by Lynn Burke
Austin’s Ward (Devil’s Outlaws MC 3)
Lynn Burke
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2019 Lynn Burke
BIN: 008881-02872
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Changeling Press LLC
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www.ChangelingPress.com
Editor: Treva Harte
Cover Artist: Bryan Keller
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Table of Contents
Austin’s Ward (Devil’s Outlaws MC 3)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Lynn Burke
Austin’s Ward (Devil’s Outlaws MC 3)
Lynn Burke
As the Devil’s Outlaws Sergeant at Arms, Austin Butterbaugh has no intention of getting involved. A self-proclaimed bachelor for life, he endured a broken heart and refuses to suffer the same again. But the second Cadence Fraser crosses his path, with her long blonde hair and curves, she owns him.
Sleeping with a senator didn’t offer Cadence the ticket to a better life she’d hoped for. Instead, she’s on the run for her life, straight into a badass biker’s arms -- as his ward, under the Outlaw’s protection. Although fire flares to life between them, and Austin satisfies her in ways she’d never known, fear has Cadence’s sights set on something more.
Chapter One
Cadence
One of the parking lot’s lights flickered and died, leaving the corner where I’d parked my car earlier that afternoon in semi-darkness. I pulled the lapels of my coat closed against the cold December night, hugging my pink tote to my midsection and scanning the immediate area even though the nicer area of D.C. didn’t warrant a high level of caution.
Normally Jackson, the strip club’s owner I worked for, walked his girls to their cars after a shift ended, but he’d been caught up interviewing a new dancer and couldn’t be bothered to answer my knock on his office door.
Chances were the girl knelt before him, gagging on his big cock. I’d done the same a few years earlier to earn my spot on his stage dancing for D.C.’s elite. Republicans and Democrats alike enjoyed his swanky club, tossing bills at us dancers while getting their eyeful of tits and ass.
A limo sat along the road close to my car -- one I recognized from many trysts.
Senator MacGillroy.
A well-known man made rich by the little wifey he couldn’t stand, the senator had persuaded me to go into his car two months earlier after watching me peel my clothes off and fuck the stripper pole. Relatively young for a senator and hot as fuck from hours spent in the gym, he drew stares. I didn’t hesitate to give him the very private lap dance he’d asked -- and paid good money for.
The power of controlling such a man with sex had gone to my head, and what began as a quickie in the back of his limo ended up with dozens of other secret meetings, a throwaway cell phone I used for him alone, and lavish gifts.
He’d claimed the week before he would leave his little wifey for me -- when the time was right. It was my ticket out of the hellhole of poverty I’d grown up in, my way to a life of luxury with the cream of the crop. I felt sure I could talk myself into loving him fully someday.
Sleep had eluded me the night before, and my feet fucking ached, so rather than smile at the thought of sure release beneath my senator, I sighed my resignation and veered toward the waiting limo.
Two men climbed from the back rather than coming from the driver’s door like usual.
My neck tingled and my steps slowed even though I recognized both burly men in their dark suits. Thing One and Thing Two I’d taken to calling the senator’s bodyguards who stood watch outside hotel and motel rooms or wherever else we happened to meet in secret to fuck.
The senator hadn’t called first like usual to let me know he needed to be between my thighs, though. He hadn’t texted the untraceable throwaway cell he’d gotten for me with directions on where to meet.
My feet stalled out completely as a brisk wind blew long strands of my hair across my face. A tingle slid down my spine, raising the hairs on my neck as the bodyguards started toward me, their steps steady and full of purpose.
A shot of adrenaline, pure instinct, hurried me the final yards to my car, and I hit the unlock button, slid onto the driver’s seat, and locked the door behind me.
Thing One knocked on my window a few seconds later as I attempted to put the key in the ignition with my shaking hand. “Cadence.”
I glanced over to find him leaning down, dark eyes peering at me through the glass as he held his tie against his chest.
“The senator would like to see you.”
Another shiver settled a knot in my stomach. “He didn’t call,” I said, my voice more high-pitched than usual as I turned the key, bringing my Subaru to life. “He always calls first.”
“You need to come with us, Cadence.”
Senator MacGillroy had never summoned me in such a way, and the pinched lips of his bodyguard only intensified my feeling of wrongness about the situation.
Trying to steady my breathing, I dug in my big purse for the cell the senator had given me and hit the speed dial he’d set up.
“Cadence.” A simple word, one I’d heard on his lips hundreds of time -- while he watched me dance, while he fucked me and filled the condoms I’d insisted he wear, and when he urged me to stay with him a bit longer -- his tone never once held the tightness, the underlying stress I heard through my cell.
“What’s going on?” I managed to whisper past the thickness in my throat.
“Someone’s been talking.”
Those three words, snipped off with rage, dropped my heart to my stomach and raced my pulse.
Twice before the senator had joked about getting caught with me before he was ready to leave his wife having a deadly outcome, but the fear of someone finding out I fucked such a powerful man didn’t turn me on like it usually did. My heart pounded in my chest as I stared at his goon a mere pane of glass away from me.
I’d been summoned, but I feared in a whole different way for a whole different purpose.
Senator MacGillroy’s tone revealed he wouldn’t hesitate to make me disappear, erase all trace of my having ever existed if his wife ever found out he cheated. His bread and butter, his money momma, his ticket to the Oval Office he hoped to one day own.
All confidence I’d had in his declared love dissolved, leaving a gaping hole in my chest.
Stupid, stupid fool. A sob caught in my throat, and I dropped the cell, slammed the Subaru into drive, and tore out of the parking space. I saw in my rearview mirror that the bodyguards scrambled for the limo.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I half-whispered, half-cried, my mind racing as fast as the car beneath me. I clenched my hands around the steering wheel in a death grip, making my way downtown rather than toward the Beltway like I usually did after work.
Go to the police -- and tell them what?
Run for the hills? He had the means to find me.
Tears coursed down my cheeks as my focus jerked from the road ahead to my rearview. Headlights glinted behind me, but that wasn’t unusual for D.C.’s nightlife. I wouldn’t know a limo’s lights from any other vehicle anyway.
The cell rang, but I ignored it. A ding came through a moment later, letting me know the senator texted me. That, too, went unanswered as I sped down street after street, watching to see if anyone followed me.
Written off by my religious drunk of a mother, I had no blood backing, no safe haven of people who ought to have loved me unconditionally enough to help hide me until the shit storm I found myself in blew over.
While I had a few friends who might help me, only one knew I’d become involved with Senator MacGillroy.
I glanced at the clock on my dashboard. Eleven. Angel -- Hannah, my roommate -- would still be at work with her boss and boyfriend, a man whose name she’d tattooed on her skin, declaring her as his property. While not the upper-crust crowd I shook my ass and tits for or wanted to get involved with, the Devil’s Outlaws were the type of people I needed. Praying to a God I’d given up on long ago, I made my way to their club in the northern suburbs of D.C., a mere two blocks from my apartment.
If they wouldn’t help me, I was fucked.
* * *
Austin
I imagined the woman haunting my dreams danced on the stage to my right as music thumped in my ears and the scents of sex and booze filled my nose. Just another night at Devil’s Strip Club, guarding the door to the back office and girls’ rooms, but my mind refused to focus on my duties as head of security -- and the Outlaw’s Sergeant at Arms.
I’d only ever seen Angel’s roommate once. Plump ass, tiny waist, big tits -- and gorgeous blue eyes that didn’t even seem to notice me as I’d followed Angel into their apartment after she and I had been attacked in the alley.
Cadence Fraser had fucking ruined me for life.
Not that I ever held hope of finding an old lady of my own. I kept my damn heart under lock and key since the last person to own it ended up six feet under. Loving anyone outside of my Outlaws brothers was off-limits. Wasn’t in the damn cards for my future.
A ruckus at the front door drew my focus, and my dick jerked to attention as the blonde I wanted beneath me, tied to my bed, screaming my name, pushed past Brewer. He caught my gaze, and I nodded, letting our entrance guard know to let her in.
Cadence hurried into the club, but pulled up short, her gaze flitting around from bar to stage to me.
Fuck.
I groaned as her blue-eyed gaze landed on me, causing my dick to jerk inside my leathers. Fucking zipper pressed into my swollen length, but I didn’t shift or drop a hand to ease the discomfort.
She started toward me, but I kept my arms crossed, my face a mask while sliding my gaze down over her body. She hid her lush curves behind a dark coat, one she clutched to her middle, her knuckles white around the straps of an oversized purse. Tight-ass jeans clung to her thighs and calves, and pink heels the same color of her purse encased her feet.
All woman. Fucking hot as hell sashaying toward me like she owned the damn room and knew she drew attention left and right.
I glanced upward as she drew closer. Her pulse thrummed in her neck. Black-smudged tear tracks lined her cheeks, the rest of her mascara smeared beneath her wide eyes I hadn’t noticed when she’d first appeared across the lounge.
The fuck? I scowled, but otherwise held unmoving as she stepped right into my personal space.
“Where’s Angel?” she half-shouted to be heard over the thumping bass.
I tipped my head toward the door behind me.
“I need to see her.” Wetness welled in her eyes, turning them crystalline in the dimmed recess light overhead.
I didn’t move.
Cadence angled to step around me, but I shifted left. “No one’s allowed out back.”
Tears spilled over, and she stepped toward my right, but I moved with her, blocking her way.
“You fucking oaf!” She swung her purse, but I tightened my abs and let the leather bounce off me. “Let me past! I have to talk to her!”
As the protector of the Outlaws’ dancers, I wouldn’t be swayed into shirking my duties -- by anyone, no matter how hot or frantic they appeared. Lips pressed tight, I stood like a mountain, uncaring of whatever she wished to dish out.
She shrieked and pummeled against me, her fists almost amusing, but my lips didn’t so much as twitch.
The pulsing music of the latest dancer faded, and Cadence’s curses drew attention.
She swung toward me again, and I closed my hand around her forearm. “Enough.”
Her lower lip trembled and tears dripped from her chin. “Please.”
Her whisper fucking ruined me -- a pleading I’d imagined on her lips while jerking off every damn night since first seeing her.
“Fuck.” So much for no admittance. Scowling, I yanked open the door behind me and dragged her into the dim hallway beyond.
Gunner, our president, and his old lady, Shelby, moved toward us from the dressing room, Angel and Bowie on their heels, both couples hanging on one another with that lovey-dovey touching that twisted my stomach.
“Cadence?” Angel pushed around Gunner, and Cadence let out a sob as I let go of her arm and her roommate grabbed her in a hug.
“Someone found out,” Cadence sobbed. “Fucking hell, I’m done for!”
“Shit.” Angel glanced over her shoulder at Bowie, whose scowl mirrored my own.
He spewed a curse as though knowing exactly what Cadence had meant. The harshness of his tone, the glint in his eyes, raised the hairs on my neck.
“What the fuck is going on?” Gunner asked as I stepped back, hands fisted, my focus on the back of Cadence’s head as she cried against Angel’s shoulder.
“Cadence and Senator MacGillroy have been fucking for two months,” Bowie answered for both the girls.
Cadence jerked back from Angel’s arms, her shoulders wilting. “You told him?”
Angel shrugged although her brow furrowed. “No biggie.”
“No biggie?” Cadence jerked from Angel’s hold, stumbling backward into me.
I grasped her upper arms to keep her from falling over. “I told you not to tell anyone!” she half-sobbed, her body trembling. “He’ll kill me if word gets out!”
“No one will lay a Goddamn hand on you.” Bowie spoke truth. Cadence didn’t belong to an Outlaw, but I wasn’t about to let anyone touch her. Threaten her. A rumble sounded in my chest at the feeling I hadn’t had for years, and Cadence tilted her head back and to the side, capturing my gaze.
Silence descended.
“Do what you have to do,” Gunner said a moment later, stepping past us, his hand wrapped around Shelby’s. “Oh, and Austin?”
My ears perked up to listen to whatever my president had to say behind me, but I couldn’t tear my gaze off Cadence’s wide eyes as she blinked up at me.
“Cadence is your responsibility.”
Fucking screwed.
* * *
Cadence
Austin’s blue-green eyes glinted in the hallway’s light -- flickered with unease and a look I was all-too familiar with. Instant warmth rose between my thighs regardless of the damn situation. Never mind the senator would want to kill me, never mind fear twisted my stomach
in knots.
Badass biker Austin in his red plaid shirt, beefy arms, and pursed lips turned me on, same as the first time I’d seen him weeks earlier, but he wasn’t what I wanted. He wasn’t my way out, my way to a better life.
The beard lining his jaw twitched as though he clenched his teeth, and I fought to keep my hand from lifting to see how soft his whiskers felt against my palm.
“What happened?” Hannah asked, rushing the hallway and its occupants back to reality in my head.
I tore my focus off Austin’s lips and turned toward my roommate. Bowie, her hot as fuck boyfriend with his dark hair and caramel-colored eyes, slid his arm around her waist in a possessive hold, one I had envied once upon a time.
No more men -- stupid decisions. No more fucking, giving in to my baser needs. No more getting caught up in emotion or thoughts of falling in love.
I tore myself from Austin’s hold and hugged myself tight again, my bag like a fifty-pound weight on my forearm.
Love. I furrowed my brow, wondering at my twisted brain’s use of the word when thinking of the senator. Sure, I liked him, liked fucking him and snuggling with him all through the night when he talked me into staying with him, but love? I huffed a snort and scrubbed my coat sleeve across my cheeks, wiping away tears. He’d claimed to love me, the lying bastard.
“What happened?” Hannah asked again.
“You’re the only one I told,” I whispered at my roommate, swiping at yet another tear sliding down my cheek, hating how my heart ached at the thought she had betrayed me.
“I’m the only one she told, Cadence, and I didn’t tell a Goddamn soul,” Bowie said, his frown etching his brow and down-turning his lips. “Not even my brothers.”
Someone had talked, the senator had said. Someone had spilled the secret that would end my life.
Sudden weakness slid over me, robbing the adrenaline high I’d been riding for close to an hour. Austin grasped onto my arm again, his other hand holding my waist. Heat seared from his palm, right through my damn coat and jeans.
