Table of Contents
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BONUS BOOKS
Billionaire Romance
Alien Romance
Highlander Time Travel Romance
Dystopian Romance
Wolf Shifter Romance
Stepbrother Romance
Dragon Shifter Romance
Time Travel Romance
Love and Survival in the Time After
MC Romance
Bear Shifter Romance
BREAKER
A Forsaken Riders Standalone MC Romance
Book 14
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2017 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Introduction
Thank you so much for purchasing my Novellete. All of my stories also contain bonus stories, so please take a look at the other stories I offer here. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter for updates and free books!
The Forsaken Riders series is a collection of novelette length standalone Bad boy romances that fit together to tell the longer tale of the Forsaken Riders – and the woman they love - as they fight to dominate the town of Slate Springs.
The Forsaken Riders are:
King (Book 1)
Lynx (Book 2)
Steel (Book 3)
Gunner (Book 4)
Hawk (Book 5)
Bull (Book 6)
Stag (Book 7)
Stick (Book 8)
Decker (Book 9)
Ax (Book 10)
Hunter (Book 11)
Rocket (Book 12)
Diesel (Book 13)
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Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
BONUS BOOKS
Billionaire Romance
Alien Romance
Highlander Time Travel Romance
Dystopian Romance
Wolf Shifter Romance
Stepbrother Romance
Dragon Shifter Romance
Time Travel Romance
Love and Survival in the Time After
MC Romance
Bear Shifter Romance
1.
The roads of Iron Hill were slick with rain, and the oil and grease that had been embedded there for months rose to the surface of the streets with a glistening sheen. Ashley drove slowly and with purpose as she made her way back toward home. Her head was a mess of confusion and sadness, and the music playing over the stereo only heightened the desperation of her mood.
A sad, slow love song blared out over the speakers and made the tears prick the corner of her eyes.
“Urgh, fuck this,” she said as she reached forward and slapped it off.
She wasn’t going to break. She was better than that.
She drove on in silence, making sure she gripped the wheel firmly and took each corner slowly. It had been far too long since they had last seen rain, and now flash foods out in the desert were happening every other day. It was as if they were being cleansed and prepared to start again. And Ashley had never been more ready in her entire life.
She pulled the car around the next bend and took a left onto her street. She could see the lights from home up ahead and she instantly felt the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It snowballed quickly and made her want to run. She had never enjoyed being back there under the same roof as her parents, but what could she do? She had nowhere else to go.
She parked the car at the bottom of the driveway and climbed out slowly as she adjusted the straps of her tank top and gathered up her purse and jacket. The night air was free of humidity after the storm and she shivered slightly with the chill. She had never been a fan of coming home, but this felt especially terrible. Because, now, she knew her big brother wasn’t going to be around to protect her either.
She locked the car and walked slowly and nervously up the driveway. From the inside, the industrial flashes from the television shone up the front room walls and illuminated the path ahead. She could hear the gunshots from some, no doubt, terrible crime show and she gritted her teeth. She could already picture the scene. Her dad slumped in the moth ridden old armchair, clutching a beer to his big gut and scratching his stubbly face that he wouldn’t have shaved in days.
“It’s so good to be home,” she whispered to herself as she peered through the gap in the curtains and had her suspicions confirmed.
She waited by the back door to the kitchen and took a deep breath, looking up at the stars.
“You can do this,” she coached herself. “They’re your family, and despite everything, they love you and you love them.”
She wasn’t overly sure that she meant it, but she knew she had to give it a go; otherwise, it would be another night sleeping in her car at the side of the highway, and the cops had already given her two warnings.
She reached for the doorknob, twisted it and as the door opened, the stale stench of smoke came drifting out and hit her square in the face.
“Jeez,” she whispered. “When was the last time they cracked a window…?”
The air in the house was stuffy and thick. She winced as she stepped inside and groped around for the light switch. When she finally found it and flicked it on, the tinny sound from above rang out and the bar light flashed alive, showering the room in a harsh florescent white.
Her mother was stretched out, face down across the table. She was slumped in a chair and leaning forward so that the top half of her body was flat and her cheek was pressed down into the newspaper she must have been reading. She was red in the face and drool pooled onto the table in front of her.
“Gross,” Ashley whispered as she looked at her.
The empty bottles were scattered around the base of the dining table, and there were full ashtrays spilling ashes everywhere. Ashley shook her head sadly and walked straight past and made her way toward the stairs. She didn’t know if her dad was even awake in the armchair, and she wasn’t going to check.
There really was no hope for them. And she was long past caring.
Upstairs, in her room, she closed the door behind her and kept the light off. If they made their way up to bed, she didn’t want them to know she was there. She crept quietly over to her own bed and climbed in without getting undressed, then looked up at the ceiling.
“My life sucks,” she said as she breathed in deep.
Below her, the gunshots of the show still hammered on and she pulled a pillow around her ears and closed her eyes. Family life had never been enjoyable for her or her brother, Tyler, but at least he had gotten out as soon as he found the chance. Ashley, however, had just been left to float around from one disaster to the next. She moved out as soon as she finished high school and moved in with her boyfriend. But two years later, she had had to come home, along with a broken heart. It was the first time she had stayed there without Tyler, and
it was the first time she had really realized that this place was definitely no longer her home. She looked around her room once more through the slits of her eyelids and tried to find some pang of nostalgia but she felt none. It had been two years since she had slept in that room. And she didn’t feel a thing. Her mom and dad had been so wasted downstairs they hadn’t even heard her come in, and now she wanted to keep it that way.
“If they realize I’m here,” she whispered. “They’ll want to know what happened and try and make me stick around.”
And she had no intention of that.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She opened up her messages and started to write Tyler a text.
A: Hey T… I’ve just got back to Mom and Dad’s… as predictable as ever. I can’t stay here. I’m going to be gone first thing in the morning. Are you around before I leave? I’m thinking of heading back to the city to look for an apartment…
She hit send and then waited a few moments for a reply. When it didn’t come, she yawned and rolled to her side and closed her eyes. She hadn’t spoken to her brother in a few weeks, but she was sure he would reply. He would want to know why she was home and to make sure she was okay, she was sure of it.
As the night wore on and the sounds from downstairs changed from gun violence to the late night news, she found herself drifting off to sleep. And it was good to be in her dreams, because at that precise moment, her reality was nothing but a big, fat disappointment.
She hadn’t closed the curtains on purpose, so she would rise with the sun. As it shone in on her, her body clock snapped her wide awake and she sat up and stretched. There were no sounds from anywhere in the house and she was just wishing her folks had gone up to bed and hadn’t realized she had stopped off there. She crept quietly over to the closet and opened it wide. All of her old stuff was still in there and it made her a little sad before she mostly felt angry. She knew the only reason they hadn’t gotten rid of it was because of laziness not love. They weren’t keeping her bedroom for her to return to, they just couldn’t be bothered to get moving with clearing anything.
She closed the closet door and looked back to the bed where she could see her phone flashing with a message. She moved quietly back over to it and scooped it up, and she smiled for the first time in days when she saw it was Tyler.
T: I’m out of town for a few days… Come and find me, I’m in Slate Springs. The motel on the highway on the way into town.
Ashley scrunched up her face as she read the words on the screen and instantly felt not only incredibly confused but also intrigued.
What would her big brother be doing in Slate Springs? She was pretty sure he hated the place and avoided it at all costs?
Tyler was a biker and his club had a long standing rivalry with the motorcycle club from Slate Springs. Her mind raced as she imagined the potential all-out gang war and Tyler mixed up in this brutal danger.
“Oh T,” she said aloud. “What have you gone and gotten yourself into now…?”
She knew she wouldn’t be of any use to him, but she also knew her curiosity knew no bounds, and she had nothing else to hang around Iron Hill for. She was leaving anyway, she may as well stop off at Slate Springs on the way and see what the hell her brother was up to.
A little smirk played across her lips as she started to type her reply…
A: I’m leaving within the hour. See you soon bro x
She hit send and started to remake the bed. She was going to slip out and pretend she had never even been there.
She always heard people say there was no place like home. And they were right. There really was no place like it for her. Because she would literally rather be anywhere else in the world. Even Slate Springs.
2.
As she snuck out of the house she could hear the guttural sounds of both of her parents snoring coming from above. She waited briefly in the kitchen and debated leaving them a note, just in case they had been aware of her there. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew it was pointless. If they had known she was home, surely they would have woken her. She checked the door handle and rolled her eyes as she realized they had left them all unlocked.
“One day they’re going to get murdered,” she whispered to herself as she opened the front door silently and slipped out into the morning sun. The air was dry again and it felt good to have the rain a distant memory.
She climbed back into her car and behind the wheel and looked out at her childhood home one last time.
“This time, I’m never coming back,” she said. “This time, it’s forever.”
She put the car into reverse and started to make a turn so she could head back out toward the main roads. She had never driven to Slate Springs before, but she knew it wasn’t too far. An hour at most along the highway and probably not even that. She put the windows down and cranked up the stereo, making sure no sad songs dogged her again that morning.
As she left Iron Hill behind, she felt as if a weight had been lifted. She was free of the shackles of her hometown once again and she was almost angry with herself for putting herself back there in the first place.
“What were you even thinking, Ash?” she said to herself with a half laugh as she shook her head. “Not even back in town for twenty-four hours, must be a new record.”
She pushed her foot down on the gas and drove as fast as she could without breaking any laws. The last thing she needed was to be pulled over and get in trouble with the cops again.
It wasn’t long before she was approaching Slate Springs and she wound down the window even more to let the fresh air blast in at her and keep her revived. Tyler had said he would be at the motel on the outskirts of town, and sure enough, only moments later, she saw the distant glare of the red neon sign looming up ahead. She slowed down and felt her heart begin to race a bit faster. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She had never even been to the town before. But she just found it strange that her brother should be there when he had always told her to stay away. Tyler was a part of the Iron Riders of Iron Hill, and it was well-known within the biking community that the Iron Riders and The Forsaken Riders had a grudge that went back decades. What could have changed for Tyler to suddenly feel at ease in the town?
Ashley slowed the car and pulled into the parking lot. The motel was bleak and run down, but she had seen and stayed at much worse, so it didn’t faze her. She turned off the ignition and looked around. She could see a line of bikes running along the outskirts of the walkway that led to the rooms as well as a few trucks. She opened the driver’s side door and climbed out into the burning sun and was glad to feel it on her skin once again. The past few days had been so miserable and strange, it felt good to have normality back.
She could see the doorway to the office leaning open, but instead of heading over there, she reached for her cell phone and called Tyler.
“Hello?” his voice was husky and deep on the other end.
“I’m here, come out and find me,” she laughed.
Tyler hung up without saying another word and within seconds, she heard a lock snap behind her and a door creak open. She turned to see Tyler emerge from the darkness of one of the motel rooms, with a bright, wide smile.
“Ash,” he said as he blinked through the sunlight.
It had been months since she had seen her brother, and she was so glad in that moment to have him. She ran toward him and threw her arms around him, giving him a big bear hug. Just like they used to do when they were kids.
“Hey,” he said as he backed away and pried her arms off him. “You’re going to kill my rep by doing shit like that.”
“Ha, ha,” she rolled her eyes. “I know you’re glad to see me really.”
He shrugged and turned to walk back into the motel room and Ashley followed suit. She knew the drill when it came to hanging around Tyler when he was “working”, and she knew he was cool and aloof in front of the other bikers.
She went inside and instantly felt
herself flinch. The room was stuffy and a mess. Balls of clothes were strewn all over the floor and the place reeked of stale smoke and take-out.
“Gross,” she said as she covered her mouth. “Jeez, when was the last time you cleaned this place?”
Tyler rolled his eyes and glared at her.
“If I’d have known I was in for a lecture, I wouldn’t have told you where I was.”
Ashley narrowed her eyes at him and pouted.
“You’re an absolute pig,” she stated as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well, look at our home life,” he snorted. “Not like I’ve ever had any other guidance.”
She had to admit, he had her there.
“Well, I didn’t come for an argument, I came to see how you were doing… And you’re here… in Slate Springs?” she asked nervously.
Tyler walked around the side of the bed and pulled the covers up so there was room for her to sit down. Knowing her brother’s reputation with the ladies, she dreaded to think what had gone down in that bed before she had gotten there, but she wasn’t in a position to be fussy. She was tired and wanted to know what the hell was going on.
“I’m staying here for a while,” Tyler said as he reached over to the nightstand grabbed a packet of cigarettes. He clamped one between his teeth before lighting it and dragging in on it deeply. Ashley instantly felt her insides clench. She couldn’t bear the smell of smoke inside. It reminded her too much of her childhood shortcomings.
“I thought this place was off limits?” she asked. The only question she could really think of that may encourage him to give her some sort of coherent answer.
“It was,” he said as he inhaled again. “But things have started to change.”
He looked at her curiously and Ashley couldn’t put her finger on what was different about him, but he was definitely a changed man. He wasn’t acting like the brother she remembered. Suddenly, he seemed weary and joyless. As if all of his fight was gone.
BREAKER (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 14) Page 1