Finding Rhiannon
Page 1
Table of Contents
Prologue
Copyright
Author Note
Thank You
Rhiannon
Scorch
Avery
Slade/Frost
Frost/Slade
Playlist
Acknowledgments
About Ker
Stalk Links
Also by Ker Dukey
About DH Sidebottom
FINDING RHIANNON
A Lilith’s Army MC Novel
Ker Dukey
D H Sidebottom
Illustrated by
Amy Queau
Contents
Copyright
Author Note
Thank You
Prologue
1. Rhiannon
2. Rhiannon
3. Scorch
4. Avery
5. Rhiannon
6. Slade/Frost
7. Avery
8. Frost/Slade
9. Rhiannon
10. Scorch
11. Slade/Frost
12. Avery
13. Slade/Frost
14. Avery
15. Slade/Frost
16. Rhiannon
17. Scorch
18. Avery
19. Rhiannon
20. Avery
21. Slade/Frost
22. Rhiannon
23. Slade/Frost
24. Scorch
25. Rhiannon
26. Avery
27. Slade/Frost
28. Scorch
29. Slade/Frost
30. Rhiannon
31. Slade/Frost
32. Scorch
Playlist
Acknowledgments
About Ker
Stalk Links
Also by Ker Dukey
About DH Sidebottom
FINDING RHIANNON
A Lilith’s Army MC Novel.
D H Sidebottom & Ker Dukey.
Copyright © 2018 Ker Dukey
Copyright © 2018 D H Sidebottom
Cover Design: Amy Queau with Q Designs
Photo: Stock Image
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. 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 and retrieval system without express written permission from the Author/Publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Author Note
This title is an MC novel, therefore, has some darker themes.
This is Book 2 in ‘The Lilith’s Army Series’ to fully enjoy this title, you should have read book one first ‘Taking Avery’
Available here Here
We hope you enjoy the ride.
Dedication
For all our wild, brave, dark Princesses out there.
You don’t need your own bike when you have your own biker.
Thank You
Allison Irwin
Thank you for your keen eye and invaluable input.
You’re a bad bitch.
Prologue
Rhiannon
“I love you,” he whispers on his last breath. The rhythmic movement of his ribcage stills beneath my hand.
Every girl in love longs to hear those three special words, but not like this, not on the stained red lips of the man you’re not sure how to live without.
I want to reverse time.
Go back.
Change everything from playing out like this.
We all rode into a tornado to try and find the calm at its centre.
But, like the saying goes, the calm always comes before the storm.
1
Rhiannon
4 weeks ago
“You’re free to go.”
It’s not the three little words that we’re supposed to long to hear, but hell, I’ll take the four the officer mutters over them any day. With them brings me more relief and happiness than any I love yous could have at this moment in time.
“Sign here,” he grumbles, his brow dipping low over tired, wrinkled eyes.
A snap pierces the dead air, and I startle when the officer slams a pen on the counter.
He drops a clear bag down next to the pen, which contains some jewelry and the loose change they’d confiscated from me when cuffing me along with everyone else at the Cutters’ club.
Without raising his head to look at me and blowing out an exasperated breath, he taps his finger on the line requesting a signature. He is obviously in need of a vacation.
Picking up the pen from the counter, I let the ink smudge out my name with a flick of my wrist over where he indicates and then hand it back to him before picking up the bag with my belongings inside.
“Thanks…” I offer, just stopping myself from adding ‘asshole’.
He grunts in return, still without looking up from whatever has his attention beneath the counter. Probably porn on his cell. Perv.
The overhead light buzzes and flickers, illuminating the small foyer area that’s empty apart from me one side of the counter and the officer on the other. It’s eerily quiet, and the unsettled stirring that’s been living in my gut since those assholes took me to the Cutters’ club is still present inside me.
I rush to the exit as fast as my shoes carry me, the fear they’ll decide to keep me longer if they realize who I actually am driving me forward in haste.
I’d assumed they thought I was just a club slut at the Cutters to party when one of the officers barked something about not seeing any reason to keep me longer than necessary, but he then whispered his name and told me to tell my dad he was responsible for me getting processed out. I pull out the object he’s slipped into the small pocket of my dress and sigh at the sight of my cell phone. Friends in enemy territory. It didn’t surprise me. Nothing did with my father.
Pushing through the glass door out into the brisk air, gulping down a lungful and sighing, I shiver when the cold breeze bites at my flesh. I have no coat and I’m still in my dress from the day before.
All my life I’ve been taught the police were the enemy, but tonight they saved me, saved me from that disgusting pig Axel, stopped him from finishing what he had intended when he forced me down a corridor and into a bedroom. A shudder ripples through me at the memory.
“You smell like a virgin. Either way, you’re going to bleed for me.”
Looking down at my thigh, the small thin bloodline is visible and angry from his knife. Bastard.
I was called Princess by all of Lilith’s Army, but a biker Princess was different than any other. I wasn’t a damsel, far from it. Aggressive, overpowering men like Axel didn’t intimidate me. I grew up with a brother more twisted than any other, and his darkness prepared me for the world, for men like Axel. I grew up quick and motherless, her death scarring me and molding me to accept the evil, to learn, grow, and prepare for it.
My cute features and pretty clothes always give people the wrong impression of me, and I like it that way. I’m unassuming, and that disarms people. It wasn’t what Axel expected that’s for sure.
Flicking my cell on it surprises me when it lights up. A text from my brother sends nervous energy crackling through my veins.
Don’t worry I’m coming for you.
The battery is on thirteen percent; enough to make a call. My finger hovers over my dad’s contact, but I know Scorch wil
l be losing his mind with me being taken. I hit his number and pin the device to my ear. After three rings the connection is made, but he doesn’t speak.
“Hello?”
“Oh God, Princess, it’s you.”
“I need you to come pick me up, please, and can you bring some clothes with you?”
“I’ll be there, I’m coming right now. Don’t move.”
I look around the deserted streets moving towards the parking lot to wait and get out of the sight of any officers coming and going. A car pulls up across the street, some guy jumps out to use the ATM on the outside of a bank. His gaze drifts to me but doesn’t linger, then he’s gone, and I find myself alone with the wind and the leaves blowing around like twisters of crisp, brown streamers, the action causing a gentle rustle in the otherwise silence.
An engine rumbling towards me gains my interest when it pulls in and stops in front of me. My back straightens and I prepare for fight mode, the instincts deep-rooted in me impulsively rising to the surface.
The window rolls down and Buzz greets me. “Hey, Princess. Get in.”
Thank God.
Opening the door, I slam it shut and offer a grateful smile, but my face is numb from the cold, and I’m sure I look like an old woman with a face full of Botox.
“It’s so good to see a friendly face.” I reach over to turn up the heat.
He leans over me and snatches my cell phone, tossing it out the window. My mouth pops open to complain, but it shuts when he reaches for my seatbelt and pulls it across me, buckling me in. He’s so close that his arm brushes over my chest, causing my nipples to react from the contact. Mortification flushes through me, no doubt reddening my cheeks. It’s an issue all females have when anything comes in contact with our nipples, it doesn’t mean anything. However, he might not know that.
I try to ignore the fact he put my seatbelt on for me like I’m a five-year-old, and opt for, “What the hell? My phone?”
“It’s compromised.” Is all he mutters before screeching out of the parking lot.
“I thought Scorch was coming for me?” I ask, folding my arms to cover my chest.
“Change of plan. Get some sleep, you look tired.” His words are clipped and his shoulders are tight. I want to ask him more questions, but he’s right, I am tired.
I rest my head against the window and give in to the exhaustion.
2
Rhiannon
A sting on my palm ignites in pain as dirt coats my hand. I just want to go home and shower that disgusting Cutters club from my skin.
The police couldn’t have come at a better time, but it’s not who I was expecting to come barreling through those doors.
My own club didn’t come for me. My brothers left me there too long, they know what kind of men reside inside those walls. Brenner is just like them and yet they left me out to the wolves.
Tears burn in my eyes, I don’t allow them to fall, I won’t waste them now. I’m a Lilith’s Army Princess; the things I’ve witnessed have prepared me for everything. Evil lives inside my veins; the blood that created Brenner is shared with my own. I’m not like him, I’m strong and prepared to handle someone like him.
“The name’s Axel, but you can scream Axe. Your piece of shit brother stole something that belonged to me. Tell me, bitch. Are you a sweet little virgin like my Avery was when he fucking married her against her will?”
I silently scream inside my mind to erase the memory and scan the new shithole I’ve been brought to.
Mold is climbing the wall like a virus, and it’s making me cough, although I’m not sure if that’s just because of my awareness of the dust or an actual cough. The tickle causes me to rub a hand over my chest. I don’t know where we are it’s a rundown house on the edge of God knows where. Boards adorn what once were windows, and it’s barren, the floor covered with an old tattered carpet and nothing else. The walls are warped, and the roof is disintegrating, allowing rain inside. Everywhere is wet and cold. A shiver races through my bones.
Buzz is staring at me, and I squirm under his observation. Why would he have been sent for me and not Scorch?
“What’s going on? Is something happening at the club?” I ask again, but he doesn’t reply.
“Are my brothers okay?” I ask, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Buzz!” I bark when he doesn’t move and remains silent. Irritation flares inside my gut.
“Your brother betrayed me.” He growls so low it’s almost a whisper.
Thud.
“How so?” I ask, keeping the edge from my tone but a skittering of goosebumps skitters across my skin. The urge to run from him becomes so intense the floor feels like it’s vibrating beneath my feet.
What the hell has my brother done now? Why the hell did I get in Buzz’s truck?
I chance a quick glance at the exit, but his eyes on me make me numb.
His lips move, and my legs weaken. “He killed my brother.”
Thud.
My head spins with his words, and a pit opens in my gut. “What?” A gasp expels from me, and I stagger backwards a few paces. “No!”
Oh, God. He wouldn’t kill Tats, they’re friends. What’s going on, and why has he brought me here?
To kill me in retaliation.
The thought thunders through my mind like an explosion, setting fire to the hope that I am now safe.
He tilts his head and furrows his brow, and the sorrow is right there, tangible in his aura. Why didn’t I notice straight away?
Because you weren’t looking.
“You didn’t like him, but he was infatuated with you.”
He’s talking about his brother. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him, just that he scared me. Every feeling in my bones told me he was dangerous; that his fixation was toxic.
He moves towards me, and I tense every muscle in my body. The door is too far for me to attempt to flee and I’m not even sure if it’s something I should be doing.
He reaches towards me, and I flinch involuntarily. He snatches his hand back and turns on his heel.
“Buzz,” I call. “Why am I here?”
“You’re going to help me get revenge.”
Thud.
“How can I do that?”
“By being the bate, then I’m going to offer your life for his.”
Thud.
Brenner will kill him for taking me, that’s if my dad or Slade doesn’t get to him first.
I want to ask why Brenner killed his brother but don’t want to rattle the beast. It’s not like Brenner ever needs a real reason, he’s a sadistic, brutal killer and has been since I can remember.
Visions of that poor girl killing herself assault my mind. She was terrified of Brenner and killed herself out of fear.
How many more people will die because of him?
Me.
A realization dawns on me, and my hands shake. “What did my father do about him killing another brother?” I chance to ask. You can’t just go around killing club members without cause.
His gaze penetrates right through me, burrowing inside the very marrow of my bones, dragging out my nerves.
“Your dad could be dead by now.”
I stagger backwards and collide with a wall.
“Did you kill him?” My hands ball and my eyes cloud with a haze.
“Fuck no. Your stupid fucking brother’s gone rogue, took out Gears and Echo as well, and then killed my fucking brother.”
Breathing is restricted, my lungs suffocating me, my chest crushing in.
“Slade?” I ask my voice, meek and quivering.
Buzz rolls his shoulders and shakes his head. “He took your old man to the hospital.”
“Avery?” I breathe.
“Brenner butchered her, fuck knows how she is. Enough fucking questions. Settle in, you’re not going anywhere.”
My legs give out beneath me, and I slip down the wall.
I can’t even compute everything he’s just told me.
He moves
across the room and glares at me from the doorway. “I need to get something from the truck. You move and I’ll have to hurt you. I don’t want to do that… but remember it was Tats that had a thing for you, not me. To me you’re a means to an end. That can be your end if you push me.”
As soon as he closes the door, I’m on my feet. I rush through a door and almost slip on something wet on the floor. I don’t stop. I try the back door. Old cabinets hang on the wall, doors hanging from rusty hinges. It was once a kitchen, but now it’s a shell. The door doesn’t give when I try to pry it open. There’s a window and it’s coming away from the foundations. If I push it, it may come away.
The sound of Buzz’s return caused my nervous system to jolt me into running in a different direction. I open a door and falter when it turns out to be a closet.
Hands grip my shoulders and spin me around. “Going to be like that is it?” he growls.
I try to hit at him but he doesn’t give a shit, my fists beating at him doesn’t even cause him to flinch.
There’s a sinister sneer on his face, and it makes my blood run cold.
He drags me over to a sink and pushes my shoulders down, making me crumble to the floor. He’s so strong. It makes me feel powerless and weak.