by Mallory Funk
Copyright
by Mallory Funk 2020
This book may not be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, (electronically, mechanically, by photocopying or recording), without written permission from the author.
This book is fiction and created using ideas from the author. Any names or places that are used are from the author’s imagination. This book is for your enjoyment only.
Edited by, Amber Gaida
Cover by, Ravenwill Designs (A.C. Williams)
A word from the author:
Hey Readers! I hope you enjoy Torch. This book has put me through an emotional rollercoaster.
The characters are both from different pasts and are going through something dark and emotional.
Camilla the heroine was held captive for five months.
Torch lost his old lady.
Trigger Warning:
The book talks about rape/sexual assault, and abuse. It’s discussed but there aren’t any scenes. So be warned if you are sensitive to that topic.
It also talks about depression and alcoholism. If that is something you can’t read then I suggest you put this book down.
I promise there are happy times but the characters need to get through a world of hurt before they get to the other side.
Thank you for reading my Vicious Snakes.
Also be sure to have tissues handy! (I needed them writing it!)
Dedication
This book is dedicated to anyone who has gone through a loss or suffered a hard time.
You are strong,
You are not alone.
Prologue- Camilla
I’m sitting next to my boyfriend Brent as he drives us out to a party. I’ve been seeing him for about six months. He’s been nothing but sweet and has been a perfect gentleman.
I was a little nervous about having sex with him for the first time last night, but I never like to sleep with someone unless it’s serious.
He had been patient and kind when I told him that I wasn’t going to be sleeping with him right away. It’s not like I don’t have any experience, but I like to say that I’m picky.
I’ve had a handful of serious boyfriends, and I never got the point of wanting or having casual sex, but maybe that’s me. I think that I would get too attached. If a guy didn’t call me after, I’d wonder what I did wrong. I don’t have anything against casual sex; it’s just not for me.
There had only been a few men that had stuck around. I’ve been happy that Brent was one of them. He had already met my family in the meantime, and they loved him.
The only thing that I didn’t really know well about him was his job. He told me that he works out of town a lot, and he’s been very vague on the details.
We come to an acreage just outside of town. There seems to be a lot of vehicles in the front. It has been years since I have been to a party. I’m not much of a party person. Brent had assured me that I would have a good time and that I would love his friends.
There was no reason to doubt him so, when I got out and walked to the house with Brent’s hand in mine, I had no idea what awaited me.
I didn’t see this as a turning point in my life that would change me forever.
All of Brent’s friends were there, sure. He forgot to mention they were all men and that I was the entertainment. Unease started up my spine.
The reason he held my hand walking in wasn’t because he wanted to show his friends that I belonged to him so that they had no reason to hit on me. No, I was far off base on this one.
As soon as I walked in the door, my hand was held in a tight grip. The more that I struggled to free it, the tighter he held on.
When he turned around to look at me, there wasn’t a single trace of the man I had come to know.
His eyes were no longer warm and inviting. Instead, they were hard and cold and held an evilness that I hadn’t even seen a hint of before.
All the exits were blocked as soon as I walked into the house.
Every single man was grinning at me, and they weren’t good grins either. They were all bikers; that was clear. I could see the patch on their cuts. I can’t say that I know much about bikers, but the feeling that these men gave off brought chills down my spine.
“So this is the luscious Camilla,” one of the biker’s drawls out. He looks scary and, from how everyone is looking between us, I can tell that he runs the show. I’m scared to find out what kind of show that is.
“I told you. Worth it. She’s going to break like no other,” Brent says in a cold tone.
He finally lets my hand go, but I have nowhere to go. I’m standing in the middle of the room surrounded by bikers, and the guy who I thought was my boyfriend has suddenly changed into a complete stranger. I really don’t like the vibes that these guys are giving off.
“Let’s see how much we can make her scream,” the main man says with the most evil smile that I have ever seen on someone.
His smile is something that nightmares are made of.
This is where my nightmare began.
Prologue- Torch
“I need to fucking find her!!” I yell as I throw a chair across the room.
I’m at the clubhouse searching for my missing fucking woman. We have been looking for two days!
She and my brother Trigger have been missing for a couple days. Sophie has a rich asshole ex-boyfriend who has been after her, and he’s the only one that we know would be stupid enough to take them.
“Why can’t we fucking find them? How does one little, rich prick hide from us? Why the fuck did he take Stacey?” I roar out in rage. My voices breaks with every word. I look around the room, but I already know that no one has the answers that I’m looking for. I do the only thing that I can think of.
I storm out of the room slamming the door so hard behind me that you can feel the vibrations in the walls.
I end up in my room at the clubhouse. The whole space has Stacey written all over it. I love that fucking woman something fierce. I wasn’t looking for love when she came along, but she had claimed me just as much as I had claimed her.
When I came home and realized that she was missing, I felt like a part of me was torn from my body.
There was no reason for that asshole to take my woman.
I have barely looked at Sophie in the last couple days.
It’s not because I blame her. None of this is her fault. We’re a family in this club. We protect our own.
I know that her man is missing and she looks gutted and guilty. No matter what anyone tells her, you can tell that she’s blaming herself for this mess.
I can’t stand to be in this room a second longer. I head out for another search. They have to be somewhere.
The town isn’t that big so, when there is a huge blanket of smoke coming from the edge of town, I don’t think about anything else.
My stomach twists. Something is wrong. My gut is telling me to go in that direction.
I pull up at the same time that the ambulance and police cars do.
An old abandoned house that I forgot was ever here is up in flames.
I see my brother Trigger on the ground while paramedics run to his side.
I don’t notice anything else as my gaze zeroes in on the burning house.
My stomach sinks. When I sweep my eyes around, I don’t see any sight of my woman.
No. No. No. It can’t be…
“She was with him! Where is she?” I roar out.
My eyes are frantically searching the area again. She has to be here.
“Sorry, sir. There was only the man outside,” a fire fighter tells me.
I bring my eyes to the
house in horror.
She can’t be in there!
The house collapses before my very eyes. I let out a painful scream. “STACEY!”
Chapter One
Torch “Tyson” Knight
I’m sitting in the living room of my home looking at the box that I have been staring at for months.
When I came home to find my woman and a brother missing, there was a box sitting in the middle of the living room with my name on it in Stacey’s writing.
I have not been able to bring myself to open it. I’ve only just stared at it and got drunk.
I know that Stacey would not have approved of the way I have been handling things. I have pretty much not stopped drinking since it happened.
The alcohol just helps me feel numb and, when I pass out, I won’t have any dreams since all of my dreams are filled with her.
My entire day is filled with nothing but memories of Stacey.
We had a conversation of what we would do in the event that something happened to either one of us because, in this life, you didn’t know how long you had. Sometimes things became dangerous and out of your control.
I can’t help the snort that leaves me. This was definitely out of my control.
I close my eyes at the memory of Stacey.
“Babe, this is serious. We need to have this talk in case something happens to either one of us,” Stacey scolds me as we are lying in bed enjoying a lazy Sunday.
We have only left the bed to get food and have a shower.
“I know that you’re serious, but that’s not something that I want to think about. I don’t want to think about a life where you’re not in it,” I say in a grumble.
She gives me a soft smile. “I know, babe, but you know that since I lost my parents I think that it is best to always be prepared. You never know when someone is going to be taken from you.”
“Which is why I don’t want to think about it. I’d rather not know how much time we have together,” I mumble not looking at her.
It pains me to think about such a thing. My chest literally aches thinking about not being with Stacey.
“I just need you to know that I would want you to be happy. If I were gone tomorrow, I would want you to be open to love again. I wouldn’t want you to lose yourself,” she says, and I notice a small tear escape her eye and run down her cheek.
“I know, baby. I don’t know how you think that I would be happy with anyone but you, but you’re right. I wouldn’t want you to be miserable either. I would do anything as long as you were happy,” I say and kiss her softly on the lips.
I release a shuddering breath as I relive the memory that I had made with Stacey only weeks before she was killed.
I still don’t understand how I could be happy loving anyone but her. My heart feels like it has been ripped out.
I bring the bottle of whisky to my lips. I don’t think that I remember a day since the funeral that I have spent sober.
I hear a knock at my door, but I don’t bother to get up. I know that I locked it, so when I hear a key in the door I know that someone in my family is here. They are the only ones who would come in when their knock is ignored.
I don’t bother to turn my head. I don’t want to see anyone.
It has been days since we found Krista and Ella chained to walls with a whole bunch of other women.
I hear a murmur of voices and the door closes. The soft footsteps that come into the room reveal my sister, Ella.
She looks at me with a sad smile. If it weren’t for the bruises, you wouldn’t know that she had been held against her will just a few days ago. She has come so far since she came into our lives.
She was missing for years. Twenty-six years to be exact. Her mother kept her hidden from us, and my dad never knew where she was. It was like she had fallen off the face of the earth.
She came to us by some damn luck. She had lost her husband after she got pregnant. They had tried insemination to get pregnant and it was confirmed. The sperm that was accidentally used was my not only my club’s VP, but also one of my closest friends. When she came here, she had my dad’s green eyes that all his kids have, so once old club members had recognized her because she looked like her mother, I knew that there was no doubt she was my father’s lost daughter.
I see her in a different light since losing Stacey. Ella had lost her husband in a brutal accident that no one should have had to watch. The baby kept her strong at first, anyone could see that, but you could see how torn and broken she was without him.
I wish I could have half of her strength. She found love again and a new family- something that I didn’t think I would find. I don’t know how I could be open to it although right at that thought, the eyes of Camilla’s light blue ones flash through my mind as she was struggling to breathe after taking a bullet for my father.
I spent the last few days at the hospital so that she could rest and heal because she has nightmares whenever I’m not near. Camilla has now been released from the hospital and is at the clubhouse with the other women we rescued who have chosen to be in lockdown with the club for protection. I just needed to leave for a few hours. I just needed to breathe.
I told myself that I stayed with Camilla at the hospital because I had felt drawn and indebted to her due to her saving my father’s life, but there is something telling me that’s not true and I’m afraid to find out why that is.
“Hey sis, shouldn’t you be at the club? It’s not safe for you to be out here,” I say looking at her.
She nods her head. “Yeah, you should be there too because lockdown means everyone needs to be there, Tyson,” she says using my real name. She only seems to call me Torch when I piss her off, so I know that she’s not mad at me. I can’t seem to figure out why she is here.
“I just needed to get away for a few hours. I’ll be back later this evening,” I say not looking at her. It’s a lie though. I planned to drink until I passed out and go back tomorrow morning or afternoon, whenever the fuck I woke up.
The looks she gives me lets me know that she doesn’t believe me one bit.
“You can lie to everyone else but, trust me when I say this Tyson, I love you, and it-” she starts, but her eyes well up and she has to clear her throat a couple times before she can continue.
“It’s so hard to lose someone that you love so much.” When her voice cracks, I have to pull her into my arms. “Stacey was my best friend. I miss her every day. But you don’t have to do this alone. Let me help you. Let your brothers help you. I can’t sit by and watch you drink yourself to death anymore. Please talk to me.”
I let out a long sigh. “There isn’t anything that anyone can do. I love you, I do, but how do I just let go? How can I move on? I keep expecting her to walk through that door.”
“I know, you don’t ever really move on. It just gets easier to cope with over time. I miss Jeff every single day. Just because I found a way to fall in love again doesn’t mean that losing Jeff hurts any less. But believe me, shutting yourself out like this just delays the inevitable,” she says, and she gets up and walks outside. I hear Damien pull away before I can manage to move.
Her words are like a knife to my gut. I know that deep down Stacey would hate to see me like this, but I still can’t bring myself to do anything about it.
I play her words over and over in my head as I bring the bottle of whisky to my mouth.
It sure as shit won’t take away the pain, but it’ll help me pass out so that I don’t have to think for a few hours.
If I’m lucky, I won’t dream of those beautiful eyes that now haunt me day in and day out.
Chapter Two
Camilla
I’ve been with the Vicious Snakes for days.
When I woke up in the hospital, I thought I was dreaming. Every time my body used to fall asleep from exhaustion, I would dream to be out of that room, away from those men, and back with my brother.
I knew that my brother would have never stopped looking for me. I
haven’t contacted him, and I couldn’t give my real name at the hospital because my ex -boyfriend was the reason I was there in the first place. Using my real name would make it easy for them to catch me again.
I can’t help but shudder at the thought.
I’m in a room that is right beside Derek’s. He’s the president of the MC. His family has been constantly by my side since they found me.
I think back to the night I was rescued.
“It seems we have a run away,” the big boss Charles tells everyone. His eyes sweep over all of the other women.
I would flinch from the harsh look on his face, but I feel like I have no more fight left in me to give.
With every minute, day, week, and month that passes, I feel a small part of me die.
I kept losing hope that someone would find me and, when each woman was put in the room with me, I was filled with even more dread.
I didn’t ask for this life. I don’t know why this life was brought upon me. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
I don’t want them to go from sporting the hopeful, angry look to the hopeless, hardened face brought on by a broken life.
I used to have that same look, and each day they tried to break me.
The only time that I got away from Charles or his men was because I was beaten within an inch of my life. They had a doctor on sight who was as sick and twisted as these assholes, and he only stopped them when I was close to dying.
I would then be left alone to “heal.” The doctor gave me pain killers that barely did anything. I had tons of broken bones, bruises, and some cuts from Reaper. He liked to play with a knife, but he never let any of his men use one. He wanted to be the only one to mark my body.
“I don’t know what you guys did, but we will find her. She’s not going to like the consequences of running away from me. Just be glad that I don’t want my trophies touched, or I would let my men at you,” he growls.
