Breaking the Rules

Prologue

The roar of a motorcycle echoed through the quiet suburban streets, cutting through the stillness like a blade. It was a sound that sent shivers down spines, a signal that Elliot Hayes was near. The town had learned to recognize that low, thunderous rumble, and with it came the inevitable whispering, the sidelong glances, and the unspoken warnings.

Elliot thrived on it—the fear, the distance it created between him and everyone else. He wore his reputation like a shield, protecting the raw, broken parts of himself that no one ever saw. His leather jacket clung to him, the scent of gasoline and cold air ingrained in its worn fabric, and his dark hair whipped wildly in the wind as he sped through the night. The world had handed him more than his share of pain, and he had learned to fight back in the only way he knew how. His fists were as quick as his temper, and the scars on his knuckles told stories no one else would ever hear.

But tonight, something felt different. As he twisted the throttle and the engine roared in response, there was an emptiness gnawing at him, an uneasy hollowness that had nothing to do with the night chill. He pushed the thought aside, focusing instead on the speed—the rush of adrenaline that blurred the streetlights into streaks of white and yellow. It was easier to forget when the world was moving too fast to think.

Across town, Grace Miller was wrapping up her evening in a very different way. Her desk was a neat, organized sanctuary, the glow of her laptop casting a soft light on the pages of notes scattered around her. Every detail was carefully highlighted, every fact in its place. This was her domain—order, structure, and the comforting routine of schoolwork. It was how she stayed in control, how she kept the chaos of high school life at bay.

Grace had plans, and they didn't include getting caught up in the drama that swirled around her. She was the girl who flew under the radar, the one who teachers praised for her diligence and peers overlooked in the crowded hallways. Being invisible had its perks—no distractions, no unnecessary entanglements. Just her, her goals, and the path she was determined to follow.

But as she closed her laptop and looked out her bedroom window, a strange feeling tugged at her—a sense that something was shifting, something beyond her carefully planned world. The night was quiet, but it was the kind of quiet that felt like the calm before a storm. She couldn't shake the feeling that change was coming, fast and unbidden, like the rush of wind before a downpour.

Neither Elliot nor Grace could have known that their worlds were about to collide. The bad boy with a past he couldn't outrun and the good girl with a future she was desperate to protect—on the surface, they were as different as night and day. But fate had other plans, plans that would bring them crashing together in ways neither of them could have anticipated. And when they finally did, neither would emerge unscathed.