Seeking Shadows (Royal Bastards MC Tampa Chapter Book 3)
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Book Three
K E Osborn
USA Today Bestselling Author
Seeking Shadows
Royal Bastards MC
Tampa, FL
Book Three
K E Osborn
USA Today Bestselling Author
Copyright 2021 K E Osborn
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, real people, and real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, organizations, or places is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author. All songs, song titles, and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
Disclaimer: The material in this book contains graphic language and sexual content and is intended for mature audiences ages 18 and older.
This book contains triggers of a violent nature.
If you or anyone you know needs help, do not hesitate to seek it. There is information at the end of the book, or you can click here.
ISBN: 978-1922489029
Editing by Swish Design & Editing
Formatting by Swish Design & Editing
Proofing by Swish Design & Editing
Cover Design by Lou Gray
Cover Image Copyright 2021
All Rights Reserved
Blurb
What if the woman I fell for was in love with someone else? The man who claimed her heart is my VP, the same man I need to respect and follow his orders. But now that I’m no longer a prospect, it’s difficult to find my place. What if I don’t want to play by the club rules anymore?
But then again, what if while I’m seeking shadows, I find something I wasn’t prepared for? And the darkness leaves me fighting for everything I thought I’d never have...
Seeking Shadows is a part of The Royal Bastards MC Author Collaboration and is book three in the Tampa, FL Series by USA Today Bestselling Author K E Osborn.
Dedication
To Crimson.
Thank you for accepting me into the Royal Bastards from the very beginning.
It’s the most amazing collaboration to be a part of.
I love this series.
I love my Tampa brothers, and I don’t know that I could have ever had the guts to have written a chapter like Tampa RBMC, if it weren’t for the Royal Bastards.
So thank you for letting me step into the dark.
For letting me delve into the depths a little further and enjoy this darker side of MC writing.
It’s been and continues to be one hell of a ride!
Note for the Reader
Below is a list of the other club chapters listed in this book and their authors.
In order of appearance:
Tanopah, NV – Nicki Landis
New Orleans, LA – Crimson Cyn
THIRD RUN
K.L. Ramsey: Ratchet’s Revenge
Chelle C . Craze & Eli Abbott: Cocked Hammer
Nikki Landis: Hell’s Fury
M. Merin: Diesel
Kristine Allen: Chains
KE Osborn: Seeking Shadows
Scarlett Black: River
Erin Trejo: Bleed for Me
Crimson Syn:Afflicted with Desire
J.Lynn Lombard: Torch’s Torment
Glenna Maynard: Taken by the Biker
K Webster: Dragon
Khloe Wren: Flood of Bravery
Rae B. Lake: Chaos and Paradise
Misty Walker: Bexley’s Biker
J.L. Leslie: Worth the Pain
Nicole James: Climbing the Ranks
Ker Dukey: Carnage
Deja Voss: Steel Resurrection
Elle Boon: Royally Inked
Jessica Ames: Into the Flames
Shannon Youngblood: Sex and Candy
B.B. Blaque: Southern Ballz
K.L. Savage: Raven
Izzy Sweet & Sean Moriarty: Broken Lines
E.C. Land: Spiral into Chaos
Jax Hart: Desert Heat
Royal Bastards MC Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/royalbastardsmc/
Website- https://www.royalbastardsmc.com/
PROTECT: The club and your brothers come before anything else, and must be protected at all costs. CLUB is FAMILY.
RESPECT: Earn it and Give it. Respect club law. Respect the patch. Respect your brothers. Disrespect a member and there will be hell to pay.
HONOR: Being patched in is an honor, not a right. Your colors are sacred, not to be left alone, and NEVER let them touch the ground.
OL’ LADIES: Never disrespect a member’s or brother’s Ol’Lady. PERIOD.
CHURCH is MANDATORY.
LOYALTY: Takes precedence over all, including well-being.
HONESTY: Never LIE, CHEAT, or STEAL from another member or the club.
TERRITORY: You are to respect your brothers’ property and follow their Chapter’s club rules.
TRUST: Years to earn it... seconds to lose it.
NEVER RIDE OFF: Brothers do not abandon their family.
Table of Contents
Blurb
Dedication
Note for the Reader
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Connect With Me Online
About the Author
Chapter One
DASH
I’m completely and utterly fucked!
In the scheme of things, I’m nothing to this club. Just a prospect with a chip on his shoulder. A young kid who’s fallen for the wrong girl. No, that’s not right. Ivy isn’t a girl, she’s all fucking woman with fight, fire, and an intensity in her I’ve never seen before. She’s bordering on the edge of crazy. I don’t know what it is about her that has me panting like a fucking weak-ass puppy, but, for some reason, she gets me. Ivy gives me the time of fucking day, and I can’t say that for many of the people in my life, other than my family, of course.
My family is the entire reason I joined this club in the first place. So, I could have a backup. A brotherhood behind me to protect them. To watch over them. To be an added extra layer of muscle should anything happen to arise after the suspicious death of my father a year ago. I never thought, not for a single second, that when prospecting in, I would raise the hell I have before I even had the chance to gain my patch.
The predicament I find myself in—I’m not the only brother with my eyes on Ivy.
My VP, and far superior, Void, does too. I think the battle for Ivy’s affections is swinging in his favor because I just saw them snuggling on the sofa in her make-shift bedroom in the Brick Cell when I came down this morning.
I’ve left my run too fucking late.
Void has made his move, and my position in the ‘friend zone’ is well and truly entrenched as I fuck about in the lab next door, trying to cultivate the crop that Ivy and I work so hard on together. It’s where we spend all our time. So I guess I thought with us working in such close proximity, with us always being together, it meant something.
Guess I was fucking wrong.
But with Ivy in here working with me now, the tension in the air is rife with awkwardness as we attempt to make small talk. Seeing them so cozy makes my chest ache in ways I didn’t know was possible. I’m taking my frustrations out on Ivy, and I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it.
Rejection fucking stings.
Especially when I didn’t get a chance to make my move.
Suddenly, Ivy turns to me. “Are we okay? I don’t like this…” she waves her hands around, “… us not talking.”
I exhale, putting down my clipboard, and turn to her. “You know what, Ivy… no, we’re not okay.”
Her eyes widen as she stands taller, appearing shocked at my admission. I’m not sure what she’s expecting. For me to lie to her? Tell her everything is fucking “peachy keen” between us? “Okay… talk to me.”
I move in, stepping right into her space, taking her hand in mine. She jerks back a little, scrunching her brows together. Great, I repulse you that much?
Fuck it!
“Why him, Ivy? Why Void?”
Her entire head recoils like she’s astounded I’m going there with this—now. “I… I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Okay, let me rephrase… why not me? We have such good chemistry together.”
She gasps, yanking her hand back from mine like it’s tainted with poison. Ivy takes a giant step away from me, opening a huge chasm between us. “Dash… no… we’re friends—”
Fuck that! I quickly step back into Ivy’s space again, cutting her off, my eyes pleading with her to see sense in this madness. “But we don’t have to be. Ivy, please, don’t you feel this?” I grab her hand again, placing it over my heart.
Her gorgeous brown eyes glisten as her bottom lip trembles.
I see it.
The second the thought enters her head, shattering my already fractured soul.
“It’s him, Dash… it’s always been him.”
My stomach turns with nausea.
I’ve put everything out there.
Taking us from the friend zone into something more.
I have to work with her in the lab, I have to see her here at the club every fucking day, knowing she rejected me for my VP. The color drains from my face as my breathing shallows. I move my hand from my chest, taking hers with me, then slowly taking a step back, I drop her hand.
“I… I’m sorry. I’m still your friend. I’ll always be your friend.” She slams another nail into the coffin.
I can’t be here right now.
Not with her.
Not with my brothers.
I just need to fucking go.
Anywhere that doesn’t have Ivy-fucking-Pérez everywhere I damn well look.
Turning, I leave Ivy in my wake. I’m sure she and Void will have plenty to discuss in my absence. I’ll probably lose any chance I had at joining the club now, but honestly, in this moment…
I. Don’t. Fucking. Care.
Hurrying for my ride, I throw my leg over my sleek black and chrome Harley, kick back the stand, and start her up without a second’s hesitation. I hammer down making my way for the gate. West cranks it open, giving me a curt wave as I ride on through, letting my rear tire slide out with the speed as I take off.
I open her up. I have no clue where I’m headed, just that I need to get away from the place I call home. From the woman who felt like home. Now she’s like a prison sentence where I’m locked in for life, watching her and Void get cozy, all while I have to sit back and do nothing more than grin and fucking bear it.
That shit does not bode well for me.
Maybe I should throw in the towel?
I want to be a Royal Bastard to protect my mother and siblings from whatever the hell it was that ended my father, but I can do that on my own. Can’t I?
Letting out a long puff of air, I ride harder along the Tampa city streets, disregarding the speed limit and the other citizens on the road as I roar past them.
I’m a fucking Royal Bastard.
Since when am I supposed to be concerned about the damn law?
I ride, with no destination in sight, until I see a quaint little bar—The Drunken Lime Tavern. With not much traffic out the front, I pull my Harley to a stop, figuring I may as well go and drink to try numb this so-called friend-zone pain.
I never thought I’d be one of those guys who lost his shit over a woman. I didn’t think I had it in me. But Ivy crawled under my skin, then sunk in her claws. Now she’s burrowed her way right inside me, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get her out.
Cutting the engine, I slide off my ride and head toward the entrance of the bar.
As I make my way for the door, it opens to a young, gorgeous blonde holding an obviously drunk guy by the belt of his pants and the seam of his collar, as she throws him out to the curb. “And stay out, you fucking pervy motherfucker!”
He falls into a set of trash cans, then into the gutter, mumbling to himself about her being a bitch.
The woman wipes her hands together in a good-riddance gesture when her eyes meet mine. Then she has the audacity to look me up and down, take in my club cut and snort while turning her nose up at me like I am shit she dragged in on her shoe.
“I’ve had enough damn trouble with handsy Harry over there. I don’t need you coming in and starting more, you hear me?” she demands.
I smirk. Somehow my somber mood has all but lifted at her sassy attitude. “Yes, ma’am. Need me to take care of him for you?”
She scowls. “You think I can’t take care of that asshole myself?” She scoffs, turns and storms back inside the dive bar. I chuckle watching the way her curvy but toned ass sways as she makes her way back inside.
This is definitely the bar for me to have a drink. Turning back to hands Harry, I check he isn’t going to make a return to the bar anytime soon. The idiot is out for the count, so I spin on my heel and push through the door.
As I enter, the first impression is that the place is small. A miniature stage lines the back wall, probably only big enough for a soloist to perform, definitely not any kind of real band. A few chairs and tables line the main area before the smallest dance floor in the world is located just before the doors which lead off to the bathrooms. The men’s room door is missing, and the female door has a giant hole through it. I turn to the right, the bar is long and wooden, old-fashioned in its style, but behind the bar, the wall is lined with mirrors and glass work. It’s like they’ve tried to modernize it, but the rest of the place is stuck in this twilight zone of shit and chaos—this truly is the definition of a dive bar.
The bar bitch from before is back behind the bar already serving customers as I walk over to pull out a stool. Her eyes flick to me when I sit, and it’s like she’s pondering what a guy like me is doing in a shithole like this. Though, to be fair, this ambiance calls out to criminals and thugs, so I’m unsure as to why she’s so uneased by a biker.
“What’s your poison?” she calls out from the other end.
I shudder. Goddamn! One simple word reminds me of Ivy. Resting my arms on the top of the bar, I shrug. “Surprise me.”
She waggles her brows. “You got it.” With speed, she moves behind the bar grabbing a bottle of scotch and amaretto. I have no fucking clue what she’s making, but what the hell. It’s a day of shit being fucked up, and honestly, I’ll drink anything ri
ght about now.
She grabs an old-fashioned glass, pouring in scotch, followed by the amaretto, then stirs it slightly. She pushes a coaster over, grabs a napkin, then places the glass in front of me. “Looks like you’ve had a hard day. This should help.”
“You can tell all that from looking at me?”
She leans back against the rear of the bar. “Part of the job… reading people.”
“And you couldn’t read that Harry was handsy before you had to kick him into the trash cans out there?”
She narrows her eyes on me. “Drink your drink before I make you wear it, asshole.”
With a chuckle, I pick up the glass. The alcohol is strong and burns going down, and with those few mouthfuls, I already know I’m going to need something to eat before I ride back to the clubhouse.
If I go back there at all tonight.
Bringing it to my lips again, the hit of scotch and almond liqueur is intensely stiff as my eyes widen with the sting burning my throat. But then again, it’s also smooth as it glides down, warming my insides, calming me almost instantly. “Shit, that’s good… what is it?”
She bobs her head like she knew I would like it. “It’s called the Godfather. Somehow I thought that would be fitting for a man like you.”
“A man like me?” I tilt my head to the side.
She shrugs. “Crime lord, gangster, vigilante, outlaw—”
“Outlaw! Yeah, I like that one. Makes me sound tough.”
“And you’re not tough?” she teases.
“Not as tough as you by the looks of it, considering you threw a grown man out on his ass. You’re pretty fucking badass.”
She grabs a rag from her back hip to wipe down the bar top. “Have to be. Part of the job.”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t know. A fierceness like that comes from within, something you’re born with, and it grows with the hand life has dealt.”