Free WRECKED: GODS OF CHAOS MC, BOOK FOUR by Honey Palomino

appeared frail, but her demeanor was the exact opposite. She reminded me of Grace and Lacey, in a way. She was small, but she exuded strength. The three of them had endured things nobody should have to endure, but if there was a silver lining at all, it was the strength of spirit that they’d acquired. It was so evident, it was almost palpable.
    “So you’ve been here a long time?” she asked.
    “No, actually. Just a few months. My Uncle Ryder let me come hang out for a while, just to test the waters, I guess. To be honest, I was in a bad downward spiral and this was the last resort before I hit bottom.”
    “Oh, I didn’t realize Ryder was your uncle.”
    “Yep. He’s a good man. All of these dudes are. You’ve come to the right place,” I said, hoping to reassure her a little. I couldn’t imagine what she must be going through.
    “Thanks for saying that, I hope everything works out,” she said, her blue eyes shining up at me. It was like a punch in the gut every time I looked at her, because those eyes reminded me so much of Frankie, but that only pissed me off. Would I never get over her? Would I never be able to move on? Usually, I wasn’t so torn about it, but it would be nice if there was a point where I stopped comparing everyone to her.
    “I have a feeling it will,” I replied, turning away from her. It was too much to look at those eyes.
    “I do, too. Which is weird. I haven’t felt hopeful in a long time,” she said, her voice wistful.
    “No?” I asked. “Well, you’ve been through a lot. It makes sense.”
    “Yeah, I guess,” she said, taking a deep breath. “What about you?”
    “Me? What about me?”
    “You said you almost hit rock bottom. What did you mean?”
    “I just went through some shit a while back that I couldn’t shake. Started drinking a lot,” I said, my hands shaking as I thought about it. “Partying, you know. Got in some bad accidents.”
    “Is that how you got the scar on your face?” she asked.
    Shit, I thought. That fucking scar.
    I didn’t think about it much, because I rarely looked in the mirror. It was the one scar I couldn’t see without one, but it was the biggest and ugliest, too.
    “Yeah, bike accident.”
    “Must have been a bad one,” she said.
    “Yeah, it was,” I said, shrugging. “But I made it out alive, and that’s what counts, right?”
    Her eyes darkened and her face fell at my words.
    “Shit, sorry, did I say something wrong?” I asked.
    “No, no,” she protested, but her eyes filled with tears, which made feel like shit.
    Great, asshole, I thought, you made her cry.
    “Sorry,” I muttered. She wiped her tears with Slade’s bandana and mustered a half-assed smile before turning away. She walked off the road and entered the forest, following a trail that would lead us to the nearby creek if we walked long enough.
    “I’m fine,” she said. “Where does this go?”
    “Well, it’s getting dark and we should probably have a flashlight, but we can go in for a bit. There’s a creek a ways ahead.”
    The trees towered over our heads, blocking out most of the already-dim light, and muffling the sounds coming from the clubhouse behind us. Fallen pine needles crunched under my boots as the dark pine trees embraced us with their eerie silence .
    “It’s so quiet,” Vanessa said, as I followed behind her.
    “Yeah, it’s peaceful,” I whispered. We walked a few yards down the trail, farther into the darkness. It hit me that I hadn’t been alone with a woman in a long time. Hell, I hadn’t been attracted to a woman in a long time and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a glimmer of attraction to Vanessa bubbling up inside of me.
    Hell, how could I not be? Perfect face, perfect body, and she seemed nice enough. But those things were usually low on my list of requirements, so I was confused about what I was feeling.
    It was probably just my body responding to a beautiful woman. Nature, nothing more. To my horror, my dick and