Dethroned: Two Wheels Two Hearts (A Bad Boy Romance) Read online

  Dethroned

  Two Wheels Two Hearts

  Sara Crest

  Curved Mountain Books

  Contents

  Copyright

  Connect With Me

  Act I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Act II

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Act III

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Don’t forget to connect!

  Links

  Thanks For Reading!

  ©

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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  Act I

  1

  Adventure. A change of pace. Spontaneity.

  Three things that I longed for, three things that I dreamt about every day, three things that I so desperately wanted to use to describe my life.

  Sure when you’ve been a bartender for as long as I have you see some things but after being stuck in small town Florida doing the same thing for years I was practically begging for a change of pace. That’s why when I met the Rolling Raiders Motorcycle Gang I thought that maybe things would finally change in my life.

  When one of the largest chapters of one of the largest motorcycle gangs in the country comes into a small town like mine they don’t just visit, they come roaring through. Guess who’s bar they chose to make their hangout?

  I’ll always remember that day, because it was the day that sent my life steering away from the same path I had been on for years. It was the day that I met Johnny, the man who would come to influence my life like no other.

  The sounds of their roaring engines filled the air, we could hear them coming from a mile away. Hearing them was one thing, but seeing them was an event on its own.

  It was a practical army of men, all speeding in on their motorcycles and piercing the silence of our small town with their engines, hoots and hollers.

  I was leaning against the outside wall of the bar when they came. I used to tell my boss I was going on smoke breaks in order to get a few minutes of fresh air outside. I didn’t even smoke, I even kept an unlit cigarette in my mouth just to keep up appearances. Guess it paid off in the end because I got to see the whole gang come in.

  Don’t know why they chose the bar I worked in as their hangout spot, some people say it was just the first bar they saw. I’d like to think it was because Johnny saw me from a distance and that maybe, just maybe, I was pretty enough for him to want to get a closer look at. Whatever the reason was his decision would come to change my life.

  He pulled up on his motorcycle near the entrance with the entire chapter in tow, waves of men on motorcycles coming one after another as they quickly filled our once empty parking lot.

  I watched Johnny slowly lift up his helmet, taking in a breath of fresh air after hours of riding.

  He was by far the most handsome man to ever visit that bar. “Shame about the whole motorcycle gang thing though, bound to be trouble” I thought to myself as I watched him adjust his messy, short brown hair and wipe away the sweat from underneath his dark green eyes.

  He got off his bike, an all black machine with a cursive “Rolling Raiders” printed in gold on the side. As he approached the front door I began to realize how absolutely massive he was. He towered over both me and his men, he must have been at least 6’4. He wore a black vest with a t shirt underneath, his arms were muscular and toned and proudly wore the tattoos of his gang and a few scars from god knows where.

  He glanced at me nonchalantly, almost as if I was just a part of the scenery, completely uninterested in my presence. He hesitated to walk into the bar and gave a look on his face of indecisiveness, it almost seemed as if he thought he was too good for it. He turned to face me and looked like he was about to ask a question when he was interrupted by the sounds of sirens closing in.

  He turned to see two police cars pull into our parking lot, their lights flashing and their sirens blaring. Johnny sighed in annoyance at the sight of four police officers stepping out of their cars. “Sure when a motorcycle gang pulls in they show up without a call but when I need help kicking out the drunks they’re nowhere to be seen” I thought.

  “Johnny Odell, you’re got some god damned nerve rolling into this town like you own the place” the Sheriff barked at him as he took a few steps closer.

  It was the first time I heard Johnny’s name, I guess hearing it being shout out from the town sheriff was a fitting introduction.

  “Not many people have the balls to say my name out loud old man” Johnny replied as he crossed his arms. He had an incredibly deep voice, powerful enough to command the attention of any man. His entire gang fell silent as they stood and watched the two men stare each other down.

  “Yeah well not many people have the balls to put you away either but guess I’m just not like many people.”

  He motioned one of his deputies forward and the deputy approached Johnny as he drew a pair of handcuffs.

  Two of Johnny’s men immediately stepped in the way, blocking the deputy from performing his duty. The whole gang circled the squad cars and the police, completely surrounding them and preventing any escape.

  “Sheriff… this is a small town, and I’m gonna assume you four are the only police for miles and miles. So by my count it’s about 40 or 50 of us versus four of you.” Johnny walked towards the sheriff, pushing aside his own men and the deputy that stood in his way. He towered over the sheriff, looking down on him with a cocky, shit eating grin.

  “So I’m gonna be nice today, since you actually had the balls to confront me. I’ll let you and your men walk away from this little get together unharmed, and you’ll leave me and my boys alone.”

  The Sheriff scowled, realizing that he didn’t have anywhere near the manpower to take down Johnny and the Rolling Raiders. He motioned his men back and got back into his car, completely defeated and humiliated.

  “Oh and Sheriff, one final thing.” Johnny reached into the car where the sheriff was seated, he grabbed the sheriff’s badge and ripped it off of his uniform “you’ll get this back when I leave town.”

  The whole gang began laughing as they cleared a hole in the crowd for the police to leave.

  Johnny turned to the bar and began walking towards the entrance as I flicked my unlit cigarette.

  He walked up to me and pinned the sheriff’s badge onto my shirt “it’s a big job, you think you can handle it?”

  “Well Mr. Odell, after a display like that I think it might be a job too big for me. I’m not looking for any trouble”

  He chuckled “I’m only a few years older than you, just call me Johnny, and I’m sure if everything goes right we won’t be causing too much trouble.”

  He looked up at the bar, its old neon sign dim in the light o
f the afternoon. Always did want the boss to unplug it during the day, damn waste of electricity.

  “So is this place any good?” Johnny said peeking inside.

  “I’d like to think so, since I’ve spent quite a few years working here.”

  He pointed to the door, motioning me inside. My break wasn’t over but I figured it was a good idea to listen to the man who just got the sheriff to shit his pants. I sighed and followed his lead.

  2

  When I opened the door I might as well have opened the floodgates. As soon as Johnny walked in half of his gang poured in behind him.

  The noise immediately brought attention to my bar owner, Mr. Cullen, who was very quick to get up off his ass and see his bar more full that it had ever been.

  When Mr. Cullen got an eyeful of the men that just strolled through his door he practically had a heart attack. “G-gentlemen” he stuttered “I’m sorry but I can’t be serving gangs here, in the day this is a family friendly establishment and we have to keep up appearances.” He was lying, we were a bar the only time a family ever came in here was to pick up a drunken family member.

  “Now hold the fuck on” Johnny snapped back “are you implying that me and my boys aren’t family?” Johnny turned around to the dozens of men behind him “you hear that boys? Man says we aren’t family, guess we gotta go.” His crowd of men began laughing and booing, giving thumbs down to Mr. Cullen who was practically shaking in his boots.

  Johnny put both of his hands over his heart “sir I loooovvvee every man who follows me as if he were my own brother, ain’t that family enough?” He walked over and put his hand on Cullen’s shoulder, squeezing it hard “I think the love between my brothers and I are so great that if we were to eat and drink at this fine establishment then we would have no reason to trash the place… don’t you agree?”

  Johnny stared into Cullen’s eyes, giving a big grin. He turned to me still smiling “how about you little lady, don’t you think we deserve some top quality service after all those hours of riding?”

  I looked at him, then to Mr. Cullen, then back to Johnny. “I knew he was gonna cause some kind of trouble” I thought, just wish that Cullen had the guts to actually stand up to him.

  “Just take your seats and I’ll start serving you” I said annoyed.

  Mr. Cullen remained silent on my decision as the gang members began sitting down all around the bar, chanting for drinks. I decided to lead him behind the bar to begin pouring as many beers as we possibly could. I looked up to see Johnny taking a seat besides a few men, it looked as if they were discussing something in private under the cover of the noise in the bar. We began serving the beers, while giving a bunch of rough, tattooed, and possibly armed men alcohol seemed like a bad idea there wasn’t much we could actually do.

  I walked over to Johnny and put his down beer, before I turned away to serve more of his men he grabbed me firmly by the wrist.

  “You never told me your name” he said as he released my wrist from his grasp.

  “Ashley, I prefer Ash though.”

  “Is that right, I’ll make sure to remember it.”

  “Is there anything else you need or did you just grab my wrist to learn my name.”

  “Whoa there miss there’s no need to be so hostile” he said smiling, you don’t gotta take any anger out on me.

  He was mistaken, I wasn’t angry I was annoyed. Annoyed at his “brothers,” annoyed at Cullen, and annoyed that a guy as physically attractive as Johnny had to be a gang member with an attitude. In a small town like this you don’t get good looking men passing through too often. I guess there are just some things about life you can’t change, like the good looking guys who grow up to be arrogant and dangerous.

  His men drank themselves stupid as I stayed behind the bar, serving them as they came up and asked me for more liquor in their slurred speech. Normally when a customer starts slurring their words I cut them off but I wasn’t about to withhold liquor to a biker gang.

  I spent most of my time staring at Johnny, trying to read his lips that is. Since arriving he seemed to be having a serious and private discussion with the same group of three men that sat at the table with him. His beer sat there untouched as the men conversed with each other about god knows what.

  In a brief moment of downtime I went to Mr. Cullen’s office, he had fled the bar as soon as he had finished pouring the first round of drinks.

  I found him on his office phone, furiously dialing 911 again and again.

  “There’s no freaking dial tone? Can you believe it those bastards must have cut the line out back.”

  “Even if it went through the police aren’t gonna be coming any time soon” I replied. I took the sheriff badge that Johnny had pinned to my shirt out of my pocket, tossing it onto Mr. Cullen’s desk.

  “If you weren’t locked in here all day and actually listened to what was going on you would have seen those bikers chase away the police.”

  Mr. Cullen bent the badge and spiked it hard into the trash can out of frustration. “So I’m just supposed to keep serving those damn hooligans until they get tired and leave? What if they trash the bar? Why are they even here?”

  “I really don’t know why they’re here but they’ve ordered more beer in the past few hours than what we normally serve in a week. At least take their money while they’re here.”

  “Yeah that’s if they actually pay” Cullen replied.

  Just then I heard a commotion coming from the bar, I stood up and hurried quickly out of Cullen’s office to find Johnny in an altercation with one of his gang members.

  “Come on Johnny it’s been sitting there forever it’s a waste of beer!”

  A scrawny kid, probably barely old enough to drink, had a hand on Johnny’s beer mug. Johnny had a tight grip around the mug itself while the kid held on by the handle, the mug shook as they pulled on it back and forth.

  “I don’t care how long it’s been sitting here Freddie” Johnny replied through his teeth “I’m the god damned chapter leader and when I tell you to let it go I mean let it go.”

  A stupid grin shone across Freddie’s drunken face “If you say so, boss.” He let go of the mug, causing Johnny to accidentally pull too hard, crashing the mug down on the table and shattering it.

  “Fucking Christ!” Johnny yelled out as he lifted his hand up, he had cut his hand on the glass and he was already beginning to bleed pretty badly.

  “Red’s a good color on you, chapter leader!” Freddie blurted out as he laughed in his drunken stupor.

  The entire bar was silent, watching the scene with their mouths agape.

  Johnny looked at his hand, grimacing slightly in pain.

  He stood up calmly, looking down as the kid kept a goofy smile across his face.

  In a move so quick you would have missed it if you blinked Johnny raised his bloodied hand and struck Freddie across the face. The noise rang out throughout the bar as Freddie fell to the ground immediately. Johnny’s blood left a red print on Freddie’s face as he lay on the floor dazed and confused. Johnny pressed his boot hard on Freddie’s chest, holding him on the ground with just his leg as Freddie struggled beneath him.

  “The first two men to drag this sorry sack of shit outside and finish what I just started don’t have to pay me their monthly dues” Johnny barked.

  Two men jumped up from a nearby table and dragged Freddie outside by his legs. I had seen fights in this bar before, but I had never seen a man strike down another man with that kind of authority.

  The whole gang stared at Johnny as he stood there looking at the door, he looked around the room to see everyone staring at him. In the most calm tone you could imagine he simply said “this ain’t fucking broadway, go back to whatever you were doing.”

  The bar was filled with noise again as people returned to their conversations Johnny went back to to his table and mumbled a few words into the ear of one of his men.

  He came up to the bar, holding his hand palm up so that
the blood didn’t drip onto the floor.

  “Ash, you know how to stitch a cut?” he asked me as he rested his elbow on the bar, presenting me with his cut open hand.

  “W-what would make you think I knew how to do that?”

  “You a bartender ain’t you? If you’re gonna be serving my club you gotta know how to stitch, whether that be a wound or the patches on our initiatives’ jackets.”

  I stood there petrified, staring at his bloodied hand as he presented it to me. All I wanted to do was take their tips and serve them drinks and now their leader was asking me to perform minor surgery on him.

  “Hey! You gonna stand there watching me bleed out or are you gonna find a damn needle?”

  I jumped and quickly rushed back to Mr. Cullen’s office, finding the needle and threads he used to sew up the holes in the upholstery on the old barstools. I looked for a first aid kit and found it mostly empty but with a few bandages inside.

  I brought it all back to Johnny, grateful that Mr. Cullen had left a good bit of string tied to the needle from the last time he sewed up one of the seats.

  “Oh wow you were actually gonna do it” Johnny said chuckling.

  “Wait what do you mean?”

  “That cut ain’t nowhere near bad enough for stitches honey, just bandage me up good and I’ll be fine.”

  “Asshole” I thought as I set the needle down behind the bar. I breathed a sigh in relief knowing now that I didn’t have to stitch up anyone.

  I prepared some padding and bandages as Johnny reached over the bar, grabbing a handle of vodka. He took the cap off and downed a good 4 or 5 shots worth without flinching. After gulping down some he poured a few drops on his hand “gotta prep myself for the doctor, can’t have that cut going bad on me” he said smiling at me.

  He held out his hand, I gulped as I took his hand into my left and began to bandage it up with my right.