by Addison Jane
Addison Jane
Skylar
The Club Girl Diaries Book Seven
The Brothers by Blood MC
Addison Jane
Copyright 2017 Addison Jane
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.
Trigger Warning: there is content within this book that may set off triggers.
Portions of this book discuss PTSD, please click here for more information.
Editing by Swish Design & Editing
Formatting by Swish Design & Editing
Proofing by Fiona Dreaming – Proofreading & Formatting
Cover Design by Sara Eirew
Cover Model by Madison Leigh
Cover Photography by Reggie Deanching
Cover Image Copyright 2017
All rights reserved
To all my readers who have fallen in love with The Club Girl Diaries.
Your love and support is what keeps this series going.
To my mini for putting up with my foul moods and late hours while trying to get this book finished. I know I’m not always the easiest person to live with, but you always have my back.
Kimberly, you’re always there when I need someone to talk to, someone to listen to me ramble and offer points of advice. We are two peas in a damn pod.
Kay, yes, every time I think I have a book sorted, I lose my shit close to the end, and you’re always there to slap me and tell me to snap the hell out of it.
My betas, always there at the last minute to help out haha.
My family, thank you for always offering to do what you can when I’m right on the edge.
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
A Note For The Reader
Prologue
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
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Epilogue
A Note for the Reader
Connect With Me Online
About The Author – Addison Jane
Please note: for the characters, Eagle and Leo, while in the Army they are referred to as Max Knight (Eagle) and Ethan Jamison (Leo).
“I will not do it!” I screamed as the members of the Colony walked away, the piece of paper my father held in his hands staring at me like it was a death sentence. “Please, Father! Please.”
I clawed at my father’s hands as he held me tightly against his chest, trying to tear the paper from his hands, determined to destroy it. I kicked, I cried, I fought against him, but there was no point. My father was much stronger than I was. Fighting was futile, there was no way I could escape his grasp.
“You will stop now, Sapphire!” he snapped, squeezing my body tight enough to force the air from my lungs and have me gasping for breath. I didn’t care though, I knew what this meant.
This was the letter to tell my family who I would marry, who I would bare my children for and spend the rest of my life in complete obedience to.
Girls did not get to choose their husband, he was selected for us by the prophets who ran the Colony.
It was not what I wanted.
How could it be what anyone wanted?
As I stopped struggling, my body becoming lightheaded as I struggled to breathe, my father tossed me forward onto the wet grass. The morning dew soaked through my dress instantly and froze my fingertips as I lay there, my lungs heaving for air.
“Get up,” Father ordered, his tone sharp like the blade of a knife.
I forced myself onto my knees and pushed my body up from the ground before spinning around to face the man who had both given me life and stolen it from me too. “How could you let this happen?” I cried, pointing at him accusingly.
He took a menacing step forward, but I refused to retreat.
My mother stood on the small porch of our broken down trailer, her hand covering her mouth as she shook her head in disappointment. My father’s wives stood at the doors of their own trailers, watching avidly to see what would come of this massive betrayal. Some looked on with glee, others more with worry.
Each of his wives had their own trailer—six in total—which formed a semi-circle, allowing my father to easily move from one to the other while still supporting each of them equally.
I could see the rustle of curtains behind them, my brothers and sisters watching on as I stood toe-to-toe with our father. This was the man who was meant to protect us, to raise us and show us the way to a beautiful faith together, but who in my mind had done nothing but make himself into some superior being.
I knew I was different.
I knew I saw the world through a different lens than other people within the Colony.
My father blames it on my grandmother.
Before she died, she gave me all her belongings. There were books and old newspapers she had brought with her from the outside world before she joined the Colony. She told me stories of her as a child and a teenager. Stories about the love of a man and how it should be, not how the Colony and the leaders portrayed it.
We were taught here that a man was all powerful, that we should be grateful to be taken as a wife and are blessed to carry a man’s child in our stomachs. But that the act of creating children was purely to reproduce and please our husbands.
My grandmother’s words of love regularly played over and over in my mind. A man who would cherish me, who would encourage me to pursue my passions, who would send tingles through my body when he touched me.
That was what I wanted.
I did not want to be owned like a piece of property.
“Get inside and finish your chores,” Father ordered, turning his back on me.
“No,” I fired back, causing him to freeze before
he could even take a step.
My mother’s eyes widened, and she started to shake her head. “Please,” she pleaded, taking a step down the porch and reaching out for him. “She is but a child, she does not know what she’s saying.”
I opened my mouth, ready to contradict her, to tell the both of them that I knew exactly what I was doing and saying. But before I could, Father swung around, his fist connecting with my jaw and throwing me sideways back onto the damp grass.
Tears streamed from my eyes and I cradled the side of my face, pain radiating through my head and making me feel as though I was going to be sick and pass out.
One would think I would be used to it by now, but I swore the pain of being struck never got any easier.
I laid there for a few moments, my mother’s sobs and my father’s heaving breath surrounding me. No one came to my aid.
I heard their footsteps walking away, my father stomping angrily as he pulled my mother with him, soon disappearing over the hill toward the compound. The other wives took their cue as I lay there, my head pounding and blood seeping from my lip, ushering their children in the same direction my parents had gone.
I closed my eyes, lying back in the grass, wishing the ground would break open in that moment and swallow me whole. Any other fate would be much less painful than living in this place for one more moment of my life.
I stood in shock, staring at a sister who I hadn’t seen in almost five years, but one I would recognize easily without a second glance. As I pulled her in again, I started to laugh while wrapping my arms around her slim body and cradling her against me.
“I can’t believe it. How are you here?” I asked in complete awe.
She didn’t answer, her fingers digging into my sides as she held onto me like she thought I could be torn away from her at any moment.
I pried myself from her grip momentarily, my hands reaching up to cup her face. She was scared, her eyes were darting between Chelsea and Deacon as they stood silently beside us. “It’s okay,” I whispered gently. “They’re our friends.”
Deacon nodded in agreement. “Like I said before, I’m a police officer. I’m here to help you.”
Emerald’s eyes seemed to soften on Deacon and she took a deep breath, holding it in for strength like we used to do when we were kids. The longer you held your breath, the more strength your body would absorb. We used to have competitions—a fight to see who was stronger, which often resulted in one or more of us passing out because we were that stubborn. But back then, we also needed a lot of strength.
As she exhaled, she held her chin a little higher, and her shaking hands became steady. “I ran,” she answered softly. “Father was going to make me marry this awful man who joined the Colony a few months ago.” Her brow was pulled in tightly, like her anger toward our father was still burning within her. “He was different, Sapphire. He did not fit in…” she paused and then continued, “… he did not wear our clothes or speak like us.”
It was strange to hear her call me by a name that I’d sworn so many years ago I’d never be known as again. Sapphire wasn’t who I was anymore. She was obedient, where I’d become opinionated. She was weak, where I was now strong.
I pursed my lips together, unsure of what my sister was saying.
The elders and prophets were always very strict about outsiders coming into the Colony. It was basically forbidden unless they were coming to join us, and then they would be forced to give up their possessions and way of life, but most of all be expected to follow the rules.
“Did you speak with this man?” I questioned.
A crimson blush spread across her cheeks. Her hands fell into her lap, and she hung her head as though she was expecting a punishment, but I had no idea what for.
“Emerald,” I hissed. “Tell me what he has done.” I could feel the tone of my voice changing, the way I spoke was different as I fell back into old habits. It’d taken me a long time to change the way I acted, and the way words fell from my lips. We didn’t grow up using slang, and almost carried what I could identify now as a strange accent.
“I cannot say,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
He had hurt her, I could hear it and see it on her face.
Whoever this man was, had done something to cause my beautiful and usually vibrant sister to pull into herself in fear.
It made me angry. I was furious at them and at myself.
It wasn’t as though I hadn’t thought of going back for my siblings. I felt guilt almost every day for leaving them there unprotected while I lived this amazing life of freedom. But I knew going back and possibly being caught would mean the end of my life. Instead, I was working hard to make something of myself, so maybe one day, I could find the confidence to rescue them and show them that the world outside of the Colony was a beautiful place. Not a place to be feared, not a place of sin, but a place of life.
“Is she in danger?” Chelsea asked, placing her hand on my shoulder.
I met the worry in her eyes. “Possibly. They may be looking for her.”
She nodded. “I think we should talk to Optimus, see if there’s anything the club can do to help.”
My heart warmed, and I placed my hand over hers and gave it a light squeeze. “That would be great.”
“I’ll come with you,” Deacon said, stepping forward. While his words were directed at me, his eyes were focused on my sister. They were intense and unwavering, but there was something else floating in the depths of his gaze, an emotion that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. After a few long seconds, he finally turned to me, as if the spell Emerald had cast over him was broken. He cleared his throat, and I raised an eyebrow curiously. “She’s technically still in my custody until I can find a family member or someone to care for her temporarily while we figure out what’s going on. She’s still a minor.”
My gut sank. He was right. Emerald was only seventeen, she didn’t turn eighteen for another four months. “Will they try and take her back home?” I asked, my heart beat rising rapidly.
Emerald looked at the ground while Deacon just smirked. “Your sister was smart enough to give us no information about who her parents are and where we might be able to locate them. She’s not carrying any identification, the only thing she has with her is a photo of you.” He pulled it from his pocket and held it up in front of him. “There was an alert sent out yesterday with this picture, luckily I recognized your face and was able to get them to bring Emerald here to me.”
“They were happy to get rid of me,” Emerald whispered sourly. “They knew where I had come from, even though I demanded that they were wrong, and they spoke to me as though I was…” her eyes looked up at the ceiling as if searching her brain for the right word.
“Crazy?” I offered, rolling my eyes. It was typical, and I knew exactly what she meant. The people who lived in the towns and cities surround the Colony all thought that it was basically an insane asylum, that we were all a few colors short of a rainbow.
At first, it had offended me too, to have such biased preconceptions about the world that we came from. Mainly because while I had objected to the way in which we were treated and the things we were made to believe, I’d still for the most part, had a childhood full of happy times and a family full of brothers and sisters who I adored with all my heart.
We weren’t all crazy, but I realize now it just so happened to be the ones in charge of the Colony that were.
I rang Sugar, and she gave me permission to close up the shop early after hearing what was going on.
Emerald tapped her foot nervously in the backseat of Deacon’s police car as we made the short drive to the compound. “What is the club you speak of?” she whispered to me, looking around with wide eyes as we passed through the main street of Athens.
“Umm…” I screwed up my nose, trying to think of how I could explain the Brothers by Blood to my sister, who had possibly never even seen a motorcycle.
The Colony was situated in a small town just sout
h of San Antonio, Texas. Members made up eighty percent of the population, and the few people there who weren’t part of the Colony, we were forbidden to even speak to or look at if they passed by.
The police were all Colony members, and the stores were owned by them too.
Some men had their wives spread across town in small homes, rotating himself between each. While my father had a large piece of land where he had a home, but the wives lived outside in six large trailers that were barely big enough for two people, let alone those of his wives who had four or five children each.
That was my father for you. The most selfish and self-centered man ever, making his wives live out in the cold while he had this huge home all to himself.
I shuddered, clearing my throat and trying to fight back the emotions which were raging inside me. It had been a long time since I’d thought about the Colony and my family. I tried to squash those horrible memories and fill my life with good ones. Now Emerald was back though, and I just knew that things were going to change.
“The club is hard to explain, Emerald, I don’t want you to freak out. These people, they’re my friends. They’re here to help us,” I told her, trying to ease her worries, but the second we pulled in the gates behind Chelsea, I knew that my words hadn’t done shit.
“No, take me back. I want to leave,” she said in a panic as Deacon pulled the car to a stop and she spotted Optimus and Blizzard standing outside the front door with their arms folded across their chests, glaring at Deacon’s patrol car.
In their club colors and their leathers, the two men—I had to admit—did look somewhat intimidating. They were tall and broad, scruffy looking with unshaven faces and short messy hair.
When a motorcycle roared into the compound behind us, Emerald squealed and clambered over the seat, clutching my arm, her eyes widening with fear.
“It’s okay,” I tried to soothe her. She was shaking like a leaf in an autumn breeze, as though she was about to be plucked off the tree and crash to the ground. “Listen, Emerald, they’re my friends.”
