by Hart, Eve R.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE Cable
CHAPTER TWO Cable
CHAPTER THREE Claire
CHAPTER FOUR Cable
CHAPTER FIVE Claire
CHAPTER SIX Cable
CHAPTER SEVEN Cable
CHAPTER EIGHT Cable
CHAPTER NINE Cable
CHAPTER TEN Claire
CHAPTER ELEVEN Cable
CHAPTER TWELVE Cable
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Claire
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Cable
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Cable
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Claire
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Cable
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Cable
CHAPTER NINETEEN Claire
CHAPTER TWENTY Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Claire
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Claire
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Claire
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Cable
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Cable
CHAPTER THIRTY Claire
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Claire
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Cable
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Cable
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Claire
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Cable
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Claire
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Cable
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Claire
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Cable
CHAPTER FORTY Cable
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE Claire
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO Cable
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE Cable
Epilogue
Valentine's Day Bonus
One Night at the Gilded Rose
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Find Her
Other Works
Cable
A Steel Paragons MC Novel
(The Coast: Book 6)
By Eve R. Hart
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Eve R. Hart
All right reserved.
The scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. This book or any portion thereof my not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations used in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental.
Warning: This book is intended for readers 18 years and older. This book contains violence, harsh language, and explicit sex scenes.
Cover image credit Shutterstock.com- Serge Lee
Dedication
To everyone that needs a good quote every now and then.
“Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made anew.”
-Sarah Chauncey Woolsey
Prologue
Claire
I never did well with the cold.
Hell, I never did well with many things.
Going hungry.
Being alone.
Sleeping on the floor.
Just to name a few.
I didn’t need to be pampered, I just needed to feel safe.
Maybe even loved.
At first, I refused to pimp myself out to live.
Because that was what it was, living.
Surviving.
Trying to get enough to make it to the next sunrise.
I remember that first time because it wasn’t something you easily forgot. Out there on the streets, you left your childhood behind and forced yourself to handle the adult things immediately even if you didn’t completely understand what they were. You had to. There was no one really looking out for you because they were in the same boat as you. They had stomachs they had to feed. And bodies to clothe. And their own shit to deal with.
So despite barely having any kind of curve to my body or fullness in my chest, I shoved myself into the shadowy corners of the world. The ones that would spread their darkness into my soul the longer I lingered there.
And I kept going back.
Kept doing the things I shouldn’t have known how to do.
Because I had to.
But it wasn’t me. It chipped away at my soul more and more every time.
Eventually, I sought out something more. Something that would end the shame and dirty chill that ran through my veins constantly. It didn’t matter that it was a shitty foster home. Or later on, an abusive boyfriend.
Only, I couldn’t even hack it there in the real world.
The streets.
A strange home.
It was really all the same.
I’d leave one for the other and a few months later, I’d be back again.
A horrible, unhealthy cycle of unhappiness.
You would have thought that I would’ve tried to figure out another way. Like, maybe find it in me to fight and stand on my own.
Yet, here I was, twenty-two and in the middle of the worst nightmare with no way to leave.
CHAPTER ONE
Cable
The knock on my door came a little too heavy-handed. It was the type of knock that wanted to let me know they were there. Like, I needed to make myself decent right the fuck now. Yeah, that kind of knock. Which meant that it had to be one of three people. Why? Because only three people knew about my little secret.
I grunted and then grumbled out a ‘hold on a minute’ as I shoved my legs into my pants. Once they were fastened, I yanked on my shirt and walked across my room.
I would have answered the door as I was but some people got thrown off by it. So, yeah. It was a secret because I didn’t want to make people uncomfortable. Or maybe it was more that I didn’t go around talking about it. Whatever it was, not many people were aware.
“Yeah?” I clipped out as I opened the door to not-so-surprisingly see B-ry there.
“Anything new?” he asked.
“If I had anything new, would I be sitting here?”
“You’re grumpier than normal.”
Yeah, no shit.
I didn’t want to be short with him— or anyone, for that matter— but I was feeling a little spread thin. It had been months of nothing. Keften was still out there. And while we circled the city nightly, we still kept coming up empty. I wanted to think all that wasn’t for nothin’, though. The number of missing homeless girls seemed to have dropped. According to Sketch’s people, that was.
“Alright, fine,” he said after I stood there for a moment glowering at him. “Go back to your shit. I’ll leave you the fuck alone.”
He shook his head as he walked off.
“Hey, Cable,” Bridget said with a smile and a wave as she walked by my door, where I was still standing.
And there was just something about the odd as hell, ballsy woman that made the irritation melt right away.
“How’s it going, Bridget?” I asked with a half smile but only because I felt too drained to give her a full one.
“Cold as fuck and miserable,” she replied with a cheesy wink.
A sharp laugh slipped out of my mouth and I shook my head at her.
“Yeah, hate this shit too. At least there’s no snow.”
“Um, yeah. Fuck that noise,” she said and her body did a hard shiver like snow was the worst thing in the world. “I’
m going to the kitchen to get some coffee. You want me to bring you back anything?”
“No. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Alright,” she said with a shrug and moved past my door. “I’ll let you get back to finding out everyone’s hidden fetishes, then.”
My laughter floated in the chilly air after her.
Once I was tucked away behind my closed door again, I dropped trou. My shirt landed on the corner of my bed as I let out a deep sigh.
I could have used a shower right about now. And food probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea.
When was the last time I ate?
I couldn’t remember, which told me that my belly was long overdue for something good.
I tried to take breaks, give myself some time to step away and recharge. But I always felt like I should have been doing something to help find Keften. So even in those rare moments when I’d sit back and pick up a book, my skin would crawl and my brain would run wild. A new dark corner to dig into. A person that I could reach out to. A different way to go about things.
I needed to get laid. Yeah, that had to be the answer to all my problems, right? Only problem was, the last few times I’d brought a chick back to my room, it ended in disappointment. For both of us. Me, because all I could focus on was those girls that were trapped in hell. And for her, because thinking of that shit made me go as limp as month old celery. Not exactly the stud lately, that was for fucking sure.
Even now, as I flopped onto my bed and tried to conjure up an image of some busty, naked woman, my bared cock didn’t even stir. I was convinced that one good whacking would relieve just the right amount of stress and maybe even ease some of the tension in my neck. Looked like I couldn’t even get that.
What were we missing?
What was I missing?
Even as I tried to come up with something new all I got was frustration. It just left me feeling useless again. Which I was not fucking okay with.
When I finally decided it was time to get out of my room for a bit, I got dressed then wandered down to the main part of the clubhouse. Hated to say it, but there were just too many damn people here right now.
We’d been a revolving door lately. Brothers from other chapters coming and going all the damn time. Sure, the help was nice. And seeing how we all came together at a time like this did remind me of why I’d made this my home. But at the same time, sometimes you could get just too much of family. Especially when we were all crammed into one place with barely enough space to breathe.
We’d taken on two more prospects in the last month too. And where did they get to stay? On the couches in the main area with the other prospects. At one point, we had a room for them to share. It wasn’t ideal but come on, they were fucking prospects. I shouldn’t have felt shitty about them having to float around, but I kind of did. I knew I’d go crazy if I didn’t get a moment of peace. Then again, it was a way to weed out the weak ones. If they couldn’t hack it, then they were out. Guessed I could have looked at it like it was just one more way to test them.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” I greeted the Moon Hill officer, Tank.
“Long day,” he replied.
“I feel you on that one, brother,” I said as I let out a deep sigh.
I grabbed a plate and piled it up with fresh stir fry that was sitting there ready on the stove. Grabbing a fork, I shot Abigail a thankful smile. That shit smelled good and maybe it was shitty what happened to Dade, but I was pretty damn glad that it’d brought his sister into our lives. She took care of us with her amazing cooking nearly every day.
“When you headed back home?” I asked Tank as I took the seat across from him.
“Fuck.” He shook his head. “Soon. Sometime before my woman decides she’s had enough of sitting around and rides her ass down here to get into shit.”
I chuckled at that. I’d met his woman, Nadya, a few times before. She was… scary as fuck, actually. Someone I wouldn’t want to piss off, not even a little. Part of me thought that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if she rode down here. We sure could use her on our side when it came time for shit to go down.
But I knew Tank well enough to know that he wanted to keep her out of it as much as possible.
“Bocca is heading back down in two days,” Axe said, looking tired as he sat down next to Tank. “Sending you back then.”
“Thanks, Prez,” Tank answered and clapped Axe on the back.
Brand, Chris, and Ky came in and we all sat around catching up for a few. I sometimes forgot how close Chris was to the mother chapter, having grown up in Moon Hill and all. And that Brand had made his way in there. Maybe if I wasn’t so new and had been around to see that shit, it would have stuck out more in my brain.
Even though I was the new one here, none of them made me feel left out. I never had the feeling like I was missing something or that I wasn’t as good as any one of them sitting around the table here. I never knew that I needed something like that. But now that I had it, I sure as fuck was going to work hard to keep it.
CHAPTER TWO
Cable
“Hey, Bridget?” It seemed my mouth moved before my brain had a chance to think about what I was doing.
I caught her just as I was climbing the stairs to my room and she looked like she was headed out.
“Hey, Cable. What’s up?” she asked, a smile on her face.
Yeah, I knew she’d help me out no problem. But what I wasn’t sure of was how I should go about things. I should have gone to Iron first. Or at least Lake. But I wasn’t exactly going to talk club business with her. It was more like I needed a fresh way to look at things and Bridget was good at that stuff, or so I imagined with her private investigator background.
“Cable?” she asked softly and I hadn’t realized that I’d zoned out a little there. “What’s going on? You’re biting the inside of your cheek which tells me that you need something, but you’re hesitating. Come on, big guy. It can’t be that bad, right? Or wait, does it have to do with that thing I ordered last week?” She winked at me while a mischievous smirk tipped up the corners of her lips.
“What?! No. I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And I really didn’t. I had no need to look into her anymore and honestly, my search had stopped without a whole lot of digging. We all pretty much agreed that while she might have found herself in a little bit of trouble, she wasn’t trouble herself.
I cleared my throat. She was just trying to get me to lighten up and the moment I realize that, I choked out a laugh.
“I think I need your help,” I finally said as I stood tall and owned it.
Sometimes, I liked to take on the world all by myself. I wanted to figure out the puzzle on my own. Typically, I felt like I was just the club nerd. The one they all ran to when they weren’t sure what direction to go in. Which was fine, it was what I was good at. But sometimes I felt like that was all they thought I was good for. So naturally, if I couldn’t come through on that front, I was just downright useless. Or that was how I saw it.
“Oh, yeah,” she said dropping the playful attitude and eyeing me skeptically.
“Not sharing club business,” I jumped to say because I knew that she wanted to stay out of all of that. Not that I would share shit. “Just want to know how you would go about things.”
“Okay,” she said with a shrug like she trusted me enough. And that maybe made me feel a little happy inside. “Let me grab my coffee and I’ll meet you in your room in a few.”
“Thanks,” I said then made my way into my room.
Not even five minutes later she was back and knocking on my door. I called for her to come in. I rarely locked my door. Didn’t really feel that big of a need to, I guess.
“Okay, so tell me what you need,” she said as she settled down in the overstuffed chair in the corner of my room.
She didn’t set her coffee cup down even though there was a small table right next to the chair. I chuckled under my breath because it was rare to see her w
ithout her hands wrapped around some sort of hot coffee beverage. It was almost like it was part of her. And I’d never once seen her spill even a drop.
“So, I need to know what to do when I’ve exhausted all my options. Like, say, you do all the research you can for a case and you don’t have much. Where would you start next?” I brushed off my feelings of helplessness and dove right in. There was no sense in pussyfooting around especially if there was something I could do. No more wasting time.
“Well, I’d start with what I do have. A name. An address. Whatever it might be. I’d start there and find out what connections those things have.” She paused and took in a deep breath before going on. She seemed a little excited to be talking about this, or maybe it was the feeling of usefulness, which I got. “Like, if it’s a name then look for addresses, places of employment, family members, and known associations. Anything that you can attach to that name. Also, places they frequent are good too because you can sometimes find someone to talk to that might slip you some kind of information.”
“Okay,” I said with a bobbing nod as my head started running through everything. I mean. I’d already done that, from a sitting position. And the guys had been out on foot doing the rest. I felt like there was still something else I was missing. “Then what? What if you still have nothing?”
She drained the last of her coffee then finally relinquished her grip on the mug, softly setting it down on the table next to the chair.
“You have to get your hands dirty,” she said with a smirk. “Boots on the ground and all that shit. You find one thread, you can start to weave a tapestry, you just have to keep digging. No one, and I mean no fucking one, is invisible.”
She was right. There had to be a trail, I just had to find it.
“Sometimes it takes the simplest of things,” she continued giving a quick shrug. “You might be overlooking one little thing because you’re so focused on the big picture.”
“Thanks, Bridget.”