Chrome and Mercy

By Brian R. Smith

CHROME AND MERCY follows Eli Raines, a sixteen-year-old boy who leaves his Ashford, Virginia home with forty-three dollars, a backpack, and no safe place to go.

At Hollis Cycle & Repair, Eli expects suspicion. Instead, Wade Hollis hands him a broom and tells him the floor is dirty. Beneath the shop's oil-stained concrete and the rumble of motorcycles, Eli finds the Crossroads Riders-an independent motorcycle club whose members teach him that help can come with rules, work, and accountability rather than pity.

As Eli earns a room above the garage, returns to school, restores a battered red Sportster, and learns to ride, the road becomes more than a way to escape. It becomes a place to learn attention, restraint, and responsibility. Under the guidance of Wade, Mara, Drea, Moose, and Pops, Eli moves from hangaround to prospect, full-patch member, road captain, vice president, and eventually president of the club.

But belonging does not erase the past. Eli's father, Curtis, still casts a shadow over the siblings Eli left behind. His brother Ben carries anger that threatens to become its own inheritance. And when Taz Mercer, a talented but volatile club member, chooses violence at a family event, Crossroads must decide what its patch truly means.

Spanning the Blue Ridge, the Great Plains, the Black Hills, desert roads, and the Pacific coast, CHROME AND MERCY is a story of chosen family, hard-earned trust, and the courage to lead without fear.

It is the story of a boy who leaves one house behind-and learns that home is not a place where no one ever hurts you, but a place where people choose to stay, tell the truth, and make room at the table.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H6JVF23T
• ISBN13: 9798183971026
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"