I pulled my Springfield XD-S out of its holster, slowly starting to make my way into the silent house. Something was seriously wrong. The stillness disturbed me as very hair on my body stood on end.
Just as I got through the front door, Alastor lunged for me.
I got one shot off, but it only grazed his forearm.
As he fought his way on top of me, slamming my fist into the tiled flooring, I saw Jett’s still, bloodied body on the ground in the kitchen.
“You fucking piece of shit!” I wailed as my hand was forced to release my weapon.
Alastor spit in my face. “I only came for what belongs to me. No one needed to get hurt.”
“She will never be yours.” I was able to throw him off of me and land a few good punches before he revealed the knife that had been hiding in his back pocket.
“You’re wrong. She loves me and I love her. All I want to do is bring my precious home with me. I don’t want to hurt her.”
I pounced on him, trying to fight the knife out of his grip. “You’re never taking her, not unless I am no longer standing.”
“That can be arranged,” he snarled as he whipped down and tried to slice right through my Achilles tendon.
What a fucking pussy.
Thank God for leather riding boots.
We continued to wrestle until he got the better of me and the knife was at my throat.
With every jab of my elbow and every thrash I could muster, the blade pressed harder into my skin.
“If you’re going to do it, just fucking do it, you good-for-nothing piece of shit!” I bellowed, throwing a few more elbows into his ribcage.
“Fine,” he growled.
I closed my eyes, and instead of feeling my neck being flayed open, I heard a gunshot go off. Pain shot through my shoulder as Alastor’s grip released from behind me.
My eyes flew open to see Katherine standing in the middle of the room with my Springfield XD-S shaking in her hands.
Dropping to her knees, she screamed as the gun fell to the floor. “What have I done?”
I grabbed my shoulder and rushed to Jett to check for a pulse. It was faint, but still there. He was gushy blood from countless knife wounds, but he was still fucking alive.
I fought the bile in the back of my throat and threw Jett over my good shoulder.
Grabbing Katherine’s hand, I ran to my truck. “We have to get out of here.”
As I dragged her along, she whimpered, “Jett?”
“He’s going to be fine, Katherine.” I tossed him onto the back seat as blood flooded and pooled around him.
“Promise?” The agony that leapt from deep within her soul with that one word broke every piece of me.
“Katherine, I need you to focus. Can you do that for me?”
She sniffled and wiped her nose. “I don’t know.”
“You have to get my cellphone out of the glovebox and call Hawk,” I instructed in a low, even tone.
“O-Okay.” She sniveled as her hands shook uncontrollably.
“We have to get to the hospital because Jett and I are both losing a lot of blood. Do you understand? I need your help.”
She finally snapped into action. As she dialed on speakerphone, the droning tone took over the cab.
“Reese?”
“Yeah, man, I need your help.”
“What’s going on?”
“I need you to call the cops and tell them there was a break-in at my house. Don’t give them any more information than that. Just tell them I am going to Mercy Hospital and they can get my statement there. I have Jett and Katherine with me.”
“Are you guys okay?”
“She’s shaken up but fine. Jett is in rough shape but he’ll pull through. I just need some stitches, but I will be good as new soon enough.”
“On it.”
CHAPTER 13
KATHERINE
Sitting just outside the room where Reese was getting stitched up, I rocked back and forth in a plastic chair. My eyes were squeezed shut as I tried to force the sight of my wounded brother and Alastor lying dead on the floor out of my mind. It was the worst feeling in the world—to finally be free of Alastor, I’d had to risk the most important people in my life.
“Ma’am?” A low voice started to break into my consciousness. “Excuse me, ma’am?”
I forced myself to look up at the police officer staring down at me.
“Yes?”
“Were you involved in a shooting this evening?”
I nodded.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
I shook my head.
“Can you tell me your name?”
I swallowed hard. “Katherine Cowen.”
Reese trotted over to us, pulling his bloody shirt back over his head.
“Can I help you, officer?”
“Are you Reese Hardgrave?” the officer asked, finally shifting his attention off of me.
Reese straightened out his back. “I am.”
“Mind telling me what happened this evening at your home?”
Reese’s hand landed on my shoulder. “A man broke into my house, attacked my best friend, and tried to abduct my girlfriend. He was about to slit my throat when Katherine shot him.”
“How did you get that gunshot wound if your attacker had a knife on you?”
I held my breath as Reese answered, “Katherine shot through my shoulder, getting Alastor right in the chest.”
“You knew the assailant?” the officer asked, continuing to pry open the entire evening.
“He held Katherine prisoner for seven years in a basement,” Reese explained. Hearing the words fall into the air made me feel dizzy immediately.
“Ma’am, is this true?” The cop’s eyes were wide as I willed myself to stand next to Reese.
“It is. A little over seven years ago, Alastor Fleming kidnapped me. Reese rescued me a couple months ago, and when Alastor figured out where we were, he tried to come for me again. He tried to kill my brother and Reese. I couldn’t let him do that. I had to protect my family.” I fell into Reese’s arms as he tucked me into his side.
“I think the two of you are going to need to come down to the station so we can sort through all of this out.”
I glanced up at Reese for the answer as to what to do.
“Gladly—with a lawyer present, and once Jett is up and moving. We’re not leaving this hospital until he is all patched up,” Reese responded.
“Whatever makes you more comfortable.” The officer looked down to me. “I hope your brother gets better soon, Miss Cowen.”
“Thank you.”
REESE
WALKING in to Jett’s room was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do.
Watching as Katherine collapsed onto his bedside, crawling up to lay next to her brother was completely heartbreaking.
He was pale, with tubes coming out of him from everywhere. I fucking hated that he was on a ventilator.
“Is he going to make it?” Katherine whimpered as she gripped his arm to her.
I pulled a chair up next to her. “He is. The doctors said that it was a mericle that he was alive and that is a good sign. It means that he is a fighter.”
“This is all of my fault.
“No.” I put my hand on her side. “This is Alastor’s fault. But he got what he deserves and now we’re all finally free of him.”
“Promise?”
“I promise, babe. You’re finally safe.”
EPILOGUE
KATHERINE
MONTHS LATER
Completely protected—that was exactly how Reese made me feel.
It took a little over a week for Jett to be released from the hospital. He had suffered multiple stab wounds and lost an enormous amount of blood, but that man was nothing if not a stronger than hell.
After everything got cleared up with the cops from that night and the investigation was closed, we were all finally able to get on with our lives to the best of our abilities.
<
br /> A piece of my soul was killed along with Alastor that night—the blackened portion he had burned away for so many years. Getting rid of the awful burden was the first step in my healing.
Slowly, I started to pick my life up off of the floor. Reese taught me how to drive, got me a job as a bartender at the Red Crow not too far from his house, and let Jett move in with us. It took me a while, but I finally started to branch out and make friends with the other ladies who hung around Reese’s club.
Jett immediately jumped at the opportunity to join the organization, going through the shortest prospect period in the history of the Unacceptables—which wasn’t surprising.
Everything felt so right. Everything was finally normal in my life.
Things were still new to me, but I was learning every day. The hardest thing to get used to was cellphones, but they were extremely useful and pretty fun once I started to get the hang of them.
Sitting on the couch watching a new-to-me episode of Seinfeld, Reese looked over at me from the other side of the couch.
“Hey, Kat?” he asked while biting his lip.
“Yeah?” I narrowed my eyes at him as I realized how nervous he was in that moment.
“Marry me?” He inched closer, grabbing my hand. “I don’t want to rush you into anything and I will completely understand if you don’t want to, but I really have come to care for you. I completely and wholly love you and I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you as my wife.”
“I don’t know how to be a wife,” I naïvely responded.
“It’s easy. We do exactly what we are doing now, just as husband and wife,” he explained.
“I think I already know my answer to that.” I could feel my cheeks burning.
“I need to hear you say yes, babe.” He kissed my cheek as a smile raked across my face.
I leaned into to him, pulling his arms around me. “Yes, Reese. I would love to marry you.”
THE END.
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WANT MORE OF THE UNACCEPTABLES?
The Unacceptables MC Series is made up of steamy, gritty, standalone romances focusing on the Unacceptables Motorcycle club! From the presidents of the chapters, to their swoon-worthy club members, to the old ladies that are the backbone of the club - this series has it all, with tons of characters that will rev your engine while melting your heart, keeping you turning those pages... So, grab your e-reader and get your heart racing while falling in love with this amazing group of hard-core bikers and their entire family as they take you on one hell of a wild ride!
UNACCEPTABLE
It’s finally my time.
Time to escape from my mother, her crazy antics and questionable morals. I'm getting the heck out of Dodge, leaving the trailer park, to make something of myself. Everything was fine until I walked into The Unacceptables' bar and met Abel Hellock. With his gorgeous muscles, tattoos, motorcycle and perfect smile, my knees quaked. My life was about to be sucked back into the seedy underbelly I fought so desperately to climb out of.
Everything was fine until I met my step-brother for the first time.
UNSPEAKABLE
It's finally my time...
Everyone has their damn breaking point, why did the president of my MC's daughter have to be mine? She was everything I wanted, and nothing I could have. Being a prospect was hard enough. Living with my father that I had only known for a few years wasn't making life any easier. And there I was, ready to jeopardize it all for love. I went to Vilas to figure out where I came from, little did I know that I wasn't just going to be passing through. This life was pumping through my veins my whole life, I just didn't know it until I walked into the Unacceptable's bar for the first time.
Raine Hellock was my kryptonite and come hell or high water, I was going to figure out how to make her mine.
UNBREAKABLE
The life I live is a dangerous one:
I am the wife of an outlaw.
The daughter of the Unacceptables' President.
But it's finally our time. Time to truly start our life. With our first baby on the way, Ryder and my life could not be more perfect.
The club is doing well and the family is stronger than ever. But, is it all too good to be true?
After all, I am their kryptonite and they will stop at nothing to protect me and my child. Can Ryder and the rest of his club be enough to keep us safe?
UNTOUCHABLE
The life I live is a dangerous one:
I am an outlaw.
A proud member of the Unacceptables MC.
Our club is a family and we will do anything to protect it - and I mean anything.
The dust was finally settling from our last war. I was sober, the MC was healing from our loss, and life was getting back to normal. But regicide cannot go unpunished.
And when a newcomer arrives and threatens all that we hold dear...well, he better watch his back, because...
I am Trent Laurence.
I will stop at nothing to protect what I believe in.
UNBEARABLE
It is finally my time.
I am an outlaw. The president of the Atlanta charter of the Unacceptables MC.
You can call me Bear.
I've given my blood, sweat, and life to my club. Devotion is a complete understatement.
It wasn't until a cute blonde walked into my garage that I considered giving myself to anything else.
Her perfect smile drew me in. Her sass made me crazy.
I'll do anything to protect my MC - and now her.
UNDENIABLE
Ryan Axston may have been my brother's best friend, but he is so much more than that to me...
He was my first everything. Kiss. Sexual encounter. Love. Ax had my whole heart, but he had no freaking clue.
He always wanted to be a Marine. It was in his blood. The day his brother was shipped home in a body bag, Ax signed up and left town to do his duty to his country.
I forced myself to move on. I really thought he was gone forever.
When he showed back up wearing the Unacceptables' skull and bones on his back ten years later, I thought I'd be able to fight all the old feelings I had for Ax. I was older, wiser, and unofficial godmother to my best friend's adorable little girl, Annie.
But all he had to do was crook his finger and it was as if I was 17 all over again. I wasn't willing to sit back and let him tear us apart again. This time I was going to fight for what I wanted. But not even my love could stop a bullet. One of us was going to have to make a life-altering choice. Would it be me, or him?
UNTAMED
Available exclusively in The Unacceptables Series Box Set
I am the Butcher.
I am an enforcer for the Unacceptables MC.
There are choices we make that we can never come back from and I have to live with the consequences of mine.
I am Rave.
I am the loving father of a little five year old girl.
There came a day when I had to walk away from everything I loved and I am going to stop at nothing to make this right.
UNCUT
He was a former Marine.
He used to be an enforcer for the Unacceptables MC.
Ryan Axston gave up everything for love - for me. His pa
tch, his gun, everything he thought he wanted in life. He claims that nothing compares to our perfect new life.
But is everything too perfect?
Could an outlaw really walk away completely?
UNSCARRED
It is finally our time.
He’s an outlaw. The president of the Atlanta charter of the Unacceptables MC.
I’m his old lady – devoted, strong, and ready for anything.
But was I ready for what was coming?
Everything was perfect, or so it seemed.
It wasn’t until a bone chilling knock at our door that I considered running.
Our perfect life was about to be shattered.
He’d do anything to protect me and his club. But was it enough to really keep everyone safe?
UNSTABLE
It's finally my time... I am an outlaw.
The proud right-hand man to the president in the Unacceptables MC.
I wasn't prepared for the curveball life was about to throw at me. But if there is one thing I have learned from being in my organization: you have to be ready for anything.
When Ryder showed up on my doorstep, I wasn't sure if I could handle it. I didn't know how to be a father.
I am Holt Walsh, and this is my story.
TIS THE SEASON
It's finally my time.
I am an outlaw. The son of Abel Hellock. The legacy of my club.
They all called me too sweet for the life. My club was losing faith in me and the entire organization. I had to prove to them and myself that I was the man my father would have wanted me to be.
When the holidays rolled around, I was more Scrooge than Jolly Saint Nick. That is until she tested me: a girl that I didn't know but I needed to protect. I wasn't prepared for how my life was about to change. But if there is one thing I have learned from being in my organization: you have to be ready for anything.
I am Collin Hellock and this is my story.
UNFIXABLE
It is finally my time.
Unfixable: An Unacceptables MC Standalone Romance Page 6