Never Kiss an Exile: Exile Love Biker MC Series Book 1 Read online

  “Yeah, a friend wanted to go out and celebrate. She just finished her finals and she wanted to unwind,” I explained, not feeling too bad about lying to him.

  I’d spent most of my adult life lying to my dad, I didn’t see why I should stop now. Besides, I didn’t want him to know I was at the biker bar. At the end of the day he was my dad and I felt some guilt about ignoring the note he’d left for me.

  He just nodded at my explanation and glanced at my coffee. “Why don’t you put that in a to-go cup?” he said, his voice strangled and weak.

  I frowned deeply and glanced down at the coffee. “Why? Are we going somewhere?” I asked curiously.

  He took in a sharp breath and nodded. “Yeah, we’re actually going on a trip. We’ll be staying overnight at a hotel. ”

  I blinked, surprised by the statement. Dad and I avoided each other at all costs the majority of the time, and it was strange that he seemed to be showing a sudden interest in me. I furrowed my brow and looked down at my coffee, hesitant in giving my answer. I was like any other girl, honestly. I’d always wanted to be a part of my father’s life; he just wasn’t interested in me being part of his. At least, that’s how I felt.

  As I tapped my spoon on my cup I felt hope well inside of me. Were my dad and I finally going to patch things up? Was he going to try and be the dad he should have been all this time? I turned to him and smiled, finally nodding.

  “Yeah, that sounds nice. I’ll go pack a bag,” I said, running back up to my room and throwing a few pieces of clothing and my shampoo in my backpack.

  I didn’t even care where we were going. It would be nice to finally have some time with dad that didn’t include him smoking, drinking, and shooting up. Maybe we’d go fishing or do whatever normal families did.

  He offered a strained smile and I didn’t put much thought into it. He was probably hung over and crashing. He always looked just a little bit uncomfortable, mostly when he’d gone too long without a beer. I was used to the strained tone, so it wasn’t strange to me at all.

  I poured my coffee into a travel mug and followed him out to the bike but he shook his head and pointed to his work truck.

  “We’re going to be driving a while. I don’t think taking the bike is the best idea,” he said softly.

  I was a little shocked and gave the bike a second glance but shrugged and smiled a little. “Okay,” I said softly, hoping into the truck and leaning against the window, a happy smile dancing on my face.

  He looked at me, face full of guilt. I could only assume that it was over all the days he’d lost with me and all of those times he left me on my own.

  He put the truck into drive and headed down the road. “Let’s get going, Kiddo.”

  Chapter Eight

  The pained tone of his voice still hadn’t set off any alarms yet. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was a quiet summer day and the birds and bees were fluttering through the trees. Everything was so green here. I hummed and tapped my fingers against the door of the truck, watching the trees flash by. After a moment I turned to my dad and smiled.

  “So where are we going exactly?”

  “We’re going to a small town near the Tennessee border,” he said, his voice stiff.

  “What are we going there for?”

  “There’s some, uh, good camping,” he murmured, keeping his eyes fixed on the road.

  I frowned a little and sat up in my seat, eyeing him up and down. “Camping?” I asked, putting my hands on the dash. “What do you mean? We didn’t bring any camping gear.” Actually, come to think of it, we didn’t own any to begin with. “And you said we were staying in a hotel.”

  “We’re renting a cabin,” he said, his tone harsher than I expected.

  I frowned but leaned back into the seat, closing my eyes. The sun was warm and I was still a bit sleepy from the night before. It wouldn’t hurt to catch a few more hours of sleep. We were still quite a ways from the Tennessee border.

  I wasn’t sure how long I dozed off for, but when I opened my eyes, the car had come to a stop and I could hear muffled voices outside. I lifted my head and was shocked to see that we had pulled over into what looked like an abandoned farm. A group of bikers stood around my dad, chatting and smoking. Anger flooded every inch of my body.

  How could I be stupid enough to believe that my dad would actually want to spend time with me? He didn’t want to spend time with me! He was just dragging me to one of his stupid biker meet ups. What was the purpose of this?

  After a moment I unlocked the car and kicked the door open, storming out to where my dad was standing.

  “What the hell is going on?!” I demanded, the anger clear in my face.

  My dad seemed shocked to see me out of the truck and laughed nervously. “What are you doing out here, angel?”

  “Cut the shit! What is this?” I demanded, throwing my arm out and motioning to all the other bikers who were standing around, staring at us.

  He offered a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “What do you mean, angel?” he murmured.

  “Why are we here?! You said we were going to go camping!”

  The disappointing click of someone’s tongue was the response to the question. The sound came from behind me and I swung around, trying to see who it was. I came face to face with the same man who’d saved be before. Damien.

  He smiled down at me, his piercing blue eyes staring right through me. “You told her you were taking her camping? What a cruel lie, Billy,” he said, addressing my father.

  I turned back around to look at my father, my eyes wide. “Lie?” I whispered, though I was hardly surprised. “What does he mean? What’s really going on here?” I asked, my tone lowering as I became more afraid now.

  Damien spoke for my father, taking a few steps around me and turning to face me. “Your father has some unpaid debts,” he said simply, his cold eyes trained on me. “He owes us a lot of money and when he said he couldn’t pay us back we decided we were going to have to get a little more creative with our…collections.”

  My eyes widened as I slowly started putting the pieces together. This handsome man who’d grinned so brightly when he learned my name at the bar was happy because he knew I was the daughter of a man who owed him cash. He knew he could finally collect.

  “Dad?” I whispered, staring at my dad with wide eyes.

  “I’m sorry Kiddo,” he choked as two of the larger men grabbed me by the arms and started carrying me over to one of the bikes.

  I struggled against them and when they finally let me go I screamed, my heart pounding in my chest. “I’m not going anywhere with you!” I screamed, my chest heaving with fear.

  “Oh yes you are,” one of the men grunted.

  I immediately recognized him as the man named Snake. He pulled a pistol out of the back of his jeans and aimed it at me, cocking the hammer. My heart dropped into my stomach and my face drained of all color. I whimpered and slowly straddled the bike, still staring back at my dad. He looked fucking pathetic and didn’t bother to stop what was happening.

  There was still a gun trained on me as Damien and my father spoke. This time Damien wasn’t running to my rescue and I didn’t want him to. He was the mastermind behind all of this. I was sure that my father couldn’t possibly know what they were going to do to me. He was pretty much selling his own daughter into slavery.

  I turned my head away, not wanting him to see me cry. I didn’t want him to know how scared I was and how hurt I was. I felt betrayed and I felt tossed aside. Was I really that disposable to him? For the first time since I’d arrived in Georgia, I had a desperate desire to be with my mother. She might have been uptight, but she never would have done this.

  Damian came back into view and got on the bike I’d been forced onto. The bikes roared to life and jolted forward as we took off. I was forced to wrap my arms around Damien’s torso, closing my eyes against the sting of the wind. Even with my hate for biker gangs, I had always loved being on a bike in the
past. This time I felt nothing more than a deep fear.

  I took one last look over my shoulder, my mind spinning. I knew that my life, as I knew it, was coming to an end and there was nothing I could do about it.

  Chapter Nine

  We rode on into the sunset, leaving Georgia behind us. We were right at the Tennessee-Georgia border and so we managed to cross into Tennessee within an hour. We kept driving, weaving through the mountains before we finally stopped in a small town called Mont Eagle.

  The bikes were parked and hotel rooms were rented. I noticed that Damien used a fake name and had to wonder if there were possibly warrants out for his arrest. It was a good thing to keep tucked in the back of my mind.

  I had just settled on one of the queen sized beds in the room that I was apparently now going to share with Damien – a practical stranger. I was terrified, angry, and slightly aroused at the fact that I’d be sharing a room with the dangerous leader of a motorcycle gang. I still knew nothing about Damien or his men, but I had a feeling I was going to be finding out sooner rather than later.

  Damien sighed and pulled his shirt over his head, rolling his neck and his shoulders a little as he looked down at me. I blushed and turned my head, hoping to hide the fact that my cheeks were flushed.

  "Where are you taking me?" I murmured.

  "To a little town just outside Nashville," he said, flopping onto the empty bed beside the one I was seated on.

  I was silently thankful that he wasn't trying to get in bed with me, though I wasn't going to put it past him to try something. After all, he was using me as black mail. Who knew what he was capable of? He closed his eyes, his perfect sculpted chest rising and falling evenly.

  "We need to chat," he said, turning his gaze my way.

  I crossed my arms and turned away from him. "I'm not going to sleep with you," I said simply, firmly. I wanted him to know I meant business.

  He cocked a brow and smirked a little. "Not what I was going to talk about, but I'm glad to know it's on your mind."

  I was blushing so hard now that I probably could have lit up the room. He chuckled and glanced over at me.

  "I'm sure you think I'm some sort fuck’in sick monster, but I assure you I'm not."

  This was the first time I heard him curse since we met. I guess I was going to see who the real Damien was now – if that was his real name.

  "Well you convinced my dad to trade me in order to clear his debt, so yeah, I'm not your biggest fan right now,” I said smartly.

  "I'm not keeping you here against your will."

  I frowned and lifted my head a little, looking at him like he was crazy. "Then why was a gun pointed at my face?"

  He sighed and looked over at me for a long moment. "I didn't convince your dad to trade you," he said simply.

  I frowned and looked down at the dirty, maroon carpet, my heart aching even more. "It was his idea?" I asked.

  He nodded slowly and looked over at me for a moment. "Yeah. The whole situation seemed pretty fucked up. If he was willing to trade you to us to clear away his debt, he was willing to trade you to anyone. When we met in the bar, I realized who you were so I agreed to make the trade."

  I felt tears welling in my eyes at the thought of my father offering to trade me. He hadn’t even required any prompting. I wiped my eyes, not wanting to seem weak in front of this man. This man who seemed to save me at every turn. Why?

  He glanced over at me and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “Look. I understand you’re pissed, and I understand that you’re trying to process all of this,” he said, turning to face me.

  I was silent, still staring at the floor. He hummed softly, thinking for a moment before speaking again. “Listen, if you want to leave, I get it. I’ll buy you a plane ticket to wherever the rest of your family is, but I don’t think you should go back to Atlanta. The next trade might not be to someone so kind,” he murmured. “You seem like a girl who’s looking for a bit of adventure. I think you’d fit right in with my crowd,” he said with a wicked grin. “I think you should join us.”

  The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He wanted me around because he thought I was beautiful. He wanted more from me than membership, and the worst part of it all, was that I kind of wanted it too. I turned away from him, my mind racing. I sighed and stood from the bed, glancing at the filthy hotel bathroom. Normally I wouldn’t have even considered taking a shower in the stained tub, but I was desperate to be alone.

  “I need a shower,” I murmured, standing and walking over to the bathroom.

  Damien just offered a nod in response, letting me walk away without much of a fight. I disappeared into the bathroom and locked the door, stripping down as I turned the hot water on. I slid down the tub and sat under the water, letting the warm spray cascade over me as I put my head in my hands, tears starting to stream down my face. I was alone now and I finally felt like it was safe to cry.

  I felt so alone and I didn’t know what I was going to do. My mother didn’t want me, my dad had sold me over a drug debt. What was I supposed to do now? Damien was offering me a place to stay, but what type of nut job would agree to be a part of a ruthless gang of misfit bikers? My dad kind of proved my theory that these men were assholes, so what was I going to do?

  My head was spinning and tears were still pouring down my cheek and circling the drain. I sat there for a long time, the water never getting cold thanks to the industrial hot water heaters. It could have been an hour I wasn’t sure, but after a long, long time thinking things through I came to my decisions.

  I was going to give living with these bikers a shot. What other choice did I have?

  Chapter Ten

  I told Damien I was willing to give this a go. I didn’t really have any other choices. That point didn’t seem to affect him. He just seemed happy that I was on board with joining him and his little gang. Well, little wasn’t the right way to describe them. The gang was actually pretty expansive.

  We loaded up on the bikes the next morning and started back towards Nashville. We drove through the city and it took my breath away. I always loved driving through big cities. Growing up in such a small town made me crave big city life. I considered asking Damien if we could stop and see some of the sights, but I thought better of it, I didn’t want to push my boundaries too far. I was normally an outgoing girl, but now I found myself in a new city without any of my old crutches. I didn’t have mom or my friends, I was all alone.

  We kept driving through Nashville and didn’t stop until we hit the rural, rolling hills of a town called Dickson. We drove down a long dirt road, and as we did certain bikers started turning into the driveways of small homes. Children ran out to greet their fathers, throwing their arms around the men as they walked inside their houses.

  Damien finally came to stop at a classical looking plantation house. It was big, though it wasn’t ridiculous. It was definitely a kind of status symbol. He parked the bike in an attached garage and helped me off. I shook him off, not wanting to seem dependent. I was trying to maintain some of my dignity.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and followed him into the very classical looking house. It was lovely but had very few furnishings and decorations. As well-off as he seemed, he didn’t have much stuff in his house, though I wondered if that was because it lacked a woman’s touch. It was kind of hard to believe that Damien was single, well, if you ignored the fact that he was the leader of a vicious biker gang.

  We wandered through the house until we came to a set of bedrooms. They were side by side and one was much larger than the other. The smaller one was decorated in soft, pale blues and whites and had a nice, airy feel to it.

  “Well, this will be your room, I’m sure you’ll want to get settled.”

  My brows were knitted together as I stared into the room. He glanced at me and looked me up and down. “Is this room okay? There’s another guest room down the hall.”

  I shook my head back and forth slowly. “This is just s
o strange.”

  “Why is that?”

  I turned on my heels and stared at him, wide-eyed and shocked. “Don’t you realize how strange this?! You’re the leader of a drug dealing biker gang and you’re pretty much taking part in human trafficking, but you’re being so fucking nice! I don’t get it!”

  “We don’t deal drugs and I gave you a choice as to whether or not you wanted to come with us. If I recall, I actually offered to buy you a plane ticket anywhere you wanted to go,” Damien said defensively.

  I was at a loss for words when he answered, mostly because I knew he was right. He had given me a choice, though I wasn’t completely convinced when he told me they didn’t deal drugs.

  “If you aren’t dealing drugs then what did my dad owe you money for?” I asked, popping my hip and trying to look sassy.

  “He owed us protection money. He owes another gang drug money and we were protecting him from them.”

  My jaw fell slack and I looked him up and down. “If-but how? You’re all the way in Nashville?”

  “Our club has two chapters. One in Nashville, and one in Atlanta,” he explained.

  “But if you don’t deal drugs and kidnap people, then what do you do?” I asked, wondering what else bikers did.

  “We’re vigilantes,” he said with a smile. “We take care of the guys who beat their wives or hurt their kids. We make sure that the law catches up with the scumbags of our city. We’re just trying to make the city better and sometimes in order to do that, you have to take out the trash,” he smiled and stepped closer. “Sometimes my men can get a little carried away like when my guy carried you away yesterday with a gun - but they have the right intentions. You’ll come to understand how we work around here,” he said with a smile.

  He watched me, clearly enjoying the shocked look on my face. He chuckled and leaned in, pressing a kiss to my forehead and stroking my hair before pulling away.