Read Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V Online
Authors: A.J. Downey
Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V
Fractured &
Formidable
The Sacred Heart’s
MC Book V
By A. J. Downey
Text Copyright ©
2014 A.J. Downey
This is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either
the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely
coincidental.
All Rights
Reserved
To the men and women across the country who take the time
and effort out for B.A.C.A. or Bikers Against Child Abuse. You are the unsung
heroes and are, in part, what the spirit of The Sacred Hearts MC was modeled
after, even before I knew you existed. Keep doing what you’re doing and I am
happy to help get your message along. It is an unfortunate reality in which we
live that you are needed, but I am not the only one that is glad you are here.
This one is for you.
14 months ago…
“I’ve got room, Red.”
I looked dubiously at the man who had spoken and my mouth
went dry for a second time. I’d noticed him the second he’d walked into the
studio, but hadn’t been introduced. I’d caught his name when he’d introduced
himself to Everett though… Zander.
He was gorgeous. Dark hair hidden beneath a red baseball cap
turned backwards on his head. He had on a red tee shirt, the sleeves torn off, with
a black denim vest over it. He wore these long, black denim shorts that ended
just below the knee, his legs just as muscled above the red canvas hi-top
shoes, the kind with the white rubber toe-caps, with white socks riding above
where the white laces tied off. He was remarkably well put together given the
rough appearance I’d
expected
from him being somehow a part of a
motorcycle gang… which was probably fairly judgmental of me. I immediately felt
guilty for the unfair thought but continued in my observations.
His arms were
huge
, one brightly colored in fiery
oranges and the other in cool black and white images. I couldn’t discern what
they were from across the studio where I stood beside my best friend. His eyes
though, they’re what made my mouth go dry and my heart speed up. They reminded
me of my gran’s famous chocolate caramels. A lovely milk chocolaty brown tinged
with a burnished bronze-gold hue that drew me in as they roved me from my head
to my feet. I blushed. So what if it was exactly what I was doing to him.
“You should take him up on it,” Everett said
enthusiastically, adding, “It’s unbelievable!”
I felt drawn to the man, who was shorter than me by half a
head, even though he was compact and solidly muscled. I quailed a bit on the
inside and bit the inside of my cheek. He looked like he could really
hurt
someone and not entirely on purpose. It was just, almost like he knew he was
strong but the way he carried himself, so nonchalant, it gave the impression
that maybe he didn’t know his own strength.
He gave me this devil may care grin, revealing a chipped
tooth in the front and with his dimples, the effect was absolutely adorable. I
felt myself give an answering sweet smile as my misgivings eased. His smile
said to me,
you can trust me,
and I tried very hard to trust everyone in
equal measure… until they gave me a reason not to.
Everett had been my best friend since the second grade and
she had
never
given me a reason not to trust her, even when we disagreed,
or worse, fought like siblings. If she said it was something I should do or try
then it was. I chewed my lip thoughtfully and worried about what my dad would
think and caught Everett’s look, she had her eyebrow raised in my direction and
the look on her face that screamed,
really? You’re going to let him tell you
what to do when he’s not even here?
The old familiar argument that she
pretty much always won played out in my head. As always, she was right. If I
listened to my father in my head all the time I wouldn’t have had even a
quarter of the adventures that I had with my bestie. She was a bad influence in
all the best ways.
“My car is safe here, so why not?” I finally agreed and
triumph flashed in my best friend’s eyes.
“I’m Zander,” he said to me quietly and came over holding
out his arm like some old fashioned gentleman.
“Mandy,” I said softly, automatically linking my arm with
his. The older Mexican-American man, Dray’s father, (he couldn’t be anything
else with how closely they resembled one another,) was speaking and he spoke
like my father did from the pulpit. With that authority. That commanding tone
of voice, as if he were a man that was used to being listened to. He was their
leader apparently but I wasn’t entirely up on how everything worked. Everett
hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to explain. Which was partially why I was
here. She hadn’t called me in days even though she’d promised to.
I let Zander escort me out into the overcast and crisp fall
day and breathed deep the autumn air.
“Never ridden before?” he asked and handed me a black half
helmet which I took a bit dubiously. I looked at his motorcycle and cringed on
the inside. It was big and matte black, the front end long, the tires wide.
“Hey, look at me Red,” he ordered gently and his voice was
velvet and smooth and I turned my attention away from the motorcycle and to
him.
“It’s okay. Do I look like a guy that’d let anything bad
happen to you?” he asked with that devil may care grin of his. My stomach did a
giant somersault.
“Um, no,” I said softly. Truthfully? Zander looked like the
kind of man who would do
bad things to me given half a chance. Bad
things that would likely be so very
good
to have happen to a girl like
me. He smiled wider as if he’d read my mind and stepped into my personal space.
I blushed furiously and his eyes positively sparkled with good humor. He knew
he was having an effect and was enjoying every moment of it! Unfortunately for
me, that just made me blush harder.
Plucking the helmet from my hands he began to speak in a low
voice, mapping out his expectations and what he needed from me. I listened very
carefully, terrified of doing something,
anything
, wrong that might get
us hurt. I tried valiantly not to be distracted when his fingertips brushed the
underside of my jaw as he buckled the helmet securely onto me. They were softer
than they appeared and I had to suppress a shiver at the lingering heat left
behind by that touch. A small voice in the back of my mind was saying
you
shouldn’t play with fire… you’re bound to get burned.
Oh how I should have listened.
Present day…
I shut the front door to the cozy little two bedroom house
that I shared with my best friend and her boyfriend. It was a bit awkward,
juggling my purse and my keys one handed, while pressing a wad of Kleenex to my
nose, while also keeping my head tilted back as far as it would go. My eyes
watered from the smarting pain, tears leaking down into my bright copper curls
at my temples while I tried to staunch the deep ruby flow from my nose.
“Sweet mother Mary… Mandy!” Everett, who had been in the
kitchen, jogged through the dining area and living room to reach me. I dumped
my purse and keys onto the loveseat beside me and sat down heavily on the thick
leather arm.
“It won’t stop bleeding Evy!” I said mournfully and she
pulled my hand away from my face by my wrist gently. She sighed.
“It’s a good thing Dray isn’t home. Come on let’s get you
cleaned up.” She guided me around furniture that I couldn’t see. I couldn’t tip
my head downward because as soon as I did a red tide would gush from my nose.
It was frustrating and embarrassing, no matter how many times my best friend
had seen it. I dropped into one of the dining room chairs closest to the
kitchen. Everett pulled a wad of paper towels from the roll and handed them to
me. I replaced the dripping wad of Kleenex and winced when the paper towel
began to soak through immediately.
Everett held out a plastic grocery bag and I tossed the
Kleenex into it with a wet splat that made me want to gag. Everett set the bag
aside with a rustle and I heard her at the freezer, scooping ice into another
bag. She came back over spinning it and tying it off. Gently and ever so
carefully she rested the ice on the bridge of my nose.
“What happened?” she asked softly.
“Same thing that happens every time he does it. It’s nothing
new,” I muttered.
“You need to stop going over there,” she said, voice
dripping with disapproval.
“I can’t. You know I can’t,” I muttered miserably. She
sighed as if her heart carried the weight of the world on it and I spiraled
further down into my misery. I hated this, I hated
me
, for causing my
best friend pain. If only…
“I ought to send Dray over there to give him a what for!”
Everett said dispassionately, her accent thickening.
“No! Evy no. Please don’t tell anyone… I couldn’t bear it if
anyone else knew. Please don’t say anything.”
She made soothing and shushing noises at me and I bit my
lips together.
“I won’t Mandy, I promise, but you can’t keep going over
there, you can’t keep letting this happen,” she said gravely.
“I know,” I told her, “I just don’t know what else to do.”
She hugged me.
“Ever the dutiful daughter,” she murmured and it sounded
like she wished I were anything but. Truthfully, I wished I could be less so
too but I was afraid, afraid of what would happen, afraid of a lot of things. I
closed my eyes.
“Just don’t tell anyone,” I said, ashamed.
“You know your secret is safe with me. Always has been and
always will be,” she hooked her pinky finger with mine and shook my hand back
and forth by it.
Sometimes, I was afraid of that too.
Revelator…
I stood up straight, catching the water streaming off my
face with the hand towel I pulled off the bar by the sink. I mopped the water
off my face and chest and checked for any excess shaving cream. I ran a comb
through my black hair which was getting long again but I didn’t really care too
much about it. It was going under a ball cap anyways.
“Yo Rev!” Disney called from the living room.
“Yeah what?” I called back.
“Hurry up! We’re gonna be late.”
I took one or two last swipes where I still felt damp.
“Keep your panties on Puddin’!” I yelled back to my new
roomie.
He’d been moved in all of around two weeks but as far as
roommates went, he wasn’t half bad. Aside from smokin’ the Ganga every once in
a while, making the house reek I didn’t really have too much to bitch about.
Well I had one other gripe but I wasn’t about to tell him to have quieter sex
with his boyfriend. It was none of my fucking business and I didn’t want to
seem like a homophobe. I wasn’t, despite how much I made fun of Disney sayin’
homophobic type shit. For me, that shit was just in good fun, irreverent bastard
that I am. Hell, in my world just about fucking everything was fair game when
it came to humor.
“Would you move your ass if I told you Mandy was supposed to
be there?” he asked. I ducked my head out the open bathroom doorway. That girl
was sweet as fucking pie and I had it worse than bad for her.
“Is she?” I asked.
Disney scowled at me.
“Maybe.”
He crossed his arms over his cut. I rolled my eyes, took one
last glance in the mirror, sprayed some cologne between my shoulders and called
it good. I hit the bathroom light and stepped out into the hall.
“She better be there now, or I’ma sit on you,” I threatened.
Disney grinned, a twinkle in his eye and waved his hand at
me in the classic effeminate gay man way and affecting that horrible accent
said, “Oh stop!”
I laughed and went into my room and pulled on my long, light
denim jean shorts. I pulled on some white athletic socks and stuffed my feet
into my red converse.
“Seriously though, she gonna be there?” I asked. I wanted to
know. The girl had pretty much been under my skin since the moment I first laid
eyes on her. It wasn’t just that she was fucking gorgeous, she was all fucking
woman
.
Lush curves and soft skin, with eyes the color of autumn and hair to match. I
wanted her so fucking bad and she would be mine. Oh yes! She would be mine.
I had just met her at a bad time to make it so right away. I
had just accepted a hang around cut and was trying to become a prospect with
the MC. A labor of love but also really damned time consuming and my number one
priority at the time. Finally, I had become a fully patched member but then my
business got blowed up and if it wasn’t one thing it was another and I was just
plain sick of all of it getting in the way now. I needed to act, stop putting
it off and really go for it. I was in it to win it and I wanted to start as
soon as possible. I was half afraid if I didn’t get off my ass and do something
that I was going to miss the opportunity all together and I would be
fucked
if I let that happen.
I stood up from tying my laces and I pulled a black Under
Armor fitted compression tee over my head and tucked it in. I couldn’t get the
image I played over and over of fitting my body to hers out of my head. God
damn! All those soft, lush, curves. That silky smooth skin so warm and alive, pressed
right up against me. Mm.
I tried to think of something else while I was threading my
belt through the loops on my shorts. I was hard as a fucking rock and didn’t
have time to relieve any tension right now. If I stopped to take care of
business Dis was going to blow a fucking gasket. I dumped my wallet into my
back pocket and snapping the leather loop at the end of the chain around my
belt, I picked up my cut, shrugging into it.
“Okay Puddin’ we can go.” I called.
“Thank you!” Disney called out, exasperated.
I grinned and plucked my favorite Florida Buccaneer’s hat
off the rack lining the back of my bedroom door and slid it on backwards
tucking the bill at the back of my neck.
“Quit’cher bitchin’ there lover boy, your man-pussy will
wait for yah.”
I sighed out. I was looking forward to Dis finishing his
bike so he could get around on his own again. He was waiting for some damned
part that had gotten cracked in the explosion to ship cross country, or from
overseas, or some shit. I snatched my keys to my Chevelle off the hook.
“Whoa, hey! Forgetting something?” Disney asked as I pulled
open the front door. I stopped and looked over my shoulder.
“What?” I asked.
He held my Browning out to me butt first.
“Oh, shit! Good looking’ out Princess!” I took the gun and
tucked it into the back of my waistband.
“Should have fuckin’ shot you,” I heard him grumble and I
grinned to myself. It was raining outside and we dashed through it, both
shrugging back out of our cuts and cursing. I
may
have taken a touch or
two longer to unlock Disney’s door than I needed to. He dove into the passenger
seat cursing me out and I laughed.
“Fuckin’ douche bag!” he cried and pushed some of his long
hair out of his face, slicking it back while he laughed.
I started what I considered my
real
pride and joy up
and shifted her into reverse. I’d bought her, a rusting out piece of shit that
was just this side of worth saving and had spent
years
making her whole.
I smiled with a quiet steady pride at the reflection of the waterlogged
streetlight across the black vinyl dash. The weather was fucking miserable out
today. Just a steady constant fall of drippy rain that made me think God had a
runny nose and was snotting all over us.
“What do you think they’re going to say?” he asked,
fidgeting in his seat.
“Dunno, what the fuck is wrong with you? Boyfriend give you
crabs or something?” he punched me in the arm, probably as hard as he could and
I laughed. Didn’t do much through the thick leather of my jacket.
“Make fun of me all you want, I know you don’t mean it, but
not Aaron. Please?” he said and he looked uncomfortable. I blinked.
“Dude, man… you know I’m just fucking with you right?” I
asked, rolling up to a stoplight.
“Yeah man! I know,” he said and shifted again.
“Disney… Dude.” I scowled at him.
“Sometimes it gets to be a bit much! Okay?” he asked and
grimaced, shifting in his seat.
“Fucking leg itches like a motherfucker. Doc says it’s
because it’s healing but man! Worse than any tat I’ve ever had,” he said in a
bid to change the subject but fuck, I instantly felt like a douche. The wound
in his leg that he was bitching about had come from flying glass from ORI
blowing up.
“Dude, I’m sorry bro.”
No one felt it more keenly than me that Disney could have
gotten himself dead that night and I felt wholly responsible for it. I’d called
and sent him into that death trap. His injuries fell squarely on my shoulders.
I gritted my teeth. I wanted to fuck up The Suicide Kings’ world and it looked
like I was going to get my chance on at least one of them next month.
The Suicide Kings were all sorts of dirty, and depending on
how you looked at it, fortunately or unfortunately, that included being in on
the illegal fight circuit. That’s how I’d crossed paths with The Sacred Hearts
back in the day.
I’d been in my early, twenties. Young, dumb and pissed off
at the whole fucking world. A high school buddy of mine had stumbled into the
area’s illegal fighting world. He’d got dollar signs in his eyes and me, I was
all about a good fight. Wrestling team all-star in three counties, state
champion in my class two years running in High School. After I’d managed to
graduate I’d had little or nothing to keep me grounded so it hadn’t taken a
fuck of a lot to talk me into doing it.
I’d risen in the ranks pretty quickly and gotten the
reputation of being pretty hard core. I’d started at the bottom rung and won a
couple of fights by pure happy accident and brute strength alone. That’s how Unkind
had spotted me. He was the old Sergeant at Arms for The Sacred Hearts. I didn’t
want much to do with the club, but Unkind, well, he was an all right dude. He’d
offered to train me, which I’d pretty much had thought I was hot shit and spit
on that. He’d whooped my fucking ass and
that
had changed my mind in a big
damned hurry.
Dude was as his name implied. A surly, nasty, bastard that
didn’t do nice. After he’d whooped my ass, he’d then whooped my as
into
shape
. Hard workouts was just the beginning. Unkind taught me the meaning
of discipline, taught me what it was to fucking focus all that hate and rage
burning me up inside. I was pretty much unstoppable after that. I went on like
that for a few years. That’s how I met Trig, it was
Trigger
, a prospect
at the time who convinced me that there was more out there to blow my money on
than nameless, faceless pussy and tying one on every night of the week. I’d
mostly been spending my money on my car, and alcohol and keeping a roof over my
head up to that point. I was twenty-three when Trigger showed up.
It’d turned out the both of us had a talent for drawing. I’d
started apprenticing for a tattoo place right out of high school. My dad’s
place actually, and when I caught Trig drawing and shading on a napkin I asked
him if he’d ever thought about tattooing. He helped me and I helped him. I was
pretty fucking devastated when Unkind caught a bullet the same time Dragon’s
Ol’ Lady Tilly did.
I crawled into a fucking bottle and stayed there for weeks.
Trigger stuck with me, and helped me crawl back out and rejoin the land of the
living. It was about time that I grew the fuck up and stopped playing at life
and started actually living it, putting my mind towards something. My pops
kicked it around two years before Unkind was murdered, at least
that
son
of a bitch had taught me some kind of useful skill that I could live straight
with before he went.
After Unkind, Tilly, and Rascal, the club had been in
shambles. I was just a friend and affiliate up to that point and then I got too
busy trying to build my business with Trig. We opened up shop when Dragon
decided to go legit.
Trig had convinced Big D that fronting the money for our own
tattoo place was as good a place as any to start down the road of getting out
of gun running. By then, Trig had been voted in as the new Sgt. at Arms and me?
I was suddenly busy as fuck getting the shop up off the ground. Too busy to
prospect just then, even though I’d been meaning to do it. It just took
everything I had to make Open Road Ink a raging success along with Trig. And
Trig? Well he had been double timing it. Building ORI up right along with me
while at the same time rebuilding the MC with Dragon, Doc and Reave in a legit
direction, butting heads with Dray all along the way.
Now all of that hard work was threatened. Hell,
past
threatened.
The shop was nothing but a pile of wreckage and the club and everybody in it
was in danger and I would be damned if I was going to watch both go down the
drain because of these fucking cock suckers. I’d put a lot of shit on hold in
order to reach my goals and it felt like the wheel hand turned and come full
circle and I was sitting here marginally more successful but at the same time…
right back where I’d started.
I growled inwardly and with a scowl jerked my wheel to the
left, powering up the drive and into the club’s lot. I backed into a stall and
shut her off. I’d never minded getting my fucking hands dirty to get shit
accomplished before and I really didn’t mind doing it now. Not for me, not for
Trig, not for Dis and not for my club which had shown me throughout these long
years what
real
family was supposed to be. Still, I wanted something
more for myself. I wanted Red, and if I was going to be starting a bunch of
shit over? Well then I was going to do it better than before, and that included
having a good woman by my side that would be my partner in crime, not just a
convenient piece of pussy to nail at my leisure. I had my sights set squarely
on Red for the position. She’d aced the interview with one look from those
autumn colored eyes of hers.
“You know it’s not your fault,” Disney said over the roof of
my car.
I looked across and up at the tall as fuck, lanky kid. I’d
almost forgotten he was with me, chasing thoughts one after the other like I’d
been. I shook my head as much to disagree with him as to clear it. It’d stopped
raining and was just a fine misting drizzle now.
“I sent you over there,” I said, coming to grips with the
conversation that’d been initiated.
“You had no way of knowing man, and I’m fine. Trust me, you
letting my ass move in has more than made up for it.” He grinned at me. I shrugged
back into my cut and hunched my shoulders, making for the club house door. He
opened it and I stopped.
“It’s great that you forgive me, but Dis, I still ain’t
forgiven
myself
man. I don’t know if and when I’m gonna. It was a shit thing
I did sending you in there.” I looked up at the faded bruising on his face in
the watery parking lot light and he smiled, a sad and ghostly thing.
“Fair enough man,” he said and we went in to the much warmer
and drier club.
I immediately scanned the dim interior for the bright copper
curls that had been on my mind daily since the day I first saw her. I felt a
surge of disappointment when I saw nothing. She didn’t come around the club
very often, if at all, but still, just because she wasn’t in the main common
room didn’t mean she wasn’t here. Where Everett was, that’s where Red would be,
and I didn’t see Evy out here.