At one time, she thought he’d been so handsome when he strolled into the office where she’d worked part-time as a receptionist. Within weeks of meeting, he’d proposed to her. A year later they’d married, and ten months after that Duke was born.
“Pity you’re his mother,” Creighton finished, glaring at her. Coming closer, he slapped her across the face.
For a moment, Roxy thought she saw anger flash across Duke’s face, but it must’ve been a trick of her wooziness and pain.
“What kind of a stupid bitch are you?” Creighton demanded. “Leaving evidence of my dealings in your house where your low-class, miserable daughters could find them and tell my son.” He straightened to his full height, then sidled a glare at Duke. “Who then took it upon himself to confront me?”
“You tried to have MeMe killed, Dad!” Duke said. “That’s why I confronted you.”
Unable to talk, Roxy grunted through her gag, shocked at the news.
“There were two bikers who saved her. Mortician and another dude,” Duke said.
“And made two of my men disappear,” Creighton said. He walked to Duke and turned so they faced each other. The same type of blow he gave to Roxy, he hit Duke with.
Roxy kicked her legs, trying to get words out, while Duke grabbed his jaw.
“Because of you, I’ve been living a nervous existence for months,” Creighton continued, pacing in front of Roxanne. “So Amfinger and me devised a little plan. Frame Knox Harrington. Humiliate him. Maybe, find a few bogus charges to add in if I found the right prosecutor. His life ruined. Your life ruined. Yet knowing you still had information that could destroy me didn’t sit right. I realized I had to neutralize the threat. Get rid of you and that old biddy you call a mother wouldn’t last long. Or, if she lingered for more than a week or two, take care of her as well. I have special plans for Alexia and Carissa. Bailey, though, will present a problem because of her husband.”
Through her haze, Roxy thought she heard the rumble of motorcycles. Again, it must’ve been merely her imagination. The guys couldn’t rescue her because they wouldn’t be able to find her. Her purse with the tracking device and her phone with the tracking app were gone.
Blearily, she watched Joyner hand Creighton a gun. He aimed it at her head.
“Dad!” Duke cried, situating himself in front of Roxy. “I can’t allow you to kill my mama. I’ve done everything you told me to do! Let her live for me.”
A moment of silence before the report of a gun. Duke crumpled to the floor.
Tears rushing to her eyes, Roxy screamed, the sound muted because of the material in her mouth.
Creighton raised the gun again. Before he fired the door was kicked in. Outlaw shot the gun out of Creighton’s hand, while Mortician fired on Joyner, blowing one side of his face away.
Val, Johnnie, and Digger parted ways to allow Knox to rush through. He slid to a halt at first glance of her, the hand holding the gun slackening at his side. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. She felt bloody, beaten, and swollen. If she saw herself, she’d probably stare like that, too.
“Roxy, baby,” Knox cried, “who did this to you?”
“Duke, you little motherfucker,” Mortician yelled.
Knox pulled the gag from Roxy’s mouth.
“Don’t hurt him,” she screamed. “Creighton shot him. Duke was trying to protect me!”
“Protect you from being shot?” Knox asked in a strangely calm voice.
“Yes!”
He stared at her, then focused on Creighton. “You were going to kill her?”
“Not going to,” Creighton snarled. “I will. I’m going to dance in her blood.”
“No, the fuck you not, son,” Mortician growled, going for his gun again.
Knox still held the weapon. Before Mortician drew, Knox aimed at Creighton’s head and opened fire.
He stood still and silent for a long moment, then clenched his jaw, shoved the gun into his waistband, and rushed to Roxy. Once he freed her, he lifted her into his arms and carried her away. Still not speaking a word.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
He’d gotten very little rest because, after finding Roxanne at seven in the morning, he’d taken Roxanne to the hospital, while the guys got Duke there. While Knox was happy all of this had taken place on the outskirts of Hortensia, where the club had pull, that didn’t help timewise.
Duke had been shot in the side. Emergency surgery had removed the bullets. Once Roxanne was seen to and released, she rushed up to her son’s room in ICU. By then, it was noon, with their wedding taking place in five hours.
Knox was happy to see them makeup. Duke’s treatment of her had been weighing on her for months. To think, it had all been orchestrated by his father. This crusade had begun before Roxanne’s cancer. Creighton thought she’d succumb to the disease, so he’d backed off. Instead, she’d survived and then met Knox.
Duke was too afraid to go to his grandmother, sisters, or mother, so he went along with Creighton’s schemes, convinced his father had so much power that he’d destroy anyone Duke confided in. Creighton also swore to Duke if it came to that type of destruction, he’d tie the boy up and make him watch as Creighton murdered Roxanne.
Knox hadn’t intended to kill the man. Outlaw had surprised Knox and said he’d leave all motherfuckers alive, until they heard them out, because he had a debt to pay because his newest child and his wife were both alive.
At first, Knox hadn’t known why Mortician had killed Joyner. Later, he’d discovered the asshole had pulled a weapon out. Seeing it, Mortician fired.
Discovering Joyner had murdered Callie made Knox wish Mortician had taken that bastard to the meatshack and tortured him for a while.
Outlaw recovered the club’s money and now had possession of the cash he’d paid for the guns and the weapons themselves. The fire department had extinguished the blaze before it grew too out-of-control. Along with the limousine—and the body inside—an abandoned cabin had burned along with fifty acres of forest.
Given all that had happened, Knox thought the wedding would be postpone two or three days. Instead, the start time had been pushed from five in the afternoon to eight in the evening. His mother’s private secretary had contacted all the guests to inform them of the changed time.
Somehow, it had all worked out. Except he hadn’t slept in over a day. Neither had Roxanne. On top of that, she’d been injured.
“Well, Mr. Harrington, you look the worse for wear,” Father Wilkins remarked as the bridal party marched down the aisle. He looked ridiculous wearing a cut over his priestly garb, but Knox kept his opinion to himself.
“C’mon, bruh,” Digger said to the priest. “Don’t start this. This a high-class function. Even Knox momma decided to come. If she can behave, you can.”
“Lest I remind you, you’re in my church.”
Mortician glowered at him. “Lest I remind you, you got a lot of cash from my wife. Not a motherfucker alive more larcenous than you.”
“It is not larceny, Mortician,” Father Wilkins said. “It’s looking out for one’s self.”
“Well, when one’s self finds one dead don’t be fucking surprised,” Mortician retorted.
Father Wilkins looked at Mortician over the top of his glasses, but snapped his mouth shut.
Five minutes later, the wedding march began and the guests got to their feet. Mortician beamed as Johnnie marched Bailey down the aisle. Unable to wait, he met them halfway and transferred Bailey’s hand from Johnnie’s arm to his own, walking her to the altar.
Roxanne appeared, holding onto Outlaw as she limped down the aisle, banged and bruised but gorgeous and alive.
Outlaw stopped at the edge of the altar and lifted a brow at Father Wilkins.
“This where you say who the fuck give this woman,” Outlaw said.
“She been given too many times for that bullshit, Outlaw,” Pearllene called from the audience.
“Ain’t movin’ until this motherfucker say it,
” Outlaw said stubbornly.
“This is ridiculous,” Knox said, annoyed. He glared at the priest. “Would you just say it so the wedding can commence?”
“My dear friends and family,” his mother began, suddenly standing from her seat. “Please don’t let these people be a reflection of me and my Hal. My Knox might be a lost cause—”
“Really, Mother?” Knox called, glaring at the back of her head.
“Sit down, Joan,” his father said around a cough.
“Here, take her, Knox,” Outlaw called. “The lil’ motherfucker said it while your ma was actin’ just as bad as us.”
Kissing Roxanne’s hand, Knox guided her to the altar. When the priest got to their vows, Roxanne halted the ceremony, stood and summoned Grant, who’d been sitting on the row with Meggie, Outlaw, and most of their children. Rebel, CJ, and Diesel had been members of the wedding party.
“Yes, ma’am?” Grant said when he walked up to Roxy.
“Come here, sugar,” she said, guiding Grant to stand next to Knox. “I don’t ever intend to take the place of Callie,” she started, “but I want you to know the ring your Daddy is putting on my finger means the three of us are family. You can come to me with anything, at any time, and I’ll be right there for you. I will love and cherish you as if you were my own son and help you to keep your Mama’s memory alive.”
A tear slid down Grant’s cheek, and he nodded, sniffling. Roxanne swiped it away, then kissed the top of his head. “Stand next to your Uncle Cam while me and your daddy finish our vows.”
He started to follow her directions, then stopped and hugged her. “I love you, Roxy.”
“And I love you, Grant,” she whispered back.
“I love both of you,” Knox said gruffly. He looked at the priest. “Bind me to the woman, man, because this is the beginning of the rest of my life.”
EPILOGUE
One Month Later…
Wearing thigh high boots to protect her skin from the hot pipes and exposed metal of Knox’s bike—she wore a short, leather skirt—Roxy held onto Knox as he leaned into a curve in the road with ease. It had been a hard-won victory to get her interfering-ass son-in-law off her back, so she could hop on the back of Knox’s bike. For a solid week, Mortician demanded Knox ride with a passenger wherever he went.
Although it annoyed Knox, he understood Mortician’s concern. Instead of arguing, Knox complied.
He pulled into a clearing and rode behind a copse of trees.
Kicking the side stand down and planting his booted feet firmly on the ground, Knox killed the engine and removed his helmet, and hung it on one of the two hooks, that Mortician had installed on each handlebar.
Without prompting from Knox, Roxy got to her feet, removed her own helmet, and hung it on the other hook, then she turned to Knox and met his gaze.
She smiled. “Mr. Harrington,” she murmured.
Grinning, Knox raised her left hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger. “Mrs. Harrington.”
Her pink princess cut diamond on the engagement ring Knox had bought specifically for her sparkled, seeming to reflect how she felt and what her life had become—a warm, bright place gleaming with love and laughter. She and her son had made up. She had a child in her life again that she was partly responsible for. Bailey would give her another grandchild soon. Harley and Lou were two of the most beautiful kids in the world. Her mother and Hamish were still going strong, and Carissa and Alexia were now both in relationships.
Outlaw, Meggie, and their kids were once again the rollicking bunch that brought joy to her heart. Johnnie and Kendall both had a long road ahead of them, but they were working on themselves individually, as parents, and as a couple. Bunny and Ophelia were both pregnant again. Val had brought a pot-bellied pig home and, somehow, got Zoann to agree to keep it as a pet. Diesel had gone off to college, while Cam and Jordan were also increasing their family by adopting newborn twins.
Knox placed his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “The guys told me there’s nothing in the world like bike sex.”
Roxy brushed his lips with her own, then slipped her tongue into his mouth to deepen it. She didn’t want to answer that.
Besides, he was right. The naughty thought made her giggle.
“You have the most joyous laughter, Roxanne,” he told her, sliding backward to give her room to climb in front of him.
She settled her legs on each side of Knox and leaned back against the handlebars. “Thank you. Guess what I don’t have?”
Knox lifted a brow. “What might that be?”
“Panties on,” she cooed, sliding her skirt up partially.
“Fuck! For real?”
She blinked at how like Outlaw Knox sounded, and burst into laughter.
“What can I say? The man grows on you,” he said, knowing what she found so funny without her saying it.”
“I told you those boys were good people.”
“They are, and I’m lucky to know them.” He snapped his finger as if a thought had just occurred to him. “That reminds me. I have something to show you.”
He removed a sheet of paper from the inside of his leather jacket pocket, then held it out to her. When Roxy opened it, she saw measurements for a plot of land.”
“What’s this?”
“The acreage I purchased from the club to build our house on. It’s at a diagonal from Bailey and Mortician.”
Roxy gasped. They’d discussed housing for the past month. On the overnight honeymoon, in between very hot and intense fucking, they’d talked about where to live. So far, they remained in her quarters, but it was hard to host her entire family there.
“Oh my God!” Roxy breathed. “Knox!”
“There’s no way I can take you or Grant away from our family. They live there, we live there. Case closed.”
Laughing through her tears, Roxy launched herself into his arms. “I love you.”
He slipped his hand under her skirt. “I love you, too, sweetheart,” he said, cupping her pussy. “Now, straddle me and show me just how much.”
Overflowing with contentment, Roxy was more than happy to comply.
* * *
The End
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader,
It has been quite an amazing journey that I’ve gone on since first meeting Christopher “Outlaw” Caldwell, his brothers, and the women they love. The twists and turns they’ve taken me on has been as surprising to me as they have to you, in some cases.
Out of all the books, Misrule has been, by far, the hardest to write. I started in February 2018 and didn’t finish it until summer 2019. I had two cancer scares, my mother went through an angiogram because of heart problems, her vertigo returned, my computers died on me…you get the picture. Each time, I sat down to immerse myself in writing another crisis arose. But I was determined to get it written and I finally got it completed. I truly hope you enjoyed my finished product. It has been a long time coming. My sense of accomplishment is similar to what I felt when I finished Misled. That was a milestone for me and so is Misrule.
Thank you for going on this crazy ride with me. Without you, none of this would be possible. You can visit the Death Dweller boys any time at
https://www/deathdwellersmc.com
For everyone who is wondering—YES! There will be a second generation. As Outlaw would say Ain’t Nothin’ but a Thing! Case fuckin’ closed!
* * *
Kat
CONNECT WITH KATHRYN C. KELLY
Thank you for reading Misrule.
If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review
at your point of purchase and on Goodreads. It
means a lot to me to hear what you think.
Website: www.katkelwriter.com
www.Deathdwellersmc.com
Email: [email protected]
* * *
Goodreads
ALSO BY KATHRYN C. KELLY
Phoenix Rising Rock Band Series
&n
bsp; Inferno
Incendiary
Inflame
* * *
Death Dwellers MC Series
Misled
Misappropriate
Misunderstood
Misdeeds
Misbehavior
Misjudged
Misguided
Misalliance
Misconduct
A Very Christopher Christmas
Misfit
Mistrust
Misgivings
Outlaw’s Dictionary
Death Dwellers: The Complete Series
An Outlaw Valentine
Dirty Boys Studio Series
Dirty Boy
* * *
Other Titles
All My Tomorrows
Dangerous
Riveted
Pink: Hot ‘N Sexy for a cure: The
Books for Boobies 2015 Anthology
When Clubs Collide
Desire Me
ABOUT KATHRYN C. KELLY
In her dreams, Kathryn C. Kelly is a flirtatious biker babe with the rumble of a hog between her legs and a shirtless bad boy wrapped in her arms. Kathryn and her bad ass biker boy spend their evenings tossing back great scotch (Chivas Regal) and fighting over who is better at Cards against Humanity (she is, obviously.)
* * *
In her reality, Kathryn is a native New Orleanian who has survived Hurricane Katrina and breast cancer. Now she’s hoping to survive three lively girls. While not playing Wonder Mom, Kathryn can be found putting all those dreams into the pages of her next Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club novel.
Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
(Untitled)
Misled
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Chapter 1
Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books Page 513
