Blade (Silver Shadows MC #1)

Chapter One

Beck

I’d heard people say you can’t go home again, yet here I was. Back in the town I grew up in, the town I never thought I’d return to, never wanted to come back to. The town where I lost my best friend.

My first love.

My only love.

After I graduated high school, I headed off to college, expecting to never come back. My mother wanted to move away as soon as my heart broke, but I pleaded with her to allow me to complete my last two years of school with the rest of my class.

She relented, and I went through the motions of being a happy, healthy teenager. Then the motions of being a happy, healthy adult. Even now, at twenty-five years old, a decade later, I’m still going through the motions.

Losing your best friend at fifteen is something you never get over.

And yet here I was, back home in Diamond Creek, Nebraska. Population under two thousand.

I came home to help my grandmother, who was getting on in years, and claimed she was too old to take care of that big old house all on her own. My grandmother was just a few years shy of seventy years old, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her.

Willow Washington was unique. She wasn’t a hippie, but she wasn’t mainstream either. There was balance. She was somewhere in the middle.

She was a free spirit.

She lived by her own rules. Rules that didn’t always make sense, but always seemed to work out for someone’s best interests.

Sometimes I couldn’t imagine how she could have given birth to my mother. The two of them were so different. My mother was the one who couldn’t handle anything on her own. That explained the two ex-husbands.

Neither of whom were my father.

The one she currently had seemed to have stuck it out the longest.

When Grams called and told me she needed me to come home, I dropped everything. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for that woman. Not only was she there for me during the catalyst of my teenage years when my mother wasn’t, but she was the reason I went to college and got my degree in journalism.

I owed her everything, and if everything was what she needed from me right now, then it was the least I could give her.

Today, the least I could do was run errands for her. She had given me a laundry list of things to do. As I looked down, reading through the list, I ran into a wall. At least it felt like a wall, as I bounced off it and landed on my butt on the sidewalk in front of The Diner.

“I am so sorry,” I said as I looked up and saw four sizable men. Four very large, hot tattooed men, and a beautiful woman staring at me.

“Beck?”

I pulled my gaze from the wall of muscle to look at the woman when she called my name. She looked vaguely familiar, and I probably should have known who she was, but I had been gone a long time.

A piece of that wall reached out to lift me back onto my feet and I stared at the bluest eyes I had ever seen.

“Hello, I’m Jack.”

Jack was gentle as he lifted me, despite his size. He must be over six feet because he stood more than a head taller than my five foot six inches.

Struck dumb at the size of the very large, very handsome man, all I could manage was a simple, “Hi.”

“Beck, I can’t believe it’s you.”

Struggling to tear my gaze away from Jack, I looked at the woman once again. “I’m sorry. I feel like I should know you.”

The petite blonde bombshell giggled, showing no signs of offense.

“Beck, it’s me, Rachel. Rachel Masters, from high school.”

I stood there staring at her, not believing what I was seeing.

“Oh my God, Rachel? Wow, you look amazing and so different.”

Rachel was one of my best friends, and one of the less than popular girls from school. She was a brunette in high school and a little on the bigger side. She was quiet when we were kids. Shy and always wanted to be in the background. She never wanted to be noticed. Now she was blonde, thin, and stacked.

Hey, I could appreciate a beautiful woman when I saw one, and unless she had drastically changed her personality, she was even more beautiful on the inside.

“Rachel, it’s so good to see you! I was so sorry to hear about your mom. I wanted to come…”

And it was good seeing her as I grabbed hold of her and hugged her tight.

I’d been home for exactly two days and hadn’t connected with anyone but Grams.

“I understood. You had just left. I didn’t expect you to come back, especially for a funeral,” Rachel said, letting me off the hook again. She never guilted me about my grief. She was my rock, always telling me grief was personal. No one could tell you how you should do it or how long. “I didn’t know you were back. Grams never said a word.”

The familiarity with which Rachel talked about Grams shocked me. I didn’t realize Grams had kept in touch with any of my friends. Though Diamond Creek was a small town, it shouldn’t have surprised me.

What did surprise me was the leather vests they were all wearing, including Rachel. Grams mentioned she sold the land across the road to a motorcycle club that moved in a few years ago, and that’s where they built their headquarters. I wondered how many of them there were and if they all looked as good as these four.

“Beck, let me introduce you. This is Jack, short for Jackass. You’ll understand why if you get to know him at all.”

“Hey, I was the only gentlemen to help the poor woman off the ground,” Mr. Blue Eyes called out with a tinge of indignation in his voice. Aside from his beautiful blue eyes, he had dark brown hair and a matching goatee. His jeans hugged his thighs, and his black T-shirt hugged his biceps.

Yes sir, you can pick me up anytime.

Who said that?

“You knocked her there to begin with.” Rachel laughed and wrapped her arm around the man with blond hair and a beard that was a bit more than scruff, but not quite full. His arms and neck had tattoos covering them, from what I could see.

“This is my old man Cash.” He tipped his chin as if to say hello. “That’s Jingles.” She pointed to the clean-cut blond man, and he smiled. Even without a beard, he was no less manly, for lack of a better word, than the other three.

I wasn’t sure manly was the right word. I thought back to watching Little House on the Prairie as a child, and Almanzo Wilder had nothing on this guy.

“And of course, this is—”

“I’ll see you all inside.”

“Blade.” Rachel frowned as she watched him walk through the door.

I didn’t get a good look at him aside from his black hair and full short beard. The mirrored sunglasses hid his eyes as well.

“Blade can be a little rough around the edges. He doesn’t play well with others.”

I stood there stunned, as Jack spoke.

Rachel’s words pulled me out of the daze I found myself in as I stared at the door. “Beck, come inside with us. We have so much to catch up on.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I have a list of errands to run for Grams.”

“Please, just for a bit. I’m so excited you’re home.”

As I looked through The Diner’s window, my stomach chose that exact moment to let me know there was no way to get out of this.

“I guess I could use a break for some lunch.”

Jack threw his arm around my shoulders and smiled at me.

“You can sit beside me.”

I looked up at him and couldn’t help but smile back.

As we stepped inside, it was like stepping into the past. It hadn’t changed at all. From the black-and-white tile floor to the red vinyl booths along the wall to the left, and the giant Coca-Cola clock above the counter that stretched out to the right of the front door.

Rachel and her men—I thought of them as hers because they followed her in the restaurant like a harem—headed to one of the various tables spread out through the middle of the room where Blade was already sitting, and I followed.

He looked up as I sat.

The narrowing of his eyes and the look of animosity startled me.

“Hi,” I whispered.

Blade looked at Rachel. He questioned her without saying a word. She shrugged and sat on one side of me as Jack sat at the end of the table on my other side.

Blade stood up and glared at Rachel. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’ll meet you all back at the clubhouse.”

Then, he walked away, and I wondered what could have made him feel like he couldn’t stay.

“Was it something I said?” I asked awkwardly, because the only word I’d uttered to him was hi.

“Beck—” Rachel started before Cash cut her off.

“Let it go, Doll.”

Rachel closed her mouth and smiled at me. “Blade takes a bit to warm up to people. Don’t worry, it was nothing you did.”

I looked back at the door and thought about what Rachel said. It sure seemed like it was something I did.

The waitress stepped up to the table, and I saw that her name tag said Samantha. She wasn’t someone I recognized, and I hoped she was new to town in the last few years, so I didn’t feel like there was another person I had forgotten.

“Hey, guys, what can I get you?”

“Another night with you is the first thing on my list, babe.”

“I told you, Jack. Once was all you get. You can’t improve on perfection.” Samantha winked at Jack.

I looked over at Jack, who was grinning at the waitress.

I heard Jingles and Cash chuckle.

“Come on, babe, you know it can only get better with time. Wait, that came out wrong.” Cash and Jingles were no longer hiding their laughter as Rachel looked over at me, grinning. “See? Jackass.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along with them. I had forgotten how much fun it could be just sharing a meal with friends. Samantha took our orders and walked away, with Jack following like a puppy hot on her heels, trying to convince her to give him another shot.

“So, all of you are part of the motorcycle club across from Grams’ house?”

Despite the ease I felt sitting here with these guys, they were the first bikers I had ever met. Letting go of all those stereotypes wasn’t easy, and I just needed to be sure Grams wasn’t in any danger.

Cash answered with a skeptical eye, “We are. The Silver Shadows MC.”

“Cash is the vice president.” Rachel beamed.

“How many members do you have?”

“Why do you ask?” Cash leaned forward and looked at me like he was staring into my soul. I wasn’t afraid to admit I could see why this guy was VP. He was very intimidating.

“Cash, knock it off. Beck is living with Grams across the street. It’s normal for her to question what is going on at the clubhouse. There are about roughly twenty members, though I’ve never actually counted.” Rachel, always the peacemaker, was a godsend when I saw Cash relax and sit back.

“So, what are we talking about?”

I turned my head to see Jack had given up pestering Samantha and joined us back at our table. He took Blade’s empty seat across from me. This made me wonder again what he was so upset about when I sat down. Given the way Cash reacted to my questions, maybe they just really didn’t like outsiders and were only humoring me because of Rachel.

“Beck here is asking questions about the MC.”

This was the first I’ve heard from Jingles, and I looked over to see a wide grin on his face.

“Not questioning, just looking to get to know the neighbors.”

“Why, you wanna prospect? Just kidding, no girls allowed.” Jack winked at me, and I shook my head.

Rachel was right, Jackass fit him perfectly.

“Ask away, sweetheart. We got nothin’ to hide.”

“I have no experience with a motorcycle club. I was just wondering how it all works. You know, all those stereotypes about loose women and loud parties. Wondering how Grams handles all that.”

All three men started laughing uncontrollably, as Rachel looked at me with an amused grin.

“What?”

They made me feel like an idiot with everything that came out of my mouth.

“Beck, Grams is at the parties.” Rachel rolled her lips between her teeth.

“What? Grams goes to your biker parties. She said she needed me home because she was too feeble to take care of the house, and now, I find out she’s partying all night with bikers. Please tell me she isn’t one of the loose women.” I closed my eyes, shaking my head in complete disbelief.

“No, she isn’t one of the loose women.” Jingles chuckled. “But I wouldn’t put it past her in her younger days. That woman puts us all to shame.”

“You should come with her this weekend. It’s a lot of fun, and I promise we’ll keep the debauchery to a minimum. Though I can’t speak for Grams.” Jingles winked at me as Samantha dropped off our food.

The conversation turned to everyday topics as we ate. When we were done, I said goodbye to everyone and promised to think about going to the party this weekend.

But first, I definitely needed to have a talk with Grams when I got home.