Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition Read online

  Twisted Steel

  Second Edition

  Kristine Allen

  Scarlett Black

  Chelle C. Craze

  Eli Abbott

  Amy Davies

  Claire Marta

  Nia Farrell

  Nicole James

  Addison Jane

  Elizabeth Knox

  E.C. Land

  Rae B. Lake

  Erin Osborne

  Dani René

  Claire Shaw

  April Canavan

  Contents

  Welcome back to Twisted Steel.

  Snow’s Addiction

  Kristine Allen

  The Biker’s Second Chance

  A Second Chance Romance

  Nicole James

  Erotic

  Sons of Gods MC #1

  Elizabeth Knox

  Breaking Storm

  Devil’s Riot MC Tennessee Prequel

  E.C. Land

  Wyatt

  Rae B. Lake

  The Exiled Eight MC – Detroit Chapter

  Addison Jane

  Scars of My Love

  Chained Rebels MC Book II

  Chelle C. Craze & Eli Abbott

  Summer’s Trip

  Wild Kings MC: Nomads

  Erin Osborne

  Battle Born MC Series

  A Battle Born MC Novella

  Scarlett Black

  The Unforgiven

  Dani René

  A New Beginning

  Sons of Havoc Originals Prequel

  Claire Shaw

  Nomad

  Amie Davies

  Hell’s Fury MC: Dangerous Curves

  (GUARDED HEARTS BOOK 7.5)

  Claire Marta and Nia Farrell

  Savage Beginnings

  An introduction to the Twisted Kings MC

  April Canavan

  Welcome back to Twisted Steel.

  The authors of this anthology have been hit just as hard as the rest of the world. A pandemic has shattered our lives, our families are broken and bruised, and still… we’ve found our way back to the pages for you. Lose yourselves in this mix of full-length stories, novellas, and short stories that introduce you to a new life. Welcome old friends and characters you love, and say hello to brand-new additions.

  We hope you accept the patch and stay as a part of our club.

  Snow’s Addiction

  Kristine Allen

  Prologue

  Snow

  20 years old….

  “You worthless piece of shit!” A cowboy boot hit the wall next to my head as I ducked. “You’re not gonna be livin’ under my roof for free. Worse thing I ever did was tell your mother she didn’t have to get an abortion! You’ve been nothing but trouble your whole life!”

  Spittle flew each time he spewed a hateful word at me. Not that I wasn’t used to it; I’d been told what a sorry excuse for a son I was for as long as I could remember.

  It didn’t pay to argue with him, so I bit my tongue.

  “I told your mother you were up to no good, but she’s always defendin’ you. Look at the example you’re settin’ for your brother!” He motioned, and I glanced over my shoulder to see my younger brother standing there white-faced and wide-eyed. I knew it wasn’t me that was putting that look on his face. He hated the way our father talked to us. It was part of why he’d started fucking with alcohol and drugs to begin with. “It’s no wonder he’s a freak with an example like you!”

  I’d been kicked out of college the day before. My grades had slipped because I was so worried about Leon that I couldn’t concentrate. I’d been on scholastic probation when I’d been caught smoking weed with several of my teammates. My lack of focus merely sealed my coffin.

  Halfway through my sophomore year, I’d been sent home with my tail between my legs, while the other guys had gotten a slap on the wrist. It was bullshit, but I didn’t have their grades. I’d been good enough at football to get a scholarship, but when my brother started going off the rails, I fell apart.

  “Hey, Leon, go back to your room, okay?” I said it as quietly as I could, but my father still heard.

  “He don’t take orders from you! You shoulda went to jail where you belong! Then you wouldn’t be around to influence him!”

  Went to jail? Seriously? For flunking out and smoking weed? My jaw clenched.

  Leon was nothing like me. With our father’s blond hair and a slight build, he was the opposite of my brown hair and bulky frame. Except now his hair was dyed black with a long flop over his eyes. Thick black liner rimmed his haunted eyes. Happy to sit in his room and play video games, he was a quiet introvert. Appearing torn, he finally took my advice.

  In my mind, I said a word of thanks when he silently went back down the hallway.

  “I’m going to work,” my father said as he grabbed his jacket and lunchbox. “I want your shit packed and you out of my house by the time I get home.”

  He worked the second shift at the packing plant on the south edge of town. Mom worked at the bank, so she wouldn’t be home for an hour or so.

  “Good riddance,” I muttered under my breath as he stormed out the door.

  I’d been dreading coming home, but Decker had joined the army, so I couldn’t go stay with him. The rest of my friends had either moved away or didn’t really have room for me. One was actually in prison, but we hadn’t been that close anyway.

  Maybe I hadn’t been the best kid, but I wasn’t that bad. I did all the typical shit—broke a few bones trying to do stunts on my bike and my skateboard, smoked a little weed, experimented with some other shit, drank, but I never brought the law home.

  Deciding to chill in my room, I tromped down the hall. My bedroom door was ajar, and I wondered if Leon had gone to my room to wait. Except he wasn’t in there.

  Wanting to check on him after our father’s rant, I went next door to his room.

  When I pushed into the room, my stomach bottomed out.

  Leon was sprawled on the floor.

  I dropped to my knees and shook him. “Leon!”

  When he didn’t wake up, I tried to see if I could find a pulse, but I didn’t know what I was doing. “Shit!”

  I dug my flip phone out of my pocket and called 911. That’s when I saw the mess on his desk. White powder scattered on the surface with a shortened coffee straw to the side. As the operator asked me what my emergency was, I was diving back to my brother.

  “My little brother; I think he overdosed!” I rattled off our address, begging them to hurry. Not having a clue if I did it right, I plugged his nose and blew into his mouth.

  “Oh my God, Leon. What did you do?” I cried as I shook him again.

  Except I already knew the answer to that. I just didn’t understand what possessed my brother to do it and how the hell he’d known where I’d stashed it. As I cradled my little brother’s still form, tears poured down my face.

  Beating myself up, I begged God to help me.

  I’d caught Leon with the shit when I’d returned home that day. Dad had come home from the gas station, and I didn’t have a chance to dispose of it, so I shoved it in my pillowcase. If only I hadn’t panicked. If only I’d disposed of it immediately, this wouldn’t have happened.

  Why? Why hadn’t I flushed it?

  EMS rushed into the house, and I got out of the way. As the paramedics worked on him, I fell
back on my ass. Leaning against the bed in shock, I looked up as my mother burst into the room. The police officer who’d shown up with the ambulance grabbed her. She was screaming and crying as she fought to get to my brother.

  “My baby! Oh my God, my baby! Let me go!” she sobbed.

  Stunned disbelief overwhelmed me, and I struggled to breathe. Then I told myself I didn’t deserve to if Leon couldn’t. This was all my fault. My father was right. I was a fuckup.

  When they loaded him up in the ambulance, they took off without sirens, and I knew.

  My mother had insisted on riding with him, because I think she held out hope. I had none.

  “Son, do you know anything about where your brother got the cocaine?” the officer asked me. Lifting my head, I met his concerned gaze and condemned myself to hell.

  “I have no idea.”

  1

  Snow

  “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”—My Chemical Romance

  (Luke Matthews, age 37)

  “Hey P, I heard Cammie packed her shit and left town,” Reaper said as he sat at the bar next to me. He motioned to the bartender for a beer.

  “Mm,” I grunted, not wanting to talk about it.

  Cammie and I had had a good thing going for a while. We’d warmed each other’s beds, and there were no strings attached. At least, there weren’t until the day there were. It turned out she wanted more from me than I was willing to give. When I told her she was getting everything she’d ever get from me, she packed her shit and said she was moving to Oregon.

  Guess she did.

  Sure, I missed her, but it didn’t break my heart. Then again, it couldn’t, because I was pretty sure I didn’t have one anymore. At least not when it came to women. My club? My brothers? They had whatever part of my heart still existed.

  Maybe that made me a cold bastard, but fuck it.

  Joker elbowed Reaper, who glared at him. Like I wouldn’t notice. There was little that escaped my attention. They spoke quietly, and I chose to ignore them.

  “How much longer you gonna be here?” Reaper asked. I shrugged.

  “It’s still early, but don’t stay on my account. No one knows us here. I’ll be okay,” I told the boys. We were on our way home from Texas for Gunny’s wedding and had stopped for the night in Kansas. Still kind of ate at me that I lost both Lock and Gunny to the Central Texas chapter, but I understood why they needed to get away.

  “Yeah, and then if things do go south, I’ll feel like a fucking piece of shit. No way. Not leaving my prez alone.” Reaper was staring at me with narrowed eyes. “Besides, I need to finish my beer.”

  He raised the bottle in a mock salute with a cocky grin.

  Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes. To appease them, I finished my drink. “Well, bottoms up. I’m done.”

  Reaper and Joker both gave me a deadpan stare. Reaper blinked in irritation, and Joker chewed on the toothpick he kept in his mouth. He’d quit smoking a while back, and if he was around alcohol, he needed something to keep him from wanting to light up. I laughed and stood from my stool.

  Tossing a twenty on the bar, I headed to the door. The scrape of stools behind me echoed through the small bar over the sound of the raggedy-ass jukebox they had. The one Gunny had was a hell of a lot better.

  “Sometimes you’re a real dick,” Reaper grumbled.

  “Most men would get their teeth knocked out for saying that,” I said as I raised a brow.

  Again with the cocky grin, he said, “Guess it’s a good thing I’m not most men.”

  I snorted as we walked outside and next door to our motel. Using the old-fashioned brass key, I opened my door. “You boys sleep tight. No hanky-panky tonight.”

  They both shot me the bird before entering their room, laughing. I closed my door and sat on the edge of the bed. Both Reaper and Joker had ol’ ladies, so I wasn’t going to make them hang out in a bar with me all damn night, but I wasn’t fucking tired.

  Figured I’d wait a bit, then head back next door. We weren’t in a hurry to leave in the morning, so I could sleep in. Tonight I simply needed to drink away some ghosts.

  Alone.

  After about thirty minutes of surfing through my phone and replying to messages from my buddy Venom and then my VP, Vinny, I sent a text to my mom so she wouldn’t worry. I wasn’t overly concerned about shit at home. Vinny was solid—I knew he had things covered. Even checking on my mother.

  “No issues?” I asked when Vinny called. He wasn’t much for texting, so I wasn’t surprised.

  “Depends on how you look at it,” he hedged.

  “Explain,” I demanded, and he sighed.

  “There was an overdose tonight. Some kid from over in Spirit Lake, but it happened here at his cousin’s place.”

  “Fuck. Do we know what it was or where he got it?”

  “That’s the weird thing. They don’t know what the hell it was.”

  “What the fuck you mean, they don’t know what it was?”

  “Rumor has it there is a new drug making the rounds, but I didn’t realize it was in our area. They think it may be that, but they aren’t releasing details from toxicology and shit.” I could hear the tension in his tone. He and the rest of my club had the same stance on drugs. They were an absolute no-go. Weed, sure; anything else—hard pass.

  “Jesus Christ. Well, see what you can find out. Have Hacker see what he can find out. We’ll be home early tomorrow evening.”

  “Roger that. Let me know when you all hit the road.”

  “Will do,” I assured him before ending the call. When I found out who was peddling shit to kids in my area, they were going to wish they’d never been born.

  I needed to take a piss, then I needed another drink.

  Once I finished my business, I washed up and stared hard in the mirror. What I saw made me despise myself a little. The older I got, the more I looked like my old man. Except, after my brother died, he drank himself into an early grave, so who knew what he’d look like by now. Good riddance. He’d been part of the reason Leon and I had fucked with drugs in the first place.

  Though we’d only smoked weed together. I’d had no idea he’d moved on to other things while I was gone at school.

  Shaking off the melancholy thoughts, I decided it had been long enough. Quietly, I let myself out of the room. The temperature had dropped in the short time since I’d walked back to the motel. It wasn’t unbearable, but I could’ve used a jacket. To ward off the chill, I shoved my hands in my jeans pockets and moved faster.

  The place had picked up a little since I’d left. Spotting two open stools at the bar, I beelined over and sat down.

  “Back so soon?” the bartender asked me with a good-natured grin. I lifted a shoulder.

  “Yeah, couldn’t sleep.”

  “Same?” he asked, and I nodded. In no time he set the glass in front of me. I took a sip and lost myself in the amber liquid for a minute.

  “Is this seat taken?” a woman asked at my side, and I glanced over.

  Goddamn.

  “Nope,” I said, unable to take my eyes off her. The woman sat down, dressed in a tight red dress with matching heels. Bit much for this area of town, if you asked me, but hell if I was complaining. My eyes wandered to her long legs.

  “Thanks,” she said once she was settled, and I pulled my eyes up to her face. She flashed me a subdued smile, and my dick woke up as her deep red lips curled. Eyes so pale they appeared silver caught mine briefly before she turned to place her order with the bartender.

  Her drink sat in front of her untouched for several minutes. Curious, I glanced her way and studied her profile. Dark honey hair was tucked behind her ear, and a small diamond winked on her lobe.

  “You seem awfully dressed up for this place.” I’d told myself I wasn’t going to engage, but something about her drew me in. She snorted a laugh.

  “Well, I was trying to go out and have a good time tonight, but my friends are either married with kids to get home to or they hooke
d up with someone and ditched me.”

  “So you came here?” I chuckled. She bit her lip, then gave me a quick sidelong glance.

  “Yeah. My sister and I used to sneak in here before we turned twenty-one.”

  “So why isn’t she out with you tonight?”

  “She’s dead.”

  “Oh shit, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. You didn’t know.” She paused and took a drink. “Today, it’s been five years.”

  “I’m really sorry, but I understand. It’s been seventeen years since my baby brother died.”

  “I’m sorry, too. Do you mind my asking what happened?”

  I sighed. “Drug overdose. Hard to believe he would’ve been thirty-two this year.”

  “Jesus. I get it though. My sister also died from a drug overdose. I’d tried for years to get her sober, but every time she’d get clean, she slipped, until the last slip cost her everything.” A tear escaped her eye, and she quickly wiped it away. “Sorry. I’m a bit of a buzzkill.”

  “Naw, it’s okay. I get it.” This week had been the anniversary of my brother’s death as well. I’d welcomed the trip to get my mind off it. Except it caught up with me anyway.

  “You from around here?” she asked me.

  “Nope. Passing through.”

  She nodded, and we returned our attention to our drinks.

  After my next one and the start of her second, I sent a quick glance her way. “So you grew up around here?”

  I’d really tried not to engage further, but it was impossible. She was entirely too beautiful for this run-down dive.

  “Yeah. Kansas girl. When I was young, I always wished we’d moved over to the Missouri side of Kansas City, but my parents wouldn’t leave here. As soon as I could, I hauled ass across the river.” She gave a crooked grin.