Blow Out (Steel Veins Book 1)

by Jackson Kane

  “I don’t know what to say. This is all happening so fast.” Dad’s mouth hung agape, he was so taken aback at the request. He tried to answer but stumbled over his every half reply before finally throwing his hands up in defeat and turning to Mom instead. “Honey?”

  With slightly narrowed eyes, Mom searched my face with a contemplative gaze. It was as if she was trying to figure out who exactly I had become in my time away. It hadn't even been a full year ago when Remy showed up at my uncle’s gas station. Now, after all that blood, horror, and heartache, I had become so much more than the lost, obsessive, and misguided little girl my parents worried after. I didn’t need saving anymore.

  I had finally become my own woman.

  “We trust our daughter,” she said proudly. Her words were warm and resolute and filled me to the brim with grateful acceptance. “And we support anything she decides.”

  Remy beamed as he turned back to me. I was still too shocked to say anything at all. It was all I could do not to cry.

  “Regardless of how dark the nights became, you have always been my shining north star. I'm hopelessly lost without you, Star.” Remy pulled his chair out and dropped to one knee. “Will you marry me?”

  “Right now?” My knee-jerk reaction was a really stupid thing to say and, of course, not at all what I meant. I clamped a hand over my mouth in embarrassment. Asking for my parents’ permission to marry me was crazy and totally not at all something I ever thought Remy would do, but then again the concept of family meant something to him.

  “Not right now.” Remy let out an entertained little chuckle at catching me so off guard. “I don't want that part to be a surprise. Pretty sure the ceremony is gonna take some planning.”

  I glanced at my parents, who were justifiably hesitant but were also smiling and caught up in the sweetness of the moment. After several long seconds, Mom raised her eyebrows and turned her palms up in a well, what are you going to say gesture.

  “Shit!” I snapped out of my paralysis, realizing I had to say something. “Yes. Yes! I do!”

  Epilogue

  Remy

  “You fucked up putting me in this nice suit, bro.” Tee wore a wide grin as he plucked at his collar before doing a smooth spin in the mirror. He looked dapper in his black, best man suit. “Gonna steal the show. I look better than the groom.”

  “You're right. Take that shit off.” I looked at him thoughtfully for a moment as I slipped on my gray, two-button suit jacket. “There's a trash bag in the corner that I'm going to need you to change into.”

  Tee hung out with me in the rec room of the fully remodeled Our Lady of Resurrection Church just outside Boise City while I finished getting ready. It was weird and a little comforting being back here. When Mom was still around, we all used to come here every Sunday. Those few years were probably the most stable in my life. So when Star suggested we have the wedding here, it just made sense. Father Jameson and the church saved my life a few times. I thought of when Star first visited this place desperately trying to find my bug-out stash and smiled.

  The church would save my life in a different way this time.

  Clean shaven and with a sharp haircut, I certainly looked the part of dashing husband while I adjusted the cuffs and collar of my wedding tux in the mirror. It was a nice three-piece gray outfit that fit me better than almost anything else I owned.

  Almost anything....

  I slipped off the fine, wool coat and tossed it on a chair, replacing it with my worn, leather jacket and MC cut. There it was. With the girl I loved by my side and the Steel Veins on my back, I felt like the best version of myself.

  “The fucking club is going to lose their shit when they see you wearing that, pres.” Tee smiled broadly, respectfully. “I better get out there and keep the peace. Don't go losing your shit until I get back.”

  “Fuck off.” I straightened my bow tie and cocked my head to the door. “I got this.”

  When Tee left and I was alone for the first time that day, I felt my nerves set in. I cracked open a worn paperback copy of At the Mountains Of Madness to keep me distracted and calm my nerves, but it didn't take. I couldn't concentrate and sank heavy into a chair. I pressed my hands tightly over my face.

  Fuck, did I have this?

  Marriage was a big fucking deal.

  I knew I loved Star more than life itself, so that wasn't why I felt so nervous. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, the apprehension over the whole thing rolled over me in waves. It was never this bad with Maria, but that was a million years ago and we were just stupid kids. I was dumb enough to believe I knew everything about everything.

  It wasn't waves this time, but a tsunami.

  Would Star really be happy in this MC life with me?

  Would I be able to continue to protect her from our enemies?

  Was I... good enough for Star?

  An abrupt pounding on the door stole away my self-doubt long enough to get me up off my ass. Hendrix and Mason, two of our newer members, stood in the doorway. Both men were more cleaned up than I'd ever seen them. They wore black slacks, button-down black shirts, and ties with their cuts over top, and of course had the same shit-eating grin.

  “Christ...,” I muttered. “Tee sent you, didn't he?”

  “Think of us as your personal escort.” Hendrix crossed his massive arms and leaned against the frame. The wood whined against his weight. To say Hendrix was a big bastard was an understatement. At well over six feet tall, he had the mass of a long-haired pickup truck that walked around on two legs. We all worried for his girl, Maya. Not because he was bad to her, but just because she was so damn slight in comparison.

  No one knew how the hell he didn't split that poor girl in half when they fucked.

  “More like your babysitter,” Mason added sharply. He was a little taller than me, but nowhere near as large as Hendrix, and unlike Hendrix who wore his long hair pulled back for the occasion, Mason let his layered, brown hair fall around his neck and shoulders. You really couldn't take the biker out of these men regardless of what they were wearing. “Make sure you don't fuck up too bad before you say your vows.”

  “Because you're such a paragon of good decision-making, Mason?” My scoff turned into a deep belly laugh that actually made me feel a little better. “Tee should've sent your boss to keep an eye on me instead. I trust her judgment a hell of a lot more than yours.”

  “Elisha is what happens if you get away from us.” Mason barked a laugh. “You don't fuck with your fiancée’s best friend... especially when she's a badass bounty hunter.”

  I smirked then clasped the two men on the shoulders and led us all out of the church to where the ceremony would actually be. More people had arrived since I went inside to get ready. A lot more. The crazy bike turnout gave huge festivals like Sturgis Rally a run for its money. It was a good thing Star and Elisha had coordinated with the local PD to get the streets closed, because it was a fucking madhouse out here. Thousands of members, friends of the club, family, and even civilian residents of our hometown, Leslie, clogged the streets and sidewalks for several blocks in every direction.

  Then, like a lit cigarette landing in the dry brush of a field in drought season, people started to see me and cheers spread across the crowd like fucking wildfire. My babysitters who flanked me on either side became my crowd control as we made our way down the middle of the street. It was a sea of happy, excited, and half-drunk faces. Familiar faces. Faces that had been vetted and had earned the MC's trust.

  Hendrix and Mason were solid guys, and being that they were part of the newest batch of full patch members gave me a lot of hope for the future of the MC. It reinforced my confidence in gutting the old Steel Veins and refocusing us to strive for quality over quantity. We might no longer be as big as some of the other clubs, and we damn sure had our enemies—the Broken Veins being the most dangerous—but knowing the kind of men we had in the club made me sleep better at night.

  Come what hell.

 
We were strong enough to deal with whatever came our way.

  I greeted everyone and shook more hands than a politician as we walked down the middle of the street. The throng of people eventually parted enough to see just how good a job Tee and Maya had done setting up the site of the wedding itself. It was truly a sight to be seen. Everyone from the Leslie chapter had their bikes lined up in two neat rows with their headlights facing inward and a string of white Christmas lights threaded across their handlebars. It created an aisle that led to a flower-covered arch before the raised ceremony platform in the middle of an intersection.

  I greeted Star's parents, who were sitting in a row of chairs between the bikes and the platform. They looked equal parts excited and terrified.

  “Are there always this many?” her father asked when I shook his hand. His nervous smile was trying to cover up his obvious discomfort, but I could also tell from his demeanor that he was trying to keep an open mind about all this.

  “Only on special occasions,” I replied, then winked at Star's mom. “And there's nothing more special than your daughter.”

  I chatted with Star's parents as Mason and Hendrix both went to stand with their better halves. Elisha and Maya looked beautiful and joyous as they waved over at me.

  That was also when I noticed Gloria for the first time. Gloria gave me a hard stare as she looked me over. The last time I had seen her was at Muse's Place the day after I took Star from the wreckage of her aunt and uncle's gas station. She still hadn't warmed to me fully, but at least she didn't look like she was about to continue threatening me in Spanish. I nodded to her. My gesture promised her that I would take care of Star for as long as I drew breath. Only after taking a full measure of me did she eventually nod back in reluctant approval. You'd better, she said with her eyes. I loved how loyal she was to Star, despite them never learning each other's language.

  A hush rolled over the crowd like waves from a rising tide, and when our many, many guests parted, I saw her.

  My MC queen.

  Star walked alone down the street in all her glory. She wore a gorgeous white dress with a long train that dragged behind her. Her skin was flawless, and her hair was perfectly pinned up. Her beauty could bring the whole MC world to its knees. I knew that for a fact because it's exactly what had happened to me.

  Star's father rushed down to meet her. He took her hand, and they both started up the aisle. There was no music, only the low rumble of nearly two dozen idling engines that made up the wedding aisle. As Star and her father passed each set of bikers, they revved their engines. Cheers from the crowd rose to match the growing noise of all the bikes, only peaking when my beautiful bride stepped onto the platform opposite me.

  “Hi,” Star mouthed at me with a nearly overwhelmed but ecstatic smile. The excitement in the air was too all consuming for any actual words to be heard.

  Seeing her up close, I was too awestruck to give her any meaningful reply. Instead, I could only stare. How? How did I ever get so damn lucky? I didn't deserve her, and yet here she was, giving herself to me. There were no words to convey how full my heart felt, so I didn't even try to bother.

  I just took her hand and smiled.

  Tee held up both his arms and began quieting the roaring crowd. Father Jameson began the ceremony with a story about what I was like as a choir boy and how even at that age he knew I was bound for greatness, not the greatness of reforging a broken club, but of finding and loving a woman with a heart as big and strong as Star. Star fought the tears that would soon become inevitable.

  We read our vows, placed our rings on each other's fingers, and said our “I dos.”

  Father Jameson told me that I may kiss my bride, but before I did, I gazed deeply into her eyes and made Star one last promise.

  “I will always be there for you. The road ahead of us might be bumpy and full of sharp, unexpected turns, but every hazard only strengthens what we will become together,” I said, pulling her close.

  “Our love is stronger than steel,” she replied, then kissed me with everything she had.

  END

  About the Author

  Jackson Kane is a professional stuntman, athlete, romance author, and above all else, a hopeless romantic. From American Ninja Warrior, to some of your favorite films, Jackson brings a unique writing style forged from countless harrowing adventures.

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