Forging Blade (Charon MC Book 11)

by Khloe Wren

  I liked coming into Styx, it held a lot of charm. And it didn’t try to pretend to be something it wasn’t. So many bars tried to make themselves into night clubs, but not Styx. The music was old-school rock and it wasn’t turned up to a level that would leave your ears bleeding. The lighting was dim, but not so dark you couldn’t see the person next to you. The bar and tables were made out of polished timber and the chairs and stools were all sturdy enough to hold the weight of the largest of bikers. The clientele suited me too. They were rough and real. No fancy businessmen in suits and ties came here. The other thing I loved, was everyone left you alone. The three of us came in at least a couple times a month and sat at our table to watch those around us and never once had anyone bothered us.

  Following our usual routine, we went to the bar, ordered drinks then made our way to our table, which, thankfully was empty. Once I slid onto the seat, I put my purse in the center of the table. Sophie and Laura did the same thing. Then, after sucking down the first icy-cold mouthful of my gin and tonic, I took in the scenery for the first time.

  Styx was one of the few places I didn’t scope out the moment I entered. From the first time I’d come in, I’d felt safe here. It also helped that I knew nothing on this earth could entice my upper-class uncle to come in here for any reason.

  So that’s how I ended up with a mouthful of liquid when I saw him. The shock of seeing those striking blue irises staring straight at me had my breath catching. Then, because I hadn’t swallowed the mouthful of my drink I’d taken, I half choked on it. Grabbing a napkin, I tried to not attract too much attention but it was getting a little late for that. Laura was thumping my back and Sophie was nearly peeing herself with laughter. My eyes were blurry from unshed tears and my sinuses were stinging from being doused in alcohol.

  Finally, I stopped coughing and could take a damn breath.

  “Here, darlin’, drink some water.” Nitro, the tall biker who was manning the bar more often than not when we came in, had come over, setting down a tall glass of ice water in front of me. I could feel the heat in my cheeks and knew I must look a hot mess. My eyes most likely were all red from the tears, my cheeks pink with embarrassment. I hoped that my mascara held and I didn’t also have raccoon eyes going on to top off my look.

  After a couple mouthfuls of water I cleared my throat. “Thanks. Turns out breathing liquid doesn’t end well.”

  Once he was convinced I was going to be okay, he chuckled at my words before he turned and returned to his place behind the bar.

  “Oh, hell, that was so damn embarrassing. I’m just gonna go into the bathroom and see what the damage is.”

  Laura and Sophie were both trying—poorly—to contain their laughter as those around us got back to what they’d been doing before I put on a show. I shook my head at them as I stood, grabbed my purse and headed for the bathroom.

  Thanks to my mascara living up to its promise of being tear-proof, it didn’t take me long to wipe my eyes—carefully, because I only had so much faith in that waterproof mascara—and be on my way back out to my girls.

  “Oh.”

  He was there waiting, casually leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom door. At my gasp, his gaze snapped up and caught mine. My heart started racing as he tilted his head and kept looking at me.

  “You okay?”

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah. Accidentally inhaled some of my drink. Not my finest moment.”

  His lips quirked up but the smile didn’t hold.

  “I wanted to apologize for last week at the hospital. I didn’t mean to freak you out. Not sure why I even did it, to be honest.”

  As much as I was impressed he even remembered me, I didn’t want him feeling guilty over something that should have been a non-issue.

  “Listen, Jared—”

  “It’s Blade.”

  I frowned. “Huh?”

  “My name. It’s Blade. No one calls me Jared anymore.”

  “Oh, ah, okay. Well, Blade, it wasn’t your fault. I, ah, I have some history that makes me a little more skittish than your average woman. I didn’t mean to react like I did and I’m sorry it’s had you worrying about me. Really, I’m fine.”

  He nodded. “I’ll believe you if you let me take you out on a date so I can apologize properly.”

  My mind spun. A date? I’d basically just admitted I was a nut job and he wanted to what? Date me?

  “Are you mad?”

  He chuckled, the deep sound vibrating down my spine. “I’ve been called worse. So, will you let me take you out? We can meet somewhere, if you’d prefer. Keep it all in public and safe.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t date.”

  His forehead crinkled. “What the hell do you mean you don’t date? You’re beautiful and young. How the fuck don’t you date? I would have thought you’d be beating men off with a stick.”

  He was stubborn. I barely knew this man. And you won’t, if you don’t give him a chance. Apparently my subconscious was lonely. Or horny. Maybe both. He’d offered to meet me somewhere public. Maybe if we kept it to daylight hours, it might work. He wouldn’t try anything handsy if we were in public in the day time, surely?

  “Okay, no date. How about coffee, then? You working Saturday?”

  I couldn’t hold in my smile at this man’s persistence. It seemed he really wanted to see me again. I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t regret this…

  “Okay. Ten-thirty, Marie’s Cafe, this Saturday.”

  He gave me a grin and a nod, but didn’t reach for me. “Thank you, baby. You won’t regret it.”

  I winced at the endearment I hated with a passion. “Please don’t call me that.”

  He cocked his head. “You mean all endearments or just baby?”

  “Just that one. I’m born and bred Texan, so trust me, I’m used to endearments in general. It’s just that one I don’t like.”

  He gave me another nod. “I’ll need to think of something else then, something special.” He held me with his gaze as he stood away from the wall and moved slowly closer to me. My breath caught in my throat as my heart pounded against my ribs. My gaze dropped to his lips, which were surrounded by a short beard. They looked soft. Was he going to kiss me? Did I want him to? I was stuck. I had no clue what to do, what I wanted. With a whimper I bit at my lower lip and lifted my gaze back to his. Those striking blue irises of his caught my full attention and calmed my mind.

  When he got too close for me to stay focused on, my eyes slid shut, waiting for him to do whatever it was he was going to. The soft hair of his beard tickled my skin a moment before his lips, which were as soft as they looked, pressed a gentle kiss to the side of my temple.

  “Till Saturday, my little dove.”

  Be still my heart.

  Blade

  Walking away from Veronica last night was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. The woman was as sweet as she was skittish. There was definitely something going on under the surface with her. I wasn’t sure if she was on the run and hiding, or if it was something simpler like her last boyfriend being a fucking bastard to her. Either way, I wanted to find out more, if I could, before I met her tomorrow at Marie’s Cafe.

  That was why I was up earlier than usual this morning and jogging down the stairs to the lower level of the clubhouse. I’d spoken with Keys last night before leaving Styx and he’d told me to meet him in his office at ten. When I got to his office, I knocked on the open door before I made my way in. He was behind his desk, intently staring at the laptop screen in front of him.

  “Hey, Keys.”

  He tapped away for a few more seconds before he stopped and switched his focus to me.

  “How serious are you about this girl?”

  I took a seat and leaned back before answering him. “Not sure. Only met her twice. We have some killer chemistry but she’s skittish as hell. My instincts say there’s something deeper going on with her.” I shrugged a shoulder. “Mac mentioned your club likes to keep tabs on women who
might be running from something, so even if she and I don’t pan out, I think it’s something worth checking into.”

  Keys nodded. “Yeah, after everything that went down with Zara, Mercedes, and a few of the other women around town, we started thinking it would be a good idea for us to be a little more proactive in sensing these threats before they hit us.” He paused for a minute, looking to his screen again and hitting a few keys.

  “My old lady, Donna, is a nurse up at the hospital. I asked her about your Veronica but she hasn’t had much to do with her. Guess the younger ones do their own thing outside of work. She did say that she’s never seen her cause trouble and she’s always done a good job whenever Donna’s worked with her. So with that being a dead end, I headed to the web.”

  He stopped and gave me a raised eyebrow which just frustrated the fuck out of me.

  “And? What have you found?”

  “Turns out, you’re right. Veronica Jones ain’t her real name. Not sure what her real one is just yet, but the Veronica identity was a budget job. Easy to pick it’s fake with a little digging. However, it’s taking me a little longer to dig up her real identity. When are you seeing her again?”

  “I’m meeting her at Marie’s Cafe tomorrow morning. Why?”

  “Because Scout and I might come crash your date. We need to know what she’s running from and if it’s likely to come at us.”

  Panic had my heart skipping a beat as I shook my head. “She’ll run if you do that. She’s skittish as hell. I’m not even sure she’ll actually turn up tomorrow. I was a little shocked she agreed to it, to be honest.”

  Keys glared my way. “How, exactly, did you get to the point of asking her out then, if she’s that damn skittish?”

  I frowned at him. “You asking how we met?”

  “More than that. I can figure out that you met at the hospital, I’m more interested in what happened after that first meeting.”

  I took the man in. He was probably in his early to mid-sixties and had lived life hard. He had a glint in his eye that had me certain he’d done time in the military at some point. From Mac, I knew Keys was the club’s IT guy. The one who, if he didn’t already know something, knew exactly how to find it out.

  I liked Veronica. There was something about the woman that drew me in and had me dreaming of more. Something I’d not even considered since the day my dad handed my ass over to Sabella. There was a fragility I sensed beneath her surface that I wanted to protect, and fresh on the reality of how poorly I’d protected Josefina, I decided to trust Keys with her.

  “She was the one who saw me to redress my burns at the hospital. All was going well, nice, casual chatting while she did her thing. Then without fucking thinking, I reached out to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. My fingers grazed her cheek and she shut right down. Took a few minutes, but she came back to reality and finished patching me up, but was all professional about it. The friendly banter from earlier had vanished. I tried to apologize but I doubt she heard me since she was still lost in thought at the time. Then she was done and gone before I could get the words out to try again.”

  “So your hiding out in your room wasn’t just over the woman in L.A. but this one too? Damn, man, you’re working on cornering the market on guilt, aren’t you? You sure you didn’t just startle her?”

  “Yeah, seems I got a talent. And no, she got lost in her head for a few minutes. Her skin paled—hell, I thought she was gonna pass out on me for a little bit. Once I left the hospital, I figured I wouldn’t see her again, not since my burns were healing up fine. Then yesterday, I guess Mac got sick of me wallowing around upstairs and he dragged me over to his place, then later over to Styx. No one was more shocked then me when she came strolling in with two friends.” I smiled as I remembered what happened next. “She and her girls went to the bar, got drinks then settled in at one of the rear tables. When she looked up and caught me staring at her, she choked on her drink.”

  Keys chuckled. “Heard about that. Didn’t realize it was your chick. Okay, so she had a reaction to seeing your ugly mug. What’d you do about it?”

  “When she went to the bathroom I waited in the hallway for her. When she came out, she hadn’t expected to see me there, but she wasn’t scared, exactly. I kept my place by the wall and we chatted. Apologized again, she told me it wasn’t my fault. Then, when I asked her on a date, she froze up, got ready to panic. So I backtracked, told her we’d start small. Daytime, in public. In the end, she suggested we have coffee at Marie’s tomorrow morning. But, Keys, I’m serious. That woman is constantly on the verge of running. You and Scout come in and she’ll freak the fuck out and bolt on me.”

  Keys shrugged. “Okay. We’ll leave you to it for now. But see if you can find out where she’s from, or where she was born, at least. Anything to give me a start on looking for her real ID. The chances anything’s gonna come for her are slim. She’s been in town for seven years already and nothing’s found her yet. That said, you notice anyone following her or anything even remotely suspicious, you need to come tell us.”

  I went to stand. “Easy enough. That all you need me for?”

  He nodded. “Yep. What’s your plan for the rest of the day?”

  That had me grinning. “Figured I might go up to Kingwood and do a little shopping.”

  Keys’ eyes lit up like a damn Christmas tree at the mention of the town with the closest Harley dealership. “That right? You ridden before?”

  “Yeah, used to have a Heritage Classic, but Sabella made me get rid of it. Some shit about it not befitting his organization.” I held my arm out and flexed my wrist, the tug on my healing burns wasn’t too bad now. “Think I’ve healed up enough to ride without too much trouble.”

  “Yeah, good deal. Who’s going with you up there?”

  “Mac and Sparrow.”

  His expression softened at the teen’s name. “That kid’s something else, isn’t she? Only met her real quick the other day but she seems to be settling in with Mac and his crew well.”

  “Yeah, she’s a fighter, for sure. It’ll take her while to adjust to her new reality fully, I’m sure. But she’s definitely made a good start. I just hope she doesn’t try to talk me into getting a fucking purple bike or some shit.”

  Keys barked out a laugh. “I’m sure she’ll try it. Good luck, man and let me know when you get back so I can come check it out.”

  I headed to the door chuckling. “You just wanna see if I do give in to whatever the hell Sparrow will try to talk me into.”

  “Well, yeah, that too.”

  As I headed down the hall toward the main bar, my mind went back to Veronica. What the hell had happened to her that she’d needed a new identity? It was going to be hard to not ask her tomorrow, to pretend like I didn’t know information about her that she hadn’t told me herself. Especially when it was so fucking important. I couldn’t keep her safe if I didn’t know everything.

  Chapter Four

  Veronica

  At ten-thirty-five I rushed through the door to Marie’s Cafe, hoping like hell Jared, er, I mean Blade hadn’t been waiting for too long. Or even worse, had thought I’d stood him up and had left. I skidded to a halt when I saw he was up at the counter, by the big coffee machine, chatting with a beautiful woman with a mane of strawberry blonde hair standing behind the machine. Jealousy ripped through me like a knife and stole my breath. I took a step back, intending on going back out and getting far away from Blade and this cafe.

  “Hey, Veronica! You made it.”

  My feet wouldn’t move as he prowled over toward me. The way that man’s hips rolled when he walked was sigh-worthy. But, wait, I was mad at him. I’d caught him flirting with another woman. Not that we were like a thing or anything… Before I could convince my feet to take me back outside, he was standing in front of me, wrapping one arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. Out of reflex, I raised my palms, which landed against his hard, toned pecs. The thin button-down shirt he wore did nothing
to stop the heat coming off him from radiating through to my palms.

  “Thought you’d stood me up for a minute there, darlin’. Thought I was gonna have to come find you.”

  I could hear the humor in his voice, but the words still made me shudder. I didn’t need anyone else out there trying to find me.

  “Just running a little late, that’s all.” I nodded to the counter. “You know her?”

  I caught his smirk a moment before he leaned in and, just like Thursday night, pressed a gentle kiss to the side of my temple.

  “Zara is Mac’s old lady. It’s cute you’re jealous, though.”

  He pulled away but kept his hand on my lower back and guided me over to a table.

  “I am not jealous. And what the hell do you mean, old lady?”

  The woman looked about my age, certainly not old.

  Like a total gentleman, he pulled the chair out for me, before he moved to sit himself.

  “Sure, little dove, you’re not jealous at all when you came racing in here to see me, only to find me chatting with another woman. You weren’t trying to backpedal outta here, hoping I didn’t see you. And an old lady is what bikers call their woman. Not necessarily their wife, although I do believe Mac and Zara are legally married.”

  Before I could think of something to say back, the woman in question was beside our table.

  “Hi, I’m Zara. It’s lovely to meet you. You’re a nurse at the hospital, right? I think I’ve seen you up there. Do you know Donna? She’s with one of the other brothers.”

  The woman was so warm and friendly, I found myself smiling and introducing myself before I knew what I was doing.

  “Hi, um, yeah I’m a nurse, and I’ve worked with Donna before, but I don’t know her well. I’m Veronica.”

  Zara gave me a huge smile. “Ah, well, keep hanging out with Blade and I’m sure you’ll spend more time with her around the clubhouse and get to know her better. She really is a lovely woman. Anyhow, let me take your order and I’ll let you get back to chatting.”