by Kay Maree
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?” He chuckled.
“Know exactly what I need to hear.”
“Years of practice, Kiddo. Believe me, all of you have issues. Someone needs to make you see reason.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
“No problem. If it helps any, you both have my okay to move. I’m not going to put it to the table vote. If we need you, we will call you back but right now, you are needed more in Tennessee.”
“I appreciate that, thank you. I will let Freddie know when he wakes up. He may be pissed though. We said we would wait and talk to you when we get back.”
“So do it. No one needs to know we had this conversation. I will try and act surprised.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Thanks, Raven.”
“Anytime, Ruby.”
I hung up the phone and sat it on the table in front of me. Picking up my coffee mug, I held it in my hands as I sat back and drank my coffee, letting the silence try and relax me. Maybe it was time to start meditating or something. Anything to try and shut my mind off. My entire life, I had always been the one to overthink everything. Freddie was right though. The more I thought about stuff, the crazier it would make me. Add next to no sleep to that and you have the psycho that appeared at some stupid hour this morning.
Raven was right. Freddie was right. I knew what I wanted and it didn’t make sense to prolong something we both knew was going to happen eventually. Setting my now empty mug down, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before slowly letting it back out again. Just breathe. This will all be okay.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Raven
Three Years Later
Looking around the room at our family, whether they be blood or chosen, I couldn’t help but feel proud of how far everyone had come. Ruby and Freddie had worked through their shit and were now happily living in Tennessee. There was always something missing for her and I guess it took almost losing her dad for her to see that she needed to be back with her family. I understood and didn’t hold them back from that. Her dad was doing better than ever though which I was happy about. Freddie got me to call them both back with some fake urgent club business and had talked to her parents about coming out to Vegas for the weekend. He planned to propose to her tonight and wanted us all there for it. We had all come out to Katy and Chaos’ place outside of town and we all pitched in to make this place perfect just like he wanted it. Well, I say we but it was all on the girls. We just did the heavy lifting when needed. So after everything was in place, we chilled out and had a few drinks while we waited. Ruby’s family was showing up first followed by Freddie and Ruby. When we heard tires on the gravel driveway, we knew who it would be. Well we thought we did.
“What is he doing here?” Toby frowned as he saw the chief of Fernando Police Department coming up toward the house. Standing up and going with him, we moved over to the car. “Boss, everything okay?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I had some important business to discuss with Gus and heard he would be out here.” It’s true, he was. Gus was part of the family. He had been around this club for a long time, having done all of our ink. He and his sister owned the tattoo shop in town. . Also, his now wife was best friends with Ruby. I turned and motioned for him to come over. He was now wearing the same confused look that the rest of us were.
“I’m really sorry to ask this, I know you said it was important but we are in the middle of a surprise party and the guest of honor is due any minute.”
“Well that is kinda fitting then because I have a surprise for Gus.” When Gus reached us, he handed him a folder. Gus raised a brow and opened it up. Looking over at it, I could see that it was a birth certificate.
“You have got to be fucking shitting me?” Chief shook his head and pointed at the car. Gus bent down and I moved to get a look inside the car. Sitting in the back of the car was a little boy.
“Who is that?” Gus looked at me just as Chelsea reached us.
“My son apparently!” Holy fuck!
THE END...
Or is it?
About the Author
Lauren Firminger has had a love affair for books her whole life. From the fairy tales that were read to her as a young girl to the stories of love and loss that would distract her as a teenager.
It wasn’t until attending her first signing as a reader, in Sydney, that she discovered the world of Indie authors that would ignite her spark of writing once again.
Taking a leap of faith, Lauren published her debut novel, Learning to Fly. From there, the characters continued to speak with her and three years, seven books later, the words continue to flow. From military romance to motorcycle clubs, Lauren tests the boundaries of them all and hides inside the worlds she creates.
Author Links
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https://laurenfirminger.wixsite.com/home
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VIPER
SLAYER BROTHERS MC
NOVELETTE
GEMMA ARLINGTON
VIPER
SLAYER BROTHERS MC
Copyright © 2019 by Gemma Arlington
The right of Gemma Arlington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical or mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
One girl in search of her father.
One guy willing to help.
One interesting and eventful night of passion.
Live everyday as if it is your last.
Cherish the ones you love and take risks because ultimately nothing in this life is certain.
PRELUDE
Lies, lies and more lies…
High school reunions, they’re bogus… scrap that, they’re fucking ridiculous and honestly, they’re nothing like you expect them to be. They’re full of old friends who you’ve lost contact with over the years, all out to convince you how great their lives are, parading around like millionaires who’ve got it all. The truth is it’s all lies. Let’s face it, our lives are pretty shit and for centuries nothing on this god forsaken planet has changed. Human society has been slowly killing itself off without a care in the world. The governments have been fucking us over royally since the dawn of time, creating wars from petty non-situations, taxing our asses for shit we really shouldn’t be taxed on, and don’t get me started on them telling society all their bullshit to instil fear. So, when you put it all into context, telling a few little white lies at a reunion seems pretty innocent compared to the shit the head knobs do.
Therefore, when it comes to events like this… parties, BBQ’s, reunions, MC Club meetings… the lies just become a big showboating display of vomit. Take my friend, Mitch, for instance. He’s married, with a 10-year-old son who’s probably the bane of his existence. He always wanted to be a part of something bigger, but when you knock up your high school girlfriend before graduation what do you do? You suck it up, muster up some form of courage, and tell her father that you’re the numbnuts who’s impregnated his little girl. I’d expected Shai’s dad to pun
ch his lights out, but instead he made Mitch marry her and now, 10 years on, they’re both just as in love as the day they met. Right this very moment, their love is on full display for the whole MC to see as they sit at the round table across from the members of the club.
Mitch isn’t your typical guy, he has an MC legacy; his father and uncles were among the founding members. So, he has a long family history with the club, but that’s not the point here. Love is the point, and it has everything to do with the fact that I’m now here and having to endure this hellfest.
Whose idea was it to become the president of a MC club? Oh, that’s right me! Fucking fool, but oh well. What’s done, is done.
“Are you seriously leaving?” Nate asked Mitch.
We’re sitting around the table, in the depths of a meeting. Mitch and his missus want out. They want a better life for their son, one that doesn’t revolve around the MC. It isn’t easy to become a member, and it’s even harder to get out, but that’s what he wants. While a part of me wants to say no to him, another part is happy he’s finally decided to do something not just for himself, but for his wife and kid. However, just because I’m the club president, didn’t mean this is up to me. It isn’t just my decision; all the members of the club will vote, and majority will rule.
Damn! Being a MC legacy is hard.
I guess you’re wondering where this is all going. It’s gonna take time to explain, but for you to fulling understand my story, understand her story, we’d better start explaining.
CHAPTER ONE
The Beginning
High school, it’s a semi-enjoyable experience we all must endure. It’s more like a rite of passage every teen must bear before being released into the big wide world. While some people go to school to study and actually learn what the adults are trying to teach them… others simply go for the social life. High school… I can’t say it was all fun and games, and I must admit I probably would never have even gone if my mother hadn’t pushed me, but there’s no way on this green earth would I have graduated without the select group of friends I called my brothers.
“Viper Joel Stone,” Principal Collins called.
I remember it like it was yesterday, walking on the stage to a crowd roaring cheers and congratulations as I was handed my certificate of graduation. I was the first in my family to complete schooling to this level, and while I was set to complete 4 years of college on top of this, I already knew what the outcome of my life would be. Funny how the things you once dreamed and thought you’d be, what you ultimately wished to achieve in this life… well, you hope they’ll all come true. However, life has a tendency to zoom past us while we’re busy making plans. Innocence has a way of being pure and sweet, but reality is a cruel bitch who will take any chance to grab you by the balls and twist those babies until you’re crying in pain.
I thought I’d live a simple life, that I’d be settling down and having kids, especially by the age of 29 since, several MC brothers already had families, but clearly my life hasn’t evolved the way I thought it would. For starters, my mother named me Viper and for years I’d hated it and used to call myself by my middle name Joel, but that didn’t stick when I joined the people, I now call my family. I don’t know what type of high Daisy was on to name me after a fucking snake, but it worked. My father… well, were to start. Duke Stone was a rough, rugged, and extremely dangerous man. He loved to drink, smoke, and party, and I gather that my mother, Daisy, had happened to cross paths with him at a gathering his MC club held. I don’t know what she was to the club, and I don’t want to know, all I know is that they married and the rest, as they say, is history.
I could never see what drew my mother to him, but love is often blind. Clearly she’d some sort of scotch filled glasses on, because if she knew then what I know now, she’d have run away from a man like Duke. I knew the things that went on inside the walls of an MC club, after all I grew up around them. I knew what the men got up to when they partied. To think that my mother had been involved in some of that sordid shit made me sick, but that was beside the point. As you can gather, my father was highly involved in a motorcycle club. In fact, he was club vice president and that’s how I ended up where I am today. It wasn’t easy, but nothing in life ever is. They call me a legacy, destined to live on and claim the things my father had left behind. I guess it’s a form of inheritance, but who in their right fucking mind would want an MC club as an inheritance?
The legacy clause is the means by which I came to be leader of Stryker MC; it was my inheritance… I was his legacy. It wasn’t what I wanted in life, but I’d been doing this for years now and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
That was until I meet her. She ruined my world, but in the best possible way.
CHAPTER TWO
STRYKER MC
Viper
“Motherfucker!” Nate bellows, his fist slamming down on the bar, the wood creaking while several glasses shake.
“What are you motherfuckering about?” Klaus asks.
“You think motherfucking is a word!” I scoff, teasing Klaus. If he honestly thought that motherfuckering was a word we had some serious problems. However, he wasn’t my main concern at the moment, Nate bellowing and banging his fists on the bar top had me worried.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I take the seat beside him, waving at the pretty bar tender for a drink.
“Loreen’s dumped me for some hoity toity, hot shot lawyer. She said I wasn’t her type of guy… are you fucking kidding me,” he groans. “After all I did for the bitch, she dumps me over the fucking phone, by text message,” he continues.
“Wait, aren’t you dating Kathy?” the bar tender asks.
I shake my head as a chuckle slips from my lips because what she’s saying is completely true. Nate’s got a half dozen chicks he’s stringing along, and if it hadn’t been Loreen dumping him it would be one of the others.
“Your point?” he grumbles at her.
“My point is, stop bitching and find one of the other girls you have in your black book to shove your cock in her,” she remarks as she hands me a cold beer. I thank her with a quick smirk. When Stevie hired her, I knew she’d pull this off perfectly. Girls who work in this bar have to be tough or they’ll get eaten alive by my guys.
“And would you be interested in having a cock shoved in you?” Nate replies, the whole ‘Loreen dumped me thing’ disappearing into the background. I roll my eyes thinking of the poor, innocent women who’ve followed this big lump to bed.
“What a charming proposal, how can I refuse,” she sarcastically chimes.
“I’m being dead serious gorgeous!”
“Are you fucking kidding me! If you come anywhere near me with your pecker, Nate, I’ll make sure I’m the last girl you ever fuck,” she warns as she winks at me before heading to the other end of the bar to serve other patrons.
I watch as Nate leans over the bar to watch her sashay away. She’s dressed in tight denim shorts and a blank singlet top that has the Stevie’s logo across it.
I shake my head again; she was perfect for my guys and Nate was going to lose his ever-loving mind if he didn’t find some way to get her perfectly chiselled ass into bed. I was positive he’d accept the challenge of trying to get her into bed, or on-top of a bar, or anywhere for that matter. I’d be keen to see if his charms would wear her down enough for her to slip up one night and live to regret the ordeal.
I laugh. “If you touch her, you’ll die,” I jokingly remark as I get out of my seat, beer in hand and shaking my head yet again. This is gonna be so much fun!
“What?” he groans, turning to look at me with a don’t mess with me look on his face.
“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not my rule and she isn’t my employee,” I stated as I walked away to find Stevie, the owner of the bar. She was shutting the place down tonight for a club party, but I still had a few last-minute things to discuss with her.
“Are you fucking k
idding me, Stevie,” Nate yells.. I hear Klaus chuckle right before my eyes lock with Stevie’s. The shit eating grin splitting her lips tells me she knows I just messed with Nate’s head. He could try his luck with the bar maid all he liked. Stevie would never say not to touch because she knew my guys just as well as I did. They couldn’t and wouldn’t control their sexual urges. Her mother had run the bar when my dad was head of Stryker MC, this has always been the MC watering hole when we’re not hanging at the club house. We’d been coming here for years and years, and that wasn’t about to change.
“What did you do?” she says, the grin still stuck to her face.
“Just told Nate he couldn’t play with your new bar maid,” I utter, sipping on my beer as I lean against the wall beside her. Stevie was a short blonde with striking features. If I wasn’t the gentleman I knew I was under all these tattoos and clothing, I’d probably pick up her petite frame and push our bodies into the nearest surface and ravish her, but I know better than to mess around with the hand that supplies our booze. And the thing was, I’d grown up with Stevie and thought of her more like a little sister than a girl I wanted to fuck.
“I gather you blamed me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Nate scream my name with such violence before,” she chuckles.
“He’s just pissed Loreen dumped him for a lawyer,” I replied.
“I’m sure he’ll find another foolish girl to climb him and enjoy the ride,” she said, a different and more sinister smile slipping across her lips.
“You wouldn’t happen to be one of those foolish girls, would you?”