Taming Keys: Charon MC Book 12

by Wren, Khloe

  Taming Keys

  Charon MC Book 12

  Khloe Wren

  ISBN: 978-0-648-68967-6

  Copyright © Khloe Wren 2020

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  Cover Credits:

  Model: Devin Byrd

  Photographer: Furious Fotog

  Digital Artist: Khloe Wren

  * * *

  Editing Credits:

  Editor: Carolyn Depew of Write Right

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  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, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.

  If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, please delete and purchase it legally. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Books by Khloe Wren

  RBMC

  Blaze of Honor

  * * *

  Charon MC:

  Inking Eagle

  Fighting Mac

  Chasing Taz

  Claiming Tiny

  Saving Scout

  Tripping Nitro

  Scout’s Legacy

  Mac’s Destiny

  Losing Bash

  Finding Needles

  Forging Blade

  * * *

  Fire and Snow:

  Guardian’s Heart

  Noble Guardian

  Guardian’s Shadow

  Fierce Guardian

  Necessary Alpha

  Protective Instincts

  * * *

  Other Titles:

  Fireworks

  Bad Alpha Anthology

  Scarred Perfection

  Scandals: Zeck

  Mirror Image Seduction

  Deception

  Kings of Sydney: Daniil

  FireStarter

  Acknowledgments

  As always, my wonderful husband and kids get the first round of thanks. They always support me and help me get my stories written. I’m extremely blessed to have such a wonderful family. Especially at times like recently when I’m struggling with chronic pain and trying to still make deadlines.

  To my editor, Carolyn, thank you for the continuous support and assistance with so much more than just editing. Miranda for your proofing and moral support.

  A huge thanks to Stacey and Kimberly for all your help in regards to Military and Bahrain. Kimberly, I really felt your mother was in our conversations. I miss her so much and have named Donna’s housemate Liz in her honor.

  Another massive thanks is to my crew of medical people who helped out with this one: Clare, Codie, Susan and Geri. I wouldn’t have been able to get this one right without all your help.

  My PA Andrea Rhoads, thank you for once more doing what you do! Fiona and Janine, growing trees together got this thing done. Thank you for the support. And of course, my street team, thank you ladies for all your words of encouragement.

  Lastly, to you my reader. Thank you for showing me and the Charon MC all the love you have over the years.

  xo

  Khloe Wren

  Biography

  Khloe Wren lives in rural South Australia with her husband, two daughters and an ever changing list of animals!

  She started writing in 2013 and has published over 30 books since then in the romantic suspense genre. She writes both paranormal and contemporary stories, including her best selling series Charon MC.

  Khloe enjoys writing outside of the box and she loves her heroes strong, and her heroines even stronger.

  Contents

  Charon:

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Part II

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Charon:

  Char·on ˈsher-ən, ˈker-ən, -än

  In Greek mythology, the Charon is the ferryman who takes the dead across either the river Styx or Acheron, depending on whether the soul’s destination is the Elysian Fields or Hades.

  * * *

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Evening, Thursday 6 May 1993

  Bar at Al Layali, Bu Quwah, Bahrain

  Keys

  “You seriously not gonna hook up tonight? Just look at all these pretty ladies.”

  With a shake of my head, I lowered my beer before I answered Ace, my libo buddy for tonight. It was just over three months since we’d left US soil, which meant we were more than ready to take a night off. Ace had insisted we come out to celebrate with the locals. And by locals, Ace meant all the visiting Gulf Air stewardesses.

  “I got my woman waiting at home for me, man. I ain’t gonna fuck that up for a bit of high-flying pussy.”

  Donna was my whole world. She was back in Texas finishing off her nursing degree. I hated that she had to be in Galveston to do it, way too close to those Iron Hammer MC fuckers for my liking. But my buddy Scout was keeping an eye on her when he could. Before he’d left the USMC in 2001, Scout had always been my libo buddy. We were both members of the Charon MC and were as close as blood brothers.

  Ace was a good man, and I liked him. We’d gotten to know each other well these past months, working together in our battalion’s coms office aboard the ship. He wasn’t as fast as I was with the equipment—I wasn’t called Keys for nothing—but he wasn’t far off. In a couple of years, I was sure he’d be as good as I was with all the tech we had to work with. And in time we’d form a similar bond to the one I had with Scout. I might even be able to convince him to move from Spokane, Washington down to the warmer weather in Texas to join the Charons with me one day.

  Ace nodded as he lifted his own glass to take a drink.

  “Must be nice having someone solid waitin’.”

  I winced at his words. Ace’s fiancé had sent him a Dear John letter last year. Cruel bitch had run off with another man and was heartless enough to tell him all about how the other guy was so much better than Ace. Bitch was lucky to be alive after pulling that shit. You didn’t do that to your man, ever, but especially not when he was off getting his ass shot at in order to keep America safe and didn’t need to be distracted.

  “You’ll find your match one day.”

  He downed the rest of his drink before visibly shaking off our conversation.

  “But until then, I have all these pretty ladies to distract myself with.” He gave me a sly smirk. “I’ll just have to run through twice as many to make up for you not doing your part to hold up the Marines’ reputation.”

  “Oorah!”

  He repeated the word back to me before he returned to scoping out the women in the bar. I followed his gaze, taking in both the beautiful women eyeing us, and the locals who were glaring. Bahrain was a remote island where the men seriously outnumbered the women among the local population. That made the thousands of air stewardesses that came through here every year very popular indeed. And the locals nev
er liked it when those of us from the US military came in and stole their attention. Attention they seemed to think should belong to them alone.

  This wasn’t my first time here, and I doubted it would be my last. Thanks to having Donna waiting back home, I’d never attempted to hook up with any of the females here, so I’d never personally had a problem with the local men. But I’d seen plenty of others get into fights for catching the eye of a woman that a local had set his sights on.

  A pretty blonde came over and placed a fresh drink down in front of each of us.

  “Well, hello, sailors.”

  I was sure Ace’s pained expression matched my own.

  “We’re Marines, ma’am. Not sailors.”

  She giggled, clearly well on her way to being drunk. “Well, that’s even better. My very own pair of Marines. So, boys, how long are you in port?”

  I clapped Ace on the shoulder. “I’ll leave you to keep each other company while I go to the can.”

  Ace knew not to move from where he was while I was gone. The whole point of having a libo buddy was to watch each other’s backs while we were away from the ship. But thankfully it didn’t mean we had to go hold each other’s hands while we took a piss, which is what I needed to do right now.

  Added bonus was I’d miss out on having to listen to Ace’s bullshit as he sweet-talked his way into that chick’s panties.

  After doing my thing, I pushed out the door and nearly ran over the girl Ace had been talking to.

  “Whoa, sugar.”

  I caught her shoulders before she could fall backwards. Glancing at her face, I frowned at the mess of mascara streaking down her cheeks as she trembled with her sobs. Even before she started speaking, panic hit me, and I looked over to where I’d left Ace. My breath caught when I saw he wasn’t there.

  “You have to help him! Oh my God… They just. I couldn’t. He’s—”

  When running my gaze over the rest of the bar showed no sign of him, my blood turned to ice, and had me shifting my full focus onto the panicked woman. I tightened my grip on her, giving her shoulders a squeeze until she stopped babbling.

  “Tell me what happened to Ace, in as few words as you can. Where is he?”

  She shuddered as she inhaled. “I don’t know where he is. They took him. A bunch of locals. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  I shook my head, cutting her off. “Ain’t your fault, sugar. You did the right thing coming to me. You good to get a ride back to wherever you’re stayin’?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just go find Ace. Those men who took him looked real nasty. They swarmed around us, shoved me back, and before I knew what was going on, they were all out the door with your friend.”

  A sense of urgency hit me, overriding my initial panic, but I couldn’t just abandon this woman, either.

  “Sugar, do yourself a favor and get outta here in case they decide to come back for you.”

  Another two women joined her.

  “We’ve got her and we’re leaving now.”

  When they headed for the door, I made my way through the packed room, grabbing Bear and Ghost, two other Marines from our crew on my way to the bar.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Ace’s been snatched.”

  Without another word, they both followed me. When we got the bar, one of the bartenders tossed his towel down then flipped the hatch up, coming through to the public side, his gaze locked onto us.

  “I saw the men who took your friend. I have a van. Come with me and I will help you find him.”

  We all followed him out to his vehicle, an old beat-up van, and as much as I appreciated the help, I had to ask. He’d be a moron to try to take us all on, especially while we were all on such high alert. It would be three Marines against one civilian. But he wouldn’t be the first idiot to try it, if he did go there.

  “Why are you helping us?”

  He turned and held my gaze, anger sparking in his eyes. “It is unnecessary. These men will ruin my business doing these things. Women are not possessions. They do not come here to be claimed like lost property. They come to have fun. Now, we must hurry before we are too late.”

  Confident he was on our side, I climbed into his van, with Bear and Ghost following my lead.

  Keys

  Our new friend drove us into the desert at a speed I had to appreciate. He wasn’t screwing around getting us to where he thought Ace was.

  “What do these guys normally do to the men they grab?”

  He sighed at Bear’s question. “That depends. Sometimes they just rough them up and leave them out here to find their own way home. But your friend is US military, I fear they will let their egos rule them. Your friend is going to need medical attention. I will stay in the van and wait for you, then take you back.”

  I reached forward to give his shoulder a squeeze. “Thank you. We appreciate all you’re doing for us.” Then I turned to Bear and Ghost. We’d all sat in the back of the van, rather than splitting up to have one of us in the front. “We need to not kill these guys if we can help it. I don’t want any of us getting stuck in prison over here.”

  They both nodded, then Bear spoke again. “We need to keep our new friend out of the mix too, if we’re leaving them alive. It ain’t right to risk these bastards gunning for him because he helped us.”

  I nodded in agreement. “He’s staying in the vehicle. And as much as we’re not killing anyone, we ain’t letting them walk away, either. I want every one of them unconscious before we leave.”

  I leaned forward to speak with the driver again.

  “When you think we’re getting close, turn off your lights if you can. We don’t want them to know we’re coming.”

  “They will know we are coming. Noise travels out here.”

  I looked around. He was right. The desert was basically flat here, with the occasional clump of trees or bushes.

  “Okay, well get us there as fast as you can then. Hopefully they’ll think we’re locals coming to join their fun.”

  “That is also my hope.”

  “You might want to get rid of the van afterwards. I’d hate for these fuckers to come after you once we’re gone.”

  He gave me a grim nod.

  A few minutes later he stopped behind another parked vehicle. The battered old truck had its headlights on, and they illuminated Ace’s broken body curled up on the ground. His attackers had stopped their assault on him to look toward us. The sight of Ace had fury clouding my vision red. I wanted to snap the necks of each one of those fuckers. I was grateful to Bear for the reminder to not kill them as the three of us rushed from the van. The moment they saw we weren’t locals they abandoned Ace and came at us.

  I grinned as I took out the first one who reached me with a single punch to the face.

  “Bring it on, you fucking bastards. Let’s see how you do now you’re not outnumbering your target six to one.”

  My words did the trick of enraging them, making them attack with more enthusiasm than skill. The five remaining should have realized they didn’t stand a chance against three pissed-off Marines. Using nothing but our fists and boots, we made short work of taking them down, not wanting to waste time in getting Ace to medical aid. I had no idea if any of the men we’d taken out would survive till morning, but that wasn’t our problem. So long as we could go back to base to report they’d all had heartbeats when we’d left them, we were good as far as I was concerned. While Bear and Ghost checked they were all down and staying that way, I went over to kneel beside Ace.

  “Fuck… I am so fucking sorry, Ace. Hold on brother. I’ve got you.”

  His body trembled and he groaned as I gathered him up in my arms before striding back to the van. I wasn’t sure if he was conscious or not as I moved, but I hoped he wasn’t. That he wasn’t feeling the pain from his injuries. Ideally, he shouldn’t be moved until a medic could come and stabilize him, but I wasn’t sure they even had ambulances here, and I was positive Ace didn’t
have enough time left to wait for them if they did. To complicate things, if one of his attackers came to before the medics arrived, I doubted I’d be able to hold back from killing them a second time.

  I gave Ghost a nod of approval as he popped the hood of their truck. I knew he’d make it so they wouldn’t be driving it back into town anytime soon. Bear opened the door of the van and I climbed in with Ace’s broken body still cradled against me. Once Ghost joined me and Bear, our new friend reversed, turned and headed back toward town.

  “Take us straight to the ER. His injuries are more than the base is equipped to handle.”

  He nodded at my words but stayed silent. I wasn’t sure if he was upset over what was done to Ace or the brutality of the beatdown we’d delivered in his defense. Not that I cared either way. So long as he got us to the hospital in time to save Ace, I was good.

  The rest of the drive was made in silence, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in conversation while I kept my attention on my injured friend. They’d beaten the hell out of him. Considering they hadn’t tried to attack us with weapons, I assumed they hadn’t used them on Ace either, but I still ran my gaze over every inch I could, searching for stab wounds or bullet holes. I was only mildly relieved to see none. They hadn’t needed weapons to do some serious damage. His right leg was clearly broken in multiple places, his right arm looked like it was injured in a similar manner. He’d been on his left side when we’d arrived, the ground protecting that side of his body, so it didn’t appear as wounded, but was by no means uninjured.