The Fight for Forever
Page 1
The Fight for Forever
Meghan March
Contents
The Fight for Forever
Also by Meghan March
About The Fight For Forever
1. Gabe
2. Scarlett
3. Legend
4. Scarlett
5. Legend
6. Legend
7. Scarlett
8. Legend
9. Scarlett
10. Legend
11. Legend
12. Scarlett
13. Legend
14. Scarlett
15. Legend
16. Scarlett
17. Legend
18. Scarlett
19. Legend
20. Scarlett
21. Legend
22. Scarlett
23. Legend
24. Scarlett
25. Legend
26. Scarlett
27. Legend
28. Scarlett
29. Legend
30. Legend
31. Scarlett
32. Legend
33. Scarlett
34. Legend
35. Legend
36. Scarlett
37. Legend
38. Scarlett
39. Legend
40. Scarlett
41. Scarlett
42. Legend
43. Legend
44. Scarlett
45. Legend
46. Scarlett
47. Legend
48. Legend
49. Scarlett
50. Legend
51. Scarlett
52. Legend
53. Scarlett
54. Legend
55. Scarlett
56. Legend
57. Scarlett
58. Legend
Epilogue
Sneak Peek of Creole Kingpin
Sneak Peek of Ruthless King
Acknowledgments
Also by Meghan March
About the Author
The Fight for Forever
Book Three of the Legend Trilogy
* * *
Meghan March
Copyright © 2019 by Meghan March LLC
All rights reserved.
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Editor: Pam Berehulke, Bulletproof Editing,
www.bulletproofediting.com
Cover photo and design: © Regina Wamba, Mae I Design,
www.exclusivebookstock.com
* * *
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
* * *
Visit my website at www.meghanmarch.com.
Also by Meghan March
Magnolia Duet
Creole Kingpin
(March 2020)
Madam Temptress
(April 2020)
* * *
Legend Trilogy
The Fall of Legend
House of Scarlett
The Fight for Forever
* * *
Dirty Mafia Duet:
Black Sheep
White Knight
* * *
Forge Trilogy:
Deal with the Devil
Luck of the Devil
Heart of the Devil
* * *
Sin Trilogy:
Richer Than Sin
Guilty as Sin
Reveling in Sin
* * *
Mount Trilogy:
Ruthless King
Defiant Queen
Sinful Empire
* * *
Savage Trilogy:
Savage Prince
Iron Princess
Rogue Royalty
Beneath Series:
Beneath This Mask
Beneath This Ink
Beneath These Chains
Beneath These Scars
Beneath These Lies
Beneath These Shadows
Beneath The Truth
* * *
Dirty Billionaire Trilogy:
Dirty Billionaire
Dirty Pleasures
Dirty Together
* * *
Dirty Girl Duet:
Dirty Girl
Dirty Love
* * *
Real Duet:
Real Good Man
Real Good Love
* * *
Real Dirty Duet:
Real Dirty
Real Sexy
* * *
Flash Bang Series:
Flash Bang
Hard Charger
* * *
Standalones:
Take Me Back
Bad Judgment
About The Fight For Forever
You can only keep what you can protect.
That’s all I’ve ever known. It’s the way I’ve lived my life.
Now, everything I never knew I needed is at risk, and I’m not letting anyone take it from me.
I won’t let anyone take her from me.
They say love is a battlefield, so I’m ready for war.
This time, it’s the fight for forever.
The Fight for Forever is the third and final book of the Legend Trilogy and should be enjoyed following The Fall of Legend and House of Scarlett. In addition to The Fight for Forever, I’ve also included a sneak peek of Creole Kingpin, my next Anti-Heroes Collection story, which is set in our beloved New Orleans and the world of the Beneath Series and the Mount Trilogy. Creole Kingpin is now available for preorder by tapping on the title.
One
Gabe
Fifteen years earlier
I read a sign once that said you were only one decision away from a completely different life.
That hit me hard.
So I made a fucking decision, and now we’d all have a completely different life. Me, Jorie, and Bump. Nothing would ever be the same after today.
As I walked past the barber shop, the duffel bag of cash hanging heavy in my grip, the TV inside blared about the storm closing in. In Biloxi, we didn’t get too excited about that shit. I didn’t give a fuck that people were saying this one was going to be a big one. If it was up to me, we’d be out of this town before it made landfall. That was, if it even really came our way at all.
Rain beat against my hat, dripping off to slide down the collar of my T-shirt. The T-shirt I’d never wear again, because I’d be dressing in better shit from now on. The cash in the bag was going to make certain of that.
I’d finally be able to get Jorie to LA, so she could cut a single in a real studio and get it to the bigwigs at the record companies. I’d conquer the city and build a club where she could perform while she soared on the charts. That was our plan. That had always been our plan.
She’d been quiet lately, and I knew it was because of how fucking tight money was. It was weighing on her. I’d seen the desperation in her eyes, and that’s why I did what I did.
I was done robbing Peter to pay Paul.
No, a voice in my head piped up. You just robbed Moses to get the fuck out of town and save Jorie before she does something stupid.
Th
e rumble of a cammed-up ride had me dipping my head and turning the corner to duck into an alley.
Moses couldn’t have found out what I did yet. I gotta have at least a day or two to get ahead of this.
I already had a plan. I’d get home, we’d pack our shit, buy a car for cash, and be gone by sunrise without leaving a trail to follow.
The growl of the exhaust quieted as the car drove on down the road, but the custom license plate told me everything I needed to know about the driver.
BOSSMAN.
Moses’s personal ride.
No. He’s not looking for me. Stop thinking that shit. Still, I put some hustle in my step and bypassed the corner store and the flowers I planned on buying to surprise Jorie with when I shared the good news with her.
Get home and then get the fuck out of town. That was all I needed to do. We’d all be better off as soon as we hit the city limits.
When I made it to our shithole apartment complex, some wannabe gangsters sat outside with guns in their laps, like they were the fucked-up neighborhood watch.
They all lifted their chins in my direction, but thankfully their eyes stayed off the bag.
“What up, Gabe?” a kid from Texas asked. He went by Lonestar, but I didn’t know his real name.
“Not shit.”
“When you gonna quit playin’ at the gym and fight for real? I’ll take you on.”
I shrugged but kept walking. “Talk to me next week.”
His crew of boys hollered and hooted as I jogged up to our apartment on the fourth floor. It was only a one-bedroom, so I wasn’t surprised to see Bump on the couch with the TV on when I opened the door.
As much as I wished he’d apprentice to learn a trade or something, I’d rather have him working his eight-hour shift at the hardware store than hanging with those assholes out front. Beggars couldn’t be choosy, after all.
“You’re back early,” Bump said as his gaze dropped to the duffel. “What’s in the bag?”
“Where’s your sister?”
“Said she had to run a quick errand. Did you see the shit they’re saying about the storm? We’re gonna have to evacuate and go to a shelter. Hardware store is out of every fucking thing because people are freaking the fuck out. It’s like they’ve never seen a hurricane warning before.”
I remembered the last storm that changed my life forever, and how my mother wouldn’t budge until I lied to her about there being a hurricane party. I wasn’t doing that shit again. We were getting the fuck out of Biloxi.
“Pack everything that matters to you. We’re leaving before it hits.”
Bump’s eyebrows went up. “You really want to go to a shelter? I guess they’re saying it’s a mean one, so maybe it’s a good idea.”
I didn’t want to tell Bump the news before I told Jorie, so I let him think what he wanted. “Order a pizza, if they’re still delivering. Jorie’s favorite. We’re celebrating tonight.”
“Celebrating what?”
The surprised tone of his voice was all the evidence I needed to know that I’d made the right choice. We hadn’t had shit to celebrate in months. It was time for a different fucking life.
I shifted the bag to my shoulder. “I’ll tell you when your sister gets back. I’m hopping in the shower.”
“What about cash for the pizza?”
More than anything, I wanted to reach into the duffel and pull out a fat stack of bills and toss it to him—just to see his jaw drop—but that could wait.
I snagged my wallet instead and peeled off forty bucks. “Here. Make the call. I’m fucking hungry.”
As soon as I finished my shower, Jorie’s voice filtered in through the closed bathroom door.
“What do you mean, we’re celebrating? Gabe? What’s going on?”
I opened the door, a towel wrapped around my waist and the bag slung over my shoulder, and I grabbed her hands. “Come on. I gotta show you something.”
I pulled her into the bedroom and shut the door behind us. Her beautiful face screwed up in confusion.
“What’s going on? I’m not banging you right now. I need a shower too, you know. I hope you didn’t use up all the hot water.”
I shook my head and tossed the bag on the unmade bed. “I’m not trying to get laid, and you’re never gonna have to worry about running out of hot water again. I need to show you this.” With her hand tugging away from mine, I released her to unzip the duffel and looked at her.
Jorie’s eyes widened as she stared into the bag, and her mouth hung open as if it were on a broken hinge.
“What the fuck did you do, Gabe?” she whispered in horror as she began to tremble. “What the fuck did you do?”
The look of horror on her face was not what I expected. “I got us a future. Got us out of this fucking town. Just what you wanted. We’re going to LA. You’re gonna get your record made. I’m gonna build a club, and we’ll have the life you’ve always wanted.”
With her hand covering her mouth, she shook her head back and forth, almost in slow motion. “Gabe . . . what did you do?”
My excitement to tell her the good news drained away, and anger grew in its place. My hands landed on my hips, and I straightened my shoulders.
“I’m making shit happen because that’s what I do. I’m the one who takes care of this family, and we’re leaving. Before morning. Pack your shit. Everyone will think we’re evacuating because of the hurricane.”
“Leave? We can’t leave. We have a life here. Friends. Jobs.”
The panic in her voice didn’t make sense to me, so I brushed it aside.
“This isn’t the life we want, Jorie. We’re starting over. All three of us.” I pointed to the stacks of cash. “And this is how I’m making it happen.”
She swallowed hard. “You stole it, didn’t you?”
My jaw tensed, and my fingers flexed. “I made a smart interception and turned it to our advantage.”
Jorie shook her head again before walking to the bed to sit down next to the bag. She reached out to trail a finger along the hundreds before looking up at me again. “What did you intercept? From who?”
My teeth grinding together, I bit out my answer. “Moses.”
“Fucking hell.” Her entire body stiffened. “You have to take it back. Give it back. You can’t cross him, Gabe. You can’t.”
Didn’t she understand? We would be long gone before he even suspected me. “That’s why we’re leaving tonight.”
“I can’t leave tonight. That’s not happening.”
I jerked back to stare at her. “What the fuck do you have to stay for? You and me and Bump are going. There’s nothing here for us anymore but fucking death when Moses finds out.”
“Baby . . .” Jorie bowed her head. “I . . . I gotta tell you—”
“Holy fuck, you guys. Come see this. This Katrina bitch sounds way fucking bad!” Bump yelled from the living room.
Jorie jumped off the bed. As she strode for the door, she looked over her shoulder at me. “I got shit I have to handle before we leave town. We ride out this storm, and then we’ll figure it out. Okay?”
“Jorie, no. We go now.” It wasn’t debatable. I was doing things my way.
“If you go now, you go without me.”
Her words hit me like a two-by-four to the chest, knocking the wind out of me.
“How the fuck can you say that?” I called after her, but she’d already slammed the bedroom door. I dropped my head into my hands. “What the fuck is going on?” I asked the empty room, but no answer came.
I couldn’t leave without her and Bump. No fucking way.
The storm hit fucking hard, way worse than any of us expected.
I rode it out with Jorie and Bump in the bathtub of our shit-box bathroom, with me lying on top of the mattress covering them. The wind roared so loud, I felt like I was standing in front of a train. Glass shattered. Shit flew. The entire building vibrated until I was sure it was going to fall apart and leave us in a pile of rubble.
But it didn’t. Miraculously, we all survived without injury.
And that’s when shit got really, really fucking bad.
“I have to go get us some water. We need water. Why the fuck don’t we have water?” Jorie said, slamming the empty cupboard door for the dozenth time.
We hadn’t prepared for the hurricane, and we were shit out of luck. Not to mention thirsty and hungry after hours on end hunkered down.
“You two stay here,” I told her and Bump as I reached for the doorknob. “I’ll get supplies and come right back.”
“Gabe, no. What if—”