TANGLED SECRETS (A Devil Call MC Book) (Talon & Everly Book Eight)

by Ana W. Fawkes

  “You ready for this, man?” Layne asked.

  “I’m ready,” I said. “I’ve been ready from the second I saw him hit my mother. Full fist, right to the face. She didn’t know I saw it happen. Then I watched her wipe her own blood on the corner of the cabinets and put a broom on the floor. Just to sell it to me that she tripped and fell.”

  “Christ,” Layne said.

  “Let’s go,” I said. “No more waiting. Finish up your call…”

  Layne stood and grabbed the phone off the table. I went to the door and opened it. Everly waited and I slid a hand into hers and pulled her into the room.

  “You know what to do?” I whispered.

  She nodded. “I’ve got it, Talon.”

  “John! It’s Layne. Listen, we have to do this…”

  I looked at Everly. I smiled.

  She let out a scream. “Let me go! I don’t know a thing!”

  Layne grinned. “She’s fighting me, John. I’m losing it. I’m going to fucking kill her.”

  Then I heard through the phone, “No! Don’t! Fuck, Layne, calm down!”

  Layne then took out a gun and pointed it at Everly. She screamed again and it was genuine.

  Layne moved the gun and pulled the trigger. “Shut up!”

  Detective John’s voice poured through the phone, “What did you just do?!”

  “John, meet me in twenty,” Layne said. “I’m done with it. She makes one more noise and I’ll do it again…”

  Layne ended the call and let out a deep breath.

  I wrapped my arms tight around Everly and kissed her. “You’re fucking amazing, beautiful.”

  “Just… go,” she said. “I just… come back to me, Talon. Please.”

  I kissed her and promised nothing. I wasn’t going to have my potential last words to Everly be some kind of empty promise I couldn’t control.

  Layne left first, taking a car. I refused to let Everly go with him, making the sell of this a little bit harder. But oh fucking well. I wasn’t going to have her get killed.

  I waited and then started my ride.

  I wasn’t as nervous as I was excited. Excited to murder someone. Probably the sickest feeling in the world because of how wrong it was. But when it came to Detective John… fuck yes, I was excited to kill him.

  I came up over a ridge and there was a clearing where it was all going to go down. Me and Layne would start arguing. Pushing, shoving, debating things. Then of course Detective John would appear, which should be a shock to me. But the real shock… when I take out my fucking gun and unload it…

  I gripped the handlebars tighter and spotted Layne.

  Right where he was supposed to be.

  But what wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan… Detective John standing there with a gun to Layne’s head.

  16.

  (Talon)

  I pulled up as close as I could and didn’t know what to do. I kept a surprised face as I got off my motorcycle. I started to charge toward the scene.

  “Where the fuck is she?” I asked. “What the fuck is happening?”

  “Save it,” Detective John growled. “I don’t buy this. There’s nobody else in that car. If I open the trunk… what? What’s going to happen? A bomb goes off?”

  “He has Everly,” I called out.

  Detective John lifted the gun and shot it. Then he put it right back to Layne’s head. “Say that again and I’ll fucking kill him.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Blow his fucking brains out.”

  I saw the look on Detective John’s face. That defiant look, calling me out on my shit. I saw his finger twitch and I jumped forward.

  I gave us up…

  “That’s what I thought,” Detective John said. “Give me your gun, Talon. Right now.”

  I opened my cut and showed my gun. I slowly took it out. I held it out. “What now?”

  “Take the clip out and throw it at me.”

  I did as told.

  “Now drop the gun and kick it away,” Detective John said.

  I listened and then kept my hands up. “Now what?”

  “You two are going to murder each other,” Detective John said.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked.

  “Do what he says,” Layne said. “Talon…”

  “Shut up,” I yelled. “I came here for one thing.”

  “To kill me?” Detective John asked.

  “That’s right,” I said. “To fucking kill you.”

  “You’re never going to kill me, son. Ever. You couldn’t do it when you were a kid or as a teenager. Now, as an adult? Please. Your fucking mother paid the price for your bullshit, didn’t she? Always getting in my way. Always trying to fuck with me. I had to take care of her carefully. And she took care of herself.”

  I stepped forward. “You motherfucker…”

  “Come on,” Detective John said. “Come on. I’m holding Layne’s gun right now. I’ll fucking do it. Shoot him. Shoot you. Murder-suicide then. Just like that. Two guys fighting over a patch and a woman.”

  I stood frozen trying to assess my next move.

  Someone was going to die. And out of the three of us, I had a bad feeling only one was going to walk away from this.

  “This is how it’s going to go,” Detective John said. “Layne… you’re to stand right there. I’m going to give you a chance to say one more thing to Talon. Then I’m blowing your fucking brains out. Sorry, man.”

  Layne’s face was stone. His eyes intense as he stared at me.

  I needed to do something. Fast.

  “Once you’re dead,” Detective John continued, “then I’m going to shoot Talon. Then I’ll fuck up the scene a little and call it all in. My son, dead. Someone that was like a second son to me, dead…”

  “Second son,” Layne growled. “Fuck you.”

  “No, Layne, it’s true. You’re like a second son to me. Especially what I had to do a long time ago for you.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Layne asked.

  “Your old man was a piece of shit. He couldn’t take care of your mother like I did. I fucked that whore every damn day. And when your old man caught us… I had to take care of things.”

  Holy shit.

  I never saw Layne’s face turn a color red as it did then. He slowly turned his head, the gun pointed between his eyes.

  “You murdered… my…”

  “Turn your head,” Detective John said. “So the suicide is more believable.”

  Layne looked at me from the corner of his eye. I knew it was going to go down now. So I dropped down, offering a split second distraction.

  It was funny because it was Detective John who taught me to pack two guns at once. I saw him put his gun down once when I was a kid and then put his left foot on a table and pull up his pant leg. He had a smaller gun there. It was amazing to me. Maybe the only time I thought he was cool. Of course, this was a minute before he gave the first gun to my mother and begged her to kill him. She pulled the trigger, but the weapon was empty. So then he beat her into silence and did the same to me.

  The split second move I made gave Layne enough time to smack Detective John’s hand away. He pulled the trigger and the gun went off. I grabbed my gun from my ankle and stood back up. I pointed the gun and as my finger went to the trigger, I saw Layne ready to throw a fist. As he came so close to hitting Detective John, the gun was back at him and went off.

  Once… twice…

  Layne jolted back and grabbed at his chest and stomach.

  I managed to finally pull the trigger on my gun, sending a bullet right through Detective John’s neck. He dropped his gun, grabbed his neck, and fell to the ground. He gurgled as he bled out, but I didn’t give a fuck.

  I rushed to Layne and dropped to my knees.

  No… fucking no…

  I stared down at him. Lifeless. Holes in his leather cut. Taking two fucking bullets before I could fire one.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I lo
ve you, Layne. I love you…”

  I leaned down and kissed his forehead. I then put my hand to the President’s patch.

  It was all mine.

  Right or wrong.

  Good or bad.

  It was all fucking mine.

  ~*~

  I sat at the head of the table and held up a shot glass. There was no speaking right now. I gave a nod and everyone drank. We drank to Devil Call MC. We drank to Layne. We drank to everything that had happened.

  In my other hand, I held the patch. President.

  I rubbed it between my thumb and pointer finger. I thought about cutting it from Layne’s leather cut. The frayed strings from where they had been tightly secured to Layne.

  “Anyone against this?” I asked and slowly stood up. I put the patch down in front of me. “I could just fucking take it and take control, but I want to give this table a chance to be open for once. Speak your mind. If anyone feels we need a vote…”

  Nobody spoke. Complete and dead silence.

  I nodded and gave everyone some time to think.

  To really think.

  After the mess with Detective John, it was pretty cut and dry. Authorities swarmed and fucking drilled us with questions. But Detective John’s actions were pretty cut and clear. The trunk of his car was filled with illegal weapons, most of them stolen from various police stations across the state. He had been stripped of his badge a while back and was definitely on a crusade to die.

  I still had a hell of a case ahead of me, but the lawyers would take care of it. It was complete self defense. The way he acted. He shot Layne twice. What choice did I have? Not to mention the past. Christ, those floodgates were broken open. I knew I’d get a slap on the wrist, if that, by the end of it all.

  It was still a mess out there.

  But now the club would heal.

  The club would remember.

  The club would move on.

  I’d sew the patch back onto my cut - where it should have never left - and I would take Devil Call MC right where it needed to be.

  “I’ll say it again,” I said. “If anyone thinks we need a vote…”

  “It was always yours,” a voice said as the door opened.

  All eyes turned and the sound was like nothing I’d ever heard before in my life. Gasps, yells, cries. Tough, grown men breaking down as they all jumped to their feet.

  And why the fuck not?

  Layne stood in the doorway, taller than ever. Dressed in all black, no leather cut, looking like he’d risen from the dead.

  But Layne was never dead.

  The son of a bitch was sound enough to wear a vest. He was always smart enough to think ahead of things. The bullets hit the vest and not him. He played it off that he was shot, giving me a chance to kill Detective John.

  When he popped up after getting shot, he took out a knife and handed it to me. He then took off his cut and nodded. We kept in silence, knowing it was all part of the plan. Layne and me together couldn’t exist. We were meant to be President, but there could only be one per charter. I wasn’t leaving Brocke. I wasn’t leaving Everly.

  But Layne was.

  The guys swarmed Layne, shocked that he was alive and mostly well.

  “Any objections?” I called out, regaining attention to the table.

  My table.

  “You’re the President here,” Buzzy said. “Layne is missing a cut…”

  “Nope,” I said.

  I reached down and pulled a leather cut off the floor. I threw it across the table. Layne grabbed it and squeezed it, smiling at me. He held it up and let everyone see what it said.

  Devil Call MC.

  “Layne’s going north,” I said. “He’s taking care of a different charter. From the mountains to the coast, even back into the fucking desert, it’s a disaster up there. We have intel that drugs are coming through our territory up there. I need someone smart and with balls to go up there and smash some skulls in.”

  Layne put the leather cut on and tugged at it.

  I looked at his left breast.

  President.

  “Jesus Christ,” Buzzy said. “Devil Call… taking over the world…”

  I nodded. “Fucking right, man. Fucking right.”

  There we stood, President to President, opposite ends of the table.

  Layne had a hell of a battle against him, cleaning things up north for the MC. And I had plenty to take care of right in Brocke.

  Shoot us. Stab us. Come after us. But one thing remained the same… with Devil Call MC… you could not stop us… or kill us.

  *FOUR MONTHS LATER*

  (Everly)

  I stood at the sink and rinsed the two plates off before putting them in the dishwasher. We weren’t domesticated by any means whatsoever, but it was nice to have a place of our own. A small house with a little backyard. Close enough to the clubhouse that Talon could come and go as needed, but at least we weren’t living in the clubhouse anymore.

  As Talon had promised… Rilen Lost kept quiet. Los Ahn got wind of the war within the MC and couldn’t believe how it all turned out. And Layne was sent north to deal with more fights, more wars, more bloodshed.

  In Brocke, it was quiet.

  It had to be quiet.

  There was a lot of police activity following what happened with Detective John. The way it all turned out, Talon was in the clear. The authorities were just trying to track down all of Detective John’s moves and paint some kind of picture.

  Either way, I didn’t care.

  Talon was not going to get arrested for anything and neither was I.

  I heard the front door open and I smiled. My heart started to race though, feeling scared each time I heard it. I always feared that the good days would end and the bad would sweep right back in.

  “Beautiful?”

  Fuck, when I heard Talon’s voice it gave me butterflies and goosebumps. It instantly turned me on and left me gripping the edge of the sink. There was a rumble in my belly and I let out a gasp.

  “Talon?” I cried out.

  I heard his feet hit the floor hard and fast. “What’s wrong?”

  I looked over my shoulder, tears in my eyes. “I…”

  “No,” he said. “Don’t tell me…”

  “Come here,” I said. “Hurry.”

  Talon ran up behind me and touched my waist. “Fuck, beautiful, are you in pain?”

  “No,” I whispered. “Feel…”

  I grabbed his hands and slid them over the ever-growing baby bump of mine. Our fingers were interlocked against my belly and I looked back and up at him.

  “What…”

  I felt the fluttering kick again.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Talon said. “Holy shit. The baby…”

  “She’s kicking.”

  “She?” he asked. “HE is kicking.”

  “No. I cannot handle two of you.”

  “And I cannot handle having a daughter. Then I’ll definitely end up in jail.”

  I laughed and moved to my toes so I could kiss him. In my mind I pictured a little girl in pink dresses, pigtails, and Talon’s beautiful eyes. But then again, I pictured a little boy walking around in his own leather cut, with that rough and tough face of his father. It was fun to think about.

  Our fingers remained interlocked, resting on my belly. We started to kiss and the baby kicked again.

  Hang on, little one, it’s going to be a wild ride…

  The DEVIL CALL MC series will continue soon… don’t miss a single book!

  *** BREAKING NEWS ***

  The Devil Call MC series will return *soon* with Layne!

  That’s right… he’s out of the main charter with Devil Call MC, but he’s not done yet. He’s going north… and the second he gets there, bullets fly, wars rage, and Layne sets his eyes and heart on a woman who may not be desreving to be saved…

  ~*~

  *** MORE BREAKING NEWS ***

  While you’re waiting f
or Layne’s wild story to come out… here’s a couple of questions:

  Have you ever wondered the true story between Layne, Talon, and Anneliese?

  Have you ever wondered just how Talon got the President’s patch the first time?

  GUESS WHAT?!

  Those stories are about to be released!

  Published in trilogy format, NO LOVE KILL and BEFORE THE PATCH will encompass some of the dark and wild past between Talon and Layne!

  *DON’T MISS IT!*

  QUICK QUESTION BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR REVIEW ON AMAZON…

  ~*~ DO YOU LIKE ALPHAS? ~*~

  ~*~ DO YOU LIKE MEN WHO ARE BIG, STRONG, AND DOMINATE? ~*~

  ~*~ DO YOU LIKE MEN WHO CAN PROTECT YOU IN A WAY YOU NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE? ~*~

  If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions… KEEP READING…

  Welcome to the world of RAW RIVER WILD

  These are men. These are beasts. These are alphas.

  They’re shifters. They’re wolves. They’re everything fantasies are made of…

  … and they’re ready for YOU

  In the first trilogy in the RAW RIVER WILD series, SCENT OF CLAIM brings to life the *wild* *sexy* *dominate* *alpha* world that has two alphas – Roman and Dalton – ready to fight to the death for the *sweet* and *luscious* curves of a beautiful woman named Emily.

  SCENT OF A CLAIM (Emily, Roman, Dalton)

  (Raw River Wild)

  ~*~

  Emily hates her curvy body, but that's the least of her worries after she is not only eye humped by one sexy alpha and literally crashes into a second one. Both are part of the Raw River Wild pack... they're big, bold, and they're shifters.

  Emily's body quickly loses control to fantasies that don't seem possible... that is, until a knock at her door makes it all - and more - possible.