Copyright © 2016 Annelise Reynolds
Ember’s Burn
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been uses without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Editor: Dawn Lewis
Cover Designer: Dark Water Covers
Formatting- Jaye Cox
Happy Birthday Paula!
Love you!
Acknowledgements
I have so many people to thank for being a support system to me. I will start with my heart and soul…
My kids: I love you guys so much, and I hope one day you realize that only you can make your dreams a reality. I hope and pray that is one lesson you learn from me.
To my sisters: Lili, Paula, and Katie, you three have shown me what family really is. I love you guys, and I can’t thank you enough for all the encouragement and support that you have given me over the years. I know that I have three of the best friends and sisters in you guys.
To Jemma and Addy: Thank you girls for starting this journey with me. I can’t wait to meet you both in person so I can hug you, and finally say thank you for everything you have done. KC is going to kick ass.
To the fans who became friends, and the friends that became a foundation: Amy and Michelle, I don’t know what I’d do without you two. Y’all have been such an encouragement to me, keeping me going, listening to my crazy ass as I try to sort out all the characters in my head. I appreciate all you do.
To my Vixens: God, you ladies and Kyle, kick ass. I never would have thought anyone would love my first book enough to stalk me for the second, but you guys are around on a daily basis kicking ass, taking names, and showing me support. It amazes me what all you guys do. Thank you. Thank you for loving Phoenix and Grit enough to want to be a part of my team, and thank you for loving Ember and Titan sight unseen.
To the amazing author friends that I have met along this journey: I cannot wait to meet you guys in person. Y’all have been amazing. Thank you for shooting the shit with me, Pepper. You make me laugh when I feel like crying, and I cannot thank you enough for that. Debbie, you are fucking awesome. Thank you for being a sounding board and a voice of reason when I need it. Becca, you amaze me. Your support and encouragement have been steadfast, and I am so lucky to call you my friend. There are so many more that I’m leaving out, and I’m sorry. Please don’t be hurt, there are just too many people to thank.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty- Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Epilogue One
Epilogue Two
I tried to scream, but couldn’t. “Not again, please not again!” My mind screamed the words my voice couldn’t over and over again.
My breathing was erratic and shallow. I couldn’t quite catch my breath as I relived the hell of my past. I felt his hands all over me, again; grabbing me too tight, pinching my flesh and leaving his marks behind.
His rage was unleashed as he pounded my unyielding, weaker body. I tried to move, tried to fight with everything I had, but it wasn’t enough. My arms and legs were useless to me. When I tried to scream no sound was heard. I couldn’t speak around the rag he had used to gag me. I fought him. Always fighting him. He loved to hear me scream, but this time for some reason, I couldn’t. “Please, please,” I silently begged and pleaded with God, hoping he was there and would pull me out of this hell. “Please, just let me die!” I felt the tears flowing from my eyes, and then I felt the hand holding mine, rubbing tenderly across the back of my knuckles. The action didn’t match the torturous hell I was reliving.
I tried to look around, but like the rest of my body refused to cooperate, so did my eyes. I felt myself waking up little by little, becoming more and more aware of my surroundings. There was an annoying sound that was beeping loud and fast, too fast. The more I focused on it, it began to slow down and even out. I heard and became aware that someone was speaking to me softly. It was a man’s voice, and didn’t belong to the hell I was trapped in. The voice was one I’d heard a lot over the last eight months since my arrival in Belle. He was whispering words of assurance and comfort. ‘Shhh. You’re safe, honey. I’ve got you. Nobody’s going to hurt you again.’ The words so simple, yet, so soothing and reassuring.
“It’s not right,” my thoughts screamed at me. “Men aren’t to be trusted.” But for some reason, I wanted to trust this man and the words of comfort he was offering me. I held onto his voice as the darkness took over again. When it pulled me under, I saw him. The owner of that low voice that lulled me back into a calm unconscious sleep. I was no longer in hell but still in the presence of a Demon.
When they told me McKenzie had been taken, fear like I’ve never known gripped me. I’d seen battlefields during my service, but nothing prepared me for this. Michelle Price was screaming at McKenzie who was covered in her own blood. She was tied to a chair, her head dead weight on her shoulders, but the small, shallow rise to her chest confirmed she was alive, just unconscious. “HE ALWAYS WANTED YOU! YOU WERE ALWAYS IN THE WAY, YOU BITCH,” the hag yelled at her. When she raised her hand to strike McKenzie, I lost it. If Roper hadn’t gotten to the woman first I would have snapped her neck and not regretted it one bit. The bitch was screaming like a banshee as Roper pulled her away.
“Shut that bitch up,” I bark
ed as I worked to free McKenzie from her ropes. “Fucking bitch, count your blessings he got to you first. I’d have killed you,” I barked at her even though I didn’t take my eyes off the woman in front of me.
“Monica and Sam are dead. They both have bullets in their chests,” Legend said, coming in from the back room of the cabin. “Fuck. We can’t take her on our bikes like that.”
“I’m not waiting on an ambulance.” She was losing way too much blood.
“Brother, you don’t have a choice. Price left his bitch here without a car. He probably wasn’t coming back for her.” At Legend’s words, she started pulling against the restraints that Roper had on her and trying to scream around the tape covering her mouth.
“Get Ink to turn around and bring a cage. The ambulance will take forever to get to Belle, and we don’t have time to wait. Tell him to call the sheriff instead of going after the incompetent ass. She needs medical help NOW.”
Legend did as I ordered, and I turned my attention back to McKenzie. “McKenzie, Honey,” I rasped as I felt her soft fluttery pulse in her neck. “Stay with me baby, I’ve got you. Stay with me.”
I checked her head and felt a huge lump on the back. There was dried blood beneath her nose where it had been busted and broken. I skimmed my hands down her body, feeling for other broken bones as I went. She didn’t respond to my touch or my words as I spoke to her. She was completely out of it, and that scared the shit out of me. As I felt over her ribs, I felt one out of place, she didn’t even flinch.
“Where is Ink with that cage?” I angrily asked no one specific I looked at the slashes across her stomach. They were going to need stitches and sutures, but didn’t look deep enough to cause any internal damage, thank God.
“Grit better kill that bastard,” I said to myself looking at her beautiful, mangled body. Her legs were black and blue from being kicked repeatedly, her wrists raw from the tightness of the ropes, and one of her toes appeared to be broken.
I was afraid to hold her, but damned if I wasn’t afraid not to either.
“Ink will be here in ten,” Legend said, coming in from outside. “What do we want to do with her?” He gestured toward Phoenix’s mom.
“I’ll drive Ember to the hospital, Ink can follow on my bike since he’ll want to head that way with me. You two stay here with her and wait for the sheriff. I’ll call Grit on my way to the hospital and let him know what’s going on.” I looked back at McKenzie’s beaten face then looked back at Legend. “Tell Ink he has five minutes to be here or I will kick his ass.”
McKenzie wasn’t doing well, her chest was starting to rattle with each shallow breath she drew in. “Sounds like she might have a collapsed lung,” Roper said, listening to her breathing.
I looked at the woman he was holding onto, the crazed victory in her eyes sent rage flowing through me. “If she dies, you die. I don’t care if you are in custody. That won’t stop me from getting to you.”
I lifted McKenzie into my arms held her against my chest. “Legend,” I shouted over my shoulder. “You drive. Roper take care of this shit until the sheriff gets here.” I changed my mind. I didn’t want to let go of McKenzie for anything, not even to drive to the hospital.
Legend followed me outside. We no sooner walked down the front steps of the cabin, than Ink was flying up the private road. He pulled around and slid to a stop, barely waiting for the truck to stop moving before hopping out. “What the hell did they do to her?” I looked at him, his feelings for her clearly written on his face. I could tell he cared greatly for McKenzie, but I wasn’t sure just how much, and in what way he cared, not that it mattered anyway. She was going to be mine as soon as she realized she wasn’t going to get away from me, not again.
The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever, even though Legend was breaking every traffic law there was. As usual, no cops in sight. When this was over, we would have to do something about the law in this town, or the lack of it. A sheriff who got his certification from the internet, he was nothing but a joke. The college was small, and mainly catered to the local kids from the surrounding towns, but it brought in enough traffic to Belle that we needed a better sheriff to keep things peaceful. Not to mention for – hopefully rare – instances like this, we needed a more competent investigator.
Legend pulled up to the doors and barely parked before hopping out. Ink was on my bike behind us. I carried her in and immediately there was a flurry of activity to get her help. A nurse had a gurney and rolled her away for tests. Another nurse pointed me, and the guys that started to file in behind me, to the waiting room.
I was with Phoenix and the rest of the brothers in the waiting room for over 30 minutes without any news. Phoenix was a mess. I heard what happened with Price, and I was glad that Grit put a bullet between his eyes. The only thing that would have been better was doing it myself. I stared blankly at the floor between my feet. Thoughts of what I should have done, how I should have done it, plagued me.
“You ok, Titan?” Phoenix’s soft, raw voice broke into my thoughts. She sat beside me and lay her head on my shoulder.
“No.” What else could I say? McKenzie was in a serious condition. She was still in surgery for the broken ribs and whatever other damage they had done to her that we couldn’t see.
McKenzie is one of those women that is worth the fight, even if you are fighting her demons. I just realized it too damn late.
“Me neither,” she croaked out as her tears started to fall again. I placed my arm around her and held her as she cried for her sister. Like the men around me were my brothers, the woman in surgery was her sister by choice if not by blood.
Gavel had been taken back for the bullet in his shoulder, but he was going to be fine. “Excuse me.” The nurse came out from the locked doors. “Miss McAdams needs a blood transfusion. Who do I need to sign the papers?”
Phoenix stood up. “I have medical power of attorney for her. Can you tell us how she’s doing?”
“I can’t, you’ll have to wait for the doctor to come out.” She handed Phoenix all the necessary paperwork to sign, then disappeared behind the metal doors once again. Phoenix turned back around and sat beside Grit, curling up against him. I felt bad for her, she’s been through so much already, and now she’s going through this shit.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I reached for it, checking the caller ID before I answered. “Hi, Ma.”
“What’s going on, Jason?”
“How did you know anything was going on?”
“I’m your mother, plus there are news reports that a New York senator’s daughter and an heiress were involved in a shootout in Belle.”
“Damn, it’s on the news already?” Fuck that’s all we needed right now. “Ma, we’re fine. I’ll fill you in when I can, but now is not the time.”
“Jason Miller, don’t you give me that or I will head there right now.”
I closed my eyes, and I could picture the look on her face as she said it. It was the same look that she always gave me when she knew something was going on. She was still in Arlington. Even after my father’s death she stayed behind. “It’s ok, Ma. You can come for a visit soon, but there’s a lot going on right now.”
“Well obviously, Son.” I could just imagine the eye roll I was getting. “That’s why I’m calling. Tell me what’s going on and how you are involved.”
I sighed. I’ve stood up to people asking me questions and remained stone-faced, but my mother asks me a question and I crumble. “McKenzie is in surgery, Ma. We are waiting to see if she makes it out alive.”
“Oh, you know the poor girls this is happening to?”
“Yeah, Ma, I know them.”
“And you’re at the hospital with them now?”
I sighed, she was about as subtle as a gun. “Yeah, Ma. Grit’s girl is the heiress. Her name is Phoenix. She’s a sweetheart. You would love her, and McKenzie.” I wanted to say she was mine, but she wasn’t, not yet. “McKenzie is
a spitfire. She reminds me a lot of you.”
“Well, I must meet them when I come out there next.”
“Let me know before you come, Ma. I haven’t bought a house yet, so I’d have to make arrangements for you.”
“I’m coming, Jason. I’m packing now and headed that way.”
“Ma, that’s not a good-”
“Jason Miller, don’t even try to stop me from coming out there. I’ve already got one foot out the door.”
“I know, Ma, but-”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, honey.” She hung up, putting to rest any further arguments. I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Yeah, Ma, tomorrow,” I said to the now silent phone. I saw Abby looking over at me from her place beside Grit. “Abs, do you mind if my mother stays at your house?”
“No, she can have the spare room.” I nodded at her answer and sat back to wait out the surgery.
Grit and Abby went back to see Gavel not too long after. We still had no word on McKenzie yet, so I stayed out in the waiting room instead of going to look in on him.
“She’ll pull through brother,” Ink said, sitting in the seat beside me.
“Yeah, but how will she cope with this when she does?”
“She’s coped with a lot more, Titan. She can make it through this.”
“I don’t know what your feelings are for her, Ink, but if they are anything beyond brotherly, you better forget them fast.” The insane jealousy that I felt when I had seen her in his arms back at Phoenix Bar surged through me again.
“It’s not like that, Titan, trust me. I know you have your eye on her, and I know it’s more than a passing thing for you. If it was anything but, I’d definitely step in.” He shrugged. “I think she has a thing for you, too. Just tread carefully. She has damage you don’t know about yet, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“What do you know, Ink?” The idea that he knew something that he wasn’t telling me infuriated me.
“I know pain, hurt, fear, and trauma when I see it, brother. Look closer, you’ll see it too.” I thought about his words and the woman that had been driving me nuts for months. When she woke up, I would have to pay better attention, and not focus on the fact that I wanted her so damn much.
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