Engine (Book 2): Asphalt Angels MC, #2

By Nicole Fox

This is book 2 of the Asphalt Angels MC  romance series! Book 3 is available everywhere now!

Taking her is wrong. Breaking her is worse.

I was buried in shadows.

Then she brought an unexpected light into my world.

I'd sworn off hope after my brother's murder.

My life had becoming nothing but an endless stream of brutal violence, one-night stands, and drink after drink after drink.

Then Kayla rang my doorbell.

And everything changed.

Kayla is a curvy, teasing beauty.

She's too gorgeous and too innocent for a broken man like me to touch.

But I'm rock hard, ruthless, and I refuse to let her go.

She needs my help.

Desperately.

And she has answers about my brother's death that I've been searching for.

We're both broken in our own shattered ways.

But maybe, together, we can make something whole.

Not just for our own sake.

Not just for our own happiness.

But also for the baby in Kayla's arms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MBK Hanson Inc.
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393284420

Nicole Fox

Nicole Fox writes smart, sexy mafia romance novels. She is a crazy cat lady in her late 30s with a coffee addiction, an overactive imagination, and a husband who somehow puts up with her impulsive need to keep buying new plants for their house. Sign up for her mailing list at http://bit.ly/NicoleFoxMailingList. 

Book preview

Engine: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Asphalt Angels MC Book 2)

By Nicole Fox

Taking her is wrong. Breaking her is worse.

I WAS BURIED IN SHADOWS.

Then she brought an unexpected light into my world.

I’d sworn off hope after my brother’s murder.

My life had becoming nothing but an endless stream of brutal violence, one-night stands, and drink after drink after drink.

Then Kayla rang my doorbell.

And everything changed.

Kayla is a curvy, teasing beauty.

She’s too gorgeous and too innocent for a broken man like me to touch.

But I’m rock hard, ruthless, and I refuse to let her go.

She needs my help.

Desperately.

And she has answers about my brother’s death that I’ve been searching for.

We’re both broken in our own shattered ways.

But maybe, together, we can make something whole.

Not just for our own sake.

Not just for our own happiness.

But also for the baby in Kayla’s arms.

Chapter One

Xander

W hat do you think, X?

About what? I ask him.

He sits on the swing, his hair flowing in the wind, wearing beat-up sneakers that are two sizes too small. We’ve always been dirt-poor but it still breaks my heart to see him like this. All around us, other kids are playing, but their parents tell them to avoid the swing set. Those kids are dirty. Those kids are dangerous.

What if we just killed him? he asks, ten years old, staring at me without a hint of emotion in his face.

You don’t know what you’re saying. I kick off the swing and walk toward some nearby bushes, go around them, and light a cigarette out of view of the park. You’re just talking.

I’m not! he protests, waving at the air to dissipate the smoke. Kid wants to kill someone and he can’t even stand a bit of smoke. Why should we let him hurt us all the time? It isn’t fair. He’s a mean old man and I hate him.

That’s not what you were saying a few months ago.

That was when I was little! he snaps. All my friends love their dads so I thought I had to love my dad but now I know that I don’t because—because he’s mean and he’s not very nice.

Have you seen him, Arsen? He’s three times the size of me, and I ain’t small. He’s probably five times the size of you. He’s a goddamn giant. How would we kill him? Tell me that.

It’s not hard, he says, lowering his voice. We just get one of those big knives he uses to cut meat and wait until he falls asleep, you know, when he’s been drinking too much. Then we stab the shithead right in the heart, just keep stabbing. He’ll die then. People usually die when you stab them over and over in the heart.

What if he wakes up? What if you miss?

What if I miss?

What? I flick my cigarette to the ground, where Arsen stubs it out, ever the conscientious one. You puttin’ this on me? Our old man is a fucking monster so I’ve gotta kill him? It’s your plan, so if you really wanna do it, you’re gonna have to be the one to do it.

Now you’re just being silly, he says, walking to the fence and then vaulting over it. You’re just saying this because my black eye has healed. You even said it was really bad. You’re just being a shit, X. Just a big shit.

I open my eyes, groaning as the first waves of the hangover come crashing down on me. I rub my eyes, rubbing away the memory, although it plays in the background as I go into the bathroom and gulp water from the faucet. We never enacted Arsen’s grand plan. We never even got close. Instead, we rode out his beatings until his drinking and smoking caught up with him and he dropped dead of his own accord. But I’ll never forget the way he looked at me, all the anger in the world in his face but none of the grit, too much empathy, too much squeamishness. He’d never do it. But he wanted me to do. Maybe I should have. At least then I wouldn’t feel so shitty about this whole thing. At least then I could say to myself: I did that one thing for him, at least, I’ll always have that.

I nuke myself a pizza in the microwave, wolf it down, and then take a shower. When I’m washed and changed I sit on the couch, staring at the TV and trying not to think about the whisky under the sink. The sun has almost set, the apartment is dead quiet, and suddenly the rest of the night seems like a long, long time. It’s half past eight o’clock, which means I have at least a few hours of sitting here sober. I guess I could go to the clubhouse, but all that’d mean is hearing shit from the fellas about drinking, Christopher asking me if I’m coming to the next meeting, did I read his pamphlet. I pick up the pamphlet now, but before I can go over it the apartment buzzer rings.

Yeah?

It’s me. It’s Kayla.

You spent that money already? I snap, though I don’t mean to. Why would she come here again, especially after the kiss? She knows we want each other. She must know it. There’s no way in hell