“He killed my mother and my father, Crusher. He cheated me out of a dad. They both did.”
“I’m sorry, baby. You didn’t deserve any of that shit. If I could change any of it for you I would.”
“I know you would, Crusher. I’m sorry you had to stop your celebration for this shit. Not every day you get a club turned over to you.” And I was sorry, for him, for the others too. Instead of saving me once again, they should be celebrating with their brothers.
“I love you, baby.”
“Thanks for coming for me today. I love you so much, Crusher.”
“Baby, no matter what. I will always come for you. Let’s go home, Carly. I’ll be right behind you.” Crusher stepped back and opened the truck door for me. I went to get in and paused, looking over my shoulder at him.
“Crusher, I’m not calling you Prez.” He helped me up into the seat, chuckling.
“Wouldn’t expect it from you, baby.” Crusher leaned in and kissed me. My life might not have always been roses but I wouldn’t have changed a thing because it was what brought Crusher to me. And even kissing me in a truck, parked on the side of the road—he felt like home and for the first time, I couldn’t wait to see what the future held for me—for us.
Epilogue
Devil
“Why did we brings the truck, Uncle Devil? I wanted to ride on the backs of your bike.” This had to be the longest ten-minute drive in history. Whatever possessed me to volunteer to do this needed to be exorcised out.
“Spider, your mom doesn’t want you riding on the back of the bikes yet. Besides, we are going to the bakery so we needed space to put the goodies. We couldn’t shove them in the saddlebags, could we?”
“No, I don’t like my cupcakes with smushed icing.”
“Who does?”
“Who does, what?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart, ‘who does’ is just a phrase... Never mind, we’re almost there.” I was going back to Black Hawk and hiding in the garage and keeping my mouth shut when the women were around. Speed and Crusher probably high-fived when I said I would do this. Sami had invited everyone for dinner that she and Carly were cooking for all the help we gave in moving them in, then they realized there was nothing for dessert. I should have known I was being setup when their own men didn’t say dick. Couldn’t wait for what they suckered the others into for their parts in the Ally turned shyster roll. ‘Cause damn, I knew we all had foul mouths but who knew they were that bad. Sami does now, since we had to come clean when she found the shoebox in Ally’s closet full of dollar bills. When Sami counted it, Spider/Shyster, as some had begun to call her, had made a hundred and two dollars in just over a week. Combine that with the as I like to refer to it as ‘the oil incident’ did not help our cause one bit. So trying to get back in the good graces of the women, I asked if they needed anything and before I knew it, I’m in the truck on my way to the bakery in town.
Of course when you mention bakery within a mile of Ally, you’re buying cupcakes and she’s in the truck with you because she wants to pick them out. That part I don’t mind because Ally’s a sweetheart.
“Yous are grouchy. Do you needs laid, Uncle Devil?” I almost wrecked the truck when I jerked my head around to look in the backseat at Ally.
“Where did you hear that?” Okay, we were going to have to be more diligent around the club if she was hearing shit like that.
“I heard Daddy tells Momma that she was being grouchy and needed laid. When I’m grouchy am I goings to need laid too?” I glanced in Ally’s direction after I parked in front of the bakery, she wore a frown on her face as if in thought. And no, I was not going to go there, however, I wasn’t against a little payback.
I got out and went around the front of the vehicle to open the door so Ally could get out. “Sweetheart, why don’t you ask your daddy that question during dinner tonight? I bet he can answer it way better than I can.” All of sudden I was looking forward dinner. Who said karma didn’t have a sense of humor?
“‘K, but I hopes I like being laid.” Yeah, may be wrong but I was going to deflect. Didn’t want to think of her grown and getting anything from a damn man.
“Let see about getting you some cupcakes.” Ally immediately grabbed my hand and we walked to the door, then she pushed it open, dragging me behind her.
I looked around. I hadn’t been in the bakery since before I left for the military. We stood in line behind several customers as Bailey darted around the counter filling their orders.
As I watched her, the girl who had at one time told me she loved me, would she feel the same now if I confessed to her that I killed her brother?
Books by Carson Mackenzie
Black Hawk MC
Speed
Crusher
Devil – Coming Soon
Haven MC
Snatched
KO Ink
Co-authored with Harley McRide
Vengeance
Pierced and Inked
Brawn and Brazen
Cuffed and Briefed
Contact the Author:
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://carsonmackenzieauthor.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorcarsonmackenzie
Excerpt from Vengeance
KO Ink Book One
By Harley McRide & Carson Mackenzie
“Seriously, man. This is the place you are looking to purchase. What the hell? Why didn’t you tell me before we got into the fucking car, I would have told you no fucking way then, instead we wasted our time. This is like a hell to the no.”
Yeah, I am the oldest and my brother has no fucking vision. Which I find quite funny considering the man is a tattoo artist. Christ, if he and the rest of my brothers didn’t look similar, I would accuse our ma and dad of adoption.
“Mike, this is the building that housed the gym we fucking trained in growing up, it is part of our history. We spent a lot of time growing up in this place. Mic was one of the best trainers around along with being a role model for the delinquent youth of Woodland and the surrounding neighborhoods,” as I spoke, I watched my brother’s eyes, yeah he was starting to remember how the O’Malley brothers grew up. We had always been fighters so our parents placed us in the local gym with the hopes to curtail our energy and keep us on the straight and narrow. And I get how he would forget some of it, hell even I do, until the moment I walked back into our parents’ living room and then the memories all came back. Seriously, looking now, I wish my parents would have allowed me to purchase a new home for them like I wanted to. Somewhere in a quiet suburban neighborhood where you didn’t hear the police sirens go off every night. But they insisted this was their home, where they fell in love, where they had a family, and where they raised us and taught us how to be honest and loyal. Family was everything, in that we all still agreed.
Our parents had done a good job on a steel worker’s paycheck with a stay-at-home wife and seven kids. Money was tight, but they made it work.
“Fin, I get it, but that is you, why would I want to come back from out west, working in an established shop to damn, a building that has seen a hell of a better day.”
Again, no vision, tat artist. My brother’s problem was change, he hated it. I know this and so does everyone close to him. At least the ones he lets get that close. So yeah, I’m getting our buddy and his business partner to help me out.
“Kink, help me out here. I am retired. I went as far in the MMA as I could go. I’ve had my shot within the Mixed Martial Arts and I want to come back to the area and help the next generation move forward in life. Give them goals to reach for. You are all about family and brothers just like me. Am I wrong wanting to bring mine back together?” Kink rubbed his hand down his face and turned to Michael.
“Fuck, I get where Fin is coming from. Michael, I don’t want to lose your talent, man, nor my partner, but I see what you can have here too, if you want it. Your brother wants to bring his wayward fami
ly back together and plant you in the area where you started the brother bonds to begin with. You been around me and my brothers in the MC long enough to know family is everything. Think, this would at least put you close to your aging parents, the ones you and your other brothers bitch about not seeing enough.”
“Yeah.”
Oh, I could see Michael’s resolve slipping. Now to reel him in.
“Michael, the others will follow you if you open up a shop here beside me. Come on, you, me, them, the O’Malley boys back in the neighborhood, giving back. Close to our parents and our little sister, Mia, who at twenty-three, needs us. Dad will have all our asses if she ends up with some shithead from here that none of us like. He won’t take the excuse of “sorry we weren’t there to protect her”. He will hold each of us responsible, you and I both know that. Plus, hounding her as a grown woman should be incentive enough. The spitfire made our lives a living hell growing up, she was everywhere, and the freakin’ tattle telling alone when we were teenagers should definitely be worth it.
“You remember her telling Ma and Dad when you popped Cathy Francis’ cherry at fifteen?” I watched Michael’s eyes narrow. Yep, he was coming around.
“Dude, your sister ratted you out on the first time you had sex? How come I never knew about this?”
I smiled ‘cause Kink was going to give him shit for the rest of his life for that little info drop. Kink had grown up with us. Left for the military, got out, joined the Warriors and opened up his tat shop. Michael and he had stayed in touch and then Michael moved out west to go into business with Kink, ultimately recruiting our other brothers to follow. I had given them each shit about being the artistic types and afraid to get in the ring and hurt their hands. Those were the days, I got as good as I gave. Between Kink, Tony, Reese, and my brothers, they made me the best at my skill. I may have improved over time on my fighting skill, but the bruises and the injures they dished on me, toughened me. I wouldn’t have made it through the ranks of the MMA if they hadn’t pushed me.
“You know, with the special ink you have been honing, it would help with the security business Tony is going to run alongside with my gym. Going to give my boys jobs so they can concentrate on training and moving up the ranks without having to worry about finding the time for it all. Tony said he would love to use the ink to keep track of the guys when out on jobs. With Tony’s training from the military, your ink, and his knowledge to teach you and the others how to monitor, is a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
“Think, all of us from the neighborhood, back from wherever we’ve been, together again. The old folks still here are going to remember us; the younger ones will learn real quick about family, responsibility, and what it means to belong. Well, with exception of Kink here. Don’t think we can talk him into giving up the west coast to come back home. I think there is still some of the cops on the force that would remember him from his youth. The fuckers threw a party the day the bus pulled out with him on it, headed toward Fort Dix and the military future he was ordered by the judge to be a part of,” I busted out laughing and so did Kink and Michael. They had to be remembering the same as me about Kink beating the crap out of the police captain’s son. Little prick had it coming, shouldn’t have made fun of Kink, calling him a pussy for always working on that first piece of shit bike he bought and rebuilt.
“You still got that bike, Kink?”
“Fuck yeah. Keep it stored in back of the shop. Uncover it when I’m missing home. Best memories, man. But you are right, my home is out west. Though I come to visit a couple times a year, I can’t imagine giving up my life with the MC to move back. And brothers, my brothers would never make a club move to the east. Face it, no way cops could deal with them and you guys all in one area.
“Mike, I have a proposition for you?”
I eyed Kink, ‘cause with him, you never knew what that phrase could entail. But with his next words, I should have known. He may have moved on from the area, made his home somewhere else but it didn’t mean the neighborhood wasn’t a part of him anymore.
“Join your brother, Mike. We can still be partners out west and here too. Let’s branch out Slinging Ink. One on the west coast and one on the east coast. I want in on this one too. Will make me feel like I’m still part of the old neighborhood even when I am not here. Whatcha say?” Kink looked at him and so did I. I watched his facial expressions change with the thoughts that were evidently running through his mind.
“Going to depend if the others want to make the move back here too.”
Oh fuck yeah, one brother almost there. The others I knew would follow because they wouldn’t want to be left out. Brothers who like nothing better than to compete against one another. Never even mattered who won, it’s about the thrill of competing.
About the Author
Carson lives in the South with her two sons, her four Great Danes, and the adopted shelter dog that keeps everyone in line. Books have always been a part of her life. Nothing is better to Carson than curling up and relaxing with a good story by losing herself in someone else’s world while leaving hers behind.
Writing stories and growing as an author with each book published, is a goal Carson wishes to reach. Her aspiration is to have a reader know when they see her name on a cover, they can trust in the fact there will be a good story as they flip the pages.
As a fairly new author, she hopes to bring you into her different worlds, giving you a chance to escape everyday responsibilities, if only for a few hours.
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