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