Cranky - The Book Curmudgeon: New Release! A Brother At My Back by A.J. Downey

The only way the system was reliable when it came to Tiffany Dempsey was in failing her. Once again, it’d done just that, but this time, she wasn’t about to accept that nothing could be done. This time, she went to a source outside the law for help. She’s gone to the Sacred Hearts MC, a club whose reputation for bloodshed and violence precedes them. It’s a gamble she’s willing to take; desperate times call for desperate measures and she’s never been more desperate than she is right now.

Zeb joined the Sacred Hearts by way of a second chance when he thought he had none. He’s determined to do right by his club and himself by changing his ways. So, when Dragon, his president, asks him for help, he doesn’t hesitate. He’s more than happy to give the pretty little stripper with the scarred up face a second chance of her own. The way he sees it, a survivor like her has more than earned it.

Neither Tiff nor Zeb expected that this protective detail would be anything other than a strictly business-like arrangement, but the two find quickly that they complement each other in just about every way. Maybe, just maybe, it’s what Dragon had planned. After all, the president of the SHMC is sort of crafty like that.

“Tiffany, what’s wrong?” I heard Nik say distantly, but my adrenaline was spiking and I was already moving.

“I’ll call you back, I think he’s here.”

“What?” Nik demanded sharply.

“Go now, Tiff, my office,” Alan said gently and I went.

“Alan’s sending me to his office, Zeke’s handling it at the front. I’m okay for now,” I told Nik. Despite Alan trying to keep me calm, my heart was pounding. I almost didn’t register what Nik said.

“I’m on my way, just do what your boss says.”

“I am,” I told him, but I was talking to the empty air, Nik was already gone.

I clattered up the back stairs in my stripper heels and kicked the door to Alan’s office closed and turned the lock. I figured it was his office and he had the key. The space was small, and a bank of windows overlooked the floor below. It was all right, though. They were mirrors on the outside and you could only see inside at very specific angles. If I sat at the desk in front of the windows and ducked down a bit behind the monitors, I would be invisible so that’s precisely what I did. I sat at Alan’s desk, heart pounding, stomach curdling, and kept bouncing my gaze back and forth between the cameras on the monitors and out the window at the floor below.

Zeke was on camera, out front, hands raised and pushing down in his classic ‘calm the fuck down, I’m trying to explain something to you’ pose. Alan stood back, beside the bar, his cell phone pressed to his ear, nodding and speaking occasionally into it.

My heart thudded painfully in my chest as someone outside the camera’s range swung on Zeke, in a flash, out of nowhere, and Zeke went crashing to the ground out like a light. Silas strode forward into the camera’s view and then, through the front door, larger than life and screaming at the top of his lungs. Dancers stopped, patrons stood up, and Alan walked calmly forward.

I couldn’t hear anything. There was nothing to hear, the office up here was so well insulated and soundproofed only the dullest thumping of the music’s bass beat made it through. I swallowed hard as Silas stopped just outside Alan’s reach and Alan waved him forward with a broad sweep of his arm.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and realized he was taking Silas on a tour, either to get him out or to buy time for whoever he had been on the phone with to get here. I knew Nik would make it. I knew he would be here, I just didn’t know when, and with how fast and how hard Silas had knocked Zeke out? I didn’t know if I wanted Nik to square off with him.

I was suddenly very afraid for my lover and biker bodyguard.

I followed Silas and Alan from camera to camera but kept glancing back to Zeke who was sitting up now and rubbing his jaw. My chest loosened with a bit of relief at that and I still couldn’t believe that Silas had gotten the drop on him like that. Zeke was good at his job and I’d seen him handle himself in more than a few fights before.

The phone in my hand buzzed and I answered it without looking, “Hello?”

Indistinct club noise came through the line and voices, hard to make out. I looked at the screen and realized Alan had dialed me.

“What’s up there?” I heard Silas demand.

“My office.”

Shit!

I got up and looked around and finally had to settle for ducking into his bathroom up here. I stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain, holding the phone to my chest as I heard the door being messed with out front.

I held my breath and ended the call, fighting with the phone to silence the ringer just in case.

“I told you, there’s no one up here,” I heard Alan declare. “We have no dancer by that name at this club. Now, as I told you downstairs, the police have been notified about you striking my bouncer. You can clearly see there is no one up here, so please leave.”

I heard the bathroom door swing wide and bounce against the wall and the fear swarmed over my skin, sweat standing out along my spine under the short, light silk robe Alan had gifted me after my first year here. He did things like that on all of the girls’ anniversaries.

“Fine,” Silas grated. “But I don’t believe you. What is it? Her night off or something?”

“I swear to you, there’s no ‘Tiffany’ here.” Alan maintained.

“I find out you’re lying to me, I’m coming back here and burning this place to the fucking ground with you in it.”

Their voices receded and I squeezed my eyes shut, hot tears tracking down my face. All he’d needed to do to find me had been to pull back the curtain. He just hadn’t thought to do it. Dumb luck on my part? Who knew? All I did know was that he was going or gone and I found myself choking on a silent scream that I would not let out from behind my teeth.

I slid down the wall onto my butt against the cold tile and shuddered, sweat slick against my palms where I clutched my phone with both of them over my heart, like it would protect me or something. The blood rushed in my ears and when the curtain jerked back I screamed and cringed but it was Zeke that knelt down, a purple knot swelling on his jawline. He put his hands on mine and said, “Easy, Tiff! Easy it’s just me.”

“Is he gone?” I cried and a hand fell onto Zeke’s shoulder. Zeke jumped and turned but immediately relaxed and got out of the way of our boss who knelt down in front of me.

“He’s gone,” Alan assured me.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, I’m so sorry. I had to get him out of here. You did great.” He patted my cheek, the side without the mask, and he looked sorry.

In The Series

Melody Beswick thought she was bringing herself and her thirteen month old son home to his father. It was her last ditch effort to make a better life for her and her boy. One in which Noah had a father to look up to and guide him. While she knew Grinder wasn’t perfect, she believed in him, and love always found a way, right?

Melody never thought her dreams for herself and her son could twist into such nightmares, and that it was so true, the old adage, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. She’s about to find out that another adage is true, that sometimes it’s better the devil you know, when instead of finding Grinder, it’s his cold and critical brother Archer at the end of her long drive that she must contend with.

With no other options, and no place else to go, Melody is about to make a deal with this devil that she can’t refuse. Who knew it could, quite possibly, be the best decision she’s ever made?

Fate introduces people at both the right and the wrong times…

So it is for Maren on the absolute worst day imaginable. When all hope was gone, and she was whittled away to little more than tears and despair, up walks Nox, an unlikely hero to save the day. Maren is about to discover that sometimes the good guys wear black, and there are times that the lines between good and evil blur beyond recognition.

Nox is a bad man with a heart of gold, or so it seems. It also seems that Maren has captured that heart with her wide, tear filled brown eyes. Nox never saw himself going for jailbait before, but that’s just what Maren is, all woman trapped in a seventeen year old package. Still, what he wouldn’t do for her, including taking on the unlikely role of keeper to her unruly preteen brother.

This mess could end beautifully or in some serious time spent behind bars for Nox, but sometimes, it’s worth risking it all.

Rush had always been the brother that was the most up for adventure. Then Grinder died and he realized that it was time to slow down. Fast-forward by a year and more and his older brother Archer had found Mel. Hell, his own twin was with a woman of his own! Rush is starting to get restless again, which was just perfect. Cue a string of anonymous hook-ups and one night stands. It was enough to feed the restlessness for a while, then an adventure of sorts came a callin’ by way of the VP’s estranged aunt and the President’s sister-in-law.

Her daughter was in need of some kind of white knight, which Rush could care less about, but the white knight routine did come with a pretty big perk. It would mean that he got to go back to a job that had, once upon a time, felt like a calling.

Of course, nothing was ever easy where Rush was concerned, especially when he actually set eyes on the damsel in distress. One, she wasn’t some paper princess, and two, she definitely didn’t want him around. After all, one-night hook-ups were supposed to be just that… one and done.

Reckless, dangerous, and out of control; these are the words most often applied to the SHMC’s brother Duracell. Which is why no one can understand what the deal is between him and Blue. Blue is none of those things; if anything he’s quiet, shy, and as mild-mannered as they come. There’s no balance between these two yet they are inexplicably a team. Then Blue gets a single look at Hayley, and it’s all it takes for him to know she’s their third.

Is Hayley the woman for them? A match for Blue sure, but strong enough to withstand the bizarre tempest of Cell’s personality? The two MC brothers have set their sights on the waitress and have been patiently feeling her out. Now it’s time to take the next step and see if she’s indeed able to date the both of them.

She’ll either bring balance to the boys, or Cell’s pull will knock them all off balance and send them crashing, burning them all out before anything can even fully ignite.

Data has always been the quiet brother on the fringes of the club. Always there when you need him, but never quite fully engaged. That’s because he’s been harboring a secret. Long before he joined the club, he had a friend who meant the world to him; she disappeared, prompting Data to search for her… he’s been looking ever since.

A mysterious message appears on an internet forum:
Does anyone remember Amalia Rose?

Of course he does, and he will stop at nothing to get her back. His secret is out, and life is about to change for everyone in some surprising ways.

Check out the Sacred Hearts MC from the very beginning...

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A.J. Downey is a born and raised Seattle, WA Native. She finds inspiration from her surroundings, through the people she meets and likely as a byproduct of way too much caffeine.

She has lived many places and done many things though mostly through her own imagination… An avid reader all of her life it’s now her turn to try and give back a little, entertaining as she has been entertained.

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