.

"She s not my girl." I want to add a yet but decide against it. The fewer people know about my feelings for her the better.

"Oh, so she s single then?" I turn my head towards my teammate as if he has sunstroke or something.

"You keep your grubby paws off her." It s a serious warning. He smiles at me and holds up his hands in a defensive manner.

"Thought as much. The way you look at her says it all." Suddenly a group of paparazzi burst past security and storms towards Mel and encircle her. They bombard her with questions, sticking their microphones under her nose.

"Do you love Damion?" "What do you think about Chloe?" "Do you think you ve tamed the beast?" I push them away and grab Mel, putting my arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to my chest. I try my best to shelter her while trying to get past them, but they block me.

"So Damion, is Mel your girlfriend?" "What about Chloe?" "Are you finished screwing around?" "Are you going to settle down?" At last, the security guys manage to push them back behind the lines again.

"You stink." Mel pulls her nose up and smiles at me lovingly. I stare into her eyes for a few moments.

"Is that so?" I pick up my arm and playfully push her head onto my chest again. She squirms and then she punches me in the ribs. Damn, this girl can hit. I laugh and, keeping my arm around her shoulder, I drag her towards the stage where my team is waiting for me. I put my other arm around Kiara and then Sean pops the champagne bottle and sprays it over us.