Ghost
The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8
Candace Blevins
Contents
Copyright
Connect with Candace
Blurb
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
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Also by Candace Blevins
Excerpt from Only Human
About the Author
More From Excessica!
eXcessica publishing
Ghost © October 2016 by Candace Blevins
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.
This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.
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Cover design © 2016 Syneca Featherstone
First Edition October 2016
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Blurb
At eight years old, Hailey’s life took a turn for the better when her mom married Darnell, despite the fact she had to put up with his asshole son for a stepbrother. Eight years later — the day after her stepbrother graduated high school — Darnell and his son moved out, and the divorce was final six weeks later. She hasn’t seen either of them since.
Ghost works at the gun store, but one evening the MC is shorthanded and he’s sent to help watch over their stable of working girls. He walks in and smells Hailey, his ex-stepsister, and shortly thereafter drags her out and carries her home.
Brothers and sisters fight. It’s what they do. But when the worst happens, they’re there for each other. They haven’t seen each other in six years, but some things never change.
Chapter 1
Ghost
I don’t usually have much to do with the girls at the whore hotel, but with Gen in the hospital giving birth to Duke’s first child, and most of the brothers close to Duke with him, it was all hands on-deck to make sure our businesses ran smoothly.
The ancient hotel we bought isn’t in our territory. It’s on the other side of the river on a once-busy road that lost its traffic when the interstate was put in, and there isn’t enough crime around it to warrant us having to patrol to make sure drugs aren’t being sold nearby. The cops know it’s a whorehouse and they’ve busted us a few times, but the charges never stick so they’re biding their time until we fuck up and incriminate ourselves.
I looked around as I pulled my bike beside Bobcat and Slick’s. The parking lot was nearly full, so business was apparently good tonight.
I took a deep breath as I walked into the old hotel lobby — a habit my dad taught me, to get my bearings as I enter a room. My heart skipped a beat and my body froze as a familiar scent hit me.
Hailey.
“You okay, Ghost?” Slick asked, his tone wary.
I ignored Slick and prowled to the seating area, and a woman with candy-apple red hair and a tiny miniskirt stood and turned as I neared. She took three steps back when she recognized me, but I’d have never recognized her by sight. My nose told me it was Hailey, though.
“Darius! What are you doing here!?”
She looked like shit — too thin, with ugly-assed candy-apple red hair, and she was dressed like a whore in a too-short and too-tight miniskirt with only an exercise bra. I could see every damned rib, not to mention her hipbones. My wolf wanted me to spank her ass for doing this to herself, but I answered her question.
“I’m part owner. The question for the day is what the fuck you’re doing here?” Even I heard the growl as my wolf pushed his way to the surface, but I didn’t give a shit.
She shrugged. “Girl gotta eat.”
This wasn’t my Hailey. What the fuck had happened to her in the last six years?
She’d been with so many men, their scents were mingled with hers and it was… wrong. My wolf insisted we punish her for it, but I told him we had to take care of her first. He finally backed down a little when I got the idea across that something was wrong and we had to fix it.
“What’s going on, Ghost?” Now it was Bobcat asking, and I could hear the caution in his voice too.
“Hailey’s my sister. I need to borrow a helmet so I can get her out of here, and you need to call someone else to be your third here tonight.”
Bobcat took a small step back as he asked, “Ruby? Is this true?”
“Stepsister,” she snarled. “Darius doesn’t own me, and I’m not going anywhere with him. Besides, our parents divorced so I’m not even his fucking stepsister anymore.”
I sighed as I grabbed her arm, careful not to hurt her. Humans are so damned fragile. “Helmet? Please tell me one of you has a spare.”
“I keep one in the back in case one of the girls needs a ride,” said Slick. “I’ll get it for you.”
“You can’t just go all caveman on me and drag me out of here, Dare! I need to work! I have a scheduled party in ten minutes!”
I looked at Slick. “Tell me you have someone who can fill in for her.”
He nodded and I met Haley’s gaze. This wasn’t up for discussion. “We’ll find you another job. You’re coming with me.”
Hailey looked to Bobcat in a panic. “The MC�
��s supposed to protect me! You can’t let him drag me out of here!”
“He’s one of us, Ruby. If he considers you his and has a valid claim, he gets to take you wherever he wants. You admitted you’re his stepsister, and it’s clear he considers you family. You can call me anytime, but I can’t get between a brother and his family.”
Damned straight he couldn’t. I took a step toward the door and she planted her feet as I pulled her arm. I stopped, took a breath, and smelled her anger, pain, confusion, and hurt.
The whole situation was fucked, but I needed to know what’d happened for her to end up hooking. She hadn’t been the best student, but she was a damned talented musician.
It’s never good when both the wolf and I are pissed. I couldn’t calm him in the next thirty seconds, but I could push him down and calm myself. I took a breath, let it out, and softened my voice as I told her, “Come home with me and talk to me, Shortstuff. You know me — we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Do you think maybe just this once we can do it the easy way?”
“You can’t spank me anymore, Dare! I’m a grown woman!”
There was a little of my Hailey. I couldn’t help my smile as I asked her, “Do you doubt I’ll turn you over my lap and spank you right here? Really?”
She glared so hard, she practically shot daggers from her eyes, but she walked outside with me and let me put the helmet on her when Slick brought it out.
“Thanks,” I told Slick. “If you need me to come back in a few hours, let me know, but I gotta get things sorted with Hailey.”
“We’ll be okay, but I’ll let you know if we aren’t.”
Chapter 2
Hailey
Just my luck, I finally land the best working-girl spot in town, and fucking Darius walks in. Damned hypocrite — he can be part owner but I can’t work there? Fucking asshole.
And I couldn’t believe he’d threatened to spank me. My mother never spanked me, but when she’d married Darnell, I’d quickly learned to control my temper when he was on leave. And then a couple years later, Dare started in with it, too.
I was never supposed to need to make good grades. I could play the hell out of a guitar and a piano, and that was going to be my life.
I’d made enough money playing piano and guitar when I was fifteen to buy myself a low-mileage almost-new PT Cruiser when I turned sixteen. Unfortunately, at twenty-two I was driving a piece-of-shit Ford Focus — currently sporting a broken heater. I’d budgeted to be able to afford to have it fixed this weekend, but it wasn’t likely to happen without tonight’s income.
And it didn’t help that my body was so fucking comfortable on Dare’s bike. My front molded to his back, and the two of us leaned in harmony as he wound through the back streets of downtown Chattanooga going God-knew-where.
Eventually, signs told me we were in Georgia, though we hadn’t been riding terribly long and I didn’t think Dare had been going that fast.
It may’ve been six years since I’d seen him, but it felt like I’d been on his bike just last week. He and his dad had left sticksville North Carolina before the divorce was final, but I thought they’d moved to Virginia. What the fuck was Dare doing in Chattanooga?
I took the helmet off when he pulled in front of a house on a large circle. I looked at the yard in surprise before realizing this must not be his house because I couldn’t imagine Dare ever planting flowers.
“Whose house is this?”
“Mine. I’m gonna cook steaks. I buy them grass fed, like always. From the looks of you, I’d guess you’re eating even less than you used to.”
We weren’t going to talk about my weight. He always thought I needed to put on a few pounds.
“You planted flowers?” I asked, hoping to keep from talking about the fact I wasn’t going to eat this late at night.
He shook his head. “I bought the house from Gonzo. Are you hungry?”
Gonzo scares the shit out of me, but Dawg’s always been nice, and I recognized his sports car in the driveway next door. I wasn’t supposed to socialize with the MC, though. It’d been made clear I was an employee and would be taken care of, but I wasn’t invited to be more than the hired help. I knew a lot of the bikers lived in the same neighborhood, and it appeared I was smack in the middle of it. Shit.
“Stop trying to feed me. I don’t want to be here. Let’s just do whatever talking we have to do and then you can take me back.”
He shook his head, but turned and walked to his front door. I followed with a sigh.
“Am I cooking you a steak?”
I shook my head and crossed my arms, suddenly uncomfortable in my skimpy bra and tiny miniskirt. He sighed as I followed him in, and he motioned down a hall. “Take a shower, and wash that crap off your face. I’ll bring you something else to wear so you’ll be more comfortable.”
Six years ago I’d have yelled he wasn’t the boss of me and refused, and it was on the tip of my tongue to do so now, but I didn’t really want to be wearing all this eyeliner and lipstick for the talk we were about to have. It stuck in my craw to do as he said, but it would’ve been childish to refuse just for the sake of arguing.
I had a ponytail holder on my wrist, and I pulled my hair up so I wouldn’t get it wet in the shower. My mind wandered as I lathered myself.
Dare had been a relatively new werewolf when we’d moved in with him and his dad. My mom and I’d needed to know, so we could be careful around him. He’d been past his first change long enough he was usually okay, but I’d been told not to piss him off on purpose, and if I was arguing with him and saw wolf eyes flash at me, to back off and nicely remind him to stay human.
So now, I knew I couldn’t lie to him or he’d know, and I was aware he’d just known I was uncomfortable being dressed like a whore in front of him.
God, I’d had the worst crush on him as a teenager, but he’d always treated me like a little sister. I knew he’d been able to smell my lust, but he’d ignored it. Eventually, I’d been so pissed I started sleeping around, and that was when he’d first spanked me.
Fuck, I was getting all hot and bothered now, just thinking about it. I stopped thinking about him and focused on what I needed to do. I exited the shower, dried off, and walked to the sink to wash my face. His soap was plain and unscented — I hoped it wouldn’t break my face out.
I found one of his t-shirts hanging on the doorknob, as well as some cut-off sweatpants with a drawstring waist. I disrobed and put his clothes on. Everything was huge, but I wanted to be covered for this conversation, so I was grateful.
I found him in the kitchen, cooking.
“Thanks for the clothes, but I really needed to work tonight. My heater’s been broke three weeks and I was finally going to have enough money to have it fixed this weekend.”
“Where are you living?”
“North Chattanooga. I’m renting a room in one of the older sections.” The house may’ve been considered a mansion a hundred years ago, but now it’s just a smelly, run-down old house.
“Lease?”
I shook my head. “Week to week. I haven’t been working for the MC long. The pay’s better, but I had to catch up on some stuff before I could get a better place.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him how expensive tuition and books are for UTC, but I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell him.
“I’ll borrow a truck tomorrow and we’ll bring your stuff here. I’ll see what Bash can do with your car, too.”
“You can’t just start taking care of me, Dare. I’m grown.”
He sighed and moved to another pan, and my eyes almost teared up when I realized he was frying an egg in a pan, and cooking his steak on a built-in grill on the stovetop.
“You’re doing a shit job of it so I’ll help until you can do better.”
I watched as he made my favorite kind of sandwich – a grilled cheese with a fried egg between two cheese slices. My stomach growled, and I decided one late-night meal wouldn’t kill me. I coul
dn’t believe he remembered.
I took a breath and got my emotions under control before asking, “Why? You don’t owe me anything. I’m not family.” The last sentence came out harsher than I meant, but he and his dad had just left the day after Dare graduated.
Dare shook his head. “I can’t let someone I care about sell their body to survive. What happened to your music?”
My eyes teared up again and I couldn’t stop them. I held my left wrist with my right hand and barely managed to say, “I broke my wrist and part of my hand — the part that works your thumb. It didn’t heal right. It doesn’t do what I want it to anymore, and there’s nerve damage so I can’t feel—” I had to stop talking or I’d burst into tears, and I buried my head in my hands and held my breath a few seconds before remembering I needed to breathe to try to regain control.
“Fuck, Hailey. I’m sorry.” He put my sandwich on the table in front of me and sat with his steak. “If you’d told me when it happened, I could’ve bitten you and healed it.”
I’d actually thought of it at the time, but hadn’t known how to contact him and didn’t know any other werewolves. “You weren’t around for me to ask.”
“How long ago?”
“Two years. I was living in Nashville, making a decent living in the country music industry. I was invited to an outdoor teambuilding thing with one of the bands I played with sometimes. They invited three of us, and we all knew they were deciding which of us to invite to join them permanently.” I sighed. “There were all kinds of fun things to do — ropes courses, hiking, mountain climbing. It was a lot of fun, but we were fucking around with a Frisbee before dinner one evening, and I dove for it and landed wrong.”
“There’s no chance of fixing it?”
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 1
