Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:32:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 http://www.ilovenovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com 32 32 On the Brink of Bliss (Moonlit Ridge #5) Read Online A.L. Jackson http://www.ilovenovels.com/on-the-brink-of-bliss-moonlit-ridge-5-read-online-a-l-jackson Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:32:24 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/on-the-brink-of-bliss-moonlit-ridge-5-read-online-a-l-jackson Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Suspense Authors: A.L. Jackson Series: Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >174

A sizzling single mom, fake marriage, heroine in danger romance from New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author, A.L. Jackson

The last thing I expected when I found the trespasser bathing in my river was for it to be her…

Daisy Adair has always been my dream girl. From when we were best friends in high school to finding her now.
A gorgeous mother who shows up on my property with three kids in tow.
But I became a recluse for a reason.
The life I chose is full of wickedness and peril. The last thing I need is the object of my every fantasy invading my space and risking her life because of me.
Only when she tells me she’s on the run from her ex, I promise to do anything to keep them safe, even marry her to protect her kids.
That single kiss at the altar rips through every barrier, our passion unleashed.
Now, living under the same roof blurs the lines I’ve drawn.
Each glance of her down the hall and I am splintering.
Each brush of her hand and I am brought to my knees.
Our future—bright, hopeful, and almost within reach—hovers on the edge of becoming real…
Until we discover the threat surrounding her is grimmer than either of us imagined.
Now I’m fighting to save her and her children before our second chance at forever is burned to the ground…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

ONE

CASH

“Tell me she’s okay.” I could feel the rage coming off Silas as he spoke from the other end of the line.

“From my surveillance, the only thing I can say for certain is she’s alive, but the bastard won’t let anyone get close enough to her to know the state she’s in,” I gritted into my cell as I kept winding through the dense foliage that surrounded my property.

Rays of sunlight cut through the trees and blinded my eyes as I tromped across the land, the way I did every couple of days to make sure no assholes were treading into places they didn’t belong.

“I’ve got to get to her, man.” There was no missing the plea in his words. The fact that he was a second from flying out the door to get to her himself.

“I know, but you’ve got to hang tight and do this thing right. You’re only going to put her in more danger by going in there without a plan. That asshole has an army surrounding him.”

“Swear to fuck, I’m going to bleed him slow,” Silas hissed between clenched teeth.

“Dude is as good as dead.” I kept my voice hushed as I continued to stalk along the perimeter of my property, my dog Duke trotting along at my side, forever standing guard.

Forty acres of isolated bliss. Not a soul around for miles.

Exactly the way I wanted it.

Bliss.

What a fucking joke.

Because with the type of lives we led? There was no bliss.

There was only chaos and destruction. Blood and bodies and carnage.

The exact type of carnage Silas and I had every intention of inflicting as I gave him an update about what I found on his younger sister, Elena.

He’d come to me about a week ago after he hadn’t heard from her in a few days. Asked me to get into her phone history to find out what was happening since hacking my way into people’s lives was my specialty.

I discovered she’d gotten involved with Kent Ellison, a piece of shit drug dealer Silas and I used to have ties with back when we ran with the Iron Owls MC.

Asshole was a twisted fuck who didn’t mind a little torture to get his way.

He’d tried to wrangle Silas and his new motorcycle club he established, Crimson Crows, into running pills across the country for him. When Silas refused, Kent apparently thought he was going to get his way using his favorite tactic, and he somehow lured Elena in.

The texts I found between them had been lurid, Elena falling prey to his game.

Now, no one had heard from her in a week.

Problem was, Silas hadn’t gotten a word from Kent, either.

No demands or terms had been given.

Uncertainty rolled through my consciousness.

I had no clue what the fuck Kent was up to.

“Can’t believe she’d get involved with him on her own accord,” Silas rambled, clearly distraught but also contemplating the same questions I was asking myself.

“Have a meeting with my crew tonight. Gonna grab a team and get in there ourselves to see what’s going on. We’ll get her back.”

Sovereign Sanctum was the one good part of me remaining. Our secret society that got women and children in extreme danger to safety. Took them under our wing and gave them new lives. Identities I created with a few strokes of my fingers.

It was my job.

Hacking into the digital footprint that everyone left behind.

Keeping tabs on the monsters who roamed this world. Then manipulating their reality into anything I wanted it to be.

Right then, I was itching to use my hands in a whole different way. The hacking I ached to do involving much sharper objects than a keyboard and screen. The violence I forever thirsted to enact winding my nerves into disorder.

“You’d better make sure I’m a part of that plan,” Silas warned.

I wanted to tell him no. Insist he wasn’t thinking straight. The hate and worry would only drive him to make mistakes. I knew firsthand how that shit went down. I also knew well enough there’d be no chance of keeping him away.

“Let me figure out a plan with my brothers, then we’ll ride.”

He hesitated, then asked, “You sure you want to take this on?”

We both knew this was risky.

“Absolutely.”

My life was sacrifice. I did whatever was required to protect the vulnerable.

A complete offering to Sovereign Sanctum.

Silas and his MC were under that umbrella. Our accomplices in arms, though their goals varied a bit from ours.

It went deeper than that for me. The need to crush the demons that roamed. The fucking twisted thrill I got when I did. The violence that burned inside me close to unbearable until the moment it was unleashed.

He blew out a strained sigh. “Can’t thank you enough for doing this. I can’t let anything happen to her…”

Pain bled into the last.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >174

Advertisement
Beyond the Blue Horizon (Moonlit Ridge #4) Read Online A.L. Jackson http://www.ilovenovels.com/beyond-the-blue-horizon-moonlit-ridge-4-read-online-a-l-jackson Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:52:27 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/beyond-the-blue-horizon-moonlit-ridge-4-read-online-a-l-jackson Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Suspense Authors: A.L. Jackson Series: Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >155

I should have known I’d break the promise I made when I found her stranded in a blizzard…
Feisty as hell and the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.
With the cutest kid and her grandmother in tow, she’s completely off limits.
I don’t get involved with women like that.
I learned long ago I don’t have the ability to love.
My life is sordid and danger is always hiding in the shadows.
Only I can’t turn my back on them when I realize she’s in trouble, and I insist on them staying in a cabin at the motel I own.
As penance for my sins, I promised my life to protecting others.
Except she becomes so much more.
A need I don’t recognize. A desperation that burns beneath my flesh.
One kiss, and I’m falling for her.
One touch, and I’m at her feet.
But when my dark past comes back to haunt me, I’m in a race against time to save the only woman I’ve ever loved. Only it may be the demons that have been chasing her that destroy what we built

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

ONE

THEO

“You have intel?” I asked into the Bluetooth as I wound my truck through the dense forest on my way back to Moonlit Ridge.

The sun had set about half an hour ago, and my headlights speared through the snow that came down in a blinding flurry from above. The gusts swirled in agitation as they blew through the trees that towered on all sides of the winding, two-lane road.

The storm wasn’t supposed to hit until later tonight, and I was thanking fuck that I was in my truck and not on my bike since I’d taken the three-hour trip into the city on a supply run.

Cash released a sigh that echoed through the cab’s speakers. It was the type of sound that warned I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “Piece of shit is definitely hunting. His search history shows he’s digging deep into ways someone might choose to make themselves disappear.”

And after years of abuse, that’s exactly what his wife, Alicia, had done. She’d packed up her daughter and disappeared.

Only she’d done it with the help of my crew, Sovereign Sanctum. Alicia and her daughter were currently staying at The Sanctuary, the motel I owned that we used as a cover for the women and children we helped start new lives.

Up to this point, our obscurity had been ironclad. Not one of those twisted fucks had ever found anyone that we kept protected, but I wasn’t about to get complacent.

“Think he knows she split, and their disappearance wasn’t due to nefarious circumstances,” Cash surmised.

“Only thing nefarious is that motherfucker.” It ground off my tongue as I focused out the windshield and took a sharp curve up the mountain, squinting as I tried to see through the blanket of white that clouded my vision.

Cash scoffed. “Such a good fucking guy out there in the media, pleading for the safe return of his wife and daughter.”

Fury clutched my chest, and I couldn’t stop what amounted to a growl that crawled up my throat.

Scumbag acting the victim after every atrocious act he’d inflicted.

Took everything I had not to go rogue and show up at the motherfucker’s house and put an end to his threat. Save Alicia and Lucy the fear that one day he might catch up to them.

But it wasn’t Sovereign Sanctum’s way.

Yeah, we protected—by any means necessary—and we’d put plenty of sick monsters six feet underground.

But violence only came as a last resort.

Too bad I was always itching to get violent.

“Don’t worry, brother,” Cash said. “Their tracks are buried. You know there’s no chance he’s going to find them. Just think as an extra precaution, we need to keep them sheltered at The Sanctuary for a bit longer before we get them to their new home. Gonna bring it to a vote at the meeting on Saturday, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on what I was thinking.”

Cash knew the way I got whenever I was sheltering someone at the motel.

Too fucking invested.

But I didn’t know how to be anything else.

Not after the sins I’d committed. Not after the way I’d ruined and destroyed.

This life was the only penance I had, and I planned on paying it completely.

“You know I have zero issue with that,” I grunted.

The longer they were at The Sanctuary, the longer I could guarantee they were safe.

“Figured as much.”

The powerful engine of my diesel truck roared as I maneuvered around a hard bend that cut through the deep, dense woods, the snowbank quickly gathering higher at the edge of the road.

With each second that passed, the terrain was becoming more and more treacherous.

“Sounds like a plan. Would guess the rest of our crew will be in agreement, but we’ll make it official on Saturday,” I told him.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >155

Advertisement
At the Edge of Surrender (Moonlit Ridge #3) Read Online A.L. Jackson http://www.ilovenovels.com/at-the-edge-of-surrender-moonlit-ridge-3-read-online-a-l-jackson Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:08:17 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/at-the-edge-of-surrender-moonlit-ridge-3-read-online-a-l-jackson Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Suspense Authors: A.L. Jackson Series: Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >157

A surprise single dad, small town romantic suspense…

I’m the last guy on the planet who should be a dad. My life is chaos. My sins written dark and deep.
So, imagine my surprise when my doorbell rings and I open it to find the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen standing on the other side.
And she’s holding the hand of a little girl who looks just like me.

Emery tells me her sister, the child’s mother, is dead.
I feel like dirt since she’s a woman I can hardly remember, and it’s no wonder Emery doesn’t trust that I’m worthy of caring for her niece.
But I can’t turn my back, and I insist on raising Maci.
So, we strike a deal—she’ll stay with me for one month to ensure the little girl is safe.

Emery tries to hate me for who I am, but neither of us can resist the attraction that blazes between us.
One brush of her hand, and she has me on my knees.
One kiss, and I’m falling fast.
Soon, we find ourselves tangled in my sheets.

But when it’s discovered her sister’s death wasn’t accidental, the secret life I’ve been living collides with the past Emery has tried to keep hidden.
And when the fiends come back to finish the job they started, I’m in a race against time to save the two people who I’ve come to love most

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

ONE

KANE

At close to midnight, Theo and I sat at one of the high-backed wooden booths at Twisted Moon Tavern.

A country song droned from the jukebox, and the dim lights hanging overhead cast lapping shadows over the hazy, dingy space.

Place was always fuckin’ quiet, which was why I preferred it whenever I wanted to have an actual conversation with my crew outside of our normal meeting place.

A conversation that had been coming for a long damned time.

Theo glanced around, making sure no one was in earshot as he leaned forward across the table. “You think we need to step in and intervene? Shake things up?”

Dude always looked like a coiled viper waiting to strike.

Black hair and even darker eyes. Arms and hands covered in tats. Tats that rolled up from the neckline of his black tee and fully wrapped around his throat.

In his case, appearances were not deceiving. The dude was fuckin’ deadly, just like the rest of us.

Taking a sip from my scotch, I warred with what to say, then I edged forward, my hand still wrapped around my tumbler as I rested it on the worn table.

“My gut tells me this extraction is going to be messy. I know River is still all in, but he’s got a family he needs to think about. We can’t sit here and pretend like the entire dynamic of our crew hasn’t shifted.”

River getting with Charleigh, and now Otto and Raven coming together.

The whole reason the rule had been made that we couldn’t get attached in the first place was because this shit was dangerous.

Fucking peril coming at us from every direction.

It wasn’t like I resented my brothers for going against one of our creeds.

It was just time we admitted it changed things. That the pact we’d made all those years ago no longer stood.

Rocking back in the booth, Theo canted his head to the side. “So what? You think it’s time to take a step back?”

My attention darted to the tattoo on the back of my left hand. It was the one that had two Ss sitting on top of each other. A dagger ran through them, top to bottom, and an eye was stamped in the middle.

It was identical to the one every member of Sovereign Sanctum had in the same spot, though mine had a wilting rose on top.

My chest clutched at the sight of it, at the mark I’d made of my greatest failure, and I squeezed that hand into a fist as I lifted my attention back to Theo. “Not a fuckin’ chance. Just think it’s time we switched things up. Stand in where we haven’t before.”

Each of us had our roles within our secret society. River’s was the one that normally put him in the line of fire. Dragged him down into the darkest pits of depravity.

But it wasn’t like every single one of us didn’t have blood on our hands.

Tainted in it from the beginning, even though the rest of my crew didn’t have a clue about my extracurricular activities. The lengths I went. The kind of shit I would never ask them to get involved in.

Something I had full intention of enacting next week considering some info I’d picked up about some scum working out of San Diego.

Awareness of what I was suggesting dawned on the blunt edges of Theo’s face. “You want to go instead.”

He didn’t even phrase it a question.

“Haven’t gotten dirty in a while.”

Okay, that was a blatant lie, but some things were better left in the dark.

“Seems only fair that I go up to bat.” I tacked a smirk onto it.

Theo chuckled a rough sound. “Oh, brother, think you’re plenty dirty.”

He jutted his chin out toward the murky film of Twisted Moon Tavern.

My latest acquisition.

Other than this one, I owned two other bars in this small town of Moonlit Ridge, plus the club dubbed in my namesake.

All of them were nothing but a cover.

Another avenue for running Sanctum’s money through.

It wasn’t like this dive was actually going to have any sort of profitability.

I let my gaze slide out to take in the place.

A handful of old guys were at the bar, drowning their miseries, basically permanent fixtures.

A younger group of four guys were standing around at the end of it. They were barely old enough to be in this bar and were nearing the point that they needed to be cut off.

Getting rowdy and obnoxious. Starting to fumble around as their voices grew in time.

Two booths on the opposite side of Theo and I were taken, one by two women who’d been there chatting for the last hour, and another with two middle-aged couples.

But it was the one woman sitting by herself at a high-topped round table near the front who snagged my attention.

She’d been there since I’d gotten here. Her back had remained turned toward me the entire time. An elbow on the table with her head downturned and concealed as she nursed the same drink she’d been sipping all night.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >157

Advertisement
Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge #2) Read Online A.L. Jackson http://www.ilovenovels.com/under-an-endless-moon-moonlit-ridge-2-read-online-a-l-jackson Sun, 02 Mar 2025 13:36:00 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/under-an-endless-moon-moonlit-ridge-2-read-online-a-l-jackson Genre: Alpha Male, Forbidden, Suspense Authors: A.L. Jackson Series: Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >158

I should have known I’d break the oath I made when I offered to let my best friend’s little sister move in with me…
She’s the sweetest woman on the face of the planet.
And to my great misfortune, the sexiest one, too.
She’s been living under her brother’s roof her entire life, and she’s ready to spread her wings.
And I’m the masochist who offers she stay at my place until she can find an apartment.
When I hear her having a nightmare, the only thing I can do is go to her. Hold her so she knows she’s safe from her demons.
The second she’s in my arms, the attraction I’ve tried to hide sparks to life. I know better than to push past the boundaries I’ve set for us, but when she begs me to touch her in a way she’s never been touched, I can’t resist.
And with my name on her lips as I send her soaring for the first time, I know there’s no going back.
I’m willing to break every rule and oath I’ve ever made to keep her.
Accept every consequence.
Only she and I have a dark, dangerous history that no one knows about.
And I’m afraid the consequences of loving her have just caught up to us…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

ONE

OTTO

“This one should be easy,” River said, though it sounded almost like a question as he glanced around at our crew.

We were down in the hidden basement at Kane’s, which was the most popular club in our small town of Moonlit Ridge.

The heavy thud of music seeped through the cracks, vibrating the ceiling and walls.

Down here where we were secreted away, the small space was dim and dingy, the single bulb that hung from the ceiling the only light in the room.

Five of us sat around the big circular table beneath it. My attention bounced around at every member of Sovereign Sanctum:

River, our leader.

Kane, our money launderer.

Theo, the protector.

Cash, our hacker.

Then there was me, the deliverer.

Tension was always tight whenever we met like this. You’d think that after doing this for close to ten years and the lives we led, it would have abated by now. But no, I could taste the apprehension that would forever leak from our spirits.

“No. I don’t foresee any problems,” I told him. “Everything is set.”

River shifted his attention to Theo. “You’re sure they’re ready for transport?”

He kept his voice low like someone was going to overhear when we were buried thirty feet below.

Angie and her two sons had been hidden away at The Sanctuary for two months. It was the motel Theo owned and ran, a cover since we used it as a transition house. A temporary place to shelter those who we were helping to give new lives while we figured out their permanent accommodations.

Theo gave a tight nod as he roughed a tatted hand through his shock of black hair.

“Yeah. Angie is still skittish, but I’m not sure that’s going to change any time soon,” he said.

“She’s been through it,” Kane agreed.

River turned his dark gaze to me. “Then it’s a go for you. Are you ready?”

Every one of us had a specific job. A task in our organization. Mine was to get them to their new homes. The one who was there when they went on their own.

I gave my crew a giant grin, playing light the way I did. “Always ready for it.”

Kane laughed with a shake of his head. Dude was covered in tats like the rest of us. But he still somehow came off a little more polished.

“You always take it on like you’re running a game,” he tossed at me.

“Only way to live life, isn’t it?” Especially when we never knew when it was going to come to an end. Had never had the illusion that I was going to make it to be an old man.

Might as well live fast and hard and to the extreme while I had the chance. Use up every second that I was given. I could almost feel the end coming up fast. A roil of hatred burned through me when I thought of what I’d discovered. Finally picking up the scent of the motherfuckers I’d been hunting for the last seven years.

I glanced at my left hand where two stacked Ss were tattooed with an eye in the middle of them. A broken, mangled heart sat atop the dagger that ran it through. I flexed my hand, trying to quell the rage, to tamp it down and save it for when I could use it.

Vengeance was coming and it was coming soon.

I forced myself back into my typical casualness when River grunted at me. My best friend was nothing but a grumpy asshole, though he’d softened a bit since his girl, Charleigh, had come into his life.

“Want you to be careful,” he warned.

I rocked my massive frame back in the wooden chair. “When have I not been careful?”

Kane scoffed a mocking sound. “Says the guy who runs straight into danger like he’s looking for it.”

I shrugged with a smirk. “When duty calls.”

Everyone else was grinning, too.

All except for Cash who basically glared at me from across the table. Dude never said much, anyway, so it wasn’t like it set off any alarm bells for the rest of the crew, but I knew exactly what he was thinking.

I beat down the rash of unease and instead glanced around at the rest. “Are we good, then? This boy is ready to get back upstairs and have a little bit of fun.”

Theo chuckled. “Not sure a little bit is in your vocabulary.”

“He’s going to have to play it cool tonight. He has a big job ahead of him tomorrow night,” River said like he was my mother telling me not to stay up too late because I had a test in the morning.

“I’ll be sure to be in bed by midnight, Mommy,” I razzed.

It was already twelve-thirty, but what the hell ever.

His annoyance couldn’t blot out the amusement, but then he was sobering as he said, “Be safe, brother.”

My head dipped, and I tried to beat back the guilt that wanted to surface. “Always.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >158

Advertisement
From Here to Eternity (Moonlit Ridge #1) Read Online A.L. Jackson http://www.ilovenovels.com/from-here-to-eternity-moonlit-ridge-1-read-online-a-l-jackson Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:04:36 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/from-here-to-eternity-moonlit-ridge-1-read-online-a-l-jackson Genre: Alpha Male, Biker, Dark, MC, Suspense Authors: A.L. Jackson Series: Moonlit Ridge Series by A.L. Jackson
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >135

I should have known everything was going to change when she walked into my tattoo shop...
Timid as hell and gorgeous to the extreme. I knew better than even thinking about touching a woman like that.
My life is dangerous.
My calling wicked.
Willing to cross any line to protect the innocent.
I thought I’d never see her again until my little boy tumbled and busted his lip, and I found her working at the doctor’s office.
The woman who’d taken possession of my thoughts.
When it becomes clear she’s in trouble, I offer up a deal.
Twenty questions to earn her trust.
Too bad trusting me is the last thing she should do.
With one kiss, I’m addicted. With one night, we’re falling into a passion greater than either of us has ever known.
The voices in my head warn I can never keep her. She can’t know the secret life I lead.
Only she’s keeping a secret, too.
And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, even if it means losing everything…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

ONE

RIVER

The sound of the tattoo machine whirred in my shop. The day had long since set, and darkness closed in at the windows. The light in my station shined bright, illuminating the enclosed area as I worked a fucking immaculate piece onto my client’s shoulder.

It was close to ten, but I tended to make my appointments late when it was quiet out and there were fewer people loitering around.

I leaned in close and concentrated on getting the shading just right. It just so happened my client was also one of my oldest friends, Trent Lawson. He was on his fourth session where we were working on covering an old skull with a portrait of his wife.

“Piece is going to be fuckin’ sweet,” I told him as I paused for a second to wipe up the excess ink and blood seeping from the design.

He tossed me an arrogant grin from where he sat in my chair. “That’s because my Eden is fuckin’ sweet. Couldn’t turn out any other way…” He arched a flippant brow. “Unless your ass jacks up her pretty face.”

A rough chuckle skated out of me as I leaned back in and started sweeping the needle across his skin. “Think you wouldn’t be sitting in my chair if you thought there was a chance of that.” I’d been tattooing Trent for years. Since all the way back when we were both running the streets of LA.

Dude was covered now, head to toe, and almost every tattoo on his body was compliments of me.

He was a few years older than me, and me and a couple of my crew had ridden with his MC back in the day.

He’d saved my ass a time or two, same as I’d saved his. It was the way of that life, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t owe him mine, and he was one of the few I trusted with it.

He was also one of the few outside my inner circle who knew the true details about who I and my crew had become. What we did.

My shop, River of Ink, was little more than a cover for it, even though I had a two-year waitlist for someone to get the chance to sit in my chair.

I loved my work and took pride in the fact people came from all around the world for a chance to get inked by me. Tattooing was my peace. The only time when my mind would drift and some of the anxiety that knotted my guts would drain away. When the ghosts didn’t scream so loud.

Somehow, the constant flow of the needle bringing art to life gave me a moment of reprieve.

Completely unearned considering I deserved none of that.

Peace.

Not when I was a purveyor of destruction. An agent of ruin.

Sometimes I wondered what kind of person it made me that I didn’t feel an ounce of shame over the blood on my hands. My soul tainted and my heart stained.

When I’d confided in Trent what was going down, he’d encouraged us to make our way up here to Northern California where we could live low. Hide out and fly under the radar.

Moonlit Ridge was a small town about an hour outside of Redemption Hills where Trent and his family lived.

Angling my head, I focused on a deeper pass as I worked to get a lock of her hair just right.

Eden was a fucking knockout and a sweetheart to boot. Didn’t blame him a bit for immortalizing her on his skin.

Trent winced.

“You goin’ soft on me?” I razzed.

Ridiculous since the guy was intimidating as fuck. There wasn’t a goddamn thing soft about him.

He grunted. “You fuckin’ wish, man. Think you’re just getting a little aggressive with that heavy hand.”

Amusement had me shaking my head.

“Don’t know, brother…you are getting old.”

He grunted again. “As long as I’m doing it with Eden, Gage, and Kate at my side, then you won’t find me complaining.”

“Have to admit, family life looks good on you,” I said, meaning it. Dude had been nothing but a beast before he’d met his wife.

Air huffed from his nose. “Blows my mind every day that I got lucky enough to call them that, so you can bet your ass I’ll never squander it.”

He hesitated before his tone shifted. “What about you? How are you guys…handling things?”

Unease rippled through my consciousness. Made me fuckin’ itchy when it was brought up in a setting like this, but Trent would always have my back, dude more like family than anything else.

Betrayal wasn’t in his vocabulary.

“Otto is delivering a package as we speak,” I told him.

There were five in my crew. Years ago, we’d become brothers, even though we didn’t have the same blood running through our veins.

The five of us had made a pact. We lived on that pact, and we’d die on it, too. Each of us with different responsibilities although the mission was the same.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >135