PowerLess_Anti-Hero Game
Page 1
PowerLess: Anti-Hero Game
Power Chain Book Three
Chelsea Camaron
Ryan Michele
Contents
Don’t Miss Out!
Books In This Series
PowerLess: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book 3)
Diary of a Mad Man
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
Epilogue
Power Chain: Anti-Hero Game
About Chelsea Camaron
About Ryan Michele
Other Books by Chelsea Camaron
Other Books by Ryan Michele
Copyright © Chelsea Camaron & Ryan Michele 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.
* * *
This is a work of fiction. All character, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
1st edition published: August 7, 2018
ASIN: B07CZT283T
* * *
Editing by:
Editing by: Silla Webb
Cover Design by: Cassy Roop of Pink Ink Designs
Cover Model: Peter Towers
Cover Picture Photographer: Eric Battershell
* * *
Thank you for purchasing this book. This book and its contents are the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied, and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
* * *
This book contains mature content not suitable for those under the age of 18. Content involves strong language, violence, and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situations are over the age of 18. All characters are a work of fiction.
* * *
This book is not meant to be an exact depiction of life in an underworld crime organization, but rather a work of fiction meant to entertain.
* * *
*** Warning: This book contains graphic situations that may be a trigger for some readers. Please understand this is a work of fiction and not meant to offend or misrepresent any situations. There is quite a bit of violence, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, then please don’t read. ***
Don’t Miss Out!
Want to keep up to date with Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele?
* * *
Chelsea:
Join Chelsea’s Newsletter: HERE
Join Chelsea’s Reader Group: HERE
* * *
Ryan:
Join Ryan’s Newsletter: HERE
Join Ryan’s Reader Group: Ryan’s Sultry Sinners
Books In This Series
Power Chain: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Prequel)
Get your copy: HERE for FREE
* * *
PowerHouse: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book One) — Released Feb 20th
Get your copy: HERE
* * *
Power Player: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book Two) –
Get your copy: HERE
* * *
Powerless: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book Three) –
Get your copy: HERE
* * *
Overpowered: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book Four) – Release Oct 30
PreOrder: Here
PowerLess: Anti-Hero Game (Power Chain Book 3)
Authors Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele team up to push beyond the boundaries, crossing a line into a deep, dangerous, and forbidden world. One where no one escapes, even if they beg to.
This is the Power Chain Series—a series of interconnected stand-alone romances.
* * *
Failure isn’t an option. Even for her.
* * *
She was beautiful.
It was dangerous.
She was fierce.
It made her a target.
She was loyal.
It would be her downfall.
I am Dane Anderson.
I’m powerless to my attraction to her, even if she’s my next job. As a hitman in an underworld she can only fear, I have a reputation to uphold.
She will learn, no matter how innocent she is, I never fail on a job …
Including her.
Diary of a Mad Man
If this was the diary of a mad man, my road to Hell would be paved in the blood I’ve shed.
I am Dane Anderson.
I lived my life from one job to the next with no fucks to give about anyone but myself and my business.
Welcome to the depths of power.
Prologue
Dane
The call had me rattled.
Not because it wasn’t my turn. The rotation had me out. There were three of us who worked together. They had my back, and I had theirs. In our line of work, you never fully trusted anyone, but we couldn’t work all the damn time without some sort of break. Unfortunately, it wasn’t simply building up time off and submitting for it. Jobs came when they came, and there was no predicting it. So I had acquired a team within my same skillset. Together, we were able to work in time off for each of us as well as not allowing a man to go in alone.
This also allowed protection from the men we worked for. Since not every job was a repeat client, we didn’t always know the people we were working for. This made us all vulnerable. Every move we made had to be thoroughly planned, calculated. Knowing I had them at my back, though, there was more security in numbers. By having an organization, it made anyone considering killing us on the backend of completion of a mission a non-issue because there were more pieces involved than a single individual.
I was on vacation if one had to label this time off. To any regular or new client, they would deal with my associates. I wouldn’t even be bothered to know my skills were requested.
Anyone else wouldn’t have dared to track me down during this time out. There was no way to tie me to life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania since my office, my apartment that was registered to me, and anything else he managed to seek out, sent everyone back to Philly. My house in Lancaster was in Ellen Sue’s name. Again, I had no ties from my business life to my personal one. I couldn’t. There was only one man who knew about Onyx, Garrett, and Paxton. There was only one man with enough balls to intrude on my personal life and time.
No one would dare risk my retribution.
There was only one man willing to risk himself and my freedom by calling me at Onyx’s home.
No one else would risk the blow back from me. No one else had the pull he did. No one else was untouchable and invincible.
Except him.
He didn’t give a shit what my life had become, only what I owed him. My time off didn’t matter one bit to him, only his request mattered.
Debts.
They fucking blew.
I couldn’t deny the marker. I wouldn’t deny what I owed to him.
No matter what it cost me.
This week of my life was dedicated to my brothers, Onyx, Paxton, and Garrett. The business we had built together.
I needed a chance to refocus. Things were changing. My brothers were adjusting to life and building families of their own. I was happy for them. Garrett was still the single man standing with me, but it was only a matter of time before he fell down the rabbit hole of love too. It wasn’t entirely a bad thing. Only in my line of work, love… well, it never worked.
While I would never have what Onyx and Paxton had found, I was truly happy for them. Anyone attached to me was at risk. It was why I had worked myself so hard to be shut off from everyone including them. The distance between them and my job was in place. They were untouchable by my world. They didn’t exist there, and I was bound and determined to keep it that way.
The only person who knew of them had this one marker left and then he would be nothing more than a past associate to me.
This was it.
After this job, my world and family would be in the clear. He would never cross a line to touch them or share my connection to them with anyone. I hadn’t crossed him, and he wouldn’t cross me. It was how it worked when you dealt with the darkest of men. While I couldn’t trust him not to use any weakness to get me in line, he wouldn’t cross me as long as I did my job.
It had been this way for years now and wouldn’t be changing. I just had to get through one more task to have it all wiped away.
Onyx, Paxton, Garrett and I had worked hard to build our little empire. We had done it all together. Each of us bringing our own skillsets to the table. For me, it was our business that meant the most personally. I made more money in my other ventures, but it wasn’t something I could be proud of; it was something we survived on in the beginning. The business was what pushed me through job after job. The chance to control someone’s dream. To give them the child they truly longed for. I took side job after side job pouring as much money into the business until we made it to where we were today.
Onyx worked for his manor and now his woman Torryn; that was his driving force and what meant the most to him. To build a home and truly transform it into one was his motivation.
Paxton worked for the numbers. He liked the money and knowing we were all set up more than comfortably for the rest of our lives. Paxton would never be poor. It wasn’t in him to lose control of his money, his livelihood.
Garrett, well, Garrett felt the business we ran tipped the moral scale in his mind. As an attorney, he knew what the very darkest of criminals were capable of. While he sometimes defended those monsters, what we did brought happiness to our clients and fulfilled many lives. The good we did in our business outweighed the bad his day job sometimes had. He knew some of his clients were guilty, but he was paid to find the loophole. The legal system was far from perfect, and Garrett was the most determined son-of-a-bitch anyone would ever meet. He got off on the challenge of having the odds stacked against him.
My view was different. The business we had built, it was my freedom. It didn’t cover my soul in the blood of others unlike the profession that I began in.
The profession I couldn’t walk away from. The one that had me tainted for the rest of my days.
I had one marker remaining. One job left I couldn’t turn away if I so chose. After this, I would truly be free to choose my targets if I continued in this line of work.
I wasn’t naïve enough to believe I could ever get out completely. But I could certainly cut back. This would ensure the safety of Ellen Sue, Onyx, Paxton, and Garrett along with their newfound significant others.
What had me shaken was the call coming in through Onyx’s landline number. No one should’ve known to track me there. Especially not Freeman. Yet, he found me. He made it a point to call me here, so I knew without a doubt he could get to me and my family.
There was no way to hide Onyx, Paxton, or Garrett from Freeman and his associates. He’d known me far too long. He knew everything from my past up until this very minute. Every move I made, every shit I took—he knew. It was how Freeman Zook acquired the empire he had. He knew everything about every associate and enemy alike. The problem was he sensed my unease and my desire to cut back on jobs.
In his world, that wouldn’t be easily accepted.
This was my warning.
The call to me at Onyx’s home was his mild reminder he knew more than anyone else. While he’d only cross a line with my family if he felt it absolutely necessary, he was showing me he could get me anywhere.
I knew it would come to this eventually. Deep inside me, I knew he wouldn’t let me off without a threat to the people I cared about.
This was just the beginning.
The bigger problem was the marker.
He was calling it in for Jolin Zook, his nephew that he raised as his own son. Jolin was once someone I considered a friend. He was the person who introduced me to Freeman, unfortunately.
I committed myself to Freeman as a teen looking for a way to escape the cruel hands of a foster family more corrupt than any politician at the White House. Fourteen years later, I still owed him another life and yes, both he and I kept track.
I took off from Onyx’s manor. My night off was no more and my focus had to be everywhere but the Manor, even if it was where I truly wanted to be.
It was the first dinner I’d ever had in Onyx’s home. He never allowed any guests, yet tonight, it was open to us all showing how much he’d grown since meeting Torryn.
My anger grew that Freeman bothered me there. This part of my life was off limits. Onyx soon would expect an explanation from me. He would demand reassurances along with that explanation. Reassurances I would give him without a single clue how to make them happen. But I would, without a doubt. None of this would touch any of them.
It was a memorable evening as he committed himself to Torryn.
I found the whole thing fitting for the two of them.
It was something I’d never know for myself, but for him, they fit together. They had a future to look forward to and damn, I was happy for the man. He deserved it.
The weight of the Zippo lighter was heavy in my hand as I made my way to my car.
The sleek all black Jaguar blended into the night as I pulled away tossing the lighter to the cup holder, the tress passing me in a blur.
My mind went back as I closed the miles between myself and where it all began.
“Jolin, I don’t have time,” I explained, knowing Amos was going to have my ass for being late, and that was one thing you never wanted Amos to have.
“Onyx’ll cover for you.”
While that may be true, I’d never deliberately set him up to take my chores and ass-beatings. The appeal of what Jolin offered had my heart racing. A way to escape.
“You want out, I’m telling you talk to my Uncle Freeman. He can get you away from Amos and the bullshit jobs. Set you up real nice, Dane.”
Freeman Zook had a reputation in the Amish community. It wasn’t a good one.
Then again, I didn’t put weight into what people said anymore. Everyone thought Amos was a saint, and that man was the devil himself. In front of others, though, he played the game pulling everyone in around him to make him some kind of martyr. It was so far from the damn truth it was painful.
Jolin and I made the walk down the long dirt road to Freeman’s old silo. At the door, Jolin gave a weird patterned knock the sound echoing through the air. In mere moments, a large man who looked as though he could stomp me like an ant, opened the door.
Stepping inside the silo, it no longer resembled a structure to store grain, but rather had an office set up with electricity and televisions that were hooked up to cable. This itself was a sin in the community.
Amish people lived a simple life. Everyone worked hard for everything they had. Television was a luxury; no, it was considered an indulgence.
Freeman made his way to us in a few strides. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, also not something typical in the community that rather wore coverall bibs. He had a large gold watch that swallowed his wrist it seemed and glistened shiny in the lights. He stood proud, pompous, and powerful, like he owned every damn thing around him, including the people. His eyes locked onto mine.
They were dark, sinister, knowing.
He smirked in a way that sent chills up my spine.
I didn’t move, though. I didn’t speak. I simply remained stoic, not backing down from the imprint he was trying to put on me.
It would take more than a creepy man like Freeman Zook to break me. After all, Amos had been trying for years and hadn’t succeeded. No matter the licks I took, or full out beatings, nothing worked on me which pissed Amos off more and each time got worse and worse. Life liked to deal me shit hand after shit hand, Freeman would be just another.