Her Rough Mountain Outlaw Read online

  Her Rough Mountain Outlaw

  Blackthorn Mountain Men, book 6

  Madison Faye

  Contents

  Her Rough Mountain Outlaw

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  Also by Madison Faye

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018 Madison Faye

  Cover: Coverlüv

  Photography: James Critchley

  Model: Daniel Chiorean

  Her Rough Mountain Outlaw

  Dominant, wild, and alpha af.

  This single mom just got tangled up with the hardest new outlaw on the mountain.

  And he’s about to show her how a real man claims what’s his.

  I was a beast. A devil on two wheels. A rebel outlaw with a gun on my hip and a bigger one between my legs. Seven bullets almost put me in the ground, and now, all I’m looking for is a fresh start up on Blackthorn Mountain

  But when I cross paths with the gorgeous, sassy single mom on the run, everything changes.

  Beautiful, fierce, and temping as all hell. Soft, pouty lips that were made for me to claim, curves that make my engine roar, and legs that I can’t wait to get my filthy hands all over. I’ve got no business getting tangled up with Jackie McKinnon. But one touch of her soft skin, and one taste of her mouth, and I know she’s mine.

  She’s got trouble hunting her down, though. Her abusive dirty cop of an ex thinks he can lay hands on her and her little girl Brooke again, but he has no idea how fucking wrong he is.

  Because this is my mountain, Jackie and her little girl are mine to protect and keep safe, and I’ll bury anyone who tries to hurt them.

  I found her, I claimed her, and I’m keeping her. Jackie needs a real man.

  …And she’s about to get every damn inch of one.

  Love your alpha heroes possessive, wild, and utterly obsessed with claiming what’s theirs? Yeah, me too ;). Heads up, this one is completely over-the-top, hot as sin, and one very wild ride. You’re gonna need both hands for this one!

  As with my all my books, this one is safe, with no cheating and a HEA guaranteed.

  1

  Jackie

  I’m going too fast.

  I knew I was, but that didn’t mean I was going to slow down. That didn’t mean I could slow down. Going slower, being safe? Well, that wasn’t a luxury I had at the moment. Not when he was after me, like I knew damn well he was.

  The rain streaked across the windshield, blurring my vision like the wipers weren’t even there. Lightning zigzagged across the sky, crackling through the jagged branches of the trees and briefly illuminating the dark, winding mountain road.

  You’re going too fast.

  But I couldn’t stop. Who knew what Darrel was capable of? Who knew what his scummy, corrupt friends were up to? Hell, he could’ve had my phone traced, or a tracker in the damn car for all I knew. He was a cop, after all.

  The wind switched directions suddenly, and I shivered as the wet rain blew in across the back of my neck. The back driver’s side window was missing. Well, not missing, I knew where it was – lying shattered in my driveway and across half of the neighborhood as I’d sped off. The window, one of my tail lights, and probably some of my bumper.

  Yeah, being a cop hadn’t stopped Darrel from shooting at me as I’d driven away – for the last damn time.

  The bruises from the last time my ex-husband had laid hands on me were faded and gone, but inside, they were still fresh. They still hurt, especially after he’d shown up like that as I was trying to pack the last of our stuff. Luckily, this last time, Brooke was already gone when I went to get the last of our stuff at our house.

  This last time, I’d already had the foresight to hide my daughter away from the monster her father was. She and Kennedy, my younger sister, were at the Homestead Motel up in Loggersville. Out of the way, practically off the map, and checked in under a fake name. Basically, out of reach of Darrel and the rest of the crooked cops he called friends.

  But then Darrel had shown up. Drunk, angry, pretty much par for the course with that jackass. I don’t know what he’d come looking for, but when he realized I was leaving-leaving – for good – he’d flown into a rage.

  The gun I’d yanked out of the bedside table and pointed at his chest wasn’t loaded, but he didn’t know that. It’d kept him back until I’d dragged the last suitcase out to the car and gotten in. But driving away, I’d screamed when he’d pulled out his damn service gun and unloaded at me.

  And now, there I was, two hours of hard driving later, winding around the base of Blackthorn Mountain.

  I only sort of knew the place through my friend Larkin. A while back, one of my jobs had been bartending at Centerfolds, this grimy, dive of a strip club back in Salt Creek. Larkin and I had bonded over the fact that we both worked in a strip joint but kept our clothes on. She’d been the cocktail waitress, me the bartender trying to juggle three jobs, a kid, and a barely-there, drunk, abusive not-quite-ex-back-then husband.

  Larkin had taken off one night with this big mysterious stranger back here to Blackthorn. We’d caught up a little bit recently over email, and it turns out, she’d found her happy ever after here on Blackthorn, and Axe – that rough, wild, biker outlaw type she’d run away with that night – had turned out to be her prince charming. They were married now, and recent parents to two freaking adorable twin girls.

  We’d only really ever been work friends, but at that point, with Darrel having ruined any other relationship in my life, Larkin was the closest thing to a friend I had. So it’d been her I reached out to when I knew things were going to hit a breaking point with Darrel, and it’d been Larkin who’d told me to come stay with her and Axe until I could figure out my next move.

  The plan had been to go grab Brooke at the motel that wasn’t really that far from Blackthorn Mountain anyways, and then come back here to lie low for a while. That was also why I was taking dark, dangerous backroads. The highways were out, since I knew that Darrel and his pals would be looking for me there. They might even have roadblocks set up.

  So, the mountain road it was.

  The adrenaline still roared through me from the escape – from pointing a gun at Darrel, from him shooting at me. I shook with it, my hands white-knuckling the steering wheel as I tried to steady my breaths. Brooke was safe, that’s all that mattered. Brooke was out of harm's way, and away from the man who was regretfully her father.

  Plus, she was with my baby sister - my baby sister with the concealed carry permit, I should add. Kennedy was a Veterinarian, and the clinic she’d worked out back in the city was in a pretty rough and dangerous neighborhood. So, she’d started carrying for those nights she had to lock up alone. Oh, Brooke was safe with her, alright.

  Finally.

  Darrel had never been what you might call a “nice” man, but he’d at least been normal, once. Back then, I was young, I was impressionable, and I went off and married the first man who’d said the L word.

  …You know, like a complete sucker.

  Hitting me had been one thing. But when he’d started threatening to smack Brooke around, I’d had enough. He’d finally signed the divorce papers six months ago, but if anything, he’d just gotten worse since then. Driving past the house late at night, or flat out just letting himself in. And the guy was a cop, which made him untouchable.

  I’d had enough. And f
inally, we were going to get the hell out of that place and away from him for good. Where that was exactly was another question. But one thing at a time.

  Thunder boomed, and I gasped, my pulse jumping as I tried to peer through the driving rain. Lightning shattered the sky again, and I swallowed, tightening my grip on the wheel as I yanked it back and forth, navigating the tiny, winding mountain road.

  Just get to Brooke. Get to–

  Lightning crashed again, and this time, I screamed.

  The deer was twenty feet from me when it appeared, and the scream shattered through me as I yanked the wheel, hard. There was the sound of screeching tires on the road, and it was almost like everything was slow motion as I watched the deer bolt, jumping away before the car could hit it.

  And that’s when the whole world went upside down.

  Primal fear exploded through me as the car twisted, the whole thing flipping over on its axis as it swung wildly. There was the sound of tearing metal and shattering glass as I went crashing through the guardrail, and I know the car flipped once more before suddenly, I hit something hard, and everything went still.

  Blackness faded in and out of my vision, my eyes blurring at the edges. There was this dull ringing sound in my ears, and I blinked as something wet – maybe rain, maybe blood – trickled down the side of my face.

  My eyes drooped, but I forced them open, forcing myself to stay awake.

  Don’t sleep. You can’t sleep right now.

  Sleep meant fading out, and fading out meant maybe not getting back up, and I knew that.

  Brooke needs me. Brooke needs me to stay awake. Brooke needs her mom.

  My vision swam again, and I started to droop again when suddenly, the window next to me shattered.

  I wanted to yank my head to the side and scream, but no sound came to my lips, and even moving was slow. But suddenly, hands were reaching through the shattered window – big, strong looking hands. Hands covered in tattoos. The hands yanked at the door handle, opening it and then wrenching the door open with this hideous metallic screech.

  I turned then, and when I looked up, my heart jumped into my throat.

  Holy shit, he’s got beautiful eyes.

  Blue like diamonds – fierce and powerful, and blazing into mine. He reached back, yanking something out of his belt, and this time, my breath caught in a half-scream.

  A knife.

  My whole body flinched as he jabbed it towards, me, but when the blade slit through the seatbelt, I blinked in shock. He shoved the knife away again, and this time, those big hands slid under me. This time, huge, muscled arms rippled as he yanked me out of the car and cradled me into his hard, chiseled body.

  “I gotcha, angel.”

  The voice was deep and growly – both booming and quiet at the same time. And warm. God, his voice was like a blanket, and just as soothing as those huge arms of his pulled me close.

  God he’s handsome.

  “I got you now, girl,” he growled fiercely, storming back up the embankment I’d crashed down and back up onto the rain-slicked road. Muscles rippled against me, and I glanced down to see that those arms were covered in tattoos.

  I turned my head again, still half out of it. And this time, my eyes focused on his face.

  “Can you ride?”

  I blinked up through the rain at this rough, dangerous-looking, gorgeous man, and I felt something flutter inside of me.

  Uh, yes please?

  My face flushed furiously at the filthy thought, and I swear, even given the circumstance, I could see a flicker of him knowing what I was thinking in those eyes of his. He nodded with his perfect chin, and I turned, blushing again as I saw the motorcycle sitting next to the hole my car had punched in the guardrail.

  “Uh, yeah. Yes.” I mumbled, swallowing thickly, my head still swimming.

  “Good, you’re coming with me.”

  I was vaguely aware of him swinging me up onto the motorcycle, my legs spreading around still-warm metal. He climbed on behind me, and my pulse thundered through me as I felt his huge body press tight to mine. Those big warm arms circled me, holding me against his muscled torso as he cranked the bike on, kicked back the stand, and revved the engine.

  And just like that, we were off. Just like that, I was roaring off down a dark mountain road with the hottest biker I’d ever seen.

  A stranger.

  Wind streamed through my hair, rain streaked across my face, and my hands clung to those big muscled arms as we drove off into the night.

  2

  Stone

  Damn she feels good.

  Damn, she felt real fucking good. And it was something more than her just being a woman pressed against me. It was more than her just being the first girl to get this close to me in years.

  No. It was the way she fit so perfectly against me. The smell of her hair in my face as we rode. The feel of her fingers tightening on my arms as I held her against me. The feel of her body pressing into me, snuggling right into me against the wind and the rain as we roared off down the road.

  There was a delicateness to her – something fragile and bare. But then, there was a fierceness there too that I couldn’t ignore. I’d seen it in the way she reacted when I’d cut her free of her car – like she was damn near ready to fight me.

  And damn did I like that in a woman.

  A lot.

  We roared through the night, away from the car, towards my place. Yeah, I know. A hospital might’ve been the better move. Well, the more obvious move.

  But that didn’t make it the best move. Not with her, and not with what I knew.

  Because a hospital meant authorities. And, well, this outlaw knew someone running from the law when he saw one.

  That scared, fierce look, like an animal backed into a corner. Shit, I’d been that person, plenty of times in my past. I’d been the guy hiding from the cops, or running from them – backed into a hiding place ready to fight to the death to break free if it came to it.

  Then there were the bullet holes in the back of her car. Yeah, I sure as fuck knew those when I saw them. And the police barricades up all over the main roads going past Blackthorn that I’d seen earlier?

  Yeah, I knew what this was.

  Well, I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I had an idea. I knew she didn’t want the hospital, because this girl didn’t want the cops, that’s for sure.

  I gunned the engine, tearing off down the road. We were going too fast, but we had to move. Those cops down on the main roads? Well, they weren’t local, that’s for sure. Hell, Blackthorn was hardly a big enough community to have a damn police force. Mostly, the people up here just policed themselves. But those cops down there? Well, sooner than later, they were going to actually look at some local maps and figure out there were other roads that took people past their lame little roadblock. And when that happened, they’d be up here.

  And we had to not be on the road when that happened. I was going to figure out what the fuck to do next, but first, she needed help.

  I smiled grimly to myself, tuning the engine again as I held her tight.

  …And here I’d been thinking that I was going to swear off trouble for a while.

  Back before, trouble and me had been good old’ friends. Back when I was still the Sergeant at Arms for the Lost Devils MC? Well, me and trouble had been hell on wheels. Running guns, smuggling shit, brawling with the rival MCs and dodging the law? Yeah, I’d had my share of fucking trouble, that’s for damn sure. Hell, I’d had ten men’s share of trouble.

  But then trouble had come knocking back.

  The night it all came crashing down. The night a rival gang – The Savage Riders – hit our club and murdered just about every single one of my friends. Hell, for years I thought they had murdered all of my friends. That is, until chasing down one of the fuckers who’d been a part of the massacre had brought me here, to Blackthorn Mountain.

  Here, I’d found Ryker and Axe, two of my best friends, and President and VP of ou
r old club. Through sheer fucking luck, those two had managed to be out when the bullets started flying. They’d laid low, they’d given up a lot, but now that all of the members of the Savage Riders were dead, they were living their new lives here on Blackthorn with the women they’d been lucky enough to find.

  Lucky.

  I grimaced.

  Luck and me? Well, we weren’t very well acquainted. Yeah, I’d survived the massacre of my club, but not without paying the reaper’s toll. I’d taken seven bullets that night. Seven rounds that about tore me in fucking half. When the shooting had stopped and the Savage Riders had taken off, I’d managed to drag myself through the wreckage of everything I knew. Somehow through the pain and the blood-loss, I’d gotten myself to a truck stop near our bullet-ridden headquarters, where I’d paid a freaked-out looking trucker to get me north to my gramps’s place, where I’d healed.

  Painfully.

  So, yeah. I was alive. I’d made it through the fucking darkness. But that didn’t mean I’d managed to sleep through the night since. It didn’t mean I didn’t still sometimes feel the bullets puncturing through my scars all over again. And as for the loving woman waiting for me with open arms in my new life here on Blackthorn?

  Well, I musta missed the day they were handing out true loves.

  But here, life was different. I went out riding with Ryker and Axe, but we weren’t a club or anything. Hell, not when those two had kids and families and all that shit now. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was real proud of them and the men they’d grown to be. But, a guy can start to feel like the odd man out when he’s being invited over to someone’s family dinner for the twelfth night in a row.

  Axe had Larkin and their twin little baby girls. And Ryker had Addison, and his daughter Kyrie. Hell, all the people I’d come to know on that mountain were families. Braun and Katrina, the Russian – Vlad – with his Chloe. Hell, even the brothers – Austin and Dallas with their woman, Stella, and however the fuck that perpetual threeway worked out. One too many dudes for my taste, but, still.