***WARNING***
Dark Contemporary
Romance Novella
Contains sexual
situations, violence, taboo and sensitive subjects, offensive language and
mature topics. This is the first in a series of novellas. Tight’s story will
not come to conclusion in this book.
FOR AGES 18 AND OLDER
Reckless Fear
The Black Vipers Novella Series
Tight Everly
In the world of The Black Vipers, sin runs free and I'm sin personified.
Given permission by the cut I wear, I take whatever the emptiness inside me desires, by any means necessary.
Unfortunately, the truth sin doesn't want you to know...nothing is ever free.
It takes payment in flesh and degradation.
A highly venomous predator, it slithers around inside of you,
wreaking havoc and claiming your soul as its own.
Sasha was the savior to my sinful ways...only she didn't want the job.
When sin rules your life, there are no boundaries. You take without regret.
She would be my salvation, even if I had to play the Devil to get her.
Sasha Campbell
Being near Tight was like standing on the edge of a raging fire.
The heat dangerously intoxicating, offering protection from the darkness while promising the burn of betrayal if I got too close.
Yet, here I stand. Staring endlessly into the dancing flames. Not noticing the building smoke or the ache of his all-consuming heat.
Unfortunately, I know how this story ends. Burned beyond recognition and discarded. I'm turned to ash without a second thought.
Completely destroyed by him.
There had to be a way to avoid the damage he'd inflict.
The problem was, I wasn't sure I wanted to.
Because with Tight, this kind of burn feels amazing.
Chapter One
TEN YEARS EARLIER
Fear.
It’s
an open, oozing wound, festering inside my head. I crave it like a strung out, drug-sick junkie. It gives me a high I’ve never found at the bottom of a bottle or
chasing the needle and believe me, I’ve tried some crazy shit in my sixteen
years. But fear, that’s a different kind of addiction for me.
It’s
the only constant in my life. Slithering around my spine, it whispers to be
careful, warning my stupid ass to be alert, be smarter than the next homeless
screw-up.
Fear has kept me alive...and I just told it to go fuck itself because this time,
I’m doing it my way.
The voices echoed upward
toward me, bouncing around the dark, cavernous warehouse I’d
called home for the last six months. From inside my safe haven in the rafters,
I leaned closer to the thin boards that were the only barrier between me and the
crowd below.
My heart lurched forward,
pounding painfully, but I loved it; a little too much.
A twisted fantasy of mine
played out in front of me, turning my emotions into a hurricane. I struggled to
stay still. I wanted to be closer, hear the words and feel the excitement.
Six inches off the ground
hung a man, naked and bound by chains wrapped around his bloodied wrists. His
wild eyes searched the darkness for a rescue that would never come.
Muffled screams fell on deaf
ears as he fought against the gag tied around his mouth. Sweat rolled off of
him in rivers, mixing with the dirt and blood as he arched his back not wanting
to leave any angle open. Crazy fucker, I’d close
my eyes and let them come. Who wants to see death face to face?
A gaping hole in his thigh
gushed blood around the knife left where it had sliced through the tissue.
The sight of his torture
triggered something inside of me. A slow smile stretched my dry lips as I
realized, for the first time ever, I wasn’t afraid.
Energy snapped through my veins making me flex my fists open and shut at my
sides.
I dug up the bones of buried
memories I’d tried for so long to keep at bay.
My soul screamed silently as the faces of every bastard who’d unleashed their
punishment on me, flashed like a horror movie in my mind. Normally I would
cower from these flashbacks. But today, I relished in them, letting all the
pain wash over me like a new beginning.
And there I was in my
memory, a small boy, unable to protect myself from sadistic hands and bloodshot
eyes. Pinching, burning and unspeakable things that should never happen to
anyone, all happening to me.
My constant
companion--fear--tried to rear its ugly
head. But I pushed it down. A small spark ignited somewhere inside of me,
something I’d always wanted but never knew I could have. A desire to do more
than just survive. I wanted fucking revenge.
The terror in the doomed man’s
eyes empowered me, warming my chest as I longed to be a part of the destruction
they had planned for him.
His captors taunted him,
staying far enough in the shadows to keep their faces hidden,
but close enough there was no mistaking their presence.
They circled him like the
predators they were, letting it be known he was merely a play thing.
Prey to be toyed with,
destroyed and discarded.
Every skeleton from my closet
came out to play as I enjoyed the show.
The savage faces haunting me, now hung in place of this unlucky bastard,
who had obviously pissed off the wrong people.
They were bikers. The Black
Vipers to be exact and there was no denying their reputation for being ruthless.
From what I’d seen in the last fifteen minutes,
the rumors were true. I was sure as shit, losing my mind to think I could mess
with them. But that was the plan.
The back of their denim cuts
were embellished with their signature insignia, a snake with blood red eyes
wrapped around a skull. The bottom rocker proudly displayed, Midwest. Most
clubs claimed a state, these guys claimed the whole Midwest region.
This wasn't the first time I’d
seen someone about to be butchered. The streets weren’t warm and fuzzy, they
were dirty and desperate and there was always someone willing to sell their
soul to the devil for their sin of choice. But this was the first time I
planned on sticking around to watch and, if it was my lucky day, join in.
A man stepped out of the
shadows. His eyes black and without pity. He didn't seem to enjoy the scene-didn't
seem not to. The coldness he carried toward taking a man’s life made me shiver.
He was a true killer.
His cut read Road Captain.
The hanging man turned sharply
in his direction, hissing as the chains cut deeper into his mauled skin. His
bulging eyes crazed with fear.
The Viper stepped up, pulled
out a long, serrated knife, and slowly drew it across the man’s
chest.
Throwing his head back, the
hanging man’s eyes rolled back from the pain before screaming out in agony
against the gag. Blood beaded in the cut at first as the knife sliced the skin
wide open, but quickly changed to rivers streaming down his torso, pooling on
the floor below him.
A dark haired man stepped up
next, stopping the Road Captain with a just a nod.
I strained to read his
patch.
President.
My stomach lurched as I
closed my eyes and laid my forehead on the boards in front of me. Holy. Shit.
Pops Cole.
He ran The Black Vipers and
was as vicious as they came. This dumb ass plan of mine...I
was as good as dead.
Pops reached up, pulling the
gag from the soon to be dead, man’s mouth.
“Please,
Pops,” he begged. “Please, I will tell you everything.”
Pops
stood with his arms crossed at his chest. His tone was calm as he shook his
head.
“It’s
too late for that shit and you know it.”
The hanging man thrashed
around, attempting to release himself from the chains. Screaming out again and
again.
The Black Vipers just
watched. No one moved, no one talked. They stood quiet like angels of death,
waiting to deliver their sentence.
I scoffed to myself. Even if
this stupid son of a bitch got loose, did he think he could fight his way
through the five or six Vipers surrounding him?
Pops began pacing in front
of the man, drawing in slow steady breaths, as he meticulously rolled up the
sleeves of his shirt.
A small tremor began in my
core. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as the atmosphere changed.
He spoke again, anger
boiling just under the surface of his controlled tone.
“I
gave you every opportunity to get me the information I needed. And what do you
do? Stab me in the back? Try to bring down my club, my family!”
He lunged toward the hanging
man, twisting the knife sticking out of his thigh. The man arched his back,
screaming and crying in agony.
“No
one fucks with The Black Vipers then tries to make a deal, you stupid asshole!”
I turned quickly, making my
decision. If they heard me, I was a dead man. Not like it mattered, I was
probably dead anyway with the plan I had.
I can't wait to read this book now! ðŸŒ
ReplyDeleteThank you, Carrie! Release day is coming soon!!
DeleteI can't wait to read this book now! ðŸŒ
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read the rest!! Awesome start as always!!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read the rest!! Awesome start as always!!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read the rest!! Awesome start as always!!
ReplyDeleteWhen is the second book coming out??
ReplyDeleteHi Ashley! I'm working hard at getting the next book out. Hoping for early summer! :)
ReplyDelete