by KB Winters
And then the lights went on. Thank you, Sheena. Suddenly it was all very clear. My breath started to calm and I took my eyes off Teddy and faced Sheena, shaking my head. What a dumb ass I’d been. If I hadn’t had my head up my ass about being so pissed off about being falsely accused and the raw deal I got from the government and all that shit maybe I could have seen what was right in front of my eyes. But no. I had to put Teddy’s life on the line and make everything about me. I went running off to Reno and all that shit and I still didn’t figure it out. What the fuck took me so long?
“Goddammit, Sheena. Now it all makes fucking sense. You focused on me because you want the money.” The next laugh came out harsher. Louder. “Of course you do. There are plenty of guys you could’ve tried to get it on with, and now I know why they wouldn’t do. The money.”
Sheena didn’t blink an eye. “Okay, well, this has been fun and all, but I came here to get my man.” She raised her arm again so the barrel of the gun was aimed right between Teddy’s eyes. “And the only way to do that is to make sure you’re not around anymore.”
But Teddy didn’t blink, either. “Do what you have to do, Sheena. Just remember that Tate won’t visit you in prison. Will you, baby?”
I shook my head and thought this must be the most surreal night of my life.
“Never. Sorry,” I told Sheena, because one of us had to try and keep the crazy bitch happy.
“That’s okay, I have no plans to get caught. We’ll use some of Golden Boy’s money to get out of here, and by the time they find you we’ll be on a beach somewhere sipping ice cold beers. You’ll just be a memory.”
The next few seconds happened in slow motion. Teddy’s hands went to her belly and I knew it was coming but I couldn’t stop it. “And he’ll love being by the side of the woman who killed his first child. Won’t you, babe?”
I knew it would either piss Sheena off or send her over the edge. She shot me a look that dared to cut me in half, then turned back to Teddy. “You’re lying! You’re a lying fucking bitch.”
“Maybe I am, who knows? You’ll only find out after the fact.”
What was she doing? I put up my hand, as if that was going to stop Teddy. She had fire in her eyes. “No, babe. Do you want her to kill you?”
I knew she was a fighter, but it seemed like she was just giving up, asking Sheena to pull the trigger. I’d never felt so helpless in my life.
“I can’t change her mind, Tate, and I refuse to feed her delusion.” Those were the last words she spoke as the front and back door burst open at the same time and a dozen officers stormed the house.
“Down on the ground, right now! On the fucking ground!” I moved slowly, lifting my arms over my head and slid to the floor.
“On the fucking ground!” I couldn’t see what was happening but I heard it all.
“I don’t think so, pigs! If I can’t have him …”
Two shots sounded and a body collapsed to the floor. Teddy screamed.
“Fucking pigs, you shot me! I’ll sue you all!”
“On the goddamn ground right now or I’ll shoot you!”
“I can’t, you asshole!” Teddy’s words were distorted by tears and fear. But at least she wasn’t dead.
“I’m in a wheelchair and I’m pregnant!”
“She’s the vic,” a deep voice I recognized as Detective Haynes said, seconds before he was lifting me off the ground. “You all right?”
My gaze went to Teddy. “I’m fine,” I told him and dropped to my knees in front of her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Are you okay?”
She nodded quickly. “A little sh-sh-shaken, but okay.” Her smile wobbled, giving away her fear.
“You’re okay, baby. I’m right here, the man you love.”
She laughed. “You couldn’t wait to rub it in, could you?”
“I just wanted to get it out there on the record.” I turned to see the cops cuffing Sheena, a paramedic attending to her wound.
“With witnesses.” Teddy laughed and it was the sweetest sound, light and airy, full of life.
With her uninjured hand, she cupped my jaw and leaned in for a kiss. “I love you Tate Ellison.”
“Are you fucking crazy? You know she could have shot you.”
“Baby, I looked at her and you and thought about baby Tate and decided I was done being afraid. She’s been ruining my life these last few months and it pissed me off. It was time to take my life back. Maybe I’m pumped with too much adrenaline or baby hormones, I don’t know. But something inside me said enough. I saw she had as much fear in her eyes as bravado and if she gave me the chance, I was going to knock the shit out of her with this cast or die trying. But she wasn’t going to ruin my life anymore.”
I put my arms around her and while Haynes and his team finished up their business, Teddy whispered in my ear, “She had also broken through the security code at the front door and knew the cops were on their way, so I might not be as brave as you think.”
Epilogue
Teddy
One month later
“Is this what normal is? It’s been so long I forgot.” Lounging in Jana’s backyard felt so much like old times that my heart actually sighed.
“This is our new normal, I suppose,” Jana said, beaming. “Old about to be married ladies with babies on the way.” She glowed as she rubbed circles on her growing belly. At six months, she was all baby belly, smiling and damn near radioactive. “It’s nice though, isn’t it?”
Damn straight it was. “Yeah, I enjoy having no one try to kill me.” Aside from a few extra trips to the doctor and talking to the cops, the past month had been pretty great. Things between Tate and I were better than ever. I was practically living at Max’s old house because it would be a long time before I was able to stay at my place without nightmares.
After the blow up, Sheena had been handcuffed and shoved into the back of an ambulance, the whole time screaming for her precious Golden Boy to get her a lawyer so they could be together. It was sad and embarrassing, and if she hadn’t tried to kill me and burn my house down, I might’ve had an ounce of sympathy for her. I didn’t. “At least Sheena will be spending a long time in prison.”
Jana looked over her shoulder with a worried look. “I think the guys are worried what she might try to offer up to reduce her sentence.”
I blinked and tried to sit up, eager for the cast to come off in a few weeks. “What do you mean? I thought they were on the right side of legal?”
Jana sighed. “They’re legal, but the gun thing is in a...grey area. And who knows what she might have overheard.”
Well, shit. “I thought she made a deal already?”
“She did, but none of that matters until the papers are signed. The club paid for her lawyer so we’ll have word soon enough.”
I sat back and thought about what Jana said. Sheena could still pose a problem for Tate and all of the Reckless Bastards. “And you’re sure they’re not the kind of motorcycle club to knock people off?”
Jana laughed so loud she had to grip her belly, which sent Max running in our direction with a worried scowl on his face. “What’s wrong, babe?”
She huffed out a breath between laughs, clutching her breath. “Oh good,” huff, huff, “Teddy asked,” huff, huff, “if you guys offed people.” More fucking laughter.
Max frowned and then looked at me like I’d grown three more heads. And then he also burst out laughing.
“It’s not like we haven’t thought about it,” Tate said as he dropped a kiss on top of my head. “But she knows we can make it very difficult for her on the inside.”
I smiled up at him. “My little bad ass biker dude.”
Tate leaned in with a panty-melting grin on his face. “We both know there’s nothing little about me, sweetheart.”
Amen to that. “I know. I can’t wait to get some of that juicy, sizzling meat in my mouth.” His gaze darkened intensely. “I’m starving.”
“Very funny.” He leaned over
and brushed a gentle kiss behind my ear. “You’re lucky I love you.”
I was damn lucky and I knew it. It wasn’t just having the love of a man as good as Tate, it was that feeling of being loved and being in love. The security and satisfaction of coming home to his smiling face and waking up in his strong arms. But it was worrying about him and hearing him talk about his day, the way his eyes lit up as he tried out things for GET INK’D. Just being together was pure bliss. “And you’re lucky I love you too.”
“I know it every damn day, Cover Girl.”
I laughed. “Just for that, you’re sleeping on the couch, Golden Boy.”
“Yeah right, how will you sleep without rolling on top of me every night?”
He was right. Pregnant me preferred to use Tate as a body pillow and every morning I woke up completely wrapped around him, and he woke up soaked from the furnace hug. “I’ll manage.”
“Hey none of that right now,” Jana insisted with a wag of her finger. “Save that for later, otherwise I’ll never get to talk to Teddy about the wedding.” She squealed excitedly. “I was thinking Hawaii, but maybe we should do a beach wedding in San Diego? What do you think, Teddy?”
Hawaii would likely be out of the question for Jana anyway with her pregnancy so far along, and maybe even for me as well. “I think it would be pretty hilarious to watch a bunch of bikers descend on the little tourist town.”
“Oh, me too! But they have a really nice hotel there and we could hold everything there from the rehearsal dinner to the wedding reception.”
“That’s a great idea! Give me the dates and I’ll get it all set up.”
She squealed and tried three times to get up without success. “Damn constantly changing center of gravity.”
Max helped her up and she came and hugged me tight, around both of our growing bellies. “You are the absolute best! And I promise when it’s time for your wedding, I’ll help too.”
I laughed because we both knew that was a joke. Jana would have to be pulled, kicking and screaming, and that was fine by me. “Sure, you will.”
She laughed and hugged me again. “Promise.”
“Did someone say food?” Max and Tate stood above us, casting long shadows. But they held plates overflowing with succulent steaks and Jana and I both clapped with excitement.
“Yes, please!” I held my hands out greedily. “Food.”
“You only want me for my food,” Tate teased.
“And your body. Don’t forget your totally hot body.” He barked out a laugh and handed me the plate.
“I can’t wait to make you mine,” he growled in my ear, dropping something on my lap.
I looked down at the butter yellow sundress I wore and found a tiny turquoise box. “Tate,” I said, a warning in my voice. “What is this?”
“That,” he pointed with a satisfied grin, “is a promise. A proposal for forever.”
“I’m listening.”
His grin widened. “You know I’m not good with talking about my feelings and shit, but I love you with everything in me. You and our baby, and I want us to be a family. Theodora Elizabeth Quinton, will you be my wife?”
All the months of hell and uncertainty had brought us to this moment. Circumstances brought Tate and I together, attraction kept us together, but it was a deep and lasting love that would push us toward forever. So I looked at my golden-haired biker with love shining in my eyes and said the only thing I could. “Hell yeah, I will!”
And right there in Jana’s backyard, surrounded by those who mattered, we got started on our little family and our huge forever.
~ T H E ~ E N D ~
Wow! I hope you loved this story as much as I loved writing it! Turn the page for more yummy goodness!
I’ve included a sneak peek of Deliciously Damaged. The next book of the Reckless Bastards Series. Hope you enjoy!
Deliciously Damaged
Reckless Bastards MC
By USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
KB Winters
Copyright © 2018 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Prologue
Mandy ~ Six months ago
I couldn’t believe it. Not again. Seventeen years after I stood in this same cemetery and said goodbye to my parents, I was here again, this time to bury my brother. My hero. Everyone called him Ammo because he loved guns, even as a kid. But he was just Mikey to me, and he’d been taken from me, thanks to another pointless war, far too soon. I didn’t even know how I’d survive without him. If I’d survive without him. He’d been my mom and dad, my best friend and my protector. He was my everything. And now, he was fucking gone.
Life was so unfair, a fact I knew all too well, but today I just wanted to rail about it to anyone who’d listen. But Ammo was in the ground, which meant there wasn’t anyone who’d listen, much less give a damn, so I kept my grief hidden behind a pair of knock-off Chanel sunglasses I’d picked up from a street vendor in the garment district. Not that there was anyone here to share my grief with anyway. Ammo had spent most of his adult life in the Army, so many of his friends were either dead or still in the fucking desert. The rest of them, his motorcycle club buddies, the Reckless Bastards, hadn’t been given an invitation.
Except for one, anyway.
I didn’t have anything against the Reckless Bastards; I didn’t know them and honestly, I didn’t care to. The last thing I needed was more reminders of all the family I’d lost. This third plot, that slowly filled with dirt and had yet another date of death engraved on the dark headstone, was all the reminder I needed. I was alone in the world. Not even thirty and on my own.
It wasn’t the first time. When Ammo first joined the Army, I was a teenager left on my own. It’d taken some getting used to since my brother had always been there to make sure there was food in the fridge for me to cook and cleaning products so I could take care of the house while he was off with his ‘club.’ But Ammo had forgotten some of the details and after a few months there was no more money. Then no lights, no water and eventually, no food. I found my resolve and a fake I.D. They both helped me find a way to make it work until I finished high school and decided on my future.
Leaving Las Vegas had been liberating, and as much as I’d missed it, being back to bury my brother wasn’t exactly the homecoming I’d envisioned. Luckily, I wasn’t here to stay.
I sighed as the cemetery workers shoveled dirt over Ammo’s body, no longer able to hold my tears inside. They slid silently down my cheeks, the most energy I could dedicate to crying, because I hadn’t sobbed since I’d stood here years before, when Mom and Dad were lowered into the ground.
I couldn’t imagine a world where I couldn’t pick up the phone to call my brother or send him a silly care package full of his favorite blondies and old action figures that his Army buddies would tease him about. I couldn’t call for advice or receive a middle of the night phone call on my birthday. With a hand over my chest so I could feel the cool metal of his dog tags against my skin, I bent and picked up a
handful of dirt, sprinkling it on top of the smooth pine casket. “Goodbye, Mikey. I love you.”
On shaky legs, I walked through the cemetery and back to where my rental car waited for me.
“Excuse me!”
I knew that voice; I’d heard it a few times when Ammo was between tours. I stood taller and turned to the vaguely familiar voice. “Yes?”
“Is there, uhm … is there anything I can do for you?” He seemed nervous which was out of character for the cocky, boisterous man I remembered, but then again death had a way of making even the toughest person crumble.
I shook my head because the only thing I wanted was to have my brother back. “No but thank you.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you want some help clearing up Ammo’s things?”
I laughed at his uneasy demeanor. The Savior I knew was never nervous. Everything about the man had always screamed confidence. “I’m not here about his possessions.” If there was one person on the planet who might know Ammo better than me, it was Savior.
He blinked, staring hard as though he was trying to place me. Figure me out. “How about a drink then, to toast one of the best men I knew?”
“I have a bottle of Irish whiskey at his house, if you want a glass.”
“You’re staying at his house?” he asked, his voice filled with surprise. “He never said anything about having a woman.”
I could have corrected him, but it kind of stung that he didn’t remember me when he’d left such an indelible mark on my memory. I was no longer the same little girl with lopsided blonde pigtails and skinned knees. I’d chopped off my hair and dyed it, so I had a white-blonde pixie thing going on. It was perfect for spending long hours in a hot kitchen, and it was easy to maintain. But I didn’t look all that different. “Since he doesn’t have one, I’m not surprised.”
He laughed and flashed a charming smile that was concealed by a thick, brown beard that gave him a rakish air. “Okay, then, whoever you are. I’m Savior.”