by Silver James
“You’re thinking too hard. Just tell me.”
I rolled to my back and repositioned her body so she was snuggled against my side and I could see her face. “A lot has happened, Sam.”
A sort of gigglesnort sound erupted from her. “Is this where I say d’uh?”
Trying to smile, I knew I didn’t succeed when her expression sobered. I blurted, “The Russian and Gravedigger killed the Bastard. The night we rescued you.”
“Good.” No hesitation, but something shifted in the depths of her blue gaze. Concern, followed by comprehension. “You wanted to do it.”
“Yeah. I did. But I was with you. I couldn’t leave you. They got the info they needed from him, and they made sure he paid for what he’d done. To your sister. The kids. You.”
She nodded, her chin easing over my skin. “What else?”
“Sunny and Repo. They’re gone.”
Sam bit her lips and sucked in a breath. “Gone?” Her voice quivered.
“S’okay, babe. Bad choice of words. Turns out Sunny’s pregnant. She and Repo have gone to Corpus Christi. The chapter down there will take care of them, keep them safe until the baby’s born. Then they’ll come back.”
Her inhale eased the tension in her body. “Still waiting for that other shoe.”
“Our house. The fucking Hell Dogs burned it down.”
She stilled beside me, not even breathing. “We lost everything?”
“Everything that wasn’t important. You’re here. The kids are safe. That’s all that matters. Everything else can be fixed. Already in the works, in fact.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you meet Marie? She’s Deadhead’s old lady.”
“From Topeka.”
“Yeah. She’s organizing a party for the kids. She’s calling it something ridiculous, a ‘It’s Not Your Birthday’ party. To get clothes and books and toys for them.” I felt Sam’s smile against my skin. That was a good sign. “And the chapters, all of them, they’re doing poker runs and shit to raise money to rebuild the house. A crew is already working to clear out everything. One of the Arkansas brothers is a builder. He’s bringing his crew up. It’ll take a couple of months, but we’ll have our house back.”
“Where will we live until then?” She pushed up and sat cross-legged. I damn sure liked the view of her pussy. She blushed, pulled a pillow into her lap, and rolled her eyes. “Focus, Easy. We can’t stay here. I know you love these guys, but it’s not really a good place for Jonah and Noni. Not twenty-four seven.”
“Repo offered their house to us. Temporarily. Once you feel ready.”
Sam contemplated the idea for a long minute. “The kids are familiar with it, so it won’t be like moving somewhere strange.”
I snuck my hand under the pillow and teased her thigh. She slapped at it, but her eyes twinkled. I was so fucking relieved. She was taking all this news a hellava lot better than I thought she would.
“What else?”
“The kids. Adopting them.” I didn’t want to go there, but I had to.
“I thought we’d already agreed on that.”
Her brow did this little scrunched up thing, and I sat up so I could kiss the wrinkles away. Leaning back against the headboard, I decided to just lay it on the line. “Pretty Woman. Sarah. She’s still in the morgue.”
Her face crumpled, and I pulled her down against my chest where I could hold and pet her.
“I…I forgot. Oh, God, Easy. How could I forget about my own sister? My twin!”
I brushed her cheek with my fingertips and found tears. “Shh, baby. S’not like you’ve had much time to take a breath since she died. Besides, we needed things to settle down so the cops wouldn’t investigate us. I knew we’d get justice for her. The Bastard is dead. The kids are safe. You’re safe. We’ll go together. After we’re married. Then you can file the papers for custody, and we’ll adopt Jonah and Noni. They’ll be ours, legally.”
She shook her head, her spiky hair tickling my chin. “The papers, the ones Sarah signed. They were at the house.”
“Nope. I took them to a lawyer. She has them. I had a set of adoption papers she’d drawn up at the house. I’ll have her do them again. File them, once we have our marriage license.”
SAM
THE ROOM IN THE BASEMENT of the hospital seemed fitting. Everything was gray. The walls. Floor. Even the air seemed colored by it, the gloom gathering in corners like lost souls. I shivered and pressed closer to Easy’s side. I wasn’t poetic. Or fanciful. This was just a poorly-lit room with a large cooler set into one wall.
I should be grateful they hadn’t buried Sarah in some nameless grave. Jane Doe #12. They didn’t get many unidentified females here. A deputy and the coroner waited for us next to a stainless steel table. A sheet-draped body lay on it.
Easy squeezed my hand. I could do this. I had no choice. I inhaled deeply even as I realized Easy was barely breathing. His nostrils flared, and he breathed through his mouth in short little pants. Of course. Wolf senses. He could smell all the layers beneath the pine-scented cleanser. I’d expected the cloying sweet of death to coat my tongue when I breathed, but the fresh pine overwhelmed everything else.
“Ready, baby?”
His quiet question steadied me. “Yeah.” I nodded to the coroner and spoke louder. “Let’s get this done.” My viewing Sarah’s body was just a formality. Despite the differences beneath our skins, Sarah and I had been identical twins. The coroner recognized me the moment he saw me.
The coroner looked like a kind man, one who might carry peppermints in his pocket for his grandchildren. With evident respect for the dead, he folded the sheet across Sarah’s chest, high enough to conceal the Y incision from her autopsy. I stepped closer, dropping Easy’s hand in the process. He stood back, waiting, like he understood I had to do this alone.
All our lives, Sarah had searched for something. I’m not sure she even knew what it was. Her life hadn’t been simple. Bad decisions. Bad people. A death at the hands of a man far more monstrous than the Wolf who waited four steps behind me, than the two other Wolves who waited outside. Digger and Hardy had accompanied us. If the Russian hadn’t had club business to deal with, I suspect he would have been here as well.
Their presence filled an emptiness I’d only been vaguely aware of since I’d learned of Sarah’s death. My sister was part of me, but she’d grown distant, putting space between us as if she’d foreseen her future and wanted me to accept her loss with less hurt. I studied her face, found her expression peaceful in death.
With a flash of understanding, I knew. Sarah had been waiting. Death was the solace she’d sought all along, but she couldn’t leave her children. Couldn’t leave me until she found someone to take care of us. That’s why she’d taken Easy into her house, even knowing the trouble he’d bring. She instinctively knew. Somehow. Easy was mine. And by claiming me, he would claim the kids. And he would keep us safe. In his arms. In his heart. Protecting us from the monsters in the closet.
“That’s her. That’s my sister. Sarah Prescott.” I swallowed and breathed. “Sarah Lucille Prescott.”
“And your full name? For our records.”
“Samantha Louise Prescott.” I turned at smiled at Easy. “Cross. Samantha Louise Prescott Cross.”
“Your sister never married?”
“No.”
I sat through the deputy’s questions. We’d already concocted a story, much like the one Jonah told so he and Noni could get to Easy. I’m not sure the man truly believed me, but he couldn’t shake my statement. Easy reinforced the idea that Sarah had gotten messed up with the Hell Dogs, and being the scum they were, they’d murdered her. I explained about the Bastard being Noni’s father, which led to discussion about Jonah’s. The deputy verified the deaths of both, and though he gave Easy the fish eye, he signed off on his investigation and closed it.
We made arrangements to have Sarah cremated. We’d eventually take a trip with the kids to scatter her ashes wh
ere she could be truly free. Freedom shouldn’t have been a new concept to me, but looking through my sister’s tortured psyche, I found new understanding that rocked me.
Back at the clubhouse, Marie led me aside. The yard was already filling with people to celebrate my marriage to Easy. We did the justice-of-the-peace thing, but I was informed by the other old ladies that until the club celebrated, we weren’t officially official. Marie made me laugh about it.
She was taking the kids to her place for a week so Easy and I could have a honeymoon. I worried about shuffling them around so much, but Marie and Deadhead had a girl and a boy the same ages as Jonah and Noni, and all four were best friends. Jonah was still too grown up for his age, but the Nightriders seemed determined to ensure he would enjoy the rest of his childhood. And Noni? I still couldn’t get the picture of big, scary Gravedigger wearing a purple cape with a cardboard crown on his head having a picnic with a pink-tutu’d Noni out of my head.
The massive grill was fired up. Kegs tapped. Music blared. The laughter of kids filtered through all the noise. Easy had given me so much, and I knew exactly what I was going to give him for a wedding present. Marie’d helped me choose my outfit. Short leather skirt, knee-high biker books, black lace tee shirt with a red bra and thong underneath. Even though I’d been wearing Easy’s patch for awhile now, I was informed there was more involved. Meaning I couldn’t wear my leather jacket until after. Good. I wanted Easy to know exactly what he was getting.
When the time came, the Russian appeared. He walked me to his bike, mounted, and I got on behind. Marie had told me this was a thing—that the president gave the bride away. I don’t remember much after that. There were words. A leather vest that fit like a glove, and that wonderful leaping wolf patch and the words PROPERTY OF EASY on the back. Toasts. Bawdy advice. Food. Beer. People dancing and kissing. It was all a blur. All but the look in Easy’s eyes when I walked up and took his hand. All but the crystalline purity of his love encompassing me.
EASY
WHEN SAM GOT OFF the Russian’s bike, I thought I’d swallow my tongue. Legs. Her legs were magnificent under that scrap of leather she called a skirt. She flashed a hint of butt cheek, and I swear my dick was ready to rip through my jeans. I mumbled through the shit I was supposed to say, and Preacher laughed like a hyena at me. As soon as I put the cut I’d had made for Sam on her, I wanted to leave right then. Damn but I wanted to fuck my mate in the worst way.
I put up with everybody’s crap until it was safe to leave. I’d made reservations at this fancy place down in the Ozarks. The honeymoon suite in a historic hotel. After all the crap Sam had survived, I wanted to spoil her. I could do all the frou-frou shit. Hell, for her I would have put on a fuckin’ tux and stood in front of a church. Yeah, I was moonstruck. Bad.
My saddlebags were packed with a few days’ worth of clothes. We wouldn’t need many. I intended to keep Sam naked. In bed. In the bathtub. On the floor. On the fucking balcony. My dick was already planning all the ways we would fuck.
“Did you say goodbye to Noni?”
What? My plans screeched to a halt. “Noni? Yeah. She gave me attitude when I told her we had to leave.”
“I’m not surprised. Did she refuse to give you a hug again? You know she’s convinced that if she doesn’t give you a hug, you can’t leave, right?”
“Naw, I got a hug.”
Sam pouted. “I didn’t.”
I hid my smirk. “Guess she figured out last time after I walked out that the no-hugs method doesn’t actually work with me.”
Rolling her eyes, Sam climbed on behind me, slipped her arms around my waist and pressed her body along my back. Hot damn. If I hadn’t cinched up my belt, my dick would be playing peek-a-boo with every car on the road.
At the first stoplight, Sam put her chin on my shoulder. “Where are you taking me?”
“Anywhere you want to go, baby.”
“Good. Take the back roads.”
Back roads? She blew into my ear, swiped her tongue along my jaw, and then bit me. “Jesus, woman. You’re killin’ me here. Taking the interstate, we’re about four hours from our hotel. Why do you want me to take the back roads?”
I was damn proud of myself. Complete sentences came out of my mouth, and they even made sense.
“Because.”
That sounded ominous. And sexy as hell. “Because?”
“Yes. I have a little wedding present for you.”
The car behind us honked. I shot the driver the bird, but hit the throttle and roared off to the next stop light.
“What kinda present?”
“Remember that fantasy you had?”
Fantasy? Hell, I’d had hundreds of them. “Uh…” My brain quit sending words to my mouth as all of them converged at once and my head hit overload.
“The one about your motorcycle…ring a bell?”
I swallowed. Hard. My dick was knocking on my belt.
“Yeah…and?”
“Take the back roads, Easy, because I’m going to ride you full throttle.”
“Oh fuck, baby.”
We did. I hit a road with no traffic and stopped long enough for her to unbutton my jeans, free my aching dick, and mount the front of my bike facing me. That’s when I discovered she was wearing only a thong. I ripped that sucker in a heartbeat and thrust inside her. She screamed, her eyes wild as I revved the bike.
I popped the clutch, and we took off. The vibrations from that powerful shovelhead engine throbbed through us both. She used those athletic legs of hers to squeeze my thighs, rising and falling in a ride wilder than any I’d ever experienced.
“Fuckin’ A, Sam. I’m so damn close. Come with me, baby. Come with me now!”
Her fingers gripped my shoulders, and she shuddered. Her climax flooded my dick with wet heat, and I shot my load, pumping endlessly into her. She kissed me, squeezed my dick with her inner muscles and then laughed.
She threw back her head and screamed to the stars, “I love you so damn much my heart can’t hold it all. I have to shout it to the world. I LOVE YOU!” She kissed me again and then curled around me, arms and legs, keeping us joined. “I know now what it means. All of it. I’m alive, Easy. We’re alive and free.”
“And nobody can ever take it away from us, baby.”
The black ribbon of highway stretched out in front of us. The stars and moon watched from the sky. I’d found my mate, and we had the rest of our lives.
“Alive and free, baby. Always.”
Dear Reader:
While “living” in the world of my Moonstruck Wolves, I discovered a darker underbelly. My secret (and slightly guilty) love of MC books might have had something to do with my detour into the gritty, violent lives of the Nightriders. These outlaw MC brothers roared out of the dark into my imagination, and above the roar of their Harleys, I heard each of their distinct voices. As a result, I’m trying something new to me—writing their stories in first person.
The story Easy and Sam “told” me went places dark, dangerous, and violent. It won’t be for everyone. Easy is a criminal. His Nightrider brothers are criminals. And their enemies, the Hell Dogs, think nothing of rape, torture, and murder. If readers are sensitive to these themes, this is not the book for them.
As an author, I’m always humbled when readers love my characters as much as I do. I live with these people during the course of their stories. They are very *real* to me and to know that they *live* in readers’ imaginations leaves me gobsmacked. Thank you.
I leave you with one favor to ask. People talking about a book is a priceless gift readers can give an author. When you like a book, please consider leaving a review and suggesting it to your friends. Heck, even if you didn’t like it, leave a review so the writer knows why. I appreciate the “I hated this book and here’s why” reviews. They help me learn and grow as a writer. Of course, I also do little squee dances when I get a good review.
Again, thank you for visiting my worlds. The door is always open so don
’t be a stranger. Happy reading!
~Silver James
BOOKS
Thank you!
Thank you for reading NIGHT SHIFT. I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews help other readers find books to read. I appreciate every review, good or bad. Please consider leaving one at Amazon or on Goodreads. If this is your first book set in the Moonstruck world, please check out other books set here, and my other books, too.
Coming soon –
Another New Series set in the world of Moonstruck
Hard Target
Double Cross – Book 1
MOONSTRUCK
The Award-winning Series
MOONSTRUCK: SECRETS
The existence of Wolves has remained a secret for over 200 years. Now, the members of Army Special SciOps Unit 69 are about to be exposed. When a covert operation behind enemy lines goes wrong, Sergeant Major Ian McIntire must trust Major Hannah Jackson to save his men—and his heart. She's already privy most of his secrets but the one she doesn’t know about the moonstruck alpha werewolf may get them all killed. She has one chance to get them undercover and safe, but it may already be too late.
Ten years later, former Army sniper Michael Lightfoot’s life as a forest ranger fits his need to run wild when the moon is full—until two wild wolf pups are kidnapped, along with Dr. Liz Graham, the wildlife biologist who makes him want to howl. The last thing he expects when he rescues the feisty doctor is to be moonstruck. With her life in danger, he must reveal his true self—and risk losing her—in order to save her from the shady corporation stalking the Wolves.
Warning: Secrets, lies, and betrayals are more personal under the full moon, but when a Wolf loves a woman, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
