“No. I know how important this meeting is. I’ll be fine right here,” she said. “Give me a kiss before you leave?”
“Always.” Iron stooped by her bed, then kissed her on the mouth. “I’ll be back here before you know it.”
“I’m counting on it,” she said. “I’m making dinner tonight.”
“Oh. Any clues?” he asked.
“Let’s see. Beef lasagna?”
Damn. His woman was too good for him. Amber knew that was his favorite dish. He told her his mom used to make beef lasagna for him on his birthdays.
“I’ll look forward to it,” he said. “Maybe I can bring dessert. I can stop by May’s Diner. Apple pie?”
“That would be great. Can you also get some vanilla ice cream so we can have pie ala mode?”
“Will do, baby. If you need anything else, text or call me,” he said. Iron moved his ass out of the bedroom before he decided he wanted to stay after all.
Chapter Ten
Amber forgot the most important ingredient for dinner. Ground beef. Two hours after Iron left, she took a shower and did a little work on her laptop. She finished early, so she decided to make dinner preparations. She bought every other ingredient but the beef beforehand.
“Good thing there’s a local grocer two streets away,” Amber told herself.
She grabbed her coat and purse, then left her apartment building. On the sidewalk outside the building, she paused. Since the start of the week, she had the creepy sensation phantom eyes were watching her. A young mother pushing a stroller walked past right her, then a late-afternoon jogger. She looked around the street, searching for… Amber didn’t know exactly what.
That electric-blue Toyota across the street seemed suspicious. She squinted. Seeing the outline of a man at the driver’s wheel made her heart beat a little faster. This was ridiculous. Paranoia was just getting the better of her. Why would anyone stalk her?
Amber reached for her cell phone by instinct. Calling Iron right now would be silly. Knowing him, he’d drop everything and come straight to her, even if there wasn’t an emergency. What would she tell him? That she suspected someone had been watching her since Monday? It was Friday today. He’d ask her why she didn’t tell him earlier.
She opened up the last text she received from David instead, the one telling her he hired someone to find her. Amber had planned on changing her phone number, but she received no other new messages or calls from her ex. She figured he’d finally moved on. His obsession with her didn’t make any sense. They were both miserable when they were together. He blamed her for every misfortune in his life.
Amber silently prayed David had gotten over her. Even better, maybe someone got wise and put him away in an institution where he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else. Wistful thinking.
“Stop thinking about him. There’s no one watching you, silly,” she said.
An elderly woman gave her a strange look, then walked away. Probably thought Amber was crazy, talking to herself like that. She pulled out Google Maps and searched for the grocery. A ten-minute walk. Twenty for the entire round trip. Not too bad. Amber rushed to the store. At five in the afternoon, the store wasn’t crowded yet.
She didn’t bother with a basket. Amber walked right to the meat section. Once she had the ground meat, she made her purchase quickly and hurried on home. There was it again. A tingling and unpleasant sensation at the back of her neck. She rubbed at the spot with her free hand. Amber turned a full 360 degrees.
She was back in her neighborhood. That blue Toyota was still there. So was the figure by the wheel. Creepy. For all she knew, the person was homeless, and the car was his home. Her phone beeped and she nearly jumped out of her skin. A text from Iron.
Iron: Meeting finished early. Almost there. I got the pie and ice cream.
Relief filled her after reading his message. Amber didn’t use to be the kind of woman who relied on her man for every little thing. Before she met David, she’d been headstrong. Reckless. David had broken her down, turned her into a coward. Amber clenched the strap containing her grocery tightly. While she couldn’t be the same naïve girl David had met, she refused to continue acting like a prey animal.
Amber reached the steps of her apartment building. She didn’t know what made her look over her shoulder, back at the blue car on the curb. She blinked as a light went off. Not a light. A flash. The familiar hum of a motorcycle engine distracted her. Iron parked his bike not far from where she was standing. He hummed under his breath and took out two paper bags from the back compartment of his bike.
His entire face lit up when he saw her. Iron jogged up to her, a big grin on his face. Tension melted away from her body. He was here. Nothing was wrong. Everything was perfect, just like earlier this afternoon when she showed him around his place and they made love. Amber could want for nothing else. Who knew moving to a small remote town where an MC was the law would be the best decision she ever made?
“Hey, beautiful. Were you waiting for me?” he asked her.
“Oh.” Amber snapped back to reality. “I forgot the ground beef, so I made a quick trip to the grocer. Dinner won’t be ready anytime soon.”
“I can wait,” Iron said. “Maybe I can be your little cooking assistant.”
That got a laugh out of her. “Trust me. Nothing about you is small, baby.”
Iron widened his grin. Amber gasped. She couldn’t believe she just called him that.
“Aw. You called me baby. Let’s go inside. It’s freezing out here. Aren’t you cold?” he asked her.
Amber didn’t know what made her stand on tiptoe to look over his broad shoulder. She expected the strange blue car to be gone, a figment of her imagination. Nope. It was still there. Amber felt stupid, but she finally noticed the car had New York City plates. What the hell?
That wasn’t good news at all.
“Amber, what’s wrong?” Iron asked. His expression turned serious as he grasped her shoulders. For the next few seconds, time moved in slow motion. The car door opened, and the driver emerged, wearing a gray hoodie and faded jeans. He looked nothing like the David she knew who always dressed in designer clothes and tailored suits, but Amber knew it was him. Same built and height. Same blazing green eyes filled with monstrous hate.
David pulled out something shiny, small, and sleek from the pocket of his hoodie. A gun. Iron turned, following her gaze. No, no, she thought in panic. This was all her fault. She couldn’t drag Iron into her mess. Iron must’ve figured out what she intended to do, because he tried to block her, but Amber was smaller. Faster. She ducked under his arm just as David pulled the trigger.
A sudden burst of pain shot through her chest, and Amber was falling. Strong arms caught her. Iron’s concentrated expression loomed above her haze-filled vision. People on the street were shouting. She touched Iron’s cheek, leaving a smear of blood on it. Where did that come from? Iron opened his mouth, but she couldn’t hear what he was telling her. His voice sounded very far away. She closed her eyes and felt nothing more.
****
“Amber, stay with me,” Iron repeated over and over.
His woman closed his eyes and fell limp in his arms. This fucking wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. How could everything go wrong in a span of a few seconds? Just this afternoon, he left her sleeping and satisfied in bed. She felt weightless in his arms. Her blood was still on his cheek.
Iron turned his head to the shooter. It could only be one person. Someone on the street shouted, but Iron didn’t hear what he said. Footsteps neared him. Mrs. Thompson. She dropped what she was carrying when she saw Amber. A basket containing scones. Iron vaguely remembered Amber mentioning Mrs. Thompson was coming over today or during the weekend to congratulate her on her new place.
“She’s shot,” Iron said numbly. What the fuck was he doing, just sitting around? “Mrs. Thompson, I need you to do something for me.”
“I’ll call for an ambulance,” she said.
“No, before
you do that. Take a picture of that asshole’s license plate if you can,” he said. “The police might need it.”
Mrs. Thompson fumbled for her phone from her purse. David had gotten in his car and started to drive away, but Mrs. Thompson managed to capture a photo.
“I’ve already called the police,” someone else said. It was Mr. Hill, the owner of the town’s general store. Mr. Hill always dealt with the club fairly.
“Yes, I have an emergency. A woman has been shot,” Mrs. Thompson was saying. She clutched at her cell phone tightly. That was one good thing about small towns. Everyone worked together when a tragedy struck. No, Iron refused to call it that. Still holding Amber, he asked Mrs. Thompson to make another phone call for him. She held the phone to his ear.
Saint immediately picked up. “Problem?”
“I need your help,” Iron said in a broken voice. He cleared his throat and explained the situation.
“Are the paramedics on the way?” Saint asked.
“Yeah, they’ll be here soon.” Iron was a mess of emotions, but he needed to keep a cool head on his shoulders. The need to go after David warred with staying with Amber. She needed him more. He could leave the hunt for that spineless bastard to his brothers.
“Have Mary send the license plate image to me. I’ll deploy the others to go after this fucker. He won’t make it out of Redemption in one piece,” Saint said. The MC President knew how important Amber was to him. That Iron had been planning to propose to Amber and make her his old lady sooner or later.
“I need him alive,” Iron said.
“He’ll be all yours once we’ve captured him,” Saint said, ending the call.
“Did you hear all that?” he asked Mrs. Thompson.
She stared at Amber’s unconscious figure in his arms and didn’t say anything as she forwarded the photo to Saint.
“The shooter,” Mrs. Thompson said while they waited. “Was he the man who hurt Amber? The one she left?”
“Yeah. I guess he realized if he couldn’t have her back, no one else could,” Iron said in a dead voice. He finally looked at Amber. At the blood pooling over her chest. She was still breathing, so that was something, but for how long? Where the fuck were the paramedics? Mrs. Thompson tore pieces of her dress and the two of them tried to contain the bleeding.
By the time the ambulance had arrived, Iron was strangely calm. Before he entered the ambulance to sit with Amber, Mrs. Thompson grabbed his arm.
“Make sure that bastard gets what he deserves,” she whispered in a vehement voice.
He gave her a nod and entered the ambulance. Mrs. Thompson wouldn’t tell the cops that Iron and the MC had plans for David. At least he had one less problem to worry about. While the paramedics did all they could, he tried to stay out of their way. When Amber grasped his hand and her eyes flew open, he was stunned.
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Stay strong for me, baby,” he told her. “I need you. You’re a fucking survivor, and you’ll come out of this.”
Amber closed her eyes again. He didn’t let her hand go the entire drive. When they arrived at the hospital, a nurse gently said, “You have to let her hand go now, son. I heard what happened from the paramedics. She’ll be taken care of.”
Iron refused to listen. A familiar face appeared.
“Iron, we need to operate on her now,” Olivia said. He’d almost forgotten that Saint’s old lady worked at this hospital.
“Please do everything you can. I can’t lose her. I love her too much,” he whispered.
“We will,” Olivia promised. “But you’ve got to give her to our care.”
Iron relented. He felt utterly helpless as they wheeled Amber away for an emergency operation. He paced the corridor back and forth until Bear arrived.
“Let’s sit down. You’re scaring the hospital staff, or if you need some fresh air—” Bear started, but Iron cut him off.
He glared at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Okay, I get that you’re worried to death, but you got to be patient. The doctors here know what they’re doing,” Bear reminded him.
Bear had a point. This hospital had probably seen plenty of injured MC members come and go. Iron sat on one of the uncomfortable plastic benches in the waiting room. A phone started to ring. Iron nearly shot out of his seat. He was that anxious. Bear stood up and answered a call.
“Good news. We got the fucker. He’s been taken to the back of the clubhouse,” Bear said. “We’ll let him stew in chains until you’re ready to deal with him.”
“Thanks. His car? Any witnesses?”
“No one else saw. He was zipping out of town like a spooked ghost. Let us worry about everything else. Your woman comes first.”
Iron had to agree. They were the longest hours of his life, but the doctor eventually emerged after three hours of surgery with Olivia. She was smiling. They had good news for him.
Chapter Eleven
When Amber woke up, her head felt heavy. She tried to sit up in bed, but her limbs refused to obey her. One small movement sent a spear of agony throughout her body.
“Hey, baby. You can’t move too much yet,” said a familiar voice.
Iron rose from the armchair next to the bed and sat beside her. He took her hands in his.
“Why are you acting like I’m dying or I’ve almost…” Amber trailed off and finally noticed where she was.
In a hospital room. She looked down and could see bandages under her gown. She took a bullet for Iron in the chest, she remembered. Being shot felt like a distant dream, except once the meds wore off, she’d definitely be able to feel the pain.
“You saved my life, baby. You also scared me half to death,” Iron said.
“David’s my problem. If you died defending me, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself,” she said. If she could reverse time, she’d do it all over again. Amber decided to keep those words to herself. She shut her eyes for a few seconds, then found the courage to ask him the dreaded question. “David got away, didn’t he?”
Sure, David had a nasty temper and used his fists when things didn’t get in his way. Never in Amber’s wildest imagination did she think him capable of shooting someone. Her.
“No, we nabbed him before he left Redemption,” Iron said. He spoke in a quiet voice, but his big body shook with silent rage. Iron leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. I’ll personally take care of him.”
Amber opened her mouth, about to protest, then she closed it. When she first arrived in Redemption, she was terrified of the brand of justice Iron and his MC brothers preached, but now? David came from an affluent family. He was a lawyer who knew how to twist the law to his own means. David knew how to avoid going to jail on numerous occasions.
How many times had she wished someone would rid the world of him so he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore? That she wouldn’t need to go to bed worrying he was lurking in one dark corner, ready to finish the job he started?
“Amber?” Iron asked.
“Good,” she whispered, finally meeting his gaze.
“Leave it to me,” he said.
Someone knocked on the door and another big and inked biker entered.
“Amber, you remember Saint?” Iron asked her.
She nodded. Iron had introduced her to the gruff MC President during a barbecue the MC threw in the local park.
“How are you feeling, Amber?” Saint asked, closing the door behind him.
“I’ve been better,” she admitted.
“I heard the selfless deed you did for Iron,” Saint said.
Amber shook her head. “Nothing about it was selfless. David came here because of me.”
“He’s just one small scum in the pond you needn’t worry about anymore,” Saint said. “Anyway, I just came here to check on Iron and you. I’ll leave you two to your privacy.”
“Thanks for coming, Saint.” Amber remembered the concerned a
nd pretty nurse coming and going to her room during her moments of lucidness. Her name had been Olivia. Saint’s wife, she remembered. “Can you also thank Olivia for me?” she added.
“Will do.” Saint paused by the door. “Remember, Amber. We always take care of our own. Welcome to the family.”
Amber blinked and looked at Iron. “Did he just acknowledge me as part of the MC?”
“That’s right, baby. Saint and everyone in the MC know how important you are to me,” Iron said. “The first day I met you, I knew I always intended to keep you.”
Her heart beat a little faster at those words. “Yeah?”
Iron nodded. He stood up, only to kneel beside the bed. She gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. Iron pulled out a little black velvet box from the front pocket of his jacket.
“I planned on doing this when you’re out of the hospital, but I can’t wait anymore. Amber Chase, will you marry me?” he asked.
Time came to a standstill. How often had Amber dreamed of this moment ever since they’d started dating each other? Countless. After losing Michael and running out on David, she never pictured herself entering a new relationship with another man, especially not a biker.
When those two bikers confronted them on that hill, she was hesitant to get to know Iron better. She thought she couldn’t date an MC man, couldn’t welcome further violence in her life. In the end, Iron turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to her. The MC was everything to Iron, and so was she. Once Amber got to know Iron’s MC brothers and the old ladies in the MC a little better, she realized she was so very wrong about all of them.
Sure, they got in trouble with the law every now and then and violence was their way of life, but as Saint put in, they always had each other’s back.
“Amber? You haven’t given me an answer.” Iron sounded a little worried. Amber had let her mind drift.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Of course, I want to marry you. Sorry, I was just thinking.”
Iron beamed. He stood up and put the ring on her finger. It was a plain gold band with a small diamond in the center. It was a perfect fit. She held the ring to the light and couldn’t stop smiling. With David out of the picture, she could finally stop worrying about her past and look toward her promising future with Iron.
Bending Iron (Fallen Saints MC Book 5) Page 7
