Copyright © Chelsea Camaron 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Chelsea Camaron, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.
This is a work of fiction. All character, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
1st edition published: May 30, 2017
Editing by: C&D Editing
Cover Design by: Cover Me Darling
Formatting by: M.L. Pahl of IndieVention Designs
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Thank you for purchasing this book. This book and its contents are the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied, and/or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
This book contains mature content not suitable for those under the age of 18. Content involves strong language and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situation are over the age of 18. All characters are a work of fiction.
This book is not meant to be an exact depiction of a motorcycle club but rather a work of fiction meant to entertain.
*** Warning: This book contains graphic situations that may be a trigger for some readers. Please understand this is a work of fiction and not meant to offend or misrepresent any situations. There is quite a bit of violence, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, then please don’t read. ***
The system created to serve and protect failed him. The domino effect of one person’s crime going unpunished has no boundaries.
He’s no saint.
Bladen ‘Judge’ Jones rides to escape the firm hand of his past. When home is a nightmare, the unknown suddenly isn’t so frightening. Riding with his brothers, the Devil’s Due MC, is more support than he has ever had in his lifetime.
She’s not afraid to call herself a sinner.
Tamalyn Andrews is a master mixer, hiding out in a small town hick bar on the outskirts of a town for nobodies. Looking over her shoulder is something she can’t stop herself from doing. Old habits die hard.
However, danger bellies up to her bar.
Will Bladen face his own past to uncover Tamalyn’s secrets? When everything crashes around her, will Tamalyn open up to Bladen in time to save her life?
Love, hate, anger, and passion collide as the time comes, and the devil demands his due.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Bottom Line Bonus Time with Trapper
About the Author
Sneak Peek at Day of Reckoning (Devil’s Due MC 4)
Excerpt from: Shamed (Ruthless Rebels MC 1)
co-written by Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele
Excerpt from: Crash and Burn (Love And Repair Series: Book One)
written by Chelsea Camaron
Prologue
~Bladen~
“Tamalyn,” I plead. “Tell me; tell me what happened to your face!”
“I can’t,” she whispers, making me shatter into a million pieces.
I wish she would trust me, tell me; let me fix this. I have my own ideas about what happens to her. I know without her saying the words, but it’s impossible to do anything based on a firm assumption. Instead, I do what I always do.
“Let me get you some ice.” I start to move off my bed when she reaches out and grips me, holding me in place.
“No, don’t leave me.”
“Okay,” I soothe, lying back on my bed. I tenderly press her head to my chest, stroking her hair, as she relaxes.
Seconds tick by into minutes. We say nothing. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last.
“Tell me,” I whisper. “Tell me who did it, and I swear I’ll make them pay.”
How many times have we been down this road? How many times have I held her while she cried through the pain? When will it end? How many more times will I beg her to say his name? How long do I have to wait until she gives me the reason I need to fight back?
She sobs into my chest, refusing to answer. Time ticks by as she finally falls asleep. Then hours pass, while I silently pray my parents don’t come home anytime soon.
They won’t help her. If they find her here, it will only get worse, for her and for me.
I already know who marked her. I just can’t do anything if she won’t confirm it. Realistically, I can’t do a damn thing, anyway. Not until we are eighteen. I hate feeling helpless.
Tamalyn Mary Andrews is my best friend. I have watched her grow from a girl into a woman. We have gone from playing in ditches together as kids to stealing kisses as teens.
There isn’t a time in my life when I don’t remember her being in it.
She is also the only person in my whole world who knows the truth. The secrets in this house, and in her own. The things no one would believe unless they saw it for themselves. If I could take her pain, I would. If I could make her safe, I would and will. One day, I will.
We aren’t safe here. We are just too young to escape yet. Eighteen is two months away for me, and four for her. I will do everything I can to get us free as soon as the day comes. Until then, sleep against me, Tamalyn, and find a moment of peace. This will be over all too soon.
When she goes home, she faces hell.
Chapter One
~Bladen~
T ick-tock.
Tick-tock.
I wait.
The early morning breeze blows, and still I sit.
Humidity in the south is a special kind of hell. My skin is slightly clammy, even in a mild sixty-five degrees.
My hands unconsciously tighten into fists at the reminder of how many times I told myself I would never be here again.
Patience is not a virtue I ever had, yet I have waited a long time for my opportunity to fight for Tamalyn Adams. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I see clearly now, and what I shouldn’t have done is what I did.
I backed down before.
I left and didn’t look back.
Once we got out, we took off and put as much distance between this place and ourselves as I could. Getting Tamalyn settled at Haven’s Harbor first. It was then I had to get the distance between her and myself so they would follow me and she would be safe.
It was necessary.
I wouldn’t let them follow her, find her, and destroy her.
Now it all seems in vain.
She left Haven’s Harbor, a shelter for women and children where she had been staying all this time. Years, she has remained safe, and I thought happy. It was supposed to be her fresh start, free from the past. The one place I could keep her and know they wouldn’t touch her, and she left.
Tempest, the director and Tamalyn’s cousin told me she left. She said she’s an adult and she couldn’t hold her back. I call bullshit, but who am I to say anything, I left her when I should have done everything so different so long ago.
A weight settles in the pit of my stomach as I look at my childhood home. I wasn’t man enough then. Do they realize the monster
inside me now? The evil I was born with spawned from him and the anger inside me he created. No, that they created. My mother allowing my father to do what he did, never stopping it, never coming to my defense. Yeah, they’re both guilty as sin. I couldn’t do anything before, but now … Well, now I plan to do everything I can to make sure Tamalyn sleeps well every fucking night.
As much as I never wanted to be here again, Hillside Drive has me home, even if it’s not for a happy reunion. Nothing about this place will ever be happy. There are no childhood memories with my parents that I want to relive. No, I want them all to die in this place.
I got us free. Tamalyn knew the deal. We could never come back. I should have faced them all down instead of running. My parents, her parents, I should have stepped up not taken the coward’s way and run. But it was the only way I could see at the time.
I was a boy then.
I’m a man. A man with a chip on his shoulder.
I won’t turn away in fear. Not this time. I’ll shed blood, shed tears, and I’ll rip every motherfucker who stands in my way apart until I can sleep at night, knowing not one fucking thing from the past will touch her again. We will both find our peace, even if it can’t be together.
Since four o’clock this morning, I have sat at the end of the driveway. I left even before Deacon got up and hit the pavement for his morning run.
He’s always the first one awake. Maybe it’s because he is a former Navy SEAL or maybe it’s the nightmares that keep him up all night. I don’t know. What I do know is I had to leave them all in Florence, South Carolina this morning so I could face my past alone.
This is something I won’t involve my brothers in. They would gladly be at my back, but this … well, it’s mine.
She’s mine.
This has nothing to do with Devil’s Due Motorcycle Club and what we do. Yes, this is my case, but like my brothers, there is nothing unsolved about it. I know what happened, who did it, and how they got away with it. I just haven’t sought vengeance … until now.
We are a band of brothers. Nomads, with no place to call home, and it’s how we like it. The open road, the endless possibilities, it’s what each of us crave. Normally, we crash from one small town to the next, just going wherever the clues take us.
When you have the shit in your past that the six of us do, well, it makes change be your constant and suddenly you find comfort in it. At least, I do.
The justice I seek has been building since my conception.
I stare at the ranch-style home. Four walls that contained a hell that is unspeakable. I glance to the house beside my childhood home—Tamalyn’s house. Two middle-class American homes that, from the outside, people would think were part of someone’s all-American family dream.
If all dreams were nightmares, then that would describe the childhood Tamalyn and I endured.
I turn back to my house. The country blue siding is accented with cream shutters, the landscaping is impeccable, and with the hydrangeas blooming blue, it’s all picturesque.
Until you cross the threshold.
Behind the wooden door lies an entryway with family portraits and a wall of medals. All the county, city, and community awards for generations of Jones men. From my great-great-grandfather all the way down and through my father, each man has stood behind the badge.
The city of Dillon, South Carolina is all about southern charm, quiet streets, and more corruption than even a congressman could wade through.
How many ceremonies did we attend for him? How many family pictures were in the newspaper, referring to the upstanding citizen Anderson Jones was? How many people still fall for his bullshit?
My childhood home sits in front of me as if nothing has changed. In fact, the third brick paver from the front door is still off by half an inch from the others. No one ever fixed it after all this time.
It was my reminder. Every morning as I left for school, I would have to step out onto it and see how one brick no longer lined up with the others.
My mind goes there, even as I fight to just stare at the house of nightmares.
“Don’t, Dad,” I plead.
“What are you gonna do, little boy?” He smirks at me, the evil shining in his eyes.
“I’ll call the police!” I firmly tell him as I watch my mom grab at his wrist, seeking relief from the pressure he’s putting around her neck.
He laughs, taunting me. “I am the police, so call them all you want, Bladen.”
I don’t care. I can’t watch him hurt her anymore. Rushing to the phone, I dial the one person I know can match my dad in strength, size, and won’t be afraid of him.
“ ’Lo,” he answers.
“Mr. Andrews, please help my mom,” I beg, feeling the tears form behind my eyes.
“Bladen?”
“Mr. Andrews, Dad’s been drinkin’. He’s hurtin’ Momma. Please help.” My words are barely above a whisper now.
That’s when my blood runs cold. I hear him laugh into the receiver just before it’s yanked from my hand and slammed down.
“Told you to mind your business, boy. Told you time and time again, what goes on with your momma and me is not your problem. You don’t fuckin’ listen. Time for you learn,” my father scolds as he releases my mother and grabs my arm just under my armpit, wrenching me sideways then out of the living room.
I yelp, fighting back the urge to cry out. When he is like this, there is no reprieve. In fact, sometimes I think the more Momma yells or cries, the more he likes to hurt us. It’s like it drives him harder.
“You think Caleb Andrews is gonna help you?” my father’s voice booms as we hit the front porch.
I twist my head and look to the neighbor’s house where their front porch light is on. I can see the shadow of Mr. Andrews standing against his front door. He’s not going to come over here. My dad’s partner on the police department, his best friend, and the one man who I know could help me watches instead.
“Caleb, my boy wants you to help him. The disobedient boy wants you to keep him from being punished,” my dad yells to our neighbor.
“Way I see it,” Mr. Andrews yells back, “gotta teach these yougins to follow the rules. He don’t need to be in adult business. If he’s gonna break the rules, then he’s gonna grow up and break the law. Might want to teach that boy a lesson, Anderson.”
The encouragement is exactly what my father was looking for. Two hands grip my arms at my shoulders, and then he shakes me.
“A night out in the yard should teach ya your place.” His eyes meet mine, and I swear I’m looking at Satan himself.
In a swift move, my eight-year-old body is lifted and tossed off the porch. The back of my head hits the brick paver under me before it all goes black.
I woke up hours later with the sun rising, much like it is this morning. The sky a blend of many colors, all bright, and giving the illusion of a beautiful day to come. The throbbing was intense, and I found myself covered in dry blood. I had hit the paver so hard it shifted.
There is never a beautiful day when it surrounds this house.
Reaching up, I feel the back of my head where I still have a lump. The flicker of silver that pops out of my saddlebag catches my eye as I turn my head, stretching my neck and fighting off the ghost pains of the past. The pinwheel that goes everywhere with me is a reminder of the evil that lies within.
The first of many lessons this house taught me, that man gave me, and all in the name of justice, rules, laws, and the need to keep everyone in line.
It’s all a bunch a bullshit.
Chapter Two
~Tamalyn~
I was born to be strong.
I was raised to rise above it all.
I will always endure.
Beat me, mind fuck me, throw every stone in your arsenal, I will take every blow. Moment after moment, memory after memory, tragedy after tragedy, I will survive.
Until I crumble.
Until I fall.
That churning, that pit in
your stomach, the acid burning feeling, the emotions are too much. The fear is too much.
I lived it as a child. I carried it into adulthood.
When I found my way to Haven’s Harbor, I said I wouldn’t be afraid anymore. It was my fresh start.
The phone in my back pocket pings with an alert.
Tempest and I made a plan. When I felt that tingle like I was being followed, I told her I had to go. There was no way I would put her place at risk. I have had a little over eight years of security, maturity, and time to save money while being here at Haven’s Harbor. It’s only been a little over five months since I left. I still miss Tempest, my cousin, my best friend. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched though, and as hard as she works for the many women and children in her care, I would not put anyone at risk.
Social media is both a blessing and a curse.
Twitter is my contact with Tempest, and the ping is an alert from her.
@MaryAstronomy Love is not far behind anger.
I stare at her cryptic message directed at me under my sign on Mary Astronomy. What the hell does that mean?
Quickly, I type my reply to her sign on, Arika Mae.
@ArikaMae There is a fine line between love and hate.
Why would my cousin bring up love? Normally, our tweets back and forth are normal Twitter activity, featuring emoji’s and quotes about missing someone or remaining strong in life’s storms.
Tempest is not only my cousin, but my very best friend. She knows all my secrets. After her best friend was killed in high school by an abusive boyfriend, she’s dedicated her life to helping keep women and children safe.
Haven’s Harbor is Tempest’s dream turned reality. Knowing the hell I lived in, it was also the one place my father would never look for me because he didn’t know Tempest had always stayed in contact with my mother and me. Caleb Andrews didn’t know my mother never cut her sister out of her life like he dictated.
Even as my mother was put into the ground and her casket covered in dirt, I never once slipped up about my aunt Mary and her daughter Tempest. As hard as it was, I didn’t let on that anyone was missing from my mother’s funeral.
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