THE HARDEST YARDS (A BAD BOY FOOTBALL ROMANCE)

by Andrea Rose

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said, looking back up at Petraus, his body physically shaking.

  “Haven’t you been watching the news Conquest? Shit is bad out there. Somebody with a lot of money on the line wants a very fucking bad thing to happen, and they’re playing you like a fool. I don’t care what you believe. You give me my men back and we’re leaving. You hear me Conquest? Vamos is putting as many miles as we can between us and your stupid fucking dock.”

  “What are you so afraid of if you killed him?” I asked.

  “You think this fucker is running the show? His job is done. He had to get your stupid ass to fast-lane the container and plant the trigger, and now all he was doing is trying to keep you busy so you wouldn’t ask questions. I’m not your enemy Conquest, and this asshole isn’t either. He’s a middle man,” Petraus replied.

  “And I’m just supposed to believe you Petraus?”

  “You don’t have to believe me. I’ve got his phone, and it’s full of interesting messages. You called it a few days ago…”

  “Give it to me,” I said, reaching out.

  “Let my men go, and you can fucking have it.”

  I nodded to War. He tapped a few things into his cellphone and hit a button.

  “It’s done. I’m a man of my word Petraus. They’re two blocks over on Ash waiting on someone to pick them up.”

  Petraus smiled, reaching out and handing over the little device. “Oh, and one last thing… It rang while you were on your way over. They left a message you might want to read.”

  I stared down at the glowing screen as Petraus walked off slowly, his weapon still leveled at us. Words shined back at me, filling me with dread.

  We have the girls.

  WAR

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  “What does it mean?”

  “I think you know exactly what it means, War,” Conquest said, his voice filled with a hint of dread.

  “We left them with Famine. There’s no way.”

  Conquest was already dialing his own phone, watching it ring before kicking to voicemail.

  Famine never missed a call, especially not at a time like this.

  “We need to ride. Now,” Conquest spat, leaving the severed head rolling around the ground as we ran back for the bikes.

  The bikes screamed as we pushed them beyond their normal limits. Most of the club fell behind but I kept pace with Conquest as we raced through the streets toward the clubhouse. Maybe the message was bullshit. Maybe it was talking about something else…

  I knew the truth as we rolled up on the club. Bullet holes were punched through the steel siding, little pinpricks of light shining into the darkness from the lit interior within. The rollup was smashed inward, as if someone had taken a truck through it at high speed. We followed their lead, tearing through the twisted metal opening. Conquest practically leapt off his bike, racing toward the main conference room, but we both saw it before he could get to the door.

  A pool of blood was spilled across the floor.

  Famine was dead.

  Conquest just spun in place, a blood curdling scream escaping his lips. I reached out, wrapping him in an arm and pulling him away. There was nothing to be done. “Get a fucking handle on yourself Conquest. What the hell are we going to do?” I shouted, my anger welling up inside. “You know these people. You used them and they used you. Where the fuck are they?”

  “I don’t know…” Conquest said quietly, staring at the floor. “I don’t fucking know!”

  “They have Jenna. They have Penny. I’ve followed you through hell Conquest. You don’t give up. You don’t fucking tell me you don’t know.”

  He was broken. I could hear it. I could smell it. Conquest didn’t have a fucking clue what to do next. It was all I could do not to snap his neck for letting this happen. How the hell could he be so stupid?

  “Wait…”

  I stared down at Conquest, my arm crushing against his side. He was holding out the phone Petraus had given him. I watched his thumb move across the screen, pulling up the settings.

  “The asshole left location settings on…” Conquest said. A quiet beep sounded off in the dead silent space, and I watched as Conquest held the phone up in front of us.

  “Navigate home.”

  The phone lit up, a map coming into view.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, staring at it. Could it really be that fucking simple?

  “We’re going to need guns. A lot of fucking guns,” Conquest said, turning toward the roaring sound of bikes filling in behind us. “Tell them what we’re doing. I need to make a phone call.”

  CONQUEST

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  They just fucked with the wrong club…

  I stormed through the boardroom, heading for the phone. I was done playing ball with these assholes. They’d used me like a pawn and now it was time to settle the score.

  But first… I had to deal with that fucking crate.

  That wasn’t going to be easy. There’s no way to toss a crate overboard when it’s stacked ten deep on the deck of a container ship. I couldn’t go to the feds. They seemed wrapped up neck deep in this shit.

  There was an option though. Divert the ship south into San Diego. That should get it far enough from any transmitters to keep it safe, at least for a little while. Strap Pandora’s fucking box onto one of our boats and sink it fifty miles offshore.

  When you’re in the shipping business you learn to keep in contact with a few insiders. Pay the right people and you can get shit done. The co-captain of this little container ship was deep in our pockets and carried a satellite phone. One little call and twenty thousand dollars later, the ship was heading south. For good measure, I told him to sabotage the radios.

  It wouldn’t be safe for long. Whoever we were dealing with here had deep hooks in this whole fucking plan. I just bought us a little time, but that meant nothing if we didn’t act fast. Walking back into the main clubhouse I could see the men locking and loading. Death in particular was a fearsome sight, a huge assault rifle slung over her back. This wasn’t the kind of gun you’d just go on a nice leisurely ride with. She didn’t seem to care.

  “HORSEMEN!” I shouted over the clattering of metal and machinery.

  “WE RIDE FOR THE HELLBOUND! WE RIDE FOR THE DEAD!”

  The cheer went up, the club locking and loading for the ride ahead. The cell phone flashed a little blue dot over an industrial building on the west side. There were men there, dead men walking…

  PENNY

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  My head throbbed, the cloth bag still being dragged into my mouth with every gasping breath. They’d left me like this. I’d watched them kill Famine, and I’d seen them take Jenna away. When the bag came down over my own head I kicked and screamed, managing to take a bite out of one of the assholes. He’d hit me for my trouble, and all I could remember was my body falling to the floor.

  I didn’t know where I was.

  My hands flapped uselessly against the ground behind me, tied at the wrist and held uncomfortably round my back. My feet curled up behind me, ropes binding them. Hog tied… I could see faint light through the thin cloth. It looked fluorescent.

  “Hello?” I asked quietly, listening to my voice echoing off the walls. The room was small. A prison cell? A coffin? It didn’t really matter. Conquest got me mixed up in this and now I was going to pay for being stupid enough to follow me. When the gunshots rang out, I half expected them to be aimed at me, bullets tearing me apart… But the explosions and screams weren’t coming from my little room.

  “HELP!” I screamed, hyperventilating against the cloth bag, the sensation of being asphyxiated overwhelmingly terrifying. The explosions seemed to go on forever, my breath catching as I tried to roll, tried to get some kind of escape from my confinement. If Conquest was out there, I needed to get to him.

  “PENNY!”

  I could hear his shouts. The whole world was ending aroun
d me with Conquest just a few feet away. I used what was left of my breath to scream, and the world went dark again. I felt the arms upon me almost as if they were carrying me to heaven. When the hood pulled away it was the light at the end of a dark tunnel. It was almost peaceful…

  It was Conquest.

  “Help Jenna…” I gasped. “Please.”

  WAR

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  “You don’t know what you’re doing…”

  I stared at the little suit clad man, his arm wrapped around Jenna’s neck as the cold barrel of his glock pressed against her temple.

  “You stepped over the line. You took my woman. I don’t even know who the fuck you are, but you’re a dead man if you don’t let her go,” I replied slowly, the viciousness in my voice evident. The 45 in my hand would end this man. The question was whether it was going to be fast, or slow.

  “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I fucking work for?”

  A door opened to our right, Conquest stumbling in with Penny clinging to her arm. My attention was laser focused, but the stupid little man let the distraction draw his eyes. He let his hand sway, the gun just clearing Jenna’s face. I pulled the trigger.

  “Jesus…” Jenna gasped, falling away as the man crumpled to the floor. “You killed him…”

  “He was already dead.”

  Jenna scrambled to her feet even as I crossed the distance between us, pulling her up and wrapping her in my free arm. I held her tight, unwilling to let her go.

  “War… I wanted that one alive,” Conquest shouted, his face twisted in anger.

  “He wasn’t much for conversation,” I replied with a calm composure. “You would have done the same thing.”

  Conquest only nodded as more of the men poured into the room. The final count was six, all dead, all carrying shiny badges and scary government identification.

  “What the hell have you gotten us into Conquest?”

  “I don’t fucking know, but we need to get to San Diego before they do,” Conquest replied from the corner of the room, his hand sweeping across the desk. He lifted a piece of paper from the table and held it up, his eyes cold as ice.

  “They know we diverted the ship…”

  “What are you going to do, Conquest?”

  “Something I should have done a long time ago. I’m taking the fall War. You get Penny and Jenna out of here. There’s four million in cash back at the clubhouse, split it up on the members and tell them to get the hell out of San Marcos. We’ve got a chapter of Horsemen out of Austin, that’s where they should be. They’ll know what to do.”

  “What about you?” Penny asked, her eyes wide with fright.

  “I got us into this mess, I’m getting us out. Just go Penny… Maybe some day, I’ll see you again.”

  He released Penny, practically tossing her toward me. Jenna caught her hand even as Conquest walked back out of the room.

  It was over. I knew that. Everyone in that fucking room knew it.

  JENNA

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  The road east had torn past with dry desert heat and desperate speed putting distance between us and everything I’d ever known. We’d all seen the news. The Coast Guard and US Navy intercepted a ship offshore with a North Korean nuclear weapon on board. Tensions were high, and warplanes were already hitting targets as Korea devolved into a warzone.

  There was no sign of Conquest. War said he must have given himself up. Maybe he had. All I knew was my life wasn’t going back to normal.

  Conquest was right. The Austin chapter was ready for our arrival. New identities, new lives. I could feel the North Carolina driver’s license in my tight jean pocket. Melissa Evans, wife of Mercer Evans, the man formerly known as War… Within a few hours, the entire club had ceased to be. Bikes were rolling in every direction, and the Horsemen were no more.

  Penny had taken it hardest.

  Death took her on the back of a bike and headed northwest toward Seattle. They had her set up for a quiet life on the coast. Maybe I’d get to see her again in a few years, sometime after this whole thing blew over.

  Maybe…

  For now though, I just clung to War. He was my rock atop shaking ground. I knew he would get me through anything that came our way, and despite everything that had happened, I found a little bit of happiness in that…

  I just hoped Penny could find her own peace.

  PENNY

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  Death didn’t explain herself as she dropped me off in front of the little house tucked right up next to the beach. We were supposed to be heading for Seattle, not Bandon, Oregon. She didn’t say a word as I stepped off the bike, and gave me nothing but a nod before riding off in a roar of her thundering engine…

  I stared out for a moment at the blue water of the pacific, rolling in over rocks and sand. Was this it? Was this house going to be my new life? I shifted my money-laden backpack onto a shoulder. They’d given me two million in cash to lay low, and instructions to keep my head down and not make any trouble… I wasn’t even Penny anymore. Now I was Bethany Smith.

  At least I wouldn’t be living my life hiding in some dingy apartment… The home was a lovely little white-clad two story with a bank of windows facing the water.

  There was no joy in it though. How could I possibly live here happily, knowing the man I’d come to love was gone forever?

  I sat down on the driveway, letting the tears fall as I stared out at the waves. I didn’t want their money or their house. They couldn’t buy my silence. I’d be hopping a flight back to California as soon as I could. It didn’t matter what happened to me, I needed to find Conquest…

  “Penny…”

  The voice shook me, its soft but strong nature drifting from the door. I couldn’t even bring myself to look. My eyes didn’t want to find reason to disbelieve my ears.

  “Come inside… You’re home now.”

  Warmth swept up within me as I turned, his eyes just as striking as they had been the very first time I’d seen them… This wasn’t the end I had imagined…

  This was the beginning.

  The end… But if you enjoyed this book I have another surprise for you! Turn the page for a FREE copy of the bestselling romantic thriller, PROTECT & SERVE!

  Bonus 3: PROTECT AND SERVE

  Copyright 2016

  1

  The last place on earth that I wanted to be was at Nathaniel Hale’s front door.

  I sighed as I looked up at the obscene decadence looming before me. This was the mansion I’d come to loathe over the past few years, and one I’d ended up at more times than I cared to count. It was home to one of the most obnoxious playboys I’d ever met, a walking, talking, self-entitled stereotype who had made my life hell on more than one occasion.

  And this time, I was not coming here to fuck him. It didn’t matter how much I wanted him to open this door and pull me inside by my hair for old times sake... I was here on police business, and that was the beginning and the end of it. Our history together didn’t put him above the law, and neither did his pile of money.

  I stared at the thick wooden door, waiting for a response. Nathan wasn’t exactly a criminal, but he was definitely a nuisance. Maybe having a multibillion dollar inheritance dropped on your lap could do that to a person. Even now, the front lawn was strewn with remnants of another of his famous parties. I never knew what exactly he was celebrating, but it almost always involved half-naked women and rivers of booze.

  And despite my best intentions, here I was again. Nathaniel Hale’s little puppet… He knew the power he held over me… Every time I showed up at his door, badge in hand, he’d flash me a lopsided grin and tell me: Loosen up a little, Officer Williams. Come on in and have a drink with me.

  That wasn’t going to happen today. No matter how much I wanted it, I had to be strong. If I went through that door, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. This time, he was coming with me.

  I smiled at the
thought. It was about damn time some of Nathaniel Hale’s skeletons came out of the closet.

  The first time I knocked on this door I was a rookie just out of the academy, and I didn’t know anything about those skeletons. Barely twenty years old and on my own, I couldn’t even legally have the drink he offered me… But Mr. Hale insisted. He knew what he was doing. I was young and innocent and he was the kind of man who gets what he wants. Maybe if I hadn’t gone inside I wouldn’t be standing here again…

  I could remember following him through the door that first time, ticket-in-hand and ready to fine him for the disturbance and get back to my beat. I lost my entire train of thought as he drew me inside. I’d grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, and I’d never been close to a house this big, let alone inside one. There was a chandelier hanging over the entry that probably cost more than my salary. Music pulsed through me, the beats keeping time with my own racing heart.

  Nathaniel Hale didn’t give me a chance to get my bearings. “Come upstairs and we can get started,” he said, his voice barely audible over the sounds. He had gripped my arm and led me up the stairs toward his office, the crowd of beautiful people stepping aside and letting us through. I could feel the heat from his fingertips, my heart fluttering in an unexpected way with every step we took. I don’t know why I didn’t stop him. A moment later we were standing in front of the large wooden doors, my eyes widening as he threw them open to an even more opulent study.

  “Did they tell you what I like?” he asked as we made our way into the office. He moved to a large chair, leaving me standing in the center of the space in a way that made me feel totally exposed and on display.

  “I’m here on a noise complaint, not to discuss your likes and dislikes, Mr. Hale,” I’d replied, more confused than anything.