The Skulls

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013 Sam
Crescent

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-580-8

Cover
Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
Karyn
White

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal.
 
No part of this book may be
used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a
work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

Thank
you to
Evernight
for giving Lash a home and also to
my readers. Your support is amazing and I appreciate everything you do.

LASH

The Skulls, 1

Sam Crescent

Copyright © 2013

Chapter One

Angel Marston continued to clean away the mess on
the floors of the biker bar where she worked. The place was a real shithole,
and she wished there was something else for her to do other than clean away
beer bottles and the occasional used condom wrapper. Whatever happened in the
club stayed in the club, and no one spoke. It was the biker club that ruled the
town. No one was under any illusions that the sheriff’s office had any such
control. They didn’t. If you wanted something done, you made sure to see the
president of the club or you’d never see any kind of justice.

The Skulls controlled the town, and if anyone had a
beef with another person they came here to get it sorted out. The crime rate
was down, and no one gave a shit about the occasional beating they witnessed in
the middle of Fort Wills. They were a small town situated off the beaten track.
The town made money through the club and a few investments in the land markings
around the area.

The Skulls were not commercial trading, and they
were not about the niceness that the Law Castle Bad Boys were known for. The
Skulls were a real bad-ass biker club. They worked hard, played harder, and
sometimes someone got beat or killed. Letting out a sigh, Angel leaned over the
bar to grab the cleaning cloth and bacterial spray. The skirt she wore was down
to her knees even though the club demanded miniskirts that only covered the
ass. She, however, wasn’t here working willingly. No, The Skulls had taken her
as a down payment for one of her father’s debts. While she worked for them,
lived under their roof, and was seen around Fort Wills, then her father had to
keep paying up the money he owed. Angel didn’t really know why her father had
gone to them for money. Her mother, before she died, had set them up with
plenty on the royalty payments from the books she had published.

Instead, her father wasted all the funds, borrowed money
he couldn’t pay back, and then she got taken as collateral in the process. She
hadn’t spoken to any of her friends, not that she had any, and when she left
the bar she was escorted by a Prospect.

God, she hated her life more than ever. Turning around,
she ignored the heavy metal music playing out and started wiping the tables
down.

Several other girls were lying around or fucking
some of the club members. Angel ignored them. There was nothing else for her to
do other than clean, wait, and then get sent to her room when all was done.

Moans filled the air as she passed tables. Angel
kept her gaze down not wanting to see what they were doing. She was nineteen
and hadn’t been with a guy intimately. Sex wasn’t something easy for her.

“Oh, baby, you’ve got a big cock. I love your cock.”

Rolling her eyes, she picked up a beer bottle she’d
missed and made her way to the bar.
Mikey
, one of the
older members of the club, smiled at her as she passed. She nodded her head,
finding it easier not to interact with them. They didn’t like her, and she’d
gotten that from the glares and the sneers as they watched her. She didn’t
understand why they hated her. Before she’d been taken from her home, without
packing anything, Angel had never spoken to one of The Skulls, apart from the
few she’d been in school with, but that was before they became official
members, or patched in. She would never understand the lingo and hoped never
to.

All Angel hoped for was her father to pay his debt
so she could leave. Her hopes for her father paying his debts were diminishing
every passing day. She’d been allowed a few phone calls with him, and each time
he always told her to make the most of her situation and that he was only
human. He’d also hinted for her to try to use her body, big though it was, to
cut him some slack. What kind of father asked that of his child? There was a
time when she’d loved being around her father. Now, she didn’t even know if she
wanted him to live with the way he spoke to her. He’d told her there were worst
fates than being with a Skull. She should learn to do something to help him
out. The insults kept getting worse, and she dreaded his phone calls. She never
asked for him to get in touch anymore either. Glancing around the club again
she let out a sigh. The late nights, the sex, and everything around them were really
starting to get to her. She hated it.

“You know, it would go a lot easier for you if you
were nice to the guys,”
Mikey
said, handing her a glass
of lemonade.

She took the drink he offered. “Thank you.”

Standing behind the bar, she sipped from the straw
and didn’t say a word. Angel found it easier to keep her thoughts to herself
rather than talk with anyone.

“Being closed off is not going to
help your cause, sweetheart.”

Turning to look at the older man she wondered what
to say to him. “I have no idea what to say. I’m here, and I don’t know what to
say.” Staring down at her feet she felt heat fill her cheeks. The only people
who were nice to her were the men’s women, “old ladies”, she’d heard them
called. None of the women looked all that
old,
and neither
did the men.
Mikey
was in his forties, and that
wasn’t old at all.

“You’re too fucking young to be here,”
Mikey
said, shaking his head and walking away.

There was nothing for her to say. She sat down,
sipped her drink, and waited for more work to be done. It wasn’t over until she
was ordered to go to her room. Any of them could order her to go there. None of
the men hurt her physically. Sometimes they called her names, but she was used
to that. Name calling was nothing new to her. Biting her lip, she tapped her
hand on the counter wishing she was anywhere but at the bar.

“Why do you keep her around if she’s no one?” A dyed
blonde sat at the bar laughing up at Nash. The blonde was Kate, and Angel had gone
to school with her. Nash, one of the members, sat beside her.

“She’s business, baby. Keep your little nose out of
it.”

“How can
Angel
be business? She’s fat.
A fatty frumpy bitch.”

Angel cringed. She hated her name. Her mother had
felt she was an angel seeing as she wasn’t supposed to have ever gotten
pregnant according to the doctors. So her mother had decided to name her
“Angel” to celebrate.

Nash grabbed Kate’s neck, roughly.

“It’s business. You want to last around here then
you keep that mouth open for other things besides talking, like my dick. Got it?”

Kate smiled adoringly at him even as Angel winced
from the rough way he was treating her. The women really loved it here, and she
didn’t get it. Her parents were never violent to each other. She’d seen the way
the bikers had treated women, and she never wanted to be on the receiving end
of their attention. The “old ladies” never got such treatment. They were the
few women who were not treated like convenient holes, and she’d never seen any
of the married men with another woman.

Angel tried her hardest to stay unnoticed. She was
one of the few big women who worked inside the club. Cringing at her own
thoughts directed at her body, Angel tried to blank out their conversation.

“I’m good with my mouth,” Kate said, licking a line
up the side of his face.

“Get her away from my bar.” Micky shoved Kate’s arm
off the counter so the woman went sprawling to the floor.

“
Mikey
,
what the fuck?”
Nash cursed the barman then left the
bar.
Mikey
was old school and demanded respect.

“You’re just going to let him do that to me?” Angel
heard the other woman whining as Nash did everything he could to push her away.

“He’s one of the original members. Shut your trap if
you don’t want to cause a problem.”

When they were far enough away Angel glanced up to
see
Mikey
stood beside her. She twirled the straw in
her glass and tried her best not to look away. Even with
Mikey’s
advanced years he had the ability to be frightening, or at least to her he was.

He cupped her cheek, tilting her head back to look
at him. There was nothing sexual in his touch. Mickey seemed to look at her
with parental affection, which she didn’t understand.