Date Published: October 16, 2026
Publisher: Changeling Press
Dane -- Brielle Sloan’s tangled up in the worst years of my life. Now she’s at my clubhouse with secrets that could change everything, trouble on her heels, and a mouth I have no business thinking about kissing. Then she stands up to me, and all I can think about is getting closer. Having her under my protection means seeing the woman behind our past. Getting involved could cost me my parole, but when she looks at me like she’s aching for me, I’m ready to take that risk. Every touch makes keeping my distance harder. Whoever’s after her will have to get through me first.
Dane
The long ribbon of highway carried me south along the riverfront before the sun had cleared the mountain tops. Cold air bit through my coat collar and hit the back of my neck. My bike thrummed under me, a steady vibration through the handlebars and into my palms.
Three blocks later, I noticed a dark blue Fusion behind me. It held my pace at two car lengths, never dropping back. I watched it in the side mirror without turning my head. The driver kept a distance but didn’t seem to be trying to hide as they followed. So, I promptly ran the next light. If the cops had suddenly taken an interest in me, I wanted the biggest head start I could get. Not because I’d done anything, but because right now, I could pretend I didn’t see them and speed back to the compound. Once inside, the guys could call the lawyer who sometimes helped us out. If they blue lighted me, though, it was over. So? I did ninety.
The compact waited at the intersection. A couple seconds later, I slowed down. I still kept an eye out but went much slower so I could take my eyes off the road and glance back occasionally. I thought that might have been the end of it, but a half mile down the road, I spotted the same car. OK. I’d play.
Instead of continuing to evade, I led the fucker straight to the compound. If someone was after me, I’d need backup. It’s what Knuckles and Gunnar stressed when I first came here. If I got into trouble, my first call or my next stop would be the Kiss of Death compound.
It didn’t take long until I reached the warehouses by the dock where the compound sat. A few minutes later, I pulled up to the gate and waited. Sure enough, shortly after, the little blue Fusion rolled up to the entrance and stopped.
I swung off my bike and crossed the fifteen feet between me and the car in long, threatening strides. My fist came down on the compact’s roof hard enough to feel the metal give. The sound cracked through the predawn quiet like a gunshot. Inferno and Oktober stepped just outside the gate where they’d been on watch and waited to see if I needed backup.
“Who the hell put you up to this?” Cold air snapped at my coat’s collar. “Why are you following me?”
The driver’s window rolled down. A woman’s face emerged from the shadows of the car interior, pale in the gray light, dark hair pulled back, and she trembled visibly. Her gaze found mine and held.
At first, I was just annoyed. Then my brain finally caught up with my eyes and pushed away from the car like she struck me. All of a sudden, the past came back to punch me in the balls.
The woman at the bank. She’d been the one to testify against me. Her testimony had been crucial to putting me away, so her face wasn’t one I ever wanted to see again.
She exhaled. Her breath misted between us. An envelope sat clutched in her hands, pressed against the steering wheel like she was afraid to let it go.
“I -- I’m Brielle Sloan.” Her voice shook as if she were nervous or scared. Good. I hope she was scared. “I saw that charity-run article in one of the city’s online papers. I wanted to find you at your clubhouse and didn’t realize who I was following.”
“You saw me in town and followed me.” Not only was she a bitch but she was a stupid bitch. “You thought it was safe to follow a strange man affiliated with any kind of MC to their clubhouse? Is that what I’m hearing?”
She blinked up at me, shivering now in the October wind. “I…” She swallowed. “I guess so.” When she spoke that time, her voice was soft and subdued, likely knowing she’d fucked up.
“You’re not here about a fuckin’ charity run.” I held her gaze, letting my anger bleed through so she knew exactly what she was dealing with. “What the fuck do you want?”
She took a breath before opening the door and stepping out. She was smaller than I remembered from the courtroom. In fact, she looked like shit with her cheekbones prominent and her skin almost sallow. She looked like she’d missed more than a couple meals and ran herself ragged. Outside the car, her breath came in short white clouds between us.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “I didn’t want to testify against you, but I was being threatened.” She held out the manila envelope she’d been clutching to her chest, offering it to me. “This proves he built that robbery around you.”
This was not on my bingo card. “Evidence I was set up? The fuck ‘er you talkin’ about?” Twelve years. Twelve years I’d spent on the inside, just trying to survive in an environment not in any way shape or form friendly to a lone white boy. The lessons I’d learned had to be learned hard and fast.
She took a tentative step forward, insisting I take the envelope. “It’s all in there.” Brielle’s voice changed. The level quality thinned at the edges. “I’m sorry, Mr. Rourke. I never meant to be the bad guy in all this.”
Wind cut across the service road. Cold river air, carrying the scents of diesel and mud. Her hair stirred at the edges with a couple of strands catching on her eyelashes. She didn’t push them away, instead held the envelope.
I took the envelope from her just as I noticed another car. I’d been so focused on the blue car, I ignored the other car following. This was a gray sedan. Seeing it now triggered the memory and I knew I had more than one person following me. When Brielle got out of her car, she’d turned the engine off. I’d been waiting for her at the clubhouse gate with my bike shut off. Which meant, the gray sedan I’d seen earlier couldn’t see our lights and didn’t have a warning we were around the next bend.
As the car rounded the curve and finally saw us, the driver let off the accelerator a moment before continuing on as if nothing had happened. Admittedly, the driver could have lifted his foot on reflex. But I had a tingle between my shoulders I’d learned never to dismiss offhand.
Out of the corner of my vision, I saw Oktober and Inferno ready themselves. Inferno actually started toward me, though Oktober held back. Likely to have the wider angle, and to call for reinforcements.
The car continued on and had to pass close enough for me to see the outline of the driver behind the windshield. I thought the guy had a phone in his hand, but it was hard to tell as the floodlights glared against the windshield and the driver’s side window.
Brielle didn’t seem to notice the other vehicle. At least, she didn’t glance at it. Instead, she seemed so focused on me nothing else around her seemed to register. I could see her hands shaking, but she didn’t tuck them away or try to hide it. Which meant, she likely hadn’t known who was in the sedan or knew she’d been followed. If she had and this was a setup, she’d have shifted her gaze to the car on instinct.
Just as I thought the car would roll on and keep going, it stopped a few car lengths away from us. I could see the driver aiming his phone at his side mirror. Taking a picture?
“Don’t move,” I said to Brielle.
Oktober and Inferno both now moved to cover me and Brielle, between us and the sedan. The sedan stayed a moment longer. I caught the outline of the driver through the back window. Great.
“What’s going on?” Oktober looked from me to Brielle and back.
“Not sure,” I muttered. “But someone just photographed me and the woman whose testimony put me in prison. I doubt my parole officer would be impressed to find out we’d had contact of any sort.” I scowled, stepping backward so fast, Inferno had to stop me from knocking him down.
“Easy, man,” he said softly. “What’s going on?”
I pointed at Brielle. “If you’re trying to get me tangled in something to get my parole revoked, you can just take your sweet ass back to wherever the fuck you came from.”
Gravel sprayed from the rear tires as the sedan hurried out of the area and faded as the car swung onto the main road and disappeared toward Nashville. Still, that itch between my shoulders became more insistent and bothersome. Something wasn’t right at all.
“Who was in the gray car, Brielle?”
Her brow wrinkled in confusion. “I… what?”
“The car that just stopped and took our picture. Who was following us?”
She shook her head, a helpless expression on her face as she looked at Oktober and Inferno, then glanced around the area. She turned her head to look down the road opposite where the car had been. Could the woman be that clueless of her surroundings?
Fuck. “So fucking stupid,” I muttered. I didn’t know if I meant Brielle, or me. Because I was about to do something so incredibly stupid as to not even be believed.
I tucked the envelope inside my coat. “Get in your car, Brielle.”
Brielle didn’t move. “OK. I’ll leave.”
“No,” I snapped. “Follow me to the compound. Follow me and don’t stop for anything.” I moved back to my bike and climbed on.
“Everything OK?” Oktober followed me, Inferno hanging back to watch over Brielle.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m taking her to the compound. I’ll let Knuckles and Knight sort this out.”
“Sort what out?”
I met his gaze. “I’m pretty sure trouble just came crawling to our doorstep.”
Oktober nodded at the little Fusion as Brielle climbed back inside. “Someone was interested in whatever she brought me.” I indicated the envelope. “It might be nothing, but if she’s not actually working to wrap me up in some kind of trap, then she could be in some serious danger.”
Inferno instructed Brielle which way to go once she passed through the gate. As I watched, her eyes grew round and wide. Her already pale face seemed to lose even more color as fear settled into her expression. She looked almost haunted, like she knew it was only a matter of time before the bad guys caught up to her.
She pulled up beside me, just inside the gate. “What’s going on?”
I gave her a hard look, hoping I got through to her because, while I might be angry with her, none of what happened back then had been her fault. And even if it was, I knew the kind of man Grant Sutton was. Brielle had been little more than a teenager when it had all gone down. He’d likely blackmailed her or threatened her. Still, I couldn’t help my harsh tone. “Does Sutton know you’re here?”
“What?” Her eyes widened and she started trembling even more. “Why would he know I’m here?”
“I don’t know what your game is, but I’d bet my ass Sutton has had you followed. He now knows you’re not playing by his rules anymore. Whatever protection you thought you had just evaporated. Follow me and don’t stop until I do.”
I rolled toward the compound, my brothers at my back. I knew one of them would have contacted Knuckles. Both of them probably called their old ladies because neither man would want the woman following me to be thrown to the wolves without some backup. Whether she deserved that backup remained to be seen. Either way, I’d get to the bottom of this. And I really hoped Brielle Sloan was on the up and up.
Marteeka Karland is an international bestselling author who leads a double life as an erotic romance author by evening and a semi-domesticated housewife by day. Known for her down and dirty MC romances, Marteeka takes pleasure in spinning tales of tenacious, protective heroes and spirited, vulnerable heroines. She staunchly advocates that every character deserves a blissful ending, even, sometimes, the villains in her narratives. Her writings are speckled with intense, raw elements resulting in page-turning delight entwined with seductive escapades leading up to gratifying conclusions that elicit a sigh from her readers.
Away from the pen, Marteeka finds joy in baking and supporting her husband with their gardening activities. The late summer season is set aside for preserving the delightful harvest that springs from their combined efforts (which is mostly his efforts, but you can count it). To stay updated with Marteeka's latest adventures and forthcoming books, make sure to visit her website. Don't forget to register for her newsletter which will pepper you with a potpourri of Teeka's beloved recipes, book suggestions, autograph events, and a plethora of interesting tidbits.
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