Wrecked

WRECKED A DEVIL’S HANDMAIDENS MC NOVEL ALASKA CHAPTER BOOK 1 E.M. SHUE Text Copyright ©2023 E.M. Shue All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover Design and Formatting by Mountain Rose Press Editing by Nadine Winningham of The Editing Maven Cover and Interior Photos from DepositPhoto and AdobePhoto Stock www.authoremshue.com [email protected] Created with Vellum CONTENTS Trigger Warning Prologue 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 Epilogue Acknowledgments About E.M. Also by E.M. Shue TRIGGER WARNING Wrecked contains hot and steamy sex, profanity, drinking, off page physical abuse, teenage pregnancy, graphic violence, murder and may contain other content that could be sensitive to some readers. Wrecked is meant for mature reading audiences, 18+. WRECKED At seventeen Scout “Riddler” Keller was left wrecked. Destroyed by the boy she loved and left to pick up the pieces for a new life. She carries a piece of paper in her wallet with her every day to remind her to only trust the sisters in her club. They are her new family and have been there for her and her young daughter through the years. Riddler was sure she’d never see Thad again. When she returns home after her father is brutally murdered, she doesn’t expect Thad to be the investigator on the case. He wants to start over with Riddler, but she still has that paper as a reminder of what he did to her. When several young girls disappear from the area and it ties into her father’s murder, Riddler will call on her MC friends for help. But when the truth of who is behind it all is revealed, she’ll have to protect herself and her family. Even if it means asking Thad to go against everything he has sworn to uphold. Join Surprises from E.M. to be kept up to date. https://bit.ly/SurprisesfromEM For my Lathrop Homies PROLOGUE I’m moving along in the stolen pickup, my body bouncing from the bumpy road. The two-track trail that heads to a remote area I scoped out weeks ago is coming up. It’s barely noticeable from the main road. The fact it’s still bright outside is what allows me to work well after midnight. Land of the Midnight Sun, they call it. I call it annoying for sleep and a pain in the butt when I want to hide in the dark. I’m still getting used to all the daylight they have here, but I’ll admit it’s helpful for tasks like this. I came here for a reason. To finally make her pay. But being able to move merchandise out of and through here has been a bonus for me. I’ve made more money in the short time I’ve been here than I ever did down south in one season. The bears will be on this one quickly, so there shouldn’t be much evidence left over when all is said and done. It’ll be chalked up to another runaway. I make my turn and stop the truck when I reach the part of the trail I want. There is no place to pull over and park. I step out and take a look around. I’m on top of a large butte the locals call a dome because of its round shape. You can see for miles in almost every direction. The black spruce trees are sparse and spindly. This area of Alaska is mostly a soft tundra. In the distance I can make out a moose, the only witness to what I’m about to do. Opening the bed of the truck, I glance around one last time before I grab the tarp and pull. The body hits the ground with a thud. I’m not concerned as she’s already dead. I had to kill her when she kept screaming for help. Now, she’ll be quiet as a mouse. It reminds me of the last time I broke a girl’s jaw; she screamed and cried out too. A sinister grin moves across my face at that thought. I bet I look like the Joker right now. I drag the tarp covered body over to the edge of the road. There is a steep embankment on this side. I unfurl the sheeting and hang on to it as I watch the body roll down the hill. There’s enough blood on the body that animals will smell it soon and come to inspect it. Aside from the bears and wolves, I bet smaller critters will find it too. Or even the large carrion birds. “Lunch, boys.” My voice carries in the quiet of the night. I look down at my watch. I don’t have much time to get back to Ptarmigan Falls to finish the next part of my plan. This means I’m going to have to rush and not enjoy myself with the next kill. The perfect revenge can’t be accomplished without the perfect bait, which I’ve got now. He’s been sticking his nose into my business, and I can’t have that. But more importantly, killing him will bring back the one person I need to finish all this. A short twenty minutes later, I’m in the center of Ptarmigan Falls. The town sits near the Chatanika River and is a short drive from Fairbanks. It’s geared for truck drivers. There’s a gas station-convenience store, a café-style diner, and a few