by Sam Crescent
All six of us, me, Gael, River, Caleb, Emily, and Ashley, we carried the urn into the deepest part of the words on the edge of Crude Hill. We were dressed in sweats and shirts. It was cold and dirty.
I held on to Emily as she kept on slipping over.
When we’d gotten home from the hospital, she didn’t waste any time in telling us the good news. She carried our baby.
I’d never been so freaking happy or scared at the same time than at that moment. This overwhelming need to protect her had struck me. It had been even harder than any other time.
All I knew was … we’d do whatever it took to make her safe. Caleb was having the hardest time. I’d found him in the library on many occasions, looking at the picture of his mother. We’d all wanted Emily pregnant, but now there was a real threat. Women didn’t make it in childbirth, even now. All we could do was be there and fucking hope she made it through.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
The ground was way too wet and too easy to slip over. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s kind of morbid, though, right? We’re walking out to give your fathers a fitting sendoff?”
“They’re rotting in hell. We’re just putting them where they belong,” Gael said.
I couldn’t agree more.
We came to a spot where there was at least a couple of feet between trees. It looked like the wildlife used it to take shits, which was all the more fitting.
River was the one who carried the shovel, and at Caleb’s nod, he dug into the ground. He only dug a couple of shovels in. There was no need to do back-breaking labor for this sendoff.
“You don’t think this is going to make us cursed, do you?” Ashley asked. When we got back, Earl wasn’t going to be sticking around. He and intended to take Ashley back to wherever he lived.
I didn’t like it. I knew Emily even more so. We all didn’t like Earl, but he’d been with Caleb and had been the one to carry Emily to safety, so we couldn’t complain too much.
He’d helped us when he could have turned his back and for that, we had to at least give him a chance.
“Please, you believe in that shit?” Gael asked.
“I don’t know. Coming here was supposed to be good luck. I don’t think any of what has happened so far has been luck.”
“We met each other,” Emily said, moving toward her best friend.
Ashley chuckled. “You couldn’t stand me.”
“That’s not completely true. I was trying to survive and you were like bait in a tank full of sharks.”
They both hugged and laughed. “I guess. Sure. I can see that. Fine.”
“If we’re cursed, doing this wouldn’t give me so much happiness,” Caleb said, tipping the contents of the urn into the dirt. Rather than using the shovel to put the mud back, he kicked it with his boot and started to stomp all over the mess.
We all joined in, grinding the mud into the ashes that were once our fathers. It wasn’t exactly the most respectful sendoff, but it was the best they were going to get.
I had no regrets.
Once the ashes and mud had mingled together, we all headed out to where Earl was already waiting with the car. He didn’t hold his hand out to Ashley, just looked at her.
“This is my stop.” She hugged Emily tight to her. “Take care and send me pictures every single day.”
“If he hurts you, you come to us. Promise me.”
“I promise.” Ashley kissed her friend’s cheek and I held on to Emily as Ashley climbed into the car.
Earl came toward us, shaking each of our hands in turn.
“Gentlemen,” he said before getting into the car as well.
It was anticlimactic, but after everything we’d been through already, I didn’t need any additional drama.
Emily held her hand up and we all waved goodbye.
She didn’t move until their cars could no longer be seen. Finally, she turned toward us. “What happens now?”
Caleb came forward, pulling her in close. “Now, we go home, plan our wedding, then prepare for our baby.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Also, we’ve got to pick up Drake. He’s coming home and he’s requesting we bring the nurse who has been helping him get better,” Gael said.
Emily chuckled. “I can’t believe it’s all over.”
“It’s not over,” River said. “Crude Hill High is back open. Shit still needs to be done, and the Monsters, well, we’re the kings of the castle.”
Emily pressed the back of her palm to my chest, rolling her eyes. “Come on, it’s time to go home.”
And that was something I was looking forward to.
Epilogue One
River
Eight months later
Emily’s scream echoed around the room. The midwife and doctor were there. Her water had broken and the contractions had gone from being minutes apart to only seconds. She’d been in pain so Caleb had gone to get them both, but now, she was having a very natural birth, with nothing to help ease the pain, and I hated myself.
Glancing at Gael, Vadik, and Caleb, I saw we were all in a great deal of pain for her.
“You’ve got to push, Emily,” the midwife said.
“I am pushing. Ouch. It hurts. No. No. No. He can just stay up there. It’s safe for him there.”
I moved to her side and even as she squeezed my hand in a death grip, I didn’t care.
“I love you, baby, I love you so much.”
All four of us moved close, trying to be the ones to take her pain away, but it wasn’t happening.
“You all did this.” She sobbed.
“Push, baby,” Caleb said.
“Fuck off!”
I would’ve smiled if I didn’t fear for her. She’d spent the last couple of months ordering us not to curse in front of our child. Now, she was the one cursing.
“Push, Emily,” the doctor said.
I expected her to rant at him.
Instead, she took a deep breath and moved. Her hand clasped mine, and she was fucking strong.
I encouraged her, we all did, and she pushed. Her face turned an odd shade of red before she collapsed to the bed, and then came the beautiful sound of a baby screaming. I kept my gaze on Emily. With four of us, I knew one of us would check on the baby.
Her face was covered in perspiration.
“Is he okay?” Her voice was hoarse from the screaming.
The sounds of his screams filled the air, and I knew she’d started to panic, which wasn’t good.
“They’ve got him.”
“But…” She sniffed.
“You have got a beautiful baby boy, Emily.”
“I do?” A cute bundle wrapped in a white towel was placed in her arms.
“Oh my,” she said. “He’s so beautiful.”
I was scared to say anything, and Emily tilted her head back, smiling at us all. “Do you see him?”
We crowded around her, taking in the sight of our son. His face was scrunched up, but he was so perfect.
“I love him so much.”
“You did good,” I said.
She laughed. “I was horrible.”
We all denied it, and she shook her head. “Next time, I need to be in the hospital.”
“You did well, Emily,” the midwife said.
“Thank you.”
There was a knock at the door. The doctor answered and Drake came in. It had been a tough year for our friend. He’d had to do endless hours of physical therapy and he still had to walk around with a cane. I knew it made him angry. He was taking a lot more time to heal than he’d like.
“You’re okay?” Drake asked.
In the past eight months, Emily hadn’t been offended or pushed aside because of Drake’s moods. She’d been determined to bring him out of his shell, which was exactly what she’d done.
“Come and see.”
She’d been covered. I didn’t go far, but Drake had enough room to see.
“He looks … like a baby,” Drake said.
>
“Stop it, he’s perfect.”
“The next generation.”
“Yeah, it won’t be long before he’ll be walking the walls of Crude Hill High, being just as stubborn as his dads.” She leaned down, rubbing her nose against her son before looking up. “I’m so looking forward to making more.”
Drake stepped back as we all surrounded our woman.
I didn’t know what we’d done to deserve her. We were Monsters, through and through. She had no real idea of the damage we did to keep her safe. Our reputations were worse than our fathers, but she was our gift, and I would cherish her always.
Epilogue Two
Ashley
Nine months before
I didn’t like how I’d left things with Emily.
It wasn’t her fault that her dad was a complete and total ass who couldn’t keep it in his pants. My mom had been looking for love, and she had gotten it, as well as an easy life, but it had cost her big time: it had cost her her life. My friendship with Emily had saved me. Sometimes I couldn’t handle the guilt. It got to be a little too much for me.
The last seven years had sucked, big time. I knew that. I’d listened to her cry because she’d lost not one, but four men. Sure, they were Monsters and were used to doing evil things, but what I’d gotten used to was that Emily came from that world. I didn’t.
My life was more about worrying when the next meal was going to arrive, or if my mom could hold down a job for longer than a couple of months. It had all changed with Emily’s dad.
Pushing those thoughts to one side, I tried not to worry about the client who wanted to talk about my first course. I’d been offered the chance to do the first courses at the restaurant, which was a big deal for me. Now someone had a complaint. That was why they called out the chefs, right?
I felt sick to my stomach.
I didn’t want to lose this job. It wasn’t my dream, but it was the next best thing. Cooking food was my life. It was what brought me so much joy and how I tried to make Emily happy.
The client had decided to sit in the VIP section of the restaurant. It was rather dark, and I noticed not many people were around.
Approaching the table number I’d been given, I saw a man in the shadows.
“Hi, I’m Ash— I mean, Harper Coast. You wanted to see me?”
All of a sudden, something covered my mouth. I couldn’t shout or scream. Everything was muffled and going dark quickly. The man in the corner came into sight and I knew who he was.
Earl Valentine.
What the fuck did he want with me?
Everything went black.
Author Note:
Crude Hill High will return with Ashley’s book. I’m so excited to share her and Earl’s story with you. It will be an older man tale, which I love. After their story, I will be heading back to school, where lots of people are calling for their stories to be told.
www.samcrescent.com
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Saint’s Fall by Winter Sloane
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BONUS SAMPLE CHAPTER
BAD TO THE BONE
Dirty F**kers MC, 1
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2015
Sample Chapter
James opened the doors to the old, abandoned building. It was large with four floors with plenty of room on the ground floor for them to have a bar, church, kitchen, sitting room, games room, and a couple of other rooms as well. The place needed a lot of work, but with the right vision and plenty of cash, James saw it being a dream for what the MC wanted. They were Dirty Fuckers, and his brother Leonard had decided they should be known as the Dirty Fuckers MC. They were all best friends, and most of them had grown up together in foster care or some of them were runaways.
Each of them had gotten by through working their skills from fighting to fucking. James trusted each of his brothers with his very life. They were not the kind of MC club that dealt guns or drugs, or did illegal shit. They were a bunch of vicious men who’d gotten their name because they dealt in sex and fights. Each of them had worked for Ned Walker at some point, yet none of them had stayed, and that was going back a good five years. They were together forming their own family, united in their loyalty to each other.
“What the fuck is this place?” Drake asked, coming in behind him.
There were only a couple of brothers who’d followed him to the clubhouse. Some of the brothers were unsure of settling down in one place, but James saw the value in setting down his roots, even if it was strange to him. His brother Leonard, or Pixie as he liked to be called, had also come along with him. James didn’t blame him for preferring Pixie. What kind of name was Leonard? His little brother—of a few seconds—had gotten bullied for it through school, but James had always been there to stick up for him. “This place is fucking brilliant.” They were the same age, but they were not identical in anyway.
Smiling, James touched the walls.
“How can this place be fucking brilliant? It’s falling apart?” Caleb asked, touching the wall.
“Structurally it’s sound. There’s not a problem with the main building. Everything inside needs a touch of love.” James looked around him at the potential. This place was perfection. “Think about it, men. This is going to be our place to put down roots.”
The Skulls and Trojans were known for putting down their roots, and it was time for the Dirty Fuckers.
“This is going to drain funds,” Drake said.
“We’ve got more than enough to build this place up. Once we get set up we can open up the bar, have a diner off the main floor, and this back part is the main part of our club. We’ll start making money, and we’re investing a lot of it as well. We’ve got what we need to set this place up.”
“A diner and bar? What the hell are we saying to the other clubs? Come and fuck with us ‘cause we’re a bunch of pussies?” Caleb asked.
“No. This is a place for us to party, to fuck, and to stay in the same fucking place.” James turned to the men. “Come on, it’s time for us to set up some place. I’m tired of fucking skanks on the road, and beating the shit out of pussies who don’t know their dick from their asshole. If other clubs want to come and mess with us, let them. We’d soon show them we’re not a club to be messed with.”
Everything they did was aboveboard, and no one called them pussies, no one. Even Chaos Bleeds kept away from them. They’d earned their name through hard work, blood, and pain. James would hurt and kill anyone who tried to take on his club.
He turned to Drake, who recently suffered from herpes because he forgot to bag his dick. “You should want to be safe. What I hear that shit fucking hurt,” James said.
“So what? We have condoms around?”
“Yeah, we have condoms, and no one can say shit about us. The diner and bar keep us legal, and we can fuck all the pussy that comes through that door.” He pointed to the door that they’d just entered.
“I’m in,” Pixie said. “I like variety in my pussy.”
“You would be,” Caleb said. “You never go against your brother.”
“I’m living and breathing, which is more than I can say for some people. James looks out for each of us. You need to realize this is a money making pit, and who would turn down free fucking pussy? I’m not. I’m with James ‘cause I’m tired of being on the road. I’m tired of having skanky leftovers.”
Several seconds passed before anyone else spoke up.
“I’ve got connections,” Drake said, giving in. “We can certainly get this piece of shit up to scratch. I don’t know what we’ll do for a c
ook.”
“You leave everything up to me. I’ll make sure everything is set up.” Taking a deep breath, James looked around the house. This was where they could make their future. The Dirty Fuckers MC was more than ready to take on the town of Greater Falls. He didn’t personally know why it was called Greater Falls, but it had a nice ring to it. They were the best MC around as far as he was concerned. Dirty Fuckers MC in Greater Falls. Perfection for him. He couldn’t wait to get started.
For the next year the entire club worked on getting the club into something to be proud of. They stripped the interior, and replaced everything that was dead or rotten. James worked side by side with his men, bargaining with electricians, builders, and plumbers. No one fucked over the club. He always got the best deals for his men.
Once the diner was close to being finished he called Teri Davies whom he’d met on the road. He’d fucked her a couple of times, and after he called out her boss, he got her fired. Since then he’d been trying to find the best place for her to work. Teri didn’t deserve to be fired, but he’d be a better boss.
He was meeting her at the diner in fifteen minutes. After breaking up a play fight between Pixie and Jerry, James made his way toward the diner just as Teri was pulling into the parking lot.
“What the hell is going on, James?” she asked. “Your cryptic message didn’t tell me anything. Do you know how expensive gas is? I can’t just come running to you every time you tell me.”
“That’s why it was cryptic so you decided to fucking come. I’ll pay you for gas. You don’t need to worry about the cost.” He smiled as he held his hand out to the diner. “What do you think?”
She joined him, slugging his arm before turning to the building.
“It’s an empty diner, James.”