Steel & Jenna (Via Daemonia Motorcycle Club #14)

Chapter 1

Jack Duncan raised his hand to wrap his knuckles against the flimsy metal screen door.

The barrier provided no protection at all and was so old that the hinges were mere swings away from giving out.

The finer things in life were nowhere to be found in these parts, even something as commonplace as a working door.

The residents of Four Corners Olympic Mobile Village were barely scraping by.

Some, like Kathleen Mallory, were struggling but trying her best to make an honest living for herself and her son.

Others, like Butch Sogol, refused to take responsibility for his life and blamed others for his failures and circumstances.

Then there were those who had simply given up and resigned themselves that this was their shit life and made no efforts to improve it.

Jack refused to be the latter.

It was why he was out here in the fall chill with the second-hand lawnmower he’d found abandoned on the side of the road, asking his neighbors if he could mow their lawn for some spare dollars.

The most he’d been given was five dollars, the least was a quarter. But he didn’t care. Every penny counted. Every cent went to getting himself and Lilly out of this fucking place.

Two years, four months, twenty-two days. That’s how long before he was eighteen and could take his sister away. He didn’t care what it took, how many paper routes or how much gas he had to siphon from his neighbors’ car tanks. He was getting Lilly out of this place.

It hadn’t even been a year since their mother walked out on them.

His parents had had enough arguments about whether John Duncan Sr. was Lilly’s father that Jack himself had started to doubt her paternity.

In truth, other than Lilly’s eyes, which they got from their mother, there was not much similarity between them as siblings.

Jack couldn’t really blame his mom if her infidelity was true.

Maybe she’d fallen in love with another man and saw a way out for herself and her son.

Or maybe she just had loose morals when it came to her body.

Jack didn’t know. He honestly didn’t care anymore.

She’d left—and she hadn’t taken them with her.

Even if she had to leave him behind, Jack could have understood.

He could have endured, knowing that his mom and sister were safe and out of John Duncan’s reach.

His father had many faults, but his most dangerous was that he was a drunk.

Due to this, he couldn’t hold down a job for more than a few weeks or months.

As the years went by, and his father’s pink slips continued to accumulate, his drinking started to affect his anger.

Jack had been ten the first time he witnessed his father strike his mother. No ten year old should see that, let alone hear the degrading names his father shouted at his mother. As the abuse continued, getting more and more frequent, Jack had tried to intervene, but he was no match for his father.

The first time his father had broken his arm, Jack had lied and said he’d fallen off of his skateboard—even though he didn’t own a skateboard. As his mom drove him to the emergency room, she’d made Jack promise that he’d never step between her and his father again.

But she’d also made him swear that he’d always stand between his father and Lilly.

His mother had not been innocent of wrongdoings. Jack knew she’d done her best, but there was still a part of him that hated her for leaving a fourteen year old and a six year old behind to fend for themselves.

When he’d first gotten home to find his father passed out drunk and no sign of his mom, he’d honestly thought his father had killed her.

Lilly had cried silently against Jack’s chest for weeks, asking where their mom was.

But Jack had no answers for her. What hurt even more was that Jack knew Lilly knew she couldn’t cry loudly, like a normal six year old would.

It wasn’t right. No six year old should be afraid to cry for fear of her father hearing her.

Nearly two months after their mom had left, she came back. Jack’s elation at seeing her had been twofold: she wasn’t dead! And she was here to take them away.

He was only right on one account.

She hadn’t returned for her children but for a baggie she’d left behind. Jack hadn’t understood what it had been then, but he knew now what that white powder had been.

And just like that, Fiona Duncan was out of their lives for good. If she could take drugs over her own children, Jack didn’t want anything to do with her.

He was Lilly’s protector now.

Every penny earned was another penny towards the life he would one day give her. A life free of tiptoeing around their father, of skipped meals and dirty clothes…

Of being called ‘trailer trash’, ‘white trash’, or whatever else mean kids sniped at them.

It was a fine line between providing for her now and saving up for her future.

Lilly needed new shoes and eventually a new winter coat.

She was entering first grade and still needed school supplies.

He was going to need to get to one of three thrift stores within walking distance of their house before school started on Monday.

Yet another reason he needed to get paid.

Jack banged his knuckles against the metal of the screen door again. “Mr. Barlow!” He hit the door harder. “Mr. Barlow, it’s Jack Duncan. I finished mowing your lawn.”

He’d also used up the last of his siphoned gasoline to do it.

He was going to need to sneak out tonight and get more.

Depending on how much Mr. Barlow paid him, it might be his.

But the easiest targets were the massive, souped-up pickup trucks that could usually be found around Butch’s trailer.

He just had to be careful that they weren’t diesel.

Jack crinkled his nose. He didn’t enjoy stealing, but he also couldn’t take Lilly to a standard after-school job.

It was bad enough that she went with him on his paper route.

He’d found a wagon at a junkyard that was big enough to hold the newspapers and her as she slept.

After stealing some supplies from his high school’s shop class, Jack had been able to modify the handle so he could attach it to his bike and take her with him.

Guilt seized his heart and made his stomach churn.

He hated taking her with him, waking her up at four in the morning, getting her to the bathroom and then into his wagon.

But what choice did he have? He couldn’t leave her alone in case their father woke up.

More than once since their mom had left, John Duncan had threatened to ‘get rid’ of Lilly.

He refused to raise another man’s daughter, as he was convinced she was.

Jack couldn’t risk coming home one day to find Lilly was gone.

The worst was on bad weather days. Once, he’d stolen the keys to his father’s beater and left Lilly inside while he did his route so she wasn’t out in the torrential rain.

Even now, she was sitting on their front lawn across the street waiting for him. Jack glanced behind himself to see her playing patiently and quietly with her doll.

Turning back to the door, his shoulders slumped. A little girl deserved more than a single doll to play with. If he was able to find everything she needed to start school, maybe there would be enough left over for a new doll.

Well, not a new doll. But a new-to-her doll.

One day, when he had a real job and had gotten them a house of their own, he’d buy her a real new doll.

Even if she was an adult by then.

Frustrated that he was losing daylight, Jack pounded on the door even harder. He knew the grumpy old man was inside because he’d just talked to him before starting on his lawn. Fucking hell, was the man trying to stiff him?

Maybe Jack needed to start taking money up front.

Damn it. He needed that money to be able to get Lilly’s school supplies.

Otherwise, he had to get it from his stash and he couldn’t do that with his father in the trailer.

If John Duncan had any idea that there was a thousand dollars hidden in Lilly and Jack’s room, he’d throw a fit—and then he’d drink it all without a care that his children needed that money.

Jack didn’t care that he was wearing jeans that were too short on him or shoes with a hole in the sole. He needed to take care of Lilly. Every penny was for her.

God, sometimes he hated his life. But if he went down that rabbit hole of pity, he’d never come back out. He had to rise above. For her. Lilly deserved the best life he could give her. She deserved more than cold meals, hand-me-down clothes, and a single toy.

Frustrated, Jack kicked at the door. “I know you’re in there, Mr. Barlow! You owe me for mowing your lawn!”

Still nothing.

Shit.

Damn.

Fuck.

It wasn’t like Jack could break inside and steal the money. Mr. Barlow was the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

Looking over his shoulder, he stared at Lilly across the street.

Her blonde hair shimmered in the afternoon light like sunshine. He had fifteen dollars in his pocket. It was going to have to be enough.

“Asshole!” Jack shouted at the door before storming off of the concrete stoop.

Jack dragged his mower away, careful not to catch the blades on the gravel as he headed across the street.

The worst thing he could do would be to ruin a blade in his anger.

Vernon Charmouth was expecting him tomorrow before noon.

Maybe he’d be able to get back into town the next day if they didn’t get everything Lilly needed today.

After using a bike lock to secure his mower, he grabbed his bike and walked it across the lawn to where Lilly sat in the high grass. Jack knelt down next to her.

She looked up at him with the same gunmetal-gray eyes that stared back at him every time he looked in a mirror. But her smile gave her eyes a light that his did not possess.

“Ready, Jackie?”

He smiled down at her. “Ready.”

He helped her stand. She was wearing a long dress and flats, which wasn’t ideal on his bike, but they didn’t have a choice.

Her pants that he’d cut into shorts for her over the summer no longer fit her.

Unlike Jack, who was tall and lean, Lilly had a pudgy little body.

While society might look down on her for not being a beanpole, especially as a girl, Jack felt a sense of pride when he saw her.

He might have missed some meals this summer, but she’d been fed.

They walked down the road, Lilly skipping more than walking as Jack pushed his bike. The gravel road in the trailer park was not ideal for riding a bike on, especially when he had to ride with his little sister on the handlebars. They would walk to the main drag and then start out on the bike.

Jack didn’t like when Lilly rode on his handlebars. Truth was, the wagon would only get in the way in town and it wasn’t like they were going to be purchasing enough to need it.

Fifteen dollars.

She needed shoes and clothes. That did not include the list of supplies the school had sent for a starting first grader. He had the full list in his wallet but he knew the basics she would need. A backpack, pencils, crayons, ruler…

Not to mention his own list. Jack had gotten a lot from pilfering the school’s trash cans at the end of last school year. Students threw away perfectly good supplies because they were secure in the knowledge that their parents would buy them new supplies in the fall.

Jack was going to need to be careful with certain supplies. It wasn’t like the thrift store sold #2 pencils. He wasn’t going to have any choice but to buy some things new.

And new was expensive.

“Hold on,” he told Lilly, even though she knew the drill. Jack couldn’t remember the last time his father had given them a ride anywhere or offered to help them or even said something nice to them. There hadn’t even been a question about his father supplying them for the new school year.

But that was fine with Jack. He didn’t need his father. He didn’t need anyone. He had Lilly, and that was enough for him.