Coyote (Hawks MC (next generation) Book 1), page 1
Coyote Copyright © 2020 by Lila Rose
Editor: Hot Tree Editing
Photographer: Wander Book Club
Cover Designer: Covers by Juan
Interior Designer: RMJ Editing & Manuscript Service
All rights reserved. No part of this eBook or book may be used or reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without the permission from the author as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.
Coyote is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events and places found in this book are either from the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons live or dead is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
First Edition 2019
Note from the Author
This series is based in Australia, so it’ll have Australian spelling. Ass will be arse, neighbor will be neighbour and so on.
Channa’s name is pronounced like Charlotte with the “sh” at the start. Example: Shanna
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Lila Rose
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Chapter One
Channa
No way.
No fudging way.
He was here. Right over there and inside the shop.
“Denise, I’ll be out back if you need me,” I whispered with a panicked edge to my tone before I bolted through the swinging doors behind me. Leaning over, I rested my hands on my thighs and took gulps of air.
“Channa, are you all right?” Stanley asked. He dropped the bowl on the workbench and started for me. I quickly straightened and waved him off.
“I’m fine…. I… think I swallowed a fly.” And a lie. I hated lying, but I couldn’t exactly tell Stanley, who was my cake-icing machine and sixty years old, that I ran like a wuss when I saw him. It would just be confusing, and then I would have to delve into my past, into a moment of time I wanted to forget.
Stanley screwed up his nose. “Blasted warm days stink arse. It’s hotter than hell in here. My balls are sweating so bad and my icing doesn’t want to work.”
I moved over to the bench and pressed my hands onto the cool stainless steel. “Come on, Stanley, I know you can work your magic. I might have turned off the ovens a little late this morning, but the air con is on and it’ll start freezing this place over soon.”
I could have done without hearing about his balls, but I’d put up with it because Stanley was a master at making and applying icing to all my baked goods. He was a god, and I wouldn’t know what to do without him. I had skills to bake, which I loved doing, but the delicate decorating just wasn’t for me. I messed them up each time I tried. It was how I’d known I would have to hire someone and was lucky Stanley had approached me about the work when I’d advertised.
He huffed and said, “I’m going into the coolroom.” He picked up his bowl and walked to the floor-to-ceiling coolroom at the back of the work area. He opened the door, stepped in, and I caught his shoulders sag in relief before he shut the door behind himself.
Turning back towards the front of the shop, I tippy-toed back towards the doors, thankful Stanley wasn’t there to see my childish actions, and pushed them apart enough to peek out.
A squeak slipped through my lips, and I let the doors fall closed quickly. Taking a step back, I rested my hand over my swift-beating heart.
He was right there.
At the counter.
He was smiling at something Denise was saying. That smile could steal someone’s breath. It had stolen mine every single time back in high school. Only I hadn’t seen it since then, for eight long years, and the power of having it directed my way had grown. His light eyes could trap another’s gaze. His dark hair looked like it needed someone to run their fingers through it. His body…. All right, I had to stop there. Yes, he was handsome, but right then I didn’t need my hormones seeking out someone for a roll between the sheets. Especially not him.
I only hoped he would take whatever he was ordering and go. There wasn’t anything in the world that would have me out there in the bakery when Cody Marcus was inside.
I jolted when Denise popped her head through the doors. “Need help, please.”
Son of a bitch.
Okay, there was nothing except that.
I couldn’t let Denise deal with the lunch rush on her own. I had hoped the lunch customers would be late for the first time since opening, but luck wasn’t shining down on me. Unless it actually was and Cody had exited the building already.
Taking a deep breath, I crossed my fingers and pushed through the door. I didn’t look around, afraid I would lose my courage and hide again. Instead, I kept my focus on the line in front of the register and lost myself in serving people with a smile.
I loved my bakery. It had been my mum’s and my dream to own and run it. What helped was that Mum had been a baker in her early twenties before she met Dad and had taught me everything I now knew.
We managed a year together owning Bakery Bliss, but then I lost her too soon to a blood clot, so I made sure to maintain the dream we’d always talked about. Things were good; the bakery was a hit in town. It also helped that we’d opened in an area where there weren’t many other food businesses and had the customers from the factories around us.
“Channa, baby, when are you going to agree to run away with me?” Amos asked after I gave him his usual—a sausage roll, pie, and donut. He was a man in his forties with a pot belly, beard, and wild greying hair. He loved to tease, but I knew he was harmless. He’d been a regular since we opened three years ago.
With a laugh, I shook my head. “I’ve told you a million times, Amos, I’d drive you crazy within a couple of days.”
“And I still don’t believe you.”
“I can’t risk it though. So grab your coffee from Denise and skedaddle.”
“One day, Channa, one day.” He winked and headed down to the end of the counter, where Denise was busy making coffees.
It took another half hour before the lunch rush died to a slower pace and I could relax a little without running all over the place to fill orders.
A chair scraped over the floor, which had me glancing that way. I wished I hadn’t because it was Cody rising from his chair.
My blood froze and stopped pumping through my body. At least that was what it felt like.
I fisted my hands at my sides, annoyed by my reaction. It wasn’t like he would remember me. Not like I did him. After all, it had been one incident. One small occasion.
Then why can’t I get it out of my head?
Why do I remember him like it was yesterday?
Why does he have to be so darn good-looking?
He tapped the table with his knuckles, saying something to the man he was sitting with, which made the other guy laugh. Cody grinned and my breath caught. I coughed and he happened to look my way.
With a noise in the back of my throat, I ducked down behind the counter to land on all fours.
“Shit,” I hissed. Now I look like a jack-in-the-box fool. Unless I didn’t get up off the floor. It looked like he was leaving, so I could stay down here and wait him out.
“Channa?” Denise said with humour in her tone.
I lifted my hand and pressed a finger to my lips to shush her. She rolled her eyes and called out her order.
The doors to the back opened. “Channa, what are you doing on the ground?” Stanley called.
Dear God, please take me to heaven now.
“I, ah, lost something.”
He snorted. “Well, get up. You look like a fool.”
Gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious.
As I stood, Stanley slipped around me to place a tray of cupcakes on the counter, and I quickly darted out through the doors.
“Girl, get back out here,” Stanley yelled. “I ain’t serving, since the last time I did you yelled at me.”
Closing my eyes, I ground my teeth together and drew in a deep breath through my nose. Turning, I stepped back into the front, saying, “That’s because the last time you served someone, you snapped at them to hurry up.”
He groaned, as if remembering that time. “They were taking forever.” He walked out the back again, mumbling under his breath.
I stepped back up to the counter and smiled at the customer. “Sorry about that. What can I get you?” I asked, but I didn’t hear what they said because Cody Marcus was at the door looking back at me. His friend said something, and Cody glanced at him to reply before shifting his gaze back to me for a second and then leaving.
Maybe he didn’t remember that time, but I did, and it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. The memory of it flashed through my mind.
“Channa, I don’t trust him,” Darla said, grazing her bottom lip with her top teeth in worry. We were sitting on the school oval at lunch talking quietly so our other friends didn’t hear, because I hadn’t shared with them that Ron Delian, the boy who was three years above me in year ten, who I had a crush on, had asked me to meet him in the gym after school. How he knew I was into him, I didn’t have a clue. Although, he could have seen me watching him a few million times. Even the girls around him had started to glare at me. Now I knew it was just jealousy because he’d asked me and not them.
Darla and I had become friends the first day of high school, and even though that was only months ago, I knew we’d be lifelong friends. She was a popular girl with a large group of friends, and yet she took me—a nobody—under her wing. I came from a family who didn’t have much, and in the last year, it had gotten worse since Dad lost his job. All he did now was drink and yell at Mum and me. But then the yelling changed to him using his fists on Mum. I tried to stop him each time it happened. Even when Mum begged me not to, I tried. And every time he turned his fists on me.
I never thought I would fear going home, but I did. Still, I always returned because Mum was there, and we supported each other. We had plans to leave him and would do it soon. Only we had to wait a little longer until we had enough money.
“Why? He wouldn’t lie, right? What reason does he have to lie?” I asked, shaking myself from those bad thoughts to better ones. Much better ones. However, Darla was now putting doubt in my head when all I wanted to feel was happy. I wanted to maybe kiss a boy before Mum and I left. But I didn’t tell Darla any of this. I didn’t bother her with my problems from home.
Darla shrugged. “I just don’t trust him. How about I come with you?”
Smiling, I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. It might look weird if I show up there with a friend.”
She nibbled on her lip again, still concerned. I wrapped my arms around her, ignoring the pain in my back where Dad had punched me the night before.
“Thank you for worrying. You’re the best, you know that, but I want to do this, please.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
My stomach filled with dancing butterflies as I made my way down the hallway towards the gym. Other students moved quickly out of the school, wanting to get as far away as they could to start their weekend.
I really should have gone to the toilet before going, but I’d been too excited to see what Ron wanted. Wanted to know if he was going to kiss me or even ask me out. One could hope, and I did, because I was sure life would pick up if this one wish would come true. If the boy I’d been crushing on, after seeing him on my first day of school, would want me to be his girlfriend.
He wouldn’t have asked me to meet him otherwise, right?
He wouldn’t have stopped me in the hall in front of others and brushed my hair behind my ear while talking to me. God, my belly swirled at the thought of that moment. It had been the best moment I’d had in such a long time. Though, I was sure the one I was about to have would pass it by miles.
At the doors, I glanced back to see the hallway had cleared, which was good. I didn’t want anyone following me and interrupting us. Taking a breath, I dimmed my smile a little so I didn’t look like an idiot.
Slowly, I pushed the door open. I scrunched up my face in confusion because the gym was dark.
A hand grabbed my wrist. I let out a scream as I was dragged into the room, and the door closed behind me, engulfing me in blackness.
“Ron?” I called, since his hand had fallen away. No answer. “Ron?” I said louder, reaching my hands out to feel around. I didn’t know where I was in the room, but I had to find a wall and switch on a light. Turning the way I’d come, I searched the darkness and took small steps back towards the door—well, where I thought the door was. Had he covered the outline of the door where the light should have shone through?
“This isn’t funny, Ron. Turn on the light,” I demanded.
“Ron,” someone echoed—a girl’s voice. I stilled.
“Ron,” a different voice called, then laughed. His name sounded from every direction around me. My heart jumped up into my throat, my belly twisting in fear.
“Stop it,” I yelled, covering my ears, but I still heard their taunting.
Next, a hand landed on my back, exactly in the spot where Dad had hit me, and pushed me forcefully forward. I stumbled, gasping. Tears pooled in my eyes as pain spread over my back. I managed to stay on my feet somehow, until another shove came at my side. My body swayed. My arms windmilled wildly to try and stay on my feet, but it was too late. I slammed into the floor, losing my breath, knocking my chin, and hurting my wrist and hip.
My bladder chose that moment to let go. Wetness pooled between my legs just as the lights got switched on. I wiped at my eyes as I looked up. I could feel wetness on my chin.
Five girls stood around me, laughing. They backed up when Ron moved in with some of his friends. All smiling or chuckling.
I didn’t move my eyes from Ron, who was smirking down at me, even when a door banged open and someone shouted, “Look, she pissed herself.”
More laughter. More hurtful words.
“What the fuck is goin’ on?” was yelled. People were shoved aside, and then Cody Marcus, the older brother to one of the girls in my year, stood looking down at me.
Within a second, he took me in and then faced the group. “Who did this?”
“Come on, man, we were just messin’ around,” someone said.
“Who fuckin’ did this?” he demanded, his tone low and harsh.
“Cody, don’t worry about it. We’re just teaching her a lesson,” one of the girls said.
“Yeah? What lesson is that?” Cody asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“It’s nothing,” Ron barked.
“What damn lesson?” Cody demanded.
I needed to get out of there, needed to leave and end this humiliation.
Tears formed, and I bit down on my bottom lip to keep the sob inside. I’d wet my pants like a toddler. Everyone saw. Everyone. And it would be all over school by Monday.
I grabbed at my tee, at my chest, misery covering me, filling me.
“That she’s nothing but shit and she’ll never have a chance with Ron,” another girl said.
They all piped up saying more. How I was pathetic, a loser, fat, ugly…. It went on until Cody roared, “Enough.” As I slowly sat, I ignored the pain, the shivering, and caught Cody shake his head before he said, “You thought it’d be okay to use her interest in you to get her alone and make her think she had a chance with you? To trap her, trick her, and then fuck with her?”
No one had said it, but Cody was smart; he understood what went down even without all the information. I was surprised Ron and his friends just didn’t tell Cody to get lost, but then again, Cody was in year twelve. Everyone looked up to him, and everyone also knew who his parents were. His dad, more importantly. Talon Marcus. President of the Hawks MC, one of the local motorcycle gangs.
Ron rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t have a right to—”
“Stop,” Cody ordered. Ron did. Cody chuckled. “I think it’s time I teach you a goddamn lesson.” He moved so fast Ron didn’t stand a chance. The first hit had the girls screaming and running. With the second hit, another of Ron’s mates tried to intervene and he caught a fist to the face. Ron tried to fight back, and Cody knocked his hands away as if they were nothing. A guy I didn’t know crept up behind Cody.
