by Ryan Michele
He looks at Micah. “Glad I got the real one,” he says then takes off.
Micah gapes, and I laugh my ass off. He doesn’t know what he’s missing. Dumbass.
In this moment, I would buy Jacks anything he wants. The look on Micah’s face is priceless.
Curled up in bed with my man with me is the best way to end the night. Well, it’s much better than praying to the porcelain gods, which I’m surprised hasn’t happened. I think it’s because, after the Micah incident, Ryker took the bottle away. Then I had the chance to let it permeate through my body. It’ll either be a blessing when I wake up, or I’ll have a killer hangover.
Right now, I don’t care.
Drawing small circles on his chest with my fingernails, I watch as his skin jumps when I hit certain spots. I make it my mission to hit those more often.
I love that I have that effect on him. I love that he’s the one lying next to me, loving me the way I always dreamed.
Shit happens in life. Sometimes we’re dealt a hand that’s hard to bear. Then sometimes you’re blessed with something you never imagined possible. It’s those times you have to hold on to. Have to care for and nurture. I’ve learned they are the best moments in life.
“You’re thinkin’ awfully hard there,” Ryker says from above me. I move my head so I can see his gorgeous face.
“Thank you.”
Puzzlement fills his face. “For …?”
“Loving me. Accepting me and giving me everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”
A sexy grin tips his lips. “Beautiful, loving you is how I breathe. That’ll never change.”
My heart melts as his head comes down, kissing me senseless.
Epilogue
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Leaning against my truck outside the sperm donor’s main offices, I watch as people rush in and out of the buildings. I’m not one to help the government out or anything, but it was necessary this time. Watching all the officers going in and out with boxes and computers only makes me smile.
Buzz found shit I didn’t even know existed. All of it damning. But the one that got me were records from the children. One of the mothers was only fifteen-years-old. Therefore, my sperm donor will not only be seeing the inside of a cell for money laundering, tax evasion, and other money-related things, he’ll also be spending time for statutory rape of a minor. Not only him, but William is also facing those charges.
There are enough men in the same boat as my sperm donor that it should completely dismantle this operation. Including the fact that the Feds froze all their money.
My mother hasn’t spoken to me, but I have a feeling she’ll come around once all her funds have disappeared. It’s only a matter of time. Maybe I’ll be able to see my younger siblings soon.
Samantha has never called back.
Breanna and Ashley called me the other night, surprising the shit out of me. My first thought was that something was wrong, since they were told not to call on unless it was an emergency. It wasn’t.
They are adjusting very well with Xavier and Kim. Breanna says it was really hard for her at first, but as time went on, she was able to come to terms that she wouldn’t be able to talk to her mother. I didn’t tell her about what was going on, figuring that she’ll hear it on the news if it makes it that far.
Who knows, maybe my mother can get her head out of her ass and see them again, without all the other bullshit.
Arms and ankles crossed, ass leaning against the truck, I wait.
When my sperm donor comes out, his hands in shackles behind him, I smile inside.
His eyes come up to mine and turn furious. All I do is lift my chin and get in the truck. He needs to know all this was because of me. He needs to know that he can’t touch me anymore. He needs to know that his time as king is done and over with. He’s finished. It’s the ultimate revenge. The biggest kind of “fuck you” I dish out without putting him six feet under.
I drive back to Austyn’s apartment and enter without knocking, just like I always do. While I love that she has her own place, I’m tired of living like this. So, I have a surprise for her.
“Hey, baby. Work was crazy. My feet are killing me today,” she tells me with a smile. She loves her job, and I’m happy she’s found something she enjoys. Not that she has to work, but it makes her happy. That’s all that matters.
“I want you to close your eyes.” I grab a scarf and put it around her eyes. “We’re going somewhere, and I want you to not look until we get there.”
“Okay. I trust you, Ryker.” Those words are almost as good as when she tells me she loves me.
We get on the bike, and then I wrap her arms around me. “Hold on.”
The drive isn’t long. I didn’t want to be too far away from the clubhouse. Our family is there.
I pull up and cut the bike. Then, reaching back, I help her off.
“What is it, Ryker?”
Stepping behind her, my hands on her shoulders, I tell her, “Love stayin’ with you at your place, but remember when I told you I was all in?”
She nods as I pull away the scarf.
“I meant I was all in.”
She gasps, putting her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “Oh, my God.”
“Do you like it?”
The house is gorgeous. It sits off to the side of a little lake on a few acres. The house needed some work, but my brothers helped get it ready. It’s a ranch-style with three bedrooms and two baths, with a huge wraparound porch. It even has a sitting room that faces the sun. It’s perfect.
“Love it? This is ours?”
I hold out the keys to her. “I’m all in, beautiful. It’s ours.”
She leans up and kisses me. “I’m all in, too, Ryker. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
A grim look comes over her face. “I can’t leave Emery. This is great, and I can’t wait to have our own place, but I can’t leave her alone. I know she’s been spending a lot of time with Jacks, but I can’t not be there when she gets back.”
Emery has had a few nightmares about being held at knife point, and I say few, but Austyn is an overprotective mother hen. I knew that going into this endeavor.
I lift my hand, pointing my index finger.
She stops and follows the direction I’m pointing then gasps. “What’s that?”
“That’s Emery’s place. It’s close, yet we have our own space.” Emery’s great, but I need my woman alone more than just in the bedroom and on the occasions Emery’s not at home.
“It’s beautiful.” She reaches around and grabs her neck.
Austyn is looking at a smaller replica of the bigger house. It’s another ranch-style, one bedroom, kitchen, and bath. It’s not the Ritz, but it’s kickass.
“Deke took extra time putting it together and fixing it up. The asshole even put his own money into it, not taking a dime from me.”
She leans up and our lips attach while she cups my face. “Thank you. This is the best thing you could’ve given me.”
“Nah, the best is when we christen the house.”
Just then, bikes rumble and turn into the lane. All my brothers with their ol’ ladies on their backs show up. Emery smiles from on the back of Jacks’.
“She knows, doesn’t she?” Austyn questions.
“Yep. Already told her.”
“And she never said a word!” Her hands go to her hips as she stares at Emery, who gives a little shrug.
“Come on, baby; we ride.”
She smiles up at me, rolls up onto her tiptoes, and brushes a kiss against my lips. “Thank you.”
“The house is all part of …”
She brushes her lips against mine again. “No, for not giving up on me. For not letting me push you away. For being the man at my side and at my back. For loving me.”
“Beautiful, I do love you.” I lean down and take her lips.
Honking and the revving of bikes goes on around us, so we break away on a chuckle.
“Let’s ride
with our family.”
“Forever.”
“Damn straight. All in.” She gives me a soft smile, and then we ride.
About the Author
Ryan Michele found her passion in bringing fictional characters to life. She loves being in an imaginary world where anything is possible, and she has a knack for special twists readers don’t see coming.
She writes MC, Contemporary, Erotic, Paranormal, New Adult, Inspirational, and other romance-based genres. Whether it’s bikers, wolf-shifters, mafia, etc., Ryan spends her time making sure her heroes are strong and her heroines match them at every turn.
When she isn’t writing, Ryan is a mom and wife, living in rural Illinois and reading by her pond in the warm sun.
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Come find me:
www.authorryanmichele.net
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Other Books by Ryan Michele
www.authorryanmichele.net
* * *
Ravage MC Series:
Ravage Me
Seduce Me
Consume Me
Inflame Me
Captivate Me
Ravage MC Novella Collection
Ride with Me (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
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Ravage MC Bound Series
Bound by Family
Bound by Desire
Bound by Vengeance
* * *
Vipers Creed MC Series:
Crossover (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
Challenged
Conquering
Conflicted (Coming Soon)
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Ruthless Rebels MC Series (co-written with Chelsea Camaron):
Shamed
Scorned
Scarred
Schooled
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Blood & Loyalties: A Mafia Romance
* * *
Raber Wolf Pack Series:
Raber Wolf Pack Book 1
Raber Wolf Pack Book 2
Raber Wolf Pack Book 3
* * *
Standalone Romances
Full Length Novels:
Needing to Fall
Safe
Wanting You
* * *
Short Stories:
Hate to Love
Branded
* * *
Novellas:
Stood Up (Billionaire Up Romance)
* * *
www.authorryanmichele.net
Thank you for reading!
* * *
Excerpt of In the Red (Devils Due #1) by Chelsea Camaron
Copyright © Chelsea Camaron 2016
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Prologue
* * *
I hang my head and sit in silence. The television blares as strangers move about our house. Some of them are trying to put together a search party, and others are here with food and weak attempts to comfort. I want them all to go away so I can scream or break something. I want each and every one of them to stop looking at me like I should be beaten within an inch of my life then allowed to heal, only to get beaten again. Do I deserve that?
Hell yes, I do, and more.
There is no reprieve from this hell we are in. I would sell my soul to the Devil himself if I could turn back time. Only, I can’t.
The reporter’s voice breaks through all of the clamor.
“In local news tonight, a nine-year-old girl is missing, and authorities are asking for your help. Raleigh Ragnes was last seen by her seventeen-year-old brother. According to her parents, he was watching Raleigh after school when the child wandered outside and down the street on her pink and white bicycle with streamers on the handlebars.
“Raleigh was last known to have her brown hair braided in two braids with a yellow ribbon tied at the bottom of each. She wore a yellow shirt under a black denim dress that went to her knees. She wore white Keds with two different color laces: one pink and the other purple.
“There is a reward offered for any information leading to the successful return of Raleigh to her home. Any information is appreciated and can be given by calling the local sheriff’s department.”
The television seems to screech on and on with other reports as if our world hasn’t just crumbled. My mom’s sobs only grow louder.
God, I’m an ass. Raleigh was whining all afternoon about going to Emerson’s house. Those two are practically inseparable. She had made the trip numerous times to the Flint’s home at the end of the cul-de-sac, so I didn’t think twice about her leaving.
Since Gretchen was here, we were locked in my room, doing things that didn’t involve studying or thinking about my kid sister. The more Raleigh asked to leave, the more Gretchen would get distracted. I knew I had to get her gone or suffer the worst case of blue balls I could imagine. My hand was just making it down her pants when I yelled at Raleigh through the door to just go, not wanting the distraction. Not once did I give a second thought to her leaving.
Only, while I was making my way to home base, my little sister never made it to her friend’s house. None of us knew until dinner time that my sister had never come home. The phone call to Emerson’s sent us all into a tailspin.
While other families watch the eleven o’clock news to simply be informed, tonight, for my family, my little sister is the news.
* * *
~Three weeks later ~
The television screeches once again. I thought the world had crumbled before, but now it’s crushed beyond repair. The reporter’s tone is not any different than if she were giving the local weather as the words crash through my ears.
“In local news tonight, the body of nine-year-old Raleigh Ragnes was found in a culvert pipe under Old Mill Road. Police are asking for anyone with any information to please come forward. The case is being treated as an open homicide.”
In the matter of a month, my sister went from an innocent little girl to a case number, and in time, she will be nothing more than a file in a box. Everyone else may have called it cold and left it unsolved, but that’s not who I am. The ease in which they gave up on her molded my entire future. Detective O’Malley broke the news that they were giving up, and I made the decision I would give my life to finding the guilty party, no matter the cost.
The domino effect of one person’s crime going unpunished is beyond measure.
* * *
Chapter One
~Dover~
* * *
Giving up is not an option for me. It never has been.
“There’s a time and a place to die, brother,” I say, scooping Trapper’s drunk ass off the dirty floor of the bar with both my hands under his armpits. “This ain’t it.”
The bar we are in is a hole in the wall joint, the kind we find in small towns everywhere. It’s a step above a shack on the outside, and the inside isn’t much better: one open room, linoleum floor from the eighties. The bar runs the length of the space with a pair of saloon-style swinging doors closing off the stock room. We have gotten shit-faced in nicer, and we have spent more than our fair share in worse.
At the end of a long ride, a cold beer is a cold beer. Really, it doesn’t matter to us where it’s served as long as the brew has been on ice and is in a bottle.
“I’m nowhere near dying,” he slurs, winking at the returning from the bathroom. Waiting and watching for her to return to his lap is how he fell to the floor. She’s another no name come guzzler in a slew of many we find throughout every city, town, and stop we make. “In fact, I’m not far from showing sweet thing here a little piece of heaven.”
“Trapper.” Judge, the calmest of us all, gets in his face. “She rode herself to oblivion. Until you fell off the stool, she might have come back for a round two. She’s done got hers, man. Time to get you outta here so you can have some quality time huggin’ Johnny tonight.”
We all laugh as Trapper tries to s
hake me off.
“Fuck all y’all. That pussy is mine tonight.”
“Shithead, sober up. She’s headed to the bathroom again to snort another line, and she won’t be coming back for another ride on your thigh. Time to go, brother,” Rowdy says sternly as we watch the broad make her way the restrooms. Rowdy was ready to leave an hour ago. This isn’t his scene.
Trapper turns to the long-haired, six-foot-six man of muscle and gives him a shit-eating grin. “Aw, Rowdy, are you gonna be my sober sister tonight?”
I wrap my arm around Trapper, pulling him into a tight hold. “Shut your mouth now!”
He holds up his hands in surrender, and we make our way out of the bar.
Another night, another dive. Tomorrow is a new day and a new ride.
Currently, we are in Leed, Alabama for a stop off. The green of the trees, the rough patches of the road, like every other place—it all does nothing to bring any of us out of the haunting darkness we each carry.
We are nomads with no place to call home, and that’s how we like it. The six of us have been a club of our own creation for a few years now. We each have a story to tell. We all have a reason we do what we do. None of us are noble or honorable. We strike in the most unlikely of places and times, all based on our own brand of rules and systems.
Fuck the government. Fuck their laws. And damn sure fuck the judicial system.