Burning Daylight (A Devil's Cartel MC Series #2) - Skyla Madi

ONE

Y A S M I N E

Damon Judge. I heard the roar of his lonesome motorcycle before I saw him speed down the main strip heading out of town. The thundering of his bike sent goosebumps skittering over the surface of my skin and stirred warning deep in my belly. I knew better than to pull my white Ford Fiesta away from the curb and follow such a dangerous man, but I was desperate. I’d chased every lead and exhausted every option, and if the police wouldn’t help me get my son back, I was going to ask the one person who could.

I didn’t know Damon Judge, but I knew of him. He was a criminal, a murderer, president of Exeter’s Devil’s Cartel Motorcycle Club, and I was certain he was the one responsible for the disappearance of Jonathan Laurent, our previous mayor. But despite everything Judge was involved in, and everything he’d done, I suspected he wasn’t an unreasonable man. It was obvious with the line-up of men and women he allowed into Exeter’s DCMC chapter. Across the states, The Devil’s Cartel MC were notorious for the ways they regarded women, the LGBTQ community, and people of color. They were treated worse than dirt under their boots, but the Devil’s Cartel Exeter chapter was the only place you’d find female, gay, and colored members, and that was all thanks to Judge. He was a businessman too, that I knew, but I had no money and no power to offer him. My only plan was to appeal to Judge’s paternal instincts since it’s public knowledge he lost his daughter to domestic violence.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued to follow Judge’s taillight out of town. Nervous, sharp-winged butterflies nibbled my stomach lining at the thought of asking him for help to get my son, Nicolás, back.

At the age of five, Nicolás was as tough as nails, but his father knew how to break him. I knew Nicolás could heal any physical wounds his father inflicted. It was the emotional torture he stood no chance against. My ex-husband knew how to climb inside Nicolás’s sweet, beautiful soul and tear him apart. He knew how to make him feel like there was something wrong with him, even though I spent every day of the last five years telling him how perfect he was. I swiped at a hot tear that dripped onto my cheek. I hadn’t felt this useless in a long time. This fight had cost me everything—my job, my house, and the only family I had left. I’d experienced the worst of life, so chasing a biker down a dark highway in the middle of the night didn’t seem so scary.

Judge rode for ages, into the thick of nothing. I followed at a safe distance, my speedometer indicating I was still going well above the limit. Nerves ate at my veins and my heart leapt into my throat every time he turned his head. He had to know I was following him. I hadn’t turned off my headlights and the only things out this way were trees, a river, and an abandoned fireworks shack. Sure enough, Judge pulled into the drive of the abandoned shack and got off his bike to walk into the thicket, heading toward the river. I knew I wouldn’t be able to follow him any further in my car, so I pulled up, turned it off, and trekked the rest of the way. As twigs and leaves crunched under my worn sneakers, I stretched the sleeves of my navy sweater over my knuckles and wrapped my arms around my torso. I was more nervous than cold since I was intruding on something private, something Judge couldn’t do in town, or with any of his men. There was every chance he’d shoot me and throw my body in the river. I’d be found within days, of course, but no one would investigate. Thanks to my ex-husband, I was the town’s resident nutcase and everyone avoided me like the plague. He painted me as an anxious, suicidal wreck who had PTSD issues and paid sexual favors to a long list of bad, bad men. Everything he said was a lie, but he was an expert with his brush, and he stained my reputation with every stroke.

The thicket thinned out and I strode cautiously toward the dry riverbank, glancing left and right. It was quiet, too quiet for a peaceful night like this. I straightened my posture and