Guts & Glory: Brick (In the Shadows Security Book 6)
Page 26
“Down & Dirty ‘til Dead?” Londyn whispered as she read the carved wooden sign over the metal door Brick was holding open for her. “What does that mean?”
“Baby, they’re bikers. It’s their motto. The code they live by, you could say.”
They stepped into the common area of church and were greeted by complete silence.
Not one person was inside. Which was weird. And because of that, the hairs on the back of Brick’s neck stood. “Yo! Anyone in here?”
“Been waitin’ on you.” A large, black biker wearing a worn black leather cut followed the deep voice through the swinging double doors of the commercial kitchen that separated the private club area and the public bar, The Iron Horse Roadhouse.
“For what?” Brick asked as they approached each other, pulling Londyn along with him. “And why the hell are you here, Magnum? Shit must really be going down.” Especially if D called in the Dirty Angels’ allies. That meant he needed numbers. A huge show of force.
This couldn’t be good.
The big, bald-headed man nodded, his dark face a mask of way-too-serious. “Fuckin’ big shit. Shit we never expected.”
Londyn grabbed Brick’s arm, her nails digging into his skin. “Parris is okay, right?”
Brick lifted his gaze in question to Magnum, who nodded. “She’s out in the courtyard with everyone else for this crazy-ass impromptu meetin’.”
Did the Sergeant at Arms for the Dark Knights MC just use the word “impromptu?”
Damn.
“Okay, so what the fuck is going on?” Brick asked, following Magnum toward the door that lead outside, but to the courtyard instead of the parking lot.
But before they stepped outside, the sound of the kitchen doors swinging again made Brick glance over his shoulder.
Dawg’s daughter, Caitlin, came from the same direction Magnum had come and her feet stuttered to almost a complete stop when she saw them.
“What—” Brick began, but Magnum pushed open the side door and jerked his chin, indicating they should head outside. As soon as they stepped out into the fading light of the day, he heard a bellowed, “’Bout fuckin’ time, asshole!”
Brick found his boss, Diesel, standing on the stage at the other end of the courtyard, which was packed full of people. Every fucking Dirty Angel, every ol’ lady, every one of Brick’s team, and all of the children. Too many bodies to count.
His first thought was, if there was a threat, having them all standing outside was not safe. Any sniper, like him, could start picking them off. “Stay behind me,” Brick murmured to Londyn.
Cait moved past them, not saying a word to any of them, and headed over to the pavilion where she began talking with one of the younger bikers named Coop.
Two seconds later, Magnum also veered off to their left and headed in the same direction as Cait. Brick wasn’t the only one who noticed. Dawg’s head swiveled that way and his eyes narrowed.
“What’s going the fuck on?” Brick asked the bearded, heavily tattooed biker.
Dawg didn’t pull his gaze from his oldest daughter who now had her pretty—but young—face tipped up to Magnum, while wearing a very large smile.
Oh fuck.
“That’s what I’d like to fuckin’ know,” the DAMC member grumbled, shifting his youngest daughter, Emmalee, also blonde and pretty like her momma, in his arms.
Diesel bellowed to someone out in the crowd. “Get ‘er.”
Get who?
Brick snagged Londyn’s hand and fought his way over to Steel, who was leaning back, his knee cocked, and the sole of his scuffed, pointed cowboy boot planted on one of the pavilion’s posts.
He had Kat pulled against his chest, one arm around her shoulders, holding her tight against him.
“What’s going on?” Brick asked him.
“Hey, Kat,” Londyn said, already sounding weary of the situation.
She wasn’t the only one.
Kat, who was sporting a swollen, discolored eye from her latest MMA fight, greeted his woman with an answering, “Hey.”
Steel grinned, his toothpick waggling between his lips as he jerked his chin back toward the building. “Well, fuck me with a—”
Brick didn’t hear the rest of it because the loud shouts, hoots and hollers became deafening and swallowed Steel’s words when everyone began to clue in on why they were there.
And why they were there not only stood on that stage by himself but also included the woman being escorted out of the side door, blindfolded.
Jewel.
The boss man’s ol’ lady.
The mother of his three baby girls.
The woman D would die to protect.
The only woman on the face of the planet who could tame the beast.
Holy fuck.
Following behind a confused Jewel was her mother, Ruby, and Diesel’s mother, Janice, with D’s three daughters in hand.
Brick’s head swung from Jewel to Diesel, who had moved to the very edge of the stage, with eyes only for his woman.
But he looked a bit pale. And that was not good.
Because when the man went down, he went down hard.
Just like he did for Jewel.
“Someone better make sure he doesn’t topple off that fuckin’ stage and crack his fuckin’ head open, because that will fuck everything up,” Ryder said, sidling up to them with Kelsea by his side.
“There’s nothing hard enough to crack open my cousin’s thick skull,” Kelsea said.
“What the hell is going on?” Jewel yelled, still blindfolded as she was led through the parting crowd by her sister, Diamond. “I’m taking this blindfold off.”
“Don’t you dare!” Diamond yelled at her, smacking her hand away. She stopped Jewel in front of the stage, moved behind her and waited for Diesel’s signal.
The Dirty Angels’ enforcer’s massive body heaved as he took a deep breath. Then he nodded to Diamond.
Her sister untied Jewelee’s blindfold and it fell to her feet. She blinked, glanced up and her mouth dropped open when she saw her ol’ man. “Holy shit! What is this?”
D got to his knees—slowly and with a curse and a grunt—and held out his sledgehammer-like hand.
“What did you do?”
“Woman!” he barked. “Just grab my fuckin’ hand!”
She did and he hauled her up onto the stage like she weighed nothing. Once he rose to his feet, he turned toward everyone on the ground. His deep voice boomed over them. “Jewelee kept givin’ me surprises I didn’t ask for. Wanted to give her one.”
Even from where Brick and Londyn stood, he could hear Jewel say shakily, “I never asked this of you.”
“Know it.” D jerked his chin up at someone else near the stage and another black man, also wearing a Dark Knights cut, hopped easily onto the stage. Brick had no fucking clue who he was, but the man moved to stand behind D and Jewel.
“Um, is this a wedding or something?” Londyn whispered, leaning against Brick and giving him a squeeze.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, trying not to laugh too loudly. “Yeah. Or something.”
“This is messed up,” she said under her breath.
Brick shook his head. “No, it’s fucking perfect.”
The Dark Knight mumbled some shit Brick couldn’t hear and then asked D and Jewel, “Got any vows you wanna say?”
“Oh, this should be good,” Hunter laughed behind them.
“Should we record it?” Steel asked.
“Fuck yes,” Brick answered. “I want this playing on a loop when he’s being a cranky fucker.”
“You ain’t fucking recording it. Let the man have his moment,” Mercy said from somewhere in the shadows of the pavilion.
“Your wedding going to be like this?” Brick asked him, smothering another laugh.
“No,” he heard Rissa answer.
“Parris?” Londyn whispered loudly.
“Behind you.”
“Will y’all pay a
ttention? Jesus fuck,” Ryder grumbled. “Man’s gotta be shittin’ his pants about now. And y’all are missin’ it.”
Everyone shut up and turned their attention back to the stage.
Did they miss the vows?
Fuck no.
D’s was a simple, “You’re fuckin’ mine, woman.” His nostrils flared and his throat worked a couple times. “This makes it legal. Happy?”
Jewel turned to look at each one of her daughters, then she scanned the crowd. She shot everyone a big smile, then turned back to D. “You’ve already made me happy because you’ve already given me everything I’ve ever wanted... and more.”
A gagging sound came from somewhere in the distance, followed quickly by a “shut the fuck up.”
Brick rolled his eyes.
“Not everything,” D grunted.
Every one of them—every single person in that courtyard—hung on what the man just said. Every single one of them knew what he meant.
“You don’t have to,” Jewel breathed. “It can remain between us.”
“Oh fuck, he’s going to do a Brick,” Steel chuckled.
Kat punched his arm and frowned at him. “You’re ruining the moment.”
“We already know he fucked her,” Walker said. “We’ve not only caught them several times doing it, but they have three kids from it.”
On stage, D whispered something to Jewel.
Everyone... every-single-one... yelled out, “What?”
D rolled his eyes toward the sky and shook his head before yelling, “Fuckin’ love ‘er.”
“What?” was echoed around the courtyard again.
“Fuckin’ Christ!” he barked. Then yelled, “Fuckin’ love you, woman!”
“Is he going to pass out?” Kelsea asked, not even bothering to hide her excitement. “I hope he passes out.”
“He’s not gonna pass out,” Ryder answered. “Wait. Is he?”
“He can’t pass out before the ceremony is over, otherwise it doesn’t count,” Parris whispered.
The Dark Knight hurried through the rest of the spiel.
“Is this even legal?” Londyn asked.
Magnum’s deep voice came from beside them. Luckily, Dawg’s daughter was no longer anywhere to be seen. “It’s fuckin’ legal. Sully’s an ordained minister.”
Brick gave Londyn a squeeze. “Hear that, baby? Sully can marry us when we’re ready.”
“In your fucking dreams,” Londyn told him. “In my dreams, my wedding looks nothing like this.”
“You should just be happy to be with me.”
“I’ve been waiting a long time to find the right man, so I’m getting the wedding I’ve always dreamed about.”
“Did you find him?”
“I’ll let you know.”
As Sully finished on stage, making it official, Jewel Jamison was now legally Jewel Dougherty. Amazingly enough, D stayed upright through the rest of it.
Then as the party kicked off and Nash’s band, Dirty Deeds, took the stage, he spun Londyn around in his arms to face him.
“Think D realized something.” He glanced around him at his fellow Shadows who were all holding onto their women tightly. “Think we all did.”
She tilted her head and gave him a soft smile that made his heart squeeze. She wrinkled her nose at him. “What’s that?”
Damn, D wasn’t the only lucky fucker there tonight.
He pulled her close and when she curled one arm around his waist and fisted her hand in his T-shirt, he whispered into her hair, “’You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.’”
All of them now had their little spark of madness. And now they all needed to do whatever was necessary so they wouldn’t lose them.
“Who said that?”
“One smart man.”
“You're only given one little spark of madness.
You mustn’t lose it.”
~ Robin Williams, 1951-2014
Turn the page to read a sneak peek of
Blood & Bones: Trip (Blood Fury MC, book 1)
Sneak peak of Blood & Bones: Trip
Turn the page for a sneak peek of
Blood & Bones: Trip
Blood Fury MC, book 1
Sneak peak of Blood & Bones: Trip (unedited)
“Sometimes you have to burn yourself to the ground
before you can rise like a phoenix from the ashes.” ~ Jens Lekman
Prologue
Trip stood in the middle of the deserted building, shaking his head, wondering if it was worth the fucking hassle to start the club back up. To reclaim its territory.
But what other fucking choice did he have?
He’d already had it set in his mind not only to do it, but to do it right this time.
He wouldn’t let his father’s club, which died a violent death, just remain a memory. And a bad one at that.
But now that he had done his time in the Marines, done his time in prison, he needed something.
Because he had nothing.
Except his granddaddy’s run-down farm, a barn full of farm equipment he had no clue how to use and didn’t want to, and the abandoned warehouse he was currently standing in on the outskirts of town.
While he was in prison, his lawyer had shown up, and read him his granddaddy’s will.
Yeah. He got everything.
Sig got nothing.
Trip was sure his brother wasn’t happy about that, if he even knew.
But most likely Granddaddy had made up the will when Trip was still doing time in the service and not doing it behind bars. Unlike Sig who had been in and out of jail, and the state pen, off and on since he turned eighteen.
But now here he stood. In an empty building, feeling fucking overwhelmed. But still, it was something.
And something was better than nothing.
He also had new ink on his back, and an old cut in his hand.
The leather was worn, the rockers and patches on it dirty. All except one.
One rectangular patch on the front had been torn off by his own fingers after using the point of his buck knife to loosen the threads. The patch that used to say “Buck” was now replaced with one that said “Trip.” But above it, the patch that had deemed Buck as president remained. That now belonged to Trip.
He’d also used that same knife to remove the 1% diamond patch off the back. He wouldn’t need that one anymore.
The club used to be outlaw. But Trip was determined to keep it above board. For the most part.
He’d spent many a night down in Shadow Valley talking with the members of the Dirty Angels MC, soaking up everything their prez named Z told him. Learning how to rebuild Blood Fury stronger than ever. How to keep the money flowing into the club’s coffers.
One way to do that was to keep the members out of prison and, even better, keep them breathing.
Dead or incarcerated members weren’t any good to a club.
And there had been too many of those in the Blood Fury MC in the past. It had been its downfall.
Trip didn’t want that mistake to happen again.
So, they had to play the game. Keep shit on the up and up as best as they could. Become a powerful force, strong enough to withstand the occasional bump in the road.
He had no fucking clue how he was going to pull it off, but he would take the advice he was given and do his fucking best.
He scrubbed a hand through his long hair before tucking it up under his baseball cap, blowing out a loud breath and shrugging on his cut.
His cut.
It wasn’t his father’s any longer.
This club was no longer his father’s, either.
This world, even as broken as it was, now belonged to Trip.
It was his and he wouldn’t let anyone destroy it again.
The Fury was about to rise once more. This time stronger and smarter.
Get Trip and Stella’s story here:
mybook.to/BFMC-Trip
If You Enjoyed This Book
Thank you for reading Guts & Glory: Brick. If you enjoyed Brick and Londyn’s story, please consider leaving a review at your favorite retailer and/or Goodreads to let other readers know. Reviews are always appreciated and just a few words can help an independent author like me tremendously!
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Also by Jeanne St. James
* Available in Audiobook
Made Maleen: A Modern Twist on a Fairy Tale *
Damaged *
Rip Cord: The Complete Trilogy *
Brothers in Blue Series:
(Can be read as standalones)
Brothers in Blue: Max *
Brothers in Blue: Marc *
Brothers in Blue: Matt *
Teddy: A Brothers in Blue Novelette *
The Dare Ménage Series:
(Can be read as standalones)
Double Dare *
Daring Proposal *
Dare to Be Three *
A Daring Desire *
Dare to Surrender *
A Daring Journey *
The Obsessed Novellas:
(All the novellas in this series are standalones)
Forever Him *
Only Him *
Needing Him *
Loving Her *
Temping Him *
Down & Dirty: Dirty Angels MC Series™:
Down & Dirty: Zak *
Down & Dirty: Jag *
Down & Dirty: Hawk *
Down & Dirty: Diesel *
Down & Dirty: Axel *
Down & Dirty: Slade *
Down & Dirty: Dawg *
Down & Dirty: Dex *
Down & Dirty: Linc *
Down & Dirty: Crow *
Crossing the Line (A DAMC/Blue Avengers Crossover) *