His Choice. Book Four. The Wounded Souls: The Wounded Souls. Queenscliff Chapter

By Leah Sharelle

KOJAK

At 10, my world was ripped out from beneath my feet. Nothing made sense anymore. Suddenly, I went from being a happy kid to just downright pissed off. I didn't need anything except my dad, sisters and the woman I considered my mother, Rainn. Despite the anger that boiled below the surface, I set out to achieve my goals—being accepted into the AFP and following my father's footsteps in wearing a Wounded Souls patch.  Life was pretty good; I moved up the ranks to VP of the new Souls chapter and left behind the badge I'd worked so hard for previously.

Then Nova happened, and life got a little complicated. And just like that … I wanted something so desperately, I was willing to put my heart and pride on the line.

I wanted my wife to love me.

NOVA

My life took a turn that sent my world careening in the wrong direction. After losing our parents in separate accidents, years apart. My sisters and I learned to lean on each other. Our father had checked out years before he was killed, so lost in his grief from losing his wife. Chevy, Shelby and I ploughed through life with only each other to depend on—well, we had James too. My father's former partner, James, offered us stability, support, and a way for me to keep my family together and thrive.

With James's help, I achieved financial independence and a growing status in the small business world. Finally, life was getting back on track, then I went and did something so incredibly stupid.

I thought it would be a good idea to go and fall in love with my husband.

Now all I had to do was stay alive long enough to find out if he loved me too.

Easier said than done when a dangerous, crazy loon put a target on my back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leah Sharelle
• Release date: Mar 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201606176

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE

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

EPILOGUE

Copyright © 2022 Leah Sharelle

His Choice

By Leah Sharelle

All Rights Reserved.

Editing and Proofreading: R Corcoran

Photography: Chic Professional Photography

Cover Models: Tamara Leckie & Dustyn Rodgers

Cover Design: Formatting & Design by Jaye

Interior Design: Formatting & Design by Jaye

This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the properties of the author, and your support and respect are appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. 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

DEDICATION

To the one I love xo

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PROLOGUE

JAMES

AGED 11

Trying really hard not to start crying again, I sat on the wooden floor of my childhood cubby house.

A few hours ago, our dad told us that Rainn was going to have twins.

I wasn’t worried about having more sisters. Ebony and I were pretty close, and unlike a lot of our friends, we didn’t do that brother/sister bull crap and hate each other. She was one of my best friends, and right now, she was also the only other person in the world who understood why I was having such a hard time lately.

Being a big sister is going to be fun, J, Ebony assured me, thinking on a different track than me.

That ain’t the problem, Ebby. It really wasn’t. Rainn was a cool chick, and she wasn’t a pretender. She wasn’t letting the stepmother role go to her head, and she was really good for my dad. Rainn was the polar opposite of Alannah, including what they looked like.

I couldn’t allow myself to call my mother, Mum. She was my mum, but what she did to Dad, Ebony and me —that was the shittiest of lows. Her knowing for years that Mannix Steel was not our biological father; instead, his cousin, wasn’t something I could get over quickly. Ebony had accepted it completely a couple of years ago. Her relationship with Alannah was a lot better than mine. I could barely keep up a conversation with her before the boiling hatred in the bottom of my stomach came rushing back, and when that happened, I had to get away.

Normally, the cubby I built with my dad was my happy place. With the kids at school and the pressure of being one part of a family scandal, I would come here and lick my wounds. Today it just wasn’t happening.

Mum is thinking it’s time you stopped calling Dad, dad. Cade is our father whether you like it or not, J, Ebony told me in a quiet, tired voice. Somehow Alannah and I started communicating with each other through Ebony, and now I was seeing just how she must hate it.

You get over stuff faster than I do, Ebby, I muttered, feeling bad for making my sister’s life harder than it should be. At sixteen, the last thing my sister needed was for her brother to act like a brat. I might be eleven, but I wasn’t a kid. I think I lost that part of me the day my father told me and my sister he wasn’t our real father. That our mother had been having an affair with Dad’s own cousin since the day my dad took off for his first deployment.

The worst day of my life was when Mannix Steel looked me in the eyes and promised that he would always be my dad, no matter what some test said.

The only problem was the tests did come back saying Cade was my father and that my mum was divorcing Mannix.

Mannix.

I can’t call him by his given name, Ebby, I shuddered, hating the very idea of calling him anything but Dad. The day I stop calling him that and stop using Cade is the day it will become really and truly true. The tears I was trying real hard to keep away suddenly rolled down my cheeks. Mum had no right to do this to our family, I growled, suddenly pissed off.

She shoulda been honest, she shoulda thought of everyone else and not just herself.

I wasn’t a dickhead, and I have ears. My parents yelling at each other whenever Dad was on leave was a pretty usual occurrence in the two years before Alannah kicked Dad out and dropped her bomb on us.

My dad would practically beg his wife to show him some affection. Of course, we all now know why she was bitch to Dad. She was too busy fucking her way through the family tree to give a shit about her kids.

James Cooper Steel, Ebony clucked, getting off the beanbag and coming to kneel beside me. I pretty much told Mum it wasn’t going to happen, so she and Cade may as well get used to it. I told her that you are too much like Mannix to go changing now. Rubbing her hand in soothing circles on my knee, Ebony chuckled softly.

You are the only eleven-year-old I know that growls, your language rivels our dad’s, and you do not think or act like a kid in Grade Six. Nor do you look like one. Reaching out to ruffle my unruly hair, my sister smiled softly at me.

Blood doesn’t make a father, J. Dad gave you all the building blocks that make you who you are today. You might not be his in every way, but you are, in the most important ones. Mannix Steel instilled in you the very best qualities, the same ones he lives his life by.

I liked hearing that. Liked that I was like my dad. My hero. My veins still ran with his blood, and like Ebony said, I did look like him.

Hopefully, that will be enough to do what I had to do next.

Leaning forward, I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my top. Crying in front of my sister was not embarrassing, but the biker that I knew was looming inside me didn’t think it was a good idea to be such a wimp in front of a chick.

I will try and not be such a prick to her and Cade, I allowed begrudgingly, then rushed to add a PS, but I am not calling him dad. And I am not calling Dad, Mannix. Silently vowing to myself that was the last time I would ever say that name out loud. The man was my father, the man who loved me without question. The same kind of man I wanted to be when I grew up.

Mannix Steel was and will always be my old man.

Nothing more to say.

JAMES

AGED THIRTY-FIVE

The clutter of my badge and revolver hitting my commanding officer’s desk was the only sound in the room, other than my angry breathing.

You can stick those right up your arse, and while you are at it, take note that this means I am getting out of this corrupt department. My voice was steely hard even to my ears, but fuck me, I was barely holding myself back from vaulting over the desk and beating the shit out of the man sitting in front of me.

Do not talk to your commanding officer like that, not if you want to remain in the AFP. I couldn’t respect or take seriously a man who refused to stand and defend himself, and if he thought for one second, I was going to stay and honour the badge I had lost all respect for, he was barking up the wrong tree.

Where was the fucking compassion and the duty of fucking care? Fuck just being sensitive to the fact three girls were not only still struggling without their dad, they now had to deal with the knowledge they had no more money coming in.

Taking a man’s life and now the lifeline his children needed to survive.

Mick has been dead less than five weeks, and he died in the line of duty. He died on the fucking job! I roared, ending my tirade with a slamming of my fist on the desk.

I suggest you back it up, Sergeant, Commander Livingstone sneered, finally getting to his feet. Your team leader status is on shaky ground, Steel. As is your promotion up the ranks.

I don’t give a fuck about another stripe, I huffed, frustrated beyond belief.

You of all people should be. You are an AFP member and team leader for one of the best undercover operations this department has seen, under anyone’s command. Striding around the table, Stan Livingstone showed me who and what he really was.

I have ambitions that don’t include you having a fucking conscious. The official line the department is taking is Michael was killed whilst undertaking an unauthorised undercover mission. He was on suspension two days prior to taking it upon himself to storm that boat. He was relieved of his firearm and badge, yet he still went in without backup or permission. In my opinion, the family should have to pay back the last five months of compensation they received from the department already.

My blood went from a decent simmer to out and out boiling.

Are you fucking serious?! He worked on that case for over a year, he was gutted when you took him off and lumped that bullshit suspension on him. There was no inquiry, and no one interviewed him or me. I was team leader on that case, I should have been kept in the loop. Not wandering around in the dark, with my hands tied behind my back.

You were told what I decided you needed to know and that is all there is to be said on the matter. Mick broke the chain of command, he made a choice and it was the wrong one.

He wasn’t the only one.

Commander—

You are lucky you are in the position you are in, Steel. Working in the International Serious and Organised Crime division and being a member of a bikie gang, quite frankly, I am stunned you haven’t been stripped of your badge by now.

I gritted my teeth tight in an effort to keep my mouth closed. One thing I hated was the judgement that came with wearing a Wounded Souls cut. People always jumped to the wrong conclusion about my club and my brothers. If my boss took just a minute out of his judgemental life, maybe he might see the good my club does for my hometown. Being a member and away more often than not for my civilian job as a federal officer, I missed out on a lot of what the rumour mill was dishing out on the club.

Ten years on the force and never once had I questioned the integrity of the department or my commanding officers. Until now.

Instinct kicked in, my mouth and brain working in complete agreement.

"You can take your thinly veiled threats and shove them fair up your arse, sir." Spitting out the word that once held respect.

I’m warning you, Steel. Walk out and you too will forgo any package. You go this way, you go with holidays owing, and that’s it. This institution isn’t about supporting orphans, nor outlaw bikers for that matter.

My bellow of humour-filled laughter surprised Livingstone that much his arrogant smirk dropped to more of an ‘Oh shit, why did I say that,’ kind of grimace.

Striding the five steps to where Livingstone was sanding, I pushed my much bigger chest into Livingstone’s piddly form.

Not one outlaw resides at the Wounded Souls compound. No one that wears the patch holds a criminal record or conviction of any kind. Every member gets a renewed police check every year, and my president is one of the most respected members of the community in Ballarat. Booth has done more for my hometown than any council member in the past twenty or more years. My anger was spiking to fever pitch, defending my pres and my brothers did that to me. My father and uncle were founding members of the Wounded Souls, they found solace in the brotherhood Team Five experienced for years during their military days. Five of the most loyal, brave and respected men I will ever have the privilege of knowing.

There was another reason for my desire to rip out the throat of the man in front of me.

Mick’s kids need that pension, sir. There has to be something you can do, pull some strings and at least give them back their medical coverage. I was practically begging and I couldn’t have cared less. Mick was all they had other than each other, they have no one else. That was a lie. They did have someone to look over them, but they needed more than me going to battle for them. They needed someone to give a shit and act, not stand and complain uselessly to a person who didn’t have a humane bone in his body.

Pointing to my possessions on the desk, I made my choice.

"I quit. I’m not wearing the uniform of a corrupt department. You can shove your federal task force into organised crime far up ya clacker. Sir." Spinning on my heels, I left the room and my spluttering former commander for the last time.

I’d be fucked if I was going to stand before the pearly gates accused of turning my back on my mentor’s kids.

Not me, nothing more to say.

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CHAPTER ONE

KOJAK

I stormed across the compound carpark so pissed off, it was a wonder steam wasn’t coming out of my ears.

Five fucking years and the fucking solicitors were still using bullying tactics.

When are they going to give the fuck up and leave Nova and her sisters alone?

Why the government was wasting so many resources to pursue Mick’s superannuation payout to the girls after his death was beyond me. Everything Nova had been paid out was rightfully hers and her sisters. The AFP conducted an internal investigation and found that Mick acted outside the parameters of his suspension. The solicitor I engaged on behalf of the sisters argued that there were sufficient grounds to suspect corruption on the part of the AFP, and Mick had been set up. The judge took some time to come back with his verdict but eventually found in favour of Nova. Money started to hit bank accounts for a little while and everything seemed to settle down for the first time since Mick died.

Then came the first of many lawsuits. Defending my mentor’s name was so important to me, I went against my former colleagues and helped Nova come to the decision to fight the government in court over the death of her dad. Siting wrongful death at the workplace, we started our five-year journey.

Why was the AFP going at Nova so hard? What the fuck did Mick uncover that justified this head-hunt?

These were questions I asked myself at least once a week. One I was yet to get an answer to, though.

Walking up to the heavy wooden door, I yanked it open and stalked inside.

Somewhere in the compound’s building was Nova. When she sent me a message an hour ago to tell me she was waiting for me, I had to re-read her message just to get my brain to compute where she was and that she needed to see me straight away.

It took me a little longer to tie up my business dealings with a potential new client for the security business the club owned and operated.

Looking around the main room, I didn’t see her, but I heard giggles and laughter coming from the kitchen.

Fucking great. All I need is Nova getting chummy with the new generation Flock.

Fuck, the originals are enough for one man. My own stepmother included.

Try as hard as I might, I couldn’t help the horrible, terrifying vision of Nova and Rainn sitting at a kitchen table sharing a plate of caramel slice and talking about sex. My dad’s wife was a trifle too much when sex was the subject of conversation. The woman had no trouble putting into words the capability of my old man’s dick. I, for one, didn’t need to know the exact length of his cock, nor did I like knowing how it bowed in the middle to give it that perfect angle when it hit her in the right spot. I didn’t want to know, but in this circumstance, I fucking did know and no amount of booze was going to change that.

Pivoting, I changed direction and headed for the kitchen. It was good that Nova felt comfortable enough to come here, but the reason behind her visit had me on edge. Just the fact she was at the compound was throwing me. I was good at keeping my mask up here. No one knew, which meant I didn’t have to be on guard. That was going to change the second I opened the swinging door to see Nova sitting in my space.

Nova.

Just her name was a turn-on. That alone was so fucking wrong on my part. What kind of man was into a woman practically half his age?

Fucking me, that’s who.

With my hands flat on the door, I caught sight of a flash of silver on my ring finger. The constant reminder that she was my choice.

Pushing on the door, I walked in and instantly my eyes sought out and found her.

Nova.

My beautiful wife.

The best and worst decision I’d ever made in my life.

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CHAPTER TWO

NOVA

You own the Lighthouse Pub and Bistro? The woman who introduced herself as Thayer asked me, a smile a mile wide on her stunning face.

Yep, sure do, I confirmed, enjoying seeing Thayer’s smile turn into something that resembled trouble. James told me about the women at the club, so I already knew some of who Thayer was.

Oh boy, Meagan grumbled, shaking her blonde hair this way and that. Meagan, I was told, was about to marry the president of James’ club, Doc, I met when I first arrived here an hour ago. It didn’t faze me he didn’t know who I was; James and I somehow came to a silent agreement that the true meaning of our relationship was our business and ours only. Other than my sisters and his, not another person knew that James and I were married. Not even his parents had a clue that their son had been a married man for the last five years.

We have a new place for girls’ night! Thayer cried out, jumping up and down in her seat, making her big boobs jostle under the thin singlet top she had on.

Thayer, calm down, Willow cautioned her friend with a look of genuine worry and concern.

Maybe James downplayed what Thayer was all about, I mused with interest and intrigue. Getting new clientele was always a good thing for the pub I ran with my sisters. Being relative newcomers to the seaside town of Queenscliff, every new body that walked through my door was most welcome.

I can definitely see you ladies partying it up in my establishment, I spoke up over the groans of Willow and Meagan and the excited whoops and hollering from Thayer.

Yeah, and I can see Battle carrying her over his shoulder, smacking her on the arse as he stomps out the door, Willow muttered, making Thayer snort-laugh and choke on her mouthful of gooey slice.

These are great, by the way, I praised around a mouthful of my own. In the hour I had been sitting here waiting for James to arrive back, I devoured three caramel slices, two pieces of rocky road and one impressively oversized yoyo biscuit and was currently eyeing off the lemon tarts.

A dangerous place to spend too much time, I feel.

My sister-in-law/mother-in-law makes them. She sends a batch of each plus others and is trying to teach me how to bake, with not much in the way of success so far, Willow informed me with a shrug of her shoulders. Lucky for me, James had told me about the dynamics of Rigger’s family tree, so the whole mother-in-law/sister-in-law description didn’t throw me. In fact, I knew a whole lot about James’ brothers and their significant others, but this was the first time I was able to put faces to names.

So, Thayer hummed, leaning over the table, her clasped hands resting on the tablecloth, how do you know Kojak? And why do you call him James?

And, how did you get in here when no one knows who you are? Meagan added, looking all kinds of curious.

I smiled inwardly, I couldn’t blame the ladies for their interest. After all, I did walk inside the compound after punching in James’ security code for the front gate. Then with my sisters behind me I stalked up to the line of leather-clad men and simply introduced myself as James’ friend and that he asked me to use his code and to wait for him.

I was having too much fun with the lack of details, and sometimes I got a kick out of playing coy. I was like that and made no apologies for it. I wasn’t ashamed that I was married to a biker close to twice my age, and I was pretty sure James felt the same