Neo's Strength (Devil's Riot MC: Originals Book 8), стр. 2

Trigger Warning

This content is intended for mature audiences only. It contains material that may be viewed as offensive to some readers, including graphic language, dangerous and sexual situations, murder, rape, and extreme violence.

Proceed with caution. This book does entail several scenes that may very well be a trigger to some.

Also, tissues are a must with other scenes.

Not for the faint at heart.

If you don’t like violence and cannot handle certain subjects, then this is not a book you’ll want to read.

Playlist

Playlist

Leave Me Alone – Tucker Beathard

Memory I Don’t Mess With – Lee Brice

If I’m Bein’ Honest – Chase Rice

Cry For Help – Struggle Jennings & Brianna Harness

Stay With Me – In Flames

Inner Strength

Strength comes from within

Look deep inside

You’ll find it

Nothing can bring you down

Unless you allow it to do so

You’re strong in the light

Even strong in the darkness

Long as you let that strength keep you up

No one can take it away

You control what happens in the future

Use your voice

Speak up

Bring to life what is always there

Deep within your soul

Inner strength is all you need

To make it through the hardship of this life

~ E.C. Land

Prologue

Neo

Age 15

Standing on the sidewalk, tears streaming down my face as medical personnel come out of my house. The wind whips its cold breeze around yet I’m numb to the chill.

“I’m sorry, son,” Detective Rylan says coming to stand in front of me. I knew who he was as he knew me. He’d been called to our house on more than one occasion.

He wasn’t just any cop around here doing his job. No, he was my dad’s brother, my uncle. I depended on him for as long as I can remember to help me with my mom. Nothing was the same after dad was killed in a drive-by in retaliation for a case he’d been working. He’d gotten his guy and the next day he was dead.

“Why did she do it?” I ask my gaze focused on the gurney being wheeled out of the house with a black body bag on top.

I don’t understand what was so wrong in her life she couldn’t stand to stay here.

I was her son and she left me.

Now I was alone without either of my parents.

“Son, you’re too young to understand, but one day you’ll understand your mom never had it easy and the demons finally won a war that she’d been battling for a very long time. Your dad, he was the love of her life, the one who pieced her back together again when she was broken beyond repair.”

“Shouldn’t she love me as much? I’m her son,” I mutter, anger starting to set in. How could she be selfish and take herself away from me when I needed her the most. I’m fifteen. I just got my driver’s permit. I don’t know what I’ll do now.

“I know, Nate, I know. But there’s nothing we can do anymore. Come on, I’ll take you to my place. We’ll figure everything else out tomorrow,” he mutters, lowering his head with a slight shake.

Figure everything else out tomorrow? There’s nothing to figure out, she’s gone, and I’m left with zero parents. With me being fifteen and still in school, I can’t just go out and get a job to support myself.

Besides that, as cool as my uncle is I’m sure he doesn’t want me cramping his style. He’s a bachelor living it up as my mom would joke.

Nodding to my uncle, I take a deep breath. My life might have just changed in a way I didn’t want but at the end of the day I knew this day would come.

My uncle guides me to his car and opens the door for me.

“Don’t worry, Nate. I’ll be here for you. I’m not going to leave you stranded in the dark of days. I got your back,” he states reassuringly.

If only that were true.

Five days later we put my mother in the ground. My uncle was shot while on duty leaving him immobilized from the waist down the day after. He might still be alive but he’s not the same man he was before.

For the longest time I always thought I’d grow up to be a cop like my dad and uncle. Not anymore.

Leaving the hospital this last time I walk right into a man wearing a cut. I knew he was part of a motorcycle club right away. My dad had been friendly with the Devil’s Riot though he always warned me to stay away from them.

“Watch where you’re going, kid,” he mutters, reaching out to steady me as I stumble backwards.

“Sorry, sir,” I stammer, nervous by being in this man’s presence.

“You alright?” he asks, furrowing his brow while taking me in. “You here with someone?”

Shaking my head, I lower my gaze to the ground. I have no one. Not anymore. My uncle told me to leave him be and don’t come back.

How great is that to hear when you just lost your mom a week ago?

“Name’s Bear, where you headed?”

Lifting my head, I glance up to look at the man standing in front of me. His name suits him. He’s a giant of a man with a burly beard.

“Uh, I don’t know. I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there.” I shrug.

“Huh, what’s your name, kid?”

“Nathan Rylan.”

“You Rylan’s boy?” he asks, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah,” I say, confused as to which Rylan he’s talking about.

“You look just like him. Sorry about your old man. Heard about your momma and uncle,” Bear grumbles sincerely.

“Ugh, thank you,” I mutter, unsure of what else to say.

“Look since your uncle’s hurt, and you seem lost as