Cracked & Crushed

by A. J. Downey

  Cracked & Crushed

  Sacred Hearts MC Book III

  by A. J. Downey

  Text Copyright © 2014 A.J. Downey

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedication

  To the real Hannah Hossler and Tonya Annon, for bouncing ideas and jumping on promoting the first book in this series in exchange for a couple of cameo appearances. More specifically, for not getting pissed off at your character selves! It was a riot writing you guys into this book. I hope I get to do something like it again.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  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

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Hayden…

  The weather was perfect, the setup had gone smooth as silk and as I turned to walk down the aisle I couldn’t help but smile broadly. My father patted my hand where it rested in the crook of his arm and smiled down at me proudly. My bridesmaids were positively beaming. Ashton looked radiant in lilac satin, Everett, Shelly and Chandra equally as beautiful in their sleek pewter gowns.

  Andy looked so nervous! He stood so still and so straight, his brown eyes a little too wide and I felt a little bad for him. His four fraternity brothers looked dapper in their gray long tailed tuxedos, the satin pewter stripe down the pant legs matching the bride’s maid’s gowns to perfection. The best man wore a lilac vest and bow tie and stood behind Andy with a carefully schooled blank look.

  I started down the aisle, the music swelled and the hundred or so guests turned to watch me and I felt a little nervous myself. I had wanted a small, intimate wedding but as always, my mother had her way in things. Most of these people were business associates of my father’s and of Andy’s. I scanned the crowd for someone, anyone, familiar to me and my gaze fell on Reaver and Trigger. My breath caught slightly in my throat. Trigger looked amazing, the big man standing head and shoulders taller than almost everyone else… but it was Reaver that stole my breath away.

  He wore a shirt and tie and light grey pair of slacks. I’d never seen him in anything other than casual wear before. The dressier clothes made him look stiff, but delicious… which is so not a thought I should be having about another man on my wedding day! I thought. Still I couldn’t help but look my fill… the shirt was crisp and white and the blue of his slim tie matched his icy blue eyes to perfection. It was in the high eighties out here on the manor’s back lawn but the moment his wintery gaze fell upon me, it felt like it cooled fifteen degrees.

  His expression was shuttered and closed, a mystery wrapped in a delicate bow of an enigma. I liked that about Reaver. I could never tell what he was thinking when he looked at me unless he wanted me to. I tried a smile on him and he smiled thinly back but it wasn’t a happy one. I wanted to know why, some small part of me yearned to stop and ask him but too soon, my father and I swept by. There was no turning back now and I could still feel his eyes on the open back of my gown. It was simply cooler where his gaze slid along my skin. I had never been more hyperaware of another person like I was Reaver, that included Andy, but I loved Andy and had agreed to marry him before I had ever had the chance to really know Reaver.

  I gave an involuntary shiver from the press of that wintery gaze and my dad chuckled, misreading it…

  “Steady,” he said under his breath, I rolled my eyes up to him and smiled sweetly. I adored my father, was the epitome of a daddy’s girl. He handed me to Andy who took my hands in his. His palms were sweating and I tried to give him a reassuring look. The pastor had his say, I said my vows and looked up at the man I would pledge the rest of my life to…

  “I can’t,” he said. I blinked. I can’t? He couldn’t what? He couldn’t remember his vows? Was he that nervous? The poor thing! I felt my face fall into lines of confusion when he simply stood there, an agonized look upon his face. Our guests were muttering and murmuring among themselves as the silence stretched on.

  “Andy?” I asked when he’d been silent for just far too long. He dropped my hands abruptly at the sound of his name.

  “I can’t,” he repeated and I stood there speechless and blinked stupidly.

  “You can’t what?” I asked, heart heavy with dread, weighted in my chest, crushing the air from my lungs. I held my breath.

  “I don’t love you Hayden, you’re not the one for me… I can’t marry you.” His frat buddies snickered behind him, the murmurs among our guests, our families, thickened.

  My whole world, my future, my life of the last four years, all of it came crashing down on me... What was I supposed to do?

  Chapter 1

  Reaver…

  “Oh no he didn’t…” I said.

  “Yeah. Yeah he did buddy,” Trigger sounded murderous but he was going to have to get in line. I called dibs on putting the hurt on this asshole. Hayden looked like she was desperate, no… more like she was drowning. She stood stock still, her green eyes showing way too much white and I couldn’t stand it. I had to save her but fucked if I knew how to rescue someone from something like this.

  I pushed out from the row where Trig and I were seated and he had my six all the way up the aisle. Ashton was standing just behind Hayden, her golden eyes wide and incredulous as some of the douchebag groomsmen behind the douchebag groom started cracking up. The silence crept in on me and it was all I could do to leave my knives where they were. I felt like putting somebody’s eye out. Trigger and I reached the front at the same time and I gently handed Hayden over to Ashton, Everett and Shells.

  “Take her inside,” I told Trigger’s Sunshine Girl and she nodded a bit rapidly. Hayden’s eyes were welling with tears and it simultaneously cracked my heart in two and aroused me. God she was even prettier when she cried. I’d never seen her do it before. I shook the latter thought off and turned on Andy, the douche bag groom who was trying to push past me and Trig to get to Hayden, he was babbling something about being sorry. I called out over my shoulder at the girls.

  “Get her inside!” I didn’t want her to see but Andy, became more insistent with his shoving. I balled up my fist and brought it up and under, connecting solidly with his solar plexus. His breath wooshed out of him and he doubled over, there were cries of dismay from the prim and proper crowd and I looked up at a blur of grey motion beside me into the green eyes of Hayden’s father. He looked at me grimly and nodded.

  “Thanks,” he said, and then, “You beat me to it.”

  “No problem,” I replied.

  The older man was around Trigger’s height but was almost painfully thin by comparison. He jerked his head towards the house.

  “I don’t want to leave Hayden to her mother,” he said and I frowned. I knew from watchful experience that Hayden’s mother was a piece of work. T
ruth is I wasn’t sure why her pops put up with the woman. I nodded and he took long strides in the direction of the mansion.

  He’d rented the place for the wedding I think. Some old money joint that sat on a farm and trained racehorses. It was a nice place to have a wedding but right now the only thing I was really interested in was carving up the man who’d just humiliated my girl in front of all of their wedding guests… Fuck. Wasn’t that a brain twister?

  Said individual was still trying to relearn how to breathe, his frat buddy douche canoe groomsmen were all eying me and Trig, four to our two. They wanted to dance, I was more than happy to dosey-doe. I unbuttoned my cuff and started rolling back my sleeve. One of them glanced at my face, eyes drawn to the corner of my eye and I felt a real unfriendly smile curve my lips. His eyes shot to my hands and widened a little at the tattoos on them, it was the stilettos on the insides of my forearms that decided them against taking any retaliation.

  “That’s what we thought,” Trigger said and crossed his arms, his suit jacket straining just a bit at the shoulders. I finished rolling up my sleeves, smiled saccharine sweet at the five of them and nodded once.

  “Pussies,” I declared and walked backwards towards the mansion. Trigger followed my lead and we turned when we were sure none of them had any designs on taking a cheap shot when our backs were presented.

  “What’re you going to do brother?” Trigger asked me as we trudged across the grass in our fancy dress shoes.

  “Playin’ it by ear Trig,” I said and he grunted.

  “Tread lightly,” he suggested, I snorted.

  “No shit. I just watched Mount fucking Everest drop on her head. I’m not about to push one of my fucked up agendas right now Brother but somebody’s gotta look out for her.” We caught up to her dad just as he pulled open the door on the wraparound porch. We all three grimaced in unison as Hayden’s mother’s voice floated from inside the mansion somewhere, berating her daughter.

  “I mean honestly Hayden! Who does that without just cause? You must have done something to upset him! Said something? The embarrassment! Surely you know how this is going to reflect on your father…” she didn’t get another word out. Hayden’s pop’s mouth thinned down into a grim line of steel determination and he barked out,

  “Margaret! Let that girl alone!” we trailed him up the hall and rounded the corner into the room that was set aside for the bridal party to get ready. Some kind of sitting room or parlor, it had built in library shelves and antique Victorian furniture scattered around. A dressing screen was in the corner, one of those trifold deals, gold with swans on a lake on it. The image was too serene for the tempest going on inside the room.

  Hayden sat stiff as a board at a little dressing table, hands folded primly in her lap, mottled and shaking with how hard she gripped the balled up Kleenexes in them. Mascara dripped to her chin and her bright green eyes seemed all the brighter from the shine that the tears put on ‘em. Her dark lashes were clumped together with moisture and her chin trembled. She looked frail and about to fly apart any second and I thought she was so beautiful it physically hurt me in a way. A sharp, fractured, aching feeling deep in my chest.

  “Sunshine,” I said and Ashton’s golden eyes snapped over to me.

  “You’re the maid of honor so it’s up to you to go out there and wrangle the guests.” She nodded and Trigger held out his hand to her.

  “C’mon I’ll help you,” he said and she went to him, the light in her eyes saying that as long as she were with her man that anything was possible. God I’d give anything for Hayden to look at me the way Sunshine looked at Trigger. I turned back to the room.

  “Irish, get her out of that dress and into some street clothes. Make ‘em sturdy,” I said to Everett and she nodded once and stooped beside Hayden, speaking gently to her in that sexy as hell Irish accent of hers that sometimes came out when she was stressed out… or drunk. Dray had picked a fine match with that girl. Shelly looked at me with her cool assessing gaze, so like my own right down to the color and things passed between us, unspoken but loud as hell, I clearly communicated to her what I wanted. She gave me her smart assed little secret smile and went over to Hayden’s bitch of a mother.

  “C’mon mamma, let’s help smooth things over with the guests.” She led Hayden’s mom out of the room and I turned to her dad who was looking me over with an assessing gaze of his own.

  “A moment alone sir?” I asked him, not used to being all polite and shit. He smiled at me in a way that said he knew it and led the way into the hall. We closed the door to the drawing room behind us.

  “This is going to be a circus,” he said with a sigh and pulled at the knot in his tie. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and gave him a shrewd look.

  “Honeymoon’s paid for isn’t it?” I asked. He cocked his head to the side and considered me.

  “What you got in mind son?” he asked me.

  “Hayden doesn’t need to be around for this,” I said. He nodded slowly.

  “Can I ask you something?” he asked me and I smirked.

  “Believe you just did, but I get you. What do you wanna know?” I asked him back.

  “Just exactly who or what are you to my daughter?” he asked and I huffed a laugh. Good question. I was the guy that loved her on first sight, but that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I looked at the many varied truths in front of me to pick from and settled on what I thought would get me from point A to point B fastest.

  “I’m just a dude that’s bff’s with her bff’s dude.” I shrugged and said something entirely different with my expression, willing him to pick up what I was puttin’ down with my eyes. That Hayden Michaels meant the world to me and had for well over a year. He nodded slowly.

  “I see. Is that why you looked like I was leading my little girl to her execution rather than to her future husband?” he asked grimly. I smiled and rocked back and forth on my feet like he’d caught me. His green eyed gaze roved me over, lingering on the hint of ink on my inner forearms and especially lingering on the teardrop tattoo near my eye.

  “You been to prison?” he asked me suddenly.

  “Jail a few times,” I answered honestly. No evidence enough to send me to prison, all though I probably should be rotting there. I didn’t volunteer that information though… He leaned in real close and I went stock still.

  “Would you ever hurt my daughter?” he asked me. I thought: Only if she asked me really, really nicely… I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to hear that, so I simply looked at him and let the silence and ice of my gaze do the talking for me. He nodded slowly.

  “If someone were to hurt my daughter…” I didn’t let him even get close to finishing what he was going to say. I cut him off sharply.

  “I’d kill them before they even got through thinkin’ about it.” It was about this time I realized how bizarre this conversation was getting. At the same time though, I’d pretty much do whatever it took, up to and including kidnapping her lovely ass, to get her some distance from this shit-storm. Her father produced a credit card and held it out between his fingers, pow! Just there, like magic. He was a fast fucker for a guy bordering on geezer. Still, I snorted.

  “I got my own money and I take care of my own shit. Put that away,” I barely kept myself from adding ‘old man’ to the end of that sentence. Shit, if I was gonna take care of Hayden, I was gonna do it. I didn’t want or need his charity for this or any other matter. He looked me over as if I had just done something interesting but he put the credit card away.

  “You know where she’s honeymooning?” he asked.

  Hell yes. I wasn’t about to admit how stalker status I’d gone on Hayden’s beautiful ass though, so I simply nodded. She’d told Ashton everything and in turn I’d whittled every bit of information I could out of the small woman. Granted it hadn’t been tough. Ashton loved me like a brother from another mother just like Trig.

  “You keep her safe, away from the media…” he said and I held up two fingers i
n the classic Boy Scout salute. Too bad I’d never been one, but semantics… I meant to keep my word just the same. Irish poked her head out the door.

  “Okay,” she murmured.

  We went in. Hayden was curled up in a ball on the little couch, her face buried in her knees, arms around them. Her small shoulders hitching in silent sobs. She had on jeans and a boat neck tee, a black cardigan hanging loose around her frame. Her daddy sat down next to her and pulled her against him. Shells came back in the room and I gave her a chin lift. She put two fingers against the side of her head, put her thumb down like the dropping hammer of a gun crossed her eyes and nodded her head from side to side. Yeah I’d want to kill myself too if I had to spend longer than ten minutes with Hayden’s mom. I went over to my cousin and spoke low and even.

  “Find her bag, the one she packed for her trip, bring it here and Shells, I’m gonna need your jacket. You’ll get it back in a few days.” She nodded and didn’t even bitch, a record for her. She brought the items to me just as a haggard looking Ashton reentered the room.

  “Mom’s headed this way,” she warned. I shot an apologetic look to Hayden’s pops and said,

  “Get the bag,” to whoever was listening and scooped Hayden up. She was only like three inches taller than Ashton and just as lithe, so carrying her like this was no problem. She was maybe a buck ten, buck twenty… I didn’t really think about it as I strode through the house, Ashton, Irish and Shelly on my ass. We found Chandra out front smoking a cig with the limo driver.

  “Figured you’d need an out so I went and found him,” she commented dryly.

  “That’s why you’re the best.” I pecked her on the cheek and climbed into the back of the car. Ashton got in with me and Trigger came out of nowhere and climbed in with her. We could hear Margaret’s raised voice and I watched Shells stiffen.

  “I’m about to knock her ol’ ass out,” Shelly complained as Chandra swung the door shut. Ashton had the suitcase and Shelly’s jacket on the floor between the seats. Good girl.