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Erotic
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Erotic. Copyright © 2021 by Elizabeth Knox. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the authors, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information contact E. Knox.
Editing: Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing
Proofreading: Jackie Ziegler, Knox Publishing
Formatting: E.C. Land, Knox Publishing
Cover Designer: Clarise Tan, CT Cover Creations
Photographer: Golden Czermak, FuriousFotog
Models: Dylan Horsch
Letter to the Readers:
Hey Everyone,
I wanted to let you all know that my full intentions when writing this story was for it to be finished when you got it in this anthology, but unfortunately, that isn’t the case right now. Life threw a wrench at me and my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer, and while I’m trying my best to write . . . I’d be lying if I said getting work done was easy. I find writing extremely difficult right now, and while there are only a few chapters of Erotic here, I hope you’ll enjoy what’s here thus far.
The last thing I want to do is force this story out when I’m so fucked in the head right now. I’m so terribly sorry for not getting this finished like I’d planned, but I hope you’ll enjoy the teaser.
Xoxo,
Liz
Club Members:
Zeus — Prez
Hades — VP
Cronos — Road Captain
Hermes — Treasurer
Poseidon — Sgt. at Arms
Ares — Enforcer
Apollo — Full Patch
Dionsys ‘Dion’ — Full Patch
Triton — Full Patch
Kratos — Full Patch
Pan — Full Patch
Sam — Prospect
Jack — Prospect
Connor — Prospect
Prologue
Callista
14 years ago . . .
I know better than this, than to open this can of worms that I’m certain won’t ever be closed. Yet even in knowing that I have this intense desire to ask the million-dollar question: where is he? It’s unlikely my mom will understand the need I have, the urge to know what the other part of me is like . . . but I’m old enough to know now, to know the gritty truth. I’m not some kid anymore. I’m fifteen years old, and soon I’ll be driving a car, and then I’ll be graduating, and then I’ll be going off to law school.
“Salaam, Mama,” I speak in her native tongue, Farsi, hoping it’ll earn me some brownie points. She’s made sure we grew up here in Detroit with a very heavy cultural presence. My mother is Persian, fresh off the boat Persian. She moved here when she was sixteen years old, and my grandfather only had ten dollars in his pocket. How he did it, I have no idea; then again, I don’t wish to know the struggles they endured when they first got here. At that time, Iran was going through so many changes, and the danger was only becoming more obvious. I’m just thankful they all got out when they could.
“Salaam, what is it you want?” she asks me, her accent heavy and thick. While she’s a traditional Persian, she has the ability to cut straight to the point. She’s a no-bullshit kinda woman, and I love it about her.
My stomach flips around inside me, and I try my best to compose myself, not letting her see an ounce of weakness. If she does, she’ll gut me like a fish. “I’ve been thinking about my birthday since it’s coming up,” I begin to tell her, and she nods her head along as she continues washing the dishes.
“Good, I’ve told you many times you need to let me know what you want. You and Amira always change your mind. One day, it’s this; the next day, it’s that. So, what is it you want?” My mom stops scrubbing the plate and looks over at me, cocking her brows.
“I want to know what happened to Dad.”
The look on her face is enough to strike me down completely. She looks both angered and hurt. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and bites down hard. “I don’t understand why you want to know anything about the man that abandoned us.”
I don’t ever expect her to understand where I’m coming from, but I do hope she’ll one day respect it. “Mama, I don’t know anything about him. I barely remember anything about the man except his blue eyes and the creamy color of his skin.”
“Good. You don’t want to know your father, Callista. He abandoned us, cast us aside. He made his choices in life, and I’ve made my peace with it; you need to as well. He chose to let us go. He made that choice, and I know you have a very hard time understanding this is what happened.” She angrily scrubs the sponge against the pl
ate and then puts the plate on the other side of the sink with clean water.
“You’ve only said he’s left. Not once did you ever give me some sort of background on why. I just want to know why he left. I want to know what made him leave. That’s all I want, Mama.” I stare into her eyes, silently pleading for her to give me this. It’s the only thing I want, the one thing only she can give me.
“You haven’t realized what you’ve asked for, have you?” Venom’s laced through her tone, and I don’t understand what she’s saying.
She yanks her hands from the water and grabs a dish towel, wiping her hands while she continues to snap at me. “You want me to break your heart. That’s what you’ve asked me to do today. So, you want to know why he left?”
Even as I heed her warning, there’s nothing more that I want in the world. I need to know what happened. I need to know why the man who I vaguely remember taking me to the aquarium, going to the park for ice cream, and pushing me on the swing suddenly vanished.
I give her a nod.
“He left us for the biker club he runs. He chose them over us, dokhtar. He had a family, and he chose them!” At this point, she’s screaming, and just like every time she does the dishes, she glances down to the porcelain dish she puts her rings in, and the gold wedding band he gave her all those years ago is amongst her others.
Still, she wears her wedding ring.
Still, she isn’t a divorced woman, and she hasn’t ever gone out on a date. At least not one I can remember. It’s exactly because of this I think there’s much more she isn’t telling me . . . and if she won’t be honest with me, I’ll just have to figure out a way to get the truth myself.
1
Connor
Present Day . . .
“He wants us there, all of us,” Jack, one of the other prospects in the Sons of Gods MC tells me. He started prospecting a few months after I did, and I’ve been prospecting for about a year now.
“Do you know what he could want?” Abel, one of the other prospects, questions.
I shrug. “No idea. None of us have ever been inside church before.” Which only makes us all more nervous. This must be something good, but it’s not like Zeus is going to come out and tell us that. He’ll want us on our fuckin’ toes. He’ll want us nervous as all hell with our boots shakin’ as much as they can. But it’s alright ‘cause we’re the people who have to prove ourselves to him and the club.
“Yeah, and if you keep chattin’ like a bunch of girls, you might never get the opportunity to ever again.” Ares grabs me by the back of the shoulders and laughs as he makes his way past us. He’s the enforcer, and he’s a real standup guy. I’ve taken a lot of rides with him and done quite a few jobs on the other side of town. There’s been a few times he’s seen some women in trouble, and he always gets in the middle of the situation. Dude never has to, but he knows if he doesn’t, somethin’ could go sideways. A lot of the brothers here are like him, and with any luck, I’ll be patched in soon. Hell, I’m practically countin’ down the days over here.
A loud whistling comes from the other side, and Apollo’s smirk could probably be seen from a mile away. “You four got yourself into some deep shit now, didn’t you?” He shakes his head and cackles as he goes in the direction Ares just went, down the hall to where they hold church. We were told earlier Hades would come get us when they’re ready for us, and I’m damn sure Apollo was the last person who’s supposed to be in church.
“He’s just eggin’ us on, and we know it. Don’t listen to shit Apollo says. Fucker wants to rile us up,” Abel says, lookin’ around the group of us.
“Abel’s right. Apollo loves to fuck with us,” Jack pipes up, and Sam nods in agreement.
I fold my arms in front of my chest and look to the guys. “No matter what we’re about to walk into, I’m sure everythin’ will be fine. We just have to bide our time and wait to see what’s going on.”
Abel pulls out his phone and starts scrolling around on it, narrows his eyes, and sighs loudly.
“Everything okay?” I question him, figuring no one else will.
He glances up at me and shrugs. “I’m fine, but Gemma’s having problems with that house she rents again. Said the landlord won’t even come over and take a look. I keep tellin’ her if she’s havin’ problems to just call me up, and I can fix it, but no, girl has to do things the hard way.”
“Lemme guess, she wants the landlord to take accountability and solve the problem?”
“You got it, man. Gemma’s over here always thinkin’ people aren’t gonna be as shitty as they are in the end, but the world is a pit of shit. I know she’s lived in a bubble for most of her damn life, but fuck, man. I don’t know what else to do for her,” Abel grumbles, sounding like he’s a bit defeated.
“There’s not much else you can do, man,” I tell him straight up, figuring lying to the guy isn’t going to solve anything.
“You can tell that sweet sister of yours I have no problem in helping her out, day or night,” Jack cackles, gettin’ a death stare in response from Abel.
“I’d suggest you watch your tongue, or I might have to cut it out of your damn mouth.” Abel pulls out his switchblade and flicks it open. While Jack and Sam are laughing away, I highly doubt the man is joking. When it comes to Gemma, well, he’d kill for his little sister.
“Shit, sorry, didn’t realize you were so damn protective of her,” Sam backtracks, putting his arms up in a sign of surrender.
Completely ignoring Sam, Abel continues, “They had that new girl move into the house today too, so Gemma’s stressing the fuck out.” I can’t remember what Gemma does, but I know Abel’s said she makes damn good money. That being said, she has some student debt, and she rents a house in town, but she sub-lets the other three bedrooms. Her last roommate moved out a month and a half ago to go to San Francisco for a new job opportunity. I didn’t even know she found someone so damn quick. Man, is she lucky or what? I mean, we’re in Birmingham, Alabama. It’s not exactly the most luxurious place ever.
Abel starts typing away on his phone, so I can only naturally assume what he’s doing. “You talkin’ some sense into Gemma?”
“Damn straight I am. She has a big brother for a reason, so if she needs my ass to handle shit, then I will. Who needs a shitty landlord to come over and nitpick shit when she has me? I’m hardly any hassle at all.”
The group of us, minus Abel, break out into laughter, and just at that moment, heavy footsteps can be heard coming in our direction. “Prospects, get your asses in here, now,” Hades grumbles out in a deep voice, and we all shoot to our feet, following the club’s VP as he leads us back to where they have church.
Hades holds the door open for us and motions for us to line up against the wall, which we do. He goes over to sit next to Zeus, and the Prez clears his throat. “I take it you’re wondering why you’re here, in this place, with all of us today,” Zeus comments, looking between the four of us. “I feel that it’s time we officially get new blood into the club, that we change one of your lives from this day forth. So, brothers, who do you feel has earned their place here? Hades, you go first.”
Jesus. This already feels like that shit when you’re getting picked for gym class in elementary school.
Hades clears his throat and surprisingly looks right at me. “Connor.”
On the left of Hades is Cronos, our road captain. “Abel.”
To the left of Cronos is Hermes, the club’s treasurer. “Connor.”
Holy fuck. That’s two votes already.
Next to Hermes is Apollo. “Sam.”
Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Next to Apollo is Dionsys, who we all refer to as Dion. He’s Zeus’ son, and his birthright alone has solidified his place in the club. He looks between us all and speaks up, “Jack.”
Shit. Things are getting tenser now. Triton sits to the left of Dion, so he speaks up now, “Abel.”
Abel and I are tied in the lead, while Sam and Jack both have one vote on th
e table.
At this point, Zeus nods his head, seeing that I’m now in the lead, but there’s still time for this to turn around. I don’t wanna get ahead of myself, but this has to be it. I’ve been here the longest as a prospect, a little longer than the rest of the guys. Hell, I’ve dedicated my life to them.
Kratos is beside Triton, and he smirks as he casts his vote, knowing he’s stirring the pot. “Abel.”
We’re neck and neck again, and at this point, no one else has a shot at getting patched in. It’ll either be him or me. Poseidon, Ares, and Zeus are the only ones left to vote, so I wait and look to Poseidon, our club’s Sgt. at Arms. “Abel.”
My stomach slowly sinks, knowing Abel has one up on me.
Next is Ares, the club’s enforcer, and he looks right at me with a smirk. “Connor.”
Holy fuck. We’re tied, and the only person able to break it is our Prez, Zeus.
He looks over Abel and me slowly, and after a few moments of silence, he clears his throat. “Connor.” My heart swells with pride, thinking this is it, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. “You’ve been with us for a while now, and while I’d like to patch you in, I don’t think you’re ready yet. I need to know more about your character and more about what you’d bring to my club. That being said, Abel, the spot is yours. But, you’re no longer known as Abel. You, my son, are now Pan, the god of the wild.”
“Seems fitting, considering the dude loves them crazy bitches,” Poseidon cackles out, and the entire room breaks out into laughter.
While I’m happy for my friend, I’d be lying if I said I wished it wasn’t me who’d been voted in. I don’t know what else I need to do for the club, but someday I will. I’ll prove myself to them until they all think I’m deserving to be in the Sons of Gods MC.
“Alright, let’s go get some beers and celebrate, huh?” Apollo speaks, riling up the crowd.
2
Callista
Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition Page 24
