Edged
Heather Slade
The Invincibles Book Two
Edged
© 2020 Heather Slade
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 13: 978-1-942200-72-7
Also by Heather Slade
THE INVINCIBLES
Available Now!
Book One: Decked
Book Two: Edged
Coming Soon!
Book Three: Grinded
Book Four: Riled
Book Five: Caspered
Book Six: Hammered
Book Seven: Smoked
Book Eight: Inked
COCKY HERO CLUB NOVELS
Coming Soon!
Book One: Undercover Agent
Book Two: Undercover Saint
Book Three: Undercover Angel
BUTLER RANCH
Available Now!
Book One: Brodie
Book Two: Maddox
Book Three: Naughton
Book Four: Mercer
Book Five: Kade
Butler Ranch Boxed Set: Books 1-5
K19 SECURITY SOLUTIONS
Available Now!
Book One: Razor
Book Two: Gunner
Book Three: Mistletoe
Book Four: Mantis
K19 Security Solutions Boxed Set: Books 1-4
Book Five: Dutch
Book Six: Striker
Book Seven: Monk
Coming Soon!
Book Eight: Halo
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION 6
Available Now!
Book One: Shiver
Book Two: Wilder
Book Three: Pinch
Book Four: Shadow
COWBOYS OF CRESTED BUTTE
Available Now!
Book One: Fall for Me
Book Two: Dance with Me
Book Three: Kiss Me Cowboy
Book Four: Stay with Me
Book Five: Win Me Over
Cowboys of Crested Butte Boxed Set: Books 1-5
Contents
1. Rebel
2. Edge
3. Rebel
4. Edge
5. Rebel
6. Edge
7. Rebel
8. Edge
9. Rebel
10. Edge
11. Rebel
12. Edge
13. Rebel
14. Edge
15. Rebel
16. Edge
17. Rebel
18. Edge
19. Rebel
20. Edge
21. Rebel
22. Edge
23. Rebel
24. Edge
25. Rebel
26. Edge
27. Rebel
28. Edge
29. Rebel
30. Edge
31. Rebel
32. Edge
33. Rebel
34. Edge
35. Rebel
36. Edge
37. Rebel
38. Edge
39. Rebel
40. Rebel
41. Edge
42. Rebel
Epilogue
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Grinded
About the Author
Also by Heather Slade
Rebel
August
“Hey, Bobby, think we could close up early tonight?” There were only a handful of people in the bar he owned and I worked at, and it looked like most were getting ready to leave. Before he could answer, a group of guys came in, every one of them already drunk off their asses.
“Fuck,” Bobby muttered under his breath as we stood side by side, washing glasses. “Not these sons of bitches.”
“Who are they? I’ve never seen them in here before.”
“ABT. Every last one of ’em.”
“Aryan Brotherhood?” I whispered.
Bobby turned his back to them and kept his voice real low. “Keep quiet and watch yourself, Rebel. I’m gonna go give Mac a call.” Mac was Bobby’s brother and the Sheriff of Hays County.
I finished washing the glasses and then hollered at the guys who had just come in. “What can I get you, fellers?”
“Hell, I’ll take some sugar if you’re offerin’. Whaddaya think, Possum? You want some sugar too? I don’t mind sharin’.”
The man closest to me slowly raised his head. When our eyes met, the glass I’d been rinsing crashed to the floor and shattered.
I’d never forget those eyes. They were black as coal with hardly any white around the pupils. The last time I saw them was the night my mama died. I’d made a promise in the days that followed her death that if I ever saw them again, I’d kill the man they belonged to. Possum. That’s what the other guy had called him, and it sure as fuck fit.
Before I could respond, Bobby came around from the back and walked to the end of the bar where I knew he kept a gun. “We’re fixin’ to close, boys.”
“We can get ’em one for the road, Bobby.” I looked directly at the black-eyed man. “What’s your poison, Possum?” I didn’t look at Bobby; I kept my gaze fixed on the bastard who’d killed my mama.
2
Edge
I had three more nights in Texas, and then I had to fly to Boston—a place I had zero interest in going, for a reason I didn’t give a shit about.
If it were for work, that would be different. If there was a mission to be had, I was the first to raise my hand, more so now that I’d left the rules and regulations of MI5 behind and was a partner in the Invincible Intelligence and Security Group.
A partner’s wife had first called us the Invincibles, and it took. Yeah, it sounded cocky as shit, but we all were, so what the hell?
I’d tried to get my best friend, Miles “Grinder” Stone, to come out with me tonight, but he was in what I referred to as his dark place.
The man had PTSD from a deployment with ISAF—the International Security Assistance Force—a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan. I admired the guy enough to respect the times when he wasn’t interested in socializing.
I could’ve invited Cortez “Rile” DeLéon, the eldest of the four partners, but that would be almost as bad as going out with my secondary school headmaster.
It wasn’t as though I wouldn’t know anyone at the Long Branch tonight or any other night. Most of the hands who worked on the King-Alexander Ranch, where I lived, frequented the place.
I pulled into the parking lot, surprised at how few cars were in it, and found a spot not too far from the entrance.
Climbing out of the ranch’s 1957 Ford pickup I’d borrowed, I slammed the creaky door closed. The locks had a tendency to stick, so I didn’t bother securing it. If any wanker tried to make off with it, this truck, like the rest of those at the ranch, was equipped with a tracking device that would allow the engine to be shut off remotely.
I hadn’t done it yet, but if I was ever given the chance to, I’d press the kill button as soon as the driver hit a decent speed. For the Ford, that would be about seventy since the old thing wouldn’t go much faster. I chuckled, thinking about the look on the bastard’s face when the truck flipped end to end on one of the area’s dirt roads.
It was hotter than Hades tonight with close to one hundred percent humidity, but I still wore my pearl snap
shirt and pressed Cinch jeans. Anything else would get me tossed out of the Branch—as we affectionately called it—on my arse.
Walking past a newer edition pickup, I averted my eyes when I saw the front bench seat was occupied by a couple shagging. I was almost to the back bumper when I realized the sounds the woman was making weren’t those of pleasure.
I spun around, wrenched open the door, grabbed the asshole by the shirt collar, and pulled him away from the woman I could now tell was trying to fight the guy off.
“What the fuck?” the guy slurred.
I threw him up against the truck next to his, and as I did, I got a whiff of alcohol.
Holding the drunk by the neck, I turned around to tell the woman to get dressed and get the hell out of there, but she was ahead of me. Instead of getting out of the passenger side, she climbed out of the driver’s side, walked straight over to the wanker, and slammed her knee into his crotch. I cringed, thinking about how much that had to hurt.
When she threw a punch into the guy’s gut, I thought I may have fallen in love at first sight.
I heard a car pull up and looked over my shoulder, surprised to see the sheriff. “Hey, Mac. Good timing.”
“What’s goin’ on here?”
“The fucker tried to rape me,” said the woman, wiping what looked like blood from a cut on her face.
I still had the guy by the back of the collar. I let him go, and he fell to the ground, hands on his crotch.
“I got this, Edge. You go on and get outta here.”
“Thanks, mate. I owe you one.” In my line of work, the last thing I could afford was to be a witness in a rape trial.
I walked over to the old Ford and was about to climb in when I heard a soft voice ask me to wait. When I turned around, the feisty woman who’d slammed her would-be rapist in the balls with her knee, got on her tiptoes and planted a kiss right on my lips. It wasn’t a chaste one either. “Thanks, Edge,” she said as she walked away.
I shook my head and climbed into the truck, wishing I could stay, but knowing I couldn’t.
Two nights later, wanting to grab a pint before I left town for God knew how long, I went back to the Branch. It was harder to find a parking spot tonight; it looked like the place was packed.
I pulled open the heavy door and made my way through the crowd. When I got up to the bar, the owner brought me a beer before I had a chance to order.
“This one’s on her.” He pointed to the end of the bar.
I looked to where he motioned and met the woman’s eyes. “What’s her name?”
“That’s Rebel.”
3
Rebel
I was just finishing up my break when I saw him walk in. Edge. That’s what the sheriff had called him. Until then, I hadn’t known his name, but I’d seen him in the bar before. Each time, he hadn’t paid any attention to me. Looked right through me, in fact. It wasn’t that surprising; the man was hot as fuck.
I watched the exchange between him and Bobby, wondering if he’d remember me from two nights ago. When my boss pointed to the end of the bar where I was sitting, Edge raised his head and looked straight at me. His eyes were brown; mine were blue. Everybody said they were my mother’s eyes. I didn’t think they were that alike, other than in color. If they were similar to my father’s, I wouldn’t know. I’d never met the man.
I watched him walk my way. Was I ready to have a conversation with the man who’d saved me from being raped by a man I’d intended to kill?
Since my break was over anyway, I slammed down the rest of the whiskey in my glass and stood to go back behind the bar. Before I could, I felt his hand on my arm.
“Thanks for the pint,” he said in his English accent. “Next one’s on me.”
“You’re welcome.” I clinked my empty glass to his, wishing I had any idea what to say to this man.
He held out his hand. “I’m Edge. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
When I introduced myself as Lucy, he looked at me funny.
“Not Rebel?”
My grandfather first called me the nickname I’d had since I was a hot-headed eleven-year-old hell-bent on making my mama’s life as hard as possible.
“Come on, little Rebel,” he’d said, cuffing me behind the neck with his thick hand and leading me into the house. “Let’s go see if your grandmother has dinner ready.”
He’d picked up my suitcase that night like it was nothing that I showed up unannounced with all my belongings.
“Yeah, Rebel,” I muttered, taking a sip from the glass of whiskey Bobby set in front of me. When he winked before walking away, I sat back down on the barstool.
“Nickname?”
I nodded. “From childhood.”
“My name’s Keon, but I go by Edge.”
As he brought his glass to his mouth, I checked out his ink. On the inside of his forearm, there was a tattoo with two names inside a heart: Annaliese and Arlo. Under them was a date, June 11, 2008.
I don’t know if he caught me looking or if it was a habit, but he covered his tattoo with his hand and then leaned forward so his mouth was close to my ear. “You kissed me, Rebel.”
I looked everywhere but at him.
“Lucy?”
“What?” I asked, still not looking at him.
“I liked it.”
That got me to turn my head.
He took another drink of his beer and ran his eyes down the length of me. “That isn’t all I like.”
I crossed my legs as the heat of his words settled right between my thighs.
Edge leaned in closer to me so I could feel his breath on my neck. “You’ve got quite the right hook, Rebel.”
I felt my cheeks turn pink. Not my most ladylike moment.
“I liked that too.”
I turned on my barstool so I could see his face. “You givin’ me shit, cowboy?”
He laughed. “Oh, little Rebel, nothing could be further from the truth.”
No one—literally no one other than my granddad—had ever called me that. If someone had, it would’ve bugged the crap out of me. However, when Edge said it, I liked it. I more than liked it.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” The teasing lilt was no longer evident in his voice.
“Okay,” I murmured, knowing his flirting had come to an end. Did he have a girlfriend? Maybe he was married. He couldn’t be gay. No way.
“I’m leaving town tomorrow, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
I nodded.
“You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this.”
“Kinda. Yeah.”
“Because if I weren’t, I’d kiss you back, Rebel, a lot harder and deeper and longer than the kiss you gave me.” His lips were close enough to brush the skin on my neck. “Your lips wouldn’t be the only place I kissed either.”
I shuddered. I couldn’t help it. My panties were soaked, and my nipples were rock hard. I was seriously considering wrapping my legs around his waist, especially when I saw the size of the bulge in his jeans.
I gave him the same once-over he’d given me. The sleeves of his shirt were taut on his upper arms, and his rock-hard thighs were so big it looked like the seams of his jeans might bust open. As thick and long as his fingers were, I couldn’t help but imagine that his cock would be the same. I almost came, thinking about how his massive, muscular thrusts would feel.
He nipped my earlobe, and I groaned. This man hadn’t laid a hand on me, yet I was a quivering mess of need.
“When I get back, we’re going to do every single thing you’re imagining right now, plus all the things you’ve never dreamed of, Rebel.”
I swear I was this close to pulling him out into the parking lot and stripping myself bare for him.
The front door of the bar swung open, and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck bristle. Before I could look, Edge put his hand on my arm.
“Do not turn around.”
When I went to turn my head, Ed
ge moved his hand from my arm to the back of my neck.
He put his mouth near my ear. “I told you not to turn around.”
I tried to shrug his hand away, but his grip was firm.
“Hey, Bobby,” I heard Edge call him over.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
I tried again to look at whatever the two were talking about, but Edge wouldn’t let go.
“Rebel, you get to the back storeroom and stay there until either Edge or I come and get you.”
“You better take her,” said Edge.
“What? No! What the hell is going on?”
Bobby came out from behind the bar and grabbed my arm. “Come with me.”
“How the fuck did he get bail?” I heard Edge ask as Bobby pulled me in the direction of the storeroom.
I didn’t care what either of them said, as soon as Edge let go, I looked over my shoulder. Possum. He hadn’t seen me yet, but I knew I was the person he was looking for. I watched as he was intercepted—Edge on one side, Steel, the Branch’s bouncer, on the other. Possum was a big man, but he was no match for the two of them.
“This is my fucking fight,” I seethed as Bobby pushed me into the storeroom.
“Not tonight, it isn’t.” Bobby slammed the door behind him. There was a padlock on the outside, and I heard it click. The fucker had locked me in.
Edged (The Invincibles Book 2) Page 1