The Implosion
Page 1
The Implosion
Avery Falls Motorcycle Club series, book 3
by Debra Kayn
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Implosion
Avery Falls Motorcycle Club series, book 3
1st release: Copyright© 2021 Debra Kayn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Debra Kayn. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgment
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Chapter Thirty Five
Epilogue
— SNEAK PEEK — | The Four Stages of Loving Dutch Owen
Part One
Chapter 1
Dedication
JD – Thank you!
Acknowledgment
The Implosion is set in the fictional mountain town of Avery Falls, Idaho.
In real life, it's Avery, Idaho. Population 25. But, the recreational area for thousands.
It's a beautiful spot in the Bitterroot Mountains, not far from where I live. In fact, I was traveling in a UTV—breeze in my hair, looking for bear when I came up with the idea for the series while going through one of the seven tunnels in the area. By the time I got home, I was ready to write.
In the book, the town of St. Maries is a real town. It's spelled correctly and pronounced "St. Mary's".
Prologue
Demon, Johnny, Speeder, and Hank walked out of the cave where the Alpha Bio Project had taken place for the last twenty-two years. The handler looked at the controller, confused at the change in routine.
Each week, he'd handed out a specific allotment of drugs to each Avery Falls Motorcycle Club member. Today, they'd stopped the regimen.
Usually, the controller questioned each one of the original participants to gauge their reaction—in their case, their lack of response to the stimulus.
Nothing about today had gone like usual.
Last week, the controller had taken one of the original participants out of the program.
As the handler for the daily training and wellbeing of the participants, all he could do was watch and learn. He was not privy to the purpose of the project. He took all his orders from the controller.
He glanced behind him at the seven empty cells and set the shock wand on the table. Normally, they had five men held captive. New participants started each phase and began their training in Avery Falls before joining the community.
Only one man, who they called Four, remained behind bars.
"It's time," said the controller to himself.
The hair on the back of the handler's neck prickled. Although he was in day-to-day contact with the originals and had a hand at training each member as they rejoined society as the Avery Falls Motorcycle Club, the control had not mentioned any changes to him.
The controller faced him. "Ten minutes after I leave, I want you to let Four out."
"Uncontrolled?" His chest tightened, speculating what could happen when he was alone with the participant.
Four had failed every test they'd given him. The drugs only worked temporarily before Four reverted to his previous behaviors. Wiping his past from his mind had continually failed. He often became combative and had to be shocked into obedience. Four had escaped death so many times, the handler wondered if the Alpha Bio Project had altered the participant in ways the originals were not.
He used his finger to push his glasses up on his nose and sweat broke out underneath the white lab coat he wore.
"Yes. Let him out." The controller walked to the table in the back of the cave and closed his briefcase.
He hurried and followed his boss. "B-But he'll run out and get away from us. You sent the originals out of the cave. There's no one here who can protect me."
The controller checked his watch, picked up his briefcase, and said, "I'd suggest you figure out what you should do to protect yourself."
Fear swept through him as the controller strode toward the tunnel and disappeared into the darkness. Automatically, he checked his watch. He only had ten minutes.
Four stood rebelliously at the front of the cell. Inhaling deeply, he turned to pick up the shock wand and couldn't find it on the table where he'd set it earlier.
His heart pounded. He frantically looked around the cave, not finding the only weapon available to him.
With the originals, he could verbally control their every move. Four wasn't like the others. Four was an unmanageable killer. He was a failure to the Alpha Bio Project.
"Do it." Four hissed, gripping the bars. "Open the cell."
"Stand back, Four." He cleared his throat, knowing he must obey each order the controller gave him.
With no other option, he took the keyring to the first cell. Four refused to move, visibly shaking in his fury.
While the program had failed Four, he benefited from the enhancements given to him. He was stronger, faster, and his senses heightened beyond a human's ability.
He couldn't let him out.
But to leave him locked up and not fulfill the controller's wishes was signing his own death warrant. He understood the unspoken pledge when he signed up to work for the project.
Quickly taking one of the keys off the ring, he stepped into the cell next to the one holding Four. Once he was locked inside, he tossed the key into Four's cell.
"Let yourself out." He pulled the door shut, locking himself behind the bars where no one could get to him. "You're free."
Four scrambled for the key, fumbling to stick it into the slot until the click of unlatching the lock echoed inside the cave.
The handler backed away from the door, even though the bars kept him safe. Four was not to be trusted.
Four stepped out, looked around the room as he headed toward the tunnel. The handler swallowed, hoping there was nothing he'd missed in his observation that Four could use as a weapon.
He put his hand in the pocket of his lab coat, wrapping his fingers around the rest of the
keys. If he lost them, he'd be stuck in the cell, alone in the cave, until the originals returned tomorrow evening.
Four slipped into the tunnel out of sight. He stepped forward, trying to see or hear any noise that would alert him to Four returning to the cave.
When it looked as if Four had taken the opportunity to gain his freedom, he slipped his hand between the bars and stuck the key in the lock. He pushed the door open, hesitating.
He still needed to leave through the tunnel and get to his van parked outside. Unless Four had stolen his vehicle in his escape.
Four was a killer on the loose and would want revenge on those who had hurt him.
He exhaled through a tight chest and stepped forward. Ten feet into the darkness, he held his hands out, making sure he stayed away from the rough edges of the rocky, unforgiving walls.
Halfway through the tunnel, he stopped.
A quiet ticking came from the mouth of the tunnel. He cocked his head when recognition came to him.
"Oh, shit." Urine wet the inside of his leg as he lost control of his bladder.
He burst forward. A deafening explosion pushed him to the ground, seconds before the heaviness of rocks battered his body, burying him beneath the mountain.
Chapter One
The low hum of an All-Terrain Vehicle silenced the birds. Keenan stepped into the undergrowth of the forest, keeping his gaze on the normally unused trail. After almost a year, the tourists from Avery Falls had never wandered up to the old miner's cabin on their adventures through the Bitterroot Mountains.
Ahead of him, the rider came into view. He squinted, zeroing in on the lone, slim rider, creeping over the uneven, rocky ground at a crawl. The tall grass slapped the undercarriage of the ATV as the rider gained more ground, coming closer to the cabin.
His hope that it was an original participant in the Alpha Bio Project fizzled going by the visitor's size. Weeks. Months. Fall. Winter. He'd waited, alone, not taking the chance of hiking down the mountain to make contact with his motorcycle club brothers.
The risk was too high.
If those running the Alpha Bio Project caught him, they'd put him back in the program.
For whatever reason, and without warning, they'd switched him.
It took him several days after finding himself naked in the woods, thirty-odd miles away from town, to figure out where he was. It took longer for him to gain some memory of what had happened that evening in the cave before he lost his memory of the switch.
That's how the Alpha Bio Project worked. They trained, brainwashed, and enhanced him. They'd stolen his past, wiped him of his emotions, and turned him into a killer with no awareness of taking someone's life.
If switched by the controller of the project, each participant would cease to exist.
But he hadn't died.
Once he realized what had happened, he'd stayed on the mountain, surviving off the land, eating the deer he'd slain, picking the greens out of the ground once winter broke, and the permafrost had thawed. And, he'd waited.
He'd waited long enough, he no longer recognized himself in the water's reflection.
The rider stopped fifty feet from the cabin, looking over the old-timbered shack. The second he realized it wasn't anyone from the club or a local from Avery Falls, he took in the breasts, straining against the soft, pink T-shirt.
The woman shut off the ATV and pulled the helmet from her head. A pile of blonde hair tumbled down, covering her upper body to her elbows. She shifted on the seat, half-turned away from him. He cocked his head, never leaving his hidden position.
His balls tightened. It'd been a long time since he'd had any relief.
She turned back around, holding a large camera on a strap around her neck. Fluidly, she swung her leg off the ATV and stood beside the machine, eyeing the cabin to his left. He stayed concealed within the underbrush of the forest. Tourists never wandered deeper into the mountains. To reach this point, she had to have traveled through two seasonal creeks and navigated the elk trail—probably believing the narrow, single path was an old logging road that had grown over with vegetation.
He pulled his gaze off her, taking in the bag strapped to the ATV. Armed tourists were a regular occurrence. The Avery Falls Motorcycle Club preferred to see people prepared for anything when in the Bitterroot Mountains. It made less work for the club when the tourists policed themselves.
There were wild animals that would rather attack a lone adventurer. Just last year—no, two years ago before the project switched him, a hunter was severely injured in a cougar attack despite having a rifle and pistol on him for protection.
His toes curled in the dirt under his feet. The woman had more to worry about than wild animals. He could snap her neck before she got a chance to see him.
A soft gasp caressed his ears. He tilted his head. The danger of her finding him forgotten.
She lifted the camera, peering down the lens. The soft click of the shutter matched his heart rate. She moved softly over the pinecones, pine needles, and twigs littering the dirt ground, barely making any noise.
As if she danced to music he failed to hear, she swayed in a span of five feet or less. Minutes ticked by, and he found himself mesmerized by the way her attention remained fixed on what she could see through the camera lens.
So, when she appeared within twenty feet of him and stood in front of the cabin door, he stepped out from the bushes and startled her into stopping. No one could go inside.
Her gaze lowered and darted away, turning her head. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize anyone was here."
"Go." His throat spasmed and trapped his voice.
He hadn't spoken in almost a year. Living alone, there was no need for talking.
She spun, catching his interest as if a deer had passed in front of him, heading toward the ATV. He charged forward on the hunt, grabbing her arm and covering her mouth with his hand, securing her to the front of him before she could get away.
He couldn't allow her to return to Avery Falls. She'd tell others about him, and word would spread around quicker than a wildfire. Those in charge of the Alpha Bio Project would find out he was alive and living in the mountains.
She screamed against the palm of his hand. No one would hear her. He needed to think. Looking over his shoulder at the cabin, he picked her up without letting her go and stalked toward the door, using his foot to kick open the flimsy wood.
He tossed her to the make-shift bed. She cried out in fear, and he barred the door and one half-window to her escape.
She sat up, holding her camera to her chest, and perched on the edge of where he slept each night. The wood contraption, lined with red fir branches, stuffed with moss, and covered with birch bark, gave him somewhere to lie down when he couldn't stay awake any longer.
"Please, I'm not here to bother you. I'm sorry I trespassed." She moved to get off the bed.
He put his hand up, stopping her. With her here, he had trouble focusing. Turning sideways, he peered out the dirty window. There was only one glass pane that had made it through the years. The rest, he'd covered with wood scraps he'd found on the roof. Studying the area in front of the cabin, he strained to hear any sound traveling up the side of the mountain that would warn him that more people were coming.
"Please," she whispered. "I was only taking pictures of the cabin. Look, I'll delete them. You can see. I won't infringe on your privacy."
He turned to her. "Who knows you're here?"
Her gaze darted away before she shook her head. "No one."
"You rented the ATV."
Her eyes widened. "Y-Yes, for the week. I've only had it one day."
"Who rented it to you?"
"I believe her name was Bonnie." Her mouth thinned. "I only talked to her for a few minutes. It was busy there, and they only had one 4-wheeler available. I could be wrong about her name."
The woman's gaze lowered again, and she looked away from him. He dipped his chin and realized his nudity made her uncomfortable.
There was nothing he could do about his lack of clothing. When he became aware of where he was, he'd had no clothes on.
"I'm a freelance photographer." She held up her camera. "I take nature and animal pictures. Please, look. I deleted the pictures of the cabin."
He walked to the bed, took the camera out of her hand, and flipped her over on the bed, patting the back pockets of her jeans.
"Oh, God. No. Please. No." She clamped her legs together.
"I'm not a rapist." He turned her over, feeling down the front of her. "Where's your cell phone?"
She panted for breath. "My pack. It's on the 4-wheeler."
"Stay." He strode to the door and went outside.
At the ATV, he brought in her pack and untied the bag and canvas duffle, lugging everything inside. She'd taken the time he was getting her things to stand up in the corner of the cabin, farthest area away from the bed.
He dropped all her belongings on the floor and searched the bags, finding the cell phone. Holding it up, he checked for a signal and found none. He tossed it on the bed when the Personal Location Beacon hanging from the caliper caught his attention.
Johnny rented those out from The Shack. It was a way for hikers to call in an emergency and track their location when cell service wasn't available. He unhooked the device, grabbed the cell, and placed both of them up high on the rafter, over the door, out of her reach.
"There's money in the inside pouch of my pack." Tears mumbled in her voice. "You can have everything. Just, please, let me leave."
He ignored her pleas. He'd heard a lifetime of begging, crying, and bargaining from the men in the cells he'd trained to become like him.
After being by himself and surviving the switch, he could remember things.
He wouldn't chance going back to Avery Falls and lose what he'd discovered.
His hope that one day, a club member would come close enough to the cabin he could make contact with them dwindled more with each passing day.
He fleetingly wondered if he should use the PLB. The call would go to the closest emergency service in St. Maries. But, to do so would involve other people. It was too risky. Too many people outside the safety of the motorcycle club would find out about him.