There’s a lot of stuff happening in these River Reapers MC books, and it’s been over a year since I published A Disturbing Prospect, so you’re bound to forget something. Shoutout to Molli Moran for suggesting I put a recap in the beginning of A Risky Prospect; I decided to do it as a blog post instead, that way it doesn’t take up any space in the book. (Per Amazon’s TOS, bonus content can only take up no more than 10 percent of your ebook.)
Before You Read
Take a look at potential triggers, and check out the glossary of biker terms. There’s also a handy character list.
Previously on the River Reapers MC series…
Cliff was released from prison, but didn’t have anywhere to go. Thanks to terrible prison wages, he’d earned exactly enough for his cab and one night in a shitty motel. There was only one person he could call, but it was a long shot: his cousin Lucy. Would she even remember him? And if she did, would she want to talk to him?
It turned out that not only did Lucy remember him, but she was still grateful for what he did for her. She immediately offered to come down to Pennsylvania from Connecticut and pick him up. She planned on going by herself, but her adopted younger sister Olivia insisted on tagging along. She could use the break from her mundane life as a college student. In just a few months, she’d be graduating and officially a social worker. She had to live it up while she still could. Not too much, though—they almost missed their train!
When Olivia and Cliff meet, they’re instantly attracted to each other.
And then suddenly we’re in Lewisburg, and the Escalade pulls up in front of the entrance to a Days Inn. A man paces out front, his hands shoved into the pockets of his coat. Long brown hair that’s nearly black frames his face, and he’s got a beard, so I can’t really make out his features. But he’s big.
Not in a heavy way. He’s tall and broad. Even with that bulky hand-me-down coat, I can tell he’s built. It’s like I’m psychic and imagined him into being. Biting my lip, I stifle a giggle. For all I know, he’s really ugly and has a beer gut.
It really has been too long since I’ve gotten laid.
Lucy pays the Uber guy, we grab our luggage, and then my sister and I are standing in front of the motel with Cliff.
“They kicked you out?” she asks him.
He looks up, and depthless brown eyes meet hers. Despite the massive amounts of fur on his face, he’s handsome.
Hot, even.
There’s a scar next to his eyebrow that’s more like a pocked hole. It looks like someone bludgeoned him with a big rock. They probably did. But the rest of his face is intact—no teardrop tattoos or anything like that. His eyes are surprisingly soft and kind. When he smiles at Lucy, it lights up his whole face.
Olivia, Cliff, and Lucy spend a few days in Lewisburg while Cliff gets himself transferred to a probationary officer in Connecticut. Then they’re on the road again—or at least, they should be.
To celebrate, they go out for drinks. Olivia and Cliff have a few shots too many and get skin to skin in the back of someone else’s station wagon. Olivia swears to herself that it’ll never happen again. After all, they’re practically cousins.
But Cliff can’t shake lively, lovely Olivia from his head. It’s been 20 years since he set eyes on a woman, so maybe he’s just crushing on the idea of her. Or maybe it’s something more.
Cliff’s new P.O. sets him up with a job, and on his first day, he realizes he and Olivia have even more in common: they’re both working for a motorcycle club. Neither of them want the other there, and they both keep trying to change each other’s mind.
“They sell drugs, Olivia. This is just a front.” And fuck knows what else they do. I don’t say that, though. “This isn’t a good place for you.”
The relaxed woman in front of me morphs before my eyes. Her eyelids droop so that only slits of her pupils, irises, and whites are showing. Her lip curls. Nostrils flaring, she stabs the cigarette into the air in front of me. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Look, I’m not trying to be a dick, Livvie—”
“And you don’t get to call me that.” She sucks in a long drag. “The only way this is going to work, Cliff, is if you do you and I do me. We agreed: family reunions. That means you don’t stomp around acting like my fucking daddy.”
I rub my temples. “So you don’t mind working in a place that sells coke?”
The dirty look she tosses me is simultaneously condescending. “What the fuck do you think I do behind this bar? Pour beer for shit tips?”
Oh, Olivia. I look down at my drink, at the cigarette in my hands. I need something a lot stronger. It’s only my first shift and everything is spiraling out of what little equilibrium I had. “You’ll go down with them,” I say. “Do you want that?”
She rolls her eyes. “I want to pay off my student loans. The most I can possibly hope to make is $40,000 a year in this fucking state. I’ll be lucky if I can land a job with DCF. I don’t want to start off in debt right out of the gate.”
“What is it you’re going for?” I pictured her as doing something more adventurous, not sitting in a goddamn state office all day.
Stubbing out her cigarette, she settles those brown eyes on mine. “I want to be a social worker. I wanna help kids in the system.” The unsaid remainder of that sentence hangs between us: So they don’t end up like you.
“Don’t you think,” I say slowly, “that it’ll be a little hard to get a nice state job if you’re convicted of selling drugs?”
“Fuck you,” she lobs at me.
Grinning, I stand. “You already did.” I walk away, the whiskey soaking into me. Not in an out of control way. My veins swim, limbs relaxed. This head is clear.
But Olivia has even bigger problems. A guy from her photography class just won’t take no for an answer. She lets him down gently, but something about him seems off.
Meanwhile, Cliff learns that his father Bastard was the MC’s President. His mother Ruth shielded him from the MC until she died, so he was naive to much of who and what Bastard was.
Until he caught Bastard molesting Lucy.
Cliff killed Bastard and went to prison for his murder. The MC’s current President Ravage explains that he and some of the other members wanted to kill Bastard themselves, but club protocol meant they had to vote. Unfortunately, the vote was split right down the middle, meaning none of the members could take any action against Bastard. Cliff, Ravage explains, did them a favor, so if he wants to join the MC, he’s welcome to be a Prospect.
It’s a lot to take in, but Cliff ultimately decided to become a Prospect because, apart from Lucy, he has no family. The MC could be his family, if he lets it.
Olivia starts noticing odd things: first her roommate Esther’s car gets keyed, then someone tries to kill her kitten. She approaches Donny, the MC’s Enforcer, for a gun—just in case. She’s been hurt by too many men in the past, and it can’t hurt to err on the side of caution.
It all comes to a head when her classmate Eli makes a copy of her apartment key and breaks in. Thankfully, she’s prepared, but she wasn’t prepared to fight him. After a close call, she takes Eli out with a shot to the hand and then to the head. The only thing she didn’t prepare for was the aftermath. She can’t call the cops. Instead, she calls Cliff.
Cliff calls the MC, and with Enforcer Donny and Sergeant-at-Arms Beer Can, he dismembers and disposes of the body. Eli can’t hurt Olivia anymore, but she’s still in a state of shock. It shouldn’t feel so good to take a life. Cliff knows exactly what she means.
MC President Ravage is both irritated with and proud of both Cliff and Olivia for the way they handled things. He reveals to Olivia that her father was Cliff’s father’s Vice President. The club is her birthright, too, if she wants it. The MC offers her a position as a Prospect, and patches Cliff in as a full member.
All that’s left is for Olivia and Cliff to decide whether they should be together. Neither of them can deny the pull they feel toward each other. Besides, the couple that hides a body together stays together, right? They decide to give it a go, for now…
The story continues in A Risky Prospect, Book 2 in the River Reapers MC series.
Elizabeth Barone 