Changing Tides Read online

  Copyright © 2018 by K A Sands.

  Changing Tides is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. All Trademarks mentioned are acknowledged by the author.

  Published in the United Kingdom by K A Sands.

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Please contact the author at [email protected] regarding any enquiries.

  Cover Image – fxquadro (Stock image)

  Cover Design – K A Sands. Image Copyright © 2018 by K A Sands.

  Edits, Proofreading & Formatting – DeditS.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Changing Tides - K A Sands

  Also by K A Sands

  Dedication

  Playlist

  Shaun

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Ryder

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Shaun

  Ayden

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek. Stella, Book #2.5, The Razer Series.

  Stella

  Acknowledgements

  Also by K A Sands

  Connect with K A Sands

  Changing Tides - K A Sands

  Also by K A Sands

  Taylor, Book #0.5, The Razer Series.

  Calling Time, Book #1, The Razer Series.

  Ryder, Book #1.5, The Razer Series.

  Coming Soon

  Stella, Book #2.5, The Razer Series. (23rd July)

  Descent. M/M. Book #1. Duet. (August)

  Dedication

  “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

  And next year’s words await another voice.

  And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

  T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets.

  For Lesley.

  Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend - Albert Camus

  I love that I have you to share the corner x

  Playlist

  Low - Greyson Chance

  9 Crimes - Damien Rice

  Human - Rag ‘n’ Bone Man

  Gun in my Hand - Dorothy

  The Mess I Made - Parachute

  Dark Times - The Weekend/Ed Sheeran

  Polaroid - Imagine Dragons

  Let You Down - NF

  Oceans - Seafret

  Strip Me - Gavin Mikhail

  I Am - James Arthur

  Ashes - Grace Carter

  HIM - Sam Smith

  Low Life - X Ambassadors

  Don’t Let Me Get Me - James Gillespie

  Sorry - Aquilo

  Lonely Together - Avicii/Rita Ora

  Shaun

  “You still want him dead?”

  “That’s what I said. Yes.” She glanced around the semi dark alleyway, her blonde hair catching in the street lights.

  “Look, bitch.” I closed the distance between us. “I get my cock wet and sell you some drugs. I ain’t no contract killer. What the fuck do you think this is? How many times do I have to tell you?”

  “You get your cock wet?” Blue eyes pierced me, her tone disgusted.

  “What the fuck did you think I was doing?”

  “I thought we were more, baby.” She smiled at me sweetly, tapping her blood red fingernails against the button of my jacket, the tap, tap, tap too loud.

  My gut churned at those words. “Like fuck.” She was a hole, a high class fucking dirty one, but she was still just a hole. “Look, lady. You were good for a shag, suck cock like a fucking pro and I lined my pockets with some cash while we were at it. But this...” I thought back to how many times I’d banged her and cringed.

  Too many.

  “The money’s in the envelope.” She tried to hand me the guaranteed jail sentence again.

  “Are you fucking thick?” I swatted her hand away.

  “You’re refusing?” Hard lines crossed her forehead as the stupid woman glared at me.

  I took another step closer and pushed her hard against the brick wall, crushing my upper body against hers. Reaching down, I gripped her cunt, nudging my thigh between her legs. “Listen to me, and listen good, you fucked up bitch.” I grabbed a fistful of perfect blonde hair and tipped her head roughly. “The answer’s fucking no, you get me?”

  Squeezing her pussy harder still, I watched as she winced, her eyes finally giving away she wasn’t as in control as she’d thought. The woman was fearful, and she had every right to be. I wasn’t a good man to get on the wrong side of, not by any means.

  “Don’t come looking for me again or it will be more than my fat cock fucking you up the arse. You feel me?”

  Pulling at her hair until I was satisfied with the yelp of pain that came from her lips, I didn’t let go immediately, waited for my words to penetrate. She didn’t say anything but glared at me, like she wanted nothing more than to put me to ground. She could try. I yanked her head one last time before pushing away from her.

  “Stay the fuck away, bitch. I mean it.”

  Shaun

  One Year Later.

  “Look at the little prick.” Boomer jabbed me in the ribs, slanting his head over to the other side of the club where the Albanian, Lakmi, sat in a dark booth. It wasn’t so dark that I didn’t see him sitting with his legs splayed and his arms spread along the back of the booth like he was Lord of the fucking manner. “Thinks he’s Hugh Heffner!” My best friend laughed and tilted the bottle of beer to his mouth.

  “Well, if the fucker looks my sister’s way one more time, he ain’t gonna be anybody.” I ground my teeth together, anger prickling underneath my skin like tiny hot needles.

  The Albanian wannabe had been ogling Sophie’s arse every time she’d walked past him and impressed I fucking wasn’t. Boomer scrubbed at his jaw, his leg bounced up and down as he watched the table where Sophie was sitting with her friends. Yeah – dude wasn’t liking it either, he was just as protective as I was when it came to my baby sister.

  “Who’s the big guy with Sophie?” Boomer asked.

  I shrugged. “Some bloke from her class, fuck if I know. Said he wasn’t a problem,” I grumbled, hoping she hadn’t been talking shit to me so I’d lay off her. The guy was good looking, something I’d noticed more than a time or too, totally Sophie’s type.

  We were only sitting in this lame club for her. She wanted a night out and what princess Sophie w
anted, princess Sophie got. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, I just didn’t extend the same courtesy to many others besides Boomer. There I was, sitting drinking pissy beer, stewing about my lost drug sales, on a Friday night of all nights, and spoiling for a fight. I didn’t make mention of the fact that Charlie had told me to find an in at the club, the guys didn’t need to know. The place looked to be locked up tight and pushing Charlie’s shit through was going to be arduous work, if not damned near impossible. I wasn’t up for it, even if it had looked to be easy, this shit was wearing thin.

  Way to piss my boss off.

  “The big fucker?” Shorty asked. “Says he’s gay,” he switched his gaze to the Albanian.

  My head snapped around almost spitting my beer in his face. “Her mate is gay?” I laughed not believing it. “Yeah right. She’s yanking your dick, Shorty. Look at him.” I pointed over to where he was sitting, the dude was hard to miss; all muscle and height even sitting down. “No fucking way he’s tapping arse instead of pussy. Give’s a new meaning to the word bear, dontcha think?”

  Sizing him up, I wondered if Sophie had got it wrong. He didn’t look gay, not that there was any right or wrong way to look, but I’d never have guessed it. I could make out his dark eyes and his hair that wasn’t too long but had a bit of length to it, and a flash of gripping those strands in my fingers flitted through my head. I shifted my eyes from him, feeling uncomfortable.

  “Nah, she was serious,” he smirked, “his mate ain’t though.”

  I hadn’t even noticed the blonde bunny climbing into their booth who was now wrapped around the friend, I only noticed the muscled guy chewing Sophie’s ear off. I’d seen the pair around, in passing really – across the road, waving Sophie off – that kind of thing. They were mates from Uni, stood to reason I’d seen them together. Big guy was easy on the eye for sure, I’d had my fill a time or two, but I’d always tucked that little observation way to the back of my head. Straight guys were a one-way ticket to trouble, look but don’t touch. Knowing he was gay put a whole other reason for wanting him out of my head now.

  Watching as Sophie got up and went to the bar, my eyes caught sight of the little Albanian turd running a hand over his crotch as he watched her too.

  Fucking moron – arse kicking time.

  Shoving the beer bottle down on the table with a hard clunk, I snagged Boomer’s attention, pushing to move out of the booth. As I slapped on his arm I glanced up again and saw some skanky bar fly climb on to Lakmi’s lap, straddling him, skirt hiked over the globes of her perky arse to the point you could almost see what she’d had for lunch. Cringing at the sight, Boomer laughed and ogled her. Lucky fucker, she just saved him a trip to the ER. Relaxing back into the booth, I ignored whatever Shorty was gassing about, him and Boomer were like two grannies at a social club when they were tanked up on shit. Tonight was no exception. Sighing, I twirled my bottle on the table, bored with it all.

  My attention was drawn back to Sophie’s table, the sexy as fuck guy catching my eye. He must have felt brave for he didn’t look away. Shifting in my seat, the awkwardness was foreign to me. The pants tightening – not so much. He gave me a dirty little smirk before Sophie blocked my view. Laughing to myself, the words cock block had never been truer. Served me right, I did it to her every chance being her brother and all, only fair she reciprocated. Discretely tugging at my half stiff cock going on under the table, I grabbed for another swig of beer. Was going to be a long arsed fucking night. Groaning, letting my irritation be known, I watched Sophie get comfy across the way as the club started to fill up and the music got louder. Not what I would call Friday night fun.

  No way in fucking hell.

  Ayden

  The guy currently staring across the club at me – Gripp was his name – was well known for all the wrong reasons; drugs, violence, theft...a right regular one-man army who seemingly had no fear of the consequences when it came to his actions. I didn’t know much about him, had only heard vague rumours, how much of them true, I could only guess. I had a faint feeling Sophie likely knew who he was. All I saw when I looked at him was a criminal; a petty drug dealer wrapped up in an attractive, tattooed package who’d probably be good for a quick fuck or two if he was that way inclined. Nothing screamed loyalty or stability or anything really. Just a real good dirty fuck. He was some serious eye candy in that bad boy, couldn’t give a shit kind of way. A treat them mean, keep them keen kind of bloke, I’d bet. And those I didn’t entertain, they were too much trouble for a man like me.

  From what I could see though, he was on his best behaviour, no drug peddling in my dad’s club. What really had me grinding my teeth was the twat three booths over who wouldn’t take his eyes off Sophie, whether he was doing it to rattle me or her, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was the guy was going to end up with a sore fucking face if he wasn’t careful. The debate was – who’d land the first punch? I could see Jake’s hard jaw clench as his eyes flicked from the skeevy son-of-a-bitch to me, thinking the same thing. If he didn’t look elsewhere real soon, I was making a move to get his arse thrown out.

  There was eyeing someone up because you liked the look of them, then there was leering. This guy was leering, and I found it disgusting, his blatant fuck me looks pissed me off.

  Sophie climbed into the booth and my interest went back to her. Jake had tagged Suzie from one of our classes a few hours earlier, someone he’d hooked up with before. She was easy on the eye and from what I could remember, he liked the way she sucked his cock. The invitation to join them would come up later but I wasn’t out to score. Double tagging Jake’s conquests never had any appeal in the first place, my hands and mouth always ending up on him, my dick not far behind once a woman left. Not many women liked not being the centre of attention, no matter what they said. We hadn’t done it in a while, this being my first night out in ages. Getting off in a threesome wasn’t on my radar, I just wanted to enjoy a drink with my best friends.

  Not being a club kind of guy, I was surprised Sophie had managed to goad me into it, the woman was hard to say no to.

  We’d first met in Social Sciences class about a year ago when Jake and I had first moved down here for Uni. We’d ended up sitting together and the rest, as they say, is history. She’d been friendly, not pushy, and I loved the easy-going connection we shared. Neither one of us went into the nitty gritty about each other’s lives but we knew enough. Sophie had a rougher deal than I did for sure, but she never let anything hold her down. My hang ups were far less complex and involved only one person – my mother – yeah, I had ‘mummy issues.’ In contrast, it seemed Sophie lived in perpetual darkness and not much opportunity to escape her shit show of a life, yet she was a breath of fresh air.

  Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t feel an ounce of pity for the little twinkle-toed spitfire sitting next to me, she probably had bigger balls than I did. She’d said many a time she enjoyed the nature of our friendship too and had lamented more than once we were stuck with her whether we liked it or not. No hardship on my end. For the past few months something had cemented a bond between Sophie and me and not a day went by we didn’t talk to one another, in person or over the phone, it didn’t matter. To say I loved this girl was putting it mildly.

  I couldn’t bear the thought of being so far away from my dad, and Jake had nothing keeping him up North, he had those mummy issues too, so down we came. Best move my dad ever made, of course we were following him, being joined at the hip there was nowhere else we wanted to be. Jake and I normally spent the week in Brighton, then made a run for the country most weekends where the pace was quieter and the company better. Sophie had become an easy addition to our lives and often came with us, enjoying getting out of the city, enjoying a few days relief from her reality. She’d met most of my ever-growing family and I think she needed some of that in her life. Family.

  So yeah, Jake was up for a night out, Sophie had demanded, and the mention of my dad’s club, which she didn’t know, kind of sealed
the deal. I felt safe enough sitting getting shit faced while sober people I knew worked around me. Nothing would happen to me here. The thought of getting the shit kicked out of me for my sexual preferences always played heavy on my mind, it had happened on more than one occasion, and I was always wary getting drunk in a place full of people I didn’t know. I could hold my own, but never liked waking up with a hangover the next day and a sore jaw. And I refused to hide who I was, there was nothing wrong with being gay and fuck anyone who thought there was.

  “He doesn’t bite you know,” Sophie laughed as she came into my vision. Shit. I hadn’t realised I’d been gawping so hard at the tough guy, Gripp.

  “He won’t?” I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes at her.

  “Nah.” She took a drink of what looked like a coke and something. “He’s a pussy cat really.”

  Snorting, the beer fuzzed up my nose. Somehow, I doubted it, Lion more like, with a big fucking bite. “Right...I take it you know him, then?”

  “Yes. Just don’t kiss me,” she winked.

  “Unless you grew a dick overnight,” I eyeballed her sideways, “not a chance!”

  She expressed her amusement with a snort, then regarded me, seriousness settling over her features. “Anyone on your radar?”

  I shook my head and gulped down the almost flat beer, the thought of hooking up with someone the farthest thing from my mind. “What’s the point?” I shrugged and glanced away, my observation straying back to the other side of the club. He would have been right up my alley some months ago, but now...I just couldn’t be bothered. What had me running scared was a mystery. Maybe the man himself. Maybe my own insecurities. Who knew? I sure as fuck didn’t.

  She patted my hand like a mother hen. “You have to try some time, you know.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “just not tonight. Not ready for that complication, Sophie.”

  She took another drink from her glass then looked me square in the face, swiping under her eyes as she leaned into my neck, wiping tears that hadn’t quite fallen yet for some unknown reason. “You’re my friend, right?” she mumbled.