Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset

by Serena Akeroyd

  Everything was upended, but not this.

  Never what Sin and I had.

  The ring represented what it had for thousands of years—eternity. A couple destined to be together for eternity.

  “Sin?”

  He hummed under his breath. “Angel?”

  “I hear you.” Then, I reached for his hand, cupped it, and huskily asked, “I want to wear your brand.”

  His eyes lit up. “You do?”

  Slowly, I nodded. “I do.”

  “I didn’t want to ask—”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. You’re not a regular woman, Tiff.”

  My lips curved into a smile. “I know I’m not. I’m yours.”

  He grinned back at me. “Yeah, you are.”

  “So you should have known that if you wanted the world to know I’m yours, I’d want the same.”

  His eyes sparkled. “That can be arranged.”

  “Good.” I blew out a breath. “Now, will you help me shower, please? I don’t want Lily to see me like this. The last time she did, she started sobbing and she broke my heart. I don’t want that. I want her to see my ring and to be happy.”

  “Of course, angel.” He pressed a kiss to my ring. “And then I’ll make an appointment with my regular tattooist.”

  Even though my world was in chaos, I still had it in me to smile at him.

  My happiness was entwined with his, and he’d just proven that by slipping a ring on my finger when, in his world, rings meant nothing.

  For us, however, we’d always be different.

  When he reached over, he proved how perfect we were for one another, as he bowed his head, pressed a kiss to my stomach, and whispered, “Goodbye, little angel.”

  My eyes flooded with tears because he didn’t say, ‘there’ll be more kids in the future.’ He didn’t discredit this child, this loss. He said farewell, and he tied my heart up in him with those three words, earning a love that was undying, and a loyalty that could never be equaled.

  I was his.

  He was mine.

  And Benito Fieri? Could get fucked if he thought he could tear us asunder.

  Sin

  As Indiana finished up Tiffany’s brand, which sat on her left hand, I eyed her bruises, which weren’t even close to fading, and the cuts from the glass that had rained inside the car, causing little tears to mar the perfection of her face.

  The collision with a fucking tree on the island on the freeway was something that had killed our baby, but it hadn’t killed us.

  Here she was, my ring on her right finger for the moment, while on her left, on her true ring finger, sloping from the bottom where her digits joined to her hand and all the way along to the first knuckle, ink blossomed. It was a lacework filigree design in a multitude of rainbow colors, and amid the lace were my names.

  Both Padraig and Sin.

  One man she’d meet, the other, I’d do my fucking best to keep from her, even though it was time she knew the truth of what both parts of me could do.

  It had rammed itself home when she told me she felt like I was keeping a part of me away from her. Mostly because she was spot on.

  I did keep that side of me from her, because Padraig?

  Insane.

  As raving fucking mad as Nyx, but Sin kept that bastard under control. Just. Until he needed to come out.

  Just as Padraig needed to be let loose on the Fieri fucker who’d hurt her.

  But it felt apt that she’d have both names slotted in the lace, both of them tied to her for eternity, because she owned both of us.

  Both twisted parts of this fucked up soul.

  As I fingered the gauze-wrapped brand on my wrist, one that wrapped around it like a bracelet, her name entwined with a plaited inked cord, I watched as Indiana hunched her shoulders, evidently in the zone. She drifted back and forth on Tiff’s hand before she started moving out wider, swiping a mandala over the back of her knuckles, the pair of them talking all the while.

  In the distance, I heard a bike’s engine, and when I moved toward the window away from the desk where Indiana’s creepazoid receptionist sat, I peered out and saw Nyx and Giulia clambering off the back of his hog.

  Well aware why they were here—time for Nyx to add to his bag of souls and for Giulia to commemorate the soul she’d taken too—I shuffled back toward the doorway, watching as the arduous process came to an end.

  “You can’t put that ring back on until it’s completely healed,” Indiana advised Tiff. “And it’s going to be a pain in the ass for a few days, because the skin will tighten up around your finger and itch like a motherfucker.”

  Tiff just shrugged, but her smile was serene. Settled. It still surprised me when I saw her look like that. I was used to her being far blunter, a lot more outspoken.

  Right now?

  I knew she was in a daze.

  Her father wasn’t her father.

  Our baby was dead.

  She was the daughter of a mafia don.

  Lily and she had almost been kidnapped.

  I’d killed a man in her and our baby’s honor…

  The list went on.

  I watched as she thumbed the diamond on her right hand, twisting it nervously as Indiana patched up her other one with gauze.

  When she was finished, I moved to David, the receptionist, and paid the bill. As Tiff walked out, Indy at her back, Nyx and Giulia walked in. But rather than greeting either of them, she arched a brow. “You didn’t make an appointment.”

  The accusation had Nyx snorting. “You can’t make time for your brother?”

  Indiana sniffed. “Nope.”

  David cleared his throat. “Actually, Nyx asked me to book time for him and his partner, but he asked me not to mention it to you.”

  His nerves were clear, and I understood why the second Indy whipped her head around to glare at him. “Dammit! Who pays your wage, David?”

  He hunched his shoulders. “I mean, you do, but Nyx insisted.”

  “For a reason. You won’t pick up my calls,” he rumbled.

  “I told you. I’m mad at you. And you know why. If you can’t talk to Caleb, then I can’t talk to you.” She raised her head and tipped her nose in the air before storming off into the back room where she did her ink.

  “What the hell did you do? And who the fuck’s Caleb?” Giulia groused, but I tuned out their argument, and instead, grabbed Tiff’s non-bandaged hand, dipped my chin at Nyx, then headed on out into the big, wide world.

  When we were outside, I sucked in a deep breath as I curved an arm around Tiff’s waist.

  It was stupid to feel like she was fragile. Made of porcelain. But to me, at that moment, she was.

  When I walked over to the cage I was driving for her sake, I opened the door and helped her in, then as I moved to the driver’s side, I found the Prospects who were tailing us, and dipped my chin at them before I got behind the wheel.

  Jaxson and North didn’t appear to have suffered under Nyx’s wrath for having let Lily and Tiff out of her family estate without a tail—they sported no visible bruises, at least. More’s the fucking pity—but they were my woman’s shadow now. Having heard what I’d done to the Fieri piece of shit? They blanched whenever I made it a point to catch their eye.

  I’d been ashamed all my life of the parts of me that made me Padraig—the wrath, the control issues, the violence I was capable of—but I’d embrace them if it meant making sure Tiff was never hurt again.

  “When are you going to let me ride bitch again?” she complained as I set off.

  “When you have your checkup,” I replied calmly.

  She hummed, but as I focused on the road, I couldn’t stop myself from noticing how she kept on making her fingers dance. On both hands.

  I eyed the one wrapped in gauze. “It hurts?”

  “No.” She fell quiet, and I knew to wait. Knew she was building up the courage to say something. When she sucked in a breath, I braced myself. “You know a brand a
nd a ring won’t stop him if he wants me.”

  We both knew who he was.

  “He doesn’t know about you,” I reassured her, like I’d keep on doing when doubt hit her, when fear made her voice tremble, and I cut her a quick look before returning my attention to the road. “And even if he did, we’re about to rain hell on him, angel. He’s going to have more shit to worry about than you.”

  Her shaky breath told me she was relieved, but still cautious. Who the fuck could blame her? “You only proposed because of him,” she murmured softly a few seconds later.

  “Maybe. It’s certainly why I asked when I did, but if you think I don’t want you tied to me in as many ways as I can, you’re the crazy one.”

  Her lips twitched into a smug smile at my version of a compliment, before she turned her head to the side, revealing a profile that would make my namesake for her—an angel—weep.

  I sucked in a breath, knowing confession time was here. Was it shitty of me to have waited for her to be branded before I told her the truth? Before I let her know who Padraig really was?

  “Tiff?”

  She hummed, “Yeah?”

  “I need to tell you something.”

  When she twisted to the side, giving me her full attention, I cleared my throat, not altogether certain I wanted all her focus. “Go for it.”

  “I lied to you.”

  That had tension rippling through her. “About what?”

  “My father.”

  I quickly glanced at her, saw her frown was more confused than worried. “What about him?” she asked slowly.

  “How he died.” I sucked in a breath. “He died because of me.” The second the words fell from my lips, all five of them as much of a lie as what I’d told her before, I had no choice but to pull over. No way was I going to trap her in the truck with me if she wanted out…

  “Because of you?”

  Arms on the wheel, I hunched my shoulders as I stared over the main street of Verona where Indiana’s Ink was based. It was a small town, but it was getting a name for itself because of Indy. That was how good her work was.

  “Sin? Talk to me.”

  Her soft voice kind of irritated me. I knew why too. It was her therapist voice, but though I definitely needed a shrink, it wasn’t like I could go to one. I’d never be able to tell her the full truth about what I did as an Enforcer for the club, not without her running screaming for the hills. But this? I could tell her. It wasn’t club business. It was family shit and about honor and disrespect, to the point where, though my father had been the Road Captain before Steel, Bear—Rex’s dad and the old Prez, Grizzly’s goddamn brother—had sided with me.

  He’d just asked me to kill someone cleaner next time.

  “I found him in bed with my wife,” I rumbled. “I’d just got back from deployment. I’d been stuck on a fucking FOB for months on end, and I get back, and there they are. Boning away. I knew why too. He hated me. Always did, and I knew then, like I know now, if he lived, he’d do everything in his power to take what I have. We got into a fight, and he wouldn’t stop. Wouldn’t back the fuck down, even though he wasn’t in great shape and I was at peak condition.” My jaw clenched. “I warned him, but he didn’t listen. Just kept on hitting me back, and then he said some shit, and I lost it.” On those words, I released a breath that was loaded down with my shame.

  “Why?”

  “Why did I hurt him? Why did I lose it?”

  “No, why did he want to take everything from you?”

  Her whisper had me tensing. “I don’t know. I genuinely don’t. I never did shit to him. If anything, he was okay with ignoring me for most of my life, then out of nowhere, he just focused all his hate on me.”

  “When you turned eighteen?”

  I huffed. “Yeah. I guess.”

  She laughed gently. “Sin, you don’t look in a mirror often, do you? Aside from shaving.”

  I grunted. I mean, I knew I was okay in the looks department but—

  “You’re a woman’s wet dream. Everything about you. And it’s mine. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what you do.” She tilted her chin up. “You protected me. You have from the start. Whatever you do, you’ll do it for my protection, even if I don’t like it.” She reached over, and when her thumb brushed over my messed-up knuckles, the skin flayed from beating Fieri, she murmured, “These wounds didn’t happen by chance. These came as vengeance for our baby. For the pain I went through.” She leaned farther forward, cupping my chin, making me look her in the eye. “I know you say you have a temper, and I consider it a blessing that I haven’t borne the brunt of it, considering what I’ve kept from you—”

  “You never will,” I vowed, and I meant it. Never would she come face-to-face with the fucker that was Padraig. “Ever. I’ll kill myself first—”

  Her head swiped to the side. “Never say that to me. I can deal with anger. I can handle it. You won’t hurt me, not physically. I know you won’t. But you can hurt me by leaving me—without a goodbye.” Her voice turned choked at that, and I knew why and cursed myself for being a fucking fool for talking shit like that when her dad had done what he had.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be. You didn’t mean it that way, and it’s only because of Daddy—” She sucked in a breath. “You’ve got a past. I get that.” Her eyes caught mine. “But together, we’re going to make a better future, aren’t we?”

  I wanted, so badly, to tell her we would, but I couldn’t lie to her. Not again. “I’ll do things for the club—”

  “I know you will.” She pursed her lips. “I don’t need to know, and you won’t tell me.”

  “You’re okay with that?”

  “I’m okay with knowing you’ll protect me unto death.” Her smile was rueful. “I’m happy you’re not a banker. I’m happy you don’t belong to a country club and—” She winked. “You get the picture. Maybe you’re not every woman’s idea of Prince Charming, but I never needed a prince.” Her grin morphed out of nowhere. “I needed a biker.”

  My world sat on the other side of the cab from me. My reason, my heart.

  I’d never thought to fall in love, never thought to bring a child into this world, and I never thought I’d want to tie someone to me in all the ways the law allowed, but here she was.

  Living proof of it.

  She came with more baggage than even I did. Her mother was refusing to leave her room at Lily’s, her father was in a grave because his business was torn apart by Famiglia sharks, and her blood relative was a Don the MC and its allies were at war with.

  But for all that, she was perfect.

  More than that, she was mine, and the tattoo on her finger and the ring on her other hand declared it to the world.

  I reached for her hand, pressed my fingers to her knuckles, and whispered, “Mine.”

  “Yours,” she instantly confirmed.

  Benito Fieri could come for her.

  But if he did?

  Padraig had been let loose, and he would be waiting on him, and what was left of him in the aftermath was something that’d make Nyx feel queasy.

  Rex

  “Prez?”

  “Where the fuck have you been?”

  “Sorry, man, been stuck in solitary for three weeks.”

  I grunted, pissed even though it wasn’t exactly Quin’s fault for being stuck in solitary—well, aside from whatever shit he’d done to get punished, that is. “Wondered why you were off grid. Wasn’t sure if you’d been moved.”

  “No. I’d have made sure the message got back to you if I had.”

  “Speaking of making sure…your sister got that birthday gift I promised,” I hedged, changing the subject.

  It was never easy speaking to Sinners who were locked up, but the second a man was patched in as a brother, we all learned the basics for when the shit hit the fan.

  Gifts were payments.

  We all knew that, when we were inside, sometimes we could do work for the c
lub, even if we were behind bars. It was code for us paying their family the imprisoned brother’s cut for a job or a run.

  “Really?” Quin asked, his voice deepening with his interest. “How big was it?”

  “Very. I had to put it on ice.”

  “Ice? Huh.”

  “Yeah. Your sister will be around with some pictures of it in the next few days, I think she said.”

  “Yeah,” Quin drawled slowly. “I think she’s due for a visit. Can’t wait to hear all the gossip.”

  “Have fun.”

  “Yeah, I will.”

  “Speak later once you’ve had a chance to see the gift?” I asked.

  “Thanks, man. I’ll be in touch.”

  “More than welcome. My pleasure.” I cut the call, shot my council a look, and nodded. “Fieri’ll be dead by the end of the week.”

  And to continue the series, you know what to do! STEEL: www.books2read.com/SteelSerenaAkeroyd

  Tiffany

  “What time is it?” I yawned then slapped a hand over my face when the sunlight pierced my eyeballs. “Oh GOD! Remind me to never ever ever ever ever drink tequila again.”

  Lily groaned. “Don’t mention that word.”

  “Pussies.”

  I moaned. “Fuck off, Giulia.”

  She snorted. “Want me to tell my Old Man that?”

  I flipped her the bird. “I raise your VP with my Enforcer.”

  A chuckle escaped her and I peered over, saw she had her booted feet raised against a chair, back to the floor, head facing the morning sky. She had shades on, and somehow, managed to look so fucking cool, I was pig sick.

  Blowing a raspberry at her, one she couldn’t possibly have seen, I muttered, “What time is it?”

  “Why? You on the clock, doll face?”

  I sniffed. “You’ve got a lot of attitude this morning.”

  “Was born to piss people off, darlin’.”

  “Why did I invite you to my bachelorette party again?” I mumbled, slowly sitting up then regretting the desire to do so when my head, stomach, and entire being rebelled at the motion. Pressing a hand to my mouth, I whimpered, “Ouch. How can this be worse than a concussion?”