Stud: Stone Cold MC, #3

By Carmen Faye

Stud is book 3 and finale of the Stone Cold MC trilogy!

MONEY TALKS, AND WHEN RIP PETERSON TALKS IT, I’M HYPNOTIZED

ALEX
I had a good thing going… until he showed up, six feet of leather and steel, a tempting smile, and a downright dangerous offer that left me breathless and ready.

But once ours fingers were in the honeypot, we got a taste of the adrenaline and wanted more. He wanted more.

Me.

RIP

My only rule in life?
Don’t get caught.

Call it what you like, I’m the one who walks away on top every single time, and I f*cking love it that way. 

But Alex is something else: smart and sexy--a spitfire and one hell of a natural for cheating a card table. 

I knew I could take her and make her into something great. And when we walk out with our first winnings, I know we’ve got a good thing going.

There’s just one flaw in this plan… my lies are about to catch up with me.

And just maybe my stupid f*cking heart, too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBook Publishing World
• Release date: Dec 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386916253

Book preview

STUD: Stone Cold MC (Book 3)

By Carmen Faye

MONEY TALKS, AND WHEN RIP PETERSON TALKS IT, I’M HYPNOTIZED.

ALEX

I had a good thing going... until he showed up, six feet of leather and steel, a tempting smile, and a downright dangerous offer that left me breathless and ready.

But once ours fingers were in the honeypot, we got a taste of the adrenaline and wanted more. He wanted more.

Me.

RIP

My only rule in life?

Don’t get caught.

Call it what you like, I’m the one who walks away on top every single time, and I f*cking love it that way.

But Alex is something else: smart and sexy—a spitfire and one hell of a natural for cheating a card table.

I knew I could take her and make her into something great. And when we walk out with our first winnings, I know we’ve got a good thing going.

There’s just one flaw in this plan... my lies are about to catch up with me.

And just maybe my stupid f*cking heart, too.

CHAPTER 1

I’d been in prison , I could fight. I’d done my time, and I’d worked my way to the top of the food chain, making sure that I survived. And I’d taken care of Emmet, too.

I knew what a cracked cheekbone felt like. I knew what it felt like to have two black eyes and broken knuckles. I knew what it felt like to have a hurting stomach and throbbing kidneys and a limp that didn’t go away for weeks.

And still, nothing hurt as much as a kick in the gut delivered by a woman. That was the kind of pain I didn’t like having to deal with, and after Alex had dished out her punches, I was smarting in a bad way.

She was the sexiest creature I knew because she had wit and personality behind those curves. And still, I saw her as the biggest bitch in the world now. The. Biggest. Bitch.

To think I’d wanted her to come with me? With that attitude? I shouldn’t have told her shit about my life. If I’d known she was going to piss on my parade, I would never have opened up to her.

Big mistake to open up, to a dame anyway, but she’d seemed different.

I walked back to the motel. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have the money for a cab, but I had rage enough to fuel the journey and I needed to get my head straight. I was all hung up on that woman, and I needed to make sure that everything was clear now so that when they came for me I was gone.

I was in half a mind not to give her what she was due. Who was she to demand money from me when I made most of it in ways that she wasn’t even a part of?

I pulled out my phone. Speaking of my unsavory ways, I needed to contact Rat if I was going to split. Maybe there was time for one more deal.

The thought of money brought me right back to Alex, not a full circle of thought but a U-turn instead. I could still feel her body on mine, parts of my own body still covered in her, parts of it still wanting more.

But she wouldn’t want me now. The look on her face had been the same as the others when she’d found out about Emmett and the fact that I was still running. Cockroach. That was what her face had spelled out.

I kicked a stone, and it skipped across the pavement and into a clump of shrubs a little ways down the road where a gray cat shot out. I must have scared the shit out of him. Good. Something knew how I felt. Damn Alex and her beauty and my obsession with her and the thought that she was worth sticking around for. Damn that woman.

I made my way back to the motel and unlocked the door, crouching out of habit in case someone had a gun trained chest-height on the other side. Running for my life all the time was a shit pastime. Maybe one day this would all be over.

After I closed the door, I got a message from Rat with a time and a place. We weren’t meeting in the alley behind the casino anymore, not after Jerrill had gotten his hands on me. Rat was the scared type, paying homage to his nickname.

It took me five minutes to do a once over in the shower. I was aware that the last of her was running down the drain, but I scolded myself for being a useless asshole and ignored my emotions. Another five to get dressed, and I was out the door again and headed to the strip mall along the beachfront. The beach was littered with tourists, soaking up the sun in various shades of brown and red, and the umbrellas pitched at various angles in the sand everywhere were cheerful.

Exactly the opposite of what I felt.

When I stepped out of the sun and into the mall, I felt a bit better, away from all the happiness and color. Rat waited for me on a wooden bench that stood in the middle of the walkway with a pot of lively looking fake plants in it.

You’re late, he said. It would have been intimidating if he said it to me with a threat in his voice, but that wasn’t the case, and I just shrugged.

I’m leaving town, I said after a moment and patted my pockets for my box of smokes. No smoking inside. I was twitchy as hell and craving some nicotine in my system, but we weren’t taking this one outside.

Why?

I shrugged. There was no way I was going to let someone like him into my business. Tried it once and look how that had turned out.

When?

Tonight.

Don’t you want to make it tomorrow? he asked. I’m selling double to Jerrill tonight, and rumor has it he’s headed out of town just after so the warehouse will be empty for a lot longer than usual.

I nodded and watched the people walking by. Teenagers in short shorts and knee-high socks, thinking they were on fire even though they were underdeveloped and still searching for themselves. Old men that were stuck in an era from fifty years ago, still tucking in their checkered, collared shirts. Moms with strollers and gurgling babies.

Rat watched them, too.

Okay, I said. Why not?

Because there really was no reason for me not to do it, even though I owed Alex nothing now. Still, it was more money for me, and I knew that I