Dark Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 6) (25 page)

He glanced down at her sleeping face, and suddenly, he found his hand on her stomach again. Cradling their child, protecting them with his own body, holding them in the palm of his hand. He hadn’t even met this tiny person yet, and he already loved them, loved them with everything that he had.

And that was when he knew that his thinking was way wrong, and required an adjustment: that lonely, painful road of shadows hadn’t been about getting to
just
her.

It had been about getting to Val, and to this baby so safe and warm inside her, and to any future babies waiting to be born.

It had all been about
them
. Everything was about
them.

And as he lay there in his farmhouse in the heart of Oregon, the snow falling outside the bedroom window, the moon rising above the fields, he promised himself that everything would always,
always
be about them. About his family.

Nothing in his life was about ‘now’, not anymore.

Now, everything was about ‘always’.

Always and forever.

**

Dear Reader,

I very much hope that you enjoyed Warren and Shay’s story, and catching up with all the ‘Dangerous Curves’ characters. ‘Extreme Curves’ (Dangerous Curves #7), Ace and Liam’s story, will be published in spring 2016.

And remember to sign up for my newsletter, to get all my news, sneak peeks of upcoming books, early cover reveals, and chances to win free copies of my books! You can subscribe here:
http://marysoljames.com/romances.html#follow
Thank you for reading!
Marysol

P.S. Keep scrolling/flipping pages, guys. I’ve included a sneak peek of the first book in my next and upcoming series… I hope you like it!

Sneak peek of upcoming series

Yes, a new series is on the horizon, guys! If you’ve read the books in the ‘Dangerous Curves’ series, then you’ll be familiar with the Road Devils MC and their President, Wolf Connor. And I’ve decided that the time has come for them to get their own spin-off series.

‘The Devil’s Scars’ (The Road Devils MC #1) will be published in early spring, 2016. I’ll be posting teasers, photos, and contests on my
Facebook
and
Twitter
streams, so make sure to drop by to stay in the loop.

And for now… enjoy this short excerpt of ‘The Devil’s Scars’! Quick note: the series starts about six months before ‘Dark Curves’ takes place, so don’t be surprised that Kirk Jensen is still alive and being generally an asshole to all and sundry ;)

Warmly,
Marysol

The Devil’s Scars

(The Road Devils MC #1)

By Marysol James

© 2016 by Marysol James.
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

Chapter One

When Zoe Parish clapped eyes on Wolf Connor for the first time in more than six years, her immediate thought was,
Goddamn. That man must have made a deal with the devil. Because nobody? Can look that fucking good without divine – or more probably dastardly – intervention.

He was still tall, of course, still strapping and muscular. His face was hard and handsome, and damned if the lines around his eyes and mouth didn’t look good on him. Speaking of which: his steel-gray eyes were still as scary-as-hell, his mouth the same almost-cruel line that was somehow sexual and sensual and made women think of it caressing and probing their lips.
Both
sets.

When he saw her walk in to Blue Dragon Ink, he jumped to his feet. Now
that
startled her: she’d known he was eager as hell to get her here, but that actual leap out of his chair showed her just how badly he needed her. And Wolf wasn’t a man who needed much beyond the club – he never had.

“Zee,” he said, and she noticed how her whole body reacted to him saying her name. Yeah, his voice was the same, too: deep and husky and all sexy-dark. It’s how drinking whisky naked on a sultry summer night would sound if it could develop the ability to speak. “You’re here.”

“I am.” Zoe set her backpack on the floor next to the front counter, and watched as two-hundred-plus pounds of hot, hard man strode across the floor to her. “I made good time.”

He opened those massive arms, and she just stepped on in, let him pull her up and close. Yeah, his chest was as impressive as ever, and she smiled up at him. Holy hell, she’d missed him.

“Lookin’ good, baby girl,” he said, that mouth curled up in a devastating grin as he growled out his pet name for her. “I like the longer hair.”

“Yeah?” She pushed it back and off her face and shoulders. “I was thinking about cutting it. Fucking hassle.”

“Don’t.” Wolf shook his head, and stepped back. “Looks hot. And we need some hot around this place, trust me.”

“I haven’t said yes to your offer, Wolf.”

“But you’re here,” he countered. “So you’re thinkin’ about it.”

“No. I’m here to
talk
about it.”

“Awful long way to come for a chat, Zee.” He shrugged his shoulders, and she saw the muscles ripple even through his t-shirt. “North Dakota ain’t exactly a hop, skip and a jump from Colorado, is it?”

She stayed silent. Wolf knew the score, and so she saw no need to tell him things he was already totally aware of.

Wolf stared down at Zoe, a bit taken aback at how happy he was to see her
and
at how great she looked. Yeah, OK, she also looked wiped out, but several days of driving would do that to anyone. Throw in all the shit that had been dumped in to her life over the past year, and you got one tired, stressed-out woman. What he was offering her could change things for her for the better, he knew; all he had to do was convince Zee. And truth be told, that wasn’t going to be easy.

“So.” He ushered her over to the sofa, sat her down. “You want to shoot the breeze over a morning beer or just get right to it?”

She leaned back, those dark-green eyes as sharp and whip-smart as he remembered them. “No beer. Hit me with it, Wolf, and I mean
all
of it. Give me your hardest, best sell.”

“No wastin’ time, huh?”

“Nope. No bullshit, either. You be straight with me. I’ll know if you’re lying to me.” Her smile was disarmingly sweet, and he immediately flashed back to Zee at the age of ten. “I
always
know when you lie to me.”

“That is the goddamn truth, baby girl.” Wolf paused to collect his thoughts, then launched right in. “So. You know I took over the Road Devils almost a year ago after Wheels died, but what you may
not
know is what a fuckin’ hard time I’ve had since then.”

“Some guy named Kansas filled me in a bit over the phone the day before I left Fargo.”

“Yeah, I asked him to since I was on the road that day.” He ran one large hand through his dark hair, down over the stubble on his defined cheekbones. “You needed to know that the situation is… in flux.”

Zoe already had serious reservations about all of this, but Wolf’s cagey manner made her tense up even more. Those walls that she’d built up over the past six years got a bit higher, a bit thicker, and Wolf’s already-challenging sell got way tougher to buy in to.

“Be more specific,” Zoe said. “What kind of hard time are we talking about?”

“Resistance to my changes in the club.”

“No surprise there,” she said. “The Road Devils have always run drugs, and been big in to the illegal strip clubs. When you shut all that down and left the world of the one-percenters, you really thought everyone would be thrilled with the loss of income?”

“No, of course not. I was expectin’ push-back from the older guys, and some of the more fringe members. Guys who were loyal as hell to Wheels.” Wolf exhaled, hard. “I just didn’t expect things to drag on this long.”

“What’s really going on, Wolf? Spit it out.”

“Lots of members leavin’,” Wolf said quietly. “Last month, one guy – Dawson – started a whole new club behind my back, and took over a dozen guys with him. Fuckin’ blindsided me, baby girl. Never saw it comin’ at all.”

That
shocked Zoe, and she sat up straighter, not even pissed that Wolf had waited until she was here in person to tell her this part: this was a big goddamn deal, the kind of info that was passed on by the President, not anyone else.

Leaving an MC after being patched in was a major thing… an unthinkable thing. There were ways out, of course, though they were so hardcore that none were worth thinking about seriously. But just taking off and starting a splinter club without permission or warning? Fucking unheard of. And she’d heard and seen
plenty
about these MC boys.

“You’re kidding me,” she said, indignant for him. “What an asshole.”

“Yeah, well.” Wolf shrugged again. “It’s done now. They just picked up all the dirty contracts and clients that I’d dumped, so money’s no major issue for them, and all the parties involved know each other.”

“Is Jensen involved with the new club?”

“Yeah, of course.” Wolf stared at her, intense and angry. “That fucker’s involved with
everythin’
, Zee. Same as when you left.”

Zoe nodded. Kirk Jensen was without a doubt the dirtiest and most dangerous man in Denver – he was also one of the smartest, which is how he killed people, and trafficked drugs, and ran sex rings without serving even one minute of jail time. Wolf’s decision to sever all ties with Jensen a year before had been a bold, brave move… but no way it had been a popular one.

“Is there trouble between you and the new club?” she asked him.

“Nah, no trouble. Bad blood, for sure, but they leave us alone.” He sighed. “They’re busy, you know, settin’ up new contracts and expandin’. They ain’t got time to come around here and cause shit.”

“You got Dawson’s word on that?”

“Yeah. He sent a message through Ice. He ain’t interested in any back-and-forth with attacks, and payback, and more payback. He wants to focus on buildin’ up the business, and growin’ the club.”

“So this guy Ice is with them now? He left you to join Dawson?”

“No way. Dawson asked him to go, but Ice told him to fuck right off. He’s loyal.”

“So your major problem at the moment is – what?”

“Lack of warm bodies,” Wolf said, waving his hands around the tattoo studio. “The guy that I had runnin’ this place
did
go off with Dawson, and now I’m stuck with no decent manager that I can trust to play by the rules. That’s where you come in.”

Zoe leaned back, and surveyed her oldest and dearest friend. Yeah, here it was: the reason that she’d hauled ass across three states in her beaten-up Volkswagen that was practically being held together with packing tape. Wolf had a job for her, and even though the money was right, nothing else was.

“So.” Zoe looked around, noted the clean and professional surroundings. “I’d be an employee of Blue Dragon Ink?”

“Yeah.”

“And the tattoo parlor is one-hundred-percent owned by the Road Devils?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, in effect, I’d be working for the MC. For you.”

“Right.”

“I’d be back in to it. The life.”

He paused. “Yeah. In some ways.”

She fell silent again and this time, Wolf let the silence go on. He knew she was fighting every instinct in her body to put as many miles of highway between the Road Devils and herself as humanly possible, and Wolf didn’t blame her. She’d barely gotten away from the club in one piece six years earlier, so he understood that she wasn’t in a big old rush to hand her whole life back to them, even if Wolf was in charge. He’d have to win her trust, however the hell she needed him to do that.

Her stunning eyes were narrowed at him. “Convince me that you and your boys are on the up-and-up now. That the club isn’t the same as I remember it. That you’ve turned your backs on the one-percenter lifestyle for real and for good.”

Wolf nodded. “How?”

“You earning money on your three businesses only, and you got the accounting to back the numbers up? You paying taxes? You got employee contracts for here and the bar and the garage? You got papers proving that you own this property? You got suppliers that aren’t being threatened, and are being paid on time?”

“Yes to all of it.”

“Show me.” Her blonde hair fell forward over her shoulders again, warm and loose. “Show me all you’ve got to prove to me that you’re legit and legal.”

“You want to call the suppliers personally?”

“Yeah. And show me their invoices, proof of payment, agreements.”

“You got it. What else?”

“Wolf…”

“Yeah?”

“I’d be safe? We both would?”

She asked these last two questions in a hushed, hesitant voice that was so unlike her usual ballsy confidence, it almost killed him. Wolf knew that for all her blustering about taxes and invoices,
this
was the real issue. He’d never forget finding Zoe tied up and gagged in that clubhouse back room, naked and helpless and surrounded by his own brothers, most of who had their dicks out, just waiting for their turn. Wolf had barely gotten her out and away; thank Christ he’d been in time.

Just in time.

“Yes.” His rough voice was gentle now, his hard eyes soft. “I promise you, baby girl… you’d both be safe here. Nobody in the club is gonna lay a fuckin’
finger
on you. I got my boys under control, and nobody in-house is questioning my Presidency. Dawson and his merry band of idiots have no interest in anythin' but establishin’ themselves – and they have a hard job, believe me. I’d never have asked you to come back if I thought for one
second
that anythin’ bad would or could happen to you or Keira.”

She stared up at him, really looking at him. They’d known each other for twenty-four years now – since Wolf was thirteen and Zoe was ten – and she knew his every expression, every twitch, every tone. No way he could lie to her, and fuck if he wanted to. She was the one constant in his life, and they’d pulled each other through raging rivers of hell. It was a weird thought, but she was his best friend, his family. He’d never let her down. Not again.

“OK,” she said softly.

“Anythin’ else, Zee?”

“That’ll do for now.” She stood up, peeled off her jean jacket. Wolf eyed her full breasts in her tank top with automatic male appreciation, and she huffed at him. “Eyes off the girls, Connor.”

“Sorry.” He grinned, charming as hell, decided to tease her a bit now that some of the tension had passed. “Can’t help it. You’re a hot piece.”

“Urgh. Really?” Zoe put her hands on her curvy hips, and he grinned again at the endearingly familiar stance: she was raring up to hand him his balls, just like she’d done for the past two decades. “You fucking sexist dickhead. Call me that again and I’ll call you nothing but ‘Calvin’, and I’ll make a point of doing it in front of the guys
and
your slavering hordes of women.”

He shuddered at his civilian name that he’d tried hard to forget. Who the hell named their kid ‘Calvin Connor’? “Fuck. OK, deal. No more comments aloud about your sexiness. I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself.”

“Good plan. You’ll live longer. Now, you get me what I asked for, and then you beat it. I’ll take a few hours, check things out, and we’ll talk again after.”

“OK.” Wolf headed to the back office. “Gimme twenty minutes to sort it all out. The coffee’s fresh, so help yourself. And I’ll get Rebel to make you some breakfast, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Zoe poured a large cup of Wolf’s usual industrial-strength coffee, and took a grateful sip. Sleep was a hard-to-come-by luxury in her life, and caffeine was her fuel. She’d almost decided that she liked it black by now, though she suspected that sleep-deprivation may just have dulled her taste buds.

She wandered over to the large front window of Blue Dragon Ink, and stared out at the parking lot. It was still pretty empty, and no big surprise: the only other businesses around here were Satan’s Bar and The Garage, both owned by the Road Devils. The garage was doing a full inventory, and so was closed that day, and the bar was open at noon to the general public. Of course, it was open 24/7 for Road Devils members, but she doubted that many of them would be around at ten a.m. on a Friday.

She sighed, wondering just what the hell had possessed her to let Wolf talk her in to this insanity. Because if Zoe were being honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she was really, truly considering coming back. Even after it all and what she’d gone through to get away, she
wanted
to come back. Wolf Connor was the only man from the group of asshole MC members that she’d even
listen
to about coming back.

Yeah, he was a lot of things, and she knew just how many bodies he’d put in the ground. But he was like her brother, for all of that, and despite the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in years, and he’d never put her in the line of fire. He’d die before he’d let her get hurt again. She’d never forget the rage on his face when he saw her tied up on that table – or how tenderly he’d wrapped his own shirt around her shaking body, and held her as she’d wept. If he was telling her that Blue Dragon Ink was legit and she was safe, it was, and she was.