Wicked Redemption (Dark Book 2)
Page 1
Table of Contents
Copyright
Author’s Note
Warning
Special Thanks
Playlist for Wicked Redemption
Ash
Ayden
Amber
First Look At Justified
Ashton Blackthorne
Wicked Redemption: A Dark Alpha Male Romance
Wicked Redemption
A Dark Alpha Male Romance
Ashton Blackthorne
Contents
Copyright
Author’s Note
Warning
Special Thanks
Playlist for Wicked Redemption
1. Ash
2. Ayden
3. Ash
4. Amber
5. Ash
6. Ayden
7. Ash
8. Ayden
9. Ash
10. Ayden
11. Ash
12. Amber
13. Ayden
14. Amber
15. Ash
16. Ayden
17. Ayden
18. Ayden
19. Amber
20. Ayden
21. Amber
22. Ayden
First Look At Justified
Ashton Blackthorne
Wicked Redemption: A Dark Alpha Male Romance
Wicked Redemption: A Dark Alpha Male Romance
Ashton Blackthorne
Copyright © 2017 Ashton Blackthorne
Author’s Note
The book you’re about to read, Wicked Redemption is based on real events from my own life. Obviously, some events have been embellished to increase the readers’ enjoyment. Specific names, events, and places have been changed to protect identities.
Wicked Redemption is the second book of the Dark Series. The third book will be released in August 2017.
Warning from the Author
Additionally, I would like readers to know that I ALWAYS practice and endorse safe sex. Condoms are consistently used. Sometimes, I do not choose to include specific safety details in the narrative as I feel that it damages the readers’ experience of the book. I encourage EVERYONE reading this book to always practice safe sex which includes getting regularly tested and using condoms.
Also, many scenes in this book contain graphic depictions of BDSM. This lifestyle can be very rewarding and pleasurable to those adults who choose to participate in it.
However, as with most things there are dangers.
Always be certain when indulging in these acts that you have a partner who is caring and alert to your needs. Employ a safe word and if that person doesn’t stop when it is used then that may be construed as abuse. Please review reliable internet sources if you feel that you are in an abusive relationship.
**This book does contain scenes of violence and drug abuse***
***Trigger warning***
This book does contain flashbacks of sexual abuse. It is not told to be titillating, rather to illustrate a character’s traumatic past. If these types of scenes upset you, please be aware of it.
Special Thanks To:
Blackthorne’s ARC Angels, the Wicked Wonders Street Team and my fantastic PA, Krissi Kissain! You are all a HUGE part of my success and I appreciate you all more than you know. A HUGE thanks to ALL my readers it’s for you that I keep on writing!
Playlist for Wicked Redemption-Listen to it HERE!
Take It Like a Woman-Alice Cooper
.45-Shinedown
Far From Home-Five Finger Death Punch
Remember Everything-Five Finger Death Punch
sAINT-Marilyn Manson
Coma White-Marilyn Manson
Into the Night-Benny Mardones
Last Resort-Papa Roach
Toy Soldiers-Martika
Deep Six-Marilyn Manson
Rainbow in the Dark-Dio
1
Ash
His words stopped me cold. I could hear my own heart beat like drums inside me. The pounding of my heart was so loud it drowned out any other sound.
What was Ayden saying?
I observed the scene unfold before me almost as if I was out of my own body. I saw myself standing there just as if I were watching a scene from a movie. I saw Ayden sitting in the chair leaning forward on his hands with an evil smirk on his face. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth. Amber was shouting something to me as she held my hand.
But I didn’t hear a word she said.
My heart continued to thunder in my ears.
The look on Amber’s face said it all as she paled dramatically at the words Ayden was speaking.
But again, I didn’t hear him either. I watched with strange detachment as they argued back and forth. Amber tugged on my hand.
Looking down at myself, I noticed my hand was still clutched at my shoulder with Amber’s dress covering my wound. Blood had soaked the garment and was beginning to drip down my arm. Surely, the pain from that wound must be overwhelming.
But I didn’t feel a thing.
“ASH!” Amber’s sharp fingernails dug into my hand.
Suddenly, I was slammed back into my body. The pain from my shoulder exploded inside me.
And I could hear everything.
“So, Ash, did I shock you? Or couldn’t you see the resemblance between us all along?” Ayden slowly stood up next to the chair.
“What?” I shook my head to clear it.
“He’s your brother.” Amber murmured, still in shock.
“My brother? How can that be?” Snapping to my senses, I pushed the pain aside.
Ayden chuckled.
“My name is Ayden Donovan, but it should’ve been Ayden Blackthorne.”
“So, my father is…your father?” I thought of Rita and all the other girlfriends my father had had.
Ayden began to pace the concrete floor as Amber kept a tight grip on the gun in her other hand.
“Yes, he is.”
“Then, who was your mother? Was it Rita? Terri?” I tried to think of all the women I’d known my father to be with. Perhaps it was some woman I never knew about.
Ayden shook his head.
“No, but you know her, Ash. You know her quite well.”
Again, I felt my heart began to thunder.
I swallowed hard trying to wrap my mind around it all.
“Enough with the cat and mouse bullshit, Ayden. Tell me!” My voice echoed throughout the room.
“My mother….let’s see, well, she wasn’t the best mom that was for sure. No, she let drugs rule her life much like your mother did, Ash.”
As I let his words sink in, I realized what he was saying.
His mother was my mother.
His father was my father.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t remain standing any longer. I collapsed against the wall slowly allowing myself to sink down.
“Ash, are you okay?” Amber knelt down beside me.
I nodded.
“He’s bleeding heavily, Ayden. I’ve got to get him to a hospital. Please, can’t you help us?” Amber pleaded with him. Blood began to pool on the floor next to me. I felt faint. The lights in the room began to dim and Amber’s face floated before me.
Ayden stood up walking towards us. He rubbed his own bleeding face.
“What makes you think I would?”
“Because he’s your brother.”
I heard them argue back and forth over me until I thought I would pass out. I managed to choke out the one question burning in my mind.
“Tell me, Ayden, why didn’t my father tell me about you?”
Ayden’s voice took on a sinister tone. He crept closer to us.
“Because he wanted t
o protect his precious son. But he was my father, too.”
I nodded, feeling darkness begin to close over my mind.
I gazed up to meet his hazel eyes. Now I understood why they were so much like my own.
My brother.
“Ayden---“I whispered as I felt myself falling through the darkness.
“ASH!” Amber’s scream was the last thing I heard.
2
Ayden
So, I guess you think I’m an asshole. And you’re right about that. But I didn’t mean for it to go down the way it did.
Amber was collateral damage. I loved her very deeply. But when I found out that my father didn’t want a relationship with me, I was devastated. I handled it the only way I knew how.
Stalking her, terrorizing her.
Okay, so now you think I’m blaming my poor coping skills on my traumatic childhood.
Damn right I am.
Growing up with a drug addicted mother in a rundown area of Chicago moving from house to house with a parade of live in lovers was awful to say the least. I never knew who my father was as a child.
It was only when I found my birth certificate that I realized my mother had been lying to me my entire life.
The man I believed to be my father wasn’t.
Instead of James Donovan being listed on my birth certificate, I saw the name Ashler Blackthorne.
My heart stopped as I recalled hearing the name Ashler Blackthorne in the media. He was a multi-millionaire real estate guy from New York. His face was plastered all over tabloid TV shows.
As was his son’s, Ashton Blackthorne.
Ashton Blackthorne, young, handsome, wealthy, and a Harvard grad. He’d recently been made partner at a huge New York investment bank. Ashton Blackthorne, the man all the ladies swooned over, and the tabloids adored. He was always photographed with a bevy of gorgeous women at his side.
And that fucking prick was my brother…..
It was the year 2001. I’d been living on the streets for three years to get away from my mother’s drug abuse and constant drama. I’d done a lot of terrible things and seen even worse. I was ready for a change. I’d decided to go into the Navy to get away.
It was then I found out who my real father was.
But I wasn’t ready to meet him yet.
By 2009, after being in the Navy and finishing college, I felt good enough to go to New York to meet him.
You know, maybe cash in on the wealthy bloodline.
But when I confronted my father, the great Ashler Blackthorne he didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms.
No, he claimed he didn’t know a thing about me.
Nor did his precious only son, Ashton.
So for the next year, I bummed around New York City working at a job in an investment bank just hoping and waiting for the moment when good old Dad would come around….
As I watched Amber help my brother up the stairs, I couldn’t help but wonder what my life would’ve been like had Ash known about me.
Shaking my head, I looked around the carnage surrounding me. The concrete floor was covered in blood.
His blood.
My blood.
Blood brothers.
That’s what we were.
And that’s what we’d be.
3
Ash
“I can’t fucking believe it. How could I have a brother all these years and not know it?” I pounded my fists in anger on the bed.
Amber stood by my side looking at me with such love and concern in her eyes.
“Ash, I don’t know what to say. I’m at a loss for words.”
Gazing into her big blue eyes, my heart melted. She was still the woman I wanted. Through everything she’d been by my side.
Still, thinking about crawling out of that basement fighting our way outside to my car, I couldn’t believe what Ayden had told me.
Maybe there was still a chance it wasn’t true.
But his eyes…they were so like mine. Now with Ayden’s revelation, I couldn’t help but face the truth.
Ayden Donovan was my brother.
Suddenly, the door to my room swung open and a short, stout man in a white coat appeared. He smiled at me as he picked up his clipboard.
“So, Mr. Blackthorne, you appear to be doing much better. Your signs all look good.” He adjusted his thick glasses on his face.
As I struggled to sit up, pain exploded throughout my shoulder.
“Now, take it easy, Mr. Blackthorne.”
“Call me Ash.” I moaned still reeling from the intense pain.
“Ash, try to rest.” Amber reached over to push the hair from my brow.
“Your wife is right, Ash. You’ve suffered a great deal of blood loss. We had to give you a small transfusion.”
My heart thudded.
“She’s not my wife,” I whispered regretting the correction as I watched Amber’s face fall.
“I’m sorry.”
Then the doctor’s words sank in. Blood transfusion?
“I’m sorry, Doctor, did you say blood transfusion?”
“Yes, it wasn’t much, but you were low.”
My fists curled the bed sheets into knots.
It couldn’t be…
It just couldn’t be…
Ayden!
“Where did you get the blood from, Doctor?” The words fell from my lips readily although I dreaded the reply. To think his blood literally coursed through my veins sickened me.
“From the local blood bank, of course.”
I sighed with relief.
The doctor grinned revealing his even, white teeth.
“Or rather that’s where we normally get the blood. However, in your case, your brother who has the same blood type graciously donated his own blood to you.”
I shot up in the bed careless of how much it hurt my shoulder.
“Amber! How could you let them give me his blood?” I demanded.
She grinned slowly as she ran her hand down to my chest.
“Now when we fuck it will be like I’m fucking both of you at the same time.”
I fell back against the bed gasping for air. It was all too much. It was all…
My eyes fluttered open. The bright fluorescent burned my eyes as I looked around the sterile room. I was in the hospital, but I couldn’t recall why at first.
Then I remembered.
Ayden.
Amber.
I looked around and saw Amber sitting in a chair next to my bed. My eyes trailed upwards to see all the tubes and bags next to me.
“Amber.” My voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Ash!” She cried jumping to my side.
“What happened?”
She smoothed my hair back from my forehead.
“You were stabbed, don’t you remember?”
I closed my eyes a moment. I could see Ayden’s hand lashing out at me, the knife embedding itself deep into my shoulder.
“Yes. It was Ayden.”
She nodded slowly. Her hair fell all around her face.
“So how did we get here?”
“Ayden brought us.”
“Am I okay? My shoulder feels so stiff.” I tried to move, but winced as pain shot through my body.
“Yes, you lost a lot of blood though.”
Oh God, no. The dream!
“Did they give me a blood transfusion?”
“Yes, why?”
My stomach tightened. I felt as if I’d vomit.
“It wasn’t…Ayden’s blood, was it?”
“No, of course not. Why would you think that?”
“Because he’s my brother.”
I shuddered recalling my dream.
“Amber, is he here?”
“Who?” She asked taking my hand.
“Ayden.”
She shook her head.
“No, the police are everywhere. There’s one outside the door on 24 hour watch. They think I was held hostage for money.” She laughed.
“Who
told them that?”
“I have no idea. Theories are flying about what happened to us. I haven’t spoken to anyone about it.”
“Good.”
“Amber, his mother is my mother. We are full blood brothers.” I looked down.
“I know, Ash.” She swallowed hard.
“How do you feel about that?”
She stared down at me with tears welling in the corners of her eyes.
“I can’t say I’m thrilled, Ash, but I love you. It doesn’t matter to me who you’re related to.”
Knowing that the man who’d terrorized her years ago and just kidnapped her a few days ago was my brother must be astonishing to her.
But then this was Amber, the strongest woman I’d ever known.
I squeezed her hand. Looking up into her eyes, I knew this was the only woman I’d ever truly loved. Veronica had just been a childhood sweetheart.
No, Amber was the woman for me.
I just needed to find the words to tell her.
A few days passed and they released me from the hospital. Immediately, I was sent home to my house in the Hamptons with my private nurse and Amber.
“Ash, what are we going to do about Ayden? The cops keep asking questions and the media is all over this story.”
I stared up at the ceiling. For once, I was speechless.
“I don’t really know, Amber. I still can’t get over he’s my brother. I grew up my entire life believing I was an only child. I can’t believe my father lied to me.”