by A. J. Downey
“Damn right… god you feel so fuckin’ tight.”
I kissed him, the angle we had was awkward but working, and I let him make love to me as the sun rose slowly in the sky. It was beautiful.
Chapter 40
Cutter
“What is the big, god damn, emergency?” I demanded. Hope had been pissed when I told her to relax and chill back at the Mysteria Avenge and had vaulted the side and swam for shore, dry clothes sealed in Ziploc bags along with my other essentials, trailing in a dive bag.
Reaver didn’t help, laughing his head off at the expression on her face as I’d gone over the side. She couldn’t follow with the cast on her arm.
“I’m kicking you in the balls when you get back!” she’d shouted at me. Only got pissed off even more when I’d shouted back that no she wouldn’t, she’d need them that night. Hayden had given her a sympathetic look and Reaver had fallen on his ass he was laughing so hard. I hoped like hell that my girl didn’t kick him in the balls. I’d come back to find a hole in her.
I hadn’t had time to worry about it. I was making way to The Plank to answer my secretary’s nine-one-one text to get my ass to shore. Now I was glowering at my whole assembled crew minus my VP and I had a sinking feeling…
“Easy, Captain.” Pyro said affably and it was the fact my best friend and first mate aboard our salvage boat was at ease that put my raised hackles down.
“We wanted to talk to you,” Atlas said.
“Yeah, we put it to a vote,” Nothing said grimly, but that was Nothing for you, he was always a grim bastard.
“You vote me out as your Pres.?” I asked, half expecting the worse. My girls gloom and doom was wearing off on me a little I guessed. The boys all busted up laughing.
“Fuck no! We took Marlin’s vote by proxy, man.” Atlas said, wiping tears out of his eyes.
“What the fuck is this about!?” I demanded. I was as lost as a whore on her way to church.
“Have a seat, Cap,” Lightning suggested. I went to my electric chair and dropped into it.
“We need to ask you something,” Pyro said, “You give any thought about making Hope your Ol’ Lady?”
I eyed my friend, “Uh, yeah,” I nodded.
“And?” Atlas prompted.
“Have to ask her, not sure how my rag would go over.”
“Yeah that’s what we voted on,” Radar pulled out a plastic grocery sack from under the table, I raised an eyebrow.
“Dude, I looked, it’s not exactly in our by-laws but it’s not exactly against them either…” Atlas said.
“What did you guys fucking vote on? What did you do?” I demanded suspicious.
Radar pulled a cut, a small, trim one out of the bag and laid it out in front of me. I blinked, stupid. The top rocker read ‘property of’ like it should, the bottom rocker ‘Cutter’ like it should but between the two…
“No Ol’ Lady’s ever worn the club’s colors…” I said looking the patch over, the Kraken dragging the ship below the waves.
“Hope ain’t just an Ol’ Lady, Captain,” this coming from Beast.
I looked around the table at all my guys and they all stared back plaintively, “Somebody explain, before I suffer a goddamn stroke.”
“Hope can take it man, she stood side by side with us as good as any brother and if she were a dude, it’d be no contest... She’d be in. We see she makes you happy, you guys are a good match. She can handle it, and we wanted to show not just you but her that she’s got a place here. We want her to stay, too,” My best friend and first mate sniffed and propped his boots on the table, leaning way back in his chair. He raised his eyebrows, and waited for me to finish processing what my boys were telling me.
“Hope is yours, Man; every one of us can see it, but she’s got this club’s respect and fuck what any other club says or thinks… Except for our brothers from another mother up North. They think like us anyhow,” Nothing shrugged, “That’s why we like ‘em.”
I kind of scoffed a little incredulous and picked up my gavel, “So ordered?” I asked and got a rousing round of smiles and agreement, “So entered!” I brought the gavel down on the arm of my chair with a sharp crack, but my eyes were fixed on the property rag in front of me. There was only one thing left to do, really, and that was to convince Hope to wear it. I had no idea how to go about doing that but at the same time, I knew the time wasn’t right. Not right now. She was stressed out enough and add the pissed off to it… nope, it would have to stay here for now.
“I really don’t know what to say, boys, except ‘thank you’, so thank you.” I embraced each of my brothers one at a time until I came to Nothing.
“When you gonna ask her?” he asked.
“I have no idea, definitely not until this shit storm has had a chance to calm down.”
“I was gonna suggest that, she and the sister doing okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Man; I really don’t know, Hope seems to be hanging on by a thread and you know Marlin, he’s gonna do everything he can to protect Faith’s privacy and truthfully? That’s why I picked him. That poor girl has been through enough.”
Nothing nodded solemnly, he’d seen quite a bit of shit back when he’d been an EMT or Paramedic or some shit. I knew it was one of the two and that they weren’t exactly the same thing. Didn’t care enough about the distinction.
“Well, you know we’re all here for you and Hope, Captain. Just call.” Atlas said from over Nothing’s shoulder. Nothing turned, nodding back in agreement to what my secretary was saying.
“A man couldn’t ask for a better band of brothers,” I told my men and it was true. I looked down at the table, at the leather bodice-like vest the boys had gotten my woman and I felt a surge of emotion. A lot of things, so many things at once I couldn’t even begin to describe it if I wanted to.
“Get on back to Hope, Captain, we all know you want to, we’ll call you anything else needs attention,” Pyro nodded to me and I looked over all my men in turn one more time.
“You boys see something I don’t?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s your ‘one’, dude. Now get going!” Lightning winked from the back of the bar and I huffed a laugh.
“Okay, I’m going,” and I went, still marveling at what my boys had done for me and her.
I got back to the house, tucked my clothes back into their Ziploc bags and sealed them tight. I switched back into my dry shorts, the sun having worked its magic on ‘em while I’d been at The Plank and the material had lain out on the back patio’s retaining wall.
I hadn’t bothered to go in the house either coming or going, I’d just gone around it, and had taken the Crash truck back and forth. I looked over my shoulder as Marlin slipped out the back slider.
“How’s she doin’?” I asked.
“Rough. She’s hurting, Jonesing hard for a fix that I ain’t got shit to give her,” Marlin bowed his head and palmed the back of his neck. “It’s worse somehow, you know?”
I did know. His brother had been on the shit of his own volition, Faith wasn’t a willing addict, this had been done to her…
“Yeah, man. I know.”
“Thanks,” Marlin nodded and sighed going back for the door.
“You need to talk, you can reach out.” I called after him. He nodded, a haunted look in his eyes and I knew that look, it was bad in there, whatever was going down and I had mad respect for my VP handling it like he was. If it had been Hope, I could do it. I would do it… but it wasn’t and I didn’t know the first thing about getting a junkie off of that shit. Probably wouldn’t have the patience for the whining and tantrums he was about to endure, but Marlin was good at that… enduring. His brother had been a cross of his to bear for a long while. Damn fuckin’ shame that had turned out to be.
I slung the mesh dive bag with my pile of sealed essentials in it over my chest and made the long walk to the water’s edge. I could see two heads bobbing in the water alongside the Mysteria Avenge and smiled faintly to
myself when I caught sight of Hope on the hammock, she’d raised her arm to shade her eyes and the motion caught my attention.
I trudged into the surf and made the swim back out easily. Reaver and Hayden waved, masks and snorkels in place and I waved back. I wanted a minute with Hope alone. I climbed up the ladder off the side and hauled myself onto the deck, dripping. Hope lazed in the sun, her bronzed skin gleaming with oil, the smell of coconut and lime perfuming the air.
“Hey,” I said.
“Fire out?” she asked.
“No fire,” I unslung the bag and let it drop.
“What was the big damn emergency then?” she seemed like she was back together and I smiled.
“Tell you about it later,” I said and she glanced out at the water and nodded and that right there must have been what my boys saw in her, or part of it.
“I ain’t letting you go. Call me creepy, or a fucking stalker status asshole all you want, but you don’t find this but once in a lifetime, Babe.” I dropped to the deck, sitting beside the hammock and crossed my ankles, propping my forearms on my knees. I looked at Hope who looked at me plaintively through her big bug eyed sunglasses.
“Good to know we’re on the same page,” she said quietly and evenly but her voice was almost too steady, too careful.
“I’m in it to win it here, Sweetheart. You and me and living this life of mine. You make my world complete. You make it perfect and I want that, I want you so hard…” I shut my mouth and shook my head.
“I’m a mess,” she said softly and I shook my head.
“No, you’re my mess,” I said and she nodded carefully.
“My sisters…”
“Will sort themselves out with our help. I get it, you’re a package deal and I really am okay with that; I mean, haven’t I proven that by now?”
“Yes,”
“So stay with me. Move in with me, say you’ll be mine.”
“Only if you say you’ll be mine too…”
“Two way street, Sweetheart, I’m down with that. I really am. I want you, and to be clear, that means only you. I don’t want anybody else, I – ” Didn’t get to finish what I was saying because she rolled off the hammock lightning quick and flattened me to the deck. I put my hands on her hips where she straddled my waist and she pulled off her sunglasses, searching my face for any bullshit. There was none, and finally satisfied that I meant every word I was saying she kissed me.
I held my woman in my arms under the warm sunlight and felt a burden on my soul lift. I had a partner, I had a Queen for my little seaside kingdom, finally and whatever lay on the road ahead I knew we could handle it, just like we’d handled everything to this point.
“I love you,” she said against my mouth.
“I love you too, Sweetheart. No insecurities, no worrying nothing to be afraid of. We got this,” I promised her and she laughed, and it was one of the freest sexiest sounds I had ever heard come out of her. Her arms went around my shoulders and mine went for my fly. I couldn’t get enough of her, I would never get enough of her; I loved her just so damn much. Everything else was just a fucking formality in the face of that and not me, not her, and none of mine stood much on formality.
“Oh God,” she gasped as I moved her bikini bottom aside and sank into her. I smiled up at her.
“I like the sound of that, you can call me that any time you like, Sweetheart.”
Hope threw back her head and laughed and I swear on everything, it was the sweetest and sexiest sound I’d ever heard, and I wanted to hear more of it. A lot. Until the day I died.
Amen.
Epilogue
Faith
The house in New Orleans
I watched him rape her, the other girl in my room and I couldn’t close my eyes. The men out front were at their loud video games again, or so I thought. They sounded louder, realer somehow… wait… was realer a word? I didn’t know.
Whirling, the room started spinning, and if it were possible to be sick of such a thing then I was, this euphoria they pumped in my veins, the sluggish feeling it gave me… I hated it. I loathed it, and I would give anything for it to stop.
I stared at the leather band around my wrist, finally able to drag my eyes from the rutting on the stained mattress on the other side of the room. Boom! Bang, pop, arugh! The sounds of violence intensified and I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember the nice boy, the sweet boy who had looked around my storage locker cell, who’d taken pity on me, who had spoken so sweetly and given me his bracelet… the first glimmer of kindness in so long… so long…
Crack!
The door exploded inward on its hinges and a woman, an avenging angel, a superhero strode through. Except angels didn’t have hellfire in their eyes did they? Avenging angel? I couldn’t remember… I closed my eyes and sighed out. I’d dreamt this before, hadn’t I? A thousand times and more… my sister, Hope, coming to my rescue, except it hadn’t happened then and it wasn’t…
“Faith,” my sister’s voice. I sat up, drawn by strings, this was the cruelest dream yet, she’d never spoken in the others…
“Faith?” she tried again and I looked up…
“Hope, is it really you?” I asked and the avenging angel, the hellfire was gone and all that was left was my sister’s face set into deep lines of regret, deeper lines of grief. I reached out with my arms like when I was small and I wanted Hope to pick me up and she was there and I breathed in deep the smell of my sister, my family, my home, and she spoke…
“It’s okay Bubbles, I got you. I got you now, I always got you Sis,” and I collapsed into her arms and clung to one thought… Real, this is real, Hope is here; Hope has found you.
We were in another room then, death and destruction and chaos and shouting. A man with long brown hair and soulful brown eyes shouting, bellowing, making me flinch and then he came… I blinked and shook my head and blinked again to try and clear the illusion but it wouldn’t go away.
Golden hair and rich, sky blue eyes, I stared I couldn’t help it, and then he picked me up and for the first time in so very long, I knew… I just knew what it was to be safe in a man’s arms again.
What was going to happen to me?
Other Books By A.J. Downey
The Sacred Hearts MC
1. Shattered & Scarred
2. Broken & Burned
3. Cracked & Crushed
3.5. Masked & Miserable (a novella)
4. Tattered & Torn
5. Fractured & Formidable
6. Damaged & Dangerous
Get Biker Chicks on Amazon here
Paranormal Romance
I Am The Alpha (with Ryan Kells)
About the Author
A.J. Downey is a born and raised Seattle, WA native, and the author of the bestselling Sacred Hearts Motorcycle Club series. She finds inspiration from her surroundings, through the people she meets and likely as a byproduct of way too much caffeine. She has lived many places and done many things, though mostly through her own imagination. An avid reader all of her life, it’s now her turn to try and give back, entertaining as she has been entertained.
You can find her on Amazon, and she blogs regularly here. She also connects with her readers on Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. If you want the easy button digest, as well as a bunch of exclusive content you can’t get anywhere else, sign up for her mailing list right here.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Book Summary
Author’s Note
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
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Marlin's Faith: Cover
Other Books By A.J. Downey
About the Author
Publishing Info
Published 2015 by Second Circle Press
Book design by Lia Rees at Free Your Words
Cover art and Virtues logo by Cover Your Dreams
Text copyright © 2015 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
