Hard As Steel: A Hard Ink/Raven Riders Crossover (1001 Dark Nights) Read Online Free PDF

Bunny.”
    “You’re welcome, Bunny. I’m Jess,” she answered, and then she mentally kicked herself for revealing her real name. Maybe it didn’t matter, or maybe it did. Either way, that was the exact moment it occurred to Jess that she’d pretty much broken every one of Ike’s rules in about a fifteen-minute time span.
    Oh, shit .
     

Chapter 4
    Ike unlocked the front door then scooped up the bags of groceries he’d dropped at his feet. Hands full, he made his way inside and headed straight for the kitchen.
    “Yo, Jess. I’m back,” he called, settling the bags on the counter. He inhaled to call her name again when he noticed something that shot ice through his veins—the back door stood open. “Fuck!” He darted out the door and onto the small back porch, but the yard was empty. “Jess!” he shouted. “Jessica!”
    Sonofafuck .
    Ike didn’t know whether to be terrified that something had happened to her or angry that she’d left the house, and the combination of both emotions flowing through him was like a noxious, dangerous cocktail that had taken him from sober to fucked up in two point five seconds.
    He tore back into the house and hauled ass up the loft stairs—just to be sure. Empty. As was the rest of the house. On the back porch again, his brain raced as his eyes scanned. The only thing back there was the trail to the lake.
    The low growl of a motorboat’s engine sounded in the distance. And though it was probably a ridiculous reaction, dread settled over Ike like a second skin, but he was too used to worst-case scenarios actually coming true.
    His feet were in motion before he’d made the conscious decision to move. Partway down the trail, the surface smoothed out to mostly dirt, and that was when Ike noticed the shoe prints. He slowed to a walk. Just one set. Small foot size. Which meant… He was gonna kill her. He really fucking was. Right after he pulled her into his arms and made sure she was okay.
    Ike ran the rest of the way into the clearing, his gaze quickly settling on a grouping of people down at the Aldersons’ old dock. And there, in the middle of the group, was a very petite woman with black hair wearing all black.
    That was his girl.
    Well, not his.
    Whatthefuckever.
    He took off in the direction of the dock. Before he even got there, he made out the identity of the others—Doc, Rodeo, Bunny, Sam, and Ben—all members of the Ravens’ family in one way or another. Ike’s brain scrambled for a rational explanation for the scene in front of him, but he was too fucking angry and worried and worked the hell up. Rational might as well have been a foreign country.
    “Hey, Ike,” Doc called, giving a wave from where he stood at the end of the pier. Tall and wiry, Frank “Doc” Kenyon had shoulder-length white-gray hair on his head and his face. He was the club president’s grandfather and half-owner of the compound that included the Ravens’ clubhouse and the racetrack. Dare Kenyon, the club prez and Ike’s good friend, owned the other half and would inherit everything when Doc decided he was done with this world and everyone in it. Some days, that seemed like it might happen sooner rather than later because the old man’s hip and knee replacement a few years back gave him all kinds of difficulties and—worst of all—kept him from riding much anymore. Ike was pretty sure he’d want to go before reaching that day, so he couldn’t really blame the guy.
    Ike slowed to a walk as his boots hit the wooden planks. He held his hand toward Doc’s but his eyes were all for Jess…who was soaking wet. What in the ever-living hell? “Doc,” he said, giving the older man a quick handshake. He moved past Doc just as quick. “Hey, Ike, wait…”
    But the roar between Ike’s ears was too loud for listening. He marched right into the group of people crowded around the end of the dock and bore down on Jess. Clipped, angry words spilled out of him. “You want to tell me why