Table of Contents
Title Page
Reading Order for my MC World
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
The End
Smoke and the Flame
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
JDRF Donation Thanks
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Redemption Weather
Aces High – Cedar Falls #1
Christine Michelle
Copyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle
All rights reserved.
Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise, is illegal and punishable by law without express written permission from the author/publisher.
Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources.
Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages is purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.
Reading Order for my MC World
I am constantly asked if there is a specific reading order for the Aces High and S.H.E. Series books. This is as close to a reading order as you will get because I purposely make each book in a way that they can stand alone. For optimal reading enjoyment you can read them in their numbered (publication) order within each series. If you’re wondering which series to start with the best I can tell you is the timeline order.
The Dakotas and S.H.E. Series run concurrently, and have crossover characters. The Charleston Series also takes place at this time, but you don’t see crossovers in the same way (only cameo appearances from characters in other chapters). The Cedar Falls Series takes place about ten years in the future from where the Dakotas, S.H.E. and Charleston all start out, with the exception of Evermore (book 4 of Cedar Falls) because that one takes place over a long period of time that starts around the time of Angel Girl (S.H.E. Book 1).
Confused still? Well, I’m going to throw you an extra bone here to add to it. The books are operate on various levels of heat, violence, and MC involvement. There’s the MC lite books which are more family dram. Then there are the MC Mild books that I like to think give just enough heat, action, and whatnot mixed with family drama to satisfy people on either side of the literary fence. Then there are the MC Wild books that may have trigger warnings attached for people who need them. They do not hold back on violence, sex, and are heavily involved in the crazy side of the MC world.
Read them this way, if you want to follow along the timeline then read them this way:
Aces High MC – Charleston (MC Lite – family drama)
(this is the only series in the MC world that MUST be read in order)
The Other Princess
A Love So Hard
(titles coming soon in the series)
The Princess and the Prospect
The Killing Ride
A Twist of Fate
Aces High MC – Dakotas (MC Mild)
Dancing With Danger
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
(titles coming soon in the series)
Cherries and Cream
The Restart and the Remedy
Learning to Bend
S.H.E. (MC Mild)
Angel Girl
JoJo
(titles coming soon in the series)
Keys
MiMi
Tash
Legs
Stoneridge Raiders MC (MC Wild)
(series coming soon, will be introduced in The Restart and the Remedy – Dakotas, book 4; and was spoken of briefly in Proven - Cedar Falls, book 2)
Grave Mistake
Burning Bridges
Forgotten Souls
Harbinger’s Fury
TEN YEARS LATER…
Aces High MC – Cedar Falls (MC Lite/Mild)
Redemption Weather
Proven
Smoke and the Flame
(titles coming soon in the series)
Evermore
Wren’s Wings
Through the Ashes
The Witchling
Aces High MC – Tallahassee (MC Mild/Wild)
(series coming soon)
Crushed
Echoes of Everything
Court’s Justice
Tricky Ride
Aces High MC – Sierra High (MC Wild)
(series coming soon)
Bad Beat
Snake’s Bite
Stone Solid
Battle Plans
I hope this helped everyone who had questions. As you can see this world is not a small one, and besides the books that are already available there are many more that are already planned out. If you have further questions, please feel free to go to my Facebook page and ask there, as it will be the easiest way to get a hold of me. *Order of specific titles not yet released may change slightly prior to publication.
https://www.moonlitdreams.org/mc-world-books
Chapter 1
July 12, 2015
We had been arguing a bit more than usual lately, but he’d never failed to come home before. Sitting in my living room, body twisted so that my chin rested on the back of the couch, I stared blankly out into the vast darkness beyond my house. Once in a while a flash of lightning would allow me to see down the lonely stretch of gravel drive leading from the old farmhouse I’d inherited from my parents almost to the place where the drive should meet the road if it weren’t being swallowed back into the darkness before my eyes could follow the path. The fast-paced tink-tank sound of the rain hammering down on the tin roof that covered my large expanse of porch was normally something I found soothing and would lull me to sleep as it had since my childhood.
Tonight, that rapid-fire tink-tank sound held neither promise of sweet dreams nor any respite from the worries that invaded my mind. Walker and I hadn’t left it at a good place this morning when he took off for parts unknown with his club brothers. He’d been born into the life of the motorcycle club that he was now a full-patched member of. His momma, having been one of the club’s sluts, and his daddy – only known for certain thanks to DNA testing – had been one of the club’s brothers in the Aces High MC. They’d originally been with the Tallahassee Chapter down in Florida before Walker came here to help start the new chapter in Sierra High, Georgia. Walker had known his whole life that he’d become a part of the club, and just as soon as he was old enough he’d prospected and bided his time until he got his wish. I came into the picture three years later when he was 22 and I was only 19. We’d clicked from the first moment we me
t and we’d been damn near inseparable in the ten years since. The past eight years of which we had spent as a married couple in addition to me being his old lady in the club’s eyes.
Our problem was that we both wanted to start a family about five years back. We had been casual about trying for a baby in the first year, serious as hell about it the second year, and by the end of the fourth year we had both begun to grow frustrated for our own separate reasons. He didn’t like having to save up on the baby batter for a week before I was ovulating. He really did not appreciate being called from work to come service me like a prized racing stud when the time was right.
I didn’t like that he’d grown resentful of the ways the professionals had told us to increase our chances. My heart ached two days ago when I’d been ovulating and he’d flat out refused to stay home from a club run the guys were supposed to be going on. My dreams of holding a sweet little baby in my arms were dimming; the ones of carrying one in my own belly were almost gone. It’s true, I was only 29, and the doctors had confirmed my body was not the problem so technically my dream should still be alive.
My husband was angry and resentful that his body apparently was the issue though, and he couldn’t give us this thing we both wanted so badly. I was fully aware he’d given up on the prospect of expanding our family about a year back despite the fact that I hadn’t. I got mad at him for not following the doc’s orders on how to keep his sperm count up. Now, he just refused to show up at all, and that left us in a horrible place.
That was why I brought up other possibilities that morning. Our doctor explained that we would be fantastic candidates for IVF treatments. Walker scoffed at the idea saying he wasn’t making a baby in a petri dish. He would not even discuss raising someone else’s kid, through adoption, with me either. We’d both blown up, he’d left, and now it was just past two in the morning, and for the first time in our marriage Walker hadn’t called, texted, or come home.
A boulder of anxiety sat in the pit of my stomach as I worried and fretted about whether to face his possible ire by calling his club brothers to make sure he was okay, or if I should just wait and hope all he was doing was blowing off steam with his guys. The storm heaved angry moans as winds blew through creaking trees and determined bolts of lightning slammed down creating such a resounding cacophony of thunderous booms it left me with raised hairs on my body and more anxiety swelling deep inside me.
I texted him again. I never called this late at night in case he was riding and it distracted him. Not that I thought he’d be riding in this weather since he had his bike and not his truck today. Besides, I’d already attempted to call earlier in the day, numerous times, and I had been sent straight to voicemail each and every time. That was a devastating blow in and of itself. Walker knew how important this particular day was to me. He knew I’d have a hard time, especially with another storm blowing through, yet he chose to remain silent.
Me: Babe, please, let me know you’re okay. Storm’s bad out here.
I waited.
The storm beat down the land around my house; one particularly loud thunk told me a large branch must have fallen on the roof somewhere. I prayed there wouldn’t be any damage, because I’d been saving money in case Walker agreed to the IVF and I knew he’d see to a new roof on the house before agreeing to use the money for making a baby in a goddamn petri dish.
Thirty minutes since I’d sent the text, and the storm raged on around me. The tink-tank of the rain on the tin roof had become more of a frenzied maelstrom of unrelenting noise. Thunder was clapping through the night every two minutes or less, and still all I heard was the silence from my phone. The boulder in my belly grew heavier. I relented and decided to text Snake who happened to be Walker’s closest brother in the club.
Me: He has never not come home, texted, or called by now. Please, just tell me he’s somewhere safe and he’s okay. I’m not asking for details. This storm is scary, big shit fell on the roof, and I’m worried he’s out there in it on the bike since his truck is here.
Five minutes passed.
Snake: He’s fine. Hunkered down since he has his bike.
Me: His phone broke?
I didn’t send that last message. I knew better than to put our business out there to his brothers and get them involved even if I did also consider Snake to be my friend. Honestly, it didn’t matter though, because I also knew that Walker had to communicate with Snake somehow and he still hadn’t contacted me. I finally let go of the pent up emotion that had been building and let loose the deluge of tears that ran in hot, wet rivers down my cheeks to soak the front of my night shirt. It was Walker’s t-shirt, the one that smelled the most like him.
Ten minutes of tears later.
Snake: He let you know he’s good yet?
Me: No. Thanks for telling me though.
It was almost three in the morning now. The boulder of anxiety and worry that he’d been hurt out there somewhere was eased only to be replaced with the latest crack on my heart. Staring into the darkness beyond my window I couldn’t help but feel the sky had opened up this turbulent mess of booming thunder, white-hot lightning, and swamping rains just for me. Shouldn’t the world shake and cry for you when you realize your heart cracked so wide open that you think it will never heal again? I already knew things were bad between us, but the storm, the night, the significance of everything culminating on this particular day seemed to cry out to me that my marriage was also coming to terrible, inevitable, and sad ending.
My parents were gone now for six years, my little sister with them. They were taken in a car accident during a storm much like this one. Lightning struck a tree just up ahead of them when they were driving home. My dad swerved to miss the brunt of it when it split and fell, but the slick roads and sloppy shoulder sent them down over the embankment and straight into the swollen river below. The car had rolled down the 75 feet to the water and entered top down. They never stood a chance of making it through that.
Rain continued trailing down the windowpane in time with the tears that streaked their salty paths down my cheeks. Walker was out in this mess somewhere, and didn’t bother to let me know he was safe. He had to remember what happened, because he had been there with my older brother, Keith, and me when it all went down. That’s how I knew, deep in my gut, that we were finally over; because the man I’d loved all these years would never leave me to worry during a storm like this one. On this day, the anniversary of my family’s deaths, during a storm so similar to the one that had taken them he couldn’t be bothered to contact me? The fact that he had left me to grieve alone and worry about him on top of that spoke volumes. His cell going straight to voicemail for me while Snake was able to get a hold of him was even more telling. Then there was the fact that Snake would have said, “he’s here, don’t worry,” if he had been in sight somewhere.
Two headlights suddenly lit up the view outside my window. They were sitting high enough that I knew it was a truck coming up my drive. I thought about turning the porch light on for whoever it was, but then I remembered the power had gone out hours ago. Walker hadn’t brought the generator up to the house from the shed out back earlier, because he stormed out on the heels of our fight instead. I had candles, though I hadn’t bothered to light any. There were flashlights stowed here and there around the house too, though they were scattered and I hadn’t bothered to grab any of them either. I didn’t have it in me to get off this damn couch and out of the window. I watched as the shadowy figure navigated in the dark from the driveway to the porch. Then I listened as the doorknob was tested with a jiggle, and then once found unlocked, turned fully to admit the stranger into my house.
“Babe, you need to lock the fuckin’ door.” Snake hissed those words out irately before he attempted to scan the dark, shadowy room. “What the fuck? Poppy?” Concern laced his voice now. “How long’s power been out here, babe?”
“Don’t know,” I answered with a scratch in my voice from disuse or possibly the emotion that had
tainted it with a gravel-like quality I didn’t like all that much. “Most of the night, I guess,” I added apathetically.
“I know you have a generator, babe. Why don’t I hear one running?”
“Walker never brought it up before he left. When I went to use it to plug the fridge in, it wasn’t there. Still in the shed, I suppose. It’s a might too heavy for me to drag up here now that the yard’s a damn pond and with the winds the way they have been,” I explained as I went back to staring out the window. Lightning lit up the sky, and therefore my face since I was looking directly at it. Snake sucked in a deep breath before cursing out, “fucking hell!” A light from his phone shown as he angrily stabbed at the screen for a while. Then he tucked it away again and before he spoke. “You mentioned something heavy fell on the roof? I came to check, doll. I can use my phone light, but if you have a flashlight that’d be better?”
“Should be one in the drawer there, behind you,” I told him as I sort of half-assed pointed to the little desk that sat in the entry way of our house to catch all the crap from our life as we walked through the door. Mail, keys, and pieces of this and that littered the desk on any given day.
“Fuck!” I heard him exclaim a few minutes later, and when I went to investigate I saw what had caused his reaction. The branch, or whatever had hit the roof with a loud thunk earlier, had done damage. Rainwater was leaking in all over the bed in the master bedroom.
Maybe it was the weirdness of the night, the stress I’d been under, or maybe I’d finally just snapped and gone plain crazy, but when I saw how sad my carefully chosen duvet cover and shams looked as a soggy mess under the steady trickle of water I laughed. I laughed so hard Snake trained the flashlight in his hands on me.
“Babe?” He questioned gently.
Once I swallowed my laughter back down I just shrugged. “No one’s using it anyway, why not?” Why not, indeed? Why not let the sky cry down on my sad marital bed in my even more miserable house, and add more despair to the burden I already had to bear tonight? Why not?
Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0) Page 1