The Restart and the Remedy (Aces High MC - Dakotas Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  DEDICATION

  Christine’s Books

  Prologue - Rabbit

  Chapter 1 - Myra

  Chapter 2 – Myra

  Chapter 3 - Myra

  Chapter 4 – Rabbit

  Chapter 5 – Myra

  Chapter 6 – Rabbit

  Chapter 7 – Myra

  Chapter 8 – Rabbit

  Chapter 9 - Myra

  Chapter 10 - Rabbit

  Chapter 11 - Myra

  Chapter 12 - Rabbit

  Chapter 13 - Myra

  Chapter 14 - Rabbit

  Chapter 15 - Myra

  Chapter 16 - Rabbit

  Chapter 17 - Myra

  Chapter 18 - Rabbit

  Chapter 19 - Myra

  Chapter 20 - Rabbit

  Chapter 21 - Myra

  Chapter 22 - Rabbit

  Chapter 23 - Myra

  Chapter 24 - Rabbit

  Chapter 25 - Myra

  Chapter 26 - Rabbit

  Chapter 27 - Myra

  Chapter 28 - Rabbit

  Chapter 29 - Myra

  Chapter 30 - Rabbit

  Chapter 31 - Myra

  Chapter 32 - Rabbit

  Chapter 33 - Myra

  Chapter 34 - Rabbit

  The End

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The Restart

  and the

  Remedy

  Aces High – Dakota Series #4

  Christine Michelle

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  The Restart and the Remedy (Aces High MC – Dakotas Book 3)

  Copyright 2020 © Christine Michelle/Christine M. Butler

  Edited by: Bella Hickman

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized scanning, uploading, reprint, distribution or use of this material is prohibited. Further, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from Christine Michelle/Christine M. Butler, the author.

  DEDICATION

  For everyone out there who found their second chance and went for it, whether it was timing appropriate for everyone else or not.

  xoxo

  Christine Michelle

  aka: Christine M. Butler

  Christine’s Books

  S.H.E. Series

  Angel-Girl

  JoJo

  Aces High MC – Dakotas Series

  Dancing With Danger

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  The Restart and the Remedy

  Aces High MC – Charleston Series

  The Other Princess

  A Love So Hard

  The Princess and the Prospect

  The Killing Ride

  A Twist of Fate

  Aces High MC – Charleston Series (1-5 Box Set)

  Everlasting

  A Year and a Day

  Aces High MC – Cedar Falls Series

  Redemption Weather

  Proven

  Smoke and the Flame

  The Redemption Duet (boxed set)

  Aces High MC – Tallahassee Series

  Crushed

  T.I.E. (The Infinite Everything) Series

  The Infinite Something

  The Infinite Beat

  The Awakening Trilogy

  Birthrights

  Revelations

  Incarnations

  The Ancients Series

  Shadows of the Ancients

  Falling into the White

  Branches of the Willow

  Bound by the Moon

  The Ancients Series (Complete Series)

  Death Viewers Series

  Breathless

  Vukodlak Brew Series

  Entwined

  The Voodoo Follies

  The Voodoo Follies

  Falling Star Series

  Catch a Falling Star

  Letter To Series

  Letters to Lily

  Prologue - Rabbit

  Her recently dyed pink bob blew in the blustery wind as she turned to face me before getting into the pickup truck parked outside of the house. “It’s not personal, Rabbit. We just want different things. You understand, right?”

  I understood jack shit. Two days ago, I’d asked her how she felt about starting a family after we made love all night long. Today, I came home to find her pulling an overstuffed suitcase onto the front porch of the home she’d been sharing with me for the past four months. It was only a rental until the house I was having built was finished, and then I planned on marrying her and raising our children there. It was something I had always wanted for myself, even before I saw how goddamn happy Rage and Tango were with their women. Then there was my brother and his ol’ lady who just managed to make me want a family of my own that much more.

  Before my brother got his hooks into her, I thought I’d have that with Cherry, but she wasn’t for me. She was made for Spinner. Her sister, on the other hand, had been wild and completely against even dating me at first. I’d had to work my ass off for it. She knew I’d had a thing for Cherry, and she told me herself she was no substitute for her twin. She had not been wrong. Still, after chasing her and finally catching the woman, I figured it was finally my time. I thought that all the way up until the point where she turned around with that fresh new look of hers and waved at me. She didn’t have a care in the world that she was breaking something inside of me as she slid into that old beat up Chevy. The damn thing was lifted too high off the ground for its own good, considering it rested on those tiny little tires. The asshole who owned it couldn’t even splurge on tires that fit his truck, and she was running off to be with him. I shook my head, and tried to quell the sick feeling in my gut.

  “Just like that?” I asked. Her lips pursed together in a move I knew bespoke of her distaste for the question.

  “Rabbit, I warned you,” she finally called out. “I’m not Cherry. Never will be. Settling down just isn’t in my blood. Be good, and…” I don’t know what she started to say, because the asshole in the truck pulled out, causing her to fall back inside the window she’d draped her slender body out of in order to speak to me. She tossed a hand out the window, and her giggle was the last thing I heard before the roar of the truck’s engine overtook it, and then they were gone.

  I didn’t know what to think. My life had just dropped my dreams right into the shitter and flushed. I had been planning on asking her to marry me in three days. Christmas Eve had worked out well for my brother the year before, I figured it would do the same for me. I’d managed to get her to start dating just me about six months back, after damn near a year of chasing her and trying to convince her it would be worth it. The joke had been on me the whole time. I hadn’t been worth it. Not to Chastity Carson.

  Chapter 1 - Myra

  Six Months Later

  Finally making it to South Dakota, with only a few miles to go, was nothing compared to seeing a mostly naked biker walking down the side of the road I was traveling. How did I know he was a biker? Well, the kut
te was a dead giveaway. Honestly, my curiosity was getting the better of me as I slowed to take in the fact that my initial assessment had been correct. The man had not one single stitch of clothing on, with exception of his leather kutte. According to his patches, he was a member of a local chapter of the Aces High MC. I shrugged inwardly, having never heard of them before my friend Cherry informed me of who her old man was affiliated with. My GPS squawked at me, saying that my turn was coming up in two miles, and since I had been paying more attention to the nearly naked biker than the road, it startled me enough that I slammed on the breaks.

  The next thing I knew, my passenger side door was being flung open and the naked man was depositing his ass – fine and bare as it was – into the seat of my car. Thank God for leather seats that could be wiped up. Not that he was dirty, but he was a biker in the middle of nowhere without clothes.

  “Thanks for the pickup. The rest of that walk was about to be brutal without my boots,” he told me before beaming a smile at me that no doubt melted the panties off of women everywhere. Myself included, apparently, despite the fact that my lady parts should have been in ‘off’ mode considering my recent troubles. I guessed that I was still a woman, after all.

  “Um, I didn’t. Sorry, I…”

  “Really it’s cool of you,” he mentioned with a grin before turning to look forward at the road before us.

  “Seems like you got yourself into a little pickle there,” I mumbled as I took my foot off the break and gently eased back on the gas.

  “Hey now, darlin’! There’s nothing little about my pickle.” His mock sincerity had me glancing over, and much to my shame, down as well. He chuckled, and suddenly I wanted to put this biker boy in his place.

  “If you say so,” I mentioned as I rolled my eyes back to the road in front of me.

  “It’s chilly as fuck out there,” he huffed indignantly. “Don’t judge me,” he added as he cupped his man parts in two hands. Yes, it was not lost on me that it took two rather large hands to be sure he had proper coverage. My GPS squawked once more about the impending turn I was supposed to be taking. “Where exactly are you headed at this time of night?” He asked as he eyed the contraption that was suction-cupped to my dash.

  “I could ask you the same.”

  “You could, but it looks like we’re going to the same spot,” he told me as he tapped the GPS.

  “You’re going to a bar with no clothes on?”

  He shrugged his well-formed shoulders and grinned over at me. “It’s a strip club, figure why not let the ladies get a look for once.”

  “Why not, indeed?” I thought to myself. Though judging from his chuckle, I must have actually said it out loud too. It figures, at the very start of my new life, I would be the one to accidentally pick up a hitchhiker. A naked, biker, hitchhiker. I rolled my eyes up to the sky, and silently asked what the universe had planned for me.

  “Why are you headed to a strip club in the middle of the night?” He glanced around my heavily packed SUV and then back to me. I didn’t miss the way he glanced down at the way my hand was nervously rubbing on my belly. Granted, there wasn’t much of a bump showing yet, but since we were headed to a strip club and I had all my possessions with me, it didn’t take a stretch of the imagination for him to make the assumption that I was going to try to be a stripper. Instead of humoring him, I flipped the tables on his question.

  “Why are you walking the roads naked?” I countered.

  “Well, I was giving the goods to Wanda Sue since her man was out of town, but apparently the asshole wasn’t as out of town as she thought. Only had time to grab my kutte and hightail it out of there before…” He stopped talking when he saw my lax jaw hanging nearly to the floorboards at his admission.

  “You’re a cheater?” I asked, completely shocked, and not understanding why.

  “Hell no!” He all but yelled back. “Wanda’s the cheater, I was just the poor, unfortunate soul she chose to use like I was a piece of meat or something.” He said this completely deadpan with a slight twinge of victimized pain added in for effect. Then he burst out laughing. “You should see your face right now. You don’t know whether to be angry on Jerry’s behalf or pity me. Don’t feel bad for me, kitten. I’ve got fuck all to care about these days, and hurting Jerry’s feelings isn’t on my priority list of fucks to give either. Besides, he told Wanda he was out of town, but really he was over sleeping with Carrie Ann. She probably kicked him out, and that’s the only reason he showed up to catch me with his other woman.”

  “What the hell kind of place have I landed myself in?”

  “Only the best kind of place, sweetheart.”

  “Stop with the endearments. Can you even keep them straight? So far, I’ve been darlin’, kitten, and sweetheart.”

  “Do you have a preference?”

  “Yeah, none of the above.”

  “Well, snookems, it’s hard to call you anything you might approve of since you pick up strangers on the side of the road without introducing yourself properly.”

  “I did not pick you up. My GPS startled me after seeing a grown-ass, naked man walking down the street in temperatures threatening to drop below the 40s. You just took advantage and hopped on in.”

  “Hopped, that’s cute,” he muttered, and that’s when I really knew I was in trouble. I had picked up some crazy asshole who was laughing in my passenger seat, while still without clothing, and it was all over the word ‘hopped’. He swiped at his face, leaving his junk inadvertently exposed, and damn my traitorous eyes. I looked. Again. Worse, he noticed that I looked again. “I’m Rabbit,” he proclaimed while grinning bigger than the cat who actually got the canary. “Get it now? It’s funny, because I’m Rabbit, and you said I hopped…” he saw that I wasn’t really paying attention to his explanation since he still had his man parts uncovered so he waved away the rest of his explanation then covered himself again. “Look, honey, maybe this would work better if you put your eyes forward. I’m all for showing you what I have to work with, but not if we’re going to die just for a look.”

  “Shit!” I managed to swerve us back onto the road, because yes, I had gone off on the shoulder just a bit.

  “Damn, you left a whole rut back there,” he murmured as he continued glaring at said rut through the side-view mirror before he turned back to me. “I told you mine, now it’s your turn.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your name?”

  “Oh, I’m…”

  “You’re going to want to turn here,” he said, cutting me off before he could get my name.

  Chapter 2 – Myra

  Two Weeks Earlier

  Nothing good ever comes from hearing the words, “We have to talk,” from your significant other. Nothing. You’d think I would have known going in that shit was about to get turned on its head for me, for my life, for everything. The problem was that my particular significant other had been my best friend since diapers, boyfriend since I was fifteen and he was sixteen, lover since I was seventeen, and the man I currently lived and shared my life with. So when he asked me to meet him for breakfast so that we could talk, I honestly thought it would be about finally getting hitched like our families had been on us to do for ages now.

  That was why when I met him for breakfast at the kitschy little bakery slash coffee shop in town, and I saw him looking completely out of sorts and unlike his usual confident self, I started to panic a little on the inside. When I noticed he kept glancing at a girl, who I knew to be the ex-girlfriend of one of his club brothers, that panic was ramping up to adrenaline overload. Still, I waited. Still, he said nothing. So, in an effort to move things along before I exploded, imploded, or got a severe case of the shakes from the extra adrenaline that would make me look like I was having a mild seizure, I spoke. I was pretty certain, judging by the side-long glances toward the table with Phoenix’s ex-girlfriend, that two and two was about to equal four. It was a little hard to fathom though, considering what I had to tell the man I thou
ght of as my soul mate.

  “Spit it out and respect me enough to actually tell the truth and not the bullshit lies you’re trying to spin,” I told Michael “Blaze” Sanders as his shifty-eyes straightened and pinned themselves to my own. He knew that I knew his tells. He had been about to lie to me, had been thinking of the best way to spin whatever he had to say, and he had given himself away. We’d known each other far too long, and far too intimately for anything but honesty. His shoulders sagged as if a heavy weight had settled in on them bringing them down.

  “You know the party we had at the MC about two months ago when you couldn’t come because you were sick?” Of course I knew. My best friend, Lana, had come to take care of me because Michael was unwilling to stay home from the multi-chapter shindig the Stoneridge Raiders Motorcycle Club was hosting. I had been extremely angry with him while also trying to support the club and his need to be there. I’d grown up in the life since my father was the VP of the club, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a kick in the teeth to have my man basically tell me that going to a party was more important than seeing to me when I had a 104 degree temperature, the shakes, and couldn’t hold anything down to save my life. I simply nodded my answer to him. We’d fought about it after I had the strength to fight, but the damage was already done by then, and I had the feeling I was about to learn that the damage had been more than just his disrespect of me by going instead of taking care of me.

  “Well, I got smashed and Phoenix took me to his room to sleep it off. He said he’d just head back to his girl’s place for the night.” That’s when my stomach tightened because Jessica Finley, Phoenix’s now ex-girlfriend, was the one sitting at the table that kept drawing Michael’s attention.