From The Ashes (The Knights of Mayhem Book 3)

Dedication

To Lester, thank you for giving me my love story. 

Acknowledgements

To my Women of Mayhem

I have the best betas in the world. 
Sam Price
,
Debbie Dumke
,
Lena Gaitanou
, and
Chris Kovacich
.  Thank you so much for taking time out of your lives to help me shape my stories.  Your advice is invaluable.

Margreet Asselbergs
, thank you for giving me the most perfect covers.  Your work is incredible, setting the bar higher each time.  Your ability to match the cover with the story it contains is amazing.  Love you, my Viking Goddess.

Dana Hook
Thank you for always having my back.  For looking out for me when I am cutting my nose off despite my face and when I have twenty words in a sentence when it should just have seven.  I love you babe and everything you have ever done for me.  Thank You.                                                                                               

Karen
,
Kerri
,
Jenny
and
Marsha
.  Thank you for always believing.  Your friendship means the world to me.  You make this journey, crazy fun and worth every minute. 

Christina
,
Nicole
and
Debbie
.  We got this.

Thank you to my readers, for traveling with me on this journey.  For loving my stories and characters the way you do.

Cover photo from Shutterstock

Cover design
Margreet Asslebergs
of
Rebel Edit and Design
.

Copyright 2015 © Brook Greene

This is copyrighted material if you have downloaded this from a site other than the sires it is legally uploaded to, you are breaking the law and you are stealing from me.

This book is a work of fiction, nothing in this book is real. 

Visit me on my Facebook page: 
https://www.facebook.com/brookgreene

Chapter One

Hollis

I franticly look around the room, trying to think of something … anything to reassure myself that I had not done what I had no choice but to do.  I rub my sweaty palms down my jeans, finding it hard to slow my breathing as I look out the window to the driveway, praying that Markus will be gone for a good, long while. 

I return to pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed, chewing on my thumbnail as I try to figure out what I should do when a thought enters my mind. I dismiss it quickly, but now that it’s there, it begins to repeat itself and I can’t let it go. If anyone could help me right now, it would be him.

I grab her phone and head to the kitchen, scrolling through her contacts until I find it. “God, what a sick bitch,” I scoff at her and her unhealthy obsession.  Selecting the number I need, I hit send and hold my breath, hoping it’s the same number. I need him to answer because he’s probably the only one I can reason with. All the others would rather see me dead.

The ringing is making my nerves crawl in anticipation at the thought of who will answer.  Finally—after seven torturous rings—he answers, making my breath catch in my throat.  His voice still makes my insides melt.

“Knights Automotive, Roman speaking.”

I take a deep breath before I find the courage to speak.  “Roman?” The line goes silent, telling me he recognizes my voice too. 

“What the fuck do you want?”  Okay. Maybe I’ve misplaced my hopes that he could be persuaded to help me.

“Please, don’t hang up. I need your help.” My voice no longer holds the confidence it once did.

“And what the hell makes you think I would help you, after all you’ve done?”  His words are clipped, then the line goes dead. I can’t say I blame him, he’s right. The pain I left in my wake the last time I’d been in town was unforgivable. I have no idea why I thought I could get through to him, but I can’t let it stop me now.

I dial the number again with no answer, so I hang up and try again.  This time he picks up, but says nothing.  “Roman, wait! Please,”  I plead,  “just hear me out.”

“You stupid, thick-headed bitch. Why the hell would I want to hear anything you’ve got to say?”  I wait for the dial tone but it doesn’t come, so I continue on in a rush.

“Because I have something you’ve been looking for and I did something none of you had the balls to do.”  I wince at the sharpness of my tone and regret using it when I’m the one calling in desperate need of his help.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Hollis?”  I can tell his words are forced through gritted teeth.

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“Listen, woman. I have no reason to, so how about you drop the fucking attitude and give me one.”  My body shudders at the anger in his voice.

I notice in all my pacing, I’ve made my way back to the open door of the bedroom where the lifeless body of a woman I have come to hate, lies motionless on the old bed. “I killed Megan,”  I blurt out, needing to fill the silence when he says nothing. “She’s dead.”

“And you need what kind of help from me?”  My confession seems to make him a little more receptive.  I go to speak, but he cuts me off with another question. “And what, exactly, do you have?” 

“I have Caden.”

Roman

I don’t think there have ever been three words that piss me off and relieve me at the same time.  I look out the office window into the shop to see a broken man standing there; a man who’s been nursing an emotionally sick wife and looking for a missing daughter for a month now. He’s been destroyed, and I’m afraid he’s at his limit.  “Where are you?” 

~~~~~~

It took me some time to figure out a way to leave the boys without them asking too many questions, but I did it. The drive up is around two hours and I’m thankful; I can use it to think over shit that’s been going through my head over the years. Emily had left for her own reasons. No matter how selfish they seemed to all the other guys, they were coming from a broken place, yet Hollis had left because of the role she played in the downfall of Emily and Cowboy’s relationship. Not to mention, she was a drug-addicted whore who didn’t give a shit about anyone but herself.

I jump in my truck and take off out of the parking lot, feeling an urgency surge in my chest; pure desperation flows through my body as I rush to get to Caden. I race through the streets of our small town in the direction Hollis had given me. 

I’m happy
and
pissed, but most of all, I’m confused.  She could be luring me into a trap.  I have no doubt Markus would pick us off one by one if given the chance, and using Caden as bait would be the perfect way to get us right where he wanted us.  Fuck! My big, dumbass came out here without any of my brothers knowing where I was going, but it’s best done this way. 

I push everything to the back of my mind and concentrate on Hollis.  On the one hand, I could kill her for what she’d done. But on the other, there’s a sick thrill running through my body at the thought of getting to see her again, even if it’s as I lay dying in a pool of my own blood.

I grit my teeth at how stupid and selfish I sound. This is about Caden, not me.  I need to forget the way I’d felt about her—the way I still feel about her. There’s no way she’s the Hollis I once knew, ‘cause  I’m sure as hell not the same Roman she dicked around all those years ago.  Time changes a person, and the things I’ve seen and done have turned me into someone she may not recognize. Nevertheless, I continue to drive in the direction of a child promised, a friend brought back to life, and a woman’s grief eased.

Before I know it, my thoughts have carried me through the two hour trip.  The address Hollis had given me on the phone brings me to the rural outskirts of Lathan.  I pull to a stop at the end of the driveway, then turn my truck into the woods to hide it, cutting the engine while I study the house through the trees.

The old, white farmhouse is in desperate need of some paint and repairs. The wraparound porch sags away from the once sturdy frame and the windows need a serious cleaning, but I can still see through the haziness with my binoculars.  I take my time, but I don’t see any activity in or around the house, so I place the binoculars back in the glove box and recheck the clip in my nine.  Satisfied it’ll do some damage, I slide out of the truck while keeping an eye out for movement around me.  I eye the tree line before I shut the door to my truck, very quietly, then move through the woods towards the house.

I go to the back to look through the neatly pressed curtains, since it’s the only area I couldn’t see.

Seeing that the coast is clear, I round the porch, looking through each window I pass. It’s quiet … too quiet for my liking. I ready my gun just in time as the back door is yanked open and there stands Hollis, with my nine pointed between her wide eyes.  We both stand stock-still, studying each other. 

I’m shocked at her appearance.  Gone are the once bright white spikes, replaced with long, beautiful chestnut locks that glisten in the afternoon sun.  Her now tanned skin glows with health and she seems to be more a woman now than the stick figure she once was.  I close my eyes to shake the thoughts I’m having. This is not why I’m here.

Hollis clears her throat.  “It’s good to see you too, Roman.”

“Yeah, well, I wish I could say the same about you, Hollis. You said you need my help and I want Caden back. She’s the only reason I’m here.”  I can’t believe I’m actually going to help this woman.  I toy with the thought of just taking Caden and leaving Hollis here to fend for herself.  She seems nervous, as she should be.  She used me, just to get back at my closest friends. If you ask me, she’s just as guilty as that worthless piece of human waste, Megan, who apparently is no more, from Hollis’s admission.

I drop my gun from her face and peek my head inside the door to look around.  “Anyone else here?” 

“No, just me.”

“Where’s Caden?”  I push past her so I can get a better look around the joint.

“She’s upstairs, sleeping,”  she says as she closes the door behind us.

“I want to see her. I’m not doing a fucking thing for you until you give me proof she’s really here.”  This woman has burned me too many times to trust anything she says.

She leads me down a long hallway that opens up into a large living space.  I follow her up the steps, cautiously, to a door she gently pushes open.

I cross over to the bed where Caden is lying, sound asleep.  Leaning in, I brush the hair off her face, then turn back to a waiting Hollis.  I point out to the hall, not wanting to wake Caden just yet. 

She leads me back down the steps. When she reaches the landing, she turns to me, wringing her hands together. “Roman, please. You have to let me explain.” 

“You’ve got two minutes before I decide to just go and yank that little girl up and leave you here with your own fucking mess,”  I say as I get into her space, letting my senses breathe her in.

There had been a point in time that I would’ve done anything for this woman, and it seems that nothing has changed. I didn’t hesitate when she called. In all honesty, I’d be here right now, even if Caden wasn’t involved, but she sure as fuck doesn’t need to know that.
“Clock’s a tickin’, Hollis.”

“I let it slip you were DEA!.”  She throws her hands up over her mouth as if she didn’t mean to say it out loud. 

I bring my head back from hers. “So what? Everyone knows we’re DEA now.”

“Not then they didn’t.”  I hear a tinge of remorse in her tone at the admission.  “Markus used it against me.”

“Markus?”  I turn her around to study her face for any hint of malice, but much to my surprise, I don’t see any.   I need to back away. She’s been fucking us ever since she started fucking me.  “Do I even want to know?”

“It was a night that I was with Markus. He was bragging and I didn’t like him trying to one-up you, so I told him what you were.”  She blurts out, looking everywhere, except at me. 

“So you’re telling me that he knew? He’s known the whole damn time what we were?  Everything we did back then … he fucking knew?” I pace back and forth like a caged animal, then stop, only to look at her in disgust. “Do you know all the shit you’ve caused, Hollis?” I don’t wait for her to answer. “Jesus Christ, Hollis.”  I have to wrangle in my voice to keep from alerting Caden. 

I come back to myself and look around me, well aware I’m in no shape to defend myself against an attack.  “Where the hell is Megan? I’m ready to get Caden and get the hell out of here.” 

She points to a door off to my left.  Orange light from the afternoon sun seeps in around the cracks where the door isn’t flush with the frame.  “Let’s get this over with.” 

I barge through the door to see an emaciated Megan, lying half on, half off the bed.  “How long has she been dead?” 

“She died sometime after one o’clock this morning.”  She’s on the verge of tears and I don’t really know what to think of the whole situation.

“How the hell did you keep Caden away from this?”

“She and I stay upstairs. If we need something, I come down myself.”  I look around and see there’s no TV, no radio, not even a landline phone.

“What the hell goes on out here?”  The worry for what Caden has seen and heard hits me in the chest, making my panic level spike.  No, the boys and I aren’t saints, but we’ve kept ourselves aware of her little eyes and ears on us; always watching and taking in everything we do.

“Not much.” I lift my brow skeptically at her words.   She begins to wring her hands together again, as if it’ll give her the courage to continue.  “Markus left me out here around a month ago, then dropped off Megan and Caden.  He would come by every once in a while to take care of Megan, and to …”

“To what?”  I know it’s cruel, but I want … no, I
need
to hear her say he treats her like a whore, which is something I never did to her.  She doesn’t know it, but she could’ve actually had a future with me.  All the shit she resented about Emily, I was ready and willing to give to her before she vanished without a word. 

“He would come to fuck me, okay?  Are you happy you made me say it? He used me for a sure, steady fuck.” 

“Don’t forget we’re not alone,”  I growl at her.

“I’m never alone,”  her shriek echoes through the cavernous, almost empty house.  I force her up against the wall, pinning her there with my body and my hand over her mouth.

“Stop screaming,”  I snarl at her.  Her admission has me on high alert.  “Never alone because of Caden, or never alone because he has men in the woods?”  I duck around, looking out into the woods through the windows surrounding us. 

She touches my arm and I quickly jerk away, looking at her with disgust.  “Please stop looking at me like that, Roman. I can stand everyone else hating me, but not you,” she pleads quietly with her eyes cast down at the floor. “No one else is here, I swear. He took all his men with him four days ago. It’s just me, you, the junkie, and Caden.”

“What did you expect, huh? I can’t look at you any other way. All I see when I look at you is the pain, lies, and destruction you’ve caused. The only reason I’m here is because of Caden, who
will
be leaving with me.” 

“Okay,”  she whispers as she pushes past me and starts to pace, chewing on her thumbnail.  “So what are we going to do? You know … with her?”  She nods her head in the direction of Megan’s rotting body, lying on the bed.