A Troubled Vow: Inked Angels MC, #8

By Zoey Parker

A Troubled Vow is book 8 in the Inked Angels MC series. The Prequel - Book 10 are available everywhere now!

Prequel: Escort
Book 1: A Sinful Vow
Book 2: A Wicked Vow
Book 3: A Dirty Vow
Book 4: A Secret Vow
Book 5: A Dark Vow
Book 6: A Forbidden Vow
Book 7: A Broken Vow
Book 8: A Troubled Vow
Book 9: A Perfect Vow
Book 10: Cross Your Heart

She’s a fragile little thing. I just might break her.

I thought I’d seen the last of her.

Rose had run from danger, right into my bed.

It didn’t take long before she was moaning my name.

But you can’t outrun your shadow.

When the devils of my past catch up, they take her away from me.

I’d hunt them down, but there’s a war going on, and my club needs me home.

Back in Texas, I follow the thread of betrayal that threatens to shatter my world.

I should’ve known it would lead me back to her.

This time, though, she’s on an auction block.

I may be the one doing the bidding, but the bastards who stole her will pay the ultimate price.

There’s no other girl I’d fight through hell for.

This one’s different —

She’s carrying my baby.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sopris Page Press
• Release date: Dec 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386108122

Book preview

A TROUBLED VOW: Inked Angels MC (Book 8)

By Zoey Parker

She’s a fragile little thing. I just might break her.

I THOUGHT I’D SEEN the last of her.

Rose had run from danger, right into my bed.

It didn’t take long before she was moaning my name.

But you can’t outrun your shadow.

When the devils of my past catch up, they take her away from me.

I’d hunt them down, but there’s a war going on, and my club needs me home.

Back in Texas, I follow the thread of betrayal that threatens to shatter my world.

I should’ve known it would lead me back to her.

This time, though, she’s on an auction block.

I may be the one doing the bidding, but the bastards who stole her will pay the ultimate price.

There’s no other girl I’d fight through hell for.

This one’s different —

She’s carrying my baby.

Chapter 1

Vince

The first crack of splintering wood interrupts the dream I was having. The second one jolts me awake in bed. The third crack is not wood at all, rather the shattering of my back molar as a pistol butt slams into my jaw.

The taste of blood rinsing over my tongue is acrid and sharp. One side of my face is riddled with pain and blossoming bruises from the strike to the teeth. I start to try to struggle up, in spite of the stars twinkling in front of my eyes, but a leather gloved hand wraps around my throat and shoves me back down. I feel the point of a gun press between my eyes.

Don’t move, motherfucker, growls a vaguely familiar voice. I hear a scream. My eyes blink open through the pain. The scene swims into life.

Early morning light streams through the wreckage of what was once the door to the motel room. It is now little more than fodder for matchsticks, thanks to the axe work of the two men who are standing in the room. Their snarls are identical. Both are wearing black boots, black jeans, and long-sleeved black shirts, along with leather gloves on their hands. The one pinning me to the mattress by my neck has a short-nosed pistol in his hand, aimed squarely at my face. The other has a gun held to Rose’s forehead.

He’s holding her back against him so that she faces me, while keeping an arm looped around her neck. Her face is a patchwork quilt of terror. Eyes bugging out, hands scrabbling for purchase on the man’s bulging forearm, bare skin riddled with goosebumps.

Get the fuck away from her! I roar, trying to leap towards where they are standing at the foot of the bed.

But the man with the gun pointed at me slams me back into the bed by my throat. He raps the gun on the bridge of my nose to get my attention. Stay still, you stupid son of a bitch, he says. You want a fucking bullet in the eye? I’m seething, chest rising and falling with every angry breath, but there’s nothing I can do. He’s got me trapped.

Fuck, how could I have been so stupid? Focus. No time for that. Figure out how to save her. I glance around, but nothing presents itself. They outmaneuvered me, found us when we were vulnerable. I’d thought we would be safe here for the night. How fucking wrong I was.

Rose is still naked, squirming in her captor’s arms. All I want is to reach out and comfort her. She can trust me. I told her she could. What is this, then? They found us anyway. I was wrong.

He sees the way I’m looking at her and laughs. What a nice bitch, eh? I cannot wait to see what it is like to have her. He looks at his partner, and they both cackle evilly.

She will be very fun, yes, the second one agrees. Then he adds, Until we’re bored with her, that is. Then she will be not much use to us at all, I am afraid.

Rage is clouding my vision. I want to murder these men, rip them apart with my bare hands. How dare they touch what is mine.

If you hurt her, I will hunt you both down, and you will wish you had never met me, I grit. I swear that to you.

The man above me loses his smile. He wipes a band of sweat from his forehead. You would be very stupid to follow us, amigo, he says. Very stupid indeed. You and she will both end up in a great deal of pain.

I’m lying deathly still, biding my time, hoping against hope for an opening to present itself. It seems fruitless though. There’s no way I can move quickly enough to avoid the man filling my skull with hot lead. For Rose’s sake, I need to stay alive. Head clear. Patience. The seconds are ticking by frustratingly fast. They won’t linger here for long. Maybe they’ll kill me before they go, maybe not. I might only have one chance to act.

I look at Rose. I’m trying to tell her with my eyes to do something, anything. All I need is a sliver of opportunity and I can try to buck the odds. I rescued her twice before. Third time’s the charm, right?

She’s staring back at me in abject fear. She looks frozen, rooted to the ground and completely incapable of motion. I’ve never seen something so fragile before. She deserves better than the rough hands of the cartel scum wrapped around her throat.

I blink hard. The only thing I can do is stare at Rose and urge her to move. Run. Get the fuck away from here. Please. I see a flicker of something in her eyes. It’s hard to decipher. Is it adrenaline? Courage? Pure animal instinct? I can’t say for sure, but the shell of her panic seems to begin crumbling. Come on, Rose. Fight.

As if she hears me, Rose opens her mouth and sinks her teeth hard into the sleeved arm of the man holding her. He curses and flings her away from him. She careens into the wall, smacking her skull against the plaster. For a moment, her knees buckle. The impact must have snapped her head back. She looks dizzy, confused.

In the midst of the chaos, I see the Diablo pointing the gun at me glance away for a split second. I surge upwards, knocking his weapon aside, although he manages to keep his fingers wrapped around the grip. I slam my forehead into the crook of his nose. He stumbles backwards, one hand covering the torrent of blood erupting from his nostrils.

I can hardly believe our luck. I made a mistake, but they won’t catch me sleeping a second time. No one is ever going to hurt Rose again. We’re going to get out of here. Against all odds, we’re going to fucking make it.

For a moment, I truly believe that.

Then everything comes crashing back down. The Diablo that Rose bit comes to his senses. She reaches her hands towards his face as if to claw at him, but he bats her outstretched fingers aside and delivers a brutal backhand to her right cheek. Her lights go out instantly. She slumps to the floor.

No! I bellow. I try to jump from the bed, but a sheet wraps around my ankle. I get a foot in the air before it pulls tight like a leash and yanks me to the floor.

No. No. This can’t be happening. We were out! We were almost fucking gone!

The man I headbutted struggles to his feet. I try to roll over to protect myself from him, but it’s no use. He