by Lowe, Aden
Dixon’s Resurrection
By
Aden Lowe
A Hell Raiders MC Romance
©2015 by Aden Lowe. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Aden Lowe or his legal representative.
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Author's Note: This book contains adult situations and language, violence, and sexual activity. Mature readers only.
Acknowledgements:
I can't even begin to thank everyone who made this, and my other books, possible: all the amazing readers; the bloggers who share and review and work their tails off to bring readers and authors together; my Facebook fan group, the Lowe Down – a bunch of fantastic ladies who promote my work and provide plenty of laughs when I need a break; The Huntresses, my Street Team – these incredible ladies use their relaxation time to help me. I'm blown away by all of you.
Ashley, my personal assistant/baby sister and co-author… I don't know how you do it, but you manage to keep me focused and working, and still make it all fun. I'm beyond honored that you agreed to help me, and more than that, be my friend. It means the world.
Elyse… what can I say? It's been a year now and you haven't shot me yet. I couldn't do this without you.
Chapter One
For the time being, he watched, content she even tolerated his presence. Everyone knew how he felt about her, and most looked on with a sort of amusement, assuming he must be a glutton for punishment. He wasn't, of course. He just liked what he liked.
The hubbub of the Rattlesnake at rush hour surrounded Dix like a buffer, keeping him in check as Georgie mingled through the patrons in the crowded dining area. For only the second time in the almost two years he'd spent in helpless fascination with her, she wore her hair down. The pale golden cascade fell to below her hips, tempting him to sink his hands deep and hold her for his kiss.
Too bad Georgie barely tolerated his presence in the Rattlesnake, and only because her boss and friend Rita had insisted. She'd have happily kicked him out to the parking lot like a stray dog. And like a fool, he could never have stayed away.
It didn't matter, though. That hair was down for him, no mistake about it. The first time she wore it down, nearly two weeks ago, had been accidental in a way. According to Cherise, one of the girls who worked there, a customer had spilled a milkshake on Georgie, and some of the cold, sticky mess had gone down her shirt. Forced to shower and change, she'd left her hair down to dry completely.
Lucky for him, Dix happened to be there at the time. When she passed him where he sat at the bar, he'd been unable to resist. He'd called out to her, and when she came over, he told her she looked like a princess out of a dream and should wear her down all the time because she was incredibly hot that way. Next thing he knew, her hard little fist split his lip and rocked him back on his heels.
Discouraged, he stayed away from the Rattlesnake two days, but of course he'd gone back. He had no choice. Kellen, President of the Hell Raiders, stationed him there to run a sort of command center while the MC battled an invasion of Russian mob enforcers. Practically forced to interact with him, Georgie at least became slightly more civil toward him. And now that the invasion was all over with and Stags Leap safe once more, and things were back to normal, the pale silk swung about her hips again. All for him. The struggle to keep his elation in check nearly choked him.
She paused and spoke with one of the waitress and laughed at whatever the girl said in reply, shooting a quick glance his way. The girl giggled and gave him a bold look that set his cheeks on fire. Whatever Georgie said must have led the girl to conclusions Dix probably didn't want to know. He did his best to look away and not care, but he couldn't not watch Georgie.
"Dude, you gotta get that lovesick look off your face if you want that girl to pay you any attention." Abe, from the garage, dropped into the chair across the table. "You're the sure thing and that's going to keep you firmly in the friend zone."
"Yeah, maybe so." That didn't mean he could change it, though. He didn't take his gaze away from Georgie. "What you doin' here, anyway?"
Abe shook his head. "Ol' man Johnson brought that old Galaxy of his in with something wrong with the carb. Need you to take a look."
Dix's turn to shake his head. "I'm not the carb man, Abe. Why you need me to look?"
The big grin on Abe's face warned something was up. "I think there's something electrical wrong, too."
"Uh huh. Why don't you tell me what's really up?"
"What? Nothin's up. Just need you to take a look at the car." The grin grew, but Abe refused to say more.
He might as well just get it over with. Abe evidently had some practical joke set up. Dix stood. "Okay, let's go." Sitting there watching Georgie and thinking about all that hair seemed like a far better use of his time, but he needed to get Abe off his back to enjoy it. With one last look at Georgie, he followed Abe out.
The unseasonably cool breeze shot a chill down his back. A little break from the humidity would be a welcome relief, if it held a day or two. And it would make the weekend at the Hell Raiders clubhouse a bit more comfortable. Kellen had called for a full house Church, which normally meant a weekend of drinking, fighting and fucking.
Walking down the street with Abe always turned into an exercise in patience. Dude had to stop and talk with everyone he met, and that drove Dix to the point taking off someone's head. Especially when he could spend the time watching Georgie instead. Eventually, though, they made it to the garage where ol' man Johnson's '69 Ford Galaxy sat in front of the bay, with the hood up.
Dix spent five minutes talking to the old man, another five looking the car over, and found a frayed wire, easily repaired. Apparently Abe didn't have some nasty prank set up. Surprising. He headed into the office to add his time to the bill, while Abe followed.
Just inside the door, he stopped dead. There, on the office computer, for any asshole to see, was his Georgie. Nude. Cold fury spilled through him as time slowed to a near-standstill.
Behind him and to his left, Abe gave a nervous giggle. "Got that printed off for you too, man. Figured you could use a picture of the real thing to beat off to, instead of your imagination. Not like you'll ever see it for real."
Everything went white hot. Dix spun, instinct taking over as his fist crashed into Abe's face. "You dirty little weasel, don't you come near her again." He grabbed the scruff of the bastard's neck to hold him upright and slammed his fist repeatedly into the soft gut.
Unfortunately, no one else was in the office for him to take his anger out on, so he turned on the computer. The blow from his fist did minimal damage to the old heavy monitor, so he grabbed the thing up and threw it to the floor.
The satisfying crash brought both his boss, Gerald, and ol' man Johnson, rushing into the office. "What the hell is going on in here?" Gerald stood just inside the door to the bay, looking from Dix to Abe to the smashed computer.
Dix still wanted to kill someone. "Ask this bastard when he wakes up." He spun and stomped out.
How the hell did Abe have nudie pics of Georgie? And those weren't Peeping Tom pics, they were the real thing, posed, in a studio. His lunch threatened to come back up. Surely his Georgie hadn't willingly posed? He had to talk to her, find out. The thought of countless men looking at her, fantasizing about her, was too much for him. Plenty of the girls who hung around with the Club supplemented their income with pics and
movies, but he wanted better for Georgie. She deserved better.
He took the long way, trying to let some of his anger settle a little before he talked to her. And talk to him she would, even if he had to carry her out of the Rattlesnake. Despite trying to calm himself, the rage continued to seethe, growing. Abe had seen her. It killed him to think of the sleaze ball looking at her, wanting her, lusting after her.
By the time Dix pushed the doors of the Rattlesnake open, his hands shook with the effort to control his need to punch something, someone. A couple of guys who worked at the sawmill spotted him, recognized trouble, and moved out of the way quickly.
Georgie stood by the bar, giving some asshole her flirty smile. Bastard had probably seen those pictures too. She saw him headed her way and, for just a second, the smile faltered, then she deliberately turned away from Dix and moved a little closer to the man at her side.
Undeterred, he stopped right behind the guy. "Georgie, I need to talk to you a minute."
If she recognized the anger in his voice or expression, she gave no indication. "Sorry, Dix, I'm talking to Ray right now." She gave the other guy that smile again.
"This can't wait, Georgie. And it's best discussed in private." He did his best to sound reasonable.
She raised a slender brow. "Is that a fact? Well, it'll have to wait. I’m busy."
The guy, Ray, stepped away a little, hands raised. "I ain't looking to get in the middle of nothin' here. Ya'll go right ahead and talk." He turned and hurried to the other end of the bar.
"Now look what you did, run a perfectly nice guy off."
"Good thing he left. Now, where can we talk?"
She shook her head, hair still loose, falling over her shoulders and tempting him. "I've got work to do, Dix. No time for talking."
Damn it, why did she have to be so fucking stubborn? "Look, Georgie, this is important, and it won't wait. Please come outside with me."
Georgie gave a mock sigh and poked her lower lip out, pretending to pout. "I hate to break it to you, big boy, but I'm not here to be at your beck and call."
"Will you quit playing your fucking games?" Despite his best efforts, his voice rose enough for any of the patrons to hear clearly. "You can go back to making fun of me later, but right now, we really have to talk." Shit, he hadn't really said all that, had he?
The way her eyes widened with anger reassured him. He definitely had said it. And she didn't like it. "What the fuck do you want, Dix?"
"A lot, starting with you. But right now, I'll settle for five minutes privacy to talk to you about something serious." Finished. If she didn't consent at that point, he was simply done.
"You've got some nerve, coming in here talking to me like that."
"I guess that's a no?"
"You're damn right it's a no. I'm not going anywhere to talk to you." The stubborn set to her jaw warned of a storm to come.
Well, he had the cure for that. Moving as if to step around her, he waited until she was sure of her victory, then struck.
He snatched her up and slung her over his shoulder in one swift move. Her fist managed a glancing blow off his cheekbone, but otherwise, he escaped injury somehow. He'd been prepared to take the beating he knew she was capable of delivering.
She wriggled, trying to get away, but he had her legs pinned against his chest, leaving her nowhere to go. Thwarted in that attempt, she began to punch his lower back, hard.
By some miracle, he managed to remain upright, and carried her out of the Rattlesnake, right through the front doors. Outside, he stomped around the side of the building to the walled area where they kept bottles and cardboard for recycling. Practically empty, it provided the perfect place.
He carried her into the six-by-ten enclosure, latched the gate behind them and unceremoniously dumped her to the ground.
Fuming, she stared up at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm making you talk to me. Since you had to be all childish about it."
She clambered to her feet. "Well, you sure as fuck got my attention now. You better say whatever it is before I kick your ass again."
"How did Abe get naked pictures of you?"
She went dead pale and silent for a whole minute. "What did you say?"
Dix had to take a deep breath to keep his voice from shaking. "I said, how did that asshole Abe get naked pictures of you? He came in grinning like a possum, wanted me to come back to the garage to look at a car. When I went in the office, he had you all over the computer screen."
"Oh. My. God. Those were supposed to be destroyed." She went even paler and leaned back against the fence, as if she would fall without support. "Oh, fuck, Dix, what am I going to do?" The unimaginable occurred. Tears rolled over her lashes and down her cheeks.
"Tell me what happened." Dix wanted more than anything to take her in his arms, comfort her, but she wouldn't welcome him.
She shook her head and let her hair fall forward to hide most of her face. "I was seventeen, on my own, and thought I had the world by the tail. I met this guy. He kept telling me I should be a model. Talked me into letting him take a bunch of pictures, but they were never good enough. Finally, I let him convince me to take it all off. I knew better, but part of me wanted to believe that would get me modeling jobs. Needless to say it didn't. I got smart a few weeks later. I got the prints but he must have kept them on his SD card. God, how stupid!"
At least that made sense. Scum like that was a dime a dozen. "It'll be okay, Georgie." Unable to further resist, he moved in close and wrapped her in his arms. She leaned in, accepting. Shocked to silence, he just held her, stroked her hair and her back, and waited for the storm of sobs and anger to pass.
Finally she quieted, but still, he didn't release her. "I should have known better. This is a disaster. If Abe had those pictures, they're everywhere. All these nasty bastards around here have seen them, or will."
"Come out to the clubhouse with me. Kellen or Crank might have an idea. We'll do something." Surely, some option had to be available.
She started to move back a little, but he held on. "You think so?"
"Yeah, I do." Suddenly, it occurred to him. She was leaning on him, looking to him for help. A thrill shot through to his very center.
Finally.
Finally she realized she needed him.
Chapter Two
Dix walked Georgie around the back of the Rattlesnake to the staff entrance, since she wanted to 'patch up' her face. She'd cried a while, and didn't want to be seen with red and swollen eyes, even though he assured her she looked fantastic. So the back door it was. Inside, she disappeared into the staff restroom and left him waiting in the hall.
What the hell was he supposed to do? He decided to wait. She had to come out eventually. And he would be right there.
After what seemed like a century, she came out with her eyes only slightly bloodshot and puffy, and her hair forward, shielding her face somewhat. "You're still here."
"Of course. I'll help you with this, Georgie. I'm not sure what can be done, but you can't just ignore it." The thought of those images out there for anyone to see horrified him all over again. She might not be his yet, but she would be, and he didn't share.
She nodded. "Thank you, Dix. For telling me, and for offering to help. I don't think anything can be done. I'll just have to live with it. I was stupid. You can't fix stupid." The grim line of her mouth indicated the depth of her inner struggle. "I knew better than to think I could make a new life here. I always fuck it up, sooner or later." She started toward the kitchen.
"Whoa, there." He grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "What do you mean? Georgie, this wasn't your fault. Whoever that guy was took advantage of a young girl, and he needs to pay."
She jerked her hand back. "Yeah, that was just the start of my fuck-ups. After that, I managed to become a police officer. I really liked it, even if it was a small town and basically a dead-end job. But then I pissed off some local punks, and ended up losing my j
ob for excessive force. Rita found me at rock bottom and brought me here. And now this is fucked up too."
"Hey, no it's not." One hand slipped around to the back of her neck. "This is no one's fault, but that guy. And most definitely not yours. And it's not fucked up. No one with a brain would hold this against you, Georgie."
She shook her head a little, sending the raw silk of her hair sliding over his hand and wrist. "Maybe not, but the idiots here don't have brains. Abe and his buddies? They aren't going to forget this. And it'll always haunt me. I can't stay here knowing how people will look at me, and what they'll be thinking."
Panic made his stomach roll. He had to convince her not to leave Stags Leap. "It doesn't matter where you go, Georgie. If we don't deal with it, it will always come back. The best thing is to just take a stand here, where people know you."
A grim smile thinned her sweet mouth. "Right. So I can spend every day wondering if this customer, or that one, has seen me naked? I don't think so." Tears flooded her eyes again and she angrily dashed them away. "Damn it, Dix, I don't know what to think. Other than I want to kill that two-faced bastard."
Dix pulled her close again. "Yeah, there's a few things I'd like to do to him, too. Before I kill him." His mind conjured up all sorts of lovely torture scenarios.
She stiffened for a moment, then leaned into him. "I don't know, Dix. I'm just sick of trying."
"Then let me help you." He tipped her chin up with a gentle finger. "Let me take care of you a little." The temptation to lean down, just a few inches, and taste her lips overcame him and time froze.
She stared up at him, eyes luminous and lips parted, not pulling away as he'd expected. Dix held his breath, afraid to break the spell, and lowered his head a millimeter at a time. If he scared her away now, he might never have another chance to win her.
After an eternity, his mouth touched hers and the universe exploded with sensations he hadn't known existed before. Her silky lips molded to his, clinging and asking for more. How had he survived twenty-three years on earth without her kiss? Desperate for more, he allowed his tongue to flick across her lower lip, just a feather of a touch.