by Tia Lewis
Diesel
A Blood Riders MC Novel (Book 4)
Tia Lewis
Salted Pen Publications
Contents
Mailing List
Books by Tia Lewis
The Blood Riders MC Series
About This Book
1. Violet
2. Diesel
3. Violet
4. Diesel
5. Violet
6. Diesel
7. Violet
8. Diesel
9. Violet
10. Diesel
11. Diesel
12. Violet
13. Diesel
14. Violet
15. Diesel
16. Violet
17. Diesel
18. Violet
19. Diesel
20. Violet
21. Diesel
22. Diesel
23. Violet
Epilogue
What’s Next?
Thank You
Mailing List
Books by Tia Lewis
About the Author
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FULL BOOK CATALOG BY TIA LEWIS
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Tia Lewis. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
First Edition.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please contact: [email protected]. www.AuthorTiaLewis.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of the book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic, or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Published by Salted Pen Publications, Minnesota.
Diesel: A Blood Riders MC Novel (Book 4)
Cover Designed by: Mayhem Cover Creations
Books by Tia Lewis
Redemption: A Bad Boy MMA Fighter Romance
Revived: A Bad Boy MMA Fighter Romance
Draw Play: A Sports Romance
Stadium of Lights: A Second Chance Romance
Draft Day: A BWWM Sports Romance
Threat: A Blood Riders MC (Book 1)
Reveal: A Blood Riders MC (Book 2)
Creed: A Blood Riders MC (Book 3)
Diesel: A Blood Riders MC (Book 4)
The Hitman’s Possession: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Book 1)
The Hitman’s Property: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Book 2)
The Hitman’s Duology Series Bundle
Dirty Hacker: An Alpha Billionaire Romance
Dirty Money: A Dark Mafia Romance
Misled: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance
Only One You: A Second Chance Romance
Addicted to You: A Last Chance Romance
The Journalist: A Sexy Contemporary Romance
Zarak: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (The Mating Games Book 1)
Konkrin: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (The Mating Games Book 2)
The Complete Blood Riders MC Series:
(Motorcycle Romance)
Threat: A Blood Riders MC (Book 1)
Reveal: A Blood Riders MC (Book 2)
Creed: A Blood Riders MC (Book 3)
Diesel: A Blood Riders MC (Book 4)
Ace: A Blood Riders MC (Book 5) - Coming April 2017!
About This Book
Violet:
I've had little luck in life, until I found the Blood Riders MC and became part of their family.
But most of all, my heart belongs to Diesel, a senior member of the club. He cares for me, trusts me with his deepest, darkest secrets, and thinks I deserve more than guys drooling over me, like I'm nothing but a quick lay.
Except Diesel only sees me as a friend. It's no secret that I want more, I'm just hoping it's not too late before he realizes that we belong together.
Diesel
The Blood Riders MC is my life—they're family.
And the most trust-worthy member of the club is Violet, someone who deserves more than what life has given her. She listens to me and understands my pain. She knows all my secrets. She's my best friend, but I can see in her eyes that she wants more.
When her life is threatened by the same people who are trying to destroy the club, it's up to me to save her before it's too late… and once I do, I will never let her go.
Diesel is book 4 of the Blood Riders MC series.
Author’s Note:
Diesel is a motorcycle romance novel that contains explicit sexual content, strong language, and intended for mature audiences only.
1
Violet
My phone rang for the tenth time as I stood in line at the supermarket, a full cart of groceries in front of me. I fished through my purse for it and just barely managed to answer before it went to voicemail. “Yes?”
Diesel again. “Are you sure you got enough rolls at the bakery?”
I rolled my eyes. “I got five dozen, just like you asked for.”
“Yeah, but do you think that’ll be enough? I mean, we’re gonna have like fifty people here. Some of these guys eat like pigs.”
“And there’s lots of other food they can eat besides sandwiches. We’ll have wings, pizza, all sorts of stuff. Don’t worry so much, okay?”
“Where are you now?” He could switch tracks faster than anybody I ever knew. His brain was always going.
“At the supermarket. I’m just about ready to check out.”
“What’d you get there?”
I rolled my eyes again. “Plates, napkins, cups, chips. All of Gunner’s favorite snacks, too. The stuff you told me to get, remember? You made a list.”
“Oh, right. I forgot.” He let out a long breath. “You know I just want this to be perfect for him.”
“I know you do. That’s why we’re getting all his favorite stuff—his favorite foods, his favorite beer, everything. This party is going to go down in history as the biggest and best party we’ve ever thrown. Period.”
“You really think so?”
“Are you kidding? With me putting it together and you checking up on me every five minutes?” I tried to keep my voice light and playful for his sake, even though my hands gripped the cart hard enough to hurt. He’d been up my ass for days, and as much as I liked him, it was starting to get on my nerves. No, not starting. He had passed getting on my nerves almost the minute he announced we were throwing a party to celebrate his brother’s release from prison. By the time of his tenth call the day of the party, he was firmly on my shit list.
“I’ll let you go. I’m on my way to the liquor mart.”
“Sounds g
ood,” I said as I started to unload the cart.
“Hey. Did I thank you for any of this yet?”
Darn him, he knew just how to melt me. Just when I was absolutely positive I was going to kill him, he went and said something sweet. “No, actually. I don’t remember you thanking me yet.”
“I do.” And for a guy like him, that was the most gracious thing he could say. I said goodbye and hung up so I could focus on checking out. There were still a million things to do before Gunner’s release later in the day.
Still, it was Diesel I was thinking about as I loaded the cart with bags and wheeled it out to my car. I was always out to help anybody in the club with just about anything—I had been doing Drake’s laundry for years before Nicole came along—but it was Diesel who I cared most about. I had for probably a year or so.
When did it start? I had always thought he was hot. Anybody would. He had the face of an angel, even though his body was covered in ink. That only made him hotter as far as I was concerned. But it wasn’t until he started seeing a girl a year earlier that I had started looking at him a little closer. She was a friend of Tamara’s, somebody she had grown up with, and the two of them met during a party at the apartment she shared with Creed. They had hit it off right away. She was a nice girl, I guessed, and he had seemed happy. Which was why I couldn’t understand wanting to claw the bitch’s eyes out every time I saw them together.
It hit me maybe a month into their relationship that I was jealous. My stomach would clench every time they’d smile at each other. And oh, I would eat my heart out every time they disappeared upstairs after a party at the clubhouse. I’d wish it was me with him, even though I had never seriously thought of him that way before. We were friends, the way I was friends with all the guys in the club. But out of all of them, he was one of the only ones I had never slept with. I realized that was because I felt differently about him.
Those days were behind me, though, the time when I would sleep with any of the guys just because they wanted me to. The club was a lot different than it used to be when Big Jack was President. Drake was like him in a lot of ways, but he didn’t expect the girls to fall on their backs the way Jack did. It was a different time, he would always say. The girls were like family just the way the men were. I had always liked Drake—a lot, maybe too much, until Nicole came along and I knew there was no chance. Even then, I had only been jealous of her for maybe a minute. And I had never wanted to claw her eyes out until she begged for mercy the way I had when Diesel and Emily were dating.
That was in the past. They broke up after two months or so. She just wasn’t the sort of girl who could deal with club life. She wasn’t like me or Tamara or Nicole or any of the other girls who called the club home. It took a special breed, Nicole always said. I always thought that if Emily cared enough about Diesel, she would’ve adjusted the way Nicole had for Drake’s sake. The feelings just weren’t there. Her loss, as far as I was concerned.
I checked out my reflection in the rearview mirror before pulling out of my space at the supermarket. It was still a surprise sometimes to see myself as a blonde—I had been dying my hair black for so long, seeing it so much lighter still made me do a double take when I caught a look at myself out of the corner of my eye. It was like a stranger was looking back at me. But I liked it. And so did Diesel, or so he told me when I first came back from the salon with a new hair color. The memory of his eyes going wide when he first saw me walk into the clubhouse was reason enough for me to keep it that way no matter how much the upkeep would cost.
When I arrived back at the Blood Riders' clubhouse, I stuck my head through the front door to see who was around. Harris and Butch were setting up extra chairs in the main room.
“Hey, you guys. Can you help me bring these bags in from the car?” Harris was always so quick to help anybody, and he came right outside. I was sure he’d get patched in soon—he’d been a club prospect for more than a year and had proven himself over and over. Everybody looked at him like a younger brother.
“Where are the other girls?” I asked as we unloaded the car.
“Tamara had to drop Christopher off at the babysitter’s, and Nicole went to Darcy’s restaurant to pick up the wings and stuff.” Between the three of us, we managed to get all the bags in one trip. I instructed the guys to stack the plates and things up on one end of the folding table set up along one wall of what we used as a dining room when we ate together. All of the round tables had been moved out to give everybody room to walk around.
“What time does Gunner get released?” Butch asked.
“Around three o’clock. Three more hours. And the party starts at seven.” I was sure it would go on all night. Parties like the one we were about to throw usually did.
“I can’t even imagine being inside for eight years,” Harris muttered, shaking his head. “I guess I would go crazy.”
“I don’t know. I think you get used to it after a while, but what do I know? I hope he manages to blend back in with the club. I know Diesel’s been looking forward to him getting out for such a long time.” For the last three months, Diesel had talked about almost nothing else but his brother. We would sit together at the bar for hours on end and I would listen to him tell stories about Gunner—how he had practically raised Diesel after their dad left, how he had joined the Blood Riders and introduced Diesel to the club, how he had always looked out for his little brother over the years.
And I knew something neither Butch nor Harris knew. I wasn’t sure how many people knew the reason Gunner went in all those years earlier. It wasn’t for something he did. Diesel had told me all about that, too. I held that secret close to my heart and was honored that he trusted me with it. I figured it had to mean he liked me at least a little bit.
There was chatter at the front door as Nicole tried to hold the storm door open with her elbow while carrying a tray of wings. I ran out to help her, and the sharp, spicy smell hit me right in the nose.
“Extra spicy, just the way Gunner likes them,” she grinned. I helped her and Darcy inside, then threw my arms around Darcy’s neck.
“I miss your face,” I said.
“Your hair!” She ran a hand through it. “It’s gorgeous!”
“God, you really don’t come around much anymore, do you?” Nicole asked. “She went blonde, what, a month ago?”
“Something like that,” I grinned.
“You know how it is,” Darcy muttered with a wry smile. “I have to work twice as hard as any man in that kitchen for half the respect.”
“But it’s worth it?” I asked, and she didn’t have to say a word for me to know she thought so. The smile on her face told me it was. I had never seen her look that happy when she was part of the club. Sometimes I wondered if I would ever find what made me really happy. Was it my destiny to be just one of the girls? Cleaning, cooking, taking care of the guys? Not that I minded, but if leaving made Darcy so happy…
Butch asked me to check whether he was hanging the “Welcome Back” banner correctly, and all thoughts of whether or not I was happy were pushed to the side. I was too busy to worry about my happiness, and maybe that was for the best.
2
Diesel
“How you doin’, brother? You holding up?”
I grinned over at Drake, in the passenger seat. “What do you think?”
“I think you’ve been jiggling your knee up and down so hard, the whole truck is shaking.”
I stopped. “Fuck off.” But we were both grinning.
“Hey, brother, I know you’re excited. I’m just busting your balls. If I hadn’t seen my brother in eight years, I would be doing the same thing.”
“I can’t believe it’s been so long. I really can’t. Eight years. It seems impossible, doesn’t it?”
“It really does. A lot of water under the bridge since then.”
I nodded as I stared out the windshield. Yes, a lot had changed in eight years. It was like a different club. Most of us were still around
—only the prospects were new—but the feel had changed. “I know how much he’s looking forward to being back in the middle of everything,” I murmured.
“I’m sure he is.”
“I just hope he’s not disappointed,” I said it as quietly as I could because I knew Drake would take it the wrong way. And he did.
“Disappointed? Why in the hell would he be disappointed?”
“Don’t take it that way.”
“I’m just saying. Disappointed? That’s an interesting word.”
“You’re right. Maybe I should’ve used another one.”
“Maybe you should have.”
“Okay, fine.” We both went silent for a while. I tried to think of an easy way to tell him what I’d been worrying about for the last few weeks, as the day of Gunner’s release got closer.
“What do you mean by disappointed?” he finally asked.
“Well, you remember how things were when he first went inside.”
He nodded. “Yeah. It was crazy back then.”
“I know. That was just before things started to turn.”
“Things started to turn because of what happened that night,” he reminded me. “Remember? That was the last hit we put on another club. We never went that extreme after that night, not after what ended up happening. Jack didn’t wanna take that risk ever again.”
“Right. But to Gunner, things haven’t changed.” I braced myself for his reaction.
“How so?” His voice was dangerously quiet. I knew what that meant—he was about to blow. I had to tread carefully.
“I’ve been to see him every week for the last few months, ever since we knew for sure the date of his release.”