by CM Genovese
Pipe Dreams
Royal Bastards MC Anchorage Chapter
CM Genovese
Copyright © 2020 by CM Genovese
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Author’s Note and Dedication
Royal Bastards Code
Song List
Newsletter Signup
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Royal Bastards Mc Series Second Run
About the Author
Author Links
Other Works by CM Genovese
Author’s Note and Dedication
Here we are, once again, doing this Royal Bastards thing. The second round was really cool because it gave me the chance to meet even more MC authors. Motorcycle club romantic suspense is a badass subgenre full of authors who aren’t afraid to break the rules, do our characters dirty, and cause a little bit of mayhem. All bets are off in our stories.
In Pipe Dreams, I’ve pushed the envelope a bit. You’ll know what I mean once you read the book. It’s not only traditional MC romance. It’s got some darker, creepier stuff going on. If you’ve read my other books, you might know what I mean. Where my Razorblade Tumbleweeds books have The Reverend and those creepy ass Red Chapel bastards, this book has the Black Volga. This one’s intense.
The Royal Bastards MC project is constantly evolving. This time around, some of the authors left who might come back in the next round. Other authors joined us. Please take a look at the back of the book for the list of all books in round 2 of the Royal Bastards MC.
I definitely need to mention our cover artist. My cover, and the covers of all the other authors in this round of the project, wouldn’t look as kickass as it does without the amazing artistic abilities of Jay Aheer at Simply Defined Art.
Writing a book is one thing but sifting through it all to make sure no typos, spelling goofs, and grammatical errors were left behind is a whole other job. So, I need to thank a group of special ladies for making sure my book made sense. Thank you to my beta readers: Stephanie, Mary, Kaye, Autumn, and Fran for helping me get this done.
My family is always supportive of what I do, so they deserve a big thanks. I need to thank the woman who’s been by my side through this whole book. And I mean that literally. Julie Bailes has been right next to me, most of the time working from home since we’ve been quarantined together a few times due to Covid-19, while I let my fingers fly on this keyboard. I’ve loved every minute of it.
Lastly, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who preordered Pipe Dreams and to all of you picking it up after the fact, whether buying it or reading it on KU. I have some of the most supportive friends, fans, and readers. To me, you’re all friends. Thank you for all your kind words and your willingness to devour every book I write.
Now, let’s get into some Royal Bastards MC mayhem. I hope you love Pipe Dreams.
Royal Bastards Code
PROTECT: The club and your brothers come before anything else, and must be protected at all costs. CLUB is FAMILY.
RESPECT: Earn it & 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 brother’s 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.
Song List
This is the Song List for music mentioned in Pipe Dreams. To go to the Spotify playlist, click Here.
‘Ditty’ by Paperboy
‘Bartender’ by Hed PE
‘The Way You Look Tonight’ by Frank Sinatra
‘Flirtin’ with Disaster’ by Molly Hatchet
‘Before You Accuse Me’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival
‘Bad Man’ by Blues Saraceno
‘Jungle’ by X Ambassadors
‘Cold Hard Bitch’ by Jet
‘Zero’ by The Smashing Pumpkins
‘Waiting Game’ by BANKS
‘Sorry’ by Aquilo
‘Lost the Game’ by Two Feet
‘When You Say Nothing at All’ by Alison Krauss & Union Station
‘Piggy’ by Nine Inch Nails
‘Coming Undone’ by Korn
‘Conquer’ by SWIDT
‘Space Lord’ by Monster Magnet
‘So Cold’ by Breaking Benjamin
Newsletter Signup
Keep up with all things CM Genovese/Chris Genovese by clicking HERE to signup for his newsletter. This will make sure you never miss a new release, you hear all important news, and you receive discounts and freebies.
Speaking of freebies, you can grab a free copy of the Razorblade Tumbleweeds MC prequel, Anger’s Fade, by clicking HERE.
Also, make sure you check out http://www.chrisgenovese.com
1
Charles Bukowski wrote in his poem Let It Enfold You: “I was hard as granite, I leered at the sun. I trusted no man and especially no woman.”
That poem always stuck with me. It was me, and I recited it often. The only men I trusted were my Royal Bastards brothers. Two women held that honor. One of them I let down. The other let me down but then came around in the end. Here’s the story of the first. Then I’ll get to the second.
I wasn’t there for her when she needed me most. It was a mistake I’d never forget.
It was the night that changed everything, and it was the first time I saw the Black Volga.
I rode shotgun in a purple Hyundai Accent long before I ever touched a Harley. Holly was the driver the night it all went down. We both worked at Little Anthony’s Pizza. I tossed pies because even then I refused to toss salads. Sorry, dumb joke.
Holly and I had been fucking for a couple of months. We were pretty serious too. Fresh out of high school, she had a college campus apartment. I was still living at home. We mostly fucked at her place, and I can honestly say that I was falling for her. I might have even loved her if that was possible in such a short amount of time. She loved me too. She’d already told me so.
It was a Saturday night, and I’d finished working. Her shift required her to stay an hour later than I had to. She was on delivery duty this night, and our boss, big-ass Littl
e Anthony, said he’d let Holly go home early if she made two last deliveries. I decided to stick around and ride with her on her route.
The neighborhood was shady, and I hated delivering there. Nothing against Samoans, but Anchorage gangs weren’t pleasant and least of all were the PSK: The Psycho Samoan Klan. Their “hood” was in a low valley area on the outskirts of downtown Anchorage, barely in our delivery limits, which is why the boss gave Holly such a sweet deal for heading that way.
“You should go with her,” he told me, as if I were willing to let her go alone. “But stay in the car. It’ll look weird if the two of yas go up to the door, ya know?”
Holly looked amazing that night. She always did even in her red work shirt stained with flour and pizza sauce. Her hair was up in a bun and her glasses kept threatening to fall off her face. Her blue jeans were so tight they looked painted on. This was summertime in Alaska, which meant we were blessed with warm 50s in the evening.
“What do you think will happen to us?” Holly asked on the way to the car.
I carried the pizzas in a warmer, the strap over my shoulder, and asked, “What do you mean? We deliver the pizzas and we go back to your place.”
“I mean beyond that, dummy.”
She was a year older than me, was a freshman in college, and wanted to be a marine biologist. I was content with slumming it around Anchorage and was considering a life working on the pipeline. Some of my high school buddies had gone that route and were making great money with plenty of time off to enjoy life.
Holly’s question was meant to make me reconsider my plans and truly think about hers. What was the point of all this? Were we only fucking around or was there something more in store for us?
“You’ll go work at Sea World or some shit,” I joked. “I’ll work on the pipeline.”
She climbed into the driver’s seat, and I tossed the pizzas into the back. When I got into the car, she leaned over the gear shifter and planted a kiss on my lips. “I mean us.”
I kissed her back and rubbed my left hand along her inner thigh. “I knew what you meant. I don’t know, Holly. What if there’s not an us?”
Her instinct was to pull away from me. I kept my hand on her thigh and tried to bring her back.
“That was kind of fucked up,” she said.
“You’re taking it wrong. I mean you’re going on to big things and you’ve already mentioned how you might want to try living in California or even down in Florida.”
“And you wouldn’t be willing to give one of those places a try?”
“I don’t know. For you, yeah, maybe. But I don’t know.”
She shook her head, making her disappointment obvious. The truth was, she had a few more years here in Anchorage if she didn’t decide to transfer to a different school. We had three years to think about all this. At the rate we were going, which was a condom-free relationship, if she slipped up with the pill even once, we could be having a kid and starting the married life much sooner than we had any intention to.
We drove through the Anchorage streets in silence.
On the way there, a motorcycle club raced past us, five-riders strong. Their skull with crown emblem seemed to beckon to me, and I remember thinking that seemed like a pretty cool life. My friend’s dad was a member of an MC somewhere. Arizona, I thought. These guys trusted each other unconditionally. They were the fathers and brothers each of them was missing in real life.
My dad was practically nonexistent. He became a deadbeat drunk after my mom left us when I was an infant. He spent all his time in bars, strip clubs, and anywhere else he could get his hands on some liquor, weed, and blow. I didn’t have a brother, so I could see how the MC lifestyle would be a tempting alternative to a life spent alone.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Holly would eventually move south. The question was, would I go with her?
The moment we drove into the gang-infested area, everything changed. The place had a sudden darkness about it. Maybe it was dreariness. The air felt thicker here. It was a place where dreams went to die, and hope flew high into the clouds in a helium balloon. It couldn’t stay around here long. Someone would always let go of the string and off it would fly.
Holly’s car stereo was tuned into KFAT 92.9FM, Anchorage’s only rap station at the time. It played the same songs over and over again on what seemed like an endless loop. ‘Ditty’ by Paperboy provided us a familiar soundtrack at a low volume. This was mid-2000s, yet this tune from the 90s played like it was brand new. The song was too upbeat for the depressing sights outside my window. Holly must have felt the same because she reached out and slapped the power button.
The sudden silence was unwelcome and made the scenery to both sides of the street seem even bleaker. Couples sat around a small bonfire smoking and drinking. Their kids played in the dark yard behind them. The glow of the fire’s flames made all their faces orange.
These were the faces I often saw in my dreams now. They were the only ones I saw clearly that night. The only ones not shouting at me. The ones not shaking angry fists. The ones not covered in blood.
An odd chill came over me as we rode in silence. The world felt off if that makes sense. I vaguely remember that Holly’s voice sounded muffled. My eyes were drawn to the old black car I saw parked on the side of the road. It didn’t belong in this day and age. It was some kind of old limo and there was a driver seated behind the wheel, but all I could see was his shadowy silhouette. Hands slapped the back windows like people were trapped inside, desperate to get out. Fingertips slid downward, smudging the glass.
“The addresses are so hard to see,” Holly complained as she leaned forward in her seat and peered through the windshield. Her voice pulled me from my momentary stupor.
“Did you see that car back there?” I asked.
“What car? There are lots of cars, babe.”
“That old black limo.”
“Afraid not,” she said, “I’m busy trying to do my job, remember?”
Her wisecracking attitude shook away the chills, and then I was right back in the moment with her. The hands slapping the window could have belonged to a couple in the throes of sexual passion.
“Where is this place?” she asked aloud.
“Looks like odds are on this side,” I told her.
“It says Liberty Heights,” she said. “Liberty Heights #206. So, it’s not a house. Has to be that building over there.”
At the end of the street, in a cul-de-sac, stood a three-story building. Even in darkness, it was clear the building was the drab sand-colored hue I expected. There was nothing bright and cheery about this neighborhood. Out in front of the building, a couple of guys leaned against a Mustang. A toolbox sat on the ground and one of the guys was tinkering with the engine under the car’s hood. The other guy smoked a joint he kept pinched between his thumb and index finger.
“I don’t like this,” I told her.
“Me neither,” Holly replied, “but I’ll get in and get out quickly.”
“You will?” I asked. “No. No way. I’ll take the pizza in.”
“And leave me out here on the street with these hoodlums?” she asked.
I looked once more at the guy smoking a joint and he glared through the windshield at Holly, not paying me any attention at all. It was a sign of disrespect. He could look right at my woman and I wouldn’t do a damn thing about it. He was right. I wouldn’t. If I did, he’d whistle, and a twelve pack of his homeboys would come rushing over to teach me a lesson.
“I really don’t like this,” I said. “This motherfucker is staring right at you.”
I’d said the word motherfucker out of the corner of my mouth so the guy wouldn’t read my lips. In all honesty, I was scared shitless. I was just some recent high school graduate slinging pizzas for a living. Holly, who’d come from a pretty rough town down in the lower forty-eight states, also seemed uncomfortable with the situation, but she wasn’t freaking out about it.
“I’d rather take t
he pizzas,” she reiterated. “Leaving me down here is a bad idea.”
I didn’t like it, but I didn’t want to force her to sit down here in the car by herself.
“Take your phone,” I told her. “Call me if something happens. If you don’t come back down in five minutes, I’m coming up there.”
“I might not even find the apartment in five minutes.”
“Bullshit. Find it and get back quickly.”
She leaned close to me and asked, “Kiss me first?”
Damn right I was going to kiss her first, right in this motherfucker’s face. The guy with the joint watched us the entire time our lips were locked.
“Hand me the pies,” Holly said as she opened her door.
I handed her the bag.
“Be right back,” she sang and bounced away with a smile on her face.
The first three minutes waiting for her were agonizing. I knew I should have gone with her. To anyone not in the situation, that would seem like the logical choice, but we delivered pizzas all the time, in so many neighborhoods, and nothing bad ever happened. Sure, there was the sporadic sexual harassment from both male and female customers, plenty of houses that stank of drugs and whatnot, and the occasional irate asshole who got the wrong toppings on his or her pizza, but that was all manageable. I was concerned, but I didn’t really think anything would happen.
I sat there with the two dudes working on the car just staring at me. A homeless woman knocked on the window and offered me a blowjob for twenty bucks. A teenager did tricks on his bicycle behind the car. He hopped up and down on the rear tire, and I wondered if he’d move when Holly came back or if he’d purposely stay in the street to fuck with us.
