by Keta Kendric
Twisted Secrets
Book #3
The Twisted Minds Series
Copyright © 2018 by Keta Kendric
Published by Jessica Watkins Presents
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Without limiting the right under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
Readers, from my heart, thank you. Without you, I am invisible, nothing more than a big imagination without the pulse that brings it to life.
Jessica Watkins, JWP Publishing, thank you for seeing something special enough in my writing to give me the opportunity to reach and entertain readers. My gratitude is endless.
Honey Berewa, your editing skills are exquisite. You let me know when to pull it back, upgrade the words, or toss it out completely. Your knowledge and keen eye for the written word is priceless.
Synopsis
Megan: Have you ever fallen so deeply for someone that you’d be willing to do anything for them? I was willing to do anything for Aaron including leaving him if it meant keeping him from getting tangled up in my past. Aaron wasn’t going to let me run, even if there was an army after me, he’d gather arms and prepare for a war.
Aaron: Letting Megan go wasn’t an option. She’d become a part of me that I couldn’t live without. Some of the horrifying secrets from her past had been revealed, but I believed Megan’s final secret had the power to rain down hell-fire on my MC, and I’d been right. When my father went behind my back and called my cousin Ansel for back-up, I knew that all hell was about to break loose, and I ended up preparing to fight an adversary so dangerous, my life teetered on the brink of extinction.
Warning
This book is an interracial romance that contains strong violence and sexual content and is intended for adults. This is fiction, not a documentary. If you are easily offended or squeamish about harsh or demeaning language, murder, and violence, this is not the book for you.
Part I
Chapter One
Aaron
It had only been two weeks since I’d tracked Megan down and brought her back to my house. I was supposed to find her and kill her for infiltrating my MC, but my dick had stopped me. For as strong as I thought my mind was, for once in my life, my dick had been right.
Not killing Megan had led me to finding out how she’d ended up the way she had. The story behind her actions was so gut-wrenching that it justified her twisted behavior.
Yesterday, we killed seven men together after they’d chased us and followed us into a patch of Copper County’s thick woods.
Once we fled the scene and settled, she tried to run from me again. I didn’t think I was going to have another problem with her running from me again. As her punishment, I gave her a fucking she won’t soon forget. I had her ass praying on her hands and knees for me to stop.
In all honesty, I didn’t know it was possible for someone like me, with a heart as black as coal, to love someone so deeply. I’d do anything for Megan—rob, cheat, commit murder—anything. She likely assumed I’d been talking out of my ass when I told her as much, but I’d meant every word I’d said to her. If someone harmed a hair on her head, they’d feel my wrath.
I glanced at her in the dim light of the early morning, lying against the passenger’s door panel of my truck. She’d passed out on the drive back to my house, since I’d kept her up all night.
As I drove, my mind fell on the men who were hunting us. There was no way of confirming who the mercenaries were after yesterday—her or me. Logic stated they were a group that could have been after Megan because my usual suspects were bikers, gang members, or the occasional wanna-be gangsters making a name for themselves.
The guys I’d led into the woods yesterday had come out of nowhere and struck with military precision. They didn’t care about killing innocent victims if it meant taking out their target. Unfortunately, I was not altogether sure who their target had been.
My MC had hundreds of members spread around five states, and we had many enemies. Megan was only one woman. Who the hell could have been after her that could not only afford hired guns but who could also afford to track her? If I hadn’t known about her books and D hadn’t followed the money trail to her friends, I would probably still be looking for her.
The Russians had come at my MC years ago with the same level of aggression as the assassins that attacked us yesterday. It’s one of the reasons why I kept military-grade weaponry in my possession.
The men yesterday spoke Spanish—that much I was sure of. I couldn’t recall our MC having any type of beef with any Hispanic groups, but I had to consider that there were a few in our MC known for stirring up trouble; the kind of trouble that led to dead bodies.
A flicker of light flashing across my cracked driver’s side mirror drew my attention. I glanced at Megan who was still out before I leaned up and squinted into the mirror to get a better view of the squad car behind us. Most of the Copper County cops left my MC alone as long as we kept our drama out of the public’s eyes and laced their pockets.
“Shit,” I mumbled as I took in two unfamiliar cops. My truck looked like it had taken a slow stroll through hell, and what looked like two unfamiliar Copper County Police officers were pulling me over. When they saw Megan, they were going to take whatever they had planned to the next level.
To make matters worse, we were on a stretch of backwoods roads surrounded by trees, so these asshole cops could do whatever the hell they wanted and get away with it.
Maintaining careful movements, I reached over and took the gun Megan had wedged between her hip and console and placed it under my seat. I did the same to the one I had tucked in my waist.
“Megan,” I called out after I shook her shoulder. She jumped up, frantically searching her surroundings, likely thinking we were being attacked. In a way, we were about to get attacked if the mean scowls on the officers’ faces as they exited the black and white squad car was any indication. I hadn’t spotted them on the highway, so they had likely been parked off the highway, painting their lips with powdered sugar when they spotted me.
My eyes remained on the officers in the mirror as I spoke to Megan.
“We are being pulled over by the cops. I don’t know these assholes, so I’m going to need you to stay quiet and answer only what they ask you.”
“Okay,” she said, stretching her neck to look back. She reached for the gun that I’d already hidden.
“I put it under my seat. Stay still,” I told her, my voice starting to project my agitation although nothing had happened yet.
The officers approached my truck from both sides, taking careful sideways steps. The sight of my damaged vehicle riddled with bullet holes caused them to grip their pistols as they drew and aimed them at the ground. They stopped at the back edge of the sides of my truck. One had his eyes on me in my mirror, the other I presumed kept an eye on Megan’s door as her side mirror had been shot off the truck.
When they stepped out and away from the tail end of my truck and turned towards me and Megan with their weapons aimed at our heads, I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed that I wasn’t going to have to take the life of two Copper County police officers.
“Roll the windows all the way down and both
of you stick your hands through the open windows!” The one on my side shouted the words as he edged closer to my position. My gaze was locked on him in the mirror.
“Any sudden movements and we will kill you. I will blow your fucking head off your shoulders!” he shouted. My irritation was heightened by the cocky arrogance in his voice.
As I slowly eased my hands through my window, I glanced at Megan doing the same. We just couldn’t catch a break. Was three or four days without drama too much to ask for?
The closer the officer came to me, the more I was convinced that this situation was only going to get uglier. The unmistakable sound of his approaching steps as they grew closer matched his cracked reflection in the mirror as it grew larger.
My eyes focused on a specific location in the mirror and didn’t miss the deep frown on his face. The steady aim of his gun at my head kept me quiet, but nothing was going to take away my hostile nature, my own grimaced face, or the liquid fire coursing through my veins.
“I’m going to open this door and you’re going to be a good dog and move out of that seat slowly.”
An angry growl escaped my throat when he called me a dog. Now, able to see him standing outside my door, he took the gun in one hand and ensured it stayed level with my head as he used his other hand to open my door.
Just as my door started to creak open, I heard the other officer yell, “What the fuck? Joe, do you see this shit. Look who he has in the truck with him.”
Upon hearing his friend’s discovery of Megan, Joe’s fucking finger flexed on the trigger and damn near sent my brains all over the back of my seat.
Joe pushed his gun even closer to my head as he leaned forward and peeked around me. His eyes remained on Megan a long time before they landed back on me. Disgust was written all over his face. Every frown line he had stretched tighter and deepened.
“So, you’re one of them confused motherfuckers, huh? You like that black poontang?” he spat his questions at me. “Step out of this truck, son, I’m about to teach you what your fucking father should have taught you when you were younger,” he barked his angry words, his voice laced with pure hate.
I rolled my shoulder and eased out of my truck, taking a deep and steadying breath. The partner hadn’t asked Megan to get out yet, and I hope he had sense enough to leave her alone.
As soon as the first pebble crunched under my boot when my feet touched the ground, I was snatched by the shoulder and pushed towards the hood of my truck.
“Get out of the truck, nigger girl,” the partner said to Megan as my face was being pressed into the dented hood of my truck. The jagged metal nudged angrily at my skin anxious to slice a hole in my face.
Movement on the other side of my truck captured my attention, but I couldn’t see anything with my face turned in the opposite direction. My head was trapped between the twisted metal of my hood and the barrel of Officer Joe’s gun as he shoved it into my cheek.
“You are going to learn today,” he whispered harshly, placing his mouth close to my ear as he leaned into me. His hot breath rained over my face as a few sprinkles of spittle dotted my cheek.
The sound of Megan’s whimper caused me to resist as I struggled to get up. “You better be still before I blow yours and that black bitch’s brains all over this highway. I’ll leave your asses in those woods as dinner for the maggots and worms.”
Patience. Patience. Patience. I repeated inside my head. If I made the wrong move, it could lead to Megan getting hurt.
“Can you believe this shit, Cass? I believe this motherfucker is willing to die for that black bitch.”
I could hear Megan taking deep breaths and wasn’t sure if the officer had her pressed over the hood or not. My body was coiled so tightly that there was no way the asshole standing over me wasn’t being poisoned by my anger.
The officer who’d been addressed as Cass spoke. His deep voice projected over my hood, “I’d never do some backwards shit like this, but I could certainly understand the appeal, especially with this one.”
“Cass, shut your dumb ass up. If your father heard you say some dumb shit like that, he’d punch you in the fucking mouth.”
The butt of the officer’s service gun sank deeper into my jaw and the tight bitterness in his voice intensified. “What’s your name, son? I need to know who I’m about to give lessons to.”
I didn’t answer because my mind was consumed with the best way of taking these motherfuckers out without getting Megan killed in the process. My fists tightened, sounding as if I were cracking walnuts.
“I said, what’s your motherfucking name, asshole!” The words oozed slowly between the officer’s clenched teeth. His hatred at seeing me with Megan had him about to lose his life because I was at the end of my rope.
The low tone of Megan’s voice sounded and snapped me out of the hot zone, but I couldn’t understand her words.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. I didn’t tell you to talk!” Officer Cass yelled.
“Look at his cut!” Megan yelled, disobeying a direct order from the racist cop.
Patience had vacated my body entirely and I shook from the effort it took to contain my rage. The treaty we had with the Copper County Police Department was about to be ripped to shreds along with this bastard’s body.
“Joe!” his partner Cass called in a low tone laced with concern. Joe didn’t answer his partner because he was too busy glaring down at me, taunting with more of his vicious words.
“Joe!” Cass yelled his partner’s name this time, his voice dripping with nervous tension.
“What? Don’t you see I’m busy over here?”
“Joe, look at his vest.”
Joe’s grip on my neck eased as did the gun he had pushed damn near through the side of my cheek.
“August Knights,” he read out my MC’s name in a low tone. Then dead silence fell over the scene for what seemed like an eternity. A slow wind swept through the leaves of the surrounding trees, making it sound like they were applauding the officer’s ability to read and determine that he was flirting with death.
Joe’s tight grip left my neck and so did the butt of his gun from my cheek. His shoes scraping the concrete sounded as he backed away from me. I eased up, lifting my body to an upright position.
The first place my eyes went to was Megan standing on the other side of my hood. The officer was standing behind her. Brows pinched and eyes begging for mercy, the sorry sack of shit knew he’d fucked up.
“Are you okay?” I asked Megan, not giving a damn about the dicks standing behind us.
She nodded her head, keeping her gaze locked with mine.
“Did he put his fucking hand on you?” I spit my words over the hood at the stone-faced officer standing behind Megan.
“No,” she said in a shaky tone as her gaze landed on the officer standing silently behind me. He hadn’t said a word since he’d read the words on my cut. Megan had no idea our MC had a long history with the police in Copper County, which had me wondering how she knew to tell the cop to look at my cut.
“Hey, man, I didn’t know you were an August Knight.” The officer shuddered.
“Me either. I just transferred down here four months ago,” Joe, the one behind me said in a humbled tone.
His partner standing behind Megan had his weapon holstered and had both his hands raised in surrender. “Look, man,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t want any trouble with your group. I didn’t know who you were until I got a good enough look at your vest.”
“Let’s go, Megan,” I said as I dusted my hands over my clothes. Then, I reared back and socked the motherfucker behind me in the face so hard that I felt his nose crunch under my fist. He fell to the ground, landing on his ass as he clenched his nose, blood oozing between his fingers. He scrambled backwards when I moved, thinking I was going to hit him again.
Instead, I moved toward my open truck door. I didn’t glance back at the officer. I was afraid to look at him because of the twisted shit my mind
kept yelling for me to do. I needed to be away from this situation because I wasn’t sure I had the strength to contain the obscene amount of rage coursing through me.
Once we were back in the truck I sat, gripping the stirring wheel. Hunched, the bloody-faced officer walked briskly back to his squad car. His partner had already retreated to the vehicle and had climbed in.
“Are you okay?” Megan asked, her soft tone easing some of my tension. The haze of rage that surrounded me started to fade away and the world started to sound and feel normal again.
“I’m good,” I told her, my loud and angry tone, indicating I was anything but good. She reached across and placed a hand on my arm, which shook with tension under her soft touch.
“It’s okay. We’re okay,” she reassured, and I didn’t know if she was asking a question or making a statement.
My gaze landed on the hand she had placed on my arm before I glanced over at her. “You and me, we are always going to be okay. I just need a moment.”
With that, she dropped her hand and allowed me to take my moment. Mentally, I soothed my nerves as close to calmness as I was going to get them. I started my truck and drove off, leaving those asshole cops sitting in their car. The sight of them grew smaller in my cracked mirror as I proceeded to my destination.
Those police officers had no idea the person they’d been taught to hate had just saved their lives. Even now, I wanted to turn around and release my rage by pounding on their bodies, but I had more important things to worry about. I had to figure out who was hunting Megan and me and more importantly, how to stop them.
Chapter Two
Aaron
We’d just been in a situation that could have turned deadly and Megan sat next to me as cool as a cucumber. My tension had eased as well.
