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CHAPTER1
PATRIOT
Growing up in Haven, all I ever wanted was to get out of this town and make it big literally anywhere else. I had it all planned out. I only applied to colleges in other states. I was pre-law. I had the perfect fiancée that I met at Freshman Orientation. All the things I thought I needed to succeed in life. I was eighteen and I thought I had the world by the balls. That was eight years ago now. I’ve been home for a year now. My father, Tobias, is the mayor of Haven. He fully expected me to fall right back into my old life, but I’ve changed too much for that. Gone is the meek boy who left here for higher learning. I’ve seen too much. Done too much at this point to ever go back to the pushover I once was. I’m not saying I had a terrible childhood, because I didn’t. I had the best of everything. I was loved and cared for. I had the best clothes, and shoes. I had money to spend. I played sports, I dated, but everything I did back then was to please my father. I had good grades and the right kind of friends. Right to my father, anyway. My father married my mother, Lara, when they eighteen. My mom had to have been pregnant already, but I never thought they got married because they had to. There was never any evidence of that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I only know what love is because of them. I was born a couple of months later. When he was a rookie firefighter, he was injured during the territory dispute the MC’s had going on back then and has been bitter about ever since. He does, however, think that being the mayor is his civic duty and I can’t help feeling that I am supposed to be an extension of that. I had to be own man. It was important to me. It became everything once I was away from him and Haven.
I fairly quickly ascertained that college wasn’t for me and Jean wasn’t the perfect fiancée either. After one semester, I dropped out and joined the Army without a second thought. I was in basic training before I knew it and in Afghanistan soon after. I was an infantryman and I saw a lot of action. There isn’t much I can’t do with a weapon. Knives, guns, a skillet that one time. I can handle whatever is thrown at me. All of those hard-earned skills would have been wasted on being a lawyer. Once my time was up, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go home, but something called out to me. I still don’t know exactly what that was.
Once home, I bought an Indian Chieftain motorcycle and joined the local motorcycle club and am prospecting now. They call me Patriot, which I prefer to Xavier, but I’m still earning my place. They have assigned me to be the daytime bouncer at the club’s strip club, the Sin & Lust. I just do what I’m told and after eight years in the service, I appreciate the order that the Dirty Sinner’s provides me.
I got a little apartment outside of town and prefer to spend my non club time there. My parents just don’t understand why I’m doing this and if I’m being honest, neither do I. However, I’m twenty-seven years old and I am not about to let my parents, especially my father, tell me what do with my life. I know he feels betrayed by my decision to join the Sinners, but I can’t let him dictate my life.
My father hates the MC, always has, probably because they wouldn’t let him join back in the day. Ever since I joined, he’s ramped his shit up and is intent on taking them down. I avoid him like the plague because I don’t want Prez thinking I’m a narc or something.
The strip club opens at pretty early and even the day shift girls aren’t bad. I never had time for chicks when I was serving but I’ve dated some since I’ve been home. None of them were long-term material, but I tried to get out there. I firmly avoid the club candy though. I’m a jealous man by nature and I don’t share.
I’m still an early riser, so I get a run in and head to the gym before my shift at the club starts. After a hot shower, I hop on my bike and head to work. I park at the club and walk down the street to grab some coffee and food at the diner. I grab to-go coffees for Angel and Becca, a waitress at the club. I feel bad for the girl. Her eyes are so freaking haunted. I’ve heard bits and pieces of her story from Dolly, but I don’t pry.
When I get the club the door in already unlocked and Warrant is playing. There are no customer’s yet, but Angel is wiping down tables and Becca is behind the bar.
“Morning, Ladies,” I call from the doorway.
“Morning, Pat,” Becca calls, cheerily. She’s always happy that one.
“Good morning, Patriot,” Angel says. Neither one of them look up from their chores. I hand each of them their coffees and take my place by the door.
At exactly ten-thirty, Gus, a regular, walks in and head for his usual seat at the bar. Becca serves him all day long. He walks home, sleeps it off, and does all again the next day. He’s quiet and he tips the girls well, even though he rarely watches the shows.
I chuckle as Delilah, which I’m sure isn’t her real name, saunters up on the stage at eleven. A few more customers have come and sitting in front of the stage. Delilah is six months pregnant and doesn’t take her job too seriously right now. Today she’s dressed like a schoolgirl in trouble and is stripping to Papa Don’t Preach. The customer’s, the pigs that they are, love her. She’s not club candy but there are rumors going around that a patched member knocked her up, but most gossip is lies, especially in Haven. I take all that with a grain of salt.
I’m a few hours in when the front door opens and the sunlight streams in. I don’t think anything of it until a beautiful girl stops in front of me. Slowly, I look her up and down. She’s tall, curvy, and has a riot of blonde hair. Somewhere deep inside of me, something primal takes hold. She’s mine, my soul or my conscious is screaming it over and over in my head. It’s never done this shit before, so I am inclined to listen to what it has to say.
“Hi. I’m inquiring about the dancer position. Can you point me in the right the direction?”
Hell no. Over my dead body will anybody in this town see this girl naked but me. Come hell or high water this girl, whoever the hell she is, is mine.
CHAPTER2
CELESTE
For so long, all I’ve thought about was getting away from my mother and stepfather. My life has been miserable, and I just wanted to be free. From birth to ten years old, my life was great. Then my father died, and my mom married the first douchebag that paid her any attention. It was bad from the day he moved in. Imagine being ten years old and your mother getting mad at you for your stepfather’s lecherous stares and inappropriate touching. Like I had any control over that monster’s actions. It didn’t matter though. Every time something happened my mom beat my ass to the point I couldn’t sit down. No one believed me. Not my teachers, not social services. No one. As an adult, I now know that everyone in my life let me down and what happened to me wasn’t my fault. At sixteen, I stole a couple thousand dollars from under my mom’s bed. She didn’t believe in banks, thankfully. I bought a cheap used car from old man Jackson in my neighborhood, and I was gone the day I got my driver’s license. I never finished high school, but the only thing that mattered was getting away. I’ll get my GED one day. As soon as I feel safe, if that ever happens. I hope it does, but the realist in me is telling me that it won’t. I can’t have normal again.
Now, I am far away from that nightmare. I left California and just drove. I can handle anything that comes my way, but a young girl traveling alone isn’t the best idea, so Mr. Jackson gave me a gun to use for protection. In the two, almost three years, that I’ve been gone, I haven’t had to use it. Most people are too worried about their own shit to pay attention to me, and I love that. I can go for days without ever even talking to another person. Some nights, I wake up disoriented and I right back in my pale pink bedroom reliving the things that happened to me. My stepdad never made it past touches, but the intent was there, and I knew every time that it happened, I was going to get my ass beat. It’s enough to make me afraid. Then I remember that I’m free. Totally free. Totally alone. When I’m low on money, I get a waitressing job and make just enough to keep going for a while. I’ve been lucky. I’d work for a few weeks under the table and then be gone. If anyone asked, my name was Colleen. No one ever asked for my story, and I never offered it up. I don’t do social media and I have a cheap burner phone that I throw out every so often.
Today my luck has finally run out. My car shut off in the middle of the road and it won’t turn back on. I had a good run with Betty. The 1994 Camry has seen better days, but now I am stuck in this town until I figure something else out. I’m barely out of the car when two teenagers run toward me after getting out of the truck stopped behind me.
“You alright, miss?” One of them asks.
“Yeah, my car just broke down.”
“Alright. You steer and we’ll push you out of the road into the parking lot over there,” The driver says, pointing to the closet parking lot from here.
“Thank you so much,” I say.
“No problem. We wouldn’t want you to get hit out here.”
I nod and get back into the car, pop it into neutral and steer while they push me into a parking space. Putting it in park, I get out and thank them again. They just wave, jog over to their truck and drive away. I wonder if everyone in this town is as nice as those boys.
Turning around, I let out a little giggle when I see just where I’ve broken down. Sin & Lust Exotic Dancers. It would be just my luck to break down here. I notice the now hiring dancer sign immediately and think that I could totally do that. Squaring my shoulders, I walk toward the building and pull the door open. It’s way darker inside than it is outside, and I have to blink several times to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I walk over to a podium where a large man is sitting. Even in the near darkness, I can see he’s hot as hell and I can say with a certainty that I’ve noticed a man before. I’ve avoided them for all the wrong reasons, I’m sure. Well, I was sure of that. Until now.
