by Khloe Wren
I gunned the engine on the bike the club had loaned me and followed Scout from the bike shop over to the clubhouse. The ride reminded me I really needed to arrange packing all my shit. Scout had offered his garage to store my stuff while we waited on settlement of the new place. Bess’ place was a rental and we were going to keep it for the moment. No way to fit all her things plus mine in Scout’s garage, and it was only forty-five days till settlement went through, so we could cover her rent until then, especially since I was living free at the clubhouse and working at the bike shop. I was also going to do a session or two at Silky Ink to see how that worked out. Turns out Silk really did need another artist to fill the void having all three of her other artists move to part-time had made. I was looking forward to picking up a tattoo machine again. It’d been too long.
Pulling into the yard, I drove over to the end of the lineup while Scout took the top position, closest to the door that was always left open for his ride, as it should be for the president. By the time we were walking through the door, the other officers had all pulled in and were following us.
Once everyone was inside the main room, Scout put his hands on his hips and glared at everyone.
“Okay, we’re all here. What the fuck do you need to tell us?”
I barely resisted rolling my eyes at his show, pretending like he had no fucking clue what the women were about to tell him. I scanned the room for Bess and did a double-take when I saw not only Ma, but both her folks were here, too. And Scout was making an excellent first impression. Sheila looked like she was about to pee herself and Larry didn’t look much better. I strode over to wrap my arm around Bess and press a kiss to her temple as I gave the olds a head tilt.
“Would you settle the hell down, Scout? You’re scaring Bess’ parents.” Marie went on to recap Bess’ idea, how Ma would run things while Bess would go to college to become qualified to one day take over for her. By the time she was done, Scout had a big grin on his face, as did the others.
“Sounds good, babe.” He glanced at the other officers. “All in favor of costing this thing out?” They all gave him a yes or nod. “Right, you ladies need to tell us what we’re looking at. Find a location, renovation costs. And, Bess, if you’re going to study so you can work for us, the club will cover the costs of it.”
“Holy shit.”
I chuckled at her mumbled curse while I pulled her in closer and pressed another kiss to her temple.
“Welcome to club life, babe.”
“Get what you can by Friday and we’ll put it to the others in church on Saturday morning. Get this thing started.”
With that, the impromptu meeting was over.
“Needles, take the afternoon off, yeah?”
“Thanks, prez.”
Then I was left facing Ma and my future in-laws. Ah fuck, I probably should have asked Larry for permission or some shit. I cleared my throat.
“Ah, sorry Larry, I didn’t ask you for your blessing before I proposed to your daughter.”
By the looks of their expressions, neither had known about our engagement before now. I rubbed a palm over my head. Probably should have discussed with Bess how to tell them. I turned her in my arms until she faced me.
“You didn’t tell them yet?”
“It was a busy morning. I hadn’t gotten to that yet. I was planning to, but then Marie called this meeting and we had to all run over here.”
“Sorry, you’ve proposed to Elizabeth? After only what? A week together.”
Yep, that was Larry being exactly as I’d expected him to be.
“With all due respect, Mr. Brookes, you know we’ve known each other our whole lives. We just didn’t realize we were meant to be more than friends until recently. Yes, it’s fast, but it’s right. Feel it in my bones.”
I wanted to add that I didn’t give a fuck what he thought, but managed to hold that in. Look at me, trying to not be an asshole for Bess’ sake.
Sheila nudged her husband’s arm. “Oh, stop it already, Larry. Of course you have our blessing and we totally understand you not coming to us first, under the circumstances.”
She stepped forward from her sputtering husband to grab Bess’ left hand to ogle the ring I’d put on it yesterday. Ma came over and wrapped her arm around my waist. I put mine around her shoulders and tucked her in against my side while I watched Bess’ mom get all gushy over the ring and her dad pretending like he wasn’t equally interested in the piece of jewelry.
“You did good, son. I’m proud of you, and your father would be too, if he were here.”
And just like that, my mood dropped.
“No need to blow smoke, Ma. We both know Pop didn’t give a damn.”
She pulled out from under my arm and turned so she faced me. “He loved you, Ryan. He may have been hopeless at showing it, but he did. He regretted what happened when you were a teen, hated that it kept you away from us for so long. We both did. When you announced you’d gotten that job with Rusty and were leaving school, you shocked the hell out of both of us. You didn’t give us time to adjust. No warning. Your father had his own dreams for his only son. You just needed to give him a little time to adjust that.”
Anger heated my blood until I was clenching my fists. “He kicked me out, and you backed him up.”
She sighed heavily. “A little tough love to wake you up, son. Turned out, in that case it was us who needed the wake-up call, not you. Look, I don’t want to fight. Things have been going so well between us lately. I just wanted to clear that up. Your father loved you, I love you.”
She leaned in, rising up on her toes to kiss my cheek before she walked away and headed over to where Marie was sitting with Keys, who had his laptop out, probably looking at what real estate was currently available. I have no idea how long I stood there, just watching Ma, but Bess wrapping her arms around my waist and snuggling in against me snapped me out of it.
“You okay, honey?”
I returned her embrace, running a palm up and down her spine. “Yeah, babe. Ma just said some stuff.”
She didn’t say a word, just tightened her hold on me and it was exactly what I fucking needed. Closing my eyes, I lowered to rest my cheek against the top of her head and wrapped myself around my woman, soaking in her warmth until all my anger was gone. My old man was gone. All the sins of the past needed to stay there, in the past.
The future was where I needed to focus. I needed to make sure I didn’t fuck up, like my old man, with Ashlynn or any other kids we managed to add to our family, because I knew we would. Bess couldn’t give birth herself, but she had baby fever something fierce. Working with kids might tide her over for a little while, but I knew she’d want one of her own before too long. Just like I knew I’d move heaven and earth to give her one. Hell, with the way things seemed to go with this club, we’d probably find some poor kid who needed rescuing and my woman would take her in, just like she’d taken me and Ashlynn in.
I couldn’t wait.
A hand on my shoulder had me lifting my head from Bess to see Keys had come over.
“Hey, I did some checking into your ex, Bess, and I thought you’d both like to know what I found.”
Bess went still in my arms and glared up at me. “I told you not to poke that snake, Ryan.”
I ignored her words and focused on Keys. “What did you find?”
“You’re gonna love this. I’m guessing he expected you to go crawling back to him, begging when you lost everything, Bess. He obviously had eyes on you, or at least on your place, and it looks like he came after you, was probably only a few hours behind you. But the stupid fucker drove through a flooded road and got washed away. They didn’t find his car for a few weeks. Wasn’t pretty. The official report says he drowned. It wouldn’t have been a pleasant way to go.”
“I remember that. When I found the flooded road, I turned around and got a hotel for the night. Then mapped out a new route home for the next day to avoid the flooded areas.” She shook her head. “I can
’t believe he’s actually gone. I hated that I couldn’t get any justice for me or my son. Looks like fate took care of it for me this time.”
Keys gave us a nod. “Yep, he got what he deserved and you don’t need to look over your shoulder for him.”
And I didn’t need to leave her to go hunting, which was a relief. Not that I minded hunting down some fucker who’d hurt my woman. I proved that by helping dispose of that fucker Godfrey. The relief came because it was one less thing I had to hide from Bess. My woman didn’t like me fighting and I would have, no doubt, ended up in the doghouse if I’d taken out her ex and she’d found out about it.
Nope, I was perfectly happy for this particular issue to have been resolved for me. It was a sweet life when you had a club like the Charon MC, one you could trust, at your back.
Epilogue
Two months later
Elizabeth
With a broad smile, I fell back onto the couch. Ashlynn dove in next to me, curling up against my side as she held up the remote and clicked on the television. She flipped through the channels until she found some cartoons and I watched as Ryan slipped into the room. We’d officially moved into our house two weeks ago, and had settled in quickly. After living between my small place in Rocky Gully and the clubhouse for the past couple months, it was damn nice to have so much space to spread out. It was also a relief to not have our bedroom right next door to Ashlynn’s. Turns out, I really struggled to stay quiet when things got hot.
“Whatcha got, honey?
Ryan was working both at the bike shop and doing some sessions at Silky Ink, which meant he was back to drawing in the evenings. Ashlynn and I would watch a movie and he’d sketch. Sometimes it was a tattoo design, sometimes it was something for a custom paint job on a bike. And sometimes it was something for the wall. He’d already drawn an epic image of a warrior woman riding a sky-blue Harley that was framed on the wall above Ashlynn’s bed.
I loved how happy he looked now. The asshole who’d come home last month was nearly completely gone, and in his place was a sweet, attentive man. He and Ashlynn were doing better. He still struggled with how to deal with such a lively, sassy little girl some days, but he was trying. Ashlynn was growing so much, too. Not only in height, she was so much more affectionate now. Ryan had admitted to me how guilty he’d felt at not having given her enough attention when they’d been up in New York, how he hated that she hesitated to hug him. Well, that was a thing of the past. And just to prove my point, Ryan sat down on the other side of Ashlynn and she shifted so she was leaning against him.
“What do you think?”
He handed me his sketch pad and I looked down at the image before me. “Oh, wow, this is spectacular.”
I traced my finger over the tail feather of the phoenix as I took in the full drawing. The bird was rising up, wings out, beak facing the sky as it flew for the heavens.
“Who’s it for?”
When he stayed silent I looked up into his dark eyes.
“For you. You don’t have to get it if you don’t want to, but I thought, well, I wanted to fix what happened. This is the only way I could think of doing that.”
He shrugged awkwardly before he lifted Ashlynn up onto his lap so he could sit next to me. He ran his finger down the center of the largest tail feather. “Your scar would sit here, the tattoo would surround it so you wouldn’t notice it anymore.”
“Why a phoenix?”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and started playing with my hair.
“A phoenix is a symbol of renewal. It rises from the ashes to live once more. Like I said, if you don’t like it or don’t want it, that’s fine. I can draw something else.”
He was so damn adorable when he was nervous, I almost wanted to string out my answer a bit more just to enjoy him squirming. But I loved him too much to do that to him. Leaning over, I turned to press a soft kiss to his lips.
“I love it, and I’d be honored to wear your artwork.”
His body relaxed and he held me to him so he could kiss me deeper.
“Eww, you two are gross.”
We broke apart laughing as Ashlynn hopped off Ryan’s lap and laid down on her front on the floor to get closer to the television and away from our supposedly icky love.
“Love you too, Ash.”
She twisted around to blow me a kiss before turning back to her show. I’d started calling her Ash and she loved it. Apparently everyone else had nicknames, so she wanted one too. Although Ariel still refused to accept a nickname. Ashlynn had tried to call her A but Ariel told her firmly that her name was a gift from her mother who was in heaven, so she couldn’t change it. The shit these kids said broke my heart so damn often.
I turned my attention back to what was going to be my first tattoo.
“Will it hurt?”
“It’s shoving a heap of needles into your skin, babe, so, yeah, it’s gonna hurt. We can use some numbing cream if you like. It’s a big tattoo. It’ll curl around under your belly button, then up over your ribs and under your breasts. We’ll do it over a few sessions, but the cream will help.”
“Yeah, I vote for the cream.”
I wanted the ink, and more than anything I wanted Ryan to tattoo me, but I wasn’t a masochist. I didn’t do pain well.
He pressed a firm kiss to the side of my temple as he chuckled, and I could sense his excitement.
“I can’t fucking wait to mark your skin, babe. See you wearing my art.”
My breath caught for a second. “You’re not going to want to, like, cover me in tattoos are you?”
With a laugh he shook his head. “No, babe. This is the only ink I’ll ever suggest. You want more, just ask and I’ll do anything you want, but I’m not going to treat you like a canvas and cover you for the hell of it.”
Like he’d done with Tori. We’d spoken a lot about our pasts, what happened to shape us into who we were today. I traced my finger over the phoenix’s face and the light caught on the diamond in my ring again, making me smile.
“I love you, Ryan Perry, with all of my heart. I’m so fucking glad you decided to come home.”
He cupped my cheek with his palm and turned me to face him. Staring deep into my eyes, he lowered his lips until they were a breath from mine.
“I love you, Elizabeth soon-to-be-Perry, with every part of my soul. And I’m so fucking glad you lowered your walls and let me in.”
Then he kissed me, deep and long, until I was moaning and melting against him on the couch as Ashlynn cranked up the volume while she made gagging noises.
I’d been a broken shadow, half living my life for so long, but now Ryan and Ashlynn had brought me back to life and it was perfect. I couldn’t wait to see what our future would bring.
Please keep reading for a sneak look at FORGING BLADE
www.khloewren.com
Other Charon MC Books Currently Available:
Book 1:
Inking Eagle
Book 2:
Fighting Mac
Book 3:
Chasing Taz
Book 4:
Claiming Tiny
Book 5:
Saving Scout
Book 6:
Tripping Nitro
Book 7:
Scout’s Legacy
Book 8:
Mac’s Destiny
Book 9:
Losing Bash
Book 10:
Finding Needles
Forging Blade
Everything in life comes at a cost.
Jared “Blade” Walker’s life hasn’t been his own for a long time. Sold by his father when he was just sixteen to the head of the mob, he did what he had to in order to survive and became one of their most lethal enforcers. But now, thanks to his ties with the Charon MC, he has a chance to get some vengeance. But nothing in this life comes for free.
Veronica Jones has been hiding in plain sight in Bridgewater, Texas for seven years when Blade comes into the ER during her shift and throws all he
r careful planning out the window. Making her want things she’d never thought she had.
When both Blade and Veronica’s pasts catch up to them, will they end up having to pay the ultimate price for daring to give love a chance?
Chapter 1
Blade
Every step down the hallway had my rage boiling hotter. In my soul, I knew the room of kids we’d just found wasn’t going to be the worst thing I saw today.
Together with a handful of Charon MC men, I was cracking open the L.A. mob’s stable. Technically, it was my boss, Antonio Sabella’s, business I was about to help destroy, but considering I’d just come from putting that fucker in the ground, I was guessing I could comfortably say that he was my previous boss and that I was definitely now out of the mob. Finally, I was free from my cage.
My mind was still spinning at what we’d discovered in that first room we’d opened up. The smell had been bad enough I’d nearly gagged, but the sight of all those kids was something that will haunt me for years. I cleared my throat past the lump that was still lodged there. Boys and girls, some just toddlers, had all been huddled together in that room. They’d all tried to get away from the door when it had opened, all except one. A teenage girl had stood strong, ready to fight.
I mentally shook my head at how gutsy the kid was. They’d all shown clear signs that they’d been abused. Their naked bodies told stories that should never have been written. Yet that teen hadn’t cowered, hadn’t tried to hide. Instead, she’d demanded a weapon to defend the others in case we didn’t make it back to her as we told her we would. That kid was way too calm for what she’d been through. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t have been that fucking calm in her shoes. Not that she was wearing any.
The sight of all those kids was enough to trigger my fury on its own, but my rage had been churning since long before I stepped foot in that room. Before we’d ended Antonio Sabella’s miserable life earlier, he’d told me he had suspected I might have been trying something when I arranged the meeting for today, so he had handed my girl over to his men to enjoy while he’d come to meet us. Fucker had thought I’d spare his life so he could call and have his men stop their games with her. Stupid bastard forgot I’d been trained under his reign. I knew full well he wouldn’t have made that call no matter what happened. Once he’d handed her over, her fate had been sealed as far as he’d been concerned. I was here to attempt to change it. The sounds of men enjoying sex echoed around the hallway as we marched toward the source of all the noise. With every step, I was praying we were going to be in time to save her.