The Dirty Dozen: MC Edition

by Kay Maree

  “What do you mean we shouldn’t be here?” she replied.

  “Those scumbags lured you here, get out Indiana,” he pleaded.

  Motherfuckers, yes, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but I should have realised when I walked in through the backdoor with no worries that something wasn’t quite right.

  “Please get her out,” Johnny mumbled as he raised his head to look at me. He knew exactly who I was the instant he locked eyes with me. I thought he’d be shocked or surprised to see me, but he seemed relieved that Indiana had someone on her side. That the silly girl hadn’t come here alone.

  “We’ve gotta go,” I urged. Knowing the unspoken words, he’d just asked me. He knew he wasn’t getting out of this alive and something about this whole thing just screamed death. We should have never entered, never came but she saw, she met even if it was brief and now it was time to say goodbye.

  “What do you mean we’ve gotta go,” she said just as the sound of a whiz bang pop rang out through the room.

  Fuck! The sound of gunfire was so loud that it made my ears ring. I turned around and quickly drew my gun firing off a few rounds. I could barely see what was going on in this place and to be honest I wasn’t even sure where the gun fire was coming from. All I knew, was that we couldn’t stay around any longer. If we did, we’d become part of the body count of what potentially could go down here.

  Her father had just been pleading with me to get her out, but she was a headstrong woman and was refusing to budge. If she didn’t let up soon, I was going to throw her over my shoulder and carry her out of here kicking and screaming if I had to.

  “Go!” Johnny yelled.

  “I can’t,” Indi remarked her tone shaky as the words left her mouth.

  Fuck me! She was going to burst into tears but maybe it’s what I needed in order to get her out. Consumed in grief so I could carry her out.

  “Viper, please get her out safely,” he ordered. “It’s time to let go and move on. I was never the best father is a father at all. Go and live your life… for me,” he pleaded. “Get out.”

  I don’t remember too much of what happened after Johnny yelled a thousand times for me to get her out. A lot was a blur, I remember the gunfire but the one memory that stuck in my mind was her tears. The tears that streamed down her cheeks and continued for hours after we’d fled.

  She wouldn’t talk, she wouldn’t even look at me and I knew deep down that she blamed me for the death of her father. I’d give her space… it was all I could really do.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Forever

  Indiana

  One Year Later

  I found my father, the man who’d given me life, but it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies, it was more like heartache and tears. He’d sacrificed himself to see that I was safe, taken care of and that continued to weigh heavy on me even after a year of trying to deal with it all.

  I remember pleading with him. A man I didn’t know. “Please don’t make me,” I cried. I’d just met him, just found him and now he was going to sacrifice himself to see that I lived a life full of joy.

  I recalled that I screamed as Viper picked me up and began to drag me out of a building as the sound of gunfire popped all around us. He’d thrown me over his shoulder, the tears continuing to fall as my screams began to become louder. I couldn’t do this… all this had essentially been for nothing. Coming to America, seeking Viper’s help. I still couldn’t believe he’d helped me to look for my father and it had been all for nothing. I blamed him and it was the reason I up and left with so much as a goodbye. I felt like it was Viper’s fault that all of this had come to pass. He’d dragged me out and away from my father and that was something extremely hard to move on from. Ultimately, I knew it wasn’t Viper’s fault and that everything in life had its own time and place. Maybe I wasn’t meant to know my father, to discover his shady past and be forever tainted by it. Maybe that was his decisive goal, to leave me with a totally different last name to his, to keep me forever protected from what he’d created.

  It didn’t matter anyway. I’d left that whole life behind. I’d run. Returning to Australia was like breathing in fresh air. I loved this country and how could I not. It’s crystal clear blue waters, hot sunny days and baby blue skies… its coolish winters and gorgeous autumn days. If you could skip over the all the creepy crawlies you’d be in complete and utter love with this place.

  I’d been back home for a year before it all came crashing down around me. To say I was a shadow of my former self was an understatement. I’d been down, glum and nothing like the woman who’d set out to find her missing father.

  I was sick of this feeling, of being empty inside and I knew why I felt this way, but I didn’t want to admit it. I couldn’t admit it because if I did then I’d be setting myself up for so much more heartache. Of course, you’re not living unless you take chances in life, unless you have faith that you will get back up, you will smile again, and the sun is going to shine tomorrow. This wasn’t the end; it was only the beginning of something that was beautiful.

  That day, a whole year after I’d left, he walked back into my life and everything I’d been boxing up came flooding out.

  I couldn’t believe I had been blessed with such a man, when it was life’s choice to deal me out so much suffering, so much loss. So much heartache and turmoil that I knew I wasn’t the same girl I was when I began this journey. I went in search of my father… the Razor a man so brutal, barbaric and cutthroat that people both loved him and feared him. I on the other hand hardly knew him. I was a young girl… merely a year old when I was shipped off to Australia to live. My father had wanted me to exist in a world where I wouldn’t suffer for being his daughter. A world painted with rainbows, butterflies, men of honour and all things rosy. The only problem is such a world doesn’t exist and it never would exist. Men of honour were few and far between and as for rainbows… I can only say I’ve seen less than a handful in my entire existence and they only ever showed their faces after a lot of rain.

  Viper wasn’t supposed to be anyone but an informant to me, he was simply a one night stand I repeated a few times before I realised I had to give him up. I knew running from him was a mistake. He’d open himself up to suffer a broken heart and that’s what I did. I broke his heart. I’d run, left him only to realise that I was hopelessly and irrevocably in love with him.

  He was dashingly handsome, beautifully flawed and yet in the past couple of months I’d grown to realise he’d been a man of honour from the minute I met him. He knew, he knew everything about me from the beginning and I believed that frightened the fuck out of me. I was merely twenty-one, a young woman. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with a man I didn’t know.

  None of that mattered now because he was my present, past and future. He was so much more than I ever expected him to be, those beautiful baby blues had drilled deep into the soul of me the night we became one in the back alley of a dirty dive bar and since that night our hold on each other was unbreakable.

  “You’re beautiful Freckles,” he whispered.

  This feeling would never leave me… it would be with forever and so would all I had learnt… discovered and experienced on my journey to self-discovery. I began a simple girl… and Aussie girl with spunk, fight and a heart full of love but I was now a woman, a woman who owned the heart of a man so pure yet tainted by his birth name. Together we would be forever flawed but nonetheless beautiful diamonds in the rough destined to be together forever. One body, one mind, one heart. Forever his and he forever mine.

  THE END

  About the Author

  The best way to this authors heart is through Minties!

  I'm a self confessed shopaholic, book-a-holic and nerdy child!

  I'm a self-published Aussie author from a small country town in Queensland. I have 3 children, a manage of pets which include cows, chickens, ducks, sheep and several dogs.

  I not only love
to write novels but I love to read from many genres which include Y.A, fantasy, romance including erotica and much more. I'm a geek for all things Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings that's just to name a few.

  I'm a bit of a clown always up for a laugh and a good joke.

  If you like romance with heat, spunk and fire check me out!

  Author Links

  Facebook

  https://www.facebook.com/GemmaArlingtonAuthor/

  Email

  gemmaarlington@hotmail.com

  Twitter

  https://twitter.com/gemma_arlington

  Amazon Author Page

  https://www.amazon.com/Gemma-Arlington/e/B00S49TWF8

  Other books by Gemma Arlington:

  Amore Intimate Series

  The Unexpected Wedding

  Hello, Stranger

  Stripped

  Bachelor Weekend

  Intimate Disasters

  The Black Angel

  Playtime Series

  Ace

  Hardcore

  Euphoria

  Secret Trilogy

  Secret Heart

  Secret Lies

  Slayer Brothers Series

  SMASH

  UNHOLY TRINITY

  REVENGE

  Standalones

  The Perfect Business Arrangement

  Auction Series – Complete Collection

  SLADE

  A HADES HORSEMEN MC

  NOVELLA

  VR BAUCKE

  SLADE

  A HADES HORSEMEN MC NOVELLA

  Copyright © 2019 by VR Baucke

  The right of VR Baucke to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000

  All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical or mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Tova

  I slam my car door shut and stride over to the crowd gathered outside my apartment block. It’s cordoned off, police everywhere, people crying and gossiping in hushed tones.

  A spooked shiver shoots up my spine. It’s happened again then. But who?

  “Tova! Thank Christ, I was beginning to worry about you girl!” Frankie flings her arms around me then pulls back shaking her head.

  “Another?”

  She nods and purses her lips. “Anita. Top floor.”

  “Shit! Same calling card?”

  “Yeah, the Ace of Spades card. Apparently she only received it last night, then today...” Frankie makes a subtle throat slicing motion and stands a little closer.

  The chill weaves across my shoulder blades as I turn my attention to the ambulance officers wheeling out a body bag. It’s the third one in the last month. Someone is picking off women like flies. Fucked if I’ll let that scare me away though. No arsehole was going to lay a finger on me. I see the way guys look at me—I scare them, and not just because I’m a badass bitch; my brother is the President of the local Hades Horsemen Motorcycle Club. If anyone so much as breathes the wrong way in my direction, Griz knows about it. As much as I love him, he’s a colossal pain in my skinny arse.

  “I’m scared, Tove,” Frankie whispers. “I’m gonna stay at Sean’s until things settle down. Please tell me you’ll move out too.”

  Sean is Frankie’s current boyfriend. She goes through a few, but this one seems less of a dropkick than the last.

  “Fuck no. I’m not letting some psycho push me out of my own apartment.”

  Her lips purse as she locks eyes with me. “I know you’re the club princess, but I worry you’re getting complacent. Just because Griz-”

  I snap up a hand. “Babe, you know what I’m like, and you know what he’s like, and you know what everyone thinks of us.”

  Frankie sighs and gives my forearm a squeeze. “Just… Be vigilant is all I’m saying.”

  I curl my lip in disdain when the pervy little neighbour from down the hall hurries over and asks if we’re okay. Everyone else stays out of my space, just the way I’m used to. I know I give fuck off vibes—if only Vincent could take a hint.

  I ignore him and speak only to Frankie. “I’ve got some calls to make.”

  “All good, girl. I’ll catch ya.”

  “Yup,” I mutter, already psyching myself up to make two essential phone calls.

  The first one is easy—to my co-worker, Henley.

  The second, I put off as long as I can.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Slade

  There's thirty of us in church gathered around the large oval table, and Griz is to my left at the head. Club territories are the topic being discussed at the moment and tempers are running high. Every motherfucker has to chip in their worthless two cents and it’s dragging the conversation around in circles.

  I take another long drag while Bishop actually adds something worthwhile.

  “It's the Lucifer’s Guild, Griz. They’re pushin’ their supply along the border we recently cleaned.”

  I exhale a plume of grey-blue smoke and squint through it.

  “Names,” Griz barks.

  Bish waves a hand. “Usual culprits; their prospects tryin’ to prove they ain’t pussies.”

  Numerous sniggers around cigarettes, joints or beer bottles are mumbled around the table. We’d all been through the initiation process at some point in time; even Griz who was born into the club and destined to take his old man's role as Pres had to prove himself worthy.

  I'd prospected around the time Griz was becoming more involved with the finer workings of the club, quickly becoming his most trusted comrade then eventually Vice.

  Griz had been there when life was shit. I'd fucked up, let people down, then lived rough for a while. From there, I turned to the Hades Horsemen and didn’t look back.

  “Ruck, take Butch,” Griz points at him, “and see what you can find. If there’s- Fuck-” Griz halts his commands and snatches his phone from the table. He’s instantly pissed.

  “Emergencies only, Tova,” he barks. “What the fuck is it?”

  The room silences at the mention of Tova’s name, and just like every other brother in the room, my eyes are glued to Griz.

  “When?” His eyes snap to the wall clock when she answers. “You’re moving in with me. Grab your shit and get your arse over to mine.”

  His jaw clenches a second later when I’m assuming she’s told him to take a running jump.

  “It’s either that or I’m gonna send one of my guys over.”

  I hear her reply; it’s yelled into the phone. “I don’t need a fucking babysitter, Griz!”

  I hide my grin by taking another drag on the cancer stick between my lips. Tova Costello is as feisty as they come. Hot as sin with a mouth on her that makes a dick hard and balls shrivel in fear. She's also not worth the trouble. Only a fool would fuck with her, and Griz has made it abundantly clear that she’s out of bounds to everyone in the club; good thing that no brother is stupid enough to lay a hand on her.

  Griz tosses the phone onto the table and knocks back the rest of his beer. Silence reigns while we wait; it won’t be long.

  “There’s been another woman murdered in Tova’s apartment block. She’s just got back and no one is allowed access yet. Stubborn bitch is refusing to stay at mine, and she sure as hell ain’t stayin’ here.”

  Colt sniggers. “Yeah, ‘coz we all know there won’t be a limp cock in the entire compound if she- Ouch, fuck, Griz!”

  I chuckle beneath my breath when the bottle cap Griz pegs at Colt catches him on the cheek. The bastar
d never knows when to shut it. However, he’s not bullshitting—Tova has featured in more than a few mental pornography screenings while I flogged one out.

  “Not another fucking word from you, Colt.” Griz glares around the table. “As I was saying, because Tova's digging her goddamn heels in, I need a volunteer to stay at hers until this fucker is found.”

  Crude comments are made while hands around us rise. In fact, all brothers without a missus at home volunteer. Apart from me.

  I'm focusing on relighting my cig when Griz turns to me.

  “Slade.”

  “What?” I snap, not looking up because I’m concentrating.

  “You’re going to Tova’s.”

  My sharp inhale causes me to choke on the smoke weaving through my lungs.

  “Fucking what!” I shout. “You askin’ as my brother or tellin’ me as my Pres?”

  His eyes narrow. “Depends, are we gonna have a problem?”

  “Apart from Tova being a right piece of work, nope,” I bite.

  “Exactly why you’re the brother for the job. That, and I trust you to keep your hands and cock to yourself.”

  More sniggers are breathed around the table, loud enough to be audible yet low enough not to be heard properly.

  Griz's sharp green eyes bore into mine, exactly the way that makes most arseholes twitchy.

  “Boss,” I start, and that one word turns this into a Pre to Vice exchange.

  Griz's eyes harden; he doesn't like to be challenged, but gives me the benefit of the doubt. I eye him for a long while, squeezing the shit out of my fag before ramming it back into my mouth.

  “Consider it sorted,” I growl.

  With a nod, he turns his attention back to club business while I seethe inside from the unexpected turn in events. I’m so fucking screwed.