Hammer's Pride by E.C. Land (brene brown rising strong TXT) 📕

and did what he had to do to get her out of the life she’d endured. By being with her, he knew what could possibly happen and that left my nephew and me both now without our family.

I won’t allow the same thing to happen to me. Closing my heart to anything and anyone is for the best. Emotions get in the way, and I’d prefer to be a coldhearted bastard than a man who has a weakness.

From here on out, I’ll live and breathe for this club. Taking care of my brothers is my number one priority now, and I’ll be damned if I lose anyone else.

Chapter One

Avery

Present Day

The alarm goes off, and I hit the snooze button while groaning. I sometimes hate having to get up at such an ungodly hour in the morning. But it’s a must. I don’t have but two people who work for me, and both of them don’t come in until later in the day.

Quinn has a kid to take care of and put on the bus and also works nights. There’s no way I could ask her to get off work at two in the morning and be at the coffee shop at four-thirty to prepare for when we open at five. She needs to be able to get some rest for herself; this is why I have her come in at eleven and work until closing.

Willow, she’s my other girl and is in school working on getting her degree. I have her come in at seven right before the mad rush of people coming in. And she works until two when she has to head to her classes. Then she spends the rest of her evenings studying.

So yeah, there’s no way I could ever ask either of them to open for me. They have their own priorities to take care of, and I won’t hold them back from doing what they have to to get them done.

No way.

I’ve been in their shoes, struggling to manage everything. It’s why I moved away from the toxic environment I’d been living in and started fresh here in this small yet not so small town in South Carolina. I opened Rise-N-Shine Coffee almost a year ago and learned quickly it is a profitable location due to the traffic that flows through here.

Some are farmers who come in wanting to grab a cup while heading to the feed and seed store down the street from me. Women come in before going to the hairstylist across the way from me. Then there’re the people that come in for the mad rush looking for their brew of the day. I supply anything from, I need a jolt to wake up all the way to the strongest you can get that will literally keep you up for days.

Oh, and I can’t forget about the couple of bikers that come in every so often. A lot of people shy away from them, sure they scare the hell out of me, but I’m not about to show my fear. I learned a long time ago to show no fear. That and to keep your head down. But when it comes to customer service, I make sure they leave satisfied with their order and want to come back for more. To me, it’s about the profit of each cup I sell, along with the pastries.

It’s why I have to be up at four to get to the coffee shop by four-thirty. I have everything ready to go the evening before; I simply have to get there and put them in the oven to bake them.

The alarm goes off again, and I know this time I have to get up. Otherwise, I’ll be late, and that won’t do. I work seven days a week, only closing early on Sundays in order to go get things I need to restock for the following week. This is a must-do, considering I go through a lot of stock each week, I have to replenish weekly. The good thing is the coffee shop is becoming even more of a hit, and I can afford to get more items to make sure I don’t run out. Best part, I get to spoil myself with takeout on Sundays.

With working so much, I don’t go out and party, nor do I go anywhere to eat. If anything, it’s to the grocery store then home. I buy myself the bare minimum of what I need to survive. I guess you can say I live and breathe my store, but oh well, it’s who I am these days.

Growing up in a rundown home with a family who kept sucking me dry tends to teach you to survive with as little as possible.

When I moved to get my fresh start, I did this to get away from all of them. My mom and dad are drug addicts, preferring to get their fix rather than taking care of their kids. I have two brothers and three sisters. Out of all of them, I swear I’m the only one who decided to never join the bandwagon of booze and drugs.

My two brothers, let’s just say it’s not been good. Adam, my oldest brother, is in jail right now due to his stupidity. He’d been busted for stealing a car. My other brother, Aidan, is a part of one of the local gangs, and I don’t see good things in his future. He’ll either end up dead or right next to my brother, Adam.

Andrea, Aubrey, and Alexandra, well, they simply can’t keep their legs closed. They think this is how they need to get through life. Andrea, by the time she turned eighteen, already had a kid and was pregnant with the second one; now she’s on baby number four. She at least is with the same man even if that man is five years older and a deadbeat. Aubrey decided she’d get into the porn business, but not any kind