From New York Times Bestselling author Joanna Wylde comes ELI’S TRIUMPH, a new novella in her Reapers MC series, brought to you by 1,001 Dark Nights! Be sure to grab your copy today!
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Joanna Wylde comes a new story in her Reapers MC series…
Peaches Taylor spent the last seven years slinging drinks and dodging drunks at the Starkwood Saloon. Some might call it a dead end job, but to her it was an investment—another six months, and she’d have enough money to buy the place.
Life would've been perfect if Eli hadn’t come home.
Eli King is ready to settle down. He stood by his brothers when they needed him, paying the price for their freedom with his own. Now it’s time to claim his reward—the Starkwood Saloon. He’s got the cash to buy the bar, the skills to run it, and just one person standing between him and his dream: Peaches Taylor.
She’s been driving him crazy since they were kids, and not in the good way. When she was six, she shoved a spider down his pants. When he was ten, he locked her in a closet overnight. Then she hot-wired his car at seventeen, and things got ugly…
They’re adults now, and the Starkwood isn’t a toy to fight over—it’s the hill they’ll die on. No prisoners. No compromises. No mercy.
Peaches Taylor and Eli King are going to war.
**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**
“So,
assuming we decide to do this—and that’s a big if—then who do you want to sleep with first?”
“Eli,”
she said with a little too much enthusiasm. “I’d really like to fuck Eli. But
only once you’re done with him. I follow the code.”
I
scrunched my nose at her. “I’m not interested in Eli. He smells like dirty
feet.”
“Yeah,
I don’t believe that,” she said, reaching for the bottle again. “If you weren’t
interested, you wouldn’t hang out with him so much.”
“I
hang out at Gus’s house, which is where Eli happens to live,” I corrected her. “Between
that and work, I see him a lot. Doesn’t mean I like it.”
“Does
that mean I can have him?” she asked, perking up.
I
frowned. For some reason, I didn’t care for that idea. Don’t think about it.
Thinking is almost always a bad thing.
“Okay,
whatever,” I said. “Just be sure to use like, six condoms. Because he’s
probably got all kinds of cooties.”
McKayla
gave a high-pitched squeal.
“You’re
amazing, Peaches. I love you!” she said gleefully, raising the bottle for a
drink. But instead of swallowing, she lowered it, glee replaced by grief. “Oh,
this is the worst. How could something so terrible happen in such a beautiful
moment?”
“What?”
She
tilted the bottle upside down between us. Nothing came out.
“The
tequila disappeared.”
“How
did that happen?”
“Someone
must’ve grabbed it while I was distracted. Then they drank all of if before
putting it back in my hand, all without me ever noticing…”
I
pictured Indiana Jones swapping out a bag of sand for treasure, and a snorting
laugh escaped. McKayla shot me a dirty look. “Don’t make fun of me. It could’ve
happened.”
“Yeah.
Definitely the most likely explanation.”
She
sniffed. “Doesn’t matter what happened to the booze. We need to focus on what’s
actually important—finding another bottle. Fast. Otherwise, we’re at risk of
sobering up. That’s not okay.”
“Once
again, very hard to argue with your logic.”
“Exactly,”
she said, nodding slowly. “Let’s go get more tequila.”
Standing
up turned out to be a lot harder than I’d expected. My left leg had fallen
asleep, and I’d been sitting on something sticky. Not only that, but by the
time I completed the process, I couldn’t quite remember why I’d needed to get
up in the first place.
Fortunately,
the music was good, and people were starting to dance. Not only that, I loved
dancing. Always had. And now there was a dance floor right in front of me when
I needed it most.
Joanna Wylde started her writing career in journalism, working in two daily newspapers as both a reporter and editor. Her career has included many different jobs, from managing a homeless shelter to running her own freelance writing business, where she took on projects ranging from fundraising to ghostwriting for academics. During 2012 she got her first Kindle reader as a gift and discovered the indie writing revolution taking place online. Not long afterward she started cutting back her client list to work on Reaper’s Property, her breakout book. It was published in January 2013, marking the beginning of a new career writing fiction. Joanna lives in the mountains of northern Idaho with her family.
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