by Nina Levine
He walked out of the room, and I sat back at my desk. Surveying my office, I thought back to when we started doing this work. The day Merrick and I took matters into our own hands was burned into my memory. Ashley had been the catalyst of that, had shown me the truth of the lie I’d been living up until that point. It had been a bloody battle that day; a battle I hadn’t hesitated to take charge of and do whatever was necessary to ensure victory. Justice had been served to the one who had wronged so many. The fact Ashley wasn’t here to witness the results of everything we’d put in motion that day broke my fucking heart. But it just reminded me life had a way of taking the good and fucking with it when you least expected it. All you could do was savour what you had, while you had it, and hope like hell you kept it for a long time.
My childhood memories weren’t happy ones. As I watched my mother lie to me the next morning, I recalled similar situations from when I was younger. I’d lost count of the number of times I begged her to stop seeing my father, and I’d lost count of the number of lies she’d told me when she agreed she would tell him to go. I knew she didn’t lie to me intentionally. She lied to herself as well. There were a few times she did follow through and kick him out, but within a couple of months, he was always back.
Theirs was such a dysfunctional love. I could never work out why they clung to each other like they did. The moments where I glimpsed tenderness between them gave me hope, but it was always short-lived, until the day when I was a teen and I decided enough was enough. I decided there had to be more to love than false hope and bullshit promises. If the person you loved couldn’t be there for you always, they weren’t worthy of your time or your affection.
It had been over a year since Marcus stopped seeing my mother. She’d grieved the loss of him, and I hoped she’d grown stronger through that experience; strong enough to say no to him the day he showed up again, back at her door. He’d stayed away longer than I thought he would, but I was sure he was back now. However, mum was denying it.
“Why aren’t you telling me the truth?” I demanded, a lifetime of anger flaring up.
“I am telling you the truth! Yes, he came around, but no, I won’t take him back,” she pleaded with me to believe her. She’d cried wolf one too many times, though.
“What promises did he make you this time?”
She didn’t answer me. She just began folding the laundry sitting on the kitchen table in front of her. A dead fucking giveaway she was avoiding the truth.
I slammed my hand down on the table so hard it moved. She jumped, and the fear I saw in her eyes hurt like hell. I would never fucking hurt her but Marcus had, over and over, to the point where any little threat scared the fuck out of her. “Fuck!” I roared, “I fucking hate what he has done to us.” I rubbed the back of my neck and began pacing the small kitchen.
“Donovan, I know you think I’m weak and that I’ll go back to Marcus at the drop of a hat, but this time I won’t. Yes, I’m weak. I always have been.” Her voice caught at that admission and my heart broke a little more for her. She turned her distraught gaze to me and bared her heart. “He promised me he would leave her; finally, after all these years. And that he would stop being so violent. I’m not taking him back, but it feels like I’m walking away from something I put my whole life into, and just when I can have what I’ve always wished for, I’m saying no. Do you know how hard that is?”
She was so fucking close to freedom; if he screwed with that, I would fucking move the plan up and take the bastard out myself. It was, after all, what I’d always planned to do. And to watch my father suffer at my hands would fill me with the deepest fucking satisfaction I’d ever felt.
My voice was low and controlled when I spoke. If I didn’t control it, I would explode at her. “I want so much more for you, Mum. I understand that back when you had me, you had no family to support you, so you thought sticking with Marcus was the right thing, but now you have me. I can give you anything you need or want.”
“You can’t give me the one thing I need: the love of a man,” she whispered.
The roar between my ears was deafening, and I lost my fight to control myself. “Marcus wouldn’t fucking know love if it smacked him in the face!” I yelled, wild at him, at her, and at the fucking injustice of a world full of hateful people. “Can you not fucking see that?” I hated swearing at my mother but I couldn’t help it today. I needed to get out of here before I lost my shit completely.
She began crying, and I wanted to smash my fists into the wall. All the anger and frustration inside me threatened to spill over, and I clenched and unclenched my fists over and over in an effort to stop myself.
“I know I should see that, but I can’t bring myself to move past the feelings I’ve had for him for so long.” She was sobbing now. My mother had been fucked up by her father, and those sins had set her on this fucked-up path she couldn’t find a way out from.
I pulled her to me and held her. My hand smoothed her hair over and over as she clung to me. When her sobbing had subsided, I murmured, “If you need me, any time of the day, you call me. If he keeps harassing you and won’t leave if you ask him to, you call me. I don’t care what I’m doing; I will come to you if you need me. Yeah?”
The defeat I saw on her face killed me. It tore another fucking piece of my heart out. There should have been hope. After all this fucking time, she should be seeing the light and feeling real hope, but all he’d left her with was sadness and despair. “Yes,” she agreed softly.
“Thank Christ,” I said before hugging her again.
Relief flooded me, but the dark feelings of hatred and revenge stuck close like they always did.
Soon.
He’d be dealt with soon, and then, maybe she and I could finally find a way to move out of the darkness.
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Storm MC Series
AVAILABLE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Storm (Storm MC #1)
Fierce (Storm MC #2)
Blaze (Storm MC #3)
Revive (Storm MC #4)
Slay (Storm MC #5)
Sassy Christmas (Storm MC #5.5)
Illusive (Storm MC #6)
Command (Storm MC #7)
Havoc (Storm MC #8) *Not in KU
Sydney Storm MC Series
Relent (#1)
Nitro’s Torment (#2)
Devil’s Vengeance (#3)
Hyde’s Absolution (#4)
Alpha Bad Boy Series
Standalones
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Be The One (Rockstar Romance)
Steal My Breath (Single Dad Romance)
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To My Readers
Thank you for reading Revive. I hope you enjoyed Nash & Velvet. While I was writing this book I was a little concerned that Nash wouldn’t live up to your expectations - that he wouldn’t quite be who you thought he was. Nash has always been the fun, flirty, sexy biker in the Storm men. I always knew what his backstory was, but when I got into writing it, he was even more broken than I thought. And angry. The way he fought his feelings for Velvet really brought out the asshole in him, and that’s when I started to get concerned. However, he is who he is, and I stayed true to that.
Writing this story turned out to be a very personal experience for me in that it touched on aspects of my own journey in life. I wrote some parts in tears because they stirred up emotions & feelings about stuff I’ve been through and am going through currently. But, through that,
I realised just how much writing the Storm MC series has, and is changing my life. And, for that, I really need to thank you for reading my books and supporting me.
Thank you!
Nina xx
“Your largest fear carries your greatest growth.”
(I don’t know who wrote this quote to give them credit.)
Revive Playlist
Revive was heavily influenced by music. I listen to music constantly while writing. You may have noticed that I listed a song at the beginning of each chapter - those songs helped inspire those chapters. Here’s a list of all the songs that inspired Nash & Velvet’s story.
All my playlists are on Spotify if you’d like to follow them - HERE
The Revive playlist is HERE
Walk of Shame ~ Pink
Scream ~ Usher (on repeat for sex scenes!)
Addicted To You ~ Avicii
Wild Ones ~ Flo Rida
Bad Influence ~ Pink
Raise Your Glass ~ Pink
F**kin Perfect ~ Pink
Slut Like You ~ Pink
Total Eclipse of the Heart ~ Bonnie Tyler
Livin’ La Vida Loca ~ Ricky Martin
Need You Now ~ Lady Antebellum
Lookin’ For A Good Time ~ Lady Antebellum
Angels ~ Robbie Williams
This Is Who I Am ~ Vanessa Amorosi
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston)
Crazy In Love ~ Beyonce
Broken-Hearted Girl ~ Beyonce
All I Want Is You ~ U2
I’m The Only One ~ Melissa Etheridge
Piece Of My Heart ~ Melissa Etheridge
Cream ~ Prince
Kiss ~ Prince
Get Off ~ Prince
The Great Escape ~ Pink
Bleeding Love ~ Leona Lewis
Man! I Feel Like A Woman ~ Shania Twain
Undressed ~ Kim Cesarion
Who You Love ~ John Mayer & Katy Perry
Everything Has Changed ~ Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran
The King of Wishful Thinking ~ Go West
Last Kiss ~ Taylor Swift
Out of Reach ~ Gabrielle
Collide ~ Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow
Sad ~ Maroon 5
Big Girls Don’t Cry ~ Fergie
Just A Fool ~ Christina Aguilera & Blake Shelton
The Last Time ~ Taylor Swift
Low - feat T-Pain ~ Flo Rida
Replay ~ Zendaya
Stay With Me ~ Sam Smith
Need You Tonight ~ INXS
Better Man ~ Lady Antebellum
Do I Wanna Know ~ Arctic Monkeys
Hey Jealousy ~ Gin Blossoms
Mr. Brightside ~ The Killers
Never Be The Same ~ Jessica Mauboy
Better Than Me ~ Hinder
Tonight I Wanna Cry ~ Keith Urban
Stupid Boy ~ Keith Urban
One Last Breath ~ Creed
My Sacrifice ~ Creed
Maps ~ Maroon 5
Say Something ~ A Great Big World
Dayum, Baby ~ Florida Georgia Line
Love’s Poster Child ~ Keith Urban
Who I Am With You ~ Chris Young
Can’t Stand The Rain ~ Lady Antebellum
Get To Me ~ Lady Antebellum
Unstoppable ~ Rascal Flatts
Hands On You ~ Florida Georgia Line
Boom Clap ~ Charli XCX
Thunder ~ Jessie J
Broken - Featuring Amy Lee ~ Seether
Brave ~ Sara Bareilles
Ready To Love Again ~ Lady Antebellum
This Means War ~ Nickelback
I’d Come For You ~ Nickelback
About the Author
Dreamer.
Coffee Lover.
Gypsy at heart.
USA Today Bestselling author who writes about alpha men & the women they love.
When I’m not creating with words you will find me planning my next getaway, visiting somewhere new in the world, having a long conversation over coffee and cake with a friend, creating with paper or curled up with a good book and chocolate.
I’ve been writing since I was twelve. Weaving words together has always been a form of therapy for me especially during my harder times. These days I’m proud that my words help others just as much as they help me.
www.ninalevinebooks.com
[email protected]
Copyright © 2017 Nina Levine
Published by Nina Levine
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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. Nina Levine is in no way affiliated with any brands, songs, musicians or artists mentioned in this book.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
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