Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Prologue
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
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Reckless Excerpt
Chapter 1
KEEP IN CONTACT WITH ELIZABETH
Reclaimed
A Skulls Renegade MC Novel
RECLAIMED
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Reclaimed. Copyright © 2018 by Elizabeth Knox. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information contact E. Knox.
https://www.facebook.com/elizabethknoxbooks
Cover design by CT Cover Creations
Editing & Formatting by Leanore Elliott
Proofreading by Brynn Burke, Knox Publishing & Tracy Comerford
Teasers by Decadent Designs by Dee
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MY AUTHOR TRIBE: IRIS, GG, JEN, AUDEN, MICHELLE, ERIN, LINNY, JP, BRYNN, JA, & CHRISTINE – Thank you guys for supporting me through my crazy antics and ideas with this one. Linny heard most of it and I can hear her giggling in the background right now rubbing her hands together.
MY BETA’S, TANIA, CHAS, MICHAELA, KEANNA, RACH & COURT – Thanks for not sending the Cartel after me! Although, after this releases you may have more recruits for your cause.
MY BLOGGERS: JENNA, JEN, SHANNON, CHASIDY, ANGIE, HEATHER, LIZZIE, JAMIE, AMANDA, DEANNA, ANGELA, REBECCA, ALICIA, JAMIE, CHRISTIANA, CHRISTIANN, KRISTIN, VALERIE, ANNA, CIA, LEANNE, LINDA, EMILIE, SHASTA, NICHOLE, ERIKA, STARR, GWEN, NICOLE, ASHLEY, KEANNA, MYN, HEATHER, PRIMROSE, JADE, DUSTY, JEN, KRISTEN, LENA, CAROLINE, JES, TRACY, ANN, MEAGHAN, TINA , CHARLEI, NIA, MARIAN, BECKY, VANESSA, PHILOMENA, JAMIE-LYNNE, ASHLEY, LINDA, KATHLEEN, ASHLEY, DANIELLE, LAURA, KEEANA, TAI, KATHY, & SHIRLEY – You guys rock, thanks so much for helping me reach a plethora of new readers!
KBB, MY BABES! – You guys have been waiting for Kyle’s story for ages, so I can’t be any happier then I am in this moment, wrapping up the acknowledgements before it goes off to editing. I hope you all enjoy it, and know that Reckless will be here very soon!
PLAYLIST
Never Alone | Tori Kelly ft. Kirk Franklin
Come a Little Closer | Dierks Bentley
DNA | Lia Maria Johnson
Let Me | Zayn
Cold Heart Killer | Lia Maria Johnson
Bad for Me | King Henry
2002 | Anne-Marie
Broken | lovelytheband
Breathin’ | Ariana Grande
DEDICATED TO THE GUYS WHO FUCK UP.
We know you’re only human, and we still love you regardless.
You aren’t alone.
We all fuck up.
Just be better.
For her.
WARNING
This content contains material that may be viewed as offensive to some readers, including graphic language, dangerous and sexual situations, murder, and extreme violence.
Prologue
You and I will always be unfinished business
Anonymous
Kyle
It may have been selfish of me to not want to be at the club today, but I just couldn’t. Granted, it’s not the kid’s fault. If it’s anyone’s fault for the way things are now, it’s mine.
Ryder turned one today. Daisy and Seamus’ little boy is a poppin’ one year old. Our brothers from states away came to celebrate with us, and the party was going to be killer. It was no secret that we knew how to throw a party.
Call me a selfish bastard, I just couldn’t be around to see them in all of their happiness. If things had gone a little differently, I would be the one next to her, not Sea. That’s the way things should have gone if you asked me, but I was the one who made big mistakes. I was the one who wasn’t there for her when she needed me the most and while Daisy made the biggest sacrifice I was the one who lost everything.
I’m not being a victim here; I just refuse to stand back and act like I didn’t lose the best thing in my life.
Things happen for a reason though, they always do. It’s my job now to figure out exactly what that reason was. Maybe I’m supposed to take my life in another direction or go on one of those spiritual journeys like those cock suckers do when their life gets thrown upside down. Losing Daisy was not easy, it was everything but that, and watching her with him every day in front of my eyes is a torture that I cannot explain. Doesn’t matter though, I did it to myself so I have to live with it.
While I was avoiding the club for obvious reasons, shit was going down. Shit, that maybe I should have been here for if I wasn’t such a selfish fucking bastard.
Reed made sure to remind me of that the second I walked through the doors, “I texted you hours ago and just now you show up!” He slams me back against the wall, not giving me an inch.
I’ve seen Reed pissed before, angry, but never quite like this. Immediately, I survey the room looking for Elena, praying to God that she’s okay. Without her, Reed is lost. I breathe easier when I see her sitting on a couch with Daisy with Ryder on her lap and Mar’ all talking amongst themselves. It’s weird to me that Michelle isn’t here today, but as my gaze goes around the room, I know why. I see her reasoning for not being here leaning against the pool table with his arms crossed, chewing on a fuckin’ tooth pick.
Max.
“Where the fuck were you?”
“I was out,” I tell him, not really appreciating the salty fucking attitude he’s giving me right now. The club is packed quite a bit more than I thought it would be. I notice glass on the ground and pictures on the floor but I don’t think much of it. I can guarantee that a few brothers have already gotten rowdy from the alcohol.
“While you were out, I found out where Dad was.”
I furrow my brows, “What do you mean? He’s probably been out gallivanting around like usual.” It’s no secret that our Dad happened to up and leave. It was his signature move. He’d call out of nowhere with no warning, act like he was going to keep doing it every week and then we wouldn’t hear from him for a year. When he was around, he was around but we didn’t have the same father that we did when Reed and I were kids. As we grew up, Dad’s priorities changed and I know that I wasn’t the only one to notice that.
“No, he was buried in a shallow grave in the fucking woods with a knife in his chest. We found the body a few days ago and I wasn’t going to say shit to you until I knew it was him…it’s not like
we could have recognized him being…” Reed stammers for a moment before he looks back to me. “We don’t know how long he’s been dead, his body was pretty far decomposed.”
“You found a body a few days ago and you didn’t think to tell me any of that?” I hiss, furious with Reed. He may be the Prez, but I am not only his brother. I’m his fucking VP. I don’t give a shit if he didn’t want to tell me because it might have been our Dad. He was obligated to tell me because I’m his second in command.
“Did you not hear me? I found our Dad in a shallow fucking grave with a knife in his chest.”
Just then, it hits me. Our Dad isn’t traveling across the country fucking women doing God knows what. He’s dead. He is no longer breathing the same air as me. Never again, will we get into fights over pointless bullshit. “What happened?” I ask. Maybe it’s dumb of me to ask him that question. I doubt Reed even has all of the answers.
He takes a deep breath, raking his fingers through his hair before he speaks, “All I know is that I had Siren get one of her buddies at the bureau to run some fingerprints on the knife and it came back matching Dmitri. Apparently, he was arrested when he was with the Vipers and that’s how we know it’s him.”
“What the fuck? Why would Dmitri kill Dad?” As far as I know, they were complete strangers. Obviously, that isn’t the case and I need to know more. I have to know what the fuck is going on.
“I don’t fucking know! While you were gone, Slash came back with Dmitri’s cunt of a sister, Katya, and they weren’t alone. The entire club was filled up with mobster looking fucks packin’ like no damn tomorrow and there was this blonde bitch and dude who looked like they ordered them around. From the looks of it, the blondie was calling the shots.” Reed goes on and continues to tell me everything that transpired while I was away. How the group of them left with the men that came with them, and even Ksenia left. He doesn’t know what to make of all this and I’m not sure that I do either. None of this makes any fucking sense.
“What are we going to do?” I ask him.
Reed simply stares at me for a minute before he answers, “Who the fuck knows. I’m not really sure what to do right now besides bury our Dad.”
I nod, agreeing that we should bury him as soon as we can. Like Reed said, who knows how long he’s been dead and this brings up another question. “What about Bones? Did you find him too? Him and Dad always ran around in the same circles.”
“Nope. Bones is still in the wind,” he tells me as he walks over to where Elena is, scooting in behind her and wraps his hand around her stomach. We just recently found out that she’s gonna have his baby, something that he told me they’ve been trying to do for quite a while.
There’s not much I can say or do right now and to be honest, I don’t really want to stick around. Sure, shit may have gone down but trust me, the brothers aren’t gonna let this fuck up their party plans for later. If anything, they’ll say that they’re doing it in my Dad’s name, celebrating his life.
Shit hit the fan today in a way that I never imagined possible.
***
I stay around the club for a few more minutes before I got on the interstate and rode into town. I knew exactly where Michelle had gone if she wanted to steer clear of the club, and honestly I want to see her right now. Her and I are much of the same, we always have been. I’m avoiding the club because of Daisy and Seamus, and she’s avoiding it because Max is back.
I drive until I pull into the small strip mall that her and I used to come when we were teenagers. Not much has changed, seeing as it’s on one of the more dicey parts of town. I wouldn’t call it the ghetto, but it’s not much better. I hated it when she’d come out here alone when we were kids, and yet she still did it. Not much has changed.
Dixies is a small hookah lounge that serves as a bar. It’s kind of like a bed and breakfast for drug dealers and whores. I guess now you can see why I never liked her coming here alone.
I dismount my bike, pulling my cut a little closer to me since it’s really starting to get chilly this time of year. Soon enough it’s going to be freezing out and everyone will be in hoodies and winter jackets. I walk up to the blacked out door and pull on the metal handle that is slowly beginning to rust. The owner refused to fix half of the shit in this joint but that never strayed Michelle and I from coming. They were supposed to ID everyone who walked in the door but at barely fifteen, her and I were walking on in, smoking hookah with old guys three times our age.
The smell of chocolate and mint overloads my senses, that’s always been a pretty popular favorite. Personally, it’s one of my top choices. I make my way through the smoky haze that fogs up the joint until I walk past the register, through the room and step down into the seated area. There are small round circle booths that fit about five to six people. This is the one part that made Michelle and I love the joint, these booths are in the ground and give it a luxury appeal when Dixie’s is far from it. Dark sheer curtains close around the booths, giving you a somewhat private experience. It makes me remember how she would ride me, moaning into my ear, hoping that someone would catch us. We lived for the thrill.
I walk slowly, peering past the curtains to see if I can find her, knowing very well she’s in the booth all the way in the back corner. It’s the one we always went to. She liked it because we could witness almost everything, and it also gave us a sense of privacy – when she wanted it.
I pull back the curtain and sure enough there she is, her dirty blonde hair straight, falling down her back almost hitting her ass. She’s sitting back, taking a hit of the tangerine hookah like old times. She loved tangerine, and I always loved it as well.
“Meech,” I greet, calling her by her nickname while pulling the curtain closed behind me as I step down into the booth.
She looks up to me as though I’m a parent who caught her doing something naughty.
“Relax, Princess. I’m not here to throw you over my shoulder and demand you come home.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t argue much if you did,” she speaks strongly with a glimmer in her eye.
It makes me wonder if she’s itching for a little mischief tonight.
I take a seat next to her on the worn out leather booth. She skims her hand over my jeans and the next thing I know she’s straddling me.
“What did you come here for, Trouble?” she calls me the nickname she gave me when we were kids.
It doesn’t take me long to know she is looking for mischief, and lots of it. I can smell the whiskey on her breath. She’s got to be pretty lit at this point. “Neither you or I wanted to be at the club today, for obvious reasons.” I point out to her.
She scrunches her nose up the way she always does when she hates that I’m right.
“You want me to talk about that?”
The glare she throws at me tells me she wants to avoid everything but the giant elephant in the room. “I don’t want to talk, at all.”
“Then what do you want?” I ask her, my curiosity getting the best of me.
She bites her bottom lip, looks around the booth and her eyes return to mine once again. “I want you to make me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time; make me forget all of this pain and hurt.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“Yes, I do and I want it.” She’s firm in her decision.
“You’re going to regret this tomorrow, Princess.”
“You and I know I won’t cause it’s not like I’m going to remember,” she hisses out, crushing her lips over mine.
I guess I always should’ve known. Michelle and I were never really finished.
Chapter 1
I fear getting close to people because I think they will just eventually walk out of my life no matter how close we were.
KushAndWizdom
Michelle
I roll over in my bed at the sound of my alarm going off. It’s not normally so awful, but seeing, as I can’t remember anything from last night, it tells me that I
was heavy on the bottle. That and the raging headache I have.
I grab my phone and turn off the torture device that is also referred to as sound, wiping my hand over my face and looking up to my ceiling fan, spinning continuously. No matter the time of year, I always need it to be going. I get too warm in the middle of the night, or at least that’s what I tell myself. In reality, I just have it on because I want to freeze and wrapping myself up in ten blankets makes me feel less alone, like someone is there holding me.
Isn’t that pathetic?
I huff, unamused with myself and make the treacherous journey into my ensuite bathroom. It’s not much, just a small stand in shower, toilet and sink but it’s enough room for me and that’s all I need. I still live in the clubhouse while some of the more prominent members like Reed and Elena have a house, Daisy and Sea’ and Dmitri and Jenna have one too and there’s construction happening currently. I’m pretty positive that’s because Kyle wants his own place. I don’t mind staying in the club, surrounded by all the noise that the brothers make. Honestly, it makes me feel less alone and coming from a girl who constantly feels like she’s by herself, it’s soothing to have a bit of noise.
I hop into the blazing water and scrub myself clean, grabbing my mint scented shampoo I massage it into my scalp, watching as the bubbles collect in my ridiculously long blonde hair. I’ve thought about cutting it, but not again. I rocked the pixie cut for a bit and then when it grew out to my shoulders I put extensions right in this bitch. I thought having short hair would’ve been a good change, but it was a bad one, a very bad one.
In a little over thirty minutes, my hair is dried, straight as can be. I have a small coat of foundation over my face, enough to make sure I’m not scaring any children, and a tiny bit of eyeliner. My Dad always told me I never needed much makeup, that I was a real looker. I think I’m more of a lazy little shit today, but I’m just gonna go with being a looker.
A light rap to my door comes unexpectedly and I walk over to it, just in a pair of cotton hipsters and sports bra. I quickly toss on a pair of sweat pants and a hoodie before I open the door.
Reclaimed (Skulls Renegade MC Book 6) Page 1
