Slayer (Fallen Lords MC Book 8)

by Winter Travers

  Slayer

  Fallen Lords MC

  Book Eight

  Wall Street Journal & USA Today Bestselling Author

  Winter Travers

  Copyright © 2019 Winter Travers

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduction, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) utilization of this work without written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  For questions or comments about this book, please contact the author at winter@wintertravers.com

  Also by Winter Travers

  Devil’s Knights Series:

  Loving Lo

  Finding Cyn

  Gravel’s Road

  Battling Troy

  Gambler’s Longshot

  Keeping Meg

  Fighting Demon

  Unraveling Fayth

  Skid Row Kings Series:

  DownShift

  PowerShift

  BangShift

  Fallen Lords MC Series

  Nickel

  Pipe

  Maniac

  Wrecker

  Boink

  Clash

  Freak

  Slayer

  Kings of Vengeance MC

  Drop a Gear and Disappear

  Lean Into It

  Powerhouse MA Series

  Dropkick My Heart

  Love on the Mat

  Black Belt in Love

  Black Belt Knockout

  Nitro Crew Series

  Burndown

  Holeshot

  Redlight

  Shutdown

  Sweet Love Novellas

  Sweet Burn

  Five Alarm Donuts

  Stand Alone Novellas

  Kissing the Bad Boy

  Daddin’ Ain’t Easy

  Silas: A Scrooged Christmas

  Wanting More

  Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool

  Room 19: The Last Resort Motel

  Table of Contents

  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

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  1st Chapter of Drop a Gear and Disappear

  Chapter One

  Slayer

  “Come again?” My throat was dry, and the words croaked from my throat. I had to have heard what she said wrong. There was no way in hell that this little girl standing in front of me was my kid. I made sure that shit never happened.

  “My mom told me to give this to you. You’re my dad, and that envelope will explain everything.” The girl repeated her words again, but they still didn’t sink in.

  “Adley, for Christ’s sake. I told you to wait by the damn car until I got out.”

  My eyes snapped to the woman behind the girl. She didn’t look at all familiar to me, and I prayed to God this was some kind of prank one of the guys was pulling on me. “What the…”

  “I told you that you didn’t need to get out of the car, Aunt Ava.” The girl spun around and propped her hand on her hip.

  “Oh, you’re not going to spin that attitude on me, girl.” The woman tramped the rest of the way to the door and stopped toe to toe with the Adley.

  I had no idea who either of them were, but I had a strange urge to step between the woman and the girl.

  “Sorry, auntie.” Adley’s chin dropped to her chest, and she stared at her feet.

  “Did you give him the folder?” Ava demanded.

  Adley shook her head. “No.”

  Ava’s eyes locked with mine. “You really are her type.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Come again?”

  “Anna,” she stated plainly. “There were three guys after you that looked just like you. Anna had a type, and she stuck to it.” Ava grabbed the folder from Adley and thrust it at me. “You hooked up with my sister almost twelve years ago.”

  I grabbed the folder from her and peeled it open. I had no clue about what she was saying to me. Remembering who I hooked up with a month ago was just as hard as remembering twelve years ago.

  Ava explained further. “Anna had Adley. She never intended to tell you about her, but life had other plans.”

  I flipped through the papers, but all the letters blurred together. As far as I could tell, the words were Greek on the papers. “I don’t understand…anything.”

  Adley stepped forward.

  My daughter?

  “You’re my dad. Mom was in the process of getting you added to my birth certificate, but she died before she got the papers filed.”

  “Holy shit.”

  I spun around and glared at Nickel. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Nickel held up his hands. “I was just coming to help with the pizza.”

  “It’s not here yet,” I growled.

  “Yeah,” Nickel chuckled. “Sounds like you got a whole different kind of delivery.” Nickel held his hand out to Adley. “I’m Nickel, one of your dad’s friends.”

  Adley shook his hand. “Adley. You’re taking me being his daughter much better than he is.”

  Nickel glanced over at me. “Yeah. I’d have to say if I was in his shoes, I would have the same reaction.”

  “Look, I have to go. Everything you need to know is in the folder.” Ava hitched her purse over her shoulder and stepped back.

  “What?” I gasped. “You’re leaving?”

  This chick seemed like a huge bitch, but she knew Adley. She was her aunt. I was just some guy who might be her dad. I didn’t even know for a fact that it was true.

  She pointed at Adley. “I’ve got five of those of my own that I have to take care of. Ages two to fourteen. Adley was with me for a month, but I just can’t take care of her anymore.”

  “Holy shit,” Nickel whispered.

  “I could be a murderer.” I motioned to the clubhouse. “I live here with a bunch of guys.”

  “He also eats ketchup on his eggs.” Nickel wrinkled his nose at Adley who let out a giggle.

  “That’s pretty gross.” Adley cringed.

  Ava took another step back. “My sister thought you were good enough for you to be Adley’s father, so that’s good enough for me.” She pointed at Adley. “Behave.”

  “Wait. I can’t…You need…” Words tumbled from my mouth, but none of them made sense.

  “You’re really just going to leave her here?” Nickel asked Ava.

  Thank God he was able to form a complete sentence.

  Ava glared at Nickel. “I don’t have a choice. I can barely afford to feed my own kids, let alone Adley. It’s either this or she goes into foster care.”

  “Please, no,” Adley wh
ispered. Her soft words pulled at my heart. Five minutes ago, I didn’t even know this girl, but even I didn’t want her to go into foster care.

  “What happens if Slayer isn’t her dad?”

  I really needed to thank Nickel later for actually using his brain. “Yeah,” I stuttered.

  “Adley knows how to get in touch with me if she needs to. I’m not abandoning her; I just can’t take care of her every day. Anna knew that.” Ava pulled her keys out of her pocket. “Call me if things don’t work out.”

  Nickel grabbed the folder from my hands and rifled through it.

  Ava pulled out of the clubhouse parking lot and headed down the street.

  “Jesus, brother,” Nickel muttered. “How the hell did you not know that you had a kid?”

  “It’s not his fault,” Adley interrupted. “Mama didn’t want him to know about me.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.” Twelve years ago, I wasn’t in the best place in my life, but I didn’t think I was that bad of a guy that Adley’s mom wouldn’t want me to be a dad.

  “I can’t wait to see Wrecker’s face when she walks into the common room.” Nickel barked with laughter. “He’s seriously going to have a coronary.” Nickel handed the folder to Adley, bent over and grabbed the two bags at Adley’s feet. “I was wondering what the next crisis was going to be. This is better than anything I could have dreamed of.”

  “You live here?” Adley asked.

  Nickel nodded to me. “He does.” Then he pointed a finger into his chest. “I don’t.”

  “Why does he live here and you don’t?” she asked.

  “Because he’s got an ol’ lady who has him by the ba—” The word froze in my mouth, and I realized I was talking to a child. A child who was supposedly mine.

  Nickel cleared his throat. “Karmen has me by the heart. My large heart.”

  “But why don’t you live here?” Adley asked again.

  “Karmen likes having our own home. An infant in the clubhouse isn’t really ideal.” Nickel pulled open the door to the clubhouse.

  “You have a kid?” Adley folded her arms over her chest.

  “Sure do.” He motioned for Adley to walk in. “His name is Cole.”

  Adley wearily looked into the clubhouse. “Maybe you should go in first. I’ll follow.”

  Nickel glanced at me. “Maybe your dad should go in first. Sort of announce that you are here.”

  “Is that the pizza?” Freak skidded to the open door. “I’m star—” His words died in his throat, and his jaw dropped. “That’s not pizza.”

  I planted my hand in his chest and pushed him back from the door. “How observant of you.” I walked through the door and looked over my shoulder at Adley. “This way, kid.”

  “It’s Adley,” she mumbled under her breath.

  I knew that was her name, but calling her that was going to make all of this more real. “Got it.”

  We walked into the clubhouse. Adley trailed behind me with Nickel and Freak right behind her.

  “What in the hell is going on?” Freak whispered.

  “I don’t think any of us know what is going on besides the kid,” Nickel laughed. “She’s the only one who isn’t shocked to hell.”

  “I’m shocked for a different reason.” Adley wrinkled her nose and looked around the common room of the clubhouse.

  It wasn’t anything fancy, but it wasn't something to wrinkle your nose at either. This was where everyone hung out, and it felt like home to me.

  Nickel sidled up to me and leaned close. “You’re not really going to have her stay here, are you?” he whispered.

  “I have no idea what the hell I am going to do, Nickel. Ten minutes ago, I opened the door expecting the pizza guy, and instead, I found out I had a kid. Shocked isn’t the right fucking word.”

  “So did the pizza come?” Freak asked.

  I grabbed the wad of bills he had given me before and pushed them into his hand. “No, your fucking pizza that you’re too fucking chicken to pay for yourself isn’t here.”

  “Damn, brother.” Freak balled the bills up in his hand. “What the fuck crawled up your ass?”

  Nickel cleared his throat. “I think it might be the twelve-year-old who can hear every word you guys are saying.”

  We all slowly turned to face Adley.

  Adley folded her arms over her chest. “You guys are a mess.”

  Truer words had never been spoken.

  “Church!” Nickel hollered.

  “Church?” Freak complained. “Can’t we at least wait until the pizza gets here?” A knock sounded on the door and Freak beamed and turned on his heel toward it. “Never mind.”

  “It’s Friday night. How are you going to go to church?” Adley asked.

  At this point, our small group had the attention of everyone in the common room. Including Wrecker who was glaring at me over the back of the couch. His arm was looped over Alice’s shoulder, and his feet were kicked up on the beat up coffee table.

  “It hasn’t even been a fucking week since the last bullshit with you guys. You think maybe you could lay off fucking everything up until Alice pops this baby out?” he growled.

  Alice smacked him on the shoulder and scoffed. “This baby is going to stay inside until you start curbing the swearing, Beardilocks.” She tugged his beard and scowled. “There is a child present.”

  Wrecker grabbed his beard from her grasp. “Sometimes, cursing is necessary.” He dropped his feet to the floor, pressed a kiss to Alice’s lips, rubbed her bulging tummy, and stood. “Church. Now,” he thundered. He pointed to Adley. “You stick with Alice and the girls. They’ll take good care of you.” His voice had softened, and he pulled Alice up from the couch.

  I ran my fingers through my hair. Why the hell were we going to have church? I had no clue what the hell was going on.

  “Might wanna grab that folder from your daughter.”

  I glared at Nickel. He was getting on my last nerve. He was acting like I was a buffoon who couldn’t string two thoughts together.

  Adley handed the folder to me. “Mama said everything in there will explain, well…everything.”

  I finally had a chance to look at the girl in front of me, and I saw that even though she was trying to act brave, she was terrified. Her long brown hair was held back by clips on each side of her head; her hands were folded over her chest, hugging herself tightly, and her eyes moved around the room.

  “You’ll be fine with Alice. Maybe she can find you something to eat.” I didn’t know what else to say to the girl. Her mom had died, and now, she was just dumped at my feet. She was safe here, but everything had to be hard for her.

  Hell, this was hard for me, and I was almost three times her age.

  “We’ll snag one of Freak’s pizzas and go find the rest of the girls.” Alice rounded the couch and held her hand out to Adley. “I think they were helping Wendy pack up.”

  Adley looked at Alice’s hand and then back up to her. “What kind of pizza and who is Wendy?”

  Alice pursed her lips. I don’t think she was expecting Adley to question her. “Uh, whatever kind you want, and Wendy is Carnie’s sister.”

  Freak walked into the common room with six pizza boxes in his arms. “What’d I miss?”

  Alice rolled her eyes and joined hands with Adley. “What kind of pizza did you want, Adley?”

  “Uh, I like cheese and sausage,” she replied meekly.

  Alice looked up at Freak. “You better pray to God you ordered a sausage.”

  Freak stepped back. “I did, but you’re not stealing it,” he insisted.

  “Give her the damn sausage pizza,” I growled.

  Freak wrapped his arms around the boxes. “You have no idea what I went through to order these. I had to lock myself in the bathroom and act like I was taking a shit so Carnie wouldn’t barge in on me.”

  “Give Alice the pizza or I’ll tell Carnie what you just said.” Wrecker took a step toward Freak.

  Freak flinc
hed. “God dammit. Fine,” he huffed. He held up the boxes, read the stickers on them, and pulled one out from the middle. “You owe me,” he mumbled when he handed it to Alice.

  “My woman doesn’t owe you anything.” Wrecker pointed a finger at Freak as he walked past. “Get your ass moving, and tell the other guys we’re having church.”

  Nickel followed Wrecker down the hallway, and Freak mumbled under his breath. He dropped the pizzas on the table, flipped back the lid on the top one, and grabbed two large pieces. “Try not to eat all of that before I get back,” he warned Alice.

  Alice flipped him off but quickly lowered her finger. “Sorry, kid. Not exactly used to have a kid around who can form a sentence.”

  “It’s okay. My aunt Ava did a whole lot more than that when I stayed with her.” Adley shrugged.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Your aunt said she’s got five kids.”

  Adley shrugged. “I guess she doesn’t care.”

  “Slayer! Get your damn ass in here!” Nickel bellowed from down the hallway.

  “I…uh…” I knew I should be the one to take care of Adley right now, but I couldn’t help but want to get away from her as fast as I could.

  Alice shooed me away. “I got her for now, Slayer. Go see what Beardilocks has to say.”

  I nodded and turned on my heel without another glance at Alice or Adley.

  My feet carried me down the hallway, and once I turned the corner, I stopped in my tracks. I braced my forearms on the wall and rested my head between them.

  What the fuck just happened, what the hell was I going to do about it?

  *

  Chapter Two

  Wendy

  “He ordered pizza, Wen.”

  I pulled my suitcase out from under the bed and tossed it on the bed. “You’re talking like he committed a murder or something, Carnie.”

  Carnie flopped onto the bed next to the suitcase and sighed. “He hid in the bathroom and ordered pizza.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “I…I don’t know what to say to that.”

  She flipped over on her stomach and craned her head back to stare up at me. “I think he thinks I always want to cook for him and he doesn’t want to hurt my feelings by ordering pizza.”