Copper
Blackwings MC - Devil Springs
Book One
by
Teagan Brooks
Copyright Ⓒ 2019 Teagan Brooks
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Adult Content Warning: This book is intended for readers 18 years and older. It contains adult language, explicit sex, and violence.
Acknowledgments
Cover Design: C.T. Cover Creations
http://www.ctcovercreations.com/
Cover Model: George RJ
Cover Photographer: James Critchley Photography
https://www.jamescritchleyphotography.com/
Proofreading/Editing: Kathleen Martin
Dedication
To my Tiny.
Everything I do is for you.
I love you.
Author’s Note
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
Epilogue
Author’s Note
This is the first book in the Devil Springs Blackwings MC Series. It is heavily tied to the Blackwings MC Series. You can start with Copper, but there are references to characters and events from the previous series that may take away from your reading experience. I recommend starting with Dash (Blackwings MC Book One).
Also, the only legal means of acquiring this eBook is through Amazon, Amazon KU, Amazon’s lending program, or if someone gifts it to you through Amazon. If you acquire it in any other way, you have stolen it, and I hope it came with a virus.
Chapter One
Copper
I pulled up to Badger’s cabin several hours later than planned. I was supposed to arrive earlier in the day, but club business held me up. Luckily, it wasn’t anything my VP, and brother by blood, couldn’t handle, so I took off as soon as I had the chance.
It didn’t happen often, but every once in a while, I needed to get away and spend a few days by myself. Luckily, the VP of the Croftridge Blackwings, Badger, had a remote cabin close by and was willing to let me use it whenever I wanted, as long as it wasn’t being used by him or one of the other brothers.
The cabin itself was more extravagant than necessary for me, but beggars couldn’t be choosers and all. The two-story monstrosity sat in a clearing near the top of Meadow Ridge Mountain, and it was as remote as you could get and still have some of modern society’s conveniences, like power and spotty cell phone service. The views were breathtaking, and the quiet was priceless. I could already feel the tension leaving my body as soon as I climbed off my bike.
After putting my things away and showering to wash the road from my body, I managed to round up something to eat. I planned on stopping at the grocery store at the bottom of the mountain, but I didn’t have enough time before it got dark. The road to the cabin wasn’t paved, and it was dangerously narrow in a few spots. The single headlight on my bike didn’t provide enough illumination for me to risk it.
After dinner, I went out to the back deck to have a beer. As I sat gazing at the horizon watching the sun descend behind the trees, I wondered where my life was going. From the outside looking in, most would think I was on top of the world. I wasn’t overly wealthy, but I lived comfortably. I was the president of a local chapter of a well-known motorcycle club. And there were plenty of women around who were willing to keep my bed warm. So, why did it feel like something was missing?
Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The answers to my problems wouldn’t come when I was actively searching for them; they never did. My moments of clarity arrived at the least expected—and usually the most inconvenient—times. As my stress melted away, I started to drift off into a light sleep.
A shrill scream piercing the night air had me jumping to my feet and grabbing my gun before my conscious mind was fully awake. I knew better than to fall asleep outside at dusk. There were plenty of predatory animals in the area, including cougars and bears. And it sounded like a cougar was close by. I never understood why they didn’t roar like the other big cats. Instead, they sounded more like a woman screaming.
I quickly turned on the tactical light mounted on my gun and scanned the surrounding trees, hoping like hell I didn’t see any glowing eyes. I had no desire to kill the animal, but I would if it came down to it or me. Typically, they would run away from humans, but wild animals were just that, wild, and I wasn’t taking any chances.
Slowly backing up toward the cabin, I continued to sweep the landscape with my light. I was almost to the door when I heard another scream. And it was clearly human.
Flinging the back door open, I grabbed the rifle Badger kept in the coat closet and holstered my gun. I was already walking in the direction I thought the scream came from when I heard it again. This time it sounded more like a woman crying. As I got closer, I could hear snarling and growling from more than one animal. I raised the rifle and placed my finger on the trigger as I moved deeper into the forest until I came upon one of the last things I ever expected to see.
A visibly terrified woman was precariously perched on top of a large boulder while two wild boars were on the ground snarling and desperately trying to get to her. Without hesitation, I aimed and fired twice, in quick succession, striking each boar in the head and permanently silencing them. However, I could still hear the woman screaming, even with my ears ringing from the two shots.
I held my hands up in front of me as I slowly started to approach her. Her eyes widened in fear before darting wildly around the area. I knew what she was doing— looking for an escape.
As predicted, seconds later, she leaped from the boulder and took off in a full sprint deeper into the trees. What the hell? Did she not realize the boars came from the forest and likely had friends in the area? Not to mention the more ferocious predators she could encounter.
My extensive training kicked in, and I reacted on pure instinct. I dropped the rifle and went after her. The woman was fast, I’d give her that, but she wasn’t as fast as me. I quickly caught up with her and realized the only way to catch her was to take her down. My hand snagged her shirt, and I pulled her to me. With my arms wrapped around her torso, I turned so that
my body would hit the ground first instead of hers. As soon as we landed, I quickly reversed our positions and hovered over her.
Her eyes were filled with fear and, unexpectedly, anger. What did she have to be angry about? I just saved her from a pair of wild beasts. She struggled against me, and I started to lose my patience. “Calm down, woman. I’m not going to hurt you,” I barked, harsher than I intended, but whatever.
She froze at my words but remained silent. “Care to tell me just what in the hell you’re doing out here?”
She didn’t answer me; just continued to stare at me with a stunned look on her face.
“Answer me. This is private property, and you’re trespassing.”
She remained silent for a few more beats before she started to struggle again.
Fuck that!
I rose to my feet, pulling her up with me. Before she could move, I bent and hoisted her over my shoulder. If she didn’t want to talk outside, maybe she would inside. We didn’t need to be out in the open anyway. It wouldn’t be long before other animals in the area smelled the boars’ blood and came for a snack.
She wiggled and squirmed, trying to free herself, while I walked back to retrieve the rifle before continuing on to the cabin. I had one arm clamped tightly over her thighs, but the feisty little woman was beating the hell out of my back with her fists.
When we reached the cabin’s back deck, enough was enough. With my free hand, I gave her a nice hard slap on her ass, hoping to startle her out of her actions.
She froze for half a second before she started wailing on my back again. If she was going to hit me, I would return the favor. The stubborn woman wouldn’t quit. So, I smacked her ass two more times before I stepped inside and propped the rifle against the wall by the back door.
That’s when she chose to sink her teeth into the flesh right beneath my shoulder blade, and that was the equivalent of declaring war in my book. I grabbed a roll of duct tape from Badger’s junk drawer and tossed her onto the couch. Within seconds, I had her arms and legs secured. I knew she wouldn’t stay put willingly, but she had some questions to answer before I let her leave and restraining her seemed like the easiest way to go about it. First and foremost, she was going to tell me who she was and what she was doing on Badger’s property.
I considered carrying her upstairs to one of the bedrooms but thought better of it. She was likely scared out of her mind as it was. I heaved in a breath and tried to gather some patience and understanding. I knew I came off harsher than I usually intended, and I was trying to tamp that down before I started questioning her, if she would only stop screaming.
“Enough!” I roared. “If you don’t stop that screaming right this fucking second, I’ll cover your mouth with tape and lock you in one of the bedrooms until I feel like trying to deal with you again, which will likely damn well be tomorrow.”
Silence. Blessed, wonderful silence. And tears. Fuck me. I hated it when women cried. It was a weakness I had yet to overcome.
I exhaled slowly and softened my voice. “Like I said, I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t need to be scared of me.”
She narrowed her eyes and said, “Says the man who hit me, restrained me with tape, and threatened to lock me in a bedroom. Tell me, when do the whips and chains appear?”
“They won’t if you lose the attitude and start answering my questions,” I said flatly.
“You haven’t asked any questions.”
“Yes, I did. Outside. Never mind. I’m not arguing with you. What were you doing traipsing around on private property?”
“I wasn’t traipsing around. I was out hiking, and I got lost. Then, I walked up on those feral pigs, and they started chasing me. When I saw the boulder, I figured it was my best chance to get away from them,” she said, not once meeting my eyes during her explanation.
“You go hiking without a pack often?” I asked, not believing her bullshit for one second.
She blinked and visibly swallowed. “I dropped it so I could run faster.”
I nodded and rubbed my chin with my thumb and forefinger. “You aren’t wearing the proper attire for hiking,” I observed as I scanned her from head to toe. That’s when I saw it. Blood, seeping from underneath her calf. “What happened to your leg?”
She suddenly grimaced, as if she had forgotten about it until I mentioned it. “I think one of them got my leg when I was climbing up the rock.”
“Oh, hell. Let me see how bad it is,” I said and approached her without waiting for permission. She grunted when I rolled her over but didn’t give any other kind of protest.
Gently pulling the torn denim apart, I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw the gaping wound. “Shit, it looks like one gored your calf with its tusk. We need to get you to the hospital.”
She rolled herself to her back and let out a pained groan before insisting, “No! No hospital.”
I arched a brow and waited for more. When she didn’t offer any further explanation, I asked, “Why?”
“Just, please, no doctor, no hospital,” she begged, her eyes wild with panic.
I nodded. “Okay, no doctor, but that wound needs to be cleaned and stitched. It’s going to hurt like a bitch with no anesthetic. I got some whiskey in the kitchen that might take the edge off,” I offered.
“I’ll take the whiskey,” she said with no hesitation.
“Be right back,” I said with a small smile.
I walked to the far side of the kitchen and placed a call to Splint. He was a member of my club, but he worked as a paramedic and had quite a bit of medical training from his days in the military. “Brother, I need you to bring your kit up to Badger’s cabin. I got a girl up here that got gored by a boar on her calf. It’s pretty nasty, and she’s refusing to go to the hospital.”
“Sure thing, Prez. Heading out now,” he said.
“And, Splint, keep this shit to yourself.”
He chuckled. “Yes, Prez.”
When I poured the glass of whiskey, I also mixed in a crushed sleeping pill. It wasn’t ideal, but refusing to go to the hospital left limited options. At least this way, she would wake with a cleaned and stitched wound without having to suffer through the pain.
Carrying the homemade anesthetic in one hand and a beer for myself in the other, I returned to the living room to find her struggling to remove the tape from her wrists. I shook my head and sighed in exasperation. “I was considering removing the tape, but clearly, it’s too soon. I’m going to help you sit up so you can drink this down,” I said and held up the glass of whiskey.
She nodded and eyed me warily. I reached under her arms and hoisted her to a sitting position, being careful to keep her leg from dragging along the couch’s textured fabric. “Here you go,” I said and held the glass of whiskey to her lips. She tentatively took a sip and hissed at the burn when she swallowed.
“It tastes funny,” she said.
“It’s an aged whiskey, so it has a stronger taste than your run-of-the-mill whiskeys. Can have a bit of an aftertaste, too, at least for the first few sips,” I told her, like I was some kind of whiskey connoisseur. I was just spouting off random bullshit so she would drink it and pass out.
She nodded and continued to drink. Good. With any luck, she would be out cold by the time Splint arrived to take care of her leg. I studied her while she sipped from the glass. She was incredibly beautiful, yet somehow, she seemed familiar, though I couldn’t place her. She had long, golden blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her lips were full and enticing, perfect for...I shook my head, refusing to let my mind go there. Luckily, she finished the drink within a few moments, and I returned to the kitchen to wait for Splint.
When Splint arrived, the woman was sound asleep on the couch. He inspected her wound and suggested we move her to one of the bedrooms.
“She’s going to flip when she wakes up, but if that’s better for you, let’s do it,” I said.
Two hours later, Splint came out of her room and found me drinking a beer on
the couch. “That was a nasty wound, Prez. She’s going to have to take very good care of it and keep a close watch on it for infection. I flushed it out as best I could and gave her an injection of antibiotics, but that might not be enough. Wounds like that almost always get infected.”
“If you have more medicine with you, I can give her another dose or two, if you think that’s what she needs,” I offered.
“Yeah, I do. She’ll need an injection every twelve hours for at least three more doses. Then, she can probably switch to pills; one every twelve hours for ten days. Even with the antibiotics, she needs to watch it closely. If it gets infected and isn’t taken care of properly, she could easily lose her leg,” Splint said while digging through his kit for the antibiotics.
“Thanks, brother. Appreciate you getting here so fast and taking care of her leg for me.”
Splint eyed me with a sly grin on his face, “No problem, Prez. You gonna tell me how you ended up with a woman who’d been bitten by a wild boar in your possession?”
“No, I am not, and you’re not going to tell anyone else about it either,” I snapped.
“Got it, Prez. If you don’t need anything else, I’m going to head back to the clubhouse.”
“I think we’re good. Thanks, Splint. See you in a few days,” I said and walked him to the door.
Once he was gone, I dropped my ass onto the couch and wondered what in the hell I was going to do with the woman upstairs.
Chapter Two
Layla
My head was throbbing, and there was a very good chance I was going to throw up. Rolling to my side, I started to get out of bed to go to the bathroom when the excruciating pain in my lower leg had me freezing in place. I took in a few deep breaths and slowly opened my eyes.
Oh, crap. Where in the hell was I? I whipped my head around, causing the throbbing to ramp up to a damn near intolerable level. I quickly realized I wasn’t in my room. Well, it wasn’t exactly my room, but it had come to feel like it was mine since I had been sleeping there every night for longer than I cared to admit. I tried desperately to remember what happened to me, but I was drawing a blank. Between the pain in my leg and the pulsing in my brain, it was all I could do to make it to the door that hopefully led to a bathroom.
Copper (Blackwings MC - Devils Springs Book 1) Page 1