...Prologue – 14 years ago...

Ash looked around the room, feeling each one’s

helplessness and guilt, and he could feel the tension

growing.

“Boys,” Pop said roughly, “I know how much you all loved

Celeste. We’re family, no matter what blood runs through

our veins. We have to stick together.” He turned to leave the

room. “We will honor Celeste’s memory forever.”

After several minutes, Angel broke the deafening silence.

“We are going to kill each of them. One by one.”

Beau cleared his throat, “I’m in.”

“Me too,” Knox declared.

“We kill every single one,” Wolf stated. “We wipe them off

the fucking planet.”

Hawk leaned forward and nodded, “Count me in.”

“I’m in,” Ash said.

“Me too,” Colt and Maddox added at the same time.

Angel nodded. “We need to stay under the radar, work in

the darkness of the shadows, and be invisible. We’ll hit each

one when they’re least expecting it, and we make it painful.

Just like they did to Celeste.”

The boys stayed up all night that night making plans –

plans to kill each one of the most dangerous gangsters in

the state of Washington, the ones who had deprived them of

the sister they had all loved. And they all knew that they

would enjoy every minute of it because inside each one of

them, there was a darkness that was ready to be unleashed.

A darkness that stayed in the shadows until it was time to

come out and play.

.... ...

.... ...

.... ...

...******...

Kylie

Another date from an online dating site. When had

trying to find a relationship come to this? Where had the

days gone when people fell in love with their high school

sweethearts and lived happily ever after?

Pffh.

Yeah, right.

Like that was even possible, considering the only

person Kylie had ever lusted after in high school had been

the biggest bad boy in the entire school, who didn’t even

know she existed.

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true.

He knew she existed. Since she had been in some

advanced classes, they’d had chemistry together and had

sat at the same table in that class for the entire year. Also,

there was the one and only time when she was a sophomore

that she had gone to a high school graduation party by

herself where a drunk senior had tried getting too handsy,

and the notorious bad boy had pulled the guy off of her.

Then said bad boy had driven her home and threatened to

spank her if he ever saw her at a party by herself again

taking drinks from strangers or putting herself in any kind of

dangerous situation, for that matter. That had been the last

time she had seen Ash Russell. In person anyway.

Even before Ash had threatened to spank her, Kylie

had already heard rumors around school that he liked the

girls that he dated to call him Daddy, and he had a thing for

putting them over his lap and spanking them. She hadn’t

believed those rumors, of course… Not until that fateful

night that he actually threatened to spank her.

Even though she had been a sophomore at the time

and he a senior, she knew well enough that being spanked

by Ash was something that had frightened her but also

stirred some new and hidden part of her to life. Something

that she hadn’t stopped thinking about for the past sixteen

years.

Which brought her to her current situation. She was

getting ready for a date with a potential Daddy that she’d

met on a BDSM dating website. As much as she wished she

was more excited about it, she just wasn’t. The man she

was meeting, Ted, seemed nice. He had a good job as a tax

accountant, and he owned his own home. Both of those

things were huge pluses when it came to meeting a man

online.

Ted was eight years older than Kylie, with no kids or

pets. From the photos that she’d seen of him, he was

attractive in a cute dorky sweater vest kind of way. Ted had

told her that he had been a Daddy for over fifteen years but

hadn’t had a Little of his own for the past two years after his

now ex-wife left him for another man.

Kylie stood in front of her closet, staring at the row of

clothes. She was having a hard time deciding if she should

wear a dress or not. They had made plans to meet at a

restaurant to talk over dinner, and then Ted had suggested

that they could go to Shadows for a drink afterward.

He said that Shadows was a nightclub, but Daddies

and Littles were known to frequent there when they didn’t

feel like going to The Playground, which she’d learned from

him was a BDSM club. She had agreed, mostly because she

had always been curious about Shadows but had never had

the guts to go. After learning about The Playground, she was

curious about the idea of going to such a place where

people could be completely open about who they were. But

she guessed that a BDSM club wasn’t a good idea for a first

date. It might give the wrong impression.

Deciding to go with a dress, Kylie pulled one from the

hanger and held it up in front of her petite frame as she

looked in the mirror. Not really loving the dress but also not

caring all that much, she pulled off the oversized t-shirt she

had been wearing since she had gotten out of the shower

and began to dress.

The simple black dress had spaghetti straps and

hugged her body down to where it landed mid-thigh. It was

tight enough to show off the slight curves of her body but

big enough not to feel like a sausage casing. Pressing her

boobs together with the palm of her hands, Kylie tried to

make it appear as though she had a bigger chest than she

actually did

Whatever. Work with what your mama gave you,

Kylie.

Rolling her eyes at the thought, Kylie stared at herself

in the mirror and fidgeted. How could she work with

something that was practically non-existent?

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true.

Her breasts had filled out after high school, but they

still weren’t as big as she wanted them to be. She was

always so jealous of all the women with lush curves, round

bottoms, and full breasts. But that just hadn’t been in the

cards for her, so she knew that sulking about it wouldn’t get

her anywhere.

She thought it was strange that she didn’t feel

nervous about the evening ahead. Most people got nervous

before first dates, didn’t they? Like sweaty palms and all of

that? Kylie had none of it. Not even really any excitement

either. Partially because even though Ted seemed like a very

nice man, maybe even a little too nice in her opinion, he

was also as dull as a rock. Nothing about him screamed

“Daddy” to her, and that was just disappointing.

However, since the dating pool mostly seemed to be

full of frogs, Kylie knew she needed to dip her toe in

somewhere if she were ever going to find a prince, even if he was so boring that she’d fallen asleep while on the phone

with him - not once, but twice. Besides, boring meant safe.

Her father had been a smooth-talking bad boy and ended up

being a piece of crap man who had constantly cheated on

her mom. Yeah, boring and safe were better.

Sliding on a pair of black wedge sandals, Kylie

grabbed her small handbag and left for the restaurant. It

was a gorgeous evening in July, and the weather in Seattle

had been perfect for the past few weeks. She’d been able to

wear dresses pretty much non-stop, which always made her

happy. Because seriously, who wanted to wear jeans when

they could wear a dress? She just hoped that by wearing a

dress, Mr. Dull and boring didn’t get the wrong idea about

her and think that she would want to sleep with him.

Who was she kidding… She would probably have to

initiate anything with him because he was so dang nice.

Ugh. What the hell had she gotten herself into?

When she pulled up to the restaurant, Kylie sat in her

car and pulled out her phone. There were two text

messages, one from her mom and one from Ted. Opening

the message from her mom first, Kylie smiled.

Mom: Good luck on your date tonight! Let’s have

coffee soon so you can fill me in. Love you.

Closing her mom’s text and opening the text from

Ted, she groaned and rolled her eyes, then felt a rush of

relief.

Ted: Something came up, and I’ll have to reschedule.

I’m sorry for the late notice. I’ll make it up to you.

She was annoyed that he canceled last second.

Seriously, what could come up for a tax accountant that was

so urgent? But at the same time, she was relieved. She

hadn’t been looking forward to this date. And if she wasn’t

looking forward to it, then why had she even agreed to it?

Because you are tired of being single, and you want a

Daddy.

Well, there was that.

But she was also disappointed because she had been

going to get to go to Shadows for the first time, and now

she wasn’t. It was sad that going to the club was what she

had been looking forward to the most.

Looking out of her windshield, Kylie stared at the

large brick building with the sign “Shadows” on it. They had

planned on walking to the club after dinner, which had been

why they had chosen the restaurant that was only half a

block up the street.

Slumping back into her seat, Kylie felt the urge to

have a small tantrum. Not that it would do her any good but

pouting about it and maybe a foot stomp or two might make

her feel better.

Or you could just go to the club by yourself since you

are an actual grown adult.

Staring at the brick building, Kylie thought about it.

She could go to the club by herself. She was an adult and

could come and go as she pleased. It wasn’t like she had to

stay if she didn’t like it. Sure, she would be there by herself

and not have any friends around, but surely other people

went to clubs by themselves.

Mind made up, Kylie grabbed her purse and climbed

out of her car, making the short walk up the block to stand

in front of Shadows. It was just after eight in the evening,

and there was already a buzz of people making their way

into the club. She took a deep breath and walked toward the

door where a large muscular man was checking IDs. Pulling

hers from her purse, Kylie handed it to the man, who looked

at the ID and back at her several times.

“You’re sure this is a legit ID? You don’t even look

twenty-one, let alone thirty-two,” the bouncer said.

Kylie smiled up at him, “Yep, I’m sure. I graduated

high school in two-thousand-eight and then went to college

at Oregon State. I’ve been a jewelry designer ever since.

Here’s my card if you’d like to look at some of my work.

Maybe your wife or girlfriend would like something.”

Shut up, Kylie. Damn.

The man gave her an incredulous look, then looked at

her ID one more time before handing it back to her and

opening the door to allow her in. Before she walked through

the entrance, she quickly slid her business card into the

bouncer’s shirt pocket and hurried inside before he could

give it back to her.

She was immediately surrounded by people who were

dancing and talking loudly over the music. The place was

packed. Kylie tried to look around the club to take it all in,

but with the number of people swarming around her, she

couldn’t see past them.

Slipping through the crowd, she eventually made her

way up to the long bar and waited until she was able to put

in an order with the handsome bartender.

“What can I get you, doll?” he asked with a pantydropping smile.

Damn. He was cute, and he was staring at her like

she was the dessert that he’d been waiting for. But he was

also working for tips, so she knew better than to think he

was flirting with her.

“Can I get a lemon drop martini and a lemon drop

shot, please?” she yelled out.

He nodded and began making her drinks while at the

same time watching her with a look of interest on his face.

“This your first time here?” he asked over the music.

Oh great. Totally obvious.

Kylie nodded and offered him a shy smile. He smiled

back and placed her drinks on the bar.