by Harley Wylde
Wraith (Dixie Reapers MC 8)
Harley Wylde
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Copyright ©2018 Harley Wylde
BIN: 008674-02803
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Changeling Press LLC
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Editor: Crystal Esau
Cover Artist: Bryan Keller
Adult Sexual Content
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Table of Contents
Wraith (Dixie Reapers MC 8)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Harley Wylde
Wraith (Dixie Reapers MC 8)
Harley Wylde
Rin -- My mom died when I was little, and my dad followed when I was fifteen. My half-brother, the nastiest human being I’ve ever met, convinced the state to grant him custody. More likely he bribed people. My life has been hell since then. Every time I try to run, he finds me, tortures me, and makes sure I toe the line. This time will be different. I’m asking the Dixie Reapers for help. If they turn me away, I’m as good as dead, but even that’s preferable to what my half-brother has planned for me next.
I didn’t count on the sexy man with the dark, brooding eyes. The man who defended me only seconds after laying eyes on me. The man who makes me want things I’ve never wanted before. I knew better than to sleep with him, knew I wasn’t good enough. When he rejects me, I run. Discovering several weeks later that he left a little part of himself inside me is even more terrifying than my half-brother finding me.
Wraith -- I’m not the settling-down type. Maybe once upon a time, but not anymore. While I was serving overseas, my sister was left for dead in a gutter. I failed her. Failed my parents, who made me promise to protect her before they breathed their last. Now I’m faced with Rin, the strongest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. She needs a protector, and I’ll gladly be that for her. I want her. Want to keep her and make her mine. I’ve fucked my share of women over the years, but I’ve never made love to one. Until Rin. But I’m no good for her, or anyone else. She thinks she’s not worthy of me, but it’s the other way around.
Then she runs and I feel like a piece of my soul has been ripped out. Finding her won’t be easy, but I won’t stop until she’s back in my home, in my bed. And I’ll make sure that every asshole who ever laid a hand on her is buried six feet under or rotting in prison. No one will ever hurt her again.
It never occurred to me that I would be the asshole to hurt her. I stopped believing in Christmas miracles a long time ago, but now I really need one. I need Rin back, and I’ll do anything to make her mine.
Chapter One
Rin
I knew my time was up, had been up for a while, and it was past time for me to leave. If I’d been smart, I’d have taken off after my mom died, maybe after I’d become a teen. Living on the streets might have been safer than staying with my dad and brother. Then Dad died and my life had become hell. The problem was that I had no money, no car, and no way of escaping the nightmare I’d been living since the age of fifteen. Somehow, my brother had convinced the state to award him custody of me, and I’m sure it had to do with him calling in favors or paying people off. At first, my brother -- well, half-brother -- had just let his clients grope me, or they’d stared at me while they did other things. By the time I was eighteen, he was using me as a bartering tool to sweeten whatever deal he had going at the time. The last few years, though? Yeah, those were the worst.
Now I was twenty-three, and while there were days I contemplated ending my life rather than living through the shame and horror I dealt with on a regular basis, deep down I was a fighter. I’d learned the hard way not to struggle and fight my fate while my brother had control of me, and I’d tried to escape a few times, only to be hauled back in worse shape than when I’d left. I’d been fighting my own personal war, and I had the scars to prove it. Emotional, mental, and physical ones.
As if things weren’t bad enough, I’d overheard Joe’s conversation with someone about having the perfect little whore for a brothel down in Mexico, and he’d described me so well I’d known who he meant. There was no way I would ever survive such a thing, and I knew no one would come looking for me. Big brother had made sure of that. Maybe I’d outlived my usefulness, or maybe he was tired of me running. No, my only means of survival was to get the hell away from Joe and find someone to keep me safe. Most people in this town were in his pocket, or terrified of him. I needed someone who wouldn’t back down, someone who would retaliate if he came after me. I needed a badass, and those were in short supply.
Not many people in this small town would attempt to take down Joe Banner. He paid enough of the cops that evidence always went missing if he was arrested. I knew Officer Daniels had picked him up a few times, but the charges never seemed to stick. I’d seen the concern in the officer’s eyes the last time he’d come to the house, and it was that moment, knowing that someone gave a shit what happened to me that had prompted me to leave, even if I hadn’t been able to do it right then. But Officer Daniels couldn’t stop my brother any more than anyone else around here could. Except for one possible group of men. The Dixie Reapers.
I’d seen the bikers around town, and knew of at least one woman from my neighborhood who had escaped my brother and was now married to one of the Reapers. Kayla and her twin brother, Johnny, had been in some of my classes at the high school. We hadn’t exactly been close, and we certainly hadn’t kept in touch after graduation, but I was hoping we had enough of a connection that maybe they would offer to help me. The things my brother had forced me to do were bad enough, but being shipped to a brothel wasn’t on my list of things to accomplish in my life. I knew women who were sent there never came back. Taking my own life was different from dying of disease in some hellhole. I didn’t think I was the type to take the easy way out, but if I had no other option I might consider it, only if I knew that all hope was lost. I wasn’t going to let either of those things happen, though, not without fighting. Now that I’d decided I wanted to live, that I wanted to escape, I wasn’t backing down. This time, if he caught me, I’d fight until he killed me. I was done doing whatever Joe Banner ordered.
Approaching the gates, I rubbed my hands up and down my denim-clad thighs. I shivered in the cold air despite the sun shining brightly. It might be the south, but it was also five weeks until Christmas and cold as hell. Thanksgiving had passed just two days ago, and the weather had changed drastically almost overnight. My threadbare coat didn’t provide much protection as the wind whipped my hair around me and sent icy chills down my body. A man was leaning against a booth near the gate, and when I approached, he straightened to a rather imposing height. Then again, I was barely five feet tall, so pretty everyone was taller than me.
I didn’t recognize him, but I did know the look he had in his eyes. It was the same one I saw every time my brother had introduced me to someone he deemed important. I hated that fucking look, but I bit my tongue because I needed help, and I’d do almost anything to escape my brother. It’s not like this guy would ask me for something I hadn’t been forced to do already.
“I need to see Johnny or Kayla,” I said as I stopped in front of the gate.
His gaze took me in from head to toe. “Are they expecting you?”
“No, but it’s important.”
He stared at me for what felt like forever before opening the gate. As I stepped inside, his hand closed around my arm and he drew me to a halt.
“Need to check you for weapons,” he said with a leer.
Yeah. I just bet he did. I spread my arms out, even though it made me colder. His hands went under my coat and lingered a little too long at my breasts before working down my body. When he pushed my legs apart and brought them up the insides of my thighs, I clamped my legs shut before he could go too high.
“Have to check everywhere,” he said.
“Robby, what the fuck are you doing?” a man asked as he came toward us.
“She asked to see Kayla and Saint. Making sure she’s not carrying any weapons,” Robby said.
The guy eyed me up and down and shook his head.
“First of all, Preacher isn’t letting an unknown person anywhere near his wife and kids. Second, if you think Saint can’t handle a tiny-ass woman like her, I’ll be happy to let him know it.”
Robby paled. “Sorry, Gears.”
The man I now knew was called Gears held out a hand to me. And from that little bit of conversation, it seemed Johnny was now known as Saint. It fit him. Even back in high school, he’d tried to save people. I was counting on that, hoping he’d be willing to save me too.
“Come on, darlin’. Let’s get you out of this cold weather and I’ll find Saint for you,” the man called Gears said.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, trying to stop my teeth from chattering.
He led me up the steps of a building across the lot and held the door open for me. Heat made my cheeks sting and it felt like thousands of needles were stabbing me as my body adjusted to the toasty air. Gears led me over to a small table near the bar and pulled out a chair for me.
“Sit here and I’ll see where Saint is. Who do I tell him is here?”
“Rin. From the old neighborhood,” I said.
He nodded and went to the other side of the room before pulling out his phone. I couldn’t hear anything he said, but he cast a few glances my way. While I waited for him to come back, I surveyed the area. I’d always wondered what the Dixie Reapers compound looked like from inside the fence. This building wasn’t quite the way I’d pictured it, and I could imagine a lot of wild parties within the walls. I knew those parties had never used the girls my brother pimped out, though, so whatever women hooked up with the men here did so of their own free will.
The door opened again and two more men came in wearing the leather vests all the bikers wore around town. One in particular drew my attention. His hair was dark, and he had a beard that made me itch to feel it, see if it was as soft as it looked. But his eyes were hard, the kind of eyes I’d seen on soldiers and men who had killed for a living. He moved with lethal grace and came to tower over me. I’d learned long ago to let my shoulders droop a little and hunch a bit to seem smaller when confronted with large, scary men.
“Who the fuck are you?” the man next to him asked.
My gaze jerked over to him and widened a little. The man was huge and more than just a little intimidating.
“Rin,” I said softly.
“No outsiders allowed,” he said. “If you’re here to party, you’re shit out of luck. It’s family time until the holidays. Whores can come back after the new year.”
I swallowed hard and lowered my gaze. Of course he’d call me that. It’s what my brother had made me, and I struggled to get up. I couldn’t seem to make my legs work quite right, those prickling needles still stabbing me as my body thawed out, and I kept falling back into the chair.
“Why are you here?” the other man asked, his tone softer.
“Does it matter, Wraith?” the bigger man asked. “She’s trespassing.”
I heard Gears come up behind me. “She’s looking for Saint, but he’s not answering his phone, and no one has seen him. Even Preacher and Kayla don’t know where he is.”
“Why do you want to see Saint?” Wraith asked.
“I need help. We went to high school together. I knew…” I stopped and looked at each of them. “I knew that Kayla escaped our neighborhood and that she was living here. I thought maybe the twins could keep me safe.”
Wraith hunkered down in front of me, his gaze assessing. “Safe from what?”
“My brother,” I said softly. “Half-brother. He’s not a nice man and he… he plans to sell me to a brothel in Mexico. I overheard him on the phone.”
“Son of a bitch,” Gears muttered. “I knew you looked familiar.”
My eyes widened as I looked up at him. He knew who I was? Who my brother was? Did that mean he would help, or would they ask me to leave? My heart started to race and my hands clenched. If they kicked me out, I had nowhere else to go.
“How do you know her?” the big, scary man asked.
“She’s Joe Banner’s sister,” Gears said. “She’s the one Officer Daniels was worried about. Tank, we can’t send her back out there.”
“Officer Daniels talked to you about me?” I asked, my brow furrowed. That didn’t make any sense. Why would he come to them?
“Who is Joe Banner?” Wraith asked.
“The local pimp. He runs things on the other end of town,” Gears said.
I wanted to curl into myself and disappear, especially when Wraith focused on me again. I’d never felt so dirty or ashamed as I did in that moment. A gorgeous man like him wouldn’t want to be near someone tainted like me. I would have tried standing again, but he was too close. I wouldn’t be able to get up without touching him.
“You work for your brother?” Wraith asked.
Tears burned my eyes but I refused to let them fall as I nodded.
“Told you she was a whore,” Tank said.
Wraith pushed my hair behind my ear and forced me to look at him. “You work for him willingly? Or does he have some sort of hold over you?”
“He was my guardian until I turned eighteen, but every time I try to run, he finds me. This was my last chance to get away. I don’t…” I swallowed hard. “I never wanted to work for him. I didn’t ask for any of those things to be done to me, but I wasn’t given a choice.”
“She’s not a whore, Tank,” Wraith said as he stood. “She’s a victim. You going to turn your back on a woman in need?”
Tank muttered something under his breath, then shook his head. “I’ll call Torch and see what he wants to do with her until we can locate Saint.”
“We have a bunch of empty rooms here at the clubhouse right now. She could stay in one of those,” Wraith said.
Gears shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not with the way Robby was groping her when he let her through the gates. Claimed he was patting her down for weapons, but it looked like more to me. She was trying to stop him from touching anywhere overly intimate.”
Wraith’s eyes went dark and
his jaw tensed. Without a word, he turned and left the building, the door slamming shut behind him.
“Should we go after him?” Gears asked.
“If he wants to defend the whore, let him,” Tank said.
Gears scowled at him. “You heard what she said, what Wraith said. She didn’t choose that life, Tank. She was a victim. What the fuck is wrong with you? Normally you’re the first one to go after abusive assholes.”
Tank shrugged, but there was a look on his face that made me think he had a good reason to treat me the way he was. Or at least he thought he had a good reason. I’d be willing to bet that under all his bad attitude was a man who was hurting. Made me wonder if a woman had broken his trust. Or maybe… had he gotten mixed up with one of Joe’s girls without knowing it? They’d been known to pick pockets when the clients weren’t looking. It would certainly explain the hostility.
Wraith came back in, dragging Robby with him. He had a grip on the younger man’s collar, then dropped the guy at my feet. Robby gave me a hateful glare as he struggled to his knees.
“Apologize,” Wraith said.
“Sorry,” Robby said caustically.
Wraith landed a punch right across Robby’s jaw, knocking him out cold.
“Damn. Don’t think he’ll be apologizing now,” Gears said. “Or eating. I think you broke his jaw.”
“Shit,” Wraith muttered. “We’ll need someone else at the gate.”
“I’ll call in one of the new guys,” Tank said.
“Almost makes me sorry we patched in Johnny, Gabe, and Ivan. They were our best Prospects,” Gears said.
“I’ll get King to watch the gate and have Diego try to find Saint,” Tank said. “We’re going to need new blood if we keep getting shitty Prospects.”
Gears snorted. “You mean like Tommy and Carter? Yeah, I have a feeling Robby will be escorted out of here when he wakes up. Torch won’t stand for him getting handsy with someone who came asking for a brother. And then getting attitude when Wraith made him apologize.”