by K. J. Dahlen
Ghosts Of Retribution
BLACK DEVILS MC
BOOK TWO
J.R. Ryder
&
K.J. Dahlen
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.
Jaxson-Ghosts Of Retribution
Copyright © J.R. Ryder& K.J. Dahlen, 2018
Edited By: Leanore Elliott
Book Design & Formatting: Wicked Muse
Cover Art Provided By: Book Cover Love
DEDICATION
To Leanore Elliott, Bobby Kim, and Kim Dahl, the loves of my life, whose incredible love and caring, make every book possible.
SEE BOOK ONE AT AMAZON
In Book One of Jaxson…
Chloe, a young woman fresh out of College, ran to Jaxson ‒ a friend she’d known half her life – when her mom’s boyfriend, Roy, attacked her. Jaxson (Jax) is an outlaw biker and VP of the Black Devils MC (the Devils) of Coronado, San Diego, California. Jax offered to help Chloe, but the pair must keep their friendship a secret from his MC. Chloe is the daughter of a deceased member of the Blood and Bones MC of Tijuana (the Bloods). The Bloods and the Devils’ are sworn enemies.
Driven by a strong feeling of responsibility for Chloe, Jax put his neck on the line for her and insisted that she stay with him at his apartment for her own protection. Staying with Jax didn’t sit well with Chloe at first. She’d promised herself she’d never get involved with a biker. Ten years ago, her father ‒ Jesse ‒ died at the hands of the Devils in job for his MC that went bad. It was one reason why the Devils and the Bloods were sworn enemies. Jesse’s death had torn her life apart. As a result, anything to do with bikes, bikers, and their clubs left a bitter taste in her mouth and sickening feeling in her stomach.
To make matters worse, she’d secretly longed for Jax for as long as she’d known the man. Too often, she’d fantasized about riding off into the sunset on his Harley and them starting a new life together. Deep down, she knew that if she stayed with Jax, living in such close proximity to everything she craved could only lead to one thing…
Nonetheless, eventually, Chloe conceded. What she didn’t know was that Jax was a favorite to be voted in as President of the Devils at their election in a few days’ time. To betray to his MC could destroy everything Jax had worked damn hard to achieve. What he didn’t know was that unforeseen events that were right around the corner would put Chloe in far greater danger than he was trying to protect her from now.
Having denied her true feelings for Jax to herself for the past decade, Chloe was uncomfortable about the fact she was starting to lower her guard around him. When Jaxson’s mutual feelings became clear, they began an intense sexual relationship. Only after indulging her deepest fantasy – throws of passion with the irresistible outlaw biker ‒ Chloe learned something she would immediately wish she hadn’t.
Jax’s imminent election to club president, coupled with threats from Antonio – the president’s son – to his life, combined with years of guilt, forced Jax to confront the dark secret that haunted him and he tells Chloe the truth. Jax finally revealed that he’d spun a web of lies for the length of their friendship defending a secret… he’d played a role in Chloe’s father’s death.
Proving that a life with Jax would never be boring, Chloe’s fantasies become an even bigger nightmare when things become vastly more complicated, dangerous, and lethal. Evils from Jax’s dark world threaten their relationship …and their lives. Unbeknownst to the couple, or anybody else, Antonio had learned of a half- brother, who goes by the street name, Jumper. Jumper is the president of the Blood and Bones MC.
The pair of rival gang members formed an unlikely alliance against Jax. Working together, the pair set Jax up to take a catastrophic fall before the vote for president. Bruno – president of the Black Devils – runs a whiskey import and export business and leaves Jax to watch the final shipment of $200’000 worth of whiskey while it leaves the docks. Worried about Chloe, Jax rushes home before the whiskey leaves.
Later that evening, the whiskey shipment is ambushed by a team of organized criminals hired by the half-brothers. When Jax tries to stop it he is outnumbered, and he can’t get signal to call for backup. The culprits and the whiskey get away. Worst still, Jax is beaten mercilessly, and Antonio attempted to shoot him dead but his gun was out of ammunition.
Meanwhile, Chloe’s decision to stay with Jax takes on dangerous implications for her too. Roy, her mom’s ex-boyfriend tells the Bloods’ where Chloe is hiding and Jumper targets Chloe to lure Jax to his clubhouse and kill him. Jumper kidnaps Chloe and plans to keep her in his clubhouse as a whore. Unless Jax can save poor Chloe, she was about to enter a living nightmare.
Jax and Dino pay a visit to Roy at his motorcycle repair shop in Tijuana to track Chloe down. The interrogation turns nasty and in a freak accident… Roy’s repair shop burns to the ground. Devastated, Roy tells them Chloe’s location to get the pair the hell away from him. Chole’s mom, Sheila is then implicated as responsible for Roy’s debts to a Loan shark.
The pair raced to their rivals’ clubhouse. Jumper decided he’d rather see Jax suffer before killing him and shoots Chloe in front of Jax and Dino. Tragically, for a barmaid on Jumper’s staff, she is mistaken for Chloe and shot by Jumper. When Jumper rides for escape, Jax shoots him and hits, but fails to kill the maniac. Chloe survives but the death of the other girl killed in her place was something Chloe feels sure she will never be able to forgive herself for.
Dino leads Jax and Chloe to his apartment where they can hide out. Chloe forgives Jax for the night of her father’s death but the pair is far from a happy ever after…
On the evening of the vote, Jax confronts Antonio for ambushing the whiskey shipment and attempting to kill him, but Jax doesn’t kill Antonio. Something good inside of him wouldn’t allow him to kill his club brother. Instead, Jax gave Antonio the ultimatum – leave town or die. Antonio fled.
Meanwhile, Chloe receives a call from her mother – Sheila ‒ telling her that Roy has been killed but Dino assures her he was alive when he and Jax left. Could Jumper have killed Roy to frame Jax? Roy has saddled Sheila with debts he built up in her name. Sheila is now also in hiding, alone, in a safe house outside of town.
Jax rides to the vote for president, and Antonio had the arrogance to show up. Jax knew he couldn’t kill Antonio in front of Bruno, his own father, but he vowed to kill him afterwards – whatever the outcome. Cops show up for Antonio to arrest him for crimes related to the ambushed whiskey shipment, and it looks like Antonio will get away with his life…
Antonio gives a signal and Jumper fires a shot from outside, through the window at Jax. Seeing the signal and a man outside, Bruno lunges across the table just in time, catching a bullet for Jax and saving his life. We see that Bruno will risk everything to protect the people he cares most about, as he loves Jax and his MC more than his own life ‒ proving to Jax that Bruno loves him as he would his own blood.
Bruno is injured but the wound wasn’t fatal. Bruno shoots Antonio for his betrayal: ambushing the whiskey shipment and his role in attempting to murder Jax, and pays off the police officer to buy his silence. Antonio is dragged, unconscious, and bleeding heavily from his abdomen out of the clubhouse and his body is taken away. As per
Bruno’s orders, no one is allowed to speak of the incident.
Jax is voted in as president of the Devils, and Dino (Thunder) is now his VP. Jax goes home to Chloe and knows he wants her more than ever. Taking her by storm. They’d both learned the hard way of the darkness of the world and they know they will have to face more of it together. “I’ve got you,” Jax vows. He won’t let anyone hurt Chloe ever again.
Ghosts Of Retribution, Book Two of Black Devils MC….
Will Jax find himself accused of Roy’s murder? Will Sheila manage to keep away from the loan sharks? Jumper is on the run. Will Jumper reemerge from hiding with devastating results? Can Jax hunt down Jumper before he returns to get the ultimate revenge on Jax and Chloe? There are ghosts that return from the dead. This will change the couple’s lives and put them through a new test of survival. The Cartel, the Russians, Bloods and the Devils will clash in a violent storm of survival.
Jax and Chloe’s relationship has already been tested by the pressures of Jax’s world. Can love conquer all when the smoke finally clears? Or, will a continued assault on their relationship tear the lovers apart, forever?
PREORDER BOOK THREE: THE LAST VOW
Chapter One
Chloe
I stepped through the open doorway of my bedroom into the living room. The inside of Dino’s apartment was cluttered with takeaway bags, styrofoam coffee cups, and pizza boxes. We’d eaten take out every day. I was sick of it. Jax and Dino had been working flat-out at the club for the past week since Jax had become club president.
I seated myself on the couch. Newspapers, takeaway menus, and clothes were everywhere. The ashtray on the living room table was overflowing, and the odor of cigarettes clung to every fiber in the place no matter how many windows I opened. The stick up air freshener on the wall opposite me was about as effective as a spray of perfume on a dumpster. Seeing as I’d been cooped up in the apartment for seven days, I was surprised I hadn’t gotten used to the smell by now.
There were no personal or homely touches to Dino’s place, and there was nothing for me to do while I was hiding out from Jumper here. My impatience with staying here had started to show. I wondered how much longer I could stand it.
It was early Friday afternoon. Jax had appeared at the side of our bed at 8:30 am this morning, fully clothed, to wake me. He and Dino had business at his MC to take care of. I watched them pull out of the parking lot of the building at around nine from my window, and I hadn’t seen them since. I wasn’t unduly surprised that business at the Black Devils had resumed as usual after the shooting of Antonio. That sort of thing was typical in their world. For me, however, mental pictures of the events that had occurred within the past ten days were still raw and vivid. The most impactful image that flashed through my mind, again and again, was Lucy’s lifeless body in the parking lot of the Bloods’ clubhouse. I know its cliché, but it was as though her vengeful soul was haunting me from beyond the grave. I doubted the intense guilt over my role in causing her death would ever leave me.
I glanced at the wall clock. It was 1:03 pm. Here I was alone and essentially trapped in this place, thoughts of my mother came to mind. I was sure it must be torture for her to be hiding outside of town from Roy’s loan sharks in complete isolation. She finally told me about why she had to disappear when I couldn’t get ahold of her last week. And when she did explain what was going on, I felt glad Roy was dead. He deserved nothing less for what he did to her and to me. I couldn’t visit her though, without putting us both at risk. The last time I’d seen mom in person was the morning she’d left for work before Roy had tried to rape me.
I reached for Dino’s open laptop on the table to make a Skype call to my mother. I’d promised her I would video call today because I hadn’t spoken to her face to face in almost two weeks. Although I’d been at Dino’s place a week, we could only talk on the phone. My face had been covered in bruises from when Jumper had taken me from Jax’s place, and I didn’t want her to panic any more than she already was.
The call rang, and I waited for her to pick up…
Mom’s face popped up on the screen about ten seconds before she spoke. She was sat at a table with her back to the door, staring at the monitor.
My mother looked tired. Exhausted, in fact. Black half circles sat under her eyes that looked as though they’d been stamped there with charcoal. It was clear she’d hardly slept in days. She wore round wire glasses in place of her contacts, and her hair looked disheveled. I couldn’t recall ever seeing her without her platinum-blond hair perfectly styled. Now her brown roots were starting to show, and her hair looked ruffled and unkempt as though she’d been running her fingers over her scalp with worry. It was difficult to see her like this.
As I looked at her, I started to imagine what might happen if Roy’s loan sharks found her. I asked myself, would they beat her down and rape her? Would they break ribs, her arms, her legs? Would they batter her face so hard I wouldn’t be able to recognize her? Would mom survive an ordeal like that? In the end, I grimly predicted that perhaps the brutes would decide mom would never pay off the debt and whack her, making an example of her to others, instead.
When the microphone came alive, mom launched her words at me, “Chloe, how are you?” Her face looked tense, though she forced a smile.
I tried to sound optimistic. “I’m doing great mom. I feel safe and happy here with Jax and Dino,” I lied and returned her feigned smile. We were both in very similar situations… hiding, and in fear for our own lives as well as for each other.
Slight relief washed over her face, “Oh, good.” She looked keenly at me, and added, “Do you think you will be able to visit me soon?”
I shook my head. “I wish I could, but it’s too risky. Anybody who is watching out for me or you could find out where each of us is hiding,” I matter of factly stated.
Mom’s faint smile was followed by an alarmed look as this harsh truth suddenly occurred to her. “Well, if that is the case, promise me you will never come here. Promise Chloe. I will see you when all this is sorted out. You cannot get mixed up in Roy’s mess too,” she insisted, her voice urgent.
“I promise,” I replied, solemnly.
Silence followed for several breaths. She sat forward slightly in her chair. I noticed that she made very direct eye contact, which was unlike her, which told me there was a reasonable chance that something very important was about to be said.
“There’s something I want you to consider ok? Don’t get mad.”
I could see that whatever it was, it was clear she’d already thought about it a lot before I called. “What is it?” I asked, my expression blank.
“Look, I love Jax. You know I do. But if he really loves you, how can he do this to you? His world is not safe, Chloe. You need to get out of it before something really terrible happens to you,” she warned.
I opened my mouth to talk, but mom spoke first, slowly and sincerely, “I don’t want you to wind up like me. I was too naïve in the beginning when I met your dad. Too naive to realize the danger MCs can put a family in.” Mom sounded as though she were searching for the absolute truth about how she felt.
Meanwhile, I suppressed my irritation. This had been mom’s favorite point to make about bikers my whole life since my father was killed…Convoluted versions of the same message…Stay well away from bikers. I got a horrific sense that mom thought it was impossible for an outlaw biker to have even a drop of human blood in him since the death of my father at his MC’s hands. Unless we were talking about my dad ‒ because in her eyes ‒ Jesse could never put a foot wrong. His MC could, but never my dad.
Trying to keep my voice as calm as possible I said, “I understand the message you’re trying to bring home. But have you ever considered that the attraction you felt for dad is the same kind of attraction I feel for Jax—”
“Chloe, three years of grueling mathematics at college for it all to be wasted for a man!” she exclaimed.
My gut feeling about what s
he was really saying was different. I was sure I knew what she was really thinking…
You could do so much better than a hardened criminal like Jax.
Jax… the Outlaw Biker.
Jax…the Monster.
Jax…. the Killer.
I forced myself to suppress and eye roll and spoke through gritted teeth, “I’m not giving up on myself, mom. I’ll get a good job for myself but…” I paused and at this very moment decided to level with my mom, hoping she would understand why I could never let go of Jax. “I love Jaxson. That’s the way it is. Despite everything he is, I’ve been halfway in love with Jax for the best part of ten years. By the time I realized it, I’d been drawn in even deeper. I don’t know quite why I feel the way I do. I’ll admit, madness might be the word for my thinking. But with the way you still feel about my dad, I thought you would be the one person to understand. Rational thought can’t survive when I feel what I feel in my heart for Jax. If there were a logical reason for it, I could reason myself out of it. But I can’t, mom. My heart chose him. Jaxson.”
My mother remained undeterred. “You’re smart, Chloe. A thinker. Not a biker’s girl. You’re better than that!” she argued, emphatically.
“You mean to say ‘you’re too good for Jax.’ Admit it!” I retorted.
Her voice rose, as mine had, “No, that’s not what I meant. Look, you don’t want the life of a biker’s girl, trust me. You can get a good job with your degree and leave Coronado for good. Just tell me, is this really what you want?”
“Jax is what I want!” I inadvertently snapped at her.
She let out a heavy sigh. The silence that followed was drawn out and heavy.
I couldn’t believe my mom didn’t understand. We both knew what it was like to be hopelessly in love with a biker. I knew she understood what it was like to fear that love too.
