Zero Regret: Z and Lilly, Part Two (Lost Kings MC Book 13)

by Autumn Jones Lake

  Where did I go wrong? “Uh, because you left that behind to do something more important?” Not that I want to bring up bad stuff for her, but I’m not sure how else to explain my reasoning. “I thought now that the sick fucker was gone and…I don’t know…I assumed eventually you’d want to go back to working in government.”

  “Oh.” Her shoulders drop and the anger melts off her face. “Really? You’d be okay with that?”

  “If that’s what you want to do, yeah. Why?”

  She shakes her head. “You don’t want me home catering to your every need?” It’s almost said in a teasing way, but I sense she genuinely wants to know.

  My mouth twitches. “Yeah, if that’s what sets your heart on fire, I’m down for it. But I can’t see you being happy doing that for the rest of your life.”

  “I don’t know if I could, I mean he was an extreme example, but certainly not the only one. Government is full of sexist jerks. Even if the culture is shifting and changing a bit right now…it’s so ingrained in everything.”

  “Then, they need more people like you, don’t you think? Help keep that change going.”

  “Wow.” She sighs. “You surprise me all the time, you know that?”

  “Why?”

  She shakes off the question. “Even though it’s trendy to talk about it, that’s all it is—talk. Men don’t give up power easily. Eventually there will be a backlash and I don’t know if I want to be there for it when it happens.”

  “Babe, those kind of men gotta die eventually.”

  She bursts out laughing. “I really love you.”

  “I want you to be happy.”

  “I am happy.” She glances down. “Let me get used to being your old lady and all that entails.”

  “You’re already good there.”

  “Let’s worry about our wedding. Then, I’ll figure out what kind of career I want to have next.”

  A streak of possession thunders through my veins. A desire to do anything and everything to make sure she’s always safe and happy. And I really like hearing her say our wedding’s on her mind. “Anything you want.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Z

  AS FAMILY DAY winds down and darkness creeps over the sky, Lilly yawns. Rock and Hope left hours ago. Wrath and Trinity disappeared to their room. Murphy’s still here, helping me keep the guys in check. I’m not sure where Teller disappeared to.

  “You ready to head home?” I ask Lilly.

  The party will turn rowdier. Hell, it already is. The guys built a huge bonfire. Soon, girls will start arriving by the carload to party with the brothers. Seen this and done it so many times over my life. All I want to do is go home with Lilly and Chance.

  With Chance asleep in my arms, I walk them out to the parking lot. “I’m going to finish up here. Talk to Rooster, and then I’ll be home,” I promise Lilly.

  “Ooo, stop,” she says.

  “What, why?”

  She lifts her chin toward the mountains where they sky’s slowly fading from purple to pink to orange. “I want to take a picture of you holding Chance asleep like that with the sunset behind you. So adorably perfect.”

  “It’ll probably come out too dark.”

  “Shush. Stand there and flex those dad muscles.” She laughs as she holds her phone out, framing the photo the way she wants. “Damn, you’re one fine looking man,” she mutters.

  I never get tired of her saying that.

  “Turn toward me a little,” she calls out.

  I press my forehead against Chance’s hair. “You had to pick now to be all cute, didn’t you?” He drools on my shirt in answer.

  “Perfect!” Lilly says. “One more.”

  She uses the flash this time, nearly blinding me in the process.

  Gravel crunches and engines roar into the parking lot. Again, I’m blinded, but this time by headlights.

  Shielding my eyes and turning Chance away from the glare, I scowl at the intruders. “Who the fuck is that?” I growl.

  Lilly’s relaxed, happy smile fades as she studies the cars. “Z?” Her feet move faster over the gravel. “What’s going on?”

  I recognize the officer who steps out of the first car. One of the two who stopped by to hassle us after Malone’s burned down. “What can I do for you?” I call out, hoping this is nothing more than another annoying social call.

  Something about their demeanor and the fact that two cars showed up sends dread spiraling into my gut.

  “Angus Frazier?”

  Fuck me.

  “What’s going on?” Murphy calls from the front door. As soon as he realizes it’s the cops, he joins me. “What the fuck are they doing here?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Sir, this doesn’t concern you, go back inside,” the first officer orders.

  Not likely. Murphy crosses his arms over his chest and widens his stance, making it clear he’s not leaving.

  Three other officers step out. All of them with their hands too close to their weapons for my taste. I curl my body around Chance and shift him away from the officers.

  “Miss are you the child’s mother?” the officer asks.

  Lilly glares at him defiantly. “What’s going on?” She doesn’t bother answering the question.

  “Miss, I need you to take the child and step away.”

  Lilly’s visibly trembling when she turns back to me, her scared eyes asking what she should do.

  I have to get them out of here.

  “Here, take him.” I hand Chance over. “I’ll handle this.”

  As soon as Lilly steps away, three of the officers swarm on me. “Get down! Get on the fucking ground!”

  When I don’t go down fast enough, one of them kicks the back of my right knee, sending me to the ground.

  “What the fuck?” My jeans don’t do much to stop the gravel from digging into my knees.

  “Down! Down on the ground!”

  The commotion wakes Chance and it only takes him a few seconds to start screaming. “Daddy! No!”

  Fuck, this isn’t what I ever wanted for my son.

  Or Lilly.

  Still kicking and screaming, Chance reaches for me as Lilly opens the car door. “Z, what do I—”

  “Go home. Tell Rock what happened. He’ll know who to call,” I answer as calmly as possible. The last thing I want to do is scare her or Chance any more than they already are.

  “Shut up!” one of the cops shouts. “Head down. Arms over your head!”

  I watch Lilly wrestle Chance into his car seat, powerless to do a damn thing. Four fucking cops standing around and no one bothers to help her.

  Fucking assholes.

  “Back off,” Murphy snarls.

  The cop who’d kicked me slugs Murphy in the gut. “Since you’re so worried about your brother, why don’t you join us, Mr. O'Callaghan.”

  Great, they know Murphy too. This can’t be good. Are they here for me specifically or the whole damn club?

  Murphy takes harder hits for fun. From skilled fighters. He’s not intimidated by the rogue cop’s punch. He sneers in the cop’s face. “For what?”

  “Interfering with an officer.”

  “Easy, Allan,” one of the other officers warns.

  This is a fucking nightmare. My son’s hysterical. Lilly’s shaking and unable to move. This whole clusterfuck is blocking her car, so she can’t leave.

  Fuck, I promised her everything would be okay. How’d they even know about the bombing? A mess like this might send Lilly running right back to California.

  I look up and catch Lilly’s eye. “It’s okay,” I mouth to her. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She pulls her shoulders back and lightly touches the mermaid around her neck.

  Some sort of signal?

  “Stronger together,” she says just loud enough for me to hear with all the noise around us.

  Her way of telling me she’s not going anywhere.

  Behind us, more brothers come ou
t of the clubhouse.

  “Prez?” Rooster calls out.

  “Go back inside,” I order over my shoulder. “I’ve got this.” Fuck knows I don’t need these asshole cops getting trigger happy with my family in the crossfire.

  “You heard your prez,” one of the cops sneers. “Walk away, bro.”

  “Fuck you, pig!” Sparky yells. “Get the fuck off our property.”

  God bless you, Sparky, but shut the fuck up.

  “Is someone planning to tell me what this is about?” I ask.

  The first cop shoves a piece of paper in my face. “We have a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Frazier.”

  Z and Lilly’s story continues in

  Zero Apologies (Lost Kings MC #14)

  Available here.

  Universal link here.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  Zero Apologies

  Zero and Lilly, Part 3 (Lost Kings MC #14)

  One by one, the lies have been unraveled.

  I’ve shed blood to protect Lilly. To protect our family.

  I’d do it again and again as long as it means she’s safe.

  It’s time to marry her, cherish her, and spend the rest of our lives together.

  We were so close to our happy ending.

  Then chaos swept it away.

  The road ahead remains unknown.

  Loyalty, honor, brotherhood.

  Kings forever, forever Kings.

  I’ll never betray my club.

  Even if it means losing everything.

  Dying for something to read between now and Zero Apologies? Sign up here for my newsletter to get new episodes of Kickstart My Heart delivered to your inbox a couple of times a month!

  COMING THIS SUMMER…!

  Love, Loyalty & Mayhem: A Motorcycle Club Romance Anthology

  BAD BOY ALPHA ALERT!

  Twenty of your favorite MC authors come together to bring you brand new, never released stories from some of your favorite motorcycle clubs.

  Love

  Life with a biker is an adventure full of twists and turns. When love is involved, MC men never back down from what they want—they fight for it.

  Loyalty

  Loyalty is the foundation in any motorcycle club. Break it, they break you. There isn't a line they won't cross to protect who or what they claim as their own.

  Mayhem

  These men live a life made by their own set of rules. Chaos tends to always find them. You cross them, the consequences are swift.

  Hold on for the ride as this talented group of authors come together to bring you an anthology like no other.

  Your favorite clubs, new clubs, and everything in between can be found in this collection filled with suspense, action, adventure, romance and so much more!

  Participating Authors Include:

  Autumn Jones Lake

  Avelyn Paige

  Bink Cummings

  Chelsea Camaron

  Glenna Maynard

  Kristen Hope Mazzola

  L Wilder

  Laramie Briscoe

  Laura Kaye

  M.Robinson

  MariaLisa deMora

  Mary Martel

  Nicole Jacquelyn

  Nicole James

  Nina Levine

  Ryan Michele

  Sapphire Knight

  Terri Anne Browning

  Winter Travers

  Amo Jones

  **All profits from the Love, Loyalty & Mayhem: A Motorcycle Club Romance Anthology will be donated to Bikers Against Bullies USA.

  BAB USA is a national not-for-profit organization created by bikers to raise awareness and empower the community to fight the terrible effects of bullying on young people through education, community outreach and fundraising.

  AUTHOR NOTES

  I probably wouldn’t have to get my roots touched up as often if I planned these things out ahead of time. Honestly, it’s my goal one day to have everything all neatly planned out and organized months and months in advance. One day.

  Maybe halfway to my editing deadline (okay right up to and after my deadline) I kept saying, “This doesn’t feel right. I think it needs to be three books.”

  Anyone who knows me, knows I adore my readers. I’m still humbled and amazed I even have readers. And I agonize over giving them the best story possible. Every. Single. Time.

  I kept lying to myself that Zero Regret would be the end of Z and Lilly’s story. There was a big surprise at the end. A lot of awesome, touching, and funny stuff happened. But…the end also felt really rushed. There were a lot of key events that happened all in the last 18,000 words. It was good, great really. I liked it. But it didn’t feel complete. Worse, one particular main storyline wasn’t wrapped up. Mr. Lake kept saying, “well, wrap it up in a later book.”

  That didn’t feel right though, as it would leave Zero Regret feeling incomplete or like it had an unsatisfying ending. (I’m sure you’re thinking, but now it’s really incomplete, bitch!)

  Then I went to this conference, which was good and bad. Good, because I needed to get away from the book for a while. Bad, because it was super-close to release time (why do I do that to myself!?) So, I’m sitting there in a class on how to improve your story and bam! I had this epiphany of how Zero Regret should end and that there definitely needed to be a third book. I furiously scribbled it all down and decorated it with a bunch of little question marks around it. Could I actually do that?

  Then a couple hours later, I was like, “Nope, I can’t do that. I already said it’s only a duet.”

  I called Mr. Lake that night and we talked forever and I think he was excited about the new idea, but he usually waits to see where I’m at before giving his opinion. So he asked me, “A year from now are you going to regret that you didn’t follow this storyline?”

  I’ll stop here and say I get LOTS of fantastic ideas all the time. I’ve also learned that not every great idea is meant to be a book. I’ve had tons of ideas I haven’t followed but none stand out enough to bother me.

  This one, I felt would stand out. A year, two years, ten years from now, I knew I’d be upset and feel that I had shortchanged Z’s story because it was the easier thing to do.

  Back to the conference. The last class I went to had a list of huge author no-nos or sins not to commit, something like that. And number one on that list was NO SURPRISE CLIFFHANGERS.

  Oh, shit.

  Would this be a surprise, though? I mean, we’re at book #13. You know me a little bit by now. Then again, until #9 I don’t feel like any of them were true cliffhangers. Even #10 wasn’t a cliffhanger as far as I was concerned, because Rock and Hope are 100% together. So maybe this would be a surprise.

  Should I warn people? This trend of posting guarantees at the end of every blurb, you know the ones I’m talking about, “Guaranteed Happily Ever After, no cheating, and no cliffhangers!” annoys the shit out of me? Whatever happened to just enjoying a book and seeing where it takes you?

  I remember favorite series ending with a WTF!? hook and having to wait a year (or more!) for the next book in the series. TV shows used to make you wait an entire summer to find out answers. I don’t remember Friends having a “warning” when Ross had to decide between Rachel and the bald chick. (Yes, I’m old enough that I waited all damn summer to find out which room he went into and taped the episode on our VCR.)

  Plus, I’ve noticed authors can put a thousand warnings on their books. “Book one of a duet!” “First book in the series!” “Ends with a happy for now ending!” “Start the X trilogy today!” and someone is always going to complain about something no matter what.

  I mentioned my dilemma to an author friend at the conference (who to my surprise and delight had actually read the first few books of the series) and she was like, “Doesn’t Rock have six and a half books? Why wouldn’t Z, the Vice President, have at least three books?”

  Right. Of course, he should!

  I steadily worked through my edits making notes of what would need
to change or be moved along the way. I came home and nudged the most patient photographer in the world with a quick message, “Hey, you got any more pictures of Justin and Meghan for me?”

  He did. And it was perfect.

  I tossed out the idea in my newsletter with the next episode of Kickstart My Heart and immediately the girls in my Facebook group reacted very positively to the idea of a third Z book. There was no whingeing.

  Hallelujah!

  One of my very sweet readers messaged me to suggest that Zero Apologies might be a better title than Zero Fucks Given. I had actually started calling it Ground Zero in my head, but I wasn’t in love with the title. When Lacey suggested Zero Apologies, I was like, “holy shit that’s good! It fits so much better!”

  So thank you to the ladies of Autumn’s Lost Kings MC Lounge. Your support means everything to me!

  I put up the pre-order on a Friday afternoon. As happens, I waited and waited for it to go live. Finally, I stepped away from the computer to have dinner and watch a movie with Mr. Lake. When I came back, I had no less than thirteen messages waiting to be approved for the group about the new pre-order. Somehow, my girls found it before I did! With how difficult it is for authors to get any visibility on the big retailers lately, I can’t even tell you how amazing that was! Thank you again, ladies!

  That’s enough from me! I love you and thank you for reading. I hope you’re ready for where the Lost Kings are heading next!

  xo

  Autumn

  ALSO BY AUTUMN JONES LAKE

  CLICK ON EACH TITLE TO PURCHASE.

  THE LOST KINGS MC SERIES

  SLOW BURN (LOST KINGS MC #1)

  President of the Lost Kings MC, Rochlan "Rock" North, hasn't managed to find a woman capable of making him want to curb his wild ways—until he meets sweet, innocent, married lawyer Hope Kendall.

  Forced to represent the outlaw biker, Hope is rattled by her immediate attraction to Rock. Hope is a good girl in a good marriage. Rock thrills her, but she's not going to throw away everything she's built on a fling with her criminal client.

  Rock respects Hope enough to leave her alone, even as he realizes he's become a little obsessed with her. When their connection endangers her life, he'll have to destroy her in order to save her.