Player: Golden Skulls M.C., page 1
PLAYER
Golden Skulls M.C.
Rebecca Joyce
ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.
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PLAYER
GOLDEN SKULLS M.C.
Copyright © December 2021
First E-book Publication: 2021 December
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
INFORMATION:
Known facts about Human Trafficking.
Human trafficking is a global problem affecting people of all ages. It is estimated that approximately 1,000,000 people are trafficked each year globally. Between 20,000 and 50,000 are trafficked into the United States, one of the largest destinations for sex-trafficking trade victims.
The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally. 81% of them are trapped in forced labor. 25% of them are children. 75% are women and girls.
Sex traffickers often recruit children because not only are children more unsuspecting and vulnerable than adults, but there is also a high market demand for young victims. Traffickers target victims on the telephone, on the Internet, through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs.
A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a year.
Human trafficking worldwide is estimated to generate a profit of anywhere from $9 billion to $31.6 billion. Half of these profits are made in industrialized countries.
Victims of human trafficking suffer devastating physical and psychological harm. However, due to language barriers, lack of knowledge about available services, and the frequency with which traffickers move victims, human trafficking victims and their perpetrators are difficult to catch.
The FBI estimates that over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from nine to 19, with the average being age 11. Many victims are not just runaways or abandoned but also from “good” families coerced by clever traffickers.
Today, a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide.
Human trafficking is complex and dynamic. It is widespread, but exact numbers are hard to come by. It follows patterns, but every situation is also unique. There is so much more to learn and so much misinformation already out there.
If you believe you are the victim of a trafficking situation or have information about a potential trafficking situation, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) at 1-888-373-7888. NHTRC is a national, toll-free hotline with specialists available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Personal Note from Author:
Dear Readers,
The Golden Skulls Motorcycle Club is a series of books that deal with human trafficking and the men and women who survive it. These books were not written lightly and show aspects of what life is like for individuals of such depravity.
Before reading these books, please know that there will be many triggers. When I decided to write this series, I thought long and hard about approaching this topic and concluded that I needed to tell the truth to understand how profound this malicious network went. I couldn’t write a series about human trafficking in good conscience unless I covered every aspect of such atrocity.
Each book in this series will center around a female or male dealing with human trafficking. Whether they lived it or saw it or tried to stop it. Each story is fiction, but the acts are real.
For that very reason, I decided to write these books, because everyone deserves a happily ever after.
Please don’t let me discourage you from reading these books because they are romance books with a twist, after all. Romance isn’t all sweet and lovely. It’s messy, hard, dirty, and frightening. It challenges most of us, but it’s the journey, what we learn along the way, that makes us stronger, more resilient more definable.
Rebecca Joyce
DEDICATION
To Kelly Wyvell. Thank you so much for our late-night conversations, and the many hours of plot twists that never seem to come to fruition.
You have been a tremendous help with the Golden Skulls. I can’t thank you enough.
To my reader, who have fallen in love with these books, because of you there is a Golden Skull Motorcycle Club.
And to my family. I’m promise to take a break…eventually.
GOLDEN SKULLS M.C. MEMBERS
California Chapter:
Max Doherty aka REAPER – President
Balthazar Miller aka GHOST – Vice President
Lucas Keller aka SAVAGE – Sergeant at Arms (Reaper’s Team)
Dwayne Buchanan aka MASSACRE – Sergeant at Arms (Ghost’s Team)
Allen Cox aka SMOKE – Treasurer
Adrian Sanchez aka CHAOS – Secretary
Regional Buchanan aka PLAYER – Intel
Lena Collins aka PHANTOM – Intel
Dylan Franks aka BULLSEYE
Ezekiel Miller aka SHADOW
Jonathan Christie aka HAMMER
Chris Smith aka VIPER
Jaxon La Fontaine aka BAYOU
Karl Ingalls aka INK
George Simmons aka AXEL
Isaac Darling aka CHISEL
Peter Danforth III aka HEALER
Gregory Von Otto aka VICIOUS
Other Members & Nomads:Prospects:
GATORBILLY (CA Chapter)
SHEIKJAKE (CA Chapter)
BISCUIT
GADGET
JUDGE
GYPSY
MAVERICK
ACID (Club Cleaner)
Tennessee Chapter: Florida Chapter:
Jackson Williams aka RAVAGE (President)TOXIC (President)
WHISKEYMURDHER
CHIPPERBLADE
TROUTBONES
DIGGERHELIX
SLAUGHTERSABER
NEEDLEREVENGE
SYPHERSANDMAN
PLAYER
Golden Skulls M.C.
Rebecca Joyce
Player’s Poem
My heart was covered in ice,
You stole it and didn’t think twice.
I didn’t want to give you my all,
I didn’t want to give you my heart and my soul.
You took everything and wrapped it in your arms,
Leaving me helpless as I fell for your charms.
When you kissed me,
I knew what forever tasted like.
You had an important role to play in my life
I wanted you to be my wife.
I was ready for my new beginning,
Yet you left without committing.
I can’t pretend,
I wanted my existence to end.
Your love still haunts me, fuels my veins.
It surrounds my soul as I am locked in your chains.
My love is pure and true
For it only belongs to you.
One
Player
4 years ago.
“Reggie.”
I hid my smile as her whispered voice followed along with the breeze through the trees. She was waiting for me. I knew she would be. We had been sneaking into the family garden for months now. She was stunning. Everything about her called to me on some elemental level I couldn’t ignore.
I wanted her as my wife.
I asked her many times already, but each time she said no. I knew why too. It was her brother. My cousin’s personal bodyguard. He hated me for some reason, and I didn’t know why.
Honestly, I was too afraid to ask.
The man scared me.
I never trusted Angelo Demarco.
Angelo Demarco always believed he was better than everyone else. From the moment his family arrived when he was twelve years old, Angelo was nothing but a bully. As he got older, so did his vile tendencies towards anyone who didn’t fall in line. Then he became Gio’s personal bodyguard, and there was no escaping him.
Always watching.
My cousins and I never could get away with anything
That was when we started ditching him.
It was easy at first, but Angelo quickly caught on, and now there was no place any of us could go without him knowing. Then his sister arrived, and though I was unsure how it was possible, the asshole got worse. The man was a leach, an insipid vile creature who only concerned himself with his own being and the power he wielded.
How he was related to Cat, I would never know.
They were like night and day. Where she was all light and beauty, he was the darkness that slithered in the night, looking to kill.
I hated him.
“Reggie?”
Creeping through the trees, I spotted her up ahead. God, she was beautiful. Long flowing raven hair. It was skin so soft that it looked to have been kissed by the sun God himself. But it was her eyes. Eyes the perfect shade of evergreen. So deep, so luminescent, I swore she could see into my soul. She was everything good and beautiful in this world, and I wanted to make her mine.
“Reggie, I know you’re here somewhere. If you don’t come out right this instant, I will tell your mother about us.”
Oh, she also had a spark of vengeance in her.
Grinning, I stepped around a large oak tree, leaned against it, and said, “Now, why did you have to go and bring my mom into this. You know that woman is just plain mean. Do you want her to ground me for life? Because she will.”
Catarina smiled brilliantly as she walked over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. God, she smelled delicious. Like sugar and honeysuckle. My mouth watered just being around her.
“You are twenty-two years old. She can’t ground you,” she said, grinning up at me.
Shaking my head, I hugged her closer to me and whispered, “Trust me, Cat. That woman can do anything she puts her mind to.” As I lowered my head and kissed the only woman I had ever loved.
There wasn’t a single memory that I had that didn’t have Catarina in it. She was my best friend. My confidant. The one person I wanted to share everything with. From the first moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she was mine.
Mine to protect.
Catarina Francesca Demarco was one of my best friends. She was better than my cousins or my brother Dwayne with whom I used to get in trouble, with great regularity when we were small kids. Our families were close and often gathered together for dinners, holidays, and everything in between. We were always playing in each other’s backyard. We’ve always been there for each other when the other has had a bad time or experience. Cat and I are friends who can share secrets and not have the entire world hear about it the next day.
Like when Cat got her first set of braces. She felt like her world had caved in. I remember her getting mad at her parents for forcing her to wear them, then crying later after her first day of school with them on, as many of the kids ended up teasing her. I just thought she needed a hug and a friendly shoulder to cry on. So, I hugged her and was her emotional support for a week or so until the novelty wore off.
Or like the time I tried out for the football team as a high school freshman and didn’t even make the cut for the second team. That was a significant blow to my self-esteem and confidence. However, Cat made it a point to goad me into practicing more and working harder on my game. I credit her persistence in pushing me to live up to the team’s standards as I not only made the first team my sophomore year but ended up playing for the remainder of my high school days.
When we graduated from high school, we ended up going to different colleges. It became a routine for one of us to call the other each day to “keep in touch.” But we saw each other during the breaks and generally hung out together. We talked about how our classes were, the quality (or lack of) of the cafeteria food, what was happening with our other classmates at school, and other stuff. Usually light and cheerful in content with a fair measure of harassment thrown in for good measure.
That’s the Cat I’ve always known. At least until this summer break. Suddenly, she’s become a woman, and I couldn’t believe that she was the same Cat that I used to play with and go to school with. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She grew into a beautiful woman. Seeing her now, I could feel my heart racing.
She did that.
Only her.
I wasn’t much of a playboy in school like my brother or cousins. Where they went through girls like water, I never really dated. I liked school. I enjoyed learning and chose to let nothing interfere with that. Even when I went off to college. I didn’t go to parties, rallies, or date. I knew my time for all of that would come later.
So, I waited.
Now, I wasn’t so sure about that anymore.
Catarina wasn’t the girl I remembered. She was so much more. Everything I ever dreamt about and wanted. She was my best friend and the woman of my dreams in one. And every time she touched me, my pulse shot through the roof, as if I ran a 50-yard sprint each time she simply touched my hand or shoulder, which seemed to be each time she was around me.
I felt her kiss throughout my entire body. Her lips were so soft and tender. Her tongue searched for mine. Stroking my lips and my tongue as I did the same to her. She was everything I wanted and more. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to find the perfect woman. It was as if fate had given her to me.
“Oh, Reggie,” Cat whispered as I slowly rubbed her back, holding her close to my chest. I never wanted to let her go. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Catarina,” I whispered to her and kissed her again and again.
I pulled back from our kiss, my hands brushing her hair from her face as I looked into her eyes and saw her love for me.
I felt so lightheaded at that moment.
I wanted to stay in this moment forever.
“Marry me?”
I knew what she would say, but I couldn’t stop the words from leaving my mouth. I never wanted anything as much as I wanted her. I needed her to know how I really felt. That I could protect her. Provide for her. That I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and only her.
“Reggie,” she sighed, looking away into the night. “You know I can’t. Angelo won’t let me.”
“Then let me talk to Uncle Val or Gio. They will help. I never ask for anything. Please, Catarina. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Angelo will have to give his blessing if Uncle Val says it’s okay.”
“What about school?”
“I only have a year left. I can fast-track it if I double up on my classes. Baby, I can provide for you. I can give you the life you’ve always wanted.”
“I know you can. I’m just worried about Angelo. He will never allow it. Besides, Angelo told me yesterday that he is sending me back to the old country. He wants me away from Chicago. He says it isn’t safe here anymore.”
“No!” I shouted, holding her tighter. “He can’t do that.”
“Yes, he can. He pays for everything, Reginald. I have nothing without him until I get my inheritance, and I won’t get that until I graduate college. Without his support, I have nothing.”
“We don’t need that money. Let’s run away together. Make our own life together. I know we can do anything as long as we are together.”
“You’d leave the family and school for me?” she asked, looking up at me. I could see tears shimmering in her eyes. God, I hated seeing her upset.
Nodding, I replied, “I would do anything for you, Catarina. I love you.”
“I can’t ask you to give up your whole life.”
