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  Claiming Slice

  A Lucifer’s Lair Novel

  Eden Rose

  Dear Reader:

  Welcome back to the Lucifer’s Lair MC! We recently found out that Joe got to keep his president patch and he and Chantal got to have their happily ever after. Now it’s time to find out if Jen is going to claim Slice or not. Especially when she’s pushed up against a wall and needs the help of The Lucifer’s Lair, will she finally admit that she has feelings for Slice?

  XoXo, Eden

  Dedication:

  Shannon- Thank you for being a bad ass PA and an amazing friend. Without you, this wouldn’t have happened. And especially a big thanks for kicking me in the ass and telling me to write the damn story!

  Thank you to my beta readers for putting up with my crazy.

  Copyright © 2017 Eden Rose

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Brands, artists, music, places and people have been used to help develop the story. This is a work of fiction and no part of this book is based on a real life situation.

  CLAIMING SLICE

  Prologue: JEN

  I sit in the seats in front of the judge that is deciding the fate of my life. There’s nothing that I can do to stop it or change any of what is happening. No, all my choices and wants have been taken from me and I’m just a nobody now. Nobody knows how I feel or even asks how I’m doing with it all.

  I’m eighteen years old and I’m waiting to see what the hell the judge is about to rule.

  “Will the defendant please rise,” Judge Matthews orders from behind her bench. She’s an older woman with gray hair but nice eyes. She’s tried several times to talk to me regarding the charges against Jimmy along with letting me know what is probably going to happen.

  Jimmy and Andre stand up straight with a smug look on their faces. They both think that they are going to get Jimmy off these charges but I don’t know if that’s possible. I don’t know if they can recover or talk themselves out of this mess. It’s bad.

  Real bad.

  Both guys turn back to look at me and Jimmy winks at me as if that’s going to make everything better. I’m too young to be sitting in this court room worrying about what the hell I’m going to do if Jimmy gets locked up. I’m too young to even be married, but I am.

  I pull on my black skirt a little and smile at them. Andre is a nice guy for being someone on my father’s payroll. The only reason why he took this case is because he expected his payday to get larger when they win. I personally don’t trust anyone on my dad’s payroll or in his circle. All of them are only in it for themselves and that’s it. Who gives a flying fuck about the little people.

  Me. None of them even stopped to ask me if I wanted my husband to get involved in my father’s business. None of these guys asked me if I wanted to turn my house into an armory and drug den. No one!

  Before you ask how I didn’t know about it, I didn’t know about a lot of things. For the past two years, I’ve been living with blinders on my eyes and nothing that has been going on has clicked. I lived in my own world.

  “On the charges of attempted murder and armed robbery, how do you find the defendant?” The judge asks the jury that are seated off to the side.

  Every single one of them are looking over at my dad to see if he’s going to give them some sort of bonus for claiming that Jimmy’s not guilty. My dad doesn’t even look at them. It’s not his style to intimidate anyone by looking at them. He’s old school and he prefers quiet talks to get his point across.

  I grab my ponytail that is hanging over my shoulder and twist it around my fingers trying to calm myself but it doesn’t help. I’m beyond stressed and nervous. This ruling is going to change everything. We could lose our place, our cars… Everything. I’m eighteen with no job experience besides becoming a teenaged bride. No one’s going to pay me to be their wives unless they’re some rich fucks who like young women.

  An African American woman stands up and pushes her glassed up her nose. She’s pretty with her mocha skin, pretty clothes and freshly braided hair. “We the jury find the defendant guilty for attempted murder and armed robbery.”

  My heart falls out of my chest and I try to breathe. Each inhale is a gulp but none of the oxygen travels through my body. My heart beats faster and then slower all at the same time. This is not good!

  The crowd in the courtroom, bursts out with either cheers or boos at this ruling. I don’t say a word. Maybe I heard her wrong. How many things rhyme with guilty?

  Judge Matthews bangs her gavel on the wooden top and then shouts at everyone in the courtroom. “Quiet! There will be no disorderly conduct in my court room!”

  Most everyone in the audience quiets down but my father’s look on his face tells me that he’s anything but calm. The look on his face tells me that he’s pissed and he’s going to make sure that someone takes the fall for what Jimmy is being charged with.

  “On the charges of illegal weapon distribution, how do you find the defendant?”

  The same woman looks down at the piece of paper and then back towards my father. No one is even bothering to look at me even though I’m the wife of the defendant. Not one of these people even care that my whole world has been shook and everything is falling apart.

  “We find the defendant guilty of all charges.”

  Judge Matthews nods her head and puts the gavel down. The whole courtroom jumps out of their seats and is jumping around with anger or glee over the ruling. I don’t move.

  “Is the prosecution ready to discuss bail?” The judge asks the fat balding man sitting on the opposite side of my husband.

  “We request bail to be revoked.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Jimmy’s dad yells out.

  The wind has been knocked out of me.

  “What is your reasoning for this?”

  I already know what the prosecution is going to say and it’s scaring me. Hell, I’m already scared. I think I have passed that level of fear and have orbited into something completely different.

  My and Jimmy’s families both have a lot of money and are very successful in what they do. Because we both come from money, it’s going to make Jimmy seem like a flight risk. While I would like to say that I doubt he would do anything like that, there’s been a lot of changes in our lives.

  “The defendant is connected to some very powerful people in our city and poses as a flight risk. We ask that he’s remanded or placed on a tether until sentencing,” the balding man suggests.

  In this moment, I hate every single one of these people. Every single one of them are trying to ruin my life and I’m not going to have that anymore. I’m going to figure out how to fix this.

  The judge nods her head and then looks over at my father who is emotionless with a blank stare. I’ve come to know that he shuts down and doesn’t allow people to see him when he gets pissed off because it’s his defense mechanism.

  “Defendant is held until sentencing next week. No bail. Thank you for coming in,” the judge says.

  My mind spins and spins around like it’s on a Merry-Go-Round but I can’t get off it. Held without bail. Meaning, he fucked up and now I’m going to do the time with him.

  What am I going to do? I’m eighteen, a wife of a criminal and I have no job. I have no money to support myself or have any idea how to do any of that. My parents either took care of everything or Jimmy did. Now it’s just me.

  A heavy hand is placed
on my shoulder and I turn to see who the hand belongs to. My mind whirls and my vision clears so I can see Jimmy in his orange jumpsuit. “Jen, I’m so sorry,” he says to me.

  He’s not sorry. If he were fucking sorry he wouldn’t have got involved in what my father does. He wouldn’t have committed these crimes and got himself caught if he were sorry. No, he’s not sorry. He’s sorry he got caught.

  I don’t say anything as I scooch off the wooden bench and leave the courtroom. The fresh air is calming me but the noise of the reporters is what stresses me back out. Each reporter shoves their microphone in my face trying to get an exclusive from the wife of the convicted Jimmy. I push their microphones out of my face and grab the back of my jacket to cover me.

  “Jen, how do you feel about the conviction?”

  “Where are you going to live?”

  “What do you think is going to happen with sentencing?”

  “Did you know that he did these crimes?”

  “Did you know that he turned your house into a drug den?”

  “Did you know!”

  I mentally shake my head no because I didn’t know anything. Not one thing about what happened, did I know.

  The drive home went quickly and uneventful. My home looks like a shell now with crime scene taped around one of the trees and a police car at the end of the street waiting for me to come home to discuss ensuring my safety.

  Or some shit like that.

  While I walk up to my door, I consider my options here. I can either become a recluse and never leave the house or I can do what I was raised to do. I can stand up and make something of myself.

  “Jen! I’m so sorry to how it went,” Officer Monroe says to me to console me.

  He’s an old man but he’s not bad looking. His eyes are baby blue and I can’t help but think he has the boy-next-door look to him. About a week ago, he came over here and was placed as my guard through everything. My father convinced the courts and the police that I had nothing to do with the charges for Jimmy and they gave me a body guard.

  I smile at him even though I don’t feel like smiling. It’s the polite thing to do and that’s what my mother always told me to be, polite. “Thank you, Officer Monroe.”

  I stick my key in the lock and then slide it over to unlock it. Officer Monroe doesn’t wait for the invitation to enter my home because he’s already let himself in. “It looks clear,” he says affirmatively while searching the open areas.

  If anyone was going to come here and steal something, they would have a hard time finding the money that I hid. Behind the headboard to my bed, there’s a safe built into the wall and that’s where all the money is hidden. Jimmy doesn’t even know about the safe. Every time he gave me money to leave him alone or get massages, what have you, I would stash the money away for an emergency.

  My mind has already been made up and I know what I need to do, but doing it is something completely out of my realm of possibilities. Can I leave all of this behind and not wonder what happened to my mom? What about my dad?

  “Thank you. Well, I’m going to go in and get changed. Have a good day,” I call out to him.

  “Bye!”

  Without waiting to hear the door close or footsteps walking out of my house, I climb the stairs to the top and turn the corner to my room. The halls are bare with little personality on them because I never felt like doing anything. In the back of my mind, I probably always knew that this house was going to be temporary and it would never be home.

  I push open the door to my room and take a deep breath of Gucci Guilty cologne. Jimmy’s favorite cologne that he wore all the damn time. Jimmy sprayed it all around the room to show me that he’s still there for me even though he’s not. The chances of him getting out of prison are slim to none and if he does, I don’t want to be waiting.

  My fingers pull at my shirt to untuck it from my skirt. Wearing these button-down shirts make me feel like I’m a little kid playing dress up. Just when my hands drop to the button on my skirt, the bedroom door flies open.

  “Where the fuck did he hide everything?” An angry male voice says from behind me.

  I don’t say a word and throw my hands up in the air. The man is standing behind me with what feels like a gun jammed into my back. My breathing speeds up and I try harder to calm down to not show fear. Where is Officer Monroe? Did he leave? Did they… Oh god, did they kill him?

  “Are you fuckin’ stupid?” He asks me and jams the gun further into my spine. “Answer me, bitch.”

  “I, uh, I don’t know…” I stammer out, not making any sense at all.

  The guy moves a little and then grabs my elbow to spin me around. My black hair swings around like a curtain around my shoulders.

  The moment my eyes landed on the guy in front of me, I knew. I knew I should have gotten out while I could. There’s no telling what the hell they want or even if I know where it is. There’s no way for me to know what he’s talking about.

  “Where did Jimmy stash the shipment?” He spells the words out like I’m deaf and need help understanding them.

  I shake my head back and forth. “I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” I reply truthfully.

  CLAIMING SLICE

  JEN

  Pole dancing is one of those things that you get to let go and be the inner slut that you are inside of you. It’s the art of dancing seductively for a man that is so captivated by you that he would spend his whole paycheck in making sure that you danced just for him.

  Personally, I love pole dancing so much that I decided to start teaching a class to the local strippers in this stupid little town. The Lucifer’s Lair MC owns The Kitty which is the local strip club in town. A lot of the strippers are using tired moves that don’t do anything for their customers that watch them. Which is why they come and see me.

  “All right, ladies. Let’s climb up the bar with our thighs holding us up,” I instruct. To demonstrate, I climb up the pole by using the soles of my feet and as soon as I’m up on the top, I take one hand out to reach out. With the one hand holding the pole, I then adjust my legs to hold my body in place by my thighs. Once I know I’m secure, I drop the hand holding me and then balance my body to look like a Superman pose.

  “Holy shit, Jen! That’s incredible!” Britney exclaims from the back of the class.

  I look over at her red-haired head and see that she’s trying to do it as well. She has been coming to my class since I opened it about six months ago, and she’s pretty good. The one thing that confuses me the most about her is the fact that she’s not a stripper. She probably just takes the class for exercise.

  Pole dancing is a great workout that targets every muscle on your body.

  I fling my blue hair over my face and then smile at the class room while I watch them do it. Two of the girls in the back are having a hard time balancing themselves on the pole and one almost falls off. I don’t feel like getting sued, so I untangle my body from the pole and land on my feet.

  With a smile on my face, I walk over to the girls and then help them. “So, you want to use the inside of your feet to help you get up the pole,” I demonstrate for them to see. “You can feel the minute that you have control over what you are doing because you don’t feel as if you’re going to fall.”

  When the girls are finally able to climb up the pole and hold themselves up by their thighs, I turn to the rest of the class. “Do you feel your thighs burning?” I question.

  “Yeah! Oh, shit. It hurts!” One of the girls cries out from the front of the class.

  I giggle a little and then walk over to her to make sure she’s not going to fall on her ass. “All right, slowly loosen your muscles and slide down the pole until your body is hovering over the floor.”

  Everyone does it and I smile to myself. “Good. Class is dismissed. See you next week!” I call out.

  My class leaves the room and I begin to clean up the equipment that I use for it. Everything that is in here has been donated from strip clubs that don’t u
se it anymore or didn’t like in the first place. This is nice because I get to keep most of my profit from doing these classes.

  I’ve been a hairdresser for two years and I absolutely love what I do but I needed to do something more physical. I love feeling sexy and desired when I dance.

  Now that everything is cleaned up, I pull out my phone that is flashing next to my bag and see that it’s a message from Billy. Or was his name Bill? Something along those lines.

  UNKNOWN: what are you doing tonight? Want to hang out

  ME: who is this?

  UNKNOWN: Pat from last night. You don’t remember?

  I wouldn’t consider myself a skank or something. Just someone with a healthy appetite for sex.

  ME: no, sorry. I’m having dinner with a friend

  UNKNOWN: are you blowing me off to hang out with some other guy? Fucking skanks

  Wow, that turned serious pretty damn quickly. Pat can wait until later because I finally have a date with my best girl friend and I can’t wait to find out what she’s been up to.

  Chantal and I have been friends forever but I love her to pieces. She’s the opposite of me but I love that about her. Who wants to spend time with someone that is exactly like themselves?

  Not me, that’s for sure.

  By the time I pull into Bubba’s parking lot, I’m more than ready to eat. Every time I’m done dancing, my stomach feels fucking empty. “Hurry up, Chantal. I’m as hungry as a damn hippo over here,” I mumble under my breath and climb out of my car.

  The parking lot isn’t too packed and I’m tempted to go inside and wait for her there. Screw this whole waiting outside bull shit.

  Just when I’m about to go in, I see her car pull in and I smile widely. She parks her car away from mine and slides out with a frustrated look on her face. “It’s about damn time! I’m turning into an Ethiopian over here.” I point to my ribs to emphasize what I meant.

  Chantal rolls her green eyes and walks over to me to give me a hug. “I worry about you.”