by Kiki Leach
Just say you love me, just for today
And don’t give me time ‘cause that’s not the same
Want to feel burning flames when you say my name
Want to feel passion flow into my bones
Like blood through my veins
Jessie Ware
(Say You Love Me)
Contents:
Cover
Quote
Copyright
About the Author
About the Book
Note for the Reader
Dedication
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
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ending Quote
Other Works
Social Media Info.
Newsletter Sign-Up
Copyright © 2016 Kiki Leach
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.
First Edition: March 2016
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
About the Author:
Kiki Leach was born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK where she still resides. As a child she was surrounded by books, pens, and notepads, all of which she quickly took advantage of from the time she could read and write. Her favorite past-time has always been telling stories and in college, was encouraged by her mother and professors to take her storytelling more seriously.
Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC
About the Book:
"I'm nothin' but danger, darlin'. I'm no more than death. I'm somebody that you don't wanna fuckin' mess with in the middle of the goddamn night or even in the daytime. I'm your worst fuckin' nightmare – your greatest enemy. I'm every fuckin' thing you never wished I was and every fuckin' thing you ever wanted me to be."
Their worlds collided like a pair of rocket ships in midair.
Eight years ago, Mia Sullivan was known in and around her small town just outside of Crescent Beach, Florida as the 'good girl'. The 'preacher's kid'. The one who never stayed out late, always turned in her homework on time and never, ever said a word in front of anyone else that she couldn't say in front of her parent's first. She didn't drink. She didn't smoke. And sex before marriage was completely off the table. Her world was perfect. Her life plans were laid out in front of her. Everything was set in place. Until one night with the wrong man sent a girl well on her way to the top of the hill, sinking straight down to the bottom of the river like a stone.
Eight years ago, Jacob 'River' Hawkins was just a man looking to finally catch a break in his life. Born into a world of drugs, booze, sex and bikes, he had long ago given up on his dream of winning the UFC World Championship title after snapping his opponent's neck during a staged cage fight. As a result, his mother encouraged him to finally become an official member of the only family he ever knew growing up, the Shadow Riders MC. A few years in was all it took before he was made VP and forced to help make decisions about a club that while saving him from the streets, was also draining away parts of his soul day by day. Parts he never thought he'd get back until the morning he found a girl almost half his age beaten, broken and laying half dead right outside his club.
Eight years ago changed the course of two lives forever, connecting two souls that never believed in needing someone else until they had a desperate need for each other. Neither of them knew just how much that need would eventually turn to lust, followed by love. Neither of them knew just how much that kind of love would almost destroy them both.
Note for Potential Readers:
"Inflamed" is a complete story (absolutely no cliffhangers) told in first and third person POVs which will be broken up by chapters and symbols (¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤).
First, you need to be aware that this story is HELLA LONG. It’s over 180k words and I make absolutely no apologies for that. If you’ve read the Miss Independent series thus far, then you know I can’t tell a short story even when I try. But I’m warning you now that with this book, it’s longer and it’s more detailed in many aspects. I believe that if you’re going to read a love story from beginning to end, where two people from very different walks of life come together as one, then you need all the ingredients that make it somewhat believable as far as fiction goes, as you go along. Otherwise, I’m only shortchanging you the experience of living in another world and inside someone else’s head for a few hours, and thus wasting your time.
Next, I can in fact guarantee an HEA, HOWEVER, you need to know that the road to that HEA will not be paved with pretty flowers along the way. At all.
There is A LOT of swearing in this book. A. LOT. I don’t exaggerate, there’s a lot. There is also a lot of sex. A. LOT of sex, very descriptive and quite graphic sex as well as graphic dirty talking during, before and after sex. You're dealing with an alpha male VP of a motorcycle club here, so there is lots of swearing, lots of violence and death. This world is dark, it's gritty, it's angry, misogynistic, dangerous and for some, completely offensive and outrageous.
Yes, this is a romance, but if you don't like MC reads, if you didn't like Sons of Anarchy and the like and the language used, if you don't want to know about underground worlds, if seedy is nowhere near being your thing in a book, I'm warning you now to stay away. Because I pull no punches with this; it’s real, raw and completely in your face. This is an IR (black woman/white man) romance but explicit/vulgar/offensive language will be thrown around freely by some within the pages of this book. This isn't meant to shock, offend or even turn you away as a reader, it's meant to make you aware as far as what you're about to dive into and just how real it is despite this being ‘fiction’. The racial differences between Mia and River are discussed and don’t go ignored by anyone, leading River to come to terms with who he is versus who he wants to be as a person and m
an, which I hope you’ll gain a better understanding of in his parts of the story.
I've been exploring other sides to my writing over the last few months and I'm happy to share them all with anyone willing to take a chance on me. And I hope that you do with this book. I understand if you won't, but I needed to be upfront about what this book entails, what it's about and why it might work for some while it will absolutely not work for others. So please take time to download opening pages via the sample before deciding to purchase. The prologue and opening chapters will show you exactly what you'll be getting from the rest of this book.
Thank you.
Dedication
To any and everyone who overcame obstacles, fought battles, won against personal demons, and found true love on the way up.
This book is for you.
Crescent Beach, Florida
PROLOGUE
"Jesus H. Christ. What the fuck is this shit?" Blue's dark brown eyes grew wide with suspicion and terror as he gaped down at the fragile looking girl at his feet, her arms covered in blood, cuts and bruises with the side of her face pressed down hard into the cement. The heel of her shoe was broken with the strap of it dangling from her foot. She looked an absolute fucking mess and not the sexy, slutty kind he was used to waking up to in the morning after a damn good lay courtesy of a regular club whore from the night before.
River flashed a bright yellow flame across the tip of his joint and took a long, sorrowful drag. "Shit." He snapped the lighter shut and stuffed it into the inside pocket of his cut while staring down at this girl. Carelessly lifting his thick, broad shoulders and shaking his head this way and that, his dark curls swirled around his neck and strong jawline in the wind. "I don't even fuckin' know, brother," he said. His gruff, surly voice was flat, emotionless as he mumbled around the tip of the joint. He didn't give a shit about this bitch living or dying. He did however, give a shit about his club and this chick being there under any circumstances no matter the reason why didn't spell good shit for them.
Blue took a few steps past the gate, the heels of his boots scraping across the concrete as he moved, and kept his eyes on the girl's face before dragging them down to her chest to see if it was moving.
"You think she's fuckin' dead?" he asked.
River looked over at his brother in confusion, scrunching his brows and pinching his lips to the corner of his mouth. They had both been standing in the exact same positions for the last fifteen or so seconds since being outside. "How the fuck should I know, motherfucker?" He shrugged. "Get your ass down there and take a fuckin' look."
"No, Mr. V Fuckin' P," he spat, "you're right there at her goddamn head." He pointed. "You get your motherfuckin' ass down there and take a fuckin' look."
River shook his head. He wasn't scared to look a possibly dead bitch in the face. He'd tell anyone who asked that he'd done so more times than he'd like to count over the last ten plus years since patching into the mother charter of the Shadow Riders MC and becoming its VP not long after. But not once in all those years had some possibly dead bitch actually found her way to the front of his goddamn club. And especially not one with a 'Free Pussy for Any and all Willing Motherfuckers in the Area' note attached to the bottom of her dress that seemed to be meant just for him.
Except this girl wasn't exactly his type in terms of who he was willing to take it from.
He snatched the joint from between his lips and dropped down to a squat.
"Shit." He shoved the lit tip against his knee, then tossed it aside and reached his hand down to wipe the hair back from her face to get a good look at who she was. As if he'd even know, as if he would've fucking cared if he did. "Christ."
Her hair was caked in dried blood, vomit and urine that seemed to be poured in the gallons. She smelled like shit dumped into a pile of more shit dumped into a sewage filled with nothing BUT shit, and wasn't looking too much better in the face once he finally got the chance to fully see it. Her eyelids were sealed shut with tears, her lips were bloody, cracked, blistered like she'd been baking in the sun for days on end before showing up there. Her nose looked broken from having been slammed into the ground a few times and her cheeks were swollen from having been smacked by either a fat hand or the fist of a goddamn man. It even looked like she was missing some teeth from what he could tell, but he wasn't too sure how many. Either way, he knew somebody had really fucked this bitch up good.
"Holy. Fuckin'. Shit," Blue replied, taking a better look at her for himself.
River bobbed his head and peered at her. "Yeah."
Even beneath all of that shit, there was something about this girl that stuck out to him. Something about how young she looked, how vulnerable she might have been; it reminded him of someone he knew all too well, that innocence now gone, lost forever. It stirred up a deep emotion within that he wasn't used to feeling for much of anyone anymore aside from his little girl.
Empathy.
But it was a feeling he realized after getting a few good seconds to think about that he didn't like having one fucking bit, especially for someone like this.
He hopped up to his feet and turned to Blue. "She's still breathin'," he said. "But barely. Whoever the fuck did her in wasn't fuckin' around."
"How the fuck you think she got here?" he asked. "If they tried doin' her in, they clearly fuckin' failed."
River shrugged. "Her fuckin' palms are covered in gravel. Maybe she crawled from wherever the fuck she was originally dumped and landed here."
"But her goddamn knees are only covered in blood and piss, not gravel too. Somebody fuckin' dumped her here on purpose. Maybe it was those pricks a few of the other brothers fucked with the other night at that bar over some Mamacita lookin' bitch that wasn't feelin' any of 'em. Motherfuckers probably did this shit as some sorta retaliation over some pussy they never even had a chance with in the first fuckin' place."
River wrapped his fingers around his temples and dropped his head in agitation. "Jesus. Fuckin'. Christ." He loved his brothers more than his own life, put the club and what it stood for above every fucking thing in it. But they could also be a bunch of goddamn, motherfucking idiots whenever too much pussy was around or involved.
"So what the fuck do we do with her?" asked Blue.
"What the fuck choice do we have, motherfucker?" River shot back as spit flew out from every side of his mouth. "We've gotta bring her ass inside now. We leave her out here to be found by somebody else, we're fucked. We try and take her anywhere else but the fuckin' hospital and cops'll be swarmin' around us again quicker than flies on shit thinkin' we had somethin' to do with whatever the fuck happened to her. They still think we burned down that dope house in Daytona last week with all those goddamn kids inside, resultin' in some of the brothers goin' nomad and other charters keepin' their goddamn distance. And she's got no fuckin' ID, not even a goddamn purse, so we can't call up some motherfucker to come and get her the fuck outta here." He turned back to the girl and grimaced. "Shit. This bloodied, fucked up bitch is the last goddamn thing the club needs right now."
"Brother, you ain’t never told a single fuckin' lie in your entire goddamn life. This shit is fucked any way you look at it, and so are we."
Blue looked to the sky and clutched the gold cross hanging from the chain around his neck. A serious and devoted Catholic from the time he was twelve years old, he wondered for a brief moment after seeing this girl if he should've chosen a different path for himself; maybe one similar to his older brother, who had denounced the club years earlier after their father was killed during an ambush while making a delivery in another town, and became a priest.
At the same damn time, he knew he wouldn't change the two most important things he had gained over the last six years since becoming an official member: a true family in his brothers, and an endless buffet of pussy lying in wait at every corner of the club, ready to be taken by a big, burly, fresh biker like him at any given second.
There was a time once when River would've jumped to
say the exact same shit, or at least something similar. A time when his brothers, the club and fresh, young pussy were his entire fucking life, even before the family he was now raising along with the help of his mother. But after ten long years of the same bullshit, with things only getting worse and absolutely no changes being made to the club, thanks to so many goddamn disagreements between him and his longtime president, he couldn't even begin to remember how the fuck he managed to get caught up in the first fucking place. Days like this one, with a half dead bitch laying at his bare ass feet just outside of the place he called a home away from his own, he couldn't even remember why the fuck he was still there.
"Come on," he said. "Get her legs. I'll get her goddamn shoulders and head."
They each bent down to grab onto various parts of her body and carried her inside. She wasn't anywhere close to being heavy, probably weighing no more than 120 pounds soaking wet with most of the fat being in her full tits and round, shapely ass.
They carried her over to the pool table near the bar and laid her flat on top, shoving the balls all around and knocking them into the pockets to keep from smacking her in the head. As soon as her arms landed against the wood, she started to squirm and moan and reached for her stomach as if she were in pain.
"Shit, she's wakin' up," said Blue.
Her mouth started to move, she murmured something, but neither one of them could understand what the hell was being said.
Blue moved in closer and stared at her face again. He twisted his head left to right, closed one eye and then the other until his vision had become clear again. He looked over at River and smirked. "I know this kinda bitch ain't what you're used to havin' for yourself, but even with all this shit on her face, she's exactly the kind I like warmin' up the other side of my bed." He took a seat beside her and drew a finger down the back of her arm. She flinched.
River leaned over the table and glanced up at him, scowling. "Motherfucker, this bitch looks like somebody just put her through the goddamn shredder. She's covered in blood and piss, probably even shit, and all you've got on the mind right now is your cock meetin' her pussy?"