Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2)
Read Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) Online
Authors: Morgana Phoenix,Airicka Phoenix
Tags: #Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Paranormal, #Romance > Paranormal, #Romance > Science Fiction, #Romance > Fantasy, #new adult
By Morgana Phoenix
Gideon’s Promise ©2015 by Airicka Phoenix
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his book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the copyright owner and/or the publisher of this book, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Editor: Kathy Eccleston
Beta Readers: Jaime Radalyac & Krystal Marlein
Illustrator: Airicka’s Mystical Creations
Interior Design & Formatting: Airicka Phoenix
ISBN-13: 978-1505682021
ISBN-10: 1505682029
Published by Airicka Phoenix
Also available in eBook and paperback publication
As Airicka Phoenix
Games of Fire
Betraying Innocence
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TOUCH SAGA
Touching Eternity
Touching Smoke
Touching Fire
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THE LOST GIRL SERIES
Finding Kia
Revealing Kia
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REGENERATION SERIES
When Night Falls
THE BABY SAGA
Forever His Baby
Bye-Bye Baby
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IN THE DARK SERIES
My Soul For You
Kissing Trouble
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SONS OF JUDGMENT SAGA
Octavian’s Undoing
To the girls of AKT
Part I
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here were three things a smart man ought never to say to a woman, especially when that woman collected sharp, deadly instruments the way most women collected shoes. But then no one would ever accuse Gideon Maxwell of being a smart man. He was a man of action first, consequences second, and retaliation when it counted third. Besides, anyone watching could clearly see he’d been provoked. Practically framed.
Women were such conniving creatures.
Next to him, shifting uneasily as they were closed in from all sides by no less than two dozen heavily armed bikers, Regulus cleared his throat.
“Maybe we should leave.”
Oh hell no, he wasn’t leaving. She wanted to play, well, baby, he would play.
Gideon cracked all ten fingers and eyed the crowd with a glint of challenge in his eyes. He smirked coldly at the woman on the other side, perched on a stool at the bar, long, leather clad legs crossed in a way that was sure to send a man’s blood roaring. She raised the martini glass in her hand in a sort of salute before bringing it to her red lips.
Oh, it was so on.
“Gentlemen,” he spread his hands, but there was nothing peaceful about the gesture. “Return to your drinks and save yourselves a beating.”
A few snickered, stupid for not taking his fair warning seriously.
Ah well, he tried.
He swung.
The initial crack of bone on bone stilled the room for as long as it took for the others to watch as their companion’s entire body went soaring as though weightless and slam to the ground a full three feet away in an unconscious heap. Then the madness struck in a full blown cacophony of rage.
Vaguely, he heard Reggie swear, but everything was lost in a war of flying fists and battle cries.
Gideon was in his element.
With every slam of his knuckles into flesh and meat, it sang up his arms in a sweet rush of bloodlust. Octavian would have his head for letting his temper rule his better judgment, but in that moment, there was nothing but the freeing sensation of proving a point. In all honesty, if anyone was to blame, it was the vixen at the bar, watching the brawl with quiet deliberation. She was his main focus, the reason he was making a clear path across the room. She was responsible for letting the beast out.
A dirty uppercut got him in the gut and sent splinters of pain and fury shooting up into his lungs. He doubled over, his breath escaping in a snarl. His fingers curled even as the cackling chuckle of his opponent reached his ear over the din.
Gideon straightened. He turned his body to scrutinize the hulk of a man looming a good foot taller than him, which was an impressive fact considering Gideon was six-three.
The man leered around yellow, rotted teeth. He stood the way men stood when they were so sure they’d won, with confidence a shiny cloak draped over their shoulders. His broad shoulders were braced with his wide stance. At his sides, his ham-sized fists were clenched. The veins along his forearms rippled, making the snake tattoo wrapped up each arm wiggle. Asshat had no idea that Gideon fought things bigger and stronger than him on a daily basis, which was why, when Gideon backhanded him, holding nothing back, he flew into a cluster of tables as though he weighed no more than a small child.
That seemed to calm the natives. Everyone in the room stopped. They turned to watch as the man fought to untangle himself from the mess of splintered pieces of wood. A nasty flow of blood gushed from his nostrils and trickled down to mix with the gash in his bottom lip. It all oozed down to color the front of his blue t-shirt.
“I would really stay down,” Gideon warned him when he hefted his heavy frame to his unsteady feet.
“Gideon...”
He ignored the warning in Reggie’s tone.
His hands curled at his sides. His feet braced. He waited for the bull to charge and wasn’t disappointed.
With a vicious roar, the gorilla charged.
Ready for him, Gideon twisted his body, hooked his arm around the back of the man’s neck and flipped him seamlessly. They both went down in a glorious crash of shattering glass and splintering wood.
Wrenching around, he locked both arms around the man’s throat even as the bigger man thrashed and tried to throw Gideon off. It took no time at all to incapacitate him, even with all his struggling. It would have been just as simple to snap his damn neck. But despite the fight, Gideon wasn’t actually allowed to hurt humans. And technically, he hadn’t started it. If anything, he was defending himself. After all, it had been two against twenty four. Hardly a fair fight; the humans never stood a chance.
“Gideon!”
Reggie, looking only slightly tussled, surged forward, probably to try and drag Gideon off the ox. But Gideon had already let go and was getting to his feet, dusting himself off.
“I’m done,” he told his brother as he yanked down the collar of his favorite coat. The worn leather gave a familiar, comforting rustle.
He faced the rest of the room, surveying the faces more than the damage, which was immense. When no one made a move towards him, or Reggie, Gideon grinned inwardly and moved to the cause of all his problems.
Valkyrie Devereaux watched him, her blue eyes bright against the smooth, pale contour of her breathtaking features. Her hair was down, spilling in a sleek, dark sheet around her bare shoulders and over the leather vest-type top she wore that delved deep between her breasts and left her stomach bare. The ends curled at her hips, just inches from where her waistband began. Blasted woman was clad entirely in leather, his number one weakness. There were times he wondered if she did it just to torment him. It was a very real possibility. Most everything she did was for the sole purpose of driving him insane so it wouldn’t have surprised him.
“Enjoy the show?”
He stopped a safe two feet from her. Any closer he couldn’t be trusted not to grab her and ... he gritted his jaw.
She took a casual sip of her drink, those unfathomable baby blues watching him over the rim. Then she ran the tip of her pink tongue over her upper lip and Gideon had to fight not to shatter his teeth when they creaked under the force of his resolve. It took a lot of willpower
not
to do something insane, like groan.
“Hardly.” She set her glass down on the bar. “You’re still here.”
His feet moved without a single shred of consent from his brain. He closed in on her personal space, trapping her with an arm on either side of her, caging her between the bar and his body. And even as every bit of common sense in his head screamed for him to back away, he found himself leaning even closer still.
Damn if she didn’t smell like sin, forbidden and delicious.
“Baby, I am
always
going to be here.” His traitorous gaze dropped to her mouth, full and red. “Like it or not,” he followed the smooth curves of her pink cheeks to anchor in the deep oceans of her eyes. “You’re stuck with me.”
Maybe it was because he was mere inches from her, or maybe it was because he was falling so deeply into her eyes, but he didn’t miss the pulse of her irises, nor did he miss her sharp intake of air.
His fingernails gouged into the scarred wood as that single sound slammed square into his chest.
He could kiss her. Damn if he didn’t want to. He wasn’t stupid enough to deny it. But he was also not stupid enough to actually do it. Not only would she probably gut him with the daggers she carried in her sky-high boots, but he knew who she was, knew what she represented, and that scared the holy fuck out of him.
Instead, he shoved away from her, finding a small ounce of sense and grinned at her with much more arrogance than he felt.
“Better luck next time.”
With a wink he knew would get him slapped, he whirled on his heels and marched back to where Reggie stood, waiting for him with a deep scowl of disapproval.