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Ana W. Fawkes is the author of several bestselling series including:
The billionaire erotic romance serial - BY HIS COMMAND
The paranormal romance series featuring bikers who are werewolves - FULL MOON MERCY
The edgy and gritty erotic romance series - WITH THE ROCKSTAR
The intense and wild MC romance - DEVIL CALL MC
The seductive paranormal shifter series – RAW RIVER WILD
Don’t miss out on *new releases* *excerpts* *cover reveals* and some great *contests* … sign up for the *official* Ana W. Fawkes newsletter RIGHT NOW: http://eepurl.com/ADM0j
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WILD STORM (A Devil Call MC Book) (Talon & Everly Book Five)
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Talon has always had more enemies than friends within the club. However, when the walls of Devil Call MC start to crumble, he realizes that his enemies are everywhere. And the worst part is that although Everly's eyes tell him that she loves him, she can't help but hate him...
In the midst of the craziness, the club has to somehow come together and decide on a President of the MC before it's too late.
Talon is ready to take back the gavel... but when the vote comes in, will the MC feel the same way?
1.
(Talon)
I flicked my thumb at the old picture of me. Although Layne wasn’t in the picture, he was just a few feet away. I could see it in my mind. I was empty. Goddamn empty right then, everything I had attempted to build collected around me like a giant pile of ash. Sometimes that’s exactly how I saw it all happen. The clubhouse burning to the ground. Me left standing there with nothing but a feeble memory, waiting for the bullet to smash in the back of my skull and tear through my brain.
What happened to us, brother? What the fuck happened… to it all?
It was easy to blame someone else. Our shitty parents. Our fucked up childhoods. I mean, we were basically handed the keys to crime and leather cuts forced on our backs. Then again, we did have to learn how to shoot a gun. How to fight. How to ride a motorcycle. How to turn our hearts and emotions off for the better of Devil Call MC.
Which brought my memory right back to Jade. Wild, seductive, and a part of the mess I created. A part I would take care of, hopefully soon, but a part that was still needed. It was like micromanaging a hundred things at once, trying to keep everyone happy.
That was a crock of shit. I never cared before about making people happy. I did what I want, when I wanted. Hell, the first time I was handed the President’s patch for Devil Call MC I had blood on my hands, smeared on my face. I was wounded, in pain, yet I stood there over the dead body of the former President, looking defiantly to all the members who would from that moment on, respect me as their President.
Right up until I fucking went to prison.
I looked at the picture again. I wasn’t an innocent kid. I wasn’t a happy kid. I was a scared kid. I had a tough demeanor because it was beaten into me. The only reason I had a smile on my face in the damn picture was because I was outside. I never got beat outside. And jumping around, being a jackass kid, that was my sense of freedom. To dream of a different life. One where my mother wore an apron and cooked dinners, always smiling, full of love. One where my father would come home from work and hurry to throw around a baseball or scoop me up and hug me, spinning me around until I was close to being sick.
That wasn’t life though. That was a fucking fantasy. I never had it and I never would. Yet in the back of my mind and pressed against my fucking heart I thought about Everly and our life together. If we had a fucking kid (or four) what kind of life would they have? I couldn’t shake the goddamn thought and it rattled me.
Matters were only made worse since Everly had been crashing in Layne’s room. Ever since that picture of me fucking Jade was given to her. It looked worse than it was, but there was no explaining that to Everly. Rightfully so, I guess. I had been plaguing my own mind with thoughts of her and Layne fucking each other and it kept me up at night. I only slept comfortably when I drank a bottle of whiskey and jerked off. I was like a fucking pathetic teenager, drunk and squirting into some sheets or a tissue, desperate to relax.
I crumbled up the picture and threw it across the room to the dresser. I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. I pulled at the edges of the leather cut and nodded. This was my fucking club. I was never voted out. My patch wasn’t taken from me either. I gave it the fuck up. I went to prison to take the heat off myself and the MC. And since coming out, I managed to weed through the bullshit and keep things as calm as I could. The worse scenario right now was Jade and Vaughn. They were my personal problem and they hadn’t come near the clubhouse. And they fucking wouldn’t.
I opened the door to my room and turned to see Layne doing the same goddamn thing at the opposite end of the hall. It was something metaphoric, but fuck that, right? Fuck metaphors and fate and fantasy. My world existed in reality. Maybe a cruel reality, but one that left me free.
Except I didn’t feel free. I was bound to Everly. Her beauty, her touch, everything about her.
Layne stood at his door, a hand on the doorknob. We had a bit of a stare off going on for a few seconds. Then a third person entered the scene, stepping up next to Layne.
It was Everly.
We were at a distance, but it didn’t matter. When I looked into those pretty eyes of hers, I wanted the world to explode. If I couldn’t have her, then nobody would. And if I couldn’t have her… then fuck the world. Let it all go and die. Who the fuck cared anymore then?
I made fists as Everly reached up and put a hand to Layne’s shoulder.
What the fuck was that? Was that a sign of dominance? Her way of getting back at me… tell me she was fucking Layne? Or was it her way of tugging at Layne to tell him not to fight me?
Either way I wanted to scream. If I had a gun on me, I would have pulled it out. Fucking easily. My mind couldn’t stand the thought of Layne’s big and awkward hands touching Everly’s body. She was far too precious and deserved it all the right way. And the right fucking way was my fucking way. I couldn’t stomach to think of her on top of him, riding him hard, her hands digging into his chest. Those little perky tits jumping up and down, her nipples jutting out, erect.
It was so much to think about, I had to rush away.
I put my head down, feeling like a pussy, and rushed down the hallway.
I didn’t want to imagine what Everly and Layne were doing.
I stopped at the bar and snapped my fingers at a prospect, demanding a bottle of whiskey.
I turned and walked into the meeting room.
All eyes came upon me, but not the way it should have been. They didn’t look at me as their President. They looked at me as Talon and nothing else. But Talon, motherfuckers, was going to become President again. Rightfully so.
The President’s patch was right there in the middle of the table. I could have just grabbed it and made someone sew it on for me. The temptation was there, but I wanted the respect, not the honor. Fuck the honor. Respect was worth more. I wanted these men to respect me, not honor me.
I walked along the table and stood behind my chair. I looked around the table. Buzzy. Drave. Jagg. Ash. Austin. Gabel. Kade. The rest of the patched in table members, making it completely full. Smoke lingered in the air, the stench of pussy and whiskey flowing with ease. Conversation ceased to exist right now, the only sound being when someone drank from their bottle or sucked on the end of their cigarette.
I didn’t even speak a word.
I waited.
A few seconds later, the door swung open again.
Layne.
The final member, completing the room. He shut the door and nodded. When I saw everyone nod back at him, I realized he still had some respect. Maybe Layne had done his best while I was put away, but the sad truth was that if it was his best, it wasn’t good enough. Not good enough for Devil Call MC. Not good enough for the members. Not good enough for Everly. And definitely not good enough for the town of Brocke.
“We’re here,” Layne said as he stood behind his chair.
We were the only two members standing.
We looked at each other.
There was a cockiness in Layne’s eyes, but I could tell he hadn’t fucked Everly. He didn’t have the balls to do it. He was still hung up on Anneliese. He was still trying to come to terms that I killed the whore.
“Do we have a purpose here?” Buzzy asked, his voice extra rough today.
“Yeah, we do,” I said.
I reached down and pulled a knife from the side of my ankle. The tension in the room tripled. I guess I still had some respect and fear after all. I leaned forward and slammed the knife into the President’s patch.
“It has to be resolved,” I said. “Before this club falls apart once and for all.”
“There’s only one person here digging their grave,” Layne said.
“Trying to hold the pieces together you let go,” I said. “Don’t forget that, brother.”
Layne smiled. “Brother. Right. Care to tell anyone about that picture? You looked balls deep in that pretty woman.”
I gritted my teeth.
“That was the woman who kidnapped you,” Buzzy said. “Wasn’t it?”
“As I said, it’s personal. Has to do with Tommy. That’s my fuck up. I’ll fix it.”
“You know the club doesn’t work that way,” Drave said. “We’re a MC. We do it all together.”
“Yeah, but who is leading all this?” I asked.
“You tell us,” Jagg growled. “Fuck, man, what do you want all of us to say?”
Ash grabbed at Jagg’s arm as he started to stand. “Man, calm down.”
“Fuck that,” Jagg said. “What are you going to do, Talon? Shoot me? Punch me? Crush my jaw so I can’t talk? Or just fucking kill me?”
I stared at Jagg. The emotion was exactly what this club was all about. It wasn’t about being a badass. Or breaking the law. It was our lives.
“What else?” I asked.
“You disappeared, Talon.”
“I went to fucking prison.”
“Because…” Jagg stopped.
“What?” I asked. “Say it. Someone fucking say it.”
The table was silent.
I grabbed the knife from the President’s patch and grabbed Kade’s hair. He was the unlucky guy to my right. I pulled his hair and put the knife to his throat.
“Is that what you all think?” I asked. “I’m some fucking sick murderer? That I’ll slit my own brothers’ throats? Then I’ll fucking do it.”
“Christ, Talon,” Buzzy said. “Stop.”
“Say it,” I said to Kade. “Tell why I was in prison. Come on. I know everyone fucking talks about it.”
“Fuck, man,” Kade said. “I didn’t…”
“Say it.”
“You fucking shot and killed Layne’s old lady.”
The tension in the room was times three hundred now. I took the knife from Kade’s throat and nodded.
“There you have it then,” I said. I looked at Layne. “Anything you’d like to add?”
“Talon…”
“No, no. I mean, we have the facts, right? I shot Anneliese.” Layne’s eyes lit up. “What’s wrong? Can’t stand to hear her name, man? Anneliese…”
Layne brought his hands to the table with a thundering boom. “Shut up. Fucking shut up.”
“I shot her,” I said. “Because she wanted to bring down the club. And if you all want to start opening our closets and dusting off some skeletons, then let’s do it. I’ve got time to kill.” I started to walk along the table. “But outside there’s hell everywhere. Rilen Lost attacking us. Los Ahn lingering. Detective John trying to come after the MC. Now, that’s my fault, which I fucking accept. The same with that woman. I’m trying to fix what’s wrong. I’m putting my life on the line.”
“Like we all aren’t,” Jagg said. “Every fucking day, man. Every fucking day.”
I looked at Jagg. I made a line toward him. “What about the drugs in the clubhouse? What about the guy wearing the President’s patch while I was away? What’s your take on that?”
Jagg froze, his jaw locked like it were welded shut. I stood a foot away from him. He was cut like steel and a pretty bad dude. He probably had more kills on his hands than anyone else in the MC. But I wasn’t afraid of him. I didn’t give a fuck what he thought or what he wanted to do.
“Who do you want to be President?” I asked.
Jagg remained silent. He swallowed a couple times and didn’t respond.
“Jesus Christ,” Buzzy said. “Can we fucking get to business here?”
“And what’s business?” I asked.
“Everything you just listed,” Buzzy said.
“Not to mention someone killed Hollis,” Layne said. “Then came to the clubhouse and set us up. Took out a prospect.”
I looked at Layne. “Drug debt. That’s what it is, brother. And that pretty woman I was fucking? She’s the one. She and her brother run it all, okay? I’m trying to appease them with Tommy…which, by the way, you and Everly are on footage of me killing him…”
A little blackmail? Fuck, I hated doing it, but it made me feel good.
Layne stiffened. “That’s why John is lingering.”
“Exactly. And that’s why that pretty woman and her brother are key.”
“Fucking her is key?” Layne asked. “That’s what you want?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Buzzy said.
“It does if it’s tearing the club in half,” Austin said.
I looked at Austin as he sat next to Buzzy. There was still a bandage on his cheek. Rilen Lost wanted to take his eyes but got his cheek instead. He shouldn’t even have been sitting at the table.
“That was for you, man,” I said.
“What?”
“I set it up for you. To get revenge. I had to fuck her…” I realized I was explaining myself. My actions. Myself. Fuck that.
Austin laughed. “I never asked for revenge. I told you that. I’m not like you. I don’t hold on. I let go.”
“You take orders from someone who sent you to die,” I said, taking an obvious shot at Layne’s orders that sent Austin out only to be caught and almost killed.
“I did it because I respect him,” Austin said.
“And if I ordered it?”
Austin looked away.
“What’s the plan when the debt comes due for real?” Buzzy asked. “Hollis is dead. A prospect is dead. A detective is waiting for something to happen to take us down. And we have no President.”
I looked at Layne. “Your thoughts?”
“I guess if you’re in bed with the pretty whore, then we all are.”
“That’s the only woman I’ll share with you,” I said with my lip curled.
“Try me,” Layne growled.
“Fucking hell,” Jagg finally spoke up. “You two need to just fucking fight. I’m tired of the bullshit. This club is so off track…”
I grabbed Jagg by the throat. I spun the knife around in my hand and offered it to him. I let him go and turned around.
“Do it, Jagg. Stab me in the fucking back. You want to do it? Be a man. Quit fucking talking.”
Of course Jagg didn’t do a fucking thing. Nobody did a fucking thing. They were there to talk. To point fingers. But most of all they were looking for direction. They knew their place within Devil Call MC and I couldn’t damn fault them for it.
I took my knife back and walked to the door. I looked over my shoulder. “I’m going to go out there and figure this shit out. This club isn’t going to fall apart. I’ll take my last damn breath fighting for you all. Even if you don’t want to believe me, I get it.”
“Talon,” Layne bellowed. “We’re voting this.”
“You keep saying that,” I said.
“It’s going to happen,” Layne said. “We need to make sure everyone understands this. And respects it.”
“And what’s this?” I asked.
“The vote. Each table member gets a single vote. You and I don’t. We stand and wait for the final tally and that’s it. It’s done. The President’s patch is determined and that’s it.”
“Thanks for the explanation,” I said. “Glad we got that cleared up.”
“You’re a fucking asshole, Talon,” Layne said.
I looked back again. “Yeah, I am. I’m a fucking asshole. But I’m the only one who can make all this shit right and keep Devil Call MC safe.”
I left the meeting room, knowing they were all going to talk about me. And Layne would allow it to happen. But that wasn’t my concern. I realized I forgot my whiskey bottle on the table.
So I got a new one.
And my mind went right back to Everly.
Fuck, I don’t want her… I fucking need her.
2.
(Everly)
The water cascaded down my body and I let out a sigh. I reached up and ran my hands through my hair, rinsing out the conditioner. The water was warm and the bathroom quiet and private. Layne was gone to have his meeting with the rest of the MC and I was told to stay behind. After all I’d seen and been through, I almost felt tempted to ask for a spot at the table. To sit there and hear what’s said. Maybe even give my damn opinion.
Yeah, right.
I shut my eyes and put my face in the water.
WILD STORM (A Devil Call MC Book) (Talon & Everly Book Five) (Devil Call MC Talon & Everly 5) Page 1