Free Breaking Free: A thriller, M/F, erotic romance by Danielle Aretino

Chapter 1
     
    "D'you think she's any good at giving head?"
     
    Red Parker stared at the man who'd posed the question, blinked twice, then took a swig of his beer.
     
    "Wouldn't know," he grumbled over the din of the gang's favourite bar. "Haven't had the pleasure."
     
    "C'mon, Red," Dan laughed as he slapped his arm. The sting of the hit bit through Red's leather, and he wondered if the revered leader of their biker crew had meant to do it on purpose. "You gotta sample the merchandise one of these days."
     
    He forced a smile, hoping it came across crude enough to make Dan happy, then watched as the man he'd known for almost seven years staggered off his chair and made a beeline for the prostitute hanging around the pool area. Without a word, Dan grabbed her arm and hauled her toward the backdoor, a fire exit whose warning signs no one gave two shits about, and then disappeared into the grimy alley outside.
     
    "Piece of shit," Red muttered. Another swig of beer emptied the bottle, and he handed it off to a gorgeous blonde waitress who just happened to be passing by. Her smile could light up a room, so what the hell was she doing working in a place like this? He knew for a fact that despite him and his gang, Death Before Dishonour, pouring thousands of dollars into this shithole on a pretty regular basis, the owner paid his staff next to nothing. He'd heard him and Dan laughing about it one night, though he'd been too drunk at the time to remember the whole conversation.
     
    Hopefully Blondie here wouldn't stoop to hooking with fuckers like Dan. The guy was out back now, probably getting head from a too-thin hooker who gave discounts to guys in Red's crew. Sometimes for protection, sometimes because the girls thought it made them tough to wear a biker's jacket after the deed was done. Red had yet to "sample the merchandise", and he never planned to.
     
    Running a hand through his thick black hair, he was just about to call it quits on the night when a few other members of Dan's sketchy inner circle—a circle Red had somehow found himself drifting toward over the years—sank into the empty chairs around his table. Somewhere by the bar, a few of the guys were getting rowdy with the bartender, but the hired security busied themselves at the arcade, not once checking to see if there was a problem. Probably the smartest thing for them to do on a night when Morrison House was full of bikers and their entourages.
     
    "You seen Dan?" Tony, a gruff-talking Scot, asked as he settled into the seat next to Red. The guy's beer slopped over the side of his glass, but he seemed not to notice. Red nodded toward the backdoor.
     
    "Went out there with one of the girls," he said. Who the fuck was he to hide Dan's cheating ass anyway? Everyone in the inner circle knew their rough and tough leader had a thing for whores. The men around him exchanged bawdy cheers at the news, and one tried to get the name of the girl out of Red, but he kept his mouth shut. He wasn't about to give some poor woman up for these assholes to gossip about her tits or ass like a bunch of teenagers.
     
    "Oh shit."
     
    Arms crossed and body slumped in the uncomfortable wooden chair, Red glanced over his shoulder to see what might have caused the Dan-Prostitute conversation to go stale, and he sat up immediately as soon as he saw her. There she was. The primary reason Red thought Dan, the guy whose emblem was sewn onto Red's jacket, was a huge scumbag.
     
    Missy. No last name that any of them knew of, not even in the inner circle. She'd been Dan's girl since she was seventeen, back when Red was first initiated into the gang, and she was still Dan's girl at twenty-four. Unlike the many of the women who hung around with the gang, Missy was the epitome of refined class, even if she wore leather and smoked like a chimney. Her movements were always gentle, her long limbs and slim wrists delicate whenever she gestured with them. Vibrant red hair, thick and wavy,