Broken: a bad boy romance novel Read online

  It took two minutes for the guys to catch up to me, flying up on my ass in a big and expensive SUV. I assumed Mr. Irish was driving, and if I had truly done my job with Mr. Shotgun, I was at low risk of getting shot at.

  I took them on a little chase through the backstreets of Daurian up to the more open roads, twisting and turning, going to higher ground. The last thing I needed was a MC-versus-Irish shootout right in the middle of town. Shit, people hated us enough as it was.

  When I looked in my mirror and saw more headlights behind the SUV, I felt a small wave of relief hit me. There were two headlights, but they were independent from each other. It was Cash and one of my other brothers.

  They sped up, each taking a side on the SUV.

  I then slammed on my brakes and turned my motorcycle. It was a huge risk, but worth taking to slow this thing down and figure out what the fuck was happening. I heard a barrage of gunfire and wasn’t sure who was pulling the trigger. I protected my head and face, hoping I wasn’t going to get eaten up by a bullet.

  My left foot was flat on the asphalt as I stood my ground, blocking the way.

  When I turned my head, hoping to see the SUV slowing, I realized right then I was fucked.

  The SUV was still speeding at me.

  I lifted my leg at the last second and flew forward to get out of the way. Cash almost clipped my back wheel and lost his edge. I saw him drop his gun as the front wheel of his motorcycle wiggled.

  “Fuck,” I growled.

  Cash turned his motorcycle and barely kept himself from dropping the damn thing on his body. The whole motorcycle spun around as he regained control. He stood sideways, facing me, and gave a thumbs-up.

  I realized the other motorcycle was being ridden by Jasper, the club’s VP. He had his gun out and was still firing at the SUV. The SUV, however, made its move first. The vehicle turned, back tires crying in protest, echoing into the night. I looked at the driver, Mr. Irish, and I swore I could see the devil in his eyes. He was out for blood. Any blood that belonged to the Back Down Devil MC. Mr. Shotgun had his head back, obviously in pain from the gunshot wounds.

  The SUV then began to speed right at Cash.

  I jumped off my motorcycle, letting her fall to the ground. I ran faster than I ever had in my life before.

  “Cash!” I bellowed.

  He turned his head and saw the SUV barreling toward him. The son of a bitch then covered his head and face like he could protect himself from the massive vehicle.

  Shit.

  These guys busted in the store and were set on killing me. I’d dragged Cash into the mess, and he wasn’t going to be the one that ended up dead.

  At the last second, I jumped forward and felt my hands grab at Cash’s chest. I pushed and yelled, throwing him back and off his motorcycle. I was still airborne when the SUV made contact with my body. I felt my left leg slam into the left front of the SUV. Cash was on his ass, unharmed by the vehicle. My body, however, quickly turned because of the impact. I shielded myself with my left arm and smashed against the side of the SUV as it kept going. I then heard the sickening twisted and scraping of metal, and the SUV drove right over Cash’s motorcycle. I hit the ground, hard, and rolled a few times. Right then, I couldn’t breathe. I could see, I could hear, but there was no air for me to draw in. Gunshots continued to ring into the night. Cash then appeared over me, his hands open as wide as his eyes.

  “Holy fucking shit!” he screamed. “Jasper!”

  My jaw was moving as I tried to get air. I needed air. I needed to breathe.

  Cash dropped to one knee and grabbed my face.

  There was pain on the left side of my body, head to toe. But my right side felt numb. Relaxed and numb. I tried to move my right arm, and I could. I reached for Cash. He grabbed my hand.

  Jasper appeared and looked down at me, then down to my leg.

  “Fuck,” he cursed. “Let me call Trev and get an ambulance.”

  I finally found some air. I sucked in a breath and exhaled with the word No.

  I pressed my elbows to the pavement and tried to sit up. Jasper put his foot to my shoulder and pressed, fixing me back down to the ground.

  “You stay there, bro,” Jasper said. “You’re going to need some serious fucking help.”

  “What the fuck was that?” Cash asked. “Who were those guys? Where did they come from?”

  I took another breath. My mouth was moving. The words were scrambled in my brain. But they were there. I wanted to tell Cash everything. The hot pain in my left leg got worse. We were now at ‘lava hot’ searing pain. I shut my eyes, feeling tears building up.

  I refused to open my eyes again, because I was sure the reaper would be standing there, ready to take me to the other side.

  There was only one way out of the outlaw life, and that was death.

  4

  HUDSON

  There was a bright white light, but I knew I wasn’t dying. With the way I lived, there was no way a white light would be greeting me on the other side. I heard muffled voices, someone saying my name, asking me to squeeze their hand. I listened. Then someone said I wasn’t ready yet. After that, it was darkness. A very comfortable darkness at that. I was just hanging, me and my thoughts. The entire situation replaying over and over. Mr. Irish and Mr. Shotgun busting into that store. Taking shots. Chasing after me. It wasn’t some random scare tactic, either. That shit had been planned with purpose. Even though they didn’t get to kill me, they came damn close.

  When my eyes finally opened, it was a new day in the outlaw world.

  I had made it.

  Cash sat in the corner, slumped down, head to the side, sleeping. A glob of drool ran down the side of his mouth, inching down his chin. I watched for a few seconds and then turned my head. Trev leaned against the wall, head back, eyes shut.

  “Prez?” I asked, feeling my throat croaking.

  Trev pushed from the wall and looked at me. “Hudson.”

  I felt like I had slept off a long night of serious drinking. I tried to move but felt pain in my left leg. That’s when I saw how fucking bandaged up I was. My left leg was twice the size of the right.

  “Shit,” I whispered. “How bad?”

  “Shattered you good,” Prez said. “But you’re alive. Took you right in for emergency surgery, brother. You came close to losing it. Doc said if you were hit about inch higher, it would have hit something more important and you would have lost the leg.”

  “Fuck.”

  “You’re good,” Prez said. “Everyone’s here. Let me get them.”

  A minute later, I was surrounded by my brothers. They all stood around the bed as though they were seated at the table back at the clubhouse. Prez told me he had the prospects running security at the clubhouse and outside the hospital. And he also made a call for a brother charter in Reno to take a ride and keep a perimeter.

  I looked at Cash. I was still trying to process everything. I kept hearing the sounds. The SUV speeding up. The look in Mr. Irish’s eyes. The crunching metal of Cash’s motorcycle as it got run over.

  “Brother,” I said to Cash. “I’m sorry about your ride.”

  “Ah, no worries,” Cash said. “You saved my life.”

  “I dragged you into that.”

  “It’s what we do,” Cash said. He made a fist and put it to my jaw. “I’m serious, brother, you saved me. I panicked. I froze up. That motherfucker wanted to run me over.”

  “Who was it?” Prez asked.

  “Irish,” I blurted out.

  “What?” Kye asked.

  “Two guys,” I said. “I was getting some smokes over at the shop. Guys came right in with a sawed-off shotgun and started firing. It wasn’t a robbery. I shot the guy who had the shotgun, but his partner, he was the one in charge. Standing there all cocky and shit. Well-kept beard, red as fire, his accent as Irish as they come.”

  “Could it be fake?” Kye asked. “Throw our attention?”

  “No,” I said. “This was legit. This wa
s…”

  “I’ll make some calls,” Jasper said. “Approach this delicately.”

  “Hudson,” Prez said, leaning toward the bed. “This is a sensitive question. I can ask when everyone leaves.”

  “I’m an open book, Prez,” I said. “Nothing I can hide from my brothers. Ask away.”

  “Have you secretly got a vagina?” Cash asked.

  “What?” I asked.

  He grinned and winked.

  “Now that we got that out of our system,” Prez said. “Is there anything they’d want with you? Something happen?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Even before I came up here and took the charter over? There’s no judgment…”

  “Prez,” I said. I pushed at the bed and tried to sit up a little more. Anytime I moved, my leg hurt like death. “Shit.” I winced and sucked in a breath.

  “Hudson,” Xavier said. “Stop moving, bro.”

  “No,” I said. “Listen to me. Everyone listen to me. Those two guys were out for blood. They weren’t going to shoot me and leave me. They weren’t going to take me and get information. They wanted to kill me. And when I got a chance to escape, that fucker turned the SUV around and set his eyes on Cash. Prez, I have nothing to do with the Irish. Then, now, whenever.”

  “Okay,” Prez said. He looked around at everyone. “Then we need to take a vote, right here, right now.”

  “What are we voting?” Jasper asked.

  The hospital room door opened, and in came a nurse. She looked scared to death when every single one of us put our eyes on her. She was a cute little thing, red-faced, trying to keep her focus on my vitals.

  Cash eyed her like a dog to a bone. He licked his lips. Then he looked at me. He pointed his pointer finger out and grinned, winking at me. I wasn’t in the mood for fucking games, but what the hell, why not have a little fun.

  I slid my right hand under my sheet and used my pointer finger to pitch a tent.

  “How are you feeling, Hudson?” she asked me.

  “Just great,” I said.

  “How’s the le…” The nurse looked down and saw the fake erection. She blinked fast, her face even redder. “How’s the leg?”

  “Which one?” Cash asked. “Left, right, or third?”

  The other guys started to chuckle.

  I almost felt bad for the nurse. But I kept a straight face.

  “It hurts,” I said.

  “What’s the pain level? We can arrange for more meds.”

  “Good,” Trent said. “Knock him out ‘til Tuesday.”

  Cash grabbed the hospital bed and leaned forward. “Hey, babe. You wear that uniform and come see me when you’re done working. I’ll show you a real man. How’s that sound?”

  The nurse gave Cash the evil eyes, then turned to face me. “I’ll be back in a little bit. If you need anything from me…”

  “Maybe fix the wrinkle in his sheets,” Duke said.

  The guys laughed again.

  I looked at the nurse with a more serious expression. “Thanks for everything.”

  “Hey, babe,” Cash said. The nurse looked. Cash then put his hand to my finger, but for all the nurse knew, it was my dick he was grabbing. He then jerked it back and forth like a stick shift. “This ain’t nothing to what I’ve got for you.”

  Her eyes went wide, and she turned and hurried out the hospital room.

  Everyone held their laughter as we looked at Prez.

  Cash kept moving his hand against my finger.

  “Don’t mess your sheets, Hudson,” Cash laughed.

  I pulled my hand away and brought it over the covers and threw him the finger.

  “You all are sick fucking people,” Prez said. “I hope you know that.”

  We all laughed again. Even me. It hurt when I laughed, though.

  “So what are we voting on?” Jasper asked.

  “Our next move,” Prez said. “We heard what happened. So let’s figure something out.”

  “The store,” Duke said. “Before we go swinging at the Irish, can we at least hit the store? Ask the guy behind the counter what the fuck that was about. Maybe they were there to knock around that guy and saw a new opportunity.”

  “Agreed,” Jasper said. “But it doesn’t take away from the fact that they tried to kill two of our brothers.”

  “You said you shot one of them?” Prez asked.

  “Bullet in each shoulder,” I said.

  “So that guy has to get patched up too,” Austin said.

  “I’ll call all the locals and spread from there,” Cade said.

  “Unless they moved underground,” Xavier said. “Got medical attention there.”

  “Then we know it’s serious shit,” Jasper said. “Right?”

  Prez nodded and rubbed his chin. “Max, Duke, and Kye. You go down to the store. Cade and Austin, you work on local hospitals. The rest, I want you out and looking. I’ll personally call Chief Danielson and ask about an unusual crime. Then we’ll see what kicks back at us.”

  “And me?” I asked.

  Prez grabbed my good leg. “You just rest. Maybe apologize to that nice nurse for being a moron.”

  “Or maybe actually get hard,” Cash said. “Then give her some story and see what she can do.”

  “Do you think every scene in life is from a porno?” I asked.

  “It’s the only way to get through life, brother,” Cash said with a grin. “In every room in the world, there is a woman with a pussy that needs attention and a guy with a half-stiffy. You call it porn, I call it erotic fate.”

  “Oh, shit,” Prez said. “Everyone get out. You’ve got orders. Pretend the gavel has been hit. I want everyone out of the room. Except for VP. We need to talk to Hudson for a second.”

  That was never a good sign.

  I put my left fist out, and all my brothers gave me a shot, nodding, smiling, wishing me a speedy recovery. If they felt what I felt in my leg, they’d know there was no such thing as a speedy recovery.

  Once it was just the three of us, I felt like a swarm of tension had hit.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “The leg,” Prez said. “What’s the verdict?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Any chance you lose it?” Jasper asked.

  “The leg? I don’t think so. Doc said it was smashed up pretty bad. I got lucky though. An inch higher and it would have been gone. He said I should regain all feeling and function, but I’ll need to go through physical therapy for that.”

  “So there’s no riding,” Prez said.

  “I didn’t say that,” I said.

  “Be real, Hudson,” Jasper said.

  “What the fuck is this?” I asked. “No offense, Prez. No offense, VP. I’m laid up in a fucking bed, and you’re asking about riding?”

  “You know the rules, Hudson,” Jasper said. He swallowed hard.

  Rules.

  The fucking rules of the charter and the fucking rules of the MC. Written on paper by a few drunk war buddies who were so desperate to seek the truest of freedoms and break from the rules of society that they made their own rules and their own brand of society, freedom, and outlaw.

  I didn’t need to hear the fucking rules.

  I turned my head and looked away.

  “It’s not from us,” Prez said. “Our brothers out near Reno were asking questions. I just need to give answers. We’re going to have to call down to Frelen, too. Miller has been a great brother to all of us, especially me.”

  “I get it, Prez,” I said. “If I can’t ride, I can’t wear the cut.”

  “You said you were going to physical therapy and shit, right?” Jasper asked.

  “Yeah. Doc said once I’m sprung from here, it’s straight there.”

  “That’s good,” Jasper said. “Shows progress. It’ll keep the chatter at bay.”

  “Chatter?” I said. “Who the fuck is chattering? I got hit by a fucking SUV saving my brother.”

  “There are times when
the cut, the patch, the gavel, they’re heavier than anything in the world,” Prez said. “If we have to go toe-to-toe with the Irish, we need a full table.”

  “Got it,” I said. “I fucking got it, Prez. VP. I got it.”

  The two left my room.

  I sat there, alone, with nothing but my thoughts and my pain. I knew Trev and Jasper meant nothing by it. It was just old club shit. If they thought for a second I was going to just hang around and work an injury to avoid anything club-related, they were out of their minds.

  My thoughts wouldn’t go away.

  I pictured my brothers out there, hitting the streets, working and earning. They were all tracking down whoever tried to kill me. And I was stuck in a hospital bed. With nothing to do. My leather cut was across the room, hanging on a chair. It was fucking torture to see it that far away.

  I pressed the button for a nurse.

  It was the same nurse from before. She looked relieved when she entered the room and saw nobody there but me.

  “What do you need, Hudson?” she asked with a smile.

  I was going to ask her for my leather cut. So I could hold it. Smell it. Keep it close to me.

  Instead, I looked at her and said, “The pain is getting bad.”

  I was lying. Oh fucking well.

  “Let me page the doctor and we’ll get you some stronger painkillers.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  I wanted whatever it would take to knock me out and steal my thoughts.

  Not being able to ride wasn’t just about losing my cut and my club. If I couldn’t ride, I didn’t want to live.

  5

  CORA

  I was at my little desk, reviewing a patient file, when a coffee was set down in front of me. I quickly recognized the cup. It was from some new fancy cafe that charged way too much money for so little of a drink. I couldn’t afford to go there and neither could anyone that worked at the rehab center.

  I looked up and saw him standing there, that boyish grin on his face.