Read BULL: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 6) Online
Authors: Samantha Leal
Andrea eventually slept, for when she finally awoke the rain was lashing down at the window. She was also not alone; Helena was standing at the foot of her bed looking like death herself, dressed in a long black habit.
“I am glad to see that you have had a good night. I am surprised; the doctor thought that you might lose the child again. I have brought you some breakfast to keep up your strength. Some beef tea and bread will do you good, now let me help you.”
Her hand reached under the pillow. The little vial had gone. Her heart started to beat fast as Helena sat by her side and started to pick up the spoon.
“What is wrong, my dear? You look like you have lost something. Now drink some of this, it will do you good.”
Andrea had no choice; if she struggled, then Helena would force her. They were both playing a dangerous game, and Helena currently held the upper hand. Her only hope lay in the hands of Geraldina.
Soon the beef tea was all gone and Helena smiled as she proffered the last spoonful.
“There, all done. Now I will leave you to rest. I have told the other nuns not to disturb you today. I will lock the door and take away the key, just to make sure you rest in peace.”
The key turned in the lock and the sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor until all was still. Was this to be her final fate?
After half an hour, the fever and the pains started anew and within an hour she was almost unconscious with the pain. Her mind kept blanking out, but she concentrated on the pain to keep her awake. The little song kept playing round and round in her head:
Long ago and far away
I dreamed a dream one day
And now that dream is here beside me.
The words came and went as she tried to sing them out loud, tried to remember the tune that the little nun had sung.
Her heart was beating fast, and her breath was rasping in her throat. So this was the end. She thought of Steve and New York, of her Grandma Betty, and of Alex.
Her eyes began to mist. Death was pulling her towards eternal sleep, and there was nothing she could do. As her senses began to shut down, she was aware of a commotion around her. The door had opened and a shadowy figure was in the room. Maybe it was Death paying her a personal visit? But the face was real. It was Alex; he had returned. He was shouting something out loud to another figure behind him.
“What have you done? What have you done?” His voice was desperate.
Soon she could feel a strong arm around her, sitting her up, shaking her, trying to restore life, but it was too late—she was slowly breaking down. The last thing she remembered was a small stone being thrust into her hand before all went black.
At 30,000 feet in the air, it all came flooding back to her. Geraldine MacDonald had found her that morning slumped over a grave in the little Chapel of St. Oran. She had been overdoing it lately, and the stress had taken its toll. Once she was feeling quite well again, the old woman had given her a book on the genealogy of the McDonald clan and not wanting to be rude, she had taken it along with her name and address and telephone number, just in case she happened to be in the area again.
At first she had tried to sleep. She had an aisle seat and was at least able to stretch out her legs. Yet every time she almost dozed off, vivid dreams and imaginings would wake her up. She looked in her carry-on bag. She had nothing to read except the book Geraldine had given her so she casually flicked through the pages to pass the time. On the third page she paused as she read the name of Alexhander McDonald. Her heart stopped as the memories came flooding back in every detail. Surely it had been just a terrible dream, brought on by her grieving state? Maybe she had been influenced by her grandma’s diary. She had always had an active imagination.
She looked at the family tree spread out in the middle pages of the book. There was Alexhander McDonald, married to Andra in 1642. They had a child, Alexhander (dead) in 1644, and another, a girl in 1645. There were no dates of death, only question marks against the entries. The history books couldn’t tell her everything.
Andrea put a hand against her stomach, remembering the pregnancy. Could it be that she was expecting? She had been sick that morning when she returned to the hotel, and she still felt a little queasy. Deep inside her, it all started to make sense. If it had been just a dream, then she wouldn’t be feeling so strongly. Alex had come through for her in the end, just at the right moment. She fished out the small rune from her jeans pocket and held it in her hand. This tiny object connected her past and present; it was her link to the one man she loved and would return to.
In the dark room of the nunnery, Alex McDonald held onto the still, warm body of his beloved Andra. The dawn had just started to break, and a weak sun was rising above the mist. He knew that she was safe and that she would come back to him. As long as he kept holding her, she would not die. Their love was eternal.
THE END
This story continues in “The Highland Dream”.
A Forsaken Riders Standalone MC Romance
Book 5
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2016 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
Prologue
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She sat in the car and looked over the wheel towards the back door of the club. She had been going there every day for a few months, but she still couldn’t get her head around the fact that she was in so much danger, and what she was putting herself through for these men.
When she had come to town, she hadn’t expected to be swept up under their wing… But it had kind of just happened… And now she was paying the price.
She swallowed and looked down at her hands and realized they were shaking. They hadn’t told her anything, but she could sense that something big was about to happen… Something so big, she almost didn’t dare go back inside.
“Pull yourself together,” she coached herself. “There is no other way now… You’re in too deep.”
She clicked open the driver’s door and stepped out into the dusty night. Her heels were high and she tottered on them as she made her way to the back door. She’d been in there for hours already, but she’d had to take a break. She couldn’t face having another one in the dressing room, pretending to enjoy the environment that came with strip clubs, it just wasn’t for her. And now Candy had disappeared on her, she was the one having to do the majority of the stage shows. She’d only agreed to go and work there as a fucking barmaid… And now she was up shaking it for a room full of bikers and truckers. It made her feel sick.
She clip clopped down the dark hallway to the dressing room and went inside. She sat down and looked in the mirror. Her hair was glossy and so were her lips, but she slicked on more red shimmer anyways.
“You can never be too pretty,” she joked with herself.
The music was rumbling through the floorboards and she knew Marv would come back there and kick her ass if she didn’t get out front soon… But it was so quiet… And the only man in the audience happened to be someone she knew quite well… And someone who was making her nervous as Hell. She wanted to give him a good show, but she knew that the fact he was there only meant one thing.
Tonight was the night.
She bit the corner of her nail, looked up at the ceiling and sighed. She was going to have to get on with it.
She stood up tall and proud, shook out her shoulders and marched out of the changing room and towards the door to the bar. Whatever was coming her way, she would have to handle it…
Around half an hour later, she dashed back down towards the dressing room and grabbed her purse. Her heels were hurting her and she couldn’t bear to wear them anymore. She kicked them off and they clattered across the floor and hit the wall on the other side. It made her jump, but nothing as much as what came next…
As she grabbed the last bits of her belongings and turned to head back towards the hallway where she would run out to her car, she heard the shouting from the club room. She heard Marv asking what the hell was going on and then she saw them… They were walking sternly towards her, they’d come in through the back door… She hadn’t locked it after her break, like she’d been coached to do… But now it was all unfolding, she didn’t want to be here. She shouldn’t have been a part of this.
“Get out of here Destiny,” Cody snarled at her as he passed by… A huge shotgun clamped between his hands. “Go back to the house, NOW.”
She was trembling and her mind was a blur. She ran past them all and out of the back door, into the parking lot at the back of Red X and into the night. Her car was waiting and as she scrambled for the keys she heard the first shots go off. Her heart was hammering and she screamed as the shots got louder and the panic set in.
She had to get out of there.
People were dying.
She slammed the door behind her and started the ignition. As she tore out of the parking lot and down the highway back toward Ironhill she knew that nothing was ever going to be the same. Now she was in debt to two clubs… And the question was, who was going to destroy her first…
The memories of that night still haunted her, even now. Sometimes she would wake in a cold sweat at night and sit bolt upright and look around, checking herself all over to ensure she wasn’t full of bullet holes and covered in blood.
Ever since she had been dragged into this mess, she had been longing for a way out. She wanted someone to find her, to storm into the house in the middle of the night, pick her up, throw her over their shoulder and run away with her. But that was never going to happen. Because no one knew what a state she was in. No one knew what was happening to her within those four walls of the Iron Riders Club House.
She looked up at the moon through the skylight as she lay back on her bed and prayed. If she hadn’t been so desperate for a place to call home, maybe she would have never gotten herself in so much trouble in the first place. But there was no going back now. She was wanted… If she left Ironhill… She was sure to be killed.
It was a ridiculous thought even to her, but she was safest where she was. She had to pick the lesser of two evils. And even though she was still trying to figure out which ultimately posed more of a threat, at least she could try and stay out of harm’s way in the meantime.
She kept on staring at the moon and her vision started to go blurred. The white ball bled out and fuzzed into nothing. She blinked and wiped her eyes. She knew there was no chance of sleep. Even though she was exhausted, she had spent most nights lying awake and worrying since it had all happened. She always felt on high alert, as if at any moment something bad could happen. Even with the bikers in the same house, she knew the men of the Iron Riders were no match for the Forsaken. She had seen the honor that ran through
those
men… and she knew that in some way, all of the people connected to the gang in Ironhill were done for. The Forsaken would be out for blood.
She rolled over and sighed. The clock on her nightstand told her it was approaching 3am. Elsewhere in the house she could hear the dull chatter of growling men’s voices and, she was sure, the odd grunt and groan of one of them with a woman. At least she was being left alone. Levitt was out somewhere and would no doubt be too drunk to trouble her when he got back. She pulled her pillow on top of her head and around her ears. It was going to be a long night. But hopefully, somewhere along the line, she would find some sleep.
***
Her alarm blasted to life at 7am sharp and Destiny jumped up, covered in a slick film of cold sweat. She had been dreaming again. She had no idea what time she had finally drifted off, but the birds had been singing and the sun was rising. She could have only had around an hour’s sleep, max. She rubbed her forehead. A dull headache spread out across her temples and around to the base of her neck. She had been having them more regularly. She had begged Levitt to take her to the hospital but he’d refused. One afternoon it had been so bad that her vision was blurred and she had almost passed out. When Lev finally took her, the doctor had said they weren’t migraines, but rather stress and anxiety related. She had wound herself up into such a tight coil, her own body was now trying to destroy her.
“Oh great,” she’d smiled with a sigh.
The doctor had told her to get plenty of rest and for Lev to wait on her hand and food. Destiny had smiled and nodded, even though she knew that that would be the last thing he would have on his mind. There was no way he was going to look after her… Her job was to look after him, or so he said.
“Fucking quack,” he’d said through a billow of smoke as he climbed onto his bike and pulled her onto the back behind him. “Who needs rest…” He started the engine and Destiny had wrapped her arms around him, just like she did every time, and then they had flown off down the dusty roads and back to Ironhill MC.
As she sat in bed and listened to the country drawl of the singer coming out of the radio, she remembered back to that day at the hospital. Things had been so tense for her, it had made perfect sense when the doctor had told her it was stress and anxiety. Ever since
that night,
when the Iron Riders had stormed Red X and changed everything, she had been getting gradually more stressed and frightened. She had been put in an impossible situation and guilt was wracking her bones. She regularly thought back to the people she had met in Slate Springs, and she felt as if she had betrayed them terribly, even if it had been against her will.
She yawned and rubbed her temples again. She used the breathing technique she had found on the internet to help reduce tension and a possible anxiety attack, and then she swung her feet over the side of the mattress and stepped over to the window.
The day was already bright and hot, but on the horizon there was a dark gray cloud rolling in. She watched it for a moment and found herself drifting into a trance. The air was thick with humidity, so maybe a storm wouldn’t be such a bad thing, it would be good for their little spot in the desert to have a good cleanse. It would help her feel refreshed and ready to start the day.
She grabbed a towel and wandered over to the corner of the bedroom where, through a door, was a small shower room. As she turned on the faucet and stepped under the ice cold jets she gasped and then laughed as it began to warm up. It wasn’t until then as she lathered her hair that she realized there was still no sign of Levitt. She rolled her eyes and just hoped he hadn’t been out all night getting so steaming drunk he would be in the mood for fighting or loving… She just needed to be left alone.
She dressed quickly, applied her make-up and twisted up her hair in a ponytail. As she headed out of the bedroom and out into the hallway she could hear the buzz of the men downstairs and already the smell of bacon and booze drifting up to meet her.
As she reached the bottom floor she waited for a moment and looked into the darkened front room. The shutters were drawn and in the half light she could see him there, dozing with a bottle of beer still being gripped by his rough hands.
It was Lev alright… Passed out drunk as always…