The Secret's Out (Hawks MC: Caroline Springs Charter, #1)
Read The Secret's Out (Hawks MC: Caroline Springs Charter, #1) Online
Authors: Lila Rose
Tags: #MC, #Romance, #threesome, #m/m/f, #erotica, #suspense, #family life, #drama, #action
The Secret’s Out Copyright © 2015 by Lila Rose
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All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any written, electronic, recorded, or photocopied format without the permission from the author as allowed under the terms and conditions with 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.
The Secret’s Out
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 persons live or dead, actual events, locations, or organizations is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Editor: Hot Tree Editing
Cover image: Shauna Kruse
Cover Designer: Robin Ludwig Designs
Formatting: Hot Tree Editing
ISBN: 978-0-9944525-0-4
“If you buy this illegally, YOU SUCK. YOU WILL BE FOUND OUT! All authors put their hard work, their time away from their families, and their own money into creating their stories. Would you like to work and have people steal your wage?”
~ Lila Rose
Dedication
Neringa Neringiukas
Thank you for your constant support.
Y
ou seriously ROCK!
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H
ot Tree Editing—Becky, and her super-duper team, thank you for always being there for me and being amazing and easy to work with. Without a great team, like you ladies, I wouldn’t have gotten the Hawks team out there for everyone to read. I honestly can’t thank you enough.
Justine Littleton, I’m sure everyone knows by now I effing love you! Thanks for... being you!
Jeneane Johnston, Keeana Porter, Debbie Poole, Donna Pemberton, Jill D, Rebecca Allman and Susan Griffiths, thank you all for your help. You ladies are amazing. xx
Rachel Morgan, you, my sister, are fantastic. Even when you get bossy, I know I can always count on you and if I tell you to shut it, you do. Your help with the signings in Australia is always appreciated.
Thank you to my tool man and the kids. Taking on the change in our lives has been hard. I’m not always there now, but you have all been amazing and supported me along the way, even shoved me out the door for my US signings. I love you all.
Bloggers, you know who you are... the hard working supporters of indie authors like myself. Thank you for always having our backs!
Shauna Kruse, thank you for the amazing photoshoot. I love your work! William, Aurora and Ben, you three look amazing on the cover. Thank you for being willing to be a part of it!
Mary Manfield, BJ Harvey, Nicole Lewis, Colleen Sibson and Amity Cross thank you for your messages, phone calls or lunch dates. Without you ladies, I would be a hermit by now. Thank you for keeping me social and sane.
Now, here is a little special shout-out to some amazing women I adore: Kristen Ashley, TL Smith, MariaLisa DeMora, Laura Kaye, Rebecca Fairest Reviews, Addison Jane, Bijou Hunter, Kirsty E Moseley, Elizabeth Thiele, Penny Rudge, Liz Lovelock, Dawn Martens, Jani Kay, Natasha Liggett, Sharon Phillips, Nina Levine, Emma James, Lauren McKellar, Kirsty Dallas, Abbey Neil-Clark, Simone Nicole, Carmen Jenner, Jennifer Ryder, Kristine Barakat, Sapphire Knight, Leah Joslin, Tracie Redmond, Tara Marie, Elle Raven, Susan Child, Jessica Wilde, Melissa Jane, Casey Lalkas, Donna Pemberton, Lindsey Lawson, Mischelly Velasquez, Katie Welks, Erin Daniels, Angela Travers, Tanya Anderson, Virginia Cantrell, Fiona Wilson, Kasey Millstead, Tracey Jamison, Serena Klande, Krystal Fahl, Debbie Poole, JD (Jill) Bookfiend, LM Mercer...I could go on and on, but remember, if I’ve missed anyone, I’ll grab you in the next book. xx
N
ancy
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N
ancy Alexandra placed
her phone on the table. She looked down, but wasn’t really focused on it. No, her mind was running over things from the phone call she just had.
Her youngest daughter, Josie, hadn’t been home that Christmas holiday. In fact, she hadn’t returned home in a long time and Nancy was worried. For the tenth time that day, she called her daughter’s mobile demanding answers. Only it wasn’t her daughter who supplied them.
Josie’s housemate, where she lived in a small apartment close to her school, had answered.
“Mrs Alexander?” she whispered into the phone. Nancy should have realised then that something was wrong, but she didn’t.
“Simone, honey, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Nancy? Now, can you tell me where my daughter is? I’m getting sick of this run around. She’s either too busy to talk or on her way out somewhere. But I’m worried about my girl, Simone.”
“You should be,” Simone uttered and Nancy started to panic.
Nancy sat straight in her chair. “Tell me, Simone.”
“It’s not really my place.”
“No, Simone, you tell me now so I can help.”
“She won’t want her mum here. That’ll make things worse.”
“Simone, tell me!”
“Josie’s in the bathroom, but I can hear her crying. She cries a lot, Nancy, and I think it has to do with some guys who are hassling her. She’s so quiet and timid. The stupid-heads find it fun to cause her problems.”
“Is that all?” Nancy snapped in a hard tone.
“I-I think so? Please, please don’t come here. I swear it’ll make things worse.”
“Oh, I won’t come, darling. I’ll be sending someone else.”
“Who?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just know help will be arriving soon, and watch over my girl ‘til then.”
“I will, Mrs–I mean, Nancy.”
“Thank you, Simone, for telling me.”
“I hate seeing Josie upset.”
“I do also. I’m going to let you go now. I need to make a phone call.”
Simone hung up the phone and not long after, Nancy stared at the phone on the table thinking. She picked it back up again and put it to her ear.
“Hello, my wonderful son-in-law.”
“Nancy,” was all Talon said.
“Josie is having trouble as school. Some guys are...annoying her, Talon.” Usually, Nancy would taunt him to get a rise, but she wasn’t in the mood, and she knew her son-in-law could tell by her tone.
“Fuck,” Talon growled low. “I’ll handle it.”
“Good,” Nancy said and hung up.
J
osie
Life on my
own wasn’t what I thought it would be. Two years of living away from home was getting to me. Two years of independence, two years of finding myself was...hard. Harder than I pictured. Sure, I found myself...in a way. Sure, I had independence. I had a job, had a great friend, and a roof over my head. Still, all I wanted was to be home. Be with the family who had opened their arms wide for me. They had adopted me, regardless of how troubled I was. I missed my sister, Zara, my brother, Matthew, but especially my mum and dad. I even missed my brothers-in-law, the goofy one, Julian, and the sometimes scary one, Talon. Most of all, I missed my nieces and nephews. Their light had helped me through many dark times. They were young and didn’t know the real world could be scary. It was their excitement over little things that I appreciated and missed.
Which was why I had stayed away from home so many times over the past two years, because if I went there, I knew I’d want to stay and never leave again. I’d want back in
their
world, their open arms and the protection they provided me each and every day. I’d want to be surrounded in it all once more and forever. Never leaving again.
However, I had to stay strong.
I wanted to prove to them, and especially myself, I was able to live in the real world, no matter how scared I was each day, or how my brain screamed at me to stop the ridiculousness and get home. And no matter how much I hated living through the taunting and teasing each day for the past year, my decision was resolute.
Since
they
found out I was petrified of most men, of human contact, it had all changed.
The first time it happened they enjoyed the reaction they got from me. They thrived on the fact that it unnerved me.
Since then, it happened all the time, just so they could see me cower and cringe.
I was lucky to have found Simone, the sweet girl with shoulder-length black hair and dark blue eyes. It was as though fortune had rained down on me when it was Simone who answered the same ad I had two years earlier. It was an ad in the local paper I’d found before I moved to Melbourne, for two house guests to look after a fully furnished home while the owner travelled for business. When the owner was home, we rarely saw him. He tended to stay in the master bedroom. He was quiet and kept to himself, like me.
The idea of living my life as the local cat lady or hermit had been promising, for the first few months after I had moved in, which was possibly why Simone took it upon herself to get me out and about. She was determined for me to start living my life the way an eighteen-year-old should after flying the nest.
She showed me there was hope, kindness and love in the world outside of my family.
Simone was a great friend, the best anyone could have, trusting, loyal and bubbly. She took me under her wing and showed me how to get drunk, do shots, and dance until my legs wanted to fall from my body, just so they could rest. Dancing was fun.
At least I had that one year respite at uni before my new hell started. Even then, I kept to my shy self, still forming the knowledge of how people went about their day, how they communicated in the different way I was with my family. If it weren’t for Simone, I would have been on my own, and surviving would have been the wrong term.
Everything had been okay...until Cameron Peterson took an interest in me.
At first I thought he was different.
I thought he was nice.
I’d been wrong on so many levels.
To start off, he
had
been nice, sweet even. He saw that I was shy, but still he approached me slowly and with caution. He said kind things to me and didn’t invade my comfort zone. But things must have been moving too slow for him, because after one weekend, a weekend where we saw each other out at a club, he changed.