Our Last Road Read online

  Table of Contents

  Welcome to Hundred Falls Valley and the world of St. Skin.

  Stay social with both authors here

  Our Last Road

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  FROM THE AUTHORS:

  Breaking News!

  About the authors:

  Our Last Road

  A St. Skin Novel

  London Casey

  Jaxson Kidman

  Contents

  Welcome to Hundred Falls Valley and the world of St. Skin.

  Stay social with both authors here

  Our Last Road

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  FROM THE AUTHORS:

  Breaking News!

  About the authors:

  Welcome to Hundred Falls Valley and the world of St. Skin.

  From the minds of two bestselling authors comes a book and series about love, redemption, and finding fate in the place where you’d least expect to find it. Welcome to Hundred Falls Valley and the world of St. Skin.

  Worldwide bestselling series!

  No reader order required!

  Written by London Casey (Karolyn James) and Jaxson Kidman

  Stay social with both authors here

  Newsletter (part of the Outlaw Romance Obsession team): http://eepurl.com/b9BDKb

  Jaxson Kidman Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/jaxsonkidman

  London Casey (Karolyn James) Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/caseyandkidman

  St. Skin Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/stskinseries

  Our Last Road

  A St. Skin Novel

  He comes back for her… but now she has a son.

  SAWYER: My name's on the neon sign above the tattoo shop, but her name's forever tattooed on my heart. I grew up with the nickname ‘Saint’ and opened St. Skin with the dream of marrying Kate and living a good life. But that dream died years ago...didn't it? Now I'm heading back to Hundred Falls Valley to stake my claim to the shop...and to Kate’s heart. The last thing I expect is for her to have a kid.

  KATE: Face it, we broke each other’s hearts. No, that’s not good enough. We stomped on each other’s hearts. We set them on fire and watched them burn. But it still hurt when Sawyer left. I gave up my dream of working at the tattoo shop to give Jason the best childhood I can. But then in walks Sawyer, my greatest and worst memory. Now I'm being torn in two. I still love Sawyer, but I have to protect Jason. Because no one knows the truth: Jason's not my son and the two of us are in more danger than anyone knows.

  ONE

  SAWYER

  (YEARS AGO)

  1.

  “There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you.”

  We were on the roof of an abandoned building, the kind of place where bad things happen to bad people who were up to no good. Tonight, it was just me and Kate. Well, us and an audience of about ten billion stars. She made a few comments about life needing to calm down, and I agreed with her. So I brought some sleeping bags and blankets up here to have a secret place to hide out. We were in one sleeping bag, her warm body pressed against mine. We had been looking up at the stars, the two of us trying to point out constellations, but we had no idea what we were looking at. Back in high school, the geeks paid attention when the lights went out in the classroom to learn about the stars, planets, and all that shit, but for me and Kate, it was time to fool around. For me, I found a galaxy in each of her eyes, and our orbits were always destined to collide.

  Although collision was sometimes a really bad thing…

  “Something you’ve always wanted to ask me,” I said. “And what’s that, darling?”

  “Why do they call you Saint?”

  I laughed. “We’re up here staring into space, forgetting about the world that wants us apart, and you’re worried about my name?”

  “Yeah,” Kate said. “I went away for a summer and came back to you being called Saint. Everyone worshipping you.”

  “I guess I offered them a holy experience while you were gone. It’s just how much I love you.”

  Kate swallowed hard. She never got over those summers she had been ripped away from me. Mostly because I knew in her wild eyes and her passionate heart she thought I did stuff with someone else. Sometimes the heart was the hardest thing to convince. People always said that the brain controls the body but trust me, it’s the heart. The heart can tell the brain to tell the body what to feel.

  I touched Kate’s face and swore I could still see the green of her eyes shining brighter than any damn star in the sky.

  “You really want to know why they call me Saint?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “When you were gone, I became a sort of a peace maker with everyone,” I said. “I had to distract myself so I didn’t lose my mind without you. I did anything possible for anyone who needed it. When the guys got into a war with some crew across town, I got between them to keep things from getting out of hand. At night when I couldn’t sleep I drew pictures. I drew everything that would become the portfolio for the launch of the tattoo shop.”

  “So that’s where St. Skin came from,” Kate said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “What’s got you so interested?”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said. “I’m just curious. You don’t seem like a saint at all.”

  “Oh, darling, I’m far from a saint,” I whispered. I turned in the sleeping bag to face her. “I’m the devil in disguise and you’re all mine.”

  I growled as I kissed Kate. She laughed as I scooped her up into my arms.

  I was done talking. I was done looking at the damn stars too.

  I had Kate. I had St. Skin.

  I had everything.

  Which meant I had everything to lose.

  *MONTHS LATER*

  SAWYER

  2.

  I threw the first punch. To be fair, it was years in the making. Where did it start? How did it lead to that exact moment? Those details were fuzzy. Maybe it was the whiskey, maybe it was everything else around me. But all I knew was that as Tate ran his mouth I told myself it was for the last damn time. I dove across two seats, hitting both River and Maddox out of my way, and I got to Tate.

  Finally.

  What really set me the hell off was that as we all hung out at Little Mikey’s, Kate chose to sit somewhere else. She was two seats away from Tate, sitting with a couple of her friends that I really didn’t know. Friends that were only
there for the experience of the outlaw bad boy biker and tattoo experience.

  I was there on business. And things weren’t going my way.

  Maybe it was bad for business to punch the guy that owned half the tattoo shop, but oh well, once my fist connected with Tate’s jaw, there was no taking it back.

  The bar instantly erupted with yells. I think it was more shock than anything else. Considering the size of myself and Tate, if we really did come down to blows, there wasn’t anyone that could stop it. That meant poor Pecker behind the bar would have to call the cops and they’d have to come and arrest us to stop the fight.

  Maddox hooked his arm into mine and I spun him like a toy. For a split second it looked like we were dancing but Maddox went flying across the floor. Tate had stumbled back, holding his jaw, his eyes locked to mine. I looked at Kate and her beautiful green eyes weren’t the same. For every step I had taken on her precious heart, she had taken the same on mine.

  So, yeah, maybe that’s what this was all about.

  River put a hand to my shoulder and said something soothing. That was just River being River. Forever the bad ass romantic. But this was a guy who spent his life forever waiting for a woman to come back and meet up with him. To me, if you wanted something that bad, you went and fucking got it.

  I gave River a warning to let me go and he did.

  Maddox regained his footing and went to Tate, putting a hand to his chest, as though that was going to stop Tate if he chose to come after me.

  He didn’t.

  He just stood there.

  And Kate just sat there.

  And everyone looked at me.

  Now, the whole story? Tate and I hadn’t spoken a word all night. We had been sitting there, drinking, a normal night for us. So, yeah, it was a little out of the blue for me to just lunge at him and punch him.

  But he deserved it.

  Trust me, he deserved it… and then some.

  *A FEW MINUTES LATER*

  SAWYER

  3.

  I stepped outside, licking my lips, wishing I had fresh whiskey. I should have just stayed put at the damn bar and drank myself into darkness. But there was no staying calm around Kate. And all the shit between me and Tate had reached its peak a long time ago and was just waiting to explode. Hell, there was plenty still to deal with but I was just going to hang outside and catch my breath.

  I never intended to open St. Skin and have this mess happen. St. Skin was my escape from the world I had been tossed into. Tate had every right to be pissed off at me but all I ever asked for was trust. From him. From Kate. And that never really came. Instead, it was a storm. I was done with the storm. It was pretty clear that this shit wasn’t going to pass. I wasn’t going to hold an umbrella or stand there in the rain like some fucking cliché.

  I cut my own path in life once, I could do it again.

  I walked toward the side of the bar and froze when I saw something I never thought possible.

  Tate standing with Kate. I’d be a fool to not know those two hadn’t had several conversations about me. Maybe it was their way of trying to cope with me. I was glad they had each other though. I didn’t have enough whiskey in my head to calm the racing thoughts. I stood there and watched the two of them talking. Kate hugging herself, a cigarette in her right hand. Amazing how she hated that shit, but now suddenly she loved to smoke. Tate stood in front of her, a giant, but if came down to it, I would put my money on Kate taking out Tate.

  They were talking and I couldn’t hear them.

  I thought about emerging from the shadows and having a conversation, but the cuts were too deep. Some stuff could scar over but some stuff would just bleed for the rest of your life.

  Before I could take a step, Tate touched his jaw. Then Kate reached up and peeled Tate’s hand away. Her hand slid along his jaw.

  I watched it happening as though I were imagining it. But this was real. This was fucking real.

  And it left me with two choices.

  Go over there and finish the fight with Tate.

  Or get on my ride and go.

  I made sure my motorcycle roared as I rode past them.

  I told myself I would figure things out by morning.

  It would take me years to come back.

  TWO

  SAWYER

  1.

  I thought I’d get some giant check like a lottery winner, but instead it was just a bunch of papers and everything done electronically. The sleaze ball I called a lawyer stood there and shook my hand for about an hour, smiling with his perfect teeth and slicked back hair. Of course he loved this deal, he not only made money off me, but he got to work on the development of the strip center that was going to bring in millions. I owned a small shop smack dab in the middle and was the last person to sell. I never intended for my shop to be open for the rest of my life. It was a way to kill time, working with two other guys - Tiny and Brutus - living close enough to the ocean that the smell of salt forever lingered in the air. I walked the beach at night too many times to count, my feet in the shallow water, holding the hand of a woman who’d offer a few nights of comfort and nothing else.

  When I finally got out of the lawyer’s office, I called Tiny and Brutus and had them meet me at a pizza place right on the beach. I sat in the corner and looked to the ocean as the warm air swept across my face. I had a cold beer in front of me, the glass sweating. All things considered, I should have been celebrating. I paid next to nothing for the space and was just given enough money to last me the rest of my life.

  I didn’t give a shit about money.

  Tattooing kept my mind at ease, but that was gone now. I could go work at any shop across the country and make a living. Or I could just open another place. Brand new. Ground up. State of the art. Find the best tattoo artists and make the shop into something nobody had ever seen before.

  Hell, maybe that’s what I should have done.

  I thought about it for a second as Tiny and Brutus started to walk toward me. Tiny stood seven feet tall and was built like a goddamn professional wrestler. Ink everywhere on his body except his face. The guy was terrifying but had a heart of gold. He was a single father and took care of his four-year-old daughter. I’m talking taking part in tea parties, dressing up in costumes, and going to her preschool to help with the class. I don’t know how the hell kids didn’t have nightmares after looking at Tiny.

  Brutus was short but built bigger than Tiny. He was fucking wide and if you bumped into him, you went flying. He could shoulder hit a brick wall and leave an impression.

  But these two guys had been loyal to me for a few years now. They knew why I opened the shop and they knew there was always a chance one day it would be closed. They knew I wasn’t living here for the rest of my life. My heart was always somewhere else. And when it came down to business people sniffing around for me to sell, they were there as it all happened. I had nothing to hide. Hell, everything I made at the shop, I split three ways. Maybe in some way I was trying to make up for what happened back in Hundred Falls Valley with Tate. Funny thing there was that my damn name was still on the neon sign. St. Skin was as busy as ever. And I was still getting checks from it. Tate never missed a payment owed to me as the place grew.

  Good for him.

  I stood up and skipped the handshakes with Tiny and Brutus and hugged them both. Brutus always smelled like body odor and Tiny smelled like cologne and syrup (the syrup from his daughter).

  “So, it’s all done, huh?” Tiny asked, looking down at me.

  That was unusual for me - to have someone looking down at me.

  “It’s done,” I said, not wanting to beat around the bush.

  The waitress at the pizza place came over and asked if we wanted anything. I ordered a round of beer and a pizza.

  But I knew they weren’t going to hang around for long.

  If there was one thing I was good at… it was goodbyes.

  2.

  “They’re going to level it all and put in a
fucking mall, aren’t they?” Tiny asked.

  “Probably apartments,” Brutus said. “Overpriced condos.”

  “Maybe we should have become real estate people,” Tiny said with a laugh.

  “Christ, man, with your look… people would buy anything off you because they’d be afraid of you,” I said.

  “Cheers to that,” Brutus said and raised his beer glass.

  We sat there in silence for a few minutes, looking out to the water.

  “So, what’s next, Sawyer?” Brutus asked.

  “For me? I don’t know. I don’t worry about that. What about you two?”

  “Plenty of shops around town,” Tiny said. “As long as they work with Angel’s schedule.”

  “Forever the father, huh?” I asked.

  “Nothing else matters, man. Someday you’ll get it.”

  “Me?” I asked. “Having a kid? Yeah, right.”

  “You might already have a family you don’t know about,” Brutus said. “The way you float around.”

  “I always protect my assets,” I said.

  “Talking like a businessman now,” Tiny said. “Hanging around that lawyer too much.”

  I laughed and leaned forward. “Look, I didn’t ask you guys to come here for pizza. Or to try and force small talk. I’ve been up front with you from day one. You know that.”

  “Actually, we don’t know a lot about you, Sawyer,” Tiny said. “You never really opened up.”

  “Not my thing to do,” I said. “But I know this. You took a chance to hang with me at my shop. We grew it. We did a good business. And now it’s gone. My lawyer finished the transaction this morning and I asked him to cut two checks. I can’t in good faith take the cash and run with it.”

  “Thought you were an outlaw?” Brutus asked.