Rise of the Phoenix (The Restless Kings Motorcycle Club Book 1) Read online

  Rise of the Phoenix

  Restless Kings MC

  T. Ralston

  Copyright © 2021 T. Ralston

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 9798757916590

  Cover design by: T. Ralston

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Trigger warnings

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Epilogue

  Books In This Series

  About The Author

  Acknowledgement

  Trigger warnings

  Possible triggers included in this book are: memories of child abuse, gun violence, sexually explicit scenes, and violence.

  Chapter One

  Maya

  I shook the dust off my clothes, and watched Papa drive away with his hand out the window and his middle finger up. I grabbed my cell phone from the middle of the road, but when I checked the screen it was shattered. "Shit," I mumbled to myself. I pressed all the buttons on it, but nothing happened on the screen. I slipped it back into my pocket and looked around the dry desert.

  "Happy birthday, Maya. Son of a bitch." Of course, I'd decided to roll into the sandiest part of New Mexico. I squinted and shielded my eyes from the sun, but nothing was visible, apart from the narrow two-lane road and the mountains that jutted into the horizon.

  Beige dust surrounded me everywhere and my mouth was full of it. The chances that another human being would be driving down this particular road within the next few hours seemed to be slim to none, so I decided to walk. I thought I could see a glimmer of reflected light, so I walked towards it. After just a few minutes, I regretted leaving the air conditioned car, no matter what was happening inside it. Sweat beaded on my forehead and every breath seemed to bring in less oxygen.

  When I reached the empty water bottle that caused the glint, I kicked it for not being something capable of saving me from my situation. The sand I kicked up flew into my face with a breeze. Spitting, I decided to keep walking. The desert was expansive, but I held onto the hope I'd eventually find another road. Maybe I would finally catch a break and run into a highway filled with cars. It was my birthday, after all, so I told myself there was a chance.

  Clouds blocked out the burning sun for most of my walk, but I had a feeling I was probably going to end up with a hell of a sunburn if I kept walking. The strapless bandeau top I'd worn left my shoulders and most of my chest exposed. I hadn't expected to be hiking through the fucking desert though. I'd been expecting a birthday party with my friends, and since I was finally an adult, I was hoping to be able to have some fun with them. My dad had other plans, though. Plans that made my ripped skinny jeans, skimpy top, and sandals an inappropriate outfit.

  "Fuck. Am I gonna die out here?" I forced air in and out of my lungs, and then saw it. There was a matte beige building not too far ahead. It looked like a mirage through the heat wave that surrounded it. I picked up the pace and ran closer. It blended in perfectly to the horizon, matching everything else in the hot desert.

  It looked like it had been camouflaged on purpose, too. It was painted just the same color as the sand. The only thing that wasn't beige was the doorknob, when I grabbed it, I jerked my hand back with a hiss. It was scalding hot, but I probably should've expected that since it was mid-May and when I'd left home it had been 85°. Home. Pfft.

  I took a deep breath and gripped the doorknob, twisting as quickly as I could, but it didn't open. "Should've expected it would be locked, stupid." I reached into my back pocket for my ID and looked to the sky. "I know I haven't done much good or talked to you since I was like four, but please let this work. Don't let me die out here." I chewed on my lip as I slipped the plastic card through the slit in the door, and ran it down while I jiggled the doorknob, and I slid right into place. The door opened.

  I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears of joy and released the breath I'd been holding. I shut the door behind me and stepped into the wonderful air conditioning, pocketing my ID again. The lights were dim in the long corridor. I counted five doors along the hallway, and tried the first one. This clearly wasn't someone's house. The front door had opened into this hallway. I hoped wherever I was no one else was already there. I hadn't seen any cars outside, but, then again, I hadn't really checked very well.

  The first door I tried on my right swung open into a bathroom. It had a motion sensor that kicked a yellow light on. I took a few handfuls of water to my mouth and tried to swish out the sand, but it wasn't working too well. I drank the last few handfuls and figured over the years I'd probably swallowed more sand than what was in my mouth now so I would be fine.

  I left the bathroom door open, and went for the next room. The door didn't open, and it had two deadbolt locks, so it wasn't possible to jimmy it open. Every other door down the hallway was the same way. I sat against the door on the right that was closest to the entrance, and pulled my cracked phone from my pocket. Again, it didn't work.

  "I'm stuck here." How long would it be before someone showed up to check on this place? Would anyone ever show up? How long would I last with air conditioning and water, but no food? Would Papa come back to look for me? Should I have stayed by the road in case he did?

  I pulled my knees to my chest and cried into them. Had anyone shown up for my birthday party? Would anyone notice I was missing?

  * * *

  Knuckles

  I grumbled as I rolled over in my bed. There was a horrific alarm sounding somewhere near my nightstand and I desperately needed to silence it. I'd been up all fucking night partying with the club after we pulled off a successful delivery at the southern border and whatever was causing the incessant wailing was just going to have to wait.

  Eyes still closed, I slapped my hand on the nightstand where my phone should have been. It wasn't there. After a few more grapples along the smooth surface, I forced open one eye while I kept the other squeezed shut. I reached for the only thing I could see on the table and ended up pushing something over the edge. The sound of shattering glass woke me up.

  That alarm wasn't any alarm. It was the sound of one of our security systems being tripped. How long had I ignored that so
und in an effort to get more sleep? Fuck. I tossed my pillow, all the blankets, the shirt I'd thrown off as I climbed into bed, but my phone wasn't under any of them. Shit. By now everything could've been raided. You stupid fucking bastard.

  I dropped onto my knees on the floor and the images from last night flooded over me. I'd dropped my phone when I pushed my jeans down, and when I kicked them off like a flailing toddler, it had been sent spinning across the floor. Right where I remembered, it was lying just under my nightstand.

  Red triangles and bold letters warned me there was an alert. I swiped on the notification and pulled up the live camera feeds from inside the supply house. "What the fuck?" There was a young girl inside, asleep or… dead? She wasn't moving. "Fuck." With a quick flick of my thumb, I saw the moment she'd walked right in the front door like it hadn't even been locked. 5:30pm was when she'd arrived. And now? She'd been there for over an hour. The alarm had been going off for at least that long and I'd ignored it. Why was she there and how the hell did she get in?

  I checked the other cameras and saw that there wasn't anybody else around her or the other buildings we had. As I yanked my jeans on from the night before, I called Pres. He didn't answer, but I hadn't exactly expected him to. He was still partying when I'd left, and by the way Jeanie had been dancing with him she'd probably kept him up even longer.

  "I gotta go check something out at the supply house. I might, uh, be bringing someone back with me. I don't know, Pres." I pushed my hand backwards through my hair. "There's some girl in the supply house between Mesa and Dyler. I'll be right back. I don't need backup."

  I pulled on a fresh t-shirt - one that didn't smell like bourbon and sweat like the one I threw off the bed earlier- and my cut. I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. Not surprisingly, Mac was completely naked, asleep on the pool table- thankfully face down. When my hand slapped against his back, he gasped awake.

  "What the fuck, man? Why did you wake me up?" Mac barked, blinking to try to get my face to clear through his blurry vision.

  "I'm taking off. Gotta take care of something."

  He pushed up onto his elbows on the red felt. "I can come with."

  "Nah, I got it. I just thought someone should know. I left a message for Pres. I'll see ya later!"

  He turned his head to check around him. "You seen Shelly?"

  The man had some kind of issue keeping track of his Ol’ Lady, and was always asking other people where she was. The last I remembered of Shelly, before throwing myself into my bed, was when she yelled at Mac for treating her like a dog, yet again, in the middle of the party. He probably couldn't remember anything past slapping her ass and bending her over the pool table in the middle of a game, and couldn't figure out why she wasn't naked underneath him when I woke him up.

  I suppressed a sigh at his ridiculousness, and shook my head. "I haven't seen anything but your hairy ass since I got up. Tell Amy I accidentally broke a glass in my room, will ya?"

  He started to force himself to a sitting position. "Where are you going, again?"

  "Out. I'm good, Mac. I got it. Find Shelly and tell Amy about my room." I got outside somehow without catching sight of Mac's balls. I checked the cameras of the supply house again, and hoped like hell the girl was still breathing. There were going to be a lot of questions asked if I pulled a dead girl out of the supply house, and I had none of the answers.

  The ride to our spot in the desert was long -at least an hour with the club- but by myself I could sling around traffic on the highway and go a little faster once I broke out onto the rural roads. It still took me too long. If she was dying, the time it took me could've been me wasting seconds she needed to revive her. I rode down Dyler Street, and didn't see anything that suggested she'd come that way.

  I took a right onto Mesa and saw fresh tire marks. They were only about two feet long, but someone had definitely either slowed down or sped up quickly. Had they hit her? Was she so disoriented she walked through the desert looking for help? It really wouldn't have made a difference where she walked from that spot. There wasn't anything for miles. From there, she probably made the right choice finding our building and staying in it. At least it had air conditioning, and fuck was it hot in this desert. It was only going to get hotter for the next couple of months.

  There were no other hints on the asphalt - no broken glass, no crushed metal. I pulled off into the dirt and stopped to check the cameras again. She was making me paranoid. With my club behind me, we probably would've barrelled in like our asses were on fire and fought our way through. But that wasn't what was needed right now. This girl had been terrified when she got here, I'd seen it in her face on the video. She looked young and scared. She didn't need fifteen tough bikers busting the door in and trying to tear her apart.

  I climbed back onto my bike and rode closer. I parked right in front of the only door, and when I dismounted, my phone was ringing. "Hey, Pres," I said when I answered the door.

  "What's going on, Knuckles? Why did you go alone?"

  "Because this only requires one person," I said. I liked to do things on my own, and Pres despised that more than anything else about me.

  "Are you sure you've got this?"

  "I'm about to find out. I'm here. I'm going to head in and see what's up."

  "So if you're not back in two hours I'm sending a search party?" he teased.

  I breathed in the trust he was giving me. We'd had a hard time, the two of us, when I became his VP. I grew up mouthy, cocky, and brash. He hadn't changed me, but molded me. I wasn't a wild horse that had been bridled and forced into a stable. I had been shown the comfort of a stable, the safety in it, and how knowing you had a warm bed to come to after a long day made the chaos even more fun. Though, as I got older, the chaos was becoming more 'bearable' and less 'my reason for existing'. "Yeah, give me two hours, but I'll be home early."

  "Okay. See you in two hours."

  Chapter Two

  Maya

  A loud rumbling roused me from my sleep. A motorcycle. Someone was coming. I needed to hide. I made my way to the end of the hallway where barely any light was shed, as I realized that I had broken into someone's hidden, locked up building in the middle of the fucking desert and I had no idea what was here. I had no idea who owned it. Had I found this place just to die in it? How much worse could a girl's birthday get?

  The rumbling stopped just outside the door. Long seconds of silence passed. Keys jingled and the door unlocked. It was dark outside when the door opened, and a tall man stepped in. I covered my mouth. His eyes scanned the hallway, but he didn't see me. His hand was at his hip, like he had his fingers on a weapon that I couldn't see. He slowly peeked into the bathroom. A boot kicked the door the rest of the way open, and he stepped inside. He shut the door behind him, and I broke into a sprint up the hallway. I had no idea where I would go once I got outside, but that was a problem for when I got there.

  Right before I got to the bathroom door, it swung back open. I gasped as the man stepped out of the bathroom. I'm fucking dead.

  His eyes locked onto me and I flinched instantly. The fire behind them made my heart race as I realized I was no match for him. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

  I quietly tried to slink backwards, hoping I would disappear into the shadows. One long stride brought him within just a few feet of me, and I pressed myself to go faster. I wasn't fast enough. Cowering under the heat of his glare, I backed up until my back hit something solid and I screamed.

  I didn't chance a look around. I thought if I turned my eyes away from the man for even a second he would kill me. Blood thundered past my ears but the sound of his boots closing in only seemed to be amplified. I wished I could speak, to beg for his mercy, but my mouth was sealed shut. I sunk down the wall as he closed the last few inches between us, irrationally thinking if I just looked small enough he would leave me alone. I had to make it clear I wasn't a threat.

  His hand grabbed my wrist with a sizzling heat, and pulled me bac
k to my feet in one smooth move that was so fast I almost bumped into him. He twisted my arm behind my back, spinning my body so my chest and cheek pressed against the wall as I gasped at the pain shooting through me. "Why are you afraid of me, angel?"

  I had no words. I was too focused on breathing through the fear and the pain so I wouldn't pass out.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he chuckled, but his words did nothing to comfort me. He stepped closer so his body boxed me in, with his boots on the outsides of my sandals. He released my arm, and then trailed his fingers up it while it was still trapped between us. "You're shaking."

  I gulped and tried to pull my hand away from the rigid muscles in his belly, but my hand brushed against the front of his jeans and I squeezed my eyes closed. Maybe he didn't notice.

  "This place isn't safe. What are you doing here?" he repeated in my ear

  My heart was still pounding and I was starting to feel a little dizzy. My stomach churned, but still I didn't answer.

  "Alright, since you seem to have lost your bravado the second I showed up, let's try yes or no questions. Do you have any weapons on you?"

  I shook my head, but I wished I was lying.

  "Good. Did someone send you here?"

  Again, I shook my head. I wanted to ask why someone would have sent me, but my drying mouth still wasn't ready to function.

  "Do you know who I am?"

  I shook my head faster. "Who are you?" My voice sounded hoarse and plaintive.

  "Who are you?" He countered.

  "I- Maya."

  "Maya," he repeated. "We need to get out of here, Maya. We're sitting on a powder keg in here." His blisteringly hot hand returned to my wrist as he peeled me away from the wall and walked me back through the door the way I'd come in. We stopped short just a few inches from his motorcycle. "Do you need a ride somewhere?"