by E. C. Land
Luna’s Shadow
Devil’s Riot MC Book 5
E.C. Land
Contents
Acknowledgments
Devil’s Riot MC
DRMC Originals
DRMC Southeast
DRMC Tennessee
In the Shadows
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Available Now
Available on Audible
Coming Soon
Wondering where to start?
Chapter One
Author’s Note
Luna’s Shadow
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Luna’s Shadow. Copyright © 2020 by E.C. Land. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information, contact E.C. Land.
With there being characters mentioned from Elizabeth Knox’s series, I have her permission in using these characters.
https://www.facebook.com/e.c.landauthor
Publisher: Knox Publishing
Cover Design by Charli Childs, Cosmic Letterz Cover Design
Editing by Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing
Formatting by E.C. Land, Knox Publishing
Proofreading by Jackie Ziegler, Knox Publishing
Created with Vellum
To those who must fight for what they want.
Between the good, the bad, and the in between.
You’re never not worth fighting for.
Never give up.
And never not let your light shine through.
Acknowledgments
My Family – As much as I want to be thankful for all of them, the four who I have to thank are the ones closest to me. My husband and our children. They keep inspiring and pushing me to keep going. My husband for sure, considering he puts up with my rambling and lets me be me no matter how much I annoy him. Even sends me music when I need encouragement. My kids, who find what I do, as they put it, cool and want to know how many words I was able to get in each day. They also like to try and help me come up with plot ideas. Some are just as wicked as my own.
My Betas – You guys rock! Thank you all for being the first to read the stories as they come alive. It means the world to me. Especially when you all start to get mad. That’s when I know I’m doing something right. And in doing so pushing me to keep going with all the different plots that form in my head. I’m thankful to you all for being ready and willing to read and give your input.
My Knox Publishing People – If it wasn’t for you all being helpful and encouraging when I need it, I don’t know what I’d do without you all. You’re all wonderful in your own right and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The biggest thing I’ve got to say I’m thankful for most, is the fact I’m able to be around those who understand the way my mind works. Each and every one of you have earned a special place in my life, one way or another.
Liz – My sister from another mister, my best friend and Publisher/Boss. You’re my go to when I need it. If not for you, I don’t know if I’d ever be where I am today with my writing. Thank you for always pushing me and encouraging me.
Diane – Without you taking everything on for me, I wouldn’t be able to focus the way I do on my writing. Thank you for everything you do. You’re not just my PA, you’re my friend and I couldn’t ask for a better friend than you.
Kim and Jackie – I know I’m a pain in the rear; however, you both put up with me. Thank you both for taking on all of my work. I love the fact I work with you both on each of them. Also, the fact when it comes to something I miss, you help me understand how to correct it, so it doesn’t happen again.
Playlist
Let’s Get Lost – Jelly Roll
Lost and Lonely – Aaron Lewis
I’ll Be Your Man – Zac Brown Band
Grave of the Fireflies – The Raven Age
Neverland – Zendaya
I Fell In Love With The Devil – Avril Lavigne
Moonlight – Hard Target
Gone Away – Whiskey Myers
Solence – Direction
Somewhere with You – Kenny Chesney
Devil’s Riot MC
O – Ol’ Lady, C – Child
Twister – Prez – Izzy – O
Leanna Mercy– C
Horse – VP – Kenny – O
Jason Cole (JC) – C
Kayla – C
Caden – C
Thorn – Sergeant at Arms – Lynsdey – O
William Michael (Bud) – C
Anna-leigh Cleo – C
Rage – Road Captain – Cleo – O
Reagan – C (deceased)
Rosaline – C
Dragon – Medic – Connors – O
Gadget – Tech – Connors – O
Logan – C
Kagan – C
Keegan – C
Hades – Enforcer – Emerson – O
Alec – C
Burner – Treasurer – Ally – O
Badger – Member – Jordan – O
K-9 – Member
Wolf – Member
Sabor – Member
Mace – Member
Mac – Prospect (Deceased)
DRMC Originals
O – Ol’ Lady, C – Child
Stoney – Prez – Rachel – O
Horse (Scotty) – Stoney’s C
Luca – C
Corinne – C
Sebastian – C
Tracker – VP –– Victoria – O
Jamie – C
Blaze – Sergeant at Arms –– Raven – O
Matthew – C
Coyote – Road Captain – Tinsley – O
Cody – C
Bear – Former Road Captain –– Momma B – O
Rage (Travis) – C
Jane – C (deceased)
Nerd – Tech
Shadow – Enforcer
Ranger – Medic
Venom – Secretary
Whip – Chaplain
Viper – Member
Neo – Member
Cane – Member
Cyprus — Prospect
Fist — Prospect
Aries — Prospect
DRMC Southeast
O – Ol’ Lady, C – Child
Hammer – Prez
Malice – VP
Axe – Sergeant at Arms
Savage – Road Captain
Gunner – Enforcer
Cy – Tech
Bruiser – Treasurer
Dagger – Medic
Rogue – Secretary
Brass – Chaplain
Glock – Member
Rugger – Member
Blade – Member
Colt – Member
Carbine – Member
DRMC Tennessee
O – Ol’ Lady, C – Child
Blow – Prez
Nines –VP
Keys – Tech
Lucky – Sargent at Arms
; Shiner – Enforcer
Griz – Road Captain
Surge – Treasurer
Scorn – Chaplain
Flash – Member
Switchblade – Member
Torch – Member
Trigger Warning
This content is intended for mature audiences only. It contains material that may be viewed as offensive to some readers, including graphic language, dangerous and sexual situations, murder, rape, and extreme violence.
Proceed with caution this book does entail several scenes that may vary will be a trigger to some.
Also, tissues are a must with other scenes.
Not for the faint at heart.
If you don’t like violence and cannot handle certain subjects, then this is not a book you’ll want to read.
In the Shadows
Darkness surrounds me everywhere
Doesn’t matter if the sun is shining
Nor that people are around
There’s no one around who cares
There’s only darkness in the shadows
If there was only one way to escape
I would break through
Leaving it all behind
Only in the shadows I’m safe
No one can get to me from here
I can be me without the hate
Or the looks
Darkness may surround me
I may jerk at each sound
But in the shadows of the dark
I’m invisible to those around
I can be me without the hate
Without the look
In the shadows is all I need.
~ E.C. Land
Prologue
Shadow
Standing in the dark of night watching the scene unfold in front of me is sickening. Being at Victoria’s back on this has been different that’s for sure. I’ve never known a woman like my VP’s ol’ lady. Rather than sobbing constantly at the hospital, she had shut down her emotions and went hunting.
Not hunting for animals but for a different sort of prey.
Now the two of us are staking out her old home down in Louisiana. Hell, we’d been out here for hours and this is the shit part of missions, I’ve always hated the waiting game.
I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines, in the back waiting to get told what to do. Unless it came directly from my Prez. Only for Vi will I do something like that, it was her ol’ man who was shot and she feels the need to seek her vengeance. Sure, I’d wanted to pull her ass back several times, but she has the fire in her eyes that you don’t fuck with. No one was going to sway her to abort this shit. Not when Tracker was involved.
I’d been surprised when I’d gotten into Vi’s Jeep and she’d started humming a Christmas song. I didn’t understand at first but having been around the Inferno’s Clutch MC, I learned quite a bit about her as well as Raven and another chick I don’t know. Each of these three women, if I were still into the shit I used to do would be required for jobs. The specialties they all carry are some that not even some of the best men I’ve worked with had.
After the night I killed a man for hitting my brother and taking his life, mine changed. I became who I am today.
A shadow.
I ended up with an organization that dealt with situations that you might as well compare them to suicide missions. Nothing you did when handling the problem was off limits. All that mattered was that the job got done. Sometimes it would be a job like this one where we’re going after well-known members of society who are some of the worse people. Others were about extracting and execution, those were the ones that were the hardest.
Headlights coming down the driveway come into view, I move further into the dark so that I’m not spotted. With Victoria on the other side of the property lying in wait on the roof of her adoptive parents’ garage, I wasn’t about to take any chances.
I focus my sight on the car as it stops in front of the house. The back door opens and out steps a woman with snobbish features and looks like a stick. No tits. No ass. Fuck, is she even a woman? If it wasn’t for the fact, she was wearing a skirt, her hair flowing down her back you’d think it was a dude. Then again, I could be wrong and it is.
Nothing wrong with a dude wanting to do that shit, it ain’t mine to judge.
The next person to get out is a man, I’m going to assume is Parker. These two are the ones we’re here to take. I pull my phone out to message Vi, that it’s game time when my attention swings to the woman who is pulled out of the car.
Not just pulled by the arm, no she’s not pulled at all, but dragged out by a leash connected to a collar attached to her throat.
Fuck.
This situation just changed.
Victoria isn’t going to take them out tonight.
No, she’s gonna wanna get the girl.
My thoughts are confirmed when the screen on my phone brightens and I read Vi’s message.
PIMA: Gonna need you to watch for any other cars coming up the road.
When I programmed her number into my phone I decided to go with Pain in My Ass, because the woman can be mind boggling. How her ol’ man deals with her is beyond me. Then again Victoria is one of the best women I know.
I quickly shoot a message back confirming.
Me: I saw the girl.
PIMA: I’m not leaving her here. Plans have changed.
Me: Figured as much.
PIMA: Good I’ll shoot you a text when I’m ready for pick up.
Nodding to myself, I figured I’d give her this play but she’s got a time limit. This will show me just how good she is at extracting.
Me: You have two hours after that I’m coming after you.
PIMA: I don’t need two hours.
We’ll see about that.
Checking the time, I begin the clock.
Keeping an eye out from the tree line. I’m not far from the car we’d used tonight and from here I can listen for anything coming down the road and see the lights before they get close.
The sound of breaking glass pulls my attention to the side of the house, and I watch as one figure climbs out and begins slowly moving down the lattice I’d seen earlier in the day when the sun was still out. Another figure climbs out behind the first and moves quicker.
Once they both make it to the ground, they take off in my direction. Victoria’s hand holding the girls.
“About damn time, you had five more minutes before I was coming after your ass,” I mutter the moment they’re close enough. With one good look at the girl, my heart skips a beat. Ignoring the feeling, I take her from Victoria and help her to the car.
She’s a small thing. Probably from the lack of nutrition.
Shaking my head, I climb in behind the wheel as Victoria follows suit and sits in the passenger seat.
Since the car was still running, I put the car in gear and punch the gas pedal ready to get the fuck out of there.
Eyes on the road, I find myself more than once glancing into the rearview mirror, observing the girl. Something about her looks familiar, I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it.
I’ll figure it out though, until then I hope she’s not going to be a problem for either club.
Chapter One
Luna
1 year 9 months 28 days later
My life has never been easy. Not once. First, I was born to one of the worst families I could ask to be a part of. Second, when I finally find a passion for myself, follow it and graduate from college in order to pursue said passion, I’m kidnapped, starved, beaten, and raped. I try not to think of the things that those evil people did to me. All because I looked like the woman who saved me.
If only they knew exactly whose daughter I was, I highly doubt they’d have left me alive. From what I’d overheard, they were working with the Delancy family in their drug and human traffic ring. I’m guessing they probably planned to sell me. I don’t know.
Since the day everything happened, from the moment I
was rescued by Victoria and Shadow, God the man is gorgeous, I could stare at him for days and never get bored. But from the moment they helped me to now. I’ve not been in contact with my family. I’m sure my dad looked but my stepmother, the one who came into our lives the day my mother died probably drew his attention from me.
As they say every family has a black sheep. Well, that’s me. I have four brothers, who in my stepmother’s mind take precedence over me. I wouldn’t put it pass the woman to have been the one to hand me over to the people who took me.
I’ve counted the days since I left that horrifying time. Before I’d been rescued, I’d already been in their grasp for forty-six days, fifteen hours, and forty-nine minutes.
Most people think I’m weird because I have to know the exact date and time. I didn’t use to do that, I usually only had freak-outs if something was out of place. I’m OCD and ADHD. When I was taken, I went without my medication and in order to keep somewhat of a balance, I’d stare at the clock in the room I’d been in and count.