The Dirty Dozen: MC Edition

by Kay Maree

  Denise breezes back into the room. “Just checking your vitals one last— Oh! Er, I see your BP is a little elevated, Miss Costello,” she snickers as she reads the monitor.

  I feel heat creep onto my cheeks as Slade scoffs, “Jesus, your timing is impeccable! My woman just told me she loves me and you fucking stride in here and kill the moment.”

  Denise half-turns to Slade and raises her brows. “Don’t let me stop you, darl.”

  A snigger weaves past my lips despite the pain; I’ve never heard anyone call Slade ‘darl’ before and it’s funny as fuck—even more so when I see how deeply he’s scowling.

  “Not fucking happening with an audience,” he huffs.

  “Language,” Denise snips. “And you can put your body away, Kalem. I know it’s fancy, but seriously, Miss Costello’s pulse is through the roof.”

  Now I’m the one scowling while Slade sniggers. He then clears his throat and lowers his voice. “I might need your help first.”

  Denise turns her attention to Slade. “How do you mean?”

  He gives her a charming little smile. “Can you redress this for me?”

  Denise scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Sit down and I’ll be back in a moment, but you owe me a decent coffee next time you come in,” she calls as she disappears from the room again.

  Slade’s grey eyes land on me. “Not a fucking word out of you, Sparrow.”

  I don’t move or react, yet on the inside I’m laughing like fucking crazy from Denise chopping Slade down from VP of a motorcycle gang to coffee boy in once sentence.

  EPILOGUE

  Tova

  “Slade, seriously! You’re testing my trust levels to the max. Don’t you dare drop me!”

  His chuckle vibrates through my shoulder. “You don’t need to warn me, little bird. I already know my arse is on the line right now.”

  I grumble and relax in his arms as he carries me somewhere. I say ‘somewhere’ because I’m blindfolded and have been since we left Griz’s place in Bishop’s truck.

  Slade pauses and awkwardly juggles me in his arms while I hear a click then a long squeak. Next, I feel him climbing steps.

  “So, we’re not at the club house then. And we’re still outdoors so we’re not back at my apartment.”

  “Nope and nope.”

  “Gah, this is fucking killing me.”

  Slade sniggers and juggles me again. This time I hear keys clinking.

  “I can’t believe I’m about to do this. It was fucking peaceful when you could hardly talk.”

  I lash out and laugh when my hand connects with his chin, only to let out a horrifying girly screech when he pretends to drop me.

  “Kalem Edwards, I swear to God I will cut off your dick in your sleep if you do that again!”

  “Fuck, she used first and last names, I must be in trouble.”

  I huff to hide my happy little grin, then listen to a door unlock.

  “Seriously, where are we?”

  “Fuck you’re impatient,” Slade grunts and readjusts me in his arms. “Just wait a goddamn second.”

  “Bu-”

  “Seriously, Tova, I’ll leave you in a fucking Avery if you don’t shut your bloody mouth while I concentrate!”

  I snap my mouth shut and listen to Slade’s booted footsteps echoing inside a building. We turn one corner then my arse gently hits a flat surface. Slade steadies me as I shuffle back a little, then he tugs my legs apart and stands between them. My hands find his shoulders as he gently kisses me, knowing my mouth and jaw are still sore and bruised. With a tender graze of his knuckles against my cheek, Slade then slowly begins to untie my blindfold.

  “Sla-”

  “Shh, Tove. Now, I need to tell you something. Something I’ve never told anyone before.” His voice holds a slight waver, and hearing the discomposure in his tone immediately has me worried.

  “Okay…” I whisper.

  I feel him shift slightly then his lips brush my ear. “I love you.”

  My heart skips a painful beat as a gasp falls from my open mouth. In that same moment, Slade removes the blindfold and my senses scramble to make sense of our foreign surroundings, the nervous expression on his face, and his professed love echoing throughout my head. Words form on my tongue yet none make their way into the space between us.

  Slade grins widely and crows, “Well, fuck me, Tova Costello is lost for words!”

  “You seem to have that effect on me,” I mumble and dart my eyes around the unfamiliar kitchen. “Where are we?”

  “We…” he tugs me closer by the hips, “…are in our house.”

  My jaw drops a little until I’m reminded of my injury. The constant ache grates on my nerves, making me less tolerant than usual.

  Looking in the mirror for the first time after I got shot was a mind fuck on acid. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty, but damn… I hoped Slade liked scars, because every time he looks at this one he was going to be reminded of when his brother tried to kill me. Thank Christ Denise left me alone to process my new appearance. I hadn’t worked up the courage to look at my reflection for a long while, and when I did, I didn’t cry—I got angry. I hurled the mirror at the opposite wall where it smashed on impact, making me feel instantaneously better.

  Denise was a force to be reckoned with, but damn I respected the shit out of her, and that was the sole reason I forced myself out of bed to help clean up the mess I made. She ordered me back to bed but I refused until our job was done. Then, for one of the few times in my life, I apologised and genuinely meant it.

  “Slade! Our house? You bought a house?”

  His smile is uncharacteristically boyish and cute. “Rented. For us. Just us. And, when we’re here, it’s Kalem not Slade.”

  “Kalem.” His name effortlessly slips from my lips as my eyes flit around the modern white kitchen then back to Kalem’s grey eyes. I fist his shirt with one hand and tug on the back of his neck with the other, bringing his face level with mine.

  “Fuck I love you.”

  A happy smile splits his face and melts more of my icy heart. “There’s my woman,” he growls before visibly restraining himself.

  With more gentleness than I’d ever known from him, he cups my non-injured cheek and tenderly presses a kiss to my lips. “Fuck I can’t wait to kiss you properly.”

  “Tell me about it,” I drawl. “Now, show me around—I don’t even know what suburb we’re in.”

  Kalem takes my hand and helps me down from the benchtop. “We’re close to the clubhouse but on the opposite side to your old apartment, and, it’s closer to Voltage,” he adds as he leads me through the rooms.

  I recognise most of my furniture with the exception of Kalem’s bed, and he catches me glaring at it.

  “Mine’s way more comfortable than yours, and bigger, so it was a no brainer.”

  “Uh huh,” I say to his back as he tugs me through another door.

  “And this,” he throws out his arm with a flourish, “…is the closet. Nice and big, because apparently chicks dig that shit.”

  I weave my arms around his neck as his hands come to rest on my arse. “This room first.”

  A crease crinkles Kalem’s forehead. “What for?”

  “What do you mean, what for?” I scoff. “To get freaky in.”

  I feel movement within his jeans almost immediately after I put the idea in his head.

  “Christ, Tove, you’re not long out of hospital.”

  “Exactly. It’s been too long already.”

  Kalem’s voice lowers. “Lie down.”

  I comply without hesitation, dropping to my knees in front of him and working the button and zip of his jeans. Once Kalem kicks them free, he carefully eases my shirt over my head then peels off my jeans.

  He’s gentle, slow, restrained; completely the opposite to the other times we’ve fucked hard.

  Afterwards, I lie in his arms and trace my fingers over his bare chest. Goose bu
mps ripple his skin from my touch and a content rumble comes from within.

  “Are you happy, Tove?”

  “I am, very much. Are you?”

  “More than you know. C’mon.”

  He slides out from under me then hoists me to my feet. I slip on my underwear and his t-shirt as he pulls on his boxers, then we make our way into the kitchen where he sets me on the bench again.

  “Er, what are you doing?”

  Kalem looks at me over his shoulder. “Feeding my woman, that’s what.”

  I watch as he pulls out a pan and eggs. “Cook me some eggs, bitch,” I snicker.

  He slams the pan on the stove then reaches for me with a wicked glint in his eyes. With a flick of his hand, his fingers tickle beneath the hem of his shirt that I wear.

  “You’re lucky your nurse gave me strict instructions to allow you to rest. The minute you’re ninety percent recovered, the gloves are off, little bird.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  He presses a kiss on my mouth then turns back to the stove. I admire his back—the intricate designs blending into one another to create a canvas of art like no other, complete with the Hades Horsemen emblem holding pride of place over one shoulder blade.

  In my mind, I plan my next piece for him and a new idea pops into my head.

  “Kalem?”

  “Mm?”

  “Do you want to design my next ink?”

  He whips around and his features light with enthusiasm. “Fucking oath I do. Anything?”

  “Anything,” I confirm with a giggle.

  A wide smile reveals his white teeth. “Hang tight, Sparrow, I’ll find your sketch pad.”

  He jogs down the hallway and I catch myself grinning like a fool. He’s only gone for half a minute before he returns with a grin that holds devilish glint.

  “Done.”

  “What? Already? Give it here!” I laugh as he skips around just out of reach.

  I snatch the pad from his hand when he finally offers it my way, and pain laces through my jaw from my burst of laughter.

  “You want me to get your name inked on my body? Where?”

  Slade’s eyes darken. “Yeah I do, and that part I’ll leave up to you.”

  I look down at his bold scrawl that’s more like chicken scratchings than legible writing, and decide that the spot where this is getting inked needs to be somewhere I won’t regularly see it; his handwriting is that bad.

  “Problem?” Kalem drawls.

  “As if,” I scoff, already forming an idea.

  ~*~

  Slade

  “Kalem!” Tova hollers from the bathroom. It’s been a fortnight since we moved in together and I don’t regret it for a second—aside from when she’s calling on me like a fucking bell boy in Bora Bora.

  “Kalem!” Her yell is accompanied with her fist bashing on the wall this time.

  I roll from the couch with a growl and find Tova in our ensuite, wrapped in a towel and looking slightly nauseated.

  “Fuck, Sparrow, what is it!”

  Her expression causes a stab of worry to pierce through my chest, and immediately my eyes land on her jaw. The scar is still red and raised, but looks okay from this distance.

  Tova begins puffing little breaths and flapping a hand at her face. “Okay, don’t freak out. Everything’s okay, just, fuck! I can’t believe we did this!”

  “Tova!” I yell and flare my eyes in a ‘hurry up and fucking spit it out’ look.

  She huffs and fingers the towel where it’s tucked into her cleavage. Without breaking my eye contact, she lets it fall to her feet. I don’t look at where it’s landed; I’m too busy lookin’ at the view. It’s only when she shifts slightly that I glance in the mirror to get a glimpse of her arse, and I fucking stop dead.

  My mouth falls open. “You didn’t!” I close the distance between us in three large paces then spin Tove so I can get a closer look. “You fucking did! Christ, seeing that makes me feel like a motherfucking God!”

  Tova giggles and wiggles her arse a little, and I can’t help but dip my head and bite one of the rounded cheeks in my grip.

  “You like it?” she asks.

  “Like? I fucking love!” I declare. “This is something I should have thought of months ago. Fuck, Sparrow, you slay me.”

  “We slay each other,” she whispers over her shoulder and offers a devilish smirk when my gaze locks with hers. “No getting rid of me now, Kalem.”

  “Says the woman who told me to fuck off when I first turned up at her door,” I drawl.

  Her eyes darken. “What can I say, I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Can’t un-change it now that it’s written in ink, little bird. You’re mine, and I’m yours, until the Devil takes us both.”

  I drop my attention back to her skin and run my finger below the freshly inked letters that span her lower back, all the while grinning like the lucky bastard I am.

  K A L E M

  ~THE END~

  About the Author

  VR Baucke lives in New Zealand with her husband, three children and four chickens.

  V discovered her love of writing in 2017 then found the courage to debut as an author in 2018, writing contemporary and romantic suspense.

  When not writing, V loves reading, playing the guitar, a strong cuppa tea, making her husband laugh, spending time outdoors with her family, and the motto ‘you’ve got to try everything once’.

  Author Links

  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18175875.VR_Baucke

  BookBub:

  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/vr-baucke

  Facebook:

  https://www.facebook.com/authorVRBaucke/

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  https://www.instagram.com/authorvrbaucke/

  Amazon:

  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07S3225RV

  TANK

  A SAINTS MC NOVELLA

  EMBER-RAINE WINTERS

  TANK

  A SAINTS MC NOVELLA

  Copyright © 2019 by Ember-Raine Winters

  The right of Ember-Raine Winters 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.

  Dedication

  To Sara the best PA in the world.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Tank

  I was sitting back, watching the other guys drink and be idiots in the clubhouse, when my old man, the club president, clapped me on the back.

  “Why aren’t you out there acting a fool?” He cracked a rare smile. I shook my head; I wasn’t interested in any of the club whores. I was getting too old to deal with all of it.

  Being in my thirties, I was well on my way to taking over for the old man, but something was starting to feel off about the life I led. I couldn’t put my finger on what. I knew it wasn’t the carnage that sometimes came with being in a motorcycle club, that I could handle.

  “I have a job for you,” the old man said as he nodded for me to follow him into his office. Intrigued, I followed him and sat on the uncomfortable foldout chair that was just a bit too small for my big frame. I knew he had that shitty chair so he could show his dominance over anyone who had the misfortune of being called into his office. It irritated me because I was much bigger than the rest of the club members and the chair nearly buckled under my weight each time I sat in it. I just knew eventually it would give, and I would go toppling to the ground. My old man
would laugh his fucking ass off if that happened. He was a bastard like that.

  “What’s going on, Pop?” I asked, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees.

  “The Devils have been encroaching on our territory. Women have gone missing.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. I instantly sat up straight. We may have been a motorcycle club running drugs and guns, but one unspoken rule of the old man’s was women and children got a free pass. It was one thing to rough a woman up in the bedroom if she liked it but any man in his club that hurt a woman, or a child was treated with the same brutality and kicked out. We didn’t stand for that shit, and the guys in the club obeyed that law to the T.

  “I’ve heard of the Devils. They’re a sadistic bunch of assholes. They have chapters all over the country. What should I do?” My back was ramrod straight as I waited for instructions. This was just the kind of thing I needed to scratch the itch under my skin, and make it go away.

  “They’ve taken over a little dive bar on the south side of town. Take Jayden and Mike with you, scout the place out. Do not engage yet. Just see if you can find where they have the girls. Word is they deal in human trafficking with the cartel.”

  “Fuck!” I yelled. This may be worse than I had originally thought. If they were in with the cartel, then there was no way the normal channels would find them. We needed to stop this before any of those girls left the country. I wasn’t great at stealth missions, but I was the best for this one. I nodded at my old man and stood quickly from the chair. The chair tipped over in my haste and I shook my head. “You really need a bigger chair, Pop.”

  “I like that chair. Now, go; do what I said.”

  “You got it, boss.” I mock saluted him before making my way back to the main bar area. I waved Jayden and Mike over.