New Beginnings: Steel bandits

By JC Belanger

Marie
I was trapped in a family that hurts anyone it can. My only chance was to run, but where to? I needed to get a warning to my childhood friend Anna and her brother. I never expected to find The Steel Bandits. They don't seem to hold my brothers' actions against me, but when shit hits the fan, and it always does, will that remain true? Or should I get out while I can, before Gizmo becomes an addiction I can't escape and don't really want too.
Gizmo
When Marie walked into the clubhouse, she was a scared little bunny that I needed to keep so that Axel and Voodoo could talk to. I never expected that I would feel anything for her or that I would need to protect her more than I needed to breathe. I can feel she is getting ready to run, but she needs to let me, and my brother's keep her safe while we put a stop to the havoc her brother James is trying to play out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JC Belanger
• Release date: Jan 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393725190

Book preview

New Beginnings

Steel Bandits

Book 2

JC Belanger

COPYRIGHT 2019© JC BELANGER

All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations used in book reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Cover Design: Erin Osborne

Editors: Erin Osborne

JC Belanger has full permission from the author Darlene Tallman to use Reece in this work.

JC Belanger has full permission from Author Erin Osborne to use Phantom Bastards MC in this work.

New Beginnings Blurb

Marie

I was trapped in a family that hurts anyone it can. My only chance was to run, but where to? I needed to get a warning to my childhood friend Anna and her brother. I never expected to find The Steel Bandits. They don’t seem to hold my brothers’ actions against me, but when shit hits the fan, and it always does, will that remain true? Or should I get out while I can, before Gizmo becomes an addiction I can’t escape and don’t really want too.

Gizmo

When Marie walked into the clubhouse, she was a scared little bunny that I needed to keep so that Axel and Voodoo could talk to. I never expected that I would feel anything for her or that I would need to protect her more than I needed to breathe. I can feel she is getting ready to run, but she needs to let me, and my brother’s keep her safe while we put a stop to the havoc her brother James is trying to play out.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my

grandkids and kids Kadi, Lilli, and Lincoln. You are my heart. I love you to the moon and back. You are too little now to understand how much you encourage me every day. Girls you ask me if I have sold any books and cheer even if it is only one, and that makes my heart so happy. Lincoln being you are only 2 so all you have to do is smile and laugh to make my day brighter and happy.

Michael my son, thank you for always making me laugh, even when I am angry. Whitney, you are me even though you hate it. I love you both very much. Ashley, my adult adoptee, your support is everything. You make sure I have snacks, and drinks. You cheer with me and let me rant at you. Thank you will never be enough but that is all I have.

Character List

Officers and Members:

President: Axel aka Devon

Vice President: Voodoo aka Scott

Secretary: Turtle aka Ricky

Treasurer: Gizmo aka Terry

Sgt. At Arms: Racer aka Robert

Road Captain: Toad aka Eric

Enforcer: Fury aka Frank

Taz aka Charlie

God aka Shawn

Doc aka Chris

Prospects:

Tigger

Mikey

Skid

Old Ladies:

Anna: Prop of Taz and sister of Voodoo

Children of Club Members

Cecelia Rea -daughter of Anna

Club Girls:

Stephanie

Scarlett

Lucy

Club Businesses

Steel Wrench Garage

The Cookhouse -Silent Partners

Friends of Club

Cookie -cook and owner of The Cookhouse

Table of Contents

Prologue

Marie

I SIT IN my cold, lonely apartment, thinking about the life I used to have. My best friend in the entire world was Anna. We met when we were three years old and quickly became inseparable. I remember when we used to play Barbie’s. While I was always content for her to play Barbie while I was Ken, she would ensure that we took turns. Anna caught onto my game really quick and wouldn’t let me get away with it, I would never look like Barbie. That was when things were easy. We didn’t have a care in the world except for what we were gonna play. Or my older brothers harassing us.

That all changed when my brother, Austin was killed. He was hit by a drunk driver before she carelessly drove off. We were eleven years old and I didn’t understand the significance of death or what would happen following that fateful night. I still remember the conversation Anna and I had the day of his funeral.

Anna, why did he have to die? I cry while sitting in the room where my brother Austin is laying in a coffin looking as if he is only sleeping. I don’t want him to be put in the ground. He might get cold or lonely.

We can sneak out every night and put a blanket on him.

Anna has the best ideas. We said we could become real sisters if Anna and Austin got married. James my oldest brother is just too mean for anyone to want to marry. Now, we will never be sisters.

Anna is that my dad over there with that guy? I ask cautiously I’m gonna go home before he catches me. He still thinks I’m in bed.

Austin was my big brother, my protector, a hero, and the best person in the world as far as I was concerned. He didn’t treat Anna and me like shit because he was older than us. Instead, he would play with us, talk to us, joke around and tease us, and he’d let us follow him around.

Even when he was with his friends, Anna and I could hang out with them. No one said a word about it because they knew Austin wouldn’t tolerate it. Scott, Anna’s brother, wouldn’t either. I lost that in the blink of an eye. All because one person didn’t care about the lives, she was putting at risk when she got behind the wheel drunk.

The lives of my entire family changed with one person’s decision. There’s no going back to change anything. Instead, I have to figure out a way to stop events that have been set in motion. I know what I have to do, but it scares me to death. No one has seen my family in years, and I doubt Anna, or her brother Scott, even remember me. Hell, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her when we left.

James, my oldest brother, has changed the most out of all of us. I can’t stand to be anywhere near him. As soon as I graduated from high school, I attempted to move out of the house he still shares with my mother, but he quickly put a stop to that’s. Every single day I dread waking up to find she’s been killed.

Growing up, James was always nasty and mean. When we moved, and my dad got sent to prison for killing the lady that killed Austin six weeks after his funeral, he became even worse. James would not let us even speak of the town or state we used to live in. If we did, he would slap my mother or myself. At least that’s how it started out.

I was shocked the first time he hit my mother, but my dad did not say a word to him. He told my mother that she needed to respect James as a family leader since he would not be around much longer. That did not make sense to me, but dad knew he was going to jail which I guess is why we moved to Chicago so quickly.

He found us a house near some of his ‘friends’. I did not understand until years later what these friends did. It’s something I wish that I had never found out. But we can’t change the past. We can only learn from our mistakes and move on. Or we can try to come up with a plan to let people know what’s going on. That’s what I’m trying to figure out these days.

We would go every other weekend to see my father until he was killed in a prison fight. James had started working for dad’s friends shortly after our father was convicted of murdering the lady who had killed my brother Austin, when she decided to drive drunk after a night of partying with her friends. She never even realized that she had killed him until the next morning in jail when she sobered up. That was a sad time for all of us, I never understood why we had to move away from home, and it made James furious.

He was very popular and the star quarterback of the football team. James lost all of that when we moved away which I guess is why he was so distant and cold to mom and me. He was livid when dad got sent to prison, claiming he was innocent. James swore that our dad had been set up. I don’t know why he thinks that, we know he did it. Dad even told us he did.

Now I have to try to find a way to make things right. Anna and Scott need to know what’s been going on since we moved. Things have been going on since that horrible time in our lives and I witnessed most of it. Anna did too. We just didn’t know what we did would impact more than just my family.

So, I get up and pack as much as I can into a few bags. Everything else will have to stay here while I go back home. I hope that one day I get to return here. Even