When Dove Cries Read online

  Table of Contents

  Legal Page

  Title Page

  Book Description

  Dedication

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  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

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

  New Excerpt

  About the Author

  Publisher Page

  A Totally Bound Publication

  When Dove Cries

  ISBN # 978-1-78430-555-0

  ©Copyright Beth D. Carter 2015

  Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2015

  Edited by Faith Bicknell-Brown

  Totally Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

  Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

  Warning:

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Sizzling and a Sexometer of 2.

  The Red Wolves Motorcycle Club

  WHEN DOVE CRIES

  Beth D. Carter

  Book three in The Red Wolves Motorcycle Cub series

  Can two men, who don’t trust each other, protect a woman they both care for?

  John Draven is vice president of the Red Wolves Motorcycle Club. While on a special run, he meets FBI Agent Cadence Vanaker again. Cade is the man who killed his cousin five years ago and the person he hates more than anyone. Now John is forced to work with him to take down a human trafficking ring operating in John’s hometown.

  Cade wants more than anything to tell Draven he wasn’t the one who really killed his cousin, but he can’t reveal the truth and has to live with Draven’s hate as a result. When the two men find a woman half-dead and bound with zip ties, they both feel a need to protect her—and the need to be her only man.

  Dove Aldrin is a sensitive young woman who was abducted and held prisoner. When she escapes, she falls into the path of two men determined to help her and to find the man responsible for treating her so cruelly. What she didn’t count on was falling for both John and Cade. How can she pick one over the other, especially when the two men despise each other?

  Dedication

  As always, my special thanks and appreciation to Shannon Vasquez. Thanks also to CR Moss for her friendship and ear, and for helping me finesse this story. Thanks to my editor, Faith, for always saying LOL through the crazy.

  Ek elska þik, Eiríkr hinn rauði.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Harley-Davidson: H-D U.S.A., LLC

  Jell-O: Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC

  The Odd Couple: CBS Studios, Inc.

  Monopoly: Hasbro, Inc.

  Febreze: Procter & Gamble, Inc.

  Sportster Nightster: H-D U.S.A., LLC

  Craigslist: Craigslist, Inc.

  Sleeping Beauty: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  WITSEC: United States Department of Justice

  Prologue

  He’d said he would hurt her if she tried to escape.

  And she believed him.

  Dove had no idea how long she’d been down there, but when her jar of peanut butter was almost empty, she knew she had to do something or she was going to die in the dark hole where he’d abandoned her. At one point, footsteps had moved across the floor above, and she’d wanted desperately to call out for help. But fear that it might be him kept her silent.

  She didn’t want to be hurt anymore.

  Tears were now a constant fixture in her existence, but then, they always had been. Her father used to tease her that she was too sentimental, too softhearted. He’d pick her up and hug her tightly, then he’d tickle her until her tears dried up. He’d been a giant bear of a man whom she had loved, a great man who had treated everyone fairly. When she’d lost him, she’d lost everything.

  Of course, that had made her an easy target, easy prey. She’d been walking to her apartment one night, and the next thing she’d known, excruciating pain had exploded inside her skull before darkness had consumed her. She’d woken up in this dank cave with her hands zip-tied together and a jar of peanut butter with a box of crackers next to her. A trickle of water ran along the stony ground, and when thirst had gotten the best of her, she’d had to lick it up.

  He’d visited her once, standing next to another man with a long gray beard and scary, dead eyes. She wasn’t above begging for her freedom, but they’d only laughed at her, and the man had hit her again, causing her to fall on the slick moss-covered rock foundation.

  As they’d left, he’d told her that no one was going to find her and that if she wanted to live, she’d better behave or he’d hurt her more. She hadn’t seen him again, but she pictured him upstairs, waiting to see if she disobeyed.

  At first, she’d counted days by the sliver of light filtering through a small crack in the wooden ceiling, but when hunger had zapped her strength, she’d given up trying to determine day from night, preferring to sleep and forget about her predicament. And for a while, she’d desperately wanted to join her dad in Heaven. But now… Well, the man had never come back, and if she didn’t get out on her own, she would die alone in the smelly hole with no one being the wiser. While death had sounded easy at one point, she knew that this time she had to take the harder path.

  She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to the wooden door. She laid her cheek upon the wood, listening. When no sound came forth, she tested its sturdiness. A chain rattled on the other side of the door. With her hands still zip-tied together, it was hard to assess it properly. She kicked it with her foot, and some of the wood at the bottom splintered. Surprised, she squatted and investigated. Rotten. Good. She kicked more of the wood away. The hole her efforts created wasn’t big, but then she wasn’t big, either. A beam of sunlight hurt her eyes, revealing there was a way out of the darkness.

  Terror held her immobile for a moment. Did she dare try to escape?

  Was he waiting for her?

  If she made it out of this hellhole, would she be free? Or would she be running into something more dangerous?

  The unknown and the fear of what he’d do to her if he foun
d out she’d tried to escape made her tremble. He’d warned her it would be a fate worse than death, but something deep within her pushed at her to survive, commanding her to run, to escape. It was now or never. She’d been existing on a finger full of peanut butter and two crackers a day, and now, all her food was gone. Her strength was gone. Just kicking the door had tired her out.

  Move it, Little Stuff.

  “Daddy?” she whispered, looking around.

  He wasn’t there. It was just a dark, empty cave. Or basement. Or wherever the hell she was. But she’d heard him. Clear as day, she’d heard his voice. He’d even called her by the pet name he’d given her because she’d been so small. He’d ordered her to move it, and no one ignored a command by Staff Sergeant Emmett Aldrin. So she took a deep breath, wiped the tears from her cheeks and straightened her shoulders.

  Dove reached through the hole with her arms then her head, using her feet to propel herself through, wiggling her hips since she couldn’t grab on to anything to help pull her forward. Her hips scraped along the side of the jagged hole, and she cried out at the pain, which surprised her. She’d thought she had become immune to pain long ago from the zip ties around her wrists.

  Then she fell forward through the door and was able to use her knees to push herself up. A set of stairs lay before her, but they looked old and worn. More light flooded the area, blinding her for a minute. Slowly she went up them, not knowing what was waiting for her. Her heart thundered painfully. Close to passing out, she wobbled on her feet. She had to push on. She didn’t have a choice. When she reached the top, she expected the door to be bolted but it pushed open easily. Bright light exploded around her, and she shielded her eyes with her hands. It took a moment for her vision to adjust, but when she could see again, she realized she was in some sort of dilapidated barn. A large, round stone lay in the center of the room, and she could see a water wheel out of the missing windowpane. It turned loudly and she realized that she had to be near a river, which explained the water in her hellhole. Stumbling forward, she made her way to the front door and opened it.

  There was no one. She was free. A sense of relief hit her so strong her knees wobbled before anger at herself took over. She’d cowered in fear for God knows how long, and she could have escaped? Tears ran down her face. Sobbing, she stumbled out of the run-down building and ran as fast as she could down the road, praying for someone to find her. Anyone, if only it wasn’t him.

  She felt the vibration on the road before she heard the roar of the engines. She turned and held out her bound hands in a beseeching gesture. Two motorcycles came roaring around the bend then to a screeching halt. Light smoke drifted behind the bike’s back tires. Burnt rubber wafted into the air. Neither of them were the man who had taken her, and relief poured through her. She was saved. Suddenly, everything twirled and tilted. The world dimmed around the edges as one man jumped from his bike like a superhero swooping toward her. She reached for him and wondered vaguely what had happened to his cape.

  “Shit!” he cried as he caught her just as her knees gave out.

  All her strength was gone, depleted from her riot of emotions as well as escaping.

  She focused on his shocked blue eyes and thought they were a pretty color. She’d never thought she’d see such a beautiful blue again.

  “H-help…m-me,” she managed, although she knew her voice was barely above a whisper.

  “Hold on, sweetheart,” he urged. “No, don’t close those eyes. Come on—”

  That was all she heard as the world narrowed and darkness descended.

  Chapter One

  Draven led the way back to Destiny the whole way from Vegas even though he didn’t like having the FBI agent at his back. But it seemed like Cade Vanaker didn’t trust him either. They’d been at a standoff for a whole day until he’d realized all he wanted to do was get home. He had to be a great actor, too, because Skids had believed him about his newfound nomad friend and had sent him back to Destiny with a cheery wave before he’d disappeared into the drunken delights of pussy galore.

  They probably wouldn’t see Skids again for a few months.

  He was just a few miles from home when he rounded a bend and saw a battered and bedraggled woman reaching out to him. He hit the brakes hard and flipped out the kickstand all in one breath.

  “Call nine-one-one!” he shouted to Cade as he raced to the woman. She looked sick and thin, to the point of gaunt. A zip tie had broken into the skin around her wrists. The wound oozed a mixture of blood and pus.

  “H-help…m-me.”

  “Hold on, sweetheart,” he urged. “No, don’t close those eyes. Come on—”

  But her eyes fluttered closed, and she fell limp in his arms. While Cade called the authorities on his cell phone, he moved her to the shoulder of the road. Then he knelt and cradled her as he reached for the knife attached to his belt. Carefully, he cut through the hard plastic that held her wrists together. The infected skin looked awful. In fact, there wasn’t one bit of her that didn’t look battered. Dark smudges encircled her eye sockets. Her mocha-colored skin lay sallow over her protruding cheekbones. Mud matted bits of her black hair together. She smelled like old mold, and she shivered, even in the warm sunlight. A fierce protectiveness surged through him as he held her, and he knew he’d be damned if he let anyone or anything else harm her.

  Cade ran up next to him. “Ambulance is on the way. Holy shit, she looks bad. Do you know her?”

  “No,” Draven said as he nodded in the direction she’d come from. “She came from the direction of the old mill.”

  Cade withdrew his gun from his back holster. “I take it you have a gun?”

  Draven shifted the woman a little to grab his pistol from his shoulder holster. “Flip the safety off for me.”

  Cade cocked an eyebrow. “If I do that, will you promise not to shoot me?”

  “Oh, ye of little faith,” he taunted.

  Cade twisted his mouth sourly, but he went ahead and flipped the safety off. “Take care of her,” he said. “I’m going to go check it out, see if there’s anyone else.”

  “Okay.”

  For the first time since meeting the FBI agent, Draven didn’t feel the need to punch the guy. In fact, he was almost relieved to have him go check things out. He looked down at the woman in his arms. He couldn’t determine her ethnicity, although she looked Indian from India. The rapid beat of her heart fluttered wildly in her neck, and he caressed his thumb across it soothingly.

  Who was she?

  Who had done this to her?

  Was she a victim of the human trafficking ring Cade had told him about? If so, dear God, it was real. Part of him hadn’t believed Cade. He’d thought the man had his facts all wrong. But this—holy shit!—he couldn’t ignore. This woman had suffered right under the Red Wolves’ noses. He made a silent vow to her that he’d watch over her, however long it took for her to recover.

  A few minutes later, the wail of an ambulance rent the air. He rose, easily lifting her. She hardly weighed anything. He simply stood staring down at her gaunt features and urged her to keep breathing, not to give up. As soon as the ambulance pulled next to him and the medical people jumped to take her from him, he evaluated each person. He couldn’t trust anyone, even the EMTs, because there were sick fucks everywhere. What if one of them was her abductor?

  “Sir,” one of them urged.

  Reluctantly, he placed her on the gurney.

  Immediately, they got to work on her, checking her vitals and setting up an IV. Their ministrations must have revived her because she reached out and he took her hand in his, her grip frightfully weak.

  He bent down to whisper in her ear. “I’m here, sweetheart. I won’t leave you.”

  “M-my name is…Dove,” she managed to whisper.

  “Dove,” he repeated. “I’m Draven and I’m going to protect you. Just get better, okay?”

  His words seemed to be enough for her to relax her grip, and the minute he stepped back, th
e EMTs swooped in. Just as they loaded her into the back of the van, Cade emerged from his investigation.

  “What did you find?” he asked.

  “I’ll tell you at the hospital,” Cade answered. “Come on, let’s follow. We need to watch over that girl.”

  * * * *

  Cade approached the old mill with caution. All his senses were on alert as he glanced in every direction to make sure no one was going to jump out and take a swing. The birds sang merrily in the trees while the river gurgled nearby, and he slowly came to the conclusion that he was alone. He relaxed only marginally as he made his way to the entrance of the mill.

  The building looked to be over a hundred years old, and what was holding it up, he couldn’t tell. Inside he saw an open cellar door going down into the dark and dirty footprints coming from it, so he cautiously approached the dark depths. A stairway went down into what looked to be a sub-basement. Step by careful step, he descended. Wood creaked. He wondered if they were getting ready to collapse. After all, he wasn’t a dainty thing. Coming upon a chained door with a small hole kicked out at the bottom, a sick feeling gripped his stomach. Training and experience told him that this was where the girl had been kept, and his jaw clenched when he saw fresh blood on the rough timber around the hole.