Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (20 page)
Read Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) Online
Authors: Ashley Rhodes
Finally, blessedly, she stopped talking, and Rush knew that this was his chance to seize the day. To seize his chance at happiness.
“Hannah Blue Wright,” he said, taking her hands into his and she scooted closer to him and his heart almost stopped beating because she was just too fucking beautiful for words but he had to keep talking and not just stare at her like a blithering idiot, “I love you. I will love you to the ends of the earth. I told you that I wanted you to leave tomorrow because I couldn’t handle the pain of watching you and Isabel together, knowing that I couldn’t have you in my life. It was just too fucking much.
“But if you’ll have me,” he raised her knuckles to his lips and softly kissed them, “I want to marry you. I want to stand up in front of family and friends and the whole goddamn world and tell them all how much I motherfucking love you.” She snorted with laughter and he grinned at her and said, “I sure know how to romance a girl.”
“It’s amazing you aren’t married already,” she agreed drily.
“Fucking miracle, really.”
His demeanor grew more serious and he said, “I don’t really know Isabel, but based on the strength of your love for her, I can only believe that I will love her too. I know that some men can only love their own biological children, but John and Suzi loved me more than I was ever loved by my own biological parents. I’d be honored to pass that legacy on to our own children - to teach them to love regardless of blood relationship.
“I want you and Isabel and even my goddamn traitorous dog in my life for always. I want to wake up next to you and have Isabel jump on the bed and feed Turbo her vegetables under the table and take a family trip to New York and buy a fridge just to hold Isabel’s cheese and make love to you every single fucking morning for the rest of our lives.
“If you’ll have me.”
“Yes!” she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. “Yes, I will marry you.” And then for a third time that day, she cried.
But this time, they were happy tears.
"Some stuck up New York reporter coming down here to get all up in our shit...that's the last goddamn thing I need..."
Ella
Lain Abernathy is an arrogant, emotionally stunted asshole. The fact that he's the hottest guy I've ever laid eyes on is neither here nor there - I'm stuck with him babysitting me for a whole freakin' week while I try and get a story on his gang, the
Blue Devils MC
, and Lain seems determined to make my life as difficult as possible. To make matters worse, this Arizona desert heat makes it feel like I've stepped right into hell...
But when I discover that Brock, the Blue Devil’s leader and Lain's childhood best friend, has made a deal with Mexican sex traffickers, I know that this story isn't just a puff piece anymore. The deeper in I get, the more dangerous things become, and the more I rely on Lain to keep me safe.
Everything about him is danger...I shouldn't want him, and I
don't
need him. Trouble is, I just can't help myself...
Lain
As soon as Brock told me she was coming, I knew she was going to be trouble. I don't know why the fuck he invited a reporter down to do some stupid piece on us the week of a huge guns deal with the
Chupacabras
, but I do know that somehow I've landed the job of babysitting this entitled New York hack.
There's just one problem...she's hot. Curves in ALL the right places and legs that just don't quit. And while her accent is like nails on a chalkboard, what she's saying to me is making me question all my preconceptions about her.
When she discovers what Brock is really up to with the
Chupacabras
, I know that things are over between him and me. I need to take back control of the Blue Devils, but Brock ain't gonna go down without a fight.
As for Ella...she'll be mine, even if she doesn't know it yet.
***Lain is the first book in the new Blue Devils MC series. It's a SAFE standalone romance with no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed HEA.***
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
~ Lain ~
“What the fuck, Brock!” Lain yelled, feeling anger welling up inside of him, wiping out his self-control. He stared at his leader, breathing heavily. This had to be one of Brock’s worst ideas, and really, that was saying somethin’. Ever since Brock had taken over the Blue Devils as President, he’d been pushing the MC farther and farther into the gray zone of legality.
But this…unlike Brock’s other awful ideas, this one was completely legal.
It was also completely stupid.
“You don’t have to worry about it at all, ‘cause you’re not gonna have anything to do with it. I just told you ‘cause you’re the Veep, and I figured you ought to know before I told everyone else. But she’s gonna come, take a bunch of pictures of me, interview me, follow me around for a bit so she knows what it’s like to be a
real
outlaw gang member, and then she’s going to go back home to her New York City apartment and her stupid ‘How do I know he loves me?’ articles. She wouldn’t know which end of the gun to hold, and she sure as hell isn’t going to figure out anything that
I
,” Brock stabbed himself in the chest for emphasis, his ice-cold blue eyes flashing with anger, “don’t tell her. She’s gonna be gone by time the gun deal goes down with the
Chupacabra
gang - she won’t even know it’s happening.
“She writes for
Pout
Magazine
for God’s sake. The only thing she knows about is how to match your lipstick to your dress.” Brock was breathing heavily by the end of his rant; Lain and Brock were eye to eye. Lain had the almost overwhelming desire to drive his fist into Brock’s nose. Maybe getting his ass kicked would cause Brock to wake up and smell the coffee.
No matter how spoiled, how dumbass, how ignorant a reporter was,
she was still a reporter
, and you just didn’t invite one of those to come hang out with an outlaw MC the week before a major, oh-so-very-illegal gun deal went down. Brock might as well stand out on the street corner with a sign that said, “Arrest me, I’m breaking the law!”; although, to be fair, even if he did do that, he still wouldn’t get arrested. There were benefits to having the local cops in your back pocket.
Fffuuucccckkkkk…
Lain knew from long experience that Brock wasn’t going to back down. No matter how stupid the idea, once Brock got it into his head that this was the way it was going to be, there was no changing his mind. Limestone boulders were more flexible than Brock when he’d decided on something.
“Fine,” Lain spat out and backed away. The tension in the room instantly dissipated. “As long as
you’re
her designated babysitter, do whatever the hell you want. You always do.”
Lain turned to walk away - a round of Jack Daniels sounded about right at that moment - but Brock stopped him. “I want you to check up on the ride with Chili - make sure that everything is ready to go. We’ve only got 10 days ’til the fundraiser and we can’t drop the ball on this. Not with a national reporter here. Make sure he has the beer sponsorship with Budweiser wrapped up - last I heard, they were a little squeamish about the size of their logo on our banners. Don’t let Chili fuck this up.”
“If this goes sideways, it won’t be on Chili’s head,” Lain said without looking back, and walked out of the chapel slamming the door behind him.
Yeah, a Jack and Coke sounded about right.
~ Ella ~
“What the fuck, Dan!” Ella yelled, staring down at her boss, her hands planted on his desk. “You can’t — I can’t —” She collapsed into a chair and stared across the desk at her magazine editor. Surely this was some kind of joke. Arizona in
July
…She wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy.
“You know how big ‘Sons of Anarchy’ has gotten,” he said, placating. He was her boss so
of fucking course
he’d win this argument, but his smug attitude didn’t help his cause. She gritted her teeth in frustration.
No, she
didn’t
know how big ‘Sons of Anarchy’ had gotten. She’d only watched it a couple of times - it always seemed to fall on a night when she had to stay late for work. How the fuck was she supposed to write about a motorcycle gang?
Dan continued on, oblivious as always.
“Our readers want to know if real outlaw motorcycle members are like Jax, or if that’s just Hollywood being Hollywood. Brock is an old high school friend - he was a little younger than me - and he’s the president of the Blue Devils. He’s fucking hot, and our readers will just eat him up. The Blue Devils are not
really
an outlaw club - they don’t do anything but have picnics, work on their bikes, and host charity fundraisers. But we want to show off their sex appeal to our readers.
‘Bikers with a heart,’” he said dramatically, forming a title in the air with his hands. He looked at her and grinned. “We can sell them on being
good
bad boys. Our sales will go through the roof.”
“Can’t they go through the roof in December?” Ella argued. She knew he was going to say no, but dammit, she couldn’t go down without a fight.
“C’mon, Ella, you know as well as I do that readers are fickle. By December, it could be ‘Sons of Who?’ We can’t risk that.”
“Are they really as tame as you say they are? I mean, everyone knows that motorcycle gangs are scary. How do you know you’re not sending me into the middle of a drug war or something?”
“Hell no. Brock is as tame as they come. I mean, he’s got these amazing eyes, and these biceps to die for—” Dan closed his eyes, apparently remembering the biceps in great detail, “—but seriously, the guy wouldn’t hurt a fly. I grew up with him. He was like four years younger but even back then, I knew he’d be a hottie with a naughty body.” He winked at her. “And now you get to go do a photoshoot of that body! So jealous.
“You’ll hang out for a week, get the inside scoop on a day in the life of a motorcycle gang leader, take some drool-worthy photos, and be back before you know it.”
Ffffuuuccckkkkkkk
…
Ella was sure that if she had to write an article entitled “Top Ten Places on Earth That Make You Believe in Hell,” Copper Lode, Arizona would be right up there, along with the Sahara and Death Valley. Maybe she’d write a quiz while she was there on “How to Know Where You Should Live.” One of the choices could be “I like to sweat my ass off - I’m an idiot!” and that’d give you the answer that you should take up residence next to a saguaro cactus.
“Fine,” she grumbled. It was easier to just give in. Well, at least it sped the process along anyway. “Next Monday?”
“Yeah, you fly out of JFK at 9:30 and get to Phoenix around noon their time. Someone from Blue Devils will be there to pick you up. I have tickets down in accounting, waiting for you. Don’t worry, you’ll have fun.” He gave her a lascivious wink and she only just managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes.
She stood up, the discussion clearly over. As usual, Dan had won. No surprises there. She walked down to accounting to pick up her tickets. Might as well get the planning shit out of the way.
Arizona in July
.
She didn’t know what she’d done to piss God off, but it must’ve been a hell of a whopper.