Prologue

Nicky Gamble knew the crash was going to happen long before the bike hit the concrete, skidded out from under him and dropped him onto the asphalt like a rag doll.

De Costa was riding his rear tire, and Nicky knew he was too, too close going into the chicane.

He could feel the pack shift, hear the change of the screaming engines, see the air shimmer… and knew there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it.

He felt the bump on his tire from the back, he felt the bike under him jitter and jam, trying to buck him off, and then a nanosecond later, succeeding.

Nicky’s last thought as he flew through the air, the earth and sky blurring dizzily outside his helmet, was…

Oh shit…this one’s gonna hurt.

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