by Annie Buff
Skin Deep - Shades Of Ink: The Devil’s Apostles III
Author: Annie Buff Editor: Chris Cain
Dedications:
This book means a lot to me and there are so many people who have been part of it along the way:
To my bestie, Joan Marie, thank you for being there when I need you. To Renee Scarberry, who fell in love with Slinger the moment she met him in Smoke’s book.
To my editor and friend Chris Cain, you mean so much to me and this wouldn’t be possible without you. I send you a pile of sand and you make incredible castles out of it. Thank you for being not only my editor but also my dear friend.
To my family for being patient as I lost myself in my work, ignoring life and most other adult responsibilities.
To MJ for all the pep talks and support, you are so dear to me and I love you. To Kim Brewing and Crystal Kennedy Stoyanoff for two stupendous name suggestions that have made their way into this book.
The final person I need to thank is the most important one, my mom. She has been my guiding light, my driving force, my inspiration and always my hero. I love you mom! Thank you for always believing in me.
And to all of you who have loved my big ole bikers, thank you so much for reading. You are the reason I get to keep writing.
Contents:
1: Prologue 2: An Unexpected Hero
3: Fate, Destiny Or Whatever
4: Clubhouse Rules
5: A Cabin In The Woods
6: The First Of Many
7: Something To Be Thankful For
8: Dinner With The Devil’s
9: Eighty-Eight Reasons
10: Honeymooners
11: Friend Or Foe
12: The Making Of A New Devil
13: Recovery
14: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
15: The Hunter And The Hunted
16: Blood In, Blood Out
17: Advice From The Queen
18: Voting For A Party
19: Bye, Bye Trevor
20: Girls, Girls, Girls
21: Turning Of A Page
Prologue
Rylee Jenkins never thought this would be the day her entire existence would change. That thought was the furthest from her mind, but as she and her two-year-old son Micah drove through the intersection it happened. The sound of twisting metal filled her ears as she was thrown sideways and then back into the driver’s side window, shattering it.
It took several seconds for her to get her wits about her and realize what had just happened. Rylee felt blood dripping down her face, her eyes weren’t focusing. Everything was blurry and what she could see was double. Micah was crying from the back seat and her motherly instinct had just kicked in; she needed to get to her son! Before she understood what was going on a big man was pulling Micah from the wreckage and asking her where she was hurt.
An Unexpected Hero
Slinger sat on his orange Street Glide at the red light watching traffic when the little red import was broadsided just yards away. He twisted the throttle and sped towards the accident, almost laying it down as he came to a screeching halt.
Inside the mangled metal was a young woman and a little boy. He was
screaming, she was bleeding. Slinger called nine-one-one as he reached in and retrieved the toddler. The boy seemed to be more afraid than anything else. His mom was a different story. She had a few dozen good gashes on the side of her face and the goose egg he saw indicated she probably had a concussion.
“Hey Sweetie, where does it hurt? Your boy seems okay.” Slinger told her, trying to reassure her until help got there. It didn’t seem to be doing much good but he kept trying anyway. He knew the
paramedics were on their way.
The paramedics arrived and assessed her at the scene. They butterflied her cuts and wanted to transport her to the hospital.
She refused, tears streaming down her cheeks looking at her car. Rylee was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, this was the worst day of her life. Her car was totaled. She had no money, no way to get home with the groceries she’d just bought; no way to get to work, or to get Micah to the sitter. She walked away from the ambulance and sat on the curb and just broke down.
Micah was still in the arms of the man that had stopped to help them. Rylee finally looked at him. Still not really seeing who was in front of her, she reached out for her son.
“Thank you for stopping, I’ll be okay. I just need to figure a few things out.” She told him as she sniffled, trying to stop crying.
When he sat down beside her and put an arm around her, Rylee completely lost it. The tears came hard and fast. There was no way to stop them. Her entire world just came crashing down on her.
“Sweetie don’t cry, the insurance company will replace your car. And you and your son are okay.” For Slinger, alive after a crash like that was ok.
Rylee was far from okay. Without her car, she was about to be homeless. “How am I okay? My car is wrecked, I can’t get to work, I can’t get Micah to the sitter! Nothing is okay!” She really didn’t mean to yell at him, but she was falling apart.
Slinger was beginning to understand her dilemma. She had to be a single mom and that car was all she had. He had only just noticed how pretty she was, blonde curls that brushed her shoulders and big chocolate colored eyes. He knew he needed to help her, he didn’t understand why but that didn’t matter.
Rylee looked at this big man, finally seeing he was all tattooed and wearing a biker vest with a patch on it. Bikers weren’t known to be nice or helpful, but here he was, being both of those things. He was tall, at least six foot easily and actually very handsome. His dark curls and big green eyes were stunning.
“You real ly need stitches Sweetie, I can get the paramedics to call that ambulance back.” He told her with a grin.
She shook her head, a trip to the hospital was out of the question. She had no insurance and no way to pay. Once she told him that, Slinger knew what had to happen.
“One of the brothers is a doctor,” Slinger explained, “I’m gonna call him and have him bring the truck. He will take you and the boy to the clubhouse where he has an office and fix you up. After that we can figure out your car situation okay?” It really wasn’t, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to win if she argued.
“I need Micah’s car seat and my groceries from the trunk. That’s all I have for the week.” The car seat was
important, the little man had to be safe.
As the biker popped the trunk, he smelled gas. The food was ruined, but he would replace it all and then a little more. What he saw was just the bare minimum.
“Food is a loss, smells like fuel but I’ll take care of that when you’re all fixed up. I’m Slinger by the way, I wish we could have met under different circumstances.” He gave her this big smile, “But I’m very glad we met.” He kept smiling at her, he couldn’t help himself. She was a beauty and her son was so cute he just wanted to cuddle the little boy. Maybe this was exactly what he had been looking for.
“Why would you do this? You don’t even know me.” Rylee sighed in
exasperation.
He didn’t, she was right ; but that didn’t stop him from wanting to. “What’s your name?” he asked. “He’s Micah, right?” Referring to the boy clinging to his mother.
She nodded, wiping her eyes. She knew she had just probably smeared mascara but he didn’t seem to care. He was still grinning at her.
“Rylee, I’m Rylee Jenkins, and yeah this is Micah. I’m sorry I’m flipping out, it’s just that I barely scrape by and those groceries were all we had for the week. That piece of
shit Honda is the only transportation I have and without it I’m going to lose my job.”
Slinger could see the panic in her eyes, she was literally terrified on how she was going to care for her son. What Rylee didn’t know yet was that he had planned to take care of anything she would need. As soon as she was stitched up, they were going to the supermarket.
“Rylee is a beautiful name, and I have no idea why I’m doing this. I just know I need to. There’s something special about both of you,” he stopped for a minute trying to word it right. “I know you see the patch and that concerns you. Trust me I won’t ever hurt you.”
For whatever crazy reason, she did trust him. He hadn’t had to stop and help, he could have just called the police and kept going. But instead he chose to help her, he had no idea how much this meant.
Bones rolled up in his new Chevy. He secured the car seat and loaded his passengers.
“Rylee, Bones will take good care of you. I’ll be there as soon as I switch the bike for my cage.” From the look he got, he knew she didn’t understand. “My truck, the bike is sometimes called a scoot, the vehicle’s a cage.” Rylee just had her first lesson in Biker 101.
She winced as she settled in the truck. Her head was throbbing. The biker Doctor handed her an ice pack and it felt like absolute bliss on her head. Slinger leaned in a gave her a soft peck on her forehead, then took off on his bike.
“I'm Bones, and you must be really special.” That was an odd statement, Rylee wasn’t anything special. She was just Rylee, her mother made sure she knew just how tiresome and inconvenient she was.
Rylee had been an accident, one her mother never let her live down. Her mom had been a party girl and getting pregnant with Rylee had really cramped her style. She remembered all those nights alone, eating cold SpaghettiOs while her mother went out on ‘dates’, as she called them.
“Not really, I’m just Rylee. I am Micah’s mom and cashier at the Stop and Go. There’s nothing even remotely close to special about me.”
“Well pretty lady that man who
stopped to help you, my brother Slinger? Well he hasn’t so much as looked at a woman in well over a year. Before that he was quite the ladies’ man. He changed when my President’s wife got pregnant, so if he’s concerned about you Sweetheart you arespecial. More than you’ll ever know.”
The rest of the ride was fairly quiet, aside from Micah chatting from the back seat of the truck. This was one of those brand-new trucks, it still had the new car smell and she just hoped Micah didn’t make any messes in it. That would be utterly embarrassing. Even Rylee was worried about making a mess in the doctor’s new truck. Her headache was causing nausea and the last thing she needed was to throw up, especially in the truck.
When they turned down the gravel drive, she was grateful. She could see buildings, knowing they were almost there.
“My wife has set up triage, and she will probably run off with your boy for a few. We’ve been trying to get pregnant. Hasn’t worked yet, but I don’t mind having to keep trying.” He told her with a sly grin. Rylee smiled herself, he obviously loved his wife very much. Maybe one day she would find a man like that.
Slinger pulled into his parking spot and cut the engine. Rylee Jenkins was the only thing on his mind; her and that little boy Micah, with the big brown eyes. He couldn’t be more than two, but damn if he wasn’t the most adorable little boy he had ever seen.
Nathaniel Woods had it bad. He figured it out on the ride to his apartment, she was the reason he stopped sleeping with anything that was willing. Slinger didn’t know that then and hadn’t even thought about sex in months, until he put his arm around her. Then all he wanted to do was comfort her.
Slinger didwant to kiss her, but that would come. This pretty woman needed more than a tryst, she needed him to be everything a woman wants. That’s precisely what he was going to do.
The truck stopped by a picnic table at the clubhouse and two women were standing on the wrap around porch, one blonde and the other, a redhead. The blonde had a baby girl in tow so Rylee assumed the redhead was the wife. She gingerly got out while Doctor Bones got Micah.
“Hi Hun, I’m Peyton and this is Wisha. Heard you had one helluva day so far. Your boy can play with my little Nora and you can get all fixed up. Do you want coffee?”
She only did coffee in the morning, and it was almost lunch time. Micah needed to be fed and she needed to figure out what options she had.
“Right now, I’d kill for a Dr. Pepper.” Rylee stated, as a matter of fact. “And yeah, today has been shitty. I have no clue what I’m going to do. I just don’t.” The tears were threatening to fall again, and when Peyton reached out to hug her there was no stopping them. The two held on for several minutes before Rylee pulled away.
I ’m sorry, you don’t need to hear all my problems. I’ll be out of your hair here soon.”
Both Peyton and Wisha shook their heads. This girl had no idea she had just found a family that would help her in any way they could. She was going to find that out soon enough.
Bones took her to his clubhouse office and got to work. He asked her things as he sewed her up.
“I take it the boy’s father isn’t in the picture. I hope you give the Ink Man a chance, he’s a good guy and he will treat you right. And your son too. Slinger may have his demons, hell we all do but I can promise you he won’t screw you over. I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looked at you.”
That surprised Rylee, most men were out to get laid and a woman with a child was not what they wanted.
“ Micah’s father is an asshole. I try to keep him away from Micah. He drops in when he’s broke, and takes whatever I have stashed. He left me when I was pregnant then had the audacity to bring his fuck of the week to the hospital when I was in labor. I hate that man more than you know.”
This guy sounded like a real piece of work. Bones knew Slinger and he wasn’t going to stand for a low life scum showing up and taking anything from Rylee. He had seen how the Ink Man had looked at her, and he knew that look.
It was the same look Bones had when he met Wisha. It was the ‘love at first sight’ look, and Rylee had no idea what that meant yet. She would soon enough, when he knew she felt safe with him, Slinger would tell her everything he felt.
Slinger arrived at the clubhouse in his cage. Bones was just finishing up with Rylee’s injuries. The Ink Man knocked and opened the door to Bones’ office.
“Hey Ink Man,” Bones greeted him. “I’ve got your girl all taken care of. She does have a slight concussion so I wrote a script for some pain meds. She’s gonna have one damn big headache.”
Rylee winced as she smiled at Slinger. The headache had already started and she just wanted to get Micah and go home to try to figure out her next move.
Slinger just stared at her, she was so pretty and her smile hit him square in the heart. Now he knew what Smoke and Bones had been feeling.
“Hey pretty girl, I saw Micah already. He’s been fed, taken to the bathroom and I think Wisha is sugaring him up with cookies. So, you feel like a trip to the store?”
Rylee knew she was up for it, but with no money left, that was out of the
question. At least Micah had been fed, she had gotten used to going without. She noticed Bones step out and shut the door.
“Thank you for everything but if you could just take us home. I can’t go back to the store. I wasn’t kidding when I said that was all I had.”
He knew, but she didn’t need to fret. Slinger had plenty of money. His tattoo shop did extremely well and he made an abundance of cash with the club.
He knew she needed to feel like she was okay, and he was going to make sure that she was. “We aregoing to the market, you pretty girl aregonna let me take care of you two. Please let me, I need to do this.”
“Why? I’m not some charity case. I’ll figure it out. Look, as long as Micah has food it’s okay. I’ve managed before, I’ll do it again.”
She was stu
bborn and scared. He knew that look. He had seen that fear in his mother’s eyes so many times he had lost count. Slinger knew she was his one, and maybe it was time for her to learn a little about him. He took her hand and led her outside to the picnic table.
“I don’t do charity. You and I were meant to meet. Call it fate or destiny or whatever the fuck you want, I know in my soul we were meant to be together. And I can see the terror in your eyes, a big ole biker can’t possibly be the good guy. Right? Honey I’m not the good guy, but for you and that boy I’ll be a great man if you just give me a chance.”
Rylee sat, mouth gaping at his words. At this point, what did she have to lose? Micah had taken to him immediately and he seemed to be smitten with the boy as well. She couldn’t think of a single reason why not.
“Ok ay, but I’m not very good at accepting things from people. I’ll try okay.”
His lips turned into a full-fledged grin. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. Slinger wanted more but this was all he knew she could handle at the moment and he was okay with that.
“ So, okay about groceries, or us… or both? And I’m Nathaniel, you can call me Nash. That’s what the Queen calls me. Peyton is gonna be your new best friend. She’s mine, she saved my life. It’s a long story and one that’s not mine to tell, but without her I would have bled out right over there on the grass.”
He pointed towards an old shed. Holy crap, that sounded frightening. She would be sure to ask Peyton some time. Rylee told him all about herself, including her shitty mother and Micah’s father. Even with her head pounding, the ease she felt just by talking with him was refreshing. Nothing had ever felt as good or as right as Nathaniel Woods.
“ So, he just shows up and takes your money? That’s fucked up! Has he laid hands on you?” When she didn’t answer him, Slinger knew. This man had not only abandoned his son, he’d stolen from and hurt Rylee. All he could see was red where that waste of life was concerned. He hoped they’d meet one day soon.
Nathaniel Woods had a few things to say. None would be very nice either. Most would be with his fists!
