Jaded beautiful biker mc.., p.1
Jaded: (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series), page 1
Jaded
A
Beautiful Biker
Romance
Book 5 in The Beautiful Biker Series
by
DD Prince
Copyright: DD Prince http://ddprince.com. 2023.
This book is fictional and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is unintentional. Copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
This digital book is licensed exclusively through Amazon. If you did not buy it through Amazon or are not reading it through an Amazon reading subscription, you have an unlicensed pirated copy. Please destroy it and obtain it through legal channels. Thank you for respecting the author’s work and copyright.
Obtaining this book through legal channels allows authors like me to continue to bring you stories because I can keep my power on, food in the pantry, coffee in the IV drip, and the creative juices flowing.
Thank you very much for reading my work!
NOTICE:
This book contains strong language, spice, sensuality, violence, emotional, and graphic scenes. It also contains scenes that might cause emotional distress for some, related to self-harm, suicide, and serious illness.
Jaded is book five in the Beautiful Biker Series. While each book is about a different couple, there are overlapping storylines and so for the optimal reading experience, I recommend reading the Beautiful Biker books in order, starting with book 1, Detour.
Author’s Note:
When I wrote Detour, I wrote it from the heroine’s point-of-view. I followed suit through the next few books, loving the single POV because it left plenty up to our imaginations and meant our heroes showed us how they felt. I decided it might be fun to write Jaded from the perspective of the biker. Not only fun, but it’d give us more insight into these delicious men by seeing things that would happen off-page in the heroine-POV books.
But…
Getting a bit of Gianna’s perspective felt necessary for this story, especially given that she wasn’t well-liked by some readers because of the fact that she’d been with some of our previous heroes before they met their one and only.
I decided to give you a bit of Gianna with the prologue and epilogue from her perspective. The rest of the story will come from Jesse’s.
This book’s timeline crosses books three and four in the series because I wanted you to see these two and their relationship from the beginning, so it felt necessary to show some of those scenes either through Jesse’s perspective or through inner thoughts where he recalls certain events when they happened. It’s a tricky balance to do enough showing instead of just telling but without spending too much time focusing on the past or events you’ve already read about.
I wanted to give enough space to the relationship-building between these main characters without making this a 900-page novel. I hope I’ve found the right balance.
I fell in love with these two and hope you do, too.
Want equal rights? Don’t fuck a biker.
Want safe and predictable? Do not fall for a biker.
Want wind in your hair, fire in your soul, and a man’s fingerprints on your body, marking you as his and only his, to be protected and treasured forever?
Don’t accidentally become a club bunny.
-Gianna Grace Jones
Prologue
Gianna Grace Jones
Ten Years Ago
It reeked in here. I couldn’t stop shivering. I shivered so hard with the cold it made my bones ache.
The rotten smell, the cold, and the fear were a potent cocktail that kept me on edge and ensured I would definitely not fall asleep and leave myself vulnerable in this place. I’d come here for shelter from the cold, but as soon as I stepped into it, I knew it might’ve been better to take my chances in subzero temperatures.
The streets didn’t smell like this carpet. Right now, the streets had a pretty dusting of pure, fresh snow on top of ice from the freezing rain of a couple hours ago. I don’t know what has to happen to carpet to make it smell like this and probably don’t want to know, since I was sitting on it.
This was the kind of thing that happened when you found yourself sleeping rough in a squat.
On the streets, you aren’t surrounded by speckled black mold, rotting walls and water-damaged ceilings likely filled with vermin shit and asbestos or other noxious substances. Walls and ceilings are supposed to shelter you, but these? Probably not great for the lungs. And one strong gust of wind and the whole place might crumble down on top of us.
So, why was I here?
Kailey.
Kailey reasoned that trying to get through the night out there might mean we freeze to death. I argued we could be in mortal danger here, too. With the streets, at least I wouldn’t be under the scrutiny of the quiet guy with bloodshot eyes and the random bouts of twitching.
In times like these – sadly, this wasn’t the first time like this – I always thought about that Little Match Girl movie I saw as a kid where the young girl with the fair hair froze to death. If only she’d started a fire instead of letting the matchsticks burn out one by one. I saw that movie as a cautionary tale; it’s haunted me ever since. Then again, my life, the positions I kept finding myself in, I’m a walking, talking cautionary tale myself. Anyone watching me right now would probably say, “Go! Run! Get out of there before yet another bad thing happens to you.”
Yeah, my guardian angel probably has to take more Xanax than my mother and she pops them like they’re Pez.
Like a too-stupid-to-live heroine in a horror movie, I often ignore when my instinct tells me to take flight. Why?
Kailey is often why.
And because of Kailey, too often it turns to fight. Or instead of fight or flight, it turns to put up and shut up.
Damn it, Kai. Kailey and her bright ideas again. Kailey’s schemes getting us kicked out. Kailey’s bright ideas putting us in the clutches of predators. Kailey sleeping peacefully with her head on my lap while I’m left to watch for the moment that’s not too early yet not too late. The moment to wake her and skedaddle.
I’m keeping us from freezing to death (barely) for as long as possible here since she’s sound asleep, but ever since we got here I knew, I just knew… we would be doing a runner before the sun rose.
Yet again, I let her railroad me. I protested and she talked me into things. And I should know better. I do know better. But it’s been like this since we were kids, since shortly after my father married her mother and I found myself with a new stepsister who was a couple years older, a whole lot worldlier, and full of ideas. Ideas that usually got us into trouble, but yet somehow with the power to talk me into things. Times like these were too common. Times when I knew we were making a mistake and wouldn’t stand my ground then wind up in a state of self-loathing, scolding myself for being such a pushover. Such a doormat. It might as well be tattooed on my forehead because I feel like I can see it in the mirror. Kailey certainly sees it.
If Kailey weren’t asleep with her head on my lap, I’d be arguing that we should go now. But she’d stay anyway, and so would I because otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to protect her. If not for her, I’d be walking the icy sidewalks until morning if necessary until I could hunker down somewhere in the daylight and figure out our shit. Then again, if not for her, I wouldn’t have found myself homeless again.
At the idea of the need to figure out our shit, yet again, my belly dipped and then twisted with more stress. Time to find another place to stay. A way to feed ourselves. Again. Because we sure didn’t have friends to lean on. No. Kailey wore out her welcome everywhere and got me painted with the same brush by extension.
Aunt Francie told me with her finger in my face tonight that she was done with me and especially done with Kailey. Kailey makes her mad on a good day and today was not a good day. Kailey drank Aunt Francie’s special bottle of brandy that she was saving. Kailey borrowed Aunt Francie’s lighter and left the house with it in her pocket. Kailey cussed under her breath when Aunt Francie read her the riot act when she got back. Kailey got us both kicked out because even Aunt Francie, my own flesh and blood, painted us with one brush, considered us a duo and we both paid for the sins of one. I should say we both paid for Kailey’s sins because I wasn’t ever the one getting us in trouble.
How Kailey could look so peaceful sleeping in this squat with this smell and the shady squatter was beyond me. Kailey always slept like she didn’t have a care in the world. No, not a care because she knew I would keep watch. It’s been like this since that night that changed our relationship, that night she saved me and read the gratitude in my eyes. She knew she had bought my loyalty and she’s been exploiting it ever since. I guess I’ve been trying to save her, too.
Bitterness sweeps through me during times like these, times like these that keep happening, because she’s all I’ve really got and though Kailey is like a bull in a China shop, I can’t seem to just leave her to her destruction.
We agreed to first and second watches, as usual, when we found ourselves in a situation we knew was bad, but I was always first watch, which meant I got stuck with the whole thing because she couldn’t be trusted to keep herself awake. It always started the same, her promising to take second watch for real this time. Reminding me to wake her. I always agreed, but just stayed awake anyway. Because I learned to not even bother to wake her after remembering all too well what happens when I trust her to stay awake and
My tongue prodded the chip at the back molar that happened when I was thrown down the stairs that night after saying no to the guy pawing at me. A forever reminder that I couldn’t leave my fate in her hands again. It wasn’t the first time trusting her led to a permanent change in me. Someday, I’ll get that back tooth fixed. Someday, maybe Kailey will wise up. If I had a dollar for every time I told myself someday, I’d be rich.
So once again, I’d sacrifice sleep to make sure nobody laid a hand on either of us. Not that I could likely physically stop the quiet, twitchy guy if he tried. Instead, I’d wake her so we could try to fend him off together and make a run for it.
***
Of course the night ended like many other nights with Kailey have ended… the two of us running hand-in-hand to get away from bad things that happen to stupid girls in the dark.
We ran hand-in-hand, just like that night so long ago with her daddy unconscious on the floor after she thwacked him over the head with the heavy book. That was the night she saved me from him and declared she owned my virginity because she stopped him from taking it from me the way he took hers. It didn’t take her long to trade it, though. Another night, another time where we needed a place to stay, and I put my fate in her hands.
That was the night it changed between us, when she stopped looking at me as competition and instead as an ally. Though she didn’t want me staying with her and her father for a week while my dad and her mom went on vacation, they pushed the issue. I figured it was so she could continue to lord her amazing father-daughter adventures over me. She didn’t want me to have adventures, too.
The reality was that she knew I’d learn the truth. That there was no spoiling, no adventures, no Disney World. And though she could’ve left me to him so she’d catch a break from his attention, she saved me after he put his hands on me by hitting him over the head with that book. We ran hand-in-hand in the dark. And I’ve been trying to save her ever since.
My life hasn’t ever been easy. But the older I get, the harder it seems to get. And Kailey certainly helps make it that way.
Yeah, that little voice inside often tells me I really should turn away and leave Kailey to her schemes that always drop me in hot water, but I don’t want to give up on her. I’ve heard her hopes and dreams. I’ve held her while she’s cried for all she wants and doesn’t have. I feel those feelings on a deep level.
Then again, I feel too much on a deep level and those feelings are so full inside me that sometimes I think that if I could just open my mouth and scream really loud and for a really long time, they’d finally have somewhere to go.
But running out of yet another squat with the tweaker threatening to kill us, Kailey pouring gasoline on that fire by laughing over her shoulder and calling him names, I worry that one of these days, she’s going to get the both of us killed.
***
Now
“Kai, you have to get out of there,” I hissed. “This doesn’t sound good at all. Shit’s about to go south. I know it. They’re using you again, and-”
She cut me off, “Ain’t nothing I can do about any of it but wait it out. And he does care about me, Gia. You should see how sweet he can be when it’s just us. He’s under a lotta pressure.”
If caring meant knocking her around, using her, basically pimping her out, having her make videos to ruin his enemies and then sharing those far and wide …
She kept talking. “He’ll see to me. Just gotta stick close and help. You should come. Hunker down ‘til it’s over. It’s gonna get bad, sis. They’re gonna take out every last Dom. They’re gonna…”
Her voice dropped so low I just barely heard her.
“Start with their women. Take ‘em out one at a time, watching the Doms fall apart as they lose everything, and then they’ll go for the throat. When it’s all over, things will be good. Mantis’ll – shit. Hold on.”
“Kailey…” I breathed, feeling my insides shrivel.
She was again playing with fire. And she knew deep down that the Dominion Brotherhood weren’t the bad guys. The guys she was hitching her wagon to now were the bad guys. The worst guys.
Kailey plays both sides in every war, figuring it’s a safe way to make sure she’ll always come out on the winning side. But she never plays it smart. And she played it really stupidly when she went against the Dominion Brotherhood. She didn’t learn from that though, from all the things that happened as a result of her getting played. And again, she was playing with more fire, not learning from the last time the Wyld Jackals burnt her.
But because of what she did, the Dominion Brotherhood will have nothing to do with her, so now she considers them her enemy, too.
And yeah, once again she got me painted with that same brush. I was no longer welcome there because of her and her games.
“Come by Charlie’s, Gia. Come to the back door. Sarge always asks about you. Drop his name and they’ll let you into the back room. He’ll look after you. Say his name, not Mantis, okay? You’re safer associated with us than being seen as one of theirs and if you ask for Sarge, he’ll protect you.”
“I’m not one of theirs, though. You know the brotherhood doesn’t claim hang-around girls.” I learned that lesson the hard way. More than once.
“Well, you better come here and make it known whose side you’re on because you could be used to make a point otherwise.”
There was no way I was going there. No way in the world. I knew the way that club operated. No point mentioning that if Kailey had oh so much sway over their president, she should be able to talk him into not using her stepsister to make a violent point to hurt the Doms. But I knew better than to burst Kailey’s bubble. She’d go silent and freeze me out for at least a couple weeks as a punishment, leaving me to wonder if she was okay or not. It’d happened before. She gives a shit about me, I know she does, but she wants me asking for Sarge instead of Mantis because she’s worried Mantis will turn his attention to me and make me his favorite. Kailey hates it when I get male attention, though she has definitely used it to her advantage more than she’d ever admit.
“They’re goin’ after a daughter – of one of the big cheeses over there, some chick who’s doin’ a nanny gig in New York. I eavesdropped on their church. Said she’s unprotected. They’ve got connections up there and I heard ‘em debating between puttin’ out a hit and bringing her in to make an example. They know the park she takes those kids she babysits to almost every day. They’ll get her easily.”
Jojo Valentine told me she found a childcare job in New York last time we talked. Oh no.
“Oh God,” I gasped, my stomach roiling.
“They were goin on…” she went on, “about some chick with a huge rack who’s seein’ the VP; she manages some coffee house and doesn’t have eyes on her at the end of the night. They’re gonna catch her as she makes the night deposit. Grab her, grab the cash. And, some other girl who lives over a flower shop in Aberdeen. One of the members said the sweet butts should all be taken out, too. Mantis put the axe down on that for now, but it could change. That’s why I’m callin’. You need to make sure you’re not associated with them. Come here, sis. Come to Charlie’s and that’s your best bet. Sidle up to Sarge.”
“God, be careful eavesdropping on them. You could get in so much trouble.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Is that where you’re at? Charlie’s?”
“No, but you get in here and ask for Sarge and they’ll send you to where I am. I’m at their temporary headquarters. They keep movin’ to stay under radar.”
Rider Valentine told me to stay away from the Dominion Brotherhood. From their clubhouses, from their members. He exiled me. He wouldn’t even let me pay my respects at Lick’s funeral because my association with Kailey and how what she was involved in got Lick killed, already nearly got his sister Jojo killed. But I needed to get word to them because if they got to her in New York, she’s as good as dead. And it wouldn’t be a clean death. It’d probably be even uglier than what they did to Edge’s girlfriend.
I know the Wyld Jackals nearly killed Rider not long after that. One of their prospects got beat up badly and rumor was that he was a pretty boy that a couple of the guys butt-raped. Another of their prospects got shot. Deacon’s new girlfriend got kidnapped and she’s related to some Jackals, and they didn’t even care about that. The list of Jackal crimes against the Dominion Brotherhood was long. I needed to warn them. Make sure they protect Jojo and those other girls.
