WAR & MAYHEM: 8Ball (Book 6) SAMPLE

CHAPTER 1

8BALL

You’d think I would have my life together by age 25. Well, I am 25 and I don’t have my life together. It felt like it was falling apart. Last year, Vinnie was sentenced to five years, taking the fall for the club, but that meant the police were off our backs for the time being.

Well, until they found something else on us all.

Then only recently, my mum and dad wanted a sit down meeting with everyone and told us some news that I wish wasn't true. Mum had cancer…

Out of all the things we had been through over the years and watching her and my father together, I never thought that she would get sick with cancer. I guess things like this did run in our family. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at a young age.

With everything going on lately, I hadn’t been feeling myself. My headaches were becoming really bad. My mood swings were all over the place and I was having dizzy spells throughout the day. Something felt off, like I had been forgetting something and I never forget things.

Rubbing my forehead, I couldn’t look any longer at the computer screen. My head was pounding with a headache and my hands were shaking. Leaning back in my chair and looking up at the dorm room ceiling, I knew I had to get out of here for a while. Pushing myself out of the chair, I stumbled for a moment before I recovered. I made my way out of my dorm door and through the clubhouse.

Most of the guys were either working or just hanging around. Thrasher was in his office, most likely going over paperwork for the club and our businesses. The prospects were cleaning the clubhouse. Normally, my mum would help out around the club, but Medusa has taken over for some time now.

I didn’t realize someone was calling my name as I was walking through the club. My mind was fuzzy, I just ignored the person.

In Australia, our winters got really cold, but never saw snow. Bunbury was a small coastal town, so we saw really cool thunderstorms roll in. The sky over the Australian coast churned with dark clouds, heavy with the promise of an impending storm, but that didn’t stop me from climbing off my motorcycle and walking down to the beach.

I stood there with my hands in my jean pockets as I stared out at the dark waves rolling in. As I stood there, my vision was becoming blurry. I sat on the sand, hoping that it just went away but it didn’t…

I hadn’t felt like this in ages.

That is when it dawned on me as another wave of dizziness hit me. I blinked hard as my vision was swimming. I patted my jeans and my vest pockets. Empty. My glucose tabs were on my bike and that was a good three minute walk past the sand dunes. I pushed myself to stand, but my legs left wrong, like they weren’t my own. My fingers curled stiffly. My heart was pounding too fast but I knew it wasn’t adrenaline.

It was coming - hard and fast.

I collapsed to my knees. The sand underneath me, the roar of the ocean mixing with the static in my skull. My body jerked - once, twice - then everything went tight. The world tilted, flashing in stuttering frames, like a glitch in my own hacked footage.

Somewhere in the distance, a voice called out…

BLAIRE POV

The wind howled across the near-empty beach, biting through my woolen coat as I walked along the shoreline, my red hair a wild blaze against the steel-grey sky. Winter had transformed the beach into a desolate place, stripped of tourists and sunbathers. The only sounds were the distant crash of waves and the occasional call of a seagull braving the wind.

I had come here to clear my mind, to let the cold air wash away the weight of the past few months.

When I turned my head to look ahead of me, that was when I saw him.

A man lay sprawled on the damp sand, his limbs twitching, his body caught in violent spasms. My heart kicked up. I sprinted toward him, knees sinking into the wet ground as I kneeled beside him. His leather jacket was streaked with sand. His face - pale, sweating - contorted in a way that sent a jolt of fear through me.

“Hey! Can you hear me?” I shouted over the wind, but he didn’t respond. His breathing was erratic, his eyes were flickering. I looked around his body and noticed he had rings on a few of his fingers, but what stood out the most was his diabetic bracelet.

‘Thomas: Type 1 Diabetes…’

My mind was racing. If his blood sugar was dangerously low, he needed medical attention fast. I didn’t have anything on me besides my keys and my phone. The tremors wracking his body grew weaker, but his breathing was shallower now, his skin clammy and unnervingly pale.

My hands were trembling as I pulled my phone out and called for an ambulance.

“Just hang on for me,” I told him.

“Triple Zero, what’s your emergency?”

“There’s a man - he’s collapsed on the beach. He is having a seizure, I think it’s diabetic! He’s barely responding, I-I don’t have anything to give him. Please, you need to hurry!” I yelled into the phone.

“Stay with him. An ambulance is on the way. Do you know if he’s breathing?”

“Yes, but it’s shallow, and he’s sweating a lot,” I said, wiping the moisture from his brow with my sleeve.

“You need to keep him on his side. Do not try to force anything into his mouth.”

Right. I sucked in a breath, steadying myself, and gently rolled him onto his side, Careful to keep his airway clear.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The wind was picking up, driving cold air against my face, sand whipping at my skin. I glanced toward the horizon, searching for any sign of flashing lights. Nothing.

“Come on,” I mumbled to myself, half to him, half to the universe. “Just hold on.”

The minutes stretched unbearably long. I kept talking to him, my voice firm but soothing. “Help is coming. You’re not alone. Just hang in there.”

His spasms had stopped, but his body was limp, his chest rising in weak, uneven breaths. Fear was crawling through me as I watched him. Then, finally a distant wail of sirens.

Relief flooded me. I turned to the parking lot, where red and blue lights flashed beyond the dunes. Moments later, paramedics in blue jackets sprinted across the sand towards me.

“He has a medical bracelet on his wrist. I think he’s in hypoglycemic shock. He was seizing but now he is barely breathing.” I told them. One was reaching for a glucose injection, while another checked the man’s pulse and vitals. I backed away, giving them space.

I watched as they worked swiftly, injecting him with glucagon, monitoring his response. A tense silence filled the space between them, the only sounds the rush of waves and the wind tearing through the dunes. Then, after what felt like an eternity, the man’s eyelids fluttered. His fingers twitched. His breathing grew stronger.

One of the paramedics gave a small nod. “His coming around.”

I let out a breath, I didn’t realize I was holding. The man’s gaze flickered open, unfocused at first, then locking onto her with hazy confusion. His voice was barely a whisper “Wha- what happened?”

I let out a breathless chuckle. “You scared the hell out of me, that’s what.”

The paramedics continued stabilizing him, preparing to load him into the ambulance. One turned to me. “You did good. If you hadn’t found him when you did…” she didn’t finish the sentence, but I understood what she meant. The biker had been minutes away from something much worse.

As the flashing lights disappeared down the road, the wind tangling my hair as I stood on the footpath. The storm finally rolled in at last, rain beginning to fall in cold, heavy drops. I pulled my coat tighter around my body and turned towards home.

Something told me, this was not the last time I’d see him…