Alphas After Dark (9 Book Bundle of Sexy Alpha Biker Bad Boys)

by Vivian Arend

  “I wasn’t playing hard to get. As hard as this may be on your ego, I said no because I didn’t want to go out with the bad boy in leather who looked like nothing but trouble. Besides, that was way before your dad even made the offer.”

  “It was? Well, when did he make the offer?”

  “Um, it was actually the day you showed up at the club. Which was a totally crazy coincidence now that I look back on it.”

  Tank pulls away, a strange look on his face. “Wait, that can’t be right. It must have been before that.”

  “No, it was that day. I remember so clearly because it was the strangest day ever. I got offered a million dollars in the afternoon, then my crappy car wouldn’t start and then I got fired from my strip club waitressing job. Strangest day ever.”

  Tank chuckles and then it turns into a full belly laugh. He picks me up and spins us around.

  “What? What is going on?”

  “There was no ‘job’. My father was matchmaking, Emma. I remember that day clearly, too. I was just leaving my brother’s place when my boss called asking me for a favor. I’d just been telling Finn that I’d signed the papers accepting my father’s terms.”

  “Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. So that day when Mr. Marshall offered me the money—“

  “I had already signed,” Tank finished. “There was no need for you to convince me to do anything because my father had already gotten what he wanted. Except apparently that wasn’t the only thing he wanted. He wanted to give you the money because he likes you. This was the only way he could figure out how to do it. And it was his way of pushing us together.”

  Joyous laughter bubbles up inside me. “I knew it. He’s just a big ole’ softie.”

  Tank leans against the wall, pulling me into the cradle of his thighs. “I don’t know what the future will bring but I need to know that you’ll be a part of it. I need to know that you’ll be with me as I face it.”

  I cup his face and pull him down so he can see the truth in my eyes. “That’s exactly what I want, too. I was so scared that you wouldn’t want to see me anymore.”

  His lips brush across my forehead. “My brother pointed out something that I couldn’t ignore this morning. You turned down a million dollars for me. If that doesn’t prove that you’re really in this for me, then I don’t know what ever could.” He kisses me again and we collapse back against the wall, entwined in each other’s arms.

  “I guess since that million dollars isn’t dirty money, maybe I shouldn’t have given it back to you then, huh?”

  Tank grins at me and then pulls something from his back pocket. It’s the envelope I gave him but it’s all crumpled and creased.

  “You’ve been carrying that around this whole time?”

  He shrugs and his arms tighten around my middle. “It was my last connection to you. But you can have it back. I honestly don’t care.”

  I shake my head. “I’ve already got exactly what I want right here. And it has nothing to do with money.”

  Everything is still up in the air. I’m not sure where I’m going to live, where I’m going to go to school or how I’m going to pay for any of it. I know that I don’t want Tank paying for it but beyond that I haven’t got a clue. But I know that I can figure it out.

  And that Tank will be with me through it all.

  EPILOGUE

  TANK

  One month later …

  I enter Finn’s penthouse balancing two large pizzas under one arm and carrying a six-pack of beer in the other. I look over my shoulder at Eli, who stands uncertainly behind me.

  “Come on in. Have a beer. Take a load off.”

  He waves at Finn, Gabe and Zack who are sitting on the couch. There’s already a basketball game playing on the big screen.

  “Guys, this is my boss, Elliott Alexander. Eli, my brothers. Finn is in the armchair, the one who looks like my clone is Gabe and the one with the Mohawk is Zack.”

  Eli waves amidst the chorus of hellos. “You guys look like you’re set. I won’t stay. I just wanted to bring you that information you asked for, Tank.”

  I set the beer down on the floor and hand the pizzas off to Gabe. I take the envelope he’s holding out. He seems uncomfortable and I can’t get why. We’ve never really hung out before but I wanted him to meet my brothers. Yet, he’s acting like he can’t wait to get out of here.

  “Okay, if you can’t stay I understand. I just figured you might want to escape for a while.”

  He drops his head. “Yeah. I just bought the house and it’s been taken over by a bunch of women I haven’t seen since I was in Sunday school as a kid.”

  “Eli just got engaged,” I mention to the others. “His fiancée is in the middle of planning the wedding.”

  Zack gets up and walks to the kitchen. When he comes back, he hands a beer to Eli. “You probably need this.”

  Eli laughs but stops when he sees me ripping open the envelope. “Hey, I’m going to give you guys some privacy for a minute.” He doesn’t look at me before walking into the kitchen.

  Zack looks at me and shrugs. “What’s going on with him?”

  “I have no idea—“ I stop in mid-sentence when I pull out the stack of files in the envelope. I asked Eli to assist with a background check that was proving more challenging than I’d expected. He’s got a magic touch with finding things that other people want to keep hidden.

  My brother Lucas obviously didn’t want to be found.

  Zack follows me as I walk over to the couch still scrutinizing the pictures. Gabe and Finn look up as I step in front of the television.

  “I think my boss is trying to distance himself just in case any of you turn out to be closet racists.” They all look over at Eli, who is currently bent over trying to pretend he’s fascinated by the contents of Finn’s refrigerator.

  I look too, trying to see him through their eyes. He’s a heavily muscled, dark-skinned guy with a shaved head. I’ve never thought too much about what he looks like before, mainly because it doesn’t matter. He’s an exceptional boss and an even better friend. That’s all I care about. And without even asking, I know my brothers are the same way.

  I raise my voice. “Eli, you can come over here now. It’s cool.”

  He looks up at the sound of my voice. “You sure?” He glances over at the others, uncertainly. At their nods of agreement, he walks over and perches on the arm of the couch.

  I turn to the others. “I needed Eli’s special touch to find someone. He came through, as usual.”

  I hold up one of the pictures. A tall, thin young man with light brown skin and curly hair is shown crossing the street. He’s wearing sunglasses but there’s no denying that he looks like us.

  “That’s him?” Gabe reaches out to take the picture. When he’s done looking at it, he passes it to Zack.

  “Yeah. Lucas Brown Marshall. Age 22. Also known as Luke,” I say, reading from the typed summary sheet that Eli included. “He’s some kind of child prodigy. He graduated high school at 16 and college at 19. He owns a software development company. It says here that when he was on summer vacation one year, he created the program that the majority of the state’s hospitals use to keep patient’s digital records secure.”

  “I guess he was bored that summer,” Gabe comments.

  Finn claps him on the back and snorts out a laugh. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  I continue reading. “His mother, Anita Brown Marshall, owns a bakery called Anita’s Place.”

  Gabe sits forward. “I’ve been there a bunch of times. Best damn cheesecake I’ve ever had. So, what’s the plan? Should we go there and wait for him to show up?”

  I look at some of the other pictures. Eli retreated because he was worried that my brothers’ initial reactions would be less than positive. But what if Luke’s reaction isn’t positive? It makes sense that he was so hard to find now that I know he’s some kind of cyber genius. He’s probably been taking steps to erase his digital footprint since he started using a co
mputer. And if he’s taking that many precautions, he might not take too kindly to being found.

  For any reason.

  “I’m not so sure about that. A gang of white guys rolls up and says ‘Surprise, we’re your brothers’ ?”

  Zack makes a face. “Right. Because I can’t see anything going wrong with that plan.”

  There’s a beat of silence and then we all laugh. Finn has the picture now. He hands it back to me and I slide it back in the envelope.

  “Look, I want to say something.” They all quiet down and I try to get my thoughts together. “The past few months have been insane. My mom was diagnosed with cancer again and the father I haven’t seen in years is suddenly not only in my life but making some pretty crazy demands.”

  The others nod at that.

  “We still don’t know what old Max is up to or what any of this ultimately means but we have a choice going forward. We can let him call all the shots or we can stick together and figure this thing out. I’m counting on us being stronger as a group than apart. And no matter what else happens, I’m happy I got some more brothers out of the deal.”

  Finn raises his beer in agreement. The others follow suit. “To brothers.”

  Eli raises his beer, too. “Now, you know that’s something I can drink to. To brothers.”

  Finn stands and then knocks me out of the way of the television. “Now that the speeches are over, get the hell out of the way so I can see who’s winning!”

  I punch him in the arm and then lean on the edge of his chair, observing him and the others as they scream at the screen.

  There’s a certain peace in surrounding yourself with people that you trust. And I’m finally at peace. I know that after we’re done kicking it, that I’ll be going home to a woman who loves me and who’ll stand by me through anything.

  And I know that no matter what Maxwell Marshall has in store for us in the future, that I’ll have my brothers behind me the whole way.

  Because that’s what brothers do.

  MORE FROM M. MALONE

  BLUE-COLLAR BILLIONAIRES

  (- an Alexanders Spin-off Series -)

  Book 1 - TANK

  Book 2 - FINN*

  Book 3 - GABE*

  Book 4 - ZACK*

  Book 5 - LUKE*

  * coming soon

  To sign up for preorder notices: Just click HERE

  THE ALEXANDERS

  - The USA TODAY Bestselling series -

  Book 0.5 - Teasing Trent: the prequel

  Book 1 - One More Day ~ Jackson & Ridley

  Book 2 - The Things I Do for You ~ Nick & Raina

  Book 3 - He's the Man ~ Matt & Penny

  Book 3.5 - Christmas with The Alexanders

  Book 4 - All I Need is You ~ Eli & Kay

  Book 5 - Say You Will ~ Trent & Mara *

  Book 6 - Just One Thing ~ Bennett & Katie *

  * coming soon

  BIOGRAPHY

  USA TODAY Bestselling author M. Malone lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with her three favorite guys: her husband and their two sons. She likes dramatic opera music, staid old men wearing suspenders, claw-foot bathtubs, and unexpected surprises. The thing she likes best is getting to make up stuff for a living. She writes steamy contemporary romance and family sagas.

  www.MMaloneBooks.com

  JUMP TO...

  Copper King by Vivian Arend

  Marked by Temptation by Deanna Chase

  Rumpel's Prize by Marie Hall

  Tank by M. Malone

  Shattered Web by Crista McHugh

  Caged Wolf by SM Reine

  Collateral by Roxie Rivera

  Beyond Solitude by Kit Rocha

  Blue Roses by Mimi Strong

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Shattered Web

  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

  More from Crista McHugh

  SHATTERED WEB

  Award-Winning Author Crista McHugh brings you SHATTERED WEB, another dangerously seductive tale from the Deizian Empire. Marcus is ordered to a trading post along the barrier to solve the mysterious disappearance of all its occupants. Only the clues point to Sexta, the woman he loved and lost, and despite his better judgement, he can't keep his hands off her. Arrested and charged with a crime she didn’t commit, Sexta not only has to deny her feelings for him after every tantalizing kiss, she needs to prove her innocence before the true enemy brings the empire to its knees.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Fireworks exploded over the city of Emona, but Sexta ignored them. From the confines of her rooftop garden, she was celebrating something far more precious than the wedding of Emperor Titus Sergius Flavus. Her heart beat wildly as she reread the letter in her hands.

  The modifications for The Temptress have been completed. Remember our bargain.

  A chill raced down her spine. No, she doubted a man like Numicius Aculeo would ever let her forget their bargain. It was the price she was willing to pay, though, for her freedom.

  The flat slap of sandals on tile sounded from the stairs behind her, and Sexta dropped the small piece of paper into the flaming brazier beside her before turning to greet her guest. Her stomach did the same jump it always did when she saw him. She swallowed back her arousal and forced a gracious smile on her face. “I thought you’d be at the palace tonight.”

  Marcus Flavius Lepidus continued toward her with the rakish swagger that befitted the scoundrel he was. The second son of a wealthy Elymanian merchant and well-connected Deizian noblewoman, he’d practically grown up inside the palace alongside the current emperor before striking out on his own to sail the skies above the empire. “I was getting bored with all the pomp and ceremony.”

  “Then why don’t you do what you normally do and cause some mischief.” She poured him a glass of chilled wine. “Instead, you decided to come and pester me.”

  “The party would’ve been far more pleasurable if you’d accepted my invitation.”

  The familiar vise around her heart squeezed a bit tighter. She lowered her gaze and turned away. “You know I don’t belong there.”

  “Some people would say the same about Azurha, but she’s now the empress.” He set his wine down on the table and placed his hands on her shoulders. The warmth of his touch chased away the remaining chill from Numicius’s letter, and the low rumble of his voice threatened to tear down the walls she’d built to keep him from getting too close. “Why do you have to be so stubborn?”

  “Why do you have to be so blind?” She jerked free from him and retreated to the edge of the roof. A gust of wind blew a lock of her hair into her face, but she gladly bore it in exchange for the wide open spaces of her garden. She leaned on the low wall surrounding the garden and peered down into the streets below. Business was slow tonight in the city’s lupanari, with most of the citizens out on the streets celebrating, but the singsong calls of some of the lower-class lupae echoed through the district, a constant reminder of who she was.

  Her mother’s words echoed through her mind. Men will never love women like us because they know we will stray to the next highest bidder. We are conquests to them and nothing more. Once you give your heart to a man, you’ve given him the power to break it.

  “If anyone’s being blind, it’s you.” He stood behind her and brushed her hair aside to place a single, sizzling kiss at the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. Her breath hitched, and he chuckled before placing another kiss just above it. “Why do you insist on fighting your attraction to me?”

  Exaggerated outrage was the only thing that kept her from surrendering completely to him. She spun around. “Why, you arrogant—”

  He cut her off wit
h a kiss that stole her breath away. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right about her. She’d wasted so much energy fighting her attraction toward him, hoping to spare herself the pain that would follow if she fell in love with someone like him. They had no future together.

  And yet, when he held her in his arms and kissed her like he was doing now, she forgot about all that. For those brief precious moments, she indulged in the tenderness of his kiss and let desire swirl inside her veins. Memories from that one night when she’d let her guard down rushed over her, reviving the growing need to have him again.

  When he ended the kiss, she was shaking in his arms. “Please stop fighting me, Sexta,” he murmured in her ear while his thumbs traced dizzying circles into her back. “You and I belong together.”

  “No, we don’t.” Her voice choked on the sob lodged in her throat, and she pushed him away. Regret clawed at her skin, and she rubbed her arms to chase it away. “You’re a man with imperial connections, and I’m just the bastard child of a whore.”

  “And the new empress was born a slave. As I keep telling you, none of that matters anymore.”

  “To you, it doesn’t, but to others, it does matter.” She returned to the table and took a deep drink from her wine. “How many Deizian nobles do you think my mother blackmailed in order to build her business? How many of them despise me for what she did? How many of them wonder if they are the one who sired me?”

  “You can’t let your mother’s past dictate your future.”

  “But it does, Marcus. It holds me prisoner, keeps me from living the life I want to live.” She gestured around at the garden on top of the grand lupanar her mother had built with her blackmail money. “Here within these walls, I’m protected from the sneers and threats of those noblemen my mother used. Here, I’m the madam of the premier house of pleasure in Emona, and as long as I don’t overstep my bounds, I’m safe. But the minute I become what you want me to be, I’d lose everything.”