Royal Mess (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation Book 3) Read online

  Wall Street Journal & USA Today Bestselling Author

  Winter Travers

  Copyright © 2021 Winter Travers

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduction, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) utilization of this work without written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  For questions or comments about this book, please contact the author at [email protected]

  Also by Winter Travers

  Devil’s Knights Series

  Loving Lo

  Finding Cyn

  Gravel’s Road

  Battling Troy

  Gambler’s Longshot

  Keeping Meg

  Fighting Demon

  Unraveling Fayth

  Forever Lo

  Devil’s Knights 2nd Gen

  Passing the Torch

  Riding the Line

  Royal Mess

  Skid Row Kings Series

  DownShift

  PowerShift

  BangShift

  Fallen Lords MC Series

  Nickel

  Pipe

  Maniac

  Wrecker

  Boink

  Clash

  Freak

  Slayer

  Brinks

  Kings of Vengeance MC

  Drop a Gear and Disappear

  Lean Into It

  Knees in the Breeze

  Midnight Wreckage

  Thrill Seeker

  Livin’ on the Edge

  Powerhouse MA Series

  Dropkick My Heart

  Love on the Mat

  Black Belt in Love

  Black Belt Knockout

  Nitro Crew Series

  Burndown

  Holeshot

  Redlight

  Shutdown

  Royal Bastards MC: Sacramento, CA

  Playboy

  Six-Gun

  Monk

  Sweet Love Novellas

  Sweet Burn

  Five Alarm Donuts

  Stand Alone Novellas

  Kissing the Bad Boy

  Trapped with the Bad Boy

  Daddin’ Ain’t Easy

  Silas: A Scrooged Christmas

  Wanting More

  Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool

  Tangle My Tinsel

  This book is for everyone who is still with me after all of these years.

  Thank you so much. Without you reading my words, I’m nothing.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  Dive into the 1st chapter of Downshift

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my boys and family for always being there for me.

  Kelly Tucker and Mayra Statham. Thank you so much for helping me and being amazing. I couldn’t put a book out without you two.

  Nikki Horn. We’ve been through it all, and we’re still chugging along together. Thank you so much for putting up with me and not dropping me like a hot potato. LMAO

  Chapter One

  Mistake?

  Marco

  “She’s asleep.” Meg closed the door behind her and folded her arms over her chest. “I think the guys want to have a talk with you.”

  I loosened the tie around my neck. “Is she okay?” I didn’t want to talk right now. I wanted to make sure Royal was all right.

  Meg rolled her eyes. “She just listened to her brother die, Marco. I’m going to go with no.” Meg always was a straight shooter. I had been around the club since I was sixteen, and Meg had always been the same. Goofy as fuck, but one of the best people I’ve ever known. There was a reason why everyone loved her.

  “I didn’t know this was going to happen, Meg. I tried to stop it.”

  Fucking hell, did I try to stop it.

  I had gotten word Biff Meeks was pissed I had pulled out of my end of the deal. Apollo had called to tell me Meeks was threatening to retaliate. At first, I had laughed it off, but something nagged at me. After a five-minute screaming match on the phone with Biff, he ended it telling me I would regret the day I screwed over the Meeks, and now, Grit was going to be the first person to pay for it.

  Within half an hour of talking to Biff, Grit was dead.

  Grit was dead because of me.

  “But it happened, Marco.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “I know, Meg.”

  She put her hand on my shoulder. “And now you need to fix it, Marco.” A sad smile crossed her lips, and she squeezed gently. “I know you can.” She moved around me and back down the hallway to the common room.

  I stared at the dark wood of the door in front of me. Royal was in there. Only feet away, but it felt like miles.

  I was the reason why her world was crumbling around her.

  Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t matter to me. I shouldn’t be feeling like shit because of a business deal gone bad.

  It was business.

  Fix it and move on.

  Except now, it wasn’t.

  This was way more than business.

  The first person to pay was Grit. Now, I had to wonder who would be the second.

  It could be Royal.

  “She needs to sleep, Marco.”

  “I know,” I whispered.

  Mom leaned against the door and folded her arms over her chest. “Then what are you doing standing here?” she asked.

  “Thinking.” Trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do next?

  “You know I always complain that I never see you a lot, but I wish this didn’t have to happen for you to see your mom more.”

  I rolled my eyes. “We talk every day on the phone, Mom.” I had learned a while ago it was just better to call her every day rather than not call and then get bitched at when I did.

  “Seeing you is much better than just talking on the phone, Marco.”

  “Do we really have to go into this right now, Mom?” I was forty-two-years-old, but I always felt like I was a teenager when I came back home to Rockton. Here I was, working under the biggest crime boss in the northern hemisphere, and my mom always seemed to be able to knock me back to reality.

  “Fayth,” Slider called from the end of the hallway.

  “I’m talking to my son, Slider,” she called.

  Slider cleared his throat. “Yeah, I can see that, but we really need to talk to him more right now. Kind of got some shit going on with the club.”

  Mom turned her head and glared at Slider. “You better not even say club business, or I will kick you in the nuts.”

  Slider covered his crotch with his hand. “We just need
to talk to Marco, babe. Promise you can have him back when we’re done with him.”

  “You better not touch one hair on his head, Slider,” she warned.

  Slider held up his hands. “He’s a Banachi, babe. You’re a damn Banachi. We want to talk, that’s it.”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “I haven’t been a Banachi for years, Slider. I’m more ol’ lady now.”

  “You’ll always have that Banachi blood in you and with Leo being your brother, well, you know the Knights don’t mess with Leo.”

  Mom laughed and shook her head. “You’re the reason why Leo’s head is so big.” She pointed her finger at me. “Go fix this, Marco, and then, come find me.” She turned on her heel and headed in the same direction as Meg.

  Fix this?

  As if it was going to be so easy that it was going to take five minutes and everything was going to back to normal.

  “Let’s go, Marco. We’re all waiting for you,” Slider called.

  I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest.

  I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to sit across from the guys I had pretty much grown up with and called my family to tell them I had fucked up royally.

  Not my idea of how I wanted to spend my day.

  None of this was going to get better until I walked into that room and tried to figure out how I was going to make shit right again.

  Or, at least, better.

  I wasn’t going to be able to bring Grit back, but I was damn sure going to figure out how to make sure no one else died because of me.

  King sat at the head of the table, like always, with Rigid on one side. An empty chair sat on the other side. Apollo stood behind the empty chair. I wasn’t completely outnumbered in here.

  Slider nodded to the empty chair and then took his seat next to Demon.

  King reclined back in his chair and watched me. I sat down in the empty chair and rested my elbows on the table.

  “Never thought we would be sitting here like this,” King murmured.

  “Same,” Slider grunted.

  Slider may not have been my biological father, but he was still my dad. Mom had married him when I was sixteen, and from that day on, he had been my dad. I hated that I had fucked up, and he was going to know all about it. Every fucking detail, he was going to know.

  “As if I’m the first guy to ever fuck up,” I grunted. “I seem to remember things like this happening all the time.”

  King shook his head. “Nah, things settled down by the time your mom and Slider hooked up. But now, shit seems to be going crazy again with a psycho killer on the loose, and now, whatever shit you pulled over the Meeks.”

  “I did the exact same thing Leo would have done. I don’t think you guys would be all over him like you are me.” I got that I wasn’t the boss of the Banachis yet, but I should have some respect from these guys.

  “Yeah, except Leo doesn’t get people killed,” Demon chuckled.

  “That we know of,” Hero piped in. “There is probably a ton of shit happening that we don’t know about. This time just happened to have to do with us.”

  Hero and I always did get along growing up. Granted, he was more than a few years younger than me, but we still were buddies.

  “Why don’t you start from the beginning of your deal with Meeks, and then, we can hopefully figure out what the hell to do next,” King suggested.

  Apollo cleared his throat.

  I held up my hand to him. I wasn’t going to say anything I shouldn’t. “I met with the Meeks. They were seventeen hours away from selling Royal to a sleezeball in Mexico when I spoke to them.”

  “Which obviously didn’t happen,” Frost spoke. He was a big part of the Banachis even getting involved in the whole Royal business. I put my neck on the line for his ol’ lady, and now, it was coming back to bite me right in the ass.

  I nodded. “Biff was looking for a sure fire way to get up and down 95.”

  “He’s been running up and down that highway for years. Pretty sure he’s got that shit down pat,” Rigid scoffed.

  I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. “He did. He’s got a problem with the new sheriffs in three counties the highway runs through. It’s put a big kink in his normally well-oiled machine.”

  “And you told him you could help, and then, you couldn’t,” Frost grunted.

  I held up a finger. “Yes, I offered to help.” I put up another finger. “But I didn’t because people like Meeks deserve to die, not prosper.”

  “So what the hell did you do then?” King asked cautiously.

  I shrugged. “I might have passed on some information to a few friends of mine who happen to live in those counties he’s having problems in.”

  Apollo chuckled. “Friends who happen to be the new sheriffs.”

  “Fucking shit,” Slider grunted. “And now Meeks knows it was you.”

  I grimaced. “Yes.”

  “And Grit is who paid for it,” King mumbled.

  “First,” I muttered.

  “What the hell do you mean first?” Slider asked.

  I loosened my tie. “Well, I don’t know for certain, but I am assuming that Grit isn’t the end of this.”

  “What the fuck is the end of this, then?” Frost asked.

  I sighed and glanced around the room. “He said he’s coming for what is his.”

  King slammed his fist on the table. “Fucking hell.”

  “Royal,” Rigid guessed.

  “And her baby,” Apollo added.

  “Correct.” I leaned forward and rested my hands on the table. “But I will take care of this.”

  “How the hell are you going to take care of it?” King asked. “We asked you to take care of it already, and now, we’re in a bigger pile of shit than we were before.”

  “Because I may have fucked up, but I clean up my messes,” I vowed.

  Zig chuckled. “Well, it’s a royal mess, yeah?”

  King closed his eyes. “Just one fucking time, dumbass. One damn meeting without one of you cracking some lame joke.”

  “That was a pretty lame joke,” Zag scoffed. “That was dad-joke material, brother.”

  “Some things never change,” Apollo murmured. “This is the whole reason why Leo loves the motorcycle clubs so much. Bunch of smartasses.”

  “Shut the hell up,” King thundered. “Swear to God, I’m gonna fucking step down from being prez just to get away from you idiots,” he threatened.

  Hero perked up and rested his elbows on the table. “Someone else tell a dad joke,” he egged on. You could tell the thought of King stepping down would make Hero’s year.

  “This shit right here is what Leo loves,” Apollo laughed. He pulled out his phone and pressed a few buttons.

  “Do not call Uncle Leo,” I growled.

  “Not calling,” Apollo smirked. “Just texting him. He’ll get a huge kick out of this shit.”

  Just what I needed. “Put your damn phone away,” I ordered. Apollo was Leo’s cousin, and also my uncle, though I was going to be the one taking over the family business. As Leo’s right hand man, Apollo was now with me to help along the way.

  He shoved his phone in his pocket. “You’re right, kid. He’ll want to hear this on the phone, not in a text message.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “So, tell us what the hell you are going to do to fix this mess?” King asked me.

  I laid my hands flat on the table. “First off, I’m taking Royal with me.”

  Frost raised his hand. “Uh, I think you might have to take that up with the rest of the women. They’ve all become attached to her.” He nodded to King. “Meg included.”

  “If Biff is coming for Royal, I’m not going to keep her here. That puts the club in danger when they don’t need to be.” I balled my hands into fists. “Not to mention the fact you guys have a psycho on the loose who is trying to kill people associated with the club and the cops are sniffing around.”

  “If the cops would do their damn job and find
the psycho, then they wouldn’t be sniffing around.” Pie folded his arms over his chest.

  “Your logic knows no bounds,” Snapper drawled dryly.

  “I’m taking Royal with me. She’ll be safer with me, and I can tell you right now, I don’t take orders from your women.” Sure Meg and the older ol’ ladies were like family to me, but this was business. Business I was in charge of, and I was going to do what I thought was best. “As soon as Royal wakes up, we’re leaving.”

  “Where the hell are you going?” King asked. “We’re here to help you, Marco. You don’t need to run away.”

  I wasn’t running. At least, not like King thought. “We’ll still be in town, but I don’t want to keep Royal under this roof.” The Knights had an amazing clubhouse, but it wasn’t mine. I didn’t know it like the back of my hand. It had been at least fifteen years since I had spent any significant amount of time here.

  “You’ll be safer here,” King growled.

  I shook my head. I had already made up my mind. Royal and I would have already been gone if it hadn’t been for the fact that she had fallen asleep in her room. “I’ll be safer in the house on Miller.”

  Slider scoffed. “How is that any different than being here?” he asked. “You know your mom isn’t going to like you being in town but not being with her.”

  “I’m not in town to be with my mom and hang out with my friends. I’m trying to keep Royal safe and to get rid of the annoyance of the Meeks.”

  “Annoyance?” King laughed. “Man, you really are taking after your uncle. He would also say this is an annoyance and something easily to be taken care of.”

  “If it was so easy to get rid of, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Gambler grumbled.

  I stood and adjusted my tie. “This isn’t your problem. I’ll handle it. Royal is coming with me, and you guys can go back to doing whatever it is you do.” I was at the end of my rope with being made to feel like an idiot. I did the exact thing Leo would have. If Leo were sitting here right now, these guys wouldn’t be talking to him like they were to me.

  “Marco.” King put his hand on my arm but I shrugged him off.