by A. J. Downey
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Epilogue
BETWEEN BROTHERS
A.J. Downey
Second Circle Press
Reckless, dangerous, and out of control; these are the words most often applied to the SHMC’s brother Duracell. Which is why no one can understand what the deal is between him and Blue. Blue is none of those things; if anything he’s quiet, shy, and as mild-mannered as they come. There’s no balance between these two yet they are inexplicably a team. Then Blue gets a single look at Hayley, and it’s all it takes for him to know she’s their third.
Is Hayley the woman for them? A match for Blue sure, but strong enough to withstand the bizarre tempest of Cell’s personality? The two MC brothers have set their sights on the waitress and have been patiently feeling her out. Now it’s time to take the next step and see if she’s indeed able to date the both of them.
She’ll either bring balance to the boys, or Cell’s pull will knock them all off balance and send them crashing, burning them all out before anything can even fully ignite.
Author’s Note
Being a spin-off, the events of this series take place after the events of Damaged & Dangerous, The Sacred Hearts MC Book VI. If you have not read the SHMC series, references and events that are talked about in this book may not make sense to you. I highly suggest reading the SHMC series first.
Dedication
To the lovers and supporters. This one is for you.
The Sacred Brotherhood
1. Brother To Brother
2. Her Brother’s Keeper
3. Brother In Arms
4. Between Brothers
Published 2017 by Second Circle Press
Book design by Lia Rees at Free Your Words
Cover art by Wicked Smart Designs
Text copyright © 2017 AJ 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
Contents
Title Page
Book Summary
Author's Note
Dedication
The Sacred Brotherhood
Publishing Info
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
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Epilogue
Other books by A.J. Downey
About the Author
Prologue
Hayley
The bell above the door rang and I heard Melody say, “Hey guys!” We had regulars, but none of them brought the level of affection and familiarity that whoever walked through the door did to Mel’s voice. It made me turn around. The men who’d walked in belonged to her new husband’s motorcycle club which explained it.
I took the plates of food from the warmer and brought them to the table they went to, setting them down for the two older gentlemen who came in occasionally for lunch. They smiled up at me with murmured thanks and I gave them a nod, slipping my hand into my apron pocket for my pad and pen, heading over to the pair who’d seated themselves at one of my tables.
Strange, you’d think they’d want to sit in Mel’s section…
Cool, liquid gray eyes followed my every movement as I came up the line of booths. I could see the fiery red of the back of his companion’s head and when I stopped at their table and smiled, brown eyes with a fire of their own looked up at me. I asked, “You know what you’ll have to drink?”
The redhead cocked back his head, those deep brown eyes appraising and he said, “I’ll have a Coke; he’ll have water.”
Strange that he would order for the other one, but I didn’t comment. Instead, I nodded, writing it down and asked, “You know what you want to eat, or do you need a little more time?”
“Give us a minute,” the redhead answered and I nodded and went to get their drinks. He leaned forward and talked to the silent one with the eyes and I watched them a moment, while they were otherwise engaged.
“I think Blue likes you,” I startled and Melody laughed lightly.
“Which is which?” I asked.
“Duracell’s the copper top; Blue’s the quiet one.”
“Don’t they have regular names?”
Mel shrugged, “In their world that is their regular name.”
I pondered that a moment and took them their drinks, setting them down asking, “Know what you’d like?”
The redhead, Duracell, smiled up at me and said, “What’d it take to get your number? Because I think we’d both really like that.”
He winked and I blushed and looked away from him, straight into those beautiful, if sad, gray eyes of his partner? Friend? I didn’t know what they were but the vibe between the two of them was unlike anything I’d ever encountered… Duracell’s friend, Blue, smiled at me and my heart fluttered, which only made me color a little more.
“I don’t give that out,” I murmured to Duracell and asked Blue, “do you know what you want?” The intensity behind his gray gaze unnerved me, but his smile put me at ease, he pointed to an item on the menu and I looked.
“Do you want ranch, honey mustard, or barbecu
e sauce with your chicken strips?” He held up a single long elegant finger and I blinked.
“Option one,” his friend said. “The ranch.”
“Does he not speak?” I asked.
“Only when it matters, and usually only to me.”
Curiouser and curiouser… I thought to myself, smiling slightly. I loved Lewis Carroll and a number of other classic authors, and it was rare that a term fit as well as this one did now.
“And what about you? What will you have?” I asked.
“I already said, I’ll take your number.”
“I don’t give that out, and I hardly think it’d be that appetizing,” I said.
Duracell tore his eyes from mine and I fought not to shiver, although for a very different reason than what Blue’s gaze did to me. I swallowed hard and the two of them stared at one another for a long hard moment, something passing between them, silently.
“Burger and fries,” Duracell said finally. “No onions.”
“Cheese?”
“American.”
“Fries, onion rings, or chips?”
“If I didn’t want onions on the burger why the fuck would I want onion rings?”
I felt the casual smile slide right off my face and I tried not to shake as he turned that burning gaze of his back to my face. I swallowed hard and said, “Just an automatic question, I’m sorry…”
“Chips,” he said and I nodded, writing it down.
“I’ll be back as soon as that’s up.”
“Cool.”
I went to put their order in and risked a glance at their table, both of them openly staring at me, Blue murmuring something to the frighteningly intense one, Duracell.
“Hayley, you alright?”
I startled at Mel’s voice at my elbow and smoothed my sweating palms over my apron.
“Fine, I’m fine!”
She sighed, her shoulders dropping some and asked, “Duracell being a dick?”
I smiled back and shook my head, “No, it’s fine, really… just… is he always that..?” I trailed off and Mel smiled, raising her light blonde eyebrows, her blue eyes sparkling.
“Intense?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded, “He’s being a dick; I’ll go talk to him.”
“No! No, it’s fine, really.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, but I’d look out for him. Not Blue though, Blue’s a total sweetheart.”
I turned around as the bell chimed above the door and Melody called out, “Welcome in! Be right with you.”
“I’ve got this one?” she asked and I nodded.
I served the two bikers when their food was up and silently refilled their drinks. Duracell talked at Blue, holding an entire conversation just like the silent man were answering back, and maybe he was but I certainly couldn’t tell. I brought them their check at the end of the meal and Duracell handed me a bank card.
“Be right back,” I murmured, taking a peek at the name on the card before I swiped it.
Paul Glenn
I took him back his card and handed him the two slips that went with it.
“Got a pen?”
“Sure, here you are, Mr. Glenn,” I handed him the pen but he bypassed it, catching my wrist.
“If you’re going to call me anything, it’s going to be Duracell or just Cell, don’t you ever say that name again.”
“I-I-I’m s-s-sorry,” I stuttered and just as fast as he’d caught me by the wrist, around the soft cushion of the white sweatband I wore to protect it from the edges of hot plates. That’s not why you wear them… my traitorous mind whispered. I went to turn and walk away, call my dad from the kitchen but Blue’s somber gaze stopped me.
Something silent but meaningful passed between us and my fear evaporated, gone as soon as it’d come. I found myself stumbling a bit as I walked away from their table, tripping over my own feet, transfixed by that somber silvery gaze.
When I turned back, Mel was leaning a hip against their table, her arms crossed, the three of them looking my direction. She said something, and Duracell said something back. I turned away, and a moment later the bell above the door chimed.
“Thanks, Hayley; be seein’ you,” Duracell called and Blue was heading out the door right behind him. He inclined his head and then the door was closing. Still, I watched through the glass, the retreating colorful patches on their backs as they went down the steps and headed for their bikes in the parking lot.
I blinked and went to bus their table quickly as two more men came through the door. When I stopped to pick things up, there, where Blue had been sitting, was a neatly folded, tiny, paper blossom out of one of their receipts. Delicate, beautiful, far too pretty to throw away. I put it into my apron pocket and quickly went back to work. It was the middle of the lunch rush, after all.
Chapter 1
Blue
Nineteen months later
“Quittin’ time, boys!” the foreman called and I shot a look down the road we were working on to Cell. He gave me a chin lift and I nodded. I’d hated this particular job something fierce. We’d been working swing on this project for the last six weeks. We’d still been hitting up the diner, it being open twenty-four hours, but the change in schedule meant Hayley was off shift way before we got there.
I missed her. She was a kindred spirit, I could see it the moment I’d laid eyes on her; that given half a chance, we’d click. I wanted that. Ached for it fiercely, realizing just how much I was missing out not having a woman in my life. It was a strange sort of relationship I’d found with Cell, but he was hard and the fact he was so closed off and had so many sharp edges meant that I couldn’t always get what I needed from him. I needed more, and so he’d reluctantly agreed to let me find a woman to join us.
Being his friend was sometimes difficult, loving him was sometimes impossible. It was like we were missing the piece that went between us. Like we almost fit, but we needed that third, and we both knew it.
The only thing I could give Cell was that he had been pretty patient when it came to trying to get Hayley’s attention. She was a shy girl, extremely so, and Cell’s usual way of doing things wasn’t going to work. I’d figured that out the first time we’d met her. So, he’d done the rare thing and had let me take lead in trying to get her to go out with us.
It was a painstaking process because she was so skittish. I started off with just having her get used to seeing us every day. The last six weeks had been hell when it came to that, but this job wasn’t going to last forever and we’d be back on days.
Still, I looked forward to dinner tonight. I was hungry, the diner was cheap but with good food, and it meant that even though I couldn’t see her, I could still be where she’d been. Sometimes, if I stilled enough, concentrated hard enough, I could almost smell her light perfume. I, of course, didn’t tell Cell any of that. He’d call me a pussy and would probably laugh at me. It just was the way he was. Emotions just weren’t his thing and he was about as sensitive as bedrock to anything that didn’t affect him directly.
“Come on! Quit your fuckin’ day dreamin’ and get on it,” he snapped at me and I realized I’d been staring into space for probably longer than a minute, just thinking about her.
We did that for each other as friends, Cell kept me grounded, while I softened some of his sharper edges. I walked down the road in my reflective, asphalt stained gear, stinking of the shit and got to Cell and the bikes. He lit up a cigarette, already astride his 2005 Electra Glide.
I threw a leg over my own Harley and dropped onto the seat with a grunt. Cell looked over at me and asked, “You want your colors?” I shook my head, slipping the clear safety glasses onto my face and reaching for my helmet dangling off my handlebar.
“The fuck is that about?” he demanded and I scowled at him.
“I’m sick of the smell,” I said and held out my arms so he could take in my road grime stained, and sweaty appearance.
�
�Home and shower before dinner then?”
I nodded, and we fired up our bikes, pulling up to the edge of the grassy median we parked them on and up onto the shoulder of the highway. We waited for the truck barreling our way to pass before we pulled onto the road to head back to the club which was still home for us for now. The late summer heat dulled from blast furnace to oven temperature; the wind blowing past me drying the sweat to my skin, causing me to itch. I wanted a shower, clean clothes, and to give my cut and colors the respect they deserved by not putting them on over my rank ass.
Duracell rode ahead and to the left of me, the wind lifting the tee off his back, the angry red weal of scar from where he’d taken a shiv for me when we’d been locked up, picked out by my headlight against his pale skin. Thick, raised, and ropy, he’d lost a kidney in that attack and only by the grace of whatever power that be was I caught up as one of the aggressors and locked up in solitary the entire time he was in the infirmary recovering.
We’d fucking lucked out. His cell mate had been the one to attack me, and Cell had given as good as he’d gotten. My cellie had been released, and so when I got out of solitary and Cell had gotten out of the hospital, we’d ended up housed together. It’d made the rest of our bid go much, much, smoother.
We pulled up out front of the club and backed our bikes into line, shutting them off. I sat for a moment and listened to the insects. This place was different than where we’d come from. Way more peaceful. I was still torn up on the inside over what happened with our old club. All that time spent behind bars and for what? Nothing…
Duracell and I had taken the fall for the lot of them on some pretty fuckin’ serious weapons charges. By all rights, we should still be in prison, but the club had tried to help, had gotten the best fuckin’ attorney and man… that guy… We’d pled guilty, and it’d been a sweet plea deal. Ten year sentence each, managed to get out in five. We had to turn states evidence on our supplier, though. We’d done it with the club’s blessing, because fuck them – they weren’t club and the chapter could have always found another supplier but they didn’t get the fucking chance.
