Ryder’s Last Run
Dueling Dragons MC Series
Book Two
By
Rose Dewallvin
&
Bonnie Hardman
Copyright © 2013 Rose Dewallvin & Bonnie Hardman
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is suitable for adults 18 years or older due to sexual situations and violence. Thank you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
PROLOGUE -
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
CHAPTER 4 -
CHAPTER 5 -
CHAPTER 6 -
CHAPTER 7 -
CHAPTER 8 -
CHAPTER 9 -
CHAPTER 10 -
CHAPTER 11 -
CHAPTER 12 -
CHAPTER 13 -
CHAPTER 14 -
CHAPTER 15 -
CHAPTER 16 -
CHAPTER 17 -
CHAPTER 18 -
EPILOGUE -
Acknowledgments:
Rose’s:
I would like to thank the academy and my mom… Oh wait, wrong speech. Opps!
Okay, well here it is… Wow, book two! I seriously didn’t think I would have published one book let alone have two published books! Well, I have a huge person to thank in helping make this dream come true Bonnie Hardman. She is the ying to my yang, we are like bread & butter. Cheese & crackers…two peas in a pod… Oh, you get the picture!
She brought so very amazing characters to life and I am blessed to have her not only as my co-author but she is also a friend for life.
My husband for his never ending support & love that he shows me every day. I love you babe!
#TeamRyder & the Original Old Ladies… You ladies ROCK!!
All the bloggers, reviewers & authors that have posted about us and helped pimp us and helped us get to where we are! You guys are an amazing community of people!! I am blessed to be in that group!!
Jason JC Kurtis…oh Jason, you have done something so amazing that I don’t know where to start with the thank you . You have brought to life something that was just a picture in my head. Thank you!! I am so thankful that you have agreed to become Ryder! I am also thankful for the friendship that we have developed, you’re amazing! Don’t ever forget that! <3
G & Donna with Whispering Graphics - you ladies rocked it on this cover!!! <3
I know that I have missed someone - somewhere so I thank you all & love each and every one of you for your undying love & support!!!!
<3 THANK YOU!!!! <3
Bonnie’s Acknowledgements
This has been one of the best experiences in my life. I have wanted to write a book for several years and had no idea where to start. One night I posted on Facebook on a bloggers page that I follow and mentioned that I wanted to write a book. Well, I got into a conversation with woman in Washington state. We did some bantering back and forth about writing, and I felt like I had made a connection with this person in my love of writing. I got a message from the woman and she asked me, do you want to write a book together? And that’s how it all started with my collaboration with Rose.
I brainstormed with her on book 1 of the Dueling Dragon’s MC series, helped her with some character development, and helped her get the story going. Book 1 was her baby, but I was emotionally vested in the characters and understood how they came to be.
When Rose asked me to co-write with her on Book 2, I was not only honored, I was ecstatic to be on board with her! Writing this book consisted of late nights and all night writing sessions, because of not only the 3-hour time difference between us, but also Rose keeps crazy hours.
There has been some craziness and drama in writing this book but in the end, it was an exhilarating experience for me. We laughed, we got down right crazy in our brainstorming sessions, and I had to keep her on task a lot due to her ADHD issues. My favorite thing to tell her was FOCUS! In the end, I wouldn’t do this with anyone else. Love ya my friend.
I have to thank Jason JC Kurtis for walking into our lives and becoming our living Ryder. He is a sexy man that truly didn’t have any idea of how crazy Rose and I are. It’s a good thing though. He has become like family to us both. Without Jason, our Ryder would have been a faceless fantasy. God bless him for his service to our country.
I would also like to give my sincerest thanks to Jason’s photographers Joseph Knights of J. W. Knights Photography and Ashleigh St. Pierre of St. Pierre Photography. Without their wonderful talents and visions, our cover and photo’s to promote this book would not be possible.
I would like to thank our Street Team, The Original Old Ladies of Dueling Dragon’s MC for their hard work and dedication to our vision of this series. There are too many to list individually, but I’d like to add a special thanks to Char, Grace, Connie, Tracy, and Gina. You girls are our rocks and without you, this would have been a lot harder.
Personally, I’d like to thank my husband Bob for supporting my desire to write and putting up with the crazy hours I kept during this experience. I love you O.F. I would also like to thank my best friend Brandi for her constant support and talking me through my panics and frustrations, and always telling me, Girl, you got this! Thank you to my family and friends for having my back and giving me daily encouragement.
Lastly, thank you to the beta readers for the invaluable feedback on the characters, and for hating Bambi as much as you all did.
Band & Author Info -
Jaded Mary – www.jadedmary.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/JadedMary/241075951594?id=241075951594&sk=info
Letters from the Fire - https://www.facebook.com/LettersFromTheFire?ref=br_tf
Bonnie Hardman:
www.facebook.com/authorbonniehardman
Rose Dewallvin:
www.facebook.com/rosie.dew13
https://www.facebook.com/rose.dewallvin?fref=ts
Prologue -
Ryder
“Ryder, are you sure that you have to do this? He’s just your father. We can leave; we can get away like we’ve been planning for the last year. I love you, goddamn it! Don’t you see that?” Bambi screams at me as I back up against the wall, because there is one thing you should know about Italian women. They have tempers. They can go from wanting to suck your dick and loving you for the rest of your life to being your worst fucking enemy. That’s where I am at right now.
“Damn it! I can’t just back out of this. My pops has really fucked up and I have to do this for him. For the club.”
I lift my hands up in a surrender pose, hoping that she won’t go all buck-wild on my ass.
“Fuck you, Ryder. You think you’re such hot shit. ‘Oh, my name is Ryder and I am some bad ass biker and I am gonna be king shit one day.’”
She has the nerve to mock me. What a fucking bitch.
“What the fuck do you mean by that? Just the other night you wanted to fuck the shit out of me on the back of my hog. Now you’re acting like a psycho fucking bitch. I have to do this for my pops and for the MC.”
Goddamn. Maybe it’ll be good to get away from this psycho bitch before I end up dead.
What’s that saying? Oh, yeah. “You can’t make a hoe a housewife.” Bambi is the perfect example
of that. She’s hot and man, could she fuck. It’s one of the things I love about her most. She’s just a wild ass bitch. I’ve seen her drink like one of the guys; she even fights like one of us. However, when she loves, she seems to do it for life.
“Well, let me tell you that you can fuck and you know how to show a girl that you think you love her, but when it boils down to it, you’re just scared. You’re a scared little boy that doesn’t have the balls to be a man!” She spits her words. I can see her heartbreak on her face. Fuck, she does love me.
“I just… I don’t know what you expect from me, Bambi. I’m a fucking biker; you’re a club whore. Did you really think we would be able to be together?”
I know that is going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. She’s going to slap me or cut my dick off and feed it to me.
She turns to leave the room, stops for a second to gather herself. Then, she turns and walks back over to me and slaps me so hard that it feels like she broke a tooth.
“I love you and you’re such an asshole that something good is going to walk right out of your life. You will never be happy, I can promise you that.”
I watch as she turns and walks out of my room and is out of my life…
****
Fuck, I need to get my head back in the game. Here I am engaged to the best girl I’ve ever met and, for some reason, fucking Bambi runs through my mind. It feels like when I took the oath to drive that Bambi would be the one standing behind me and waiting for me to return home safely. I never expected it to be another woman altogether.
What am I doing? Looking in the review mirror, I see the lights. Red and blue flashing lights. I saw them in the distance, so I told Zig and Flem to get the fuck out of here and go take care of my sister and my girl.
Shit! What am I going to do? I need to call Faith. I need to make sure that she knows I love her and that, no matter what she hears or no matter what she thinks happened, it isn’t true. I want her to know that I’ll be home soon and that I love her. I won’t break her heart like I did Bambi’s. Even though I‘m not in front of Faith, I can’t have the thoughts of what her face would look like if I did break her heart.
I reach down in my lap and grab my cell phone. She answers it on the first ring.
“Hey baby! How’s it going?” Goddamn, her voice is like honey.
“I’m doing okay, babe. How was work?”
She tells me about how Layla was making fun of one of the old nasty truckers who’s always there. It sounds like she had a good day. God, I can remember the first time I saw her. She was so innocent and beautiful. How did I get so lucky?
I look in my mirror. There are about 10 cruisers behind me. I wonder when they’re going get the helicopter out.
I laugh to myself. Faith hears me and stops what she’s saying.
“And why are you laughing at me, Ryder? Do I entertain you that much? Asshole!” She laughs at the end.
“I got a question for you, babe. I need you to think long and hard about this.” I get ready to ask her the big question and it is something I didn’t even give Bambi the option of answering.
“Is everything okay? I love you, baby. I can’t wait to see you in eight hours!” I can tell I’m making her nervous. Damn it.
“I know, and I love you too, babe. Listen to me. Remember when I asked you if you’d be with me no matter what, and if you’d stand behind me in any situation? Do you remember telling me that you would?”
“Yeah, I remember. It was the one thing that told me you truly cared about me. I said yes and I would say the same thing now. I love you, Ryder. I love everything about you and wouldn’t change anything about you or us. Just come home.”
I hear her voice crack. She’s crying. God damn it. I fucking knew it. I knew she would cry!
“Faith, I need you to listen. I love you. No matter what you hear, it’s shit. Things are really fucked up. I love you. I will marry you one day. I love you, babe.”
I don’t have time to wait for her response. There’s a car on the side of the road up ahead, and they’ve laid down a spike strip. Fuck!
I slam on the brakes and get the truck to stop as quickly as I can; the brakes squeal, making a loud obnoxious noise as; black smoke billows up from the tires as they skid across the pavement. The whole truck acts as if it’s having a seizure and hops to a stop about 10 feet from the spike strip. Shit, if I would have hit it, it would have popped all my tires and I would’ve crashed. At least I’m alive, but fuck. I’ busted.
“Hands up where we can see them! Hands up!”
I shut off the truck and lift my hands in the air.
“Throw the keys out the window and then, slowly, get out of the truck.”
I grab the keys from the ignition and throw them out the window. There are four cops pointing guns at me.
I slowly get out of the truck. The second I hit the ground; I’m slammed up against the truck and read my rights. They throw me into the back of a cop car and transport me to the nearest federal facility.
Chapter 1 -
Faith
“Where do you think he could be?” I ask Layla. She always seems to know the answer to all my issues. She’s become a important part of my life; I don’t know where I’d be without her. She taught me what it means to be loved and cherished? By someone other than Ryder.
“I don’t know, but this has the MC written all over it. I’ll make some calls and see what I can come up with.”
She reaches for her phone and dials.
“Hey, Chaz. Have you talked to my brother by any chance?”
She nods. “Well, does Zig or Flem know anything? They just showed up and said Ryder told them to come back but they don’t know what happened? All right. We’ll wait and see if you guys come up with anything.”
She hangs up, walks out the back door, and lights up a smoke. “Come here, sugar. I’ll fill you in.”
Smoke seeps out of her nose as she exhales. I figure I’ll also most likely need a smoke after what she tells me, so I grab mine from my coat and walk out back to join her.
“Don’t tell me Ryder’s dead and never coming back.”
“Whoa! Wait a damn minute. What are you talking about? I was just going to tell you that Ziggy and Flem have showed up at the clubhouse.” Taking a drag of her smoke, she starts talking again. “They don’t know what happened to Ryder or, if they do, the MC isn’t saying anything to me. They said that they’d get in touch if they hear something. You need to calm down and have a drink or something. You’re stressing too much for such a young girl.” She rubs my arms and pulls me into a huge hug.
We stand outside for a few more minutes and are just about to finish our cigarettes when my cell phone rings. I reach into my pocket. It’s my oldest brother, Will.
“Hello?” I say into the phone. “Faith, how are you doing?” Will asks and I tell him that I have been stressed because Ryder is gone on a run but I leave out all the gory details.
“I called to tell you… How do I put this?” He exhales loudly. “You need to get home now. No if, ands, or buts about it. Daddies going to die within the next few days. If you want a chance to say goodbye, you need to get your ass down here.”
I start to shake and hyperventilate. I’m on the verge of crying hysterically. Layla takes notice and steps forward to take the phone out of my hand.
“Who is this?” She looks at me out of the corner of her eyes, trying to gauge my response to what I’ve been told. I feel the tears sting the back of my eyes.
“Uh huh, well, she can take off as much time as she needs. She will always have a job and a home to return to. I’ll have my son stay in her apartment to keep an eye on things.”
She hangs up and pulls me into her body, rubbing my shoulder.
****
Ryder
All I can think about is the fact that I am in this fucked up federal jail, looking around at the blank white walls and the cot that’s in the corner looks like it needs to be shit canned. The place smell
s like piss, but what more could you ask for. I could be in county jail; there I’d be shoved into an 8 by 10 room with another dude. Let me tell ya, when you have to drop a deuce it is all out in the open and you just have to suck it up.
Fuck, I need to get the hell out of here. I called everyone that I could think of, but no one can cover my five million dollar bail. Even the MC can’t come up with that.
I just want to get home to my girl; I wish I could call her and explain what’s going on. She’s probably worried as hell, especially since I just hung up on her after begging her to promise to wait.
I knew getting pulled over while transporting two thousand pounds of drugs and all those guns would get me in trouble. I just don’t know how they knew what I was hauling. It was probably the full biker escort through the sleepy little town I passed through in Northeastern Missouri. Fuck, who knows what the hell is going on.
I’ve been in this shithole for about a week. They keep questioning me, thinking I’ll give up the MC or the mafia. They told me that, if I gave up whom I was working for, they’d give me some kind of deal. Yeah, right, cocksuckers! I ain’t that stupid!
The cell door creaks and opens with a thud.
“Porter, grab your bedding and roll up your mat. You made bail.”
I slowly stand and grab my things. I know that I didn’t just all of a sudden make bail. Someone high up somewhere bailed me out. I’m fucked! How am I going to get out of this shit? I can’t just ask the cop to leave me in here. If I do that, they’ll know something’s wrong. That’s the last thing I need.
I roll up my mat and wad up my blanket and pillow, walking toward the cop.
“Drop your stuff to the left of the door, then turn and face the wall with your hands behind your back.” His voice is husky and gruff from years of smoking and yelling at all the misfits in jail.
Ryder's Last Run (Dueling Dragons MC Series) Page 1