After becoming Sons of Anarchy obsessed, I was hit by a ton of bricks with a MC story/series. At first, I thought, "No, no, no! That's too out of my realm!" But the characters simply would not take no for an answer.
Here's the blurb in case you missed it, and the Goodreads link! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20622381-vicious-cycle?from_search=true
David aka ‘Deacon’ Malloy has devoted his adult life to the Hell’s Raiders motorcycle club. Plucked off the streets as a teenager for his fighting ability, he willingly embraces the violent life-style of his new family. After his adoptive father’s murder during the last club war, he slid into the vacated role of Sergeant at Arms. His world is thrown for a loop when a former club whore dies, and the five year old daughter he had no idea he had fathered is deposited on the club steps.
Alexandra Evans followed in her parents’ footsteps by going into education. As a Kindergarten teacher, she loves helping her young students learn to read and write. At the start of the school year, one little girl stands out to her above all the rest. With an aura of sadness about her, Willow Malloy is someone who needs all the tender loving care Alexandra can give. When she suddenly stops coming to school, Alexandra goes in search of her. What she finds is a clubhouse full of bikers, and a father hell bent on keeping his daughter always within his sight during a turf war.
The moment Deacon lays eyes on Alexandra he knows he has to have her. He doesn’t give two shits about the fact she’s a naïve civilian or that she has no desire to become another one of his conquests. He’s never found a woman he couldn’t have, and he wants nothing more to persuade Alexandra into changing her mind.
Will Deacon seduce Alexandra into his dark world, or will she help him embrace a brighter future for himself and his daughter?
Alexandra Evans followed in her parents’ footsteps by going into education. As a Kindergarten teacher, she loves helping her young students learn to read and write. At the start of the school year, one little girl stands out to her above all the rest. With an aura of sadness about her, Willow Malloy is someone who needs all the tender loving care Alexandra can give. When she suddenly stops coming to school, Alexandra goes in search of her. What she finds is a clubhouse full of bikers, and a father hell bent on keeping his daughter always within his sight during a turf war.
The moment Deacon lays eyes on Alexandra he knows he has to have her. He doesn’t give two shits about the fact she’s a naïve civilian or that she has no desire to become another one of his conquests. He’s never found a woman he couldn’t have, and he wants nothing more to persuade Alexandra into changing her mind.
Will Deacon seduce Alexandra into his dark world, or will she help him embrace a brighter future for himself and his daughter?
I give you know the prologue for Vicious Cycle
Bouncing her legs on the worn, leather couch, Willow happily
followed along with Dora as she went exploring. No matter where the cartoon
went, it was always better than the run-down apartment building where Willow lived.
At the sound of splintering glass shards crashing across the kitchen floor,
Willow abandoned Dora’s world, tucked her ratty teddy bear under her arm, and
hightailed it out of the living room. Although she was only five, she knew all
too well what was to come after the angry voices and the throwing things began.
She had learned to read the signs, and sadly she was never wrong. There weren’t many places of refuge in the
tiny apartment where she and her mommy lived. But there was one place she could
always count on to ride out the violent storms.
To other kids her age, the dark recesses under the bed were
a frightening place. But for Willow, the known
horror that often surrounded her was far less scary than the unknown. Lifting up the faded blue and
white patchwork quilt, she crawled across the dingy carpet and underneath the
ratty mattress that smelled like smoke and pee. Dust bunnies clung to her
clothes, clouding her lungs and making it difficult to breathe.
Once she settled in, she pinched her eyes shut and imagined
herself miles and miles away. Whenever she was scared, she always went to be
with her Angel Mommy. In Angel Mommy’s world everything was happy, beautiful
and pure. Rainbows stretched across the sky over castles filled with unicorns.
But the best part of all was Angel Mommy herself. Angel Mommy never drank too
much out of the bottles with dark liquid that made her real mommy angry and
then sad. Angel Mommy never had boyfriends who yelled at Willow or smacked her
in the face or on the bottom. For Angel Mommy, Willow was her whole world—the
only focus of her love and attention. They would play for hours and hours,
running along the grassy meadow or playing hide and seek in one of the castles
on the hillside.
She’d first begun to dream of Angel Mommy two years before
at Christmas time. After her real mommy had drunk from the bad bottles and
Mommy’s boyfriend had stuck himself with the scary needle, they started yelling
at each other. Cowering on the couch, Willow had tried to hide behind the
pillows. As Mommy and her boyfriend’s voices rose louder and louder, they began
to push and shove each other. When Mommy tripped over one of Willow’s shoes,
she lost her balance and fell into the small Christmas tree in the corner.
Ornaments had broken and scattered along the floor.
After Mommy had screamed at Willow and thrown the offending
shoe, hitting her in the face, Willow had tried to pick up the mess to make
Mommy less mad. An angel in a long white robe was the only thing that hadn’t
broken. It had soft, dark hair that she could stroke like one of her dolls, and
it also had soothing brown eyes that gave Willow the reassurance she so
desperately needed. Willow hadn’t let Mommy see that she kept the angel. And
that very day, Willow named her Angel Mommy and always kept the ornament close
to her side.
Under the bed, she let her hand creep down to her shorts
pocket where Angel Mommy waited to give her comfort. Willow stroked the doll’s
hair as the yelling in the living room grew louder. Just as she was about to
plug her ears with her fingers, there was the bang of the front door blowing
open and hitting the wall, like when Mommy’s boyfriend came home angry. More
voices now. More yelling. More breaking glass. It sounded like the living room
was being torn apart.
Mommy was begging someone with a voice that Willow wasn’t
used to. It rang with fear, and it was usually Willow who was afraid, not
Mommy. Thump, thump, thump. Willow began to shake at the sound. Was it pounding
boots? Mommy didn’t like when Willow’s shoes made loud noises. Holding her
breath, she prayed to Angel Mommy that the man in the boots wouldn’t find her. But
even as she was saying the words over and over in her head, the scary person came
inside her bedroom. She could tell right away from the size of his feet that it
was a man. He started over to the closet. Clothes and toys began to litter the
floor as he went through her possessions as if he were looking for something in
particular.
Then he went over to her chest of drawers. One by one, he
pulled the drawers out and tossed them to the floor. When one landed a little
too close to her, she jumped and hit her head against the mattress, causing her
to squeak. The small noise caused the man to freeze.
Willow’s heart began to beat wildly, and she felt like she
couldn’t breathe. As she tried burrowing farther underneath the bed, the
mattress covering her was ripped away. With a scream, she stared up at a man
who was a vision out of her worst nightmares—long, stringy black hair, an angry
red scar that ran down his face and onto his neck, and a patch over one of his
eyes. Willow pinched her eyes shut with fear. Please, please, help me, Angel Mommy!
But then Big Booted Man grabbed her up and hoisted her over
his shoulder. She could barely breathe, least of all cry out or scream—it was
as if her voice had been snatched away the moment her precious hiding place had
been invaded. Her body trembled with fear as he marched out of her bedroom and
into the living room. He tossed her about like a mistreated baby doll. When
they finally came to a stop, he jerked her around to where she was facing out
from his chest. His arm wrapped tightly around her waist, binding her to him.
Her voice momentarily returned at the horrific sight before
her. “Mommy!” she cried. Mommy and her boyfriend, Jamey, were tied with rope to
two chairs from the kitchen table. Jamey stared at her with the same
aggravation he always had. But Mommy wasn’t talking or looking at her. Blood
trickled out of her nose and mouth, her head hung limp. When she didn’t
respond, Willow kicked at Big Booted Man to try to get away. “Mommy!” she
shrieked.
She was rewarded with a smack to the head and face. “Shut
the hell up, brat!”
Although she shouldn’t
have, she cried out with the pain. Her face stung as if someone was poking her
repeatedly with something tiny and sharp. It sent tears to blur her eyes.
She jumped at the sound of a gravely, harsh voice behind
her. “Crank, watch yourself. She doesn’t get hurt until I say so, got it?”
“Yessir,” Crank
replied.
Willow turned her aching head to see a mean man staring at
her. The look he gave her made her tremble all over. His black eyes focused on
her with such hatred, even though she had never met him before. “Aren’t you a
pretty, little thing,” he said.
Since she couldn’t speak, she only stared at Mean Man. He
then turned his gaze from her to one of the men who was standing behind her
mommy.
“Wake the bitch up,” Mean Man commanded.
The man grabbed Mommy’s hair and yanked her head up. She
cried out, her eyes blinking furiously. When she met Willow’s gaze, she sucked
in a harsh breath. “Leave her out of this. She has nothing to do with my
business,” she said, in a pained whisper.
“Ah, but you see, she is part of you two, so she’s my business. Since you decide to fuck
with my business, I’m going to fuck with yours.” Without taking his eyes off of
her mommy, he took a step closer to Willow. “I think it’s time we showed your
daughter what happens when you double cross someone.” Mean Man waved a gleaming
silver knife in front of Willow’s face. When the blade pressed against her neck,
fear overwhelmed her, sending warm liquid dribbling down her legs. Big Booted Man
who held Willow pulled her back from the blade to give her a shake so hard her
teeth clattered. “The little cunt just pissed all over me!” he exclaimed.
Mean Man narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be such a pussy, Crank.
Now hold her fucking still, you hear me?”
Crank grumbled but kept his arms
tight around Willow. Mean Man glanced at Mommy and Jamey before he once again
pressed the blade to Willow’s neck. “Now let’s try this again, eh? If you don’t
fucking tell us where the shipment is, I’m going to start cutting pieces out of
your kid!”
Jamey rolled his eyes and gave a contemptuous snort—the kind
he usually gave Willow when she tried to talk to him about dolls or her
favorite television shows. “Go ahead and slit the brat’s throat. I don’t give a
shit.”
The Mean Man’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You just playin’
me, man? ‘Cause I will seriously hurt the little shit.”
“You heard me straight. I don’t give a shit if you spill her
blood all over the floor because it won’t be mine flowing out of her.”
“If she ain’t yours, whose kid is she?”
“She’s Malloy’s bastard.”
Mean Man hissed at the mention of the name. “Which Malloy?”
“Jamey, don’t,” Mommy protested, looking scared. All her young
life, Willow had wondered who her daddy was. Whenever she asked, Mommy would
call her daddy bad names. She’d never even seen a picture of him. Now it seemed
Mommy had been hiding who her daddy was because she was scared. Willow couldn’t
help wondering if her daddy was as bad as these men.
“Shut your trap, bitch,” Mean Man snarled. He then jerked
his chin up at Jamey. “Tell me which Malloy the brat belongs to.”
“She’s Deacon’s.”
A name. Willow had finally heard her daddy’s name. For some
reason hearing it made her feel like she knew him somehow. Her happiness was
fleeting. Hearing her daddy’s name seemed to make Mean Man very happy, and
Willow imagined that couldn’t be good. A smile curved on his lips. “Well, now.
This certainly changes things, doesn’t it?”
His knife lowered from Willow’s throat. When he took a step
closer to her, Willow cringed back against Big Booted Man. “This seems to be your
lucky day, little girl. Letting you go now is going to serve my purpose far
more in the long run.” Mean Man cocked his brows and stared at her. His rough
hands came to cup her chin, tilting her head to look at her from several
angles. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. You’re the fucking spitting
image of that cocksucker.”
Mommy leaned forward in her chair. “Just let her go, okay?
Using her won’t do you any good. Deacon doesn’t even know she’s his—I left him before
I found out. He doesn’t like kids, so he won’t give a shit about her.”
Mean Man tsked at Mommy. “He might not care at first, but
I’ll give him some time. Even if he doesn’t want her, I guarantee his brother, Rev,
will. And I’ll use any leverage I can against Deacon and his brothers.” He
motioned to Crank. “Put her down.”
Relief filled Willow when she felt the ground beneath her
feet again. Mean Man crouched down beside her.
“I want you to listen to me and
listen good. You tell no one what you saw here tonight, understand?”
Although Willow bobbed her head furiously to show she
understood, it didn’t seem to satisfy the Mean Man. He leaned in to where she
could feel his hot breath burning against her cheek. “If you say a fucking word
to anyone about me or what you saw, I will come to you in the night and cut out
your heart. Got it?”
Apart from the times
when she explored with Dora or escaped with Angel Mommy, Willow spent a lot of
time afraid. But, until now, she had never experienced such frightening fear
like this. The tremor seemed to flood every part of her body. Although she
shook from head to toe, she couldn’t make herself reply.
But somehow Mean Man was
satisfied with her lack of response. He turned back to Mommy. “Does she have
somewhere she can go?”
Tears streaked down Mommy’s cheeks. “Yes, she stays with the
lady down the hall a lot.”
Willow’s fear dissipated a little at the thought of Mrs.
Martinez whose warm and cozy apartment she stayed in during the times Mommy was
away with Jamey or working. Mrs. Martinez always cooked something for Willow,
and she even let her help prepare the food. She let Willow call her Mama Mari,
and it was like getting to have a grandmother like her friends at school did.
“Fine. She goes down the hall, and we finish this.”
“C-Can I at least say goodbye,” Mommy questioned, as her
chest rose and fell with sobs. Seeing Mommy cry made Willow start to cry.
“Hurry it up,” Mean Man replied, shoving Willow toward the
chair where Mommy sat.
Clambering as best she could into Mommy’s lap, Willow buried
her head in Mommy’s neck. Still bound tight by her fear, she couldn’t seem to
make her lips move to say the words she was screaming in her mind. No matter
how mad and mean Mommy was, Willow always loved her. She wanted nothing more
than to be hugged and kissed by Mommy, but she very rarely got what she wanted.
“I love you, Willow. You be a good girl for Mrs. Martinez.
She’s going to take you to your daddy. You be good for him, okay?” Willow
nodded. Mommy started to cry harder. “I’m sorry I was a bad mother, baby. I
hope you’ll have a better one now.”
Willow jerked back to stare into Mommy’s eyes. What did she
mean a ‘better mommy’? Was she going somewhere? If Willow went to live with her
daddy, did that mean she would never see Mommy again? It made her cry as her
tummy twisted. “I love you, Mommy,” she whispered, finally finding the words
she desperately wanted to say.
“I love you, too, Willow.”
“All right, enough sentimental bullshit. Crank, take the kid
down the hall. Tell the woman to get the fuck out of the building for the next
few hours if she knows what’s good for her.”
Big Booted man responded by snatching Willow up again and
marching her to the door. As Willow gazed over her shoulder, Mean Man closed
the gap between him and Mommy. Just as they started out of the apartment, Mean
Man’s knife went to Mommy’s throat. Mommy looked straight at Willow. “I love—”
Her words were cut off when the knife slid across her neck.
Willow’s mouth opened in a scream, but nothing came out. As
hard as she tried closing her eyes from the sight of the red blood pouring from
her mommy’s neck, she couldn’t. The last thing she saw as she was taken from
the apartment was Mean Man turning back to her as he brought his fingers to his
lips to remind her to keep quiet.
Willow knew that she would never tell. She never, ever
wanted to see Mean Man again. No matter what was done to her, she would never
tell.
Omg this made me cry
ReplyDeletewhen will this book be released
ReplyDeleteTeresa