Page 41 of Down & Dirty

We were heading to the practice course with one of the other riders on the team, Tate Lawson. He was about ten years my junior and looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. I remembered being his age. All spitfire and throttle. He’d taken home a couple of top spots last year and it was a promise he’d be working his ass off to beat out anybody who got in his way. I’d already seen him and Ronnie having some interesting ‘conversations’ on the course. But we were up against each other today.

“Let me know if the rear still feels loose. I think if we go any tighter you’ll hate it even more, but it’s up to you.”

“Will do,” I said, pulling on my helmet. I slid my goggles into place and kick-started the engine.

The nasal roar went up like a wall between me and the rest of the world. Once I got inside that bubble, there was nothing but me, the bike, and the course. Even other riders were pushed from my mind. It was one of the things I loved most about riding; the solitude.

Motocross was chaos from the outside, but the noise of it, the sheer volume of sound, had acted like a shield for me my entire life. It would close around me and I’d sink into it, and together we’d attack the ground, ripping it up as we raced those loops, screaming through the back ends of turns, and soaring in moments of suspended silence over the jumps.

There was nothing else like it, and as a kid, when my world had come crashing down, this had been my escape. It still was.

Tate and I tore around the course, mud flying in the wake of snarling engines. My arms started to get heavy, the weight of the bike and the impact of landing each jump like a hammer to my muscles. Every joint had started to rebel against the constant abuse, but I turned the pain into fuel, letting it chase me into the corners like a man with nothing to lose.

When Tate wedged himself into my line, blocking me from the inside on the last corner I huffed out a laugh. Kid was going hard for just a practice run, but I respected it. Being able to cut off the competitive urge was something I didn’t learn until much later. It wasn’t a switch, more like a dial. And I had no need to turn it all the way up this far away from the start of the season.

I told myself that was maturity talking, but I think it was really just self-preservation; my back didn’t need any more trouble. Blowing it out in practice would be a waste. At least let me eat it when there was something on the line.

“That looked better, did it feel better?” Billy asked hesitantly when we’d finished and I was back at the gate.

My eyes were past him on the viewing booth, a set of denim clad legs in cowboy boots catching my attention.

“Yeah, it was fine,” I muttered as Sky turned around to facethe course. Her smile when she saw me gave my gut a swift kick, and I tossed her a quick wave in return.

Billy followed my eye line and sighed dramatically. “Are you going soft, Ellis?”

I spun back to him with a frown. “No. What are you talking about?”

“You’ve never smiled like that. Not in ten years. And you let Lawson have that run. It’s like the killer instinct had been fucked right out of you.”

If anyone else had said that to me, they’d be looking up from the ground with a black eye. “First of all, I let Lawson have it because it’s a fucking practice run. We both know I don’t need to eat dirt before we even get to Anaheim.” I moved around him to grab my gear as Ronnie and Kip ripped out of the gate.

“And second?” Billy prodded, stepping up beside me to watch them go.

“Second, lay off my sex life.”

“’Cause she’s special?”

I noticed the slightly hopeful tone in his voice. “No, man. Cause she’s a colleague and she deserves more respect than that.”

Billy chuckled under his breath. “I wasn’t disrespectingher, you idiot. I was giving her props. It was you I was making fun of.”

“Well, let’s just toe-tag that topic until further notice, okay? Nothing’s happened, but I don’t want it on the table even if it does.”

There was no way anything was going to happen with me and Sky, but Billy didn’t need to know that. I just needed him to keep his mouth shut and his jokes clean. Besides, I already had enough trouble keeping myself from indulging in X-rated fantasies of the woman. Having Billy constantly bringing it up wasn’t going to help my efforts to rein it in.

He shrugged. “Suit yourself. But if you ask me, you better not let the rest of the team think you’re going soft out here. Managementrespects a seasoned rider, but they’re gonna want to see proof of their investment before January.”

“They’ll see it,” I muttered. My plan was to give my back as much time to heal as I could. But after break I’d make sure to put in a few solid runs so everyone knew I wasn’t just here to cheerlead.

As they rounded the corner Kip suddenly went flying, his bike careening off the course and slamming into the hay bale perimeter. “Holy shit,” Billy muttered. “What the hell just happened?”

I jostled to get around him, but my view was blocked by the jumps.

A few of the mechanics and coaches were already making their way onto the course. Billy and I followed, but we were stuck on the wrong side of the jumps, forced to take the long way. By the time we rounded the corner a small crowd had gathered. Even from a distance I could make out the sound of raised voices.

“Get the fuck out of my way,” Kip shouted, doing his best to push past one of the coaches to get to Ronnie. Ronnie was just as red, waving his hand at his bike laying on the ground.

Billy and I were almost there when Kip got loose. He rammed himself into Ronnie’s side, sending them both back in a heap. In a split second there were arms swinging and the two of them scrambled for enough space to pull back and whale again. The bodies around them blocked part of my view, but all at once Kip picked up Ronnie at the waist and threw him backward. I spotted Sky’s blond hair amid the crush of bodies, and when they hit her, she went flying.

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