CANNONโFUCK! ELIMINATE HIM, do whatever the fuck it takes because I get to the motherfucker before you guys do, believe me Iโll take him down. PermanentlyโWith one arm or not.I heard Holy groan at the end of the line and the urge to thunder at him at what he was mad about crossed my mind.Ooh you were mad? Iโm the one who ate a fucking bullet because I didnโt see the asshole coming.โOkay, maybe it was my fault but how the fuck was I supposed to know his brother-in-law Neil Reynolds smuggles contraband overseas. Contraband that might have nothing to do with him in the first placeโI laughed, not that the fucker had ever had a single funny bone in his body but at his mocking tone.โLeonard Arkinson shot me; I know the fucker doesnโt like me but he wouldnโt shoot me out of nowhere without someone giving the orders. Thereโs two ways this will play out and at the end of the day Iโll be the one with a busted shoulder and heโll be the one dead cold on the morgue. I donโt need proof to ki
NICOLEโWE HAD to do it considering the fact that Berkelyโs men scared Frank Hanks out of townโNot that he had anything to do with Callan getting shot but they did Tina Hanks a favor really. She wouldnโt oust her husband as an abuser but everyone with eyes could see it.With Frank out of the way I knew it was hard for Tina to cope with a new life, a life that didnโt involve your narcissistic of a husband telling you what to do, a life without a man making you feel insignificant and small.โItโs their first sleep over, Nicole. Connor might be a social fucking butterfly but Jr is rough around the edgesโโYou mean he takes after you?โHe did. Jr took after Callan that every time I looked at him, he looked like a mini-Callan minus the grumpiness.โHeโs my kid after allโ, Callan said proudly as I hooked my hand with his.He tried to hide it but I saw the rage simmer in his eyes for a sec at the jewel gracing my finger.โTina just needs some time to process it all. Her lifeโs gonna change
CANNONTHE WHISKEY tasted like piss and for the fuck of it, I dunked down another glass.No cheap whiskey would ruin my night and certainly not the man seated on my couch blabbing about his wife and related marital issues because thatโs just the thing, I was high like a teen on Valium.So, fucking high reliving the moment between me and Nicole. Six years? How the fuck had I restrained myself from her for six fucking years? One kiss and I might have as well been knocked out by a cupidโs arrow and thatโs saying a lot given the fact that I didnโt believe in that little Houdini flying around with cupid arrows.Then as if the kiss hadnโt clouded my senses, her moans followed, my name recklessly left her lips and when I sunk inside her wet heat, well, one word for it. Nirvana.Fucking nirvana.The thought of plunging into her luscious body once she came back from Tinaโs crossed my mind and that fucking moment, my dick throbbed.Fuck I loved her. โFrank skipped town and Leonard from what I
CONNOR/ KADE HAWKINSPRESENT DAYโIโLL ALWAYS BE your friend. You made Aunt Tina proud. Your dad is proudโThe five-year-old me stared at the ginger haired woman. Her hair wasnโt honey blonde, that was fake just like her words. Just like her fucking affection for me.Did you know how human flesh smelled like when subjected to a fiery furnace? Did you know how humans screamed when life ebbed out of their bodies?Ask me and I would tell you.The smell of human flesh was nowhere near that of a chickenโs or a pigโs. No, burning flesh smelled like death, had the kind of tang that brought tears to your eyes and made you want to fucking puke your guts out.The screams of a dying man? My fatherโthe rotting bastardโmight have stashed me away in a helicopter that day but every day, every damn night, I could see the flames. The sickening smell of my mother, my brother and Callan burning alive engraved itself on me for years now. And their screams? They were like an echo forever meant to haunt m
JACE โJRโ ASHER/ TRIGGERPRESENT DAYโCANNON?โ Jason Bates spoke into the phone.โMommyโฆmommy said sheโs right behind me. I canโt see themโ, the five-year-old me quipped, head shot to the back at the warehouse behind me.I was crying so hard than I had in my entire life. They told me to run but they werenโt running. They werenโt behind me.โConnor? Jr?โI nodded even though he couldnโt see me do it.โFuck! Fuck Cannon! Okay, hereโs what we are gonna do buddy. I need you to run, okay? Donโt look back just run, Iโm coming to get both of you. Are you hurt? Is your brother hurt?โBrother? When the warehouse holding my parents hostage detonated with angry flames behind me, that moment, right there, I didnโt have a brother.I was alone. A kid staring at the flames consume the very people who brought me into this world. A kid all alone on a deserted island with the ashes of my parents wafting through the air like they were nothing.My parents died that day. The old Jr died that day and my br
NOTE|OKAY maybe I am evil for enjoying the pain that comes with killing off characters and surprising my readers with plot twists out of nowhere.When I came up with the book title, in my head I knew it was always going to be about Jr and Connor and I didnโt want to show that just yet. I wanted all of you to love Callan and Nicole and understand the pain the boys carry, to feel the loss just like they did, just like I did.And Callanโs death was always going to play a pivotal role in the Alpha Bodyguard series Iโm still writing about Flames, Blaze, Holy, Snakes, Jason and Pindrop.So, am I evil for not giving a warning about Callan and Nicoleโs deaths? I am. Yes I am but please DO NOT leave any hate comments on the book, there are tons of books on the app and I canโt hold it against you if you want to leave this one. I love all of you, I read each one of your comments and sit down the whole day thinking of how Iโll make each one of your happy. And speaking of, shout out to the comme
JACE โJRโ ASHER/ TRIGGERLAY LOW, COOL HEAD, DONโT FUCKING POKE at Amatoโs business lest I wanted the whole mission to be in jeopardy.The way I saw it the whole mission might as well have been in jeopardy right at this fucking second. Not even the taste of tobacco on my lips could smooth the tension that was so damn palpable in my car.The thought of putting on music soured through my head but immediately died down. Last thing a princess like her needed was heavy rock music making her shiver far more than she was at the moment.Because thatโs what she had done. Fifteen minutes, thirtyโmake those thirty-one seconds and her thighs scrunched together. Her eyesโฆdark filthy orbs lingered out my window every five seconds and her hands tried to grasp reality by clutching her Gucci purse so damn tight her nails were an inch from breaking.I could hear her breatheโฆ messily, angsty, afraid. I had never been the sort that did emotions. The sort that calmed down a person let alone a woman when t
CONNOR/ KADE HAWKINSYOU WENT TOO FAR.NOT EVERY REDHEAD IS TINA HANKS.SHE WAS SCARED, NEW PLACE, NEW PEOPLE, TONS OF SHIT, AWAY FROM HER FAMILY.Iceโs words haunted me through breakfast all the way to my date with Lucia Amato, another woman whoโd landed her ass in hot soup outside my club, Deluxe.My CCTVs outside Deluxe picked up what happened yesterday. Some piece of scum threatened Lucia, her new bodyguard protected her and whilst I was grateful, she could have died and whether I was using her or not, it wouldnโt sit right with me if she did because she was a good person.โI gotta bounce and the guys arenโt back yet from their second searchโThe first search for the Zetas yesterday was a complete waste of time. The fuckers were two steps ahead of us and theyโd already relocated before we caught up to them.Then the Lucia thing happened and I was forced to check up on her, act like a loving and concerned fiancรฉ even though I knew I fucked that up too.โIโm on my way homeโ, I took
CASSANDRA BATESTHREE WEEKS OF INCONSISTENT NAGGING.I was so mad at him, I wanted to kick him in the shins for everything. But hurting him was hurting myself too and I wasnโt prepared for that.The first week Kade had made it clear no woman of his was staying in a walk-in closet carrying his kid and so heโd rented a luxurious penthouse for me.I took it under the one condition I would be paying rent monthly. That was my first mistake, assuming he would even take my money after the lustful and apologetic look he gave me when he left me in my new apartment.The second week was even more stressful. With him showing up at my apartment door with breakfast and baby necessities I didnโt require yet.The third weekโฆIcarus woke up and I had been beyond thrilled knowing I hadnโt somewhat killed him. I visited him everyday and everyday Kade Hawkins was there, waiting for me with a grin and donuts and healthy drinks I hadnโt asked for and I rejected them.Rejected him. Not missing the pained ex
LUCIA AMATOTHEY said when your turn to die came, you could feel it in your bones. Feel it in the way you faded into nothingness not knowing what was beyond death.When that bullet had hit me, somehow that feeling had latched onto me. The feeling of welcoming death and saying goodbye to everything.Yet when I opened my eyes, light stinging my eyes with a vengeance, the last person I expected to see was the love of my life glancing down at me like an answered prayer.โHey, princessโ The smile he wore was enough to tell me everything was okay. I wasnโt dead. We werenโt separated, everything was going to be okay yetโฆMy hand searched for my tummy, the IV needle injected to my hand hurting far worse than a bee sting.โHey, hey, heโs fine. The babyโs fineโI didnโt realize there were tears in my eyes up until he said that.And when the first tear fell down my cheeks and the rest came crushing like hail, my throat throbbed as I whispered โSorryโ over and over again.I jumped in front of hi
KADE HAWKINS/ CONNORTHERE WAS only so much shit a man like me could take before he went berserk.I was on the verge of losing the one man who I would call my brother. The one man who was more of family to me than anyone else in this shitty world.On the same fucking day, the woman I would have gone to war for dumped my sorry ass. Regretfully telling me she was done with meโฆfor good.And that shit, her tears, her words ate me up, nothing bloody made sense anymore.โShe needs a minuteโ, my brother from another father quipped beside me not knowing the hell I was going through, the sting that was Cassieโs words and the gnawing fact that I had hurt her and I hadnโt apologized to her yet.โSheโs done with meโ, I muttered and we stood in foreboding silence looking at the theatre doors where Iceโs surgery was still going on.โGood because her handing your ass is your wake-up call to chase after her and earn her forgivenessโ, Jr continued, I still couldnโt understand why they all stayed.Jaso
CASSANDRA BATESEVERYTHING HURT.Physically, emotionally, mentally, I wasnโt doing okay even as the doc assessed me for the hundredth time in the night.Seating at the edge of the bed, trying to piece everything together, I was on the verge of insanity and knowing that Icarus was somewhere in this massive hospital trying to hold onto dear life because of me devastated the hell out of me.The doc offered me a wan smile, all I could do was pretend that I wasnโt going mad when the truth of the matter was, I was. Indeed, going mad.โEverything looks fine, Ms. Bates given your umโฆearlier predicament. A few scratches here and there, nothing major enough to affect the baby. I would recommend a few ointments for the-โI had already tuned him out the minute I heard a word I didnโt think would ever be directed at me.Reality came crushing in and with it so was confusion and happiness and anxiety and everything a person like me whoโd just been kidnapped and slapped with a dose of heartbreak coul
ICARUS โICEโ HAWKINSEIGHT YEARS AGO, I WAS THE SAME fucking schmuck working for Lucas Hawkins. A scrawny kid with a maid for a mother, no father, no money, no fucking worth to anybody.And hell, I would have been the same loser all my life after mumsy died of typhoid or some shit of the sort had it not been for HIM.KADE FUCKING HAWKINS. MY GODDAMN SAVIOR. My partner in crime. My brother.The same bossโ son who thought we were equals. The same kid who had everything I never had and hated it.Money. A powerful father. Power. He had it all and the fucking kid hated every inch of it.I envied him. All my eighteen years of being his best friend and I envied everything he had. But apart from envy? I looked up to him. He might have been a sour pussy, hell a pain in the ass but the kid had his heart in the right place, had that urge to do what needed to be done to get ahead in life and I respected that because I wanted it too.And when the kid got his first dose of power, I straight up jump
CASSANDRA BATESโW-WHAT?โA pulsating headache threatened to split my head apart as I winced.I moved my handโฆat least tried to anyway because my hand felt numb. Both my hands felt numb and any tiny movement made something rattle against my body.Prior memories of what happened came to my mind all at once upping the headache even further.I was crying, damn it after what had happened with Lucia, Kade and Jace, I had ended up like some hobo on the street crying thenโฆthenโฆMy eyes shot open and like someone had knocked my head with a bat, everything came back biting me in the ass.The unwelcomed light ate my eyes without mercy but thatโs not what made my heart pulsate madly in my chest.It was everything in my surroundings, it was in the way, my hands, my legsโฆI was tied up!I was tied up!What was this placeโฆhowโฆoh God what wasโฆI sat in the middle of the largest warehouse Iโd ever seen and I would have been at ease if there were other thigs in here but noโฆit was me alone in a creepy p
JACE `JR` ASHER/ TRIGGERLEFT, RIGHT, FRONT, THE beeping machines haunted me. I hadnโt slept a fucking wink not that it had mattered because the fucking doctors took their time in there.Four hours and counting, theyโd completed the surgery but none of them geeky fucks had showed their asses to explain what was going on.How was she?How was my kid?โHow are you holding up?โ Ontario shot me a passive look and I shot him an equally tired one.Everyone was here but, in all honesty, I felt alone. I felt helpless and most of all I felt like someone had gutted me and yanked my entrails from my body.The chief, Flames, had brought every goddamn man in B&A to console my ass but heโd avoided me entirely and I had a good hunch it was because of the one man no one talked about.My bloody fucking asshole of a brother.The one whoโd escaped his grave and unleashed hell on me.I didnโt answer. Ontario lay his arm across my shoulder.โYou should have never fallen in love, buddy. Christ, you look wo
CONNOR/ KADE HAWKINSTHE WINSTON BLUE DIAMOND ring THE SIZE OF MY HEAD stared back at me and I could only stare back at it nursing a whole lot of emotions that wracked and unnerved me.I breathed but I wasnโt really breathing.I tried to think but every ticking moment went to what happened yesterday.Stupid. Fucking stupid.Why hadnโt I realized, why hadnโt IโJr was alive! They all were and I hadnโt searched enough, hadnโt spent every last dime of daddyโs money to look for them.I had been stunned the minute the forty something year old man stared at me like he knew me while ironically aiming a rifle in my damn face.Then as if all the memories that had been caged in a tight little box had been unleashed, I remembered him.Remembered him with my father.Remembered him carrying me in his shoulders telling meโฆtelling me to call him Uncle Jay.And thatโs what I remembered; he was Uncle Jay. The cool uncle. The one who pissed my fathโCallan most of the times.And the man who peeked at me
JACE โJRโ ASHER/TRIGGERโJ-Jace, THE BABYโโT-the babyโHer blood oozed from that spot on her chest I was trying so hard to apply fucking pressure on.Her eyes were dimming and there was nothing I could do as I held her, my hands trying their best to incorporate every single fucking thing I had learnt from B&A about handling a situation like this.โStay with me, princess. Okay? S-stay with meโMy voice croaked; my heart pumped so hard I could hear the blood thrum in my ears with an uproar.She was making it. She was going to make it. The baby was going to make it.She had to. They fucking had to.My hands were bloody, covered with her life, covered with my mistakes, when she opened her lips to speak, I saw life ebb out of her the same way my mother and fatherโs screams had assaulted my ears as fire took them away from me.โLuce? Lucia? Come on, baby. Donโt, donโt do this. DonโtโโAnd when my eyes couldnโt see shit, every noise I had tuned out since Luciaโs body went limp in my arms ca