Chapter One
Falcon
It’s late as fuck when I finally got out of Leather & Chrome, one of the clubs owned by my MC, the Steel Demons. Usually I worked at Steel City Motors because it ain’t only the ladies who knew I was good with my hands, but tonight Diesel needed me on the club floor. It’s one of the busiest places in Steel City and Spring Break meant there was a shit ton of drunk college kids and brand new twenty-one-year-olds on top of the usual clubgoers. I kept my eyes on the place, looked suitably intimidating to make sure the drunk assholes didn’t go full asshole.
They didn’t, so it was a damn good night.
And a long-as-fuck night, too. My feet felt heavy as I crossed the parking lot to my bike and my head was a little fuzzy from a few too many shots, but the clubhouse was only a few minutes away. I took the back streets and made the short journey in record time.
When I walked in, it was dark and quiet, not unusual for this time of night, but it still felt fuckin’ odd. I was used to the noise and the chaos of the clubhouse where there were always a few guys shooting pool or playing darts, maybe a game of poker or even dominoes. The bar was dark and empty, no club whores to flirt with, which was probably a good thing because I was tired as fuck.
I stumbled down the dark hall to my bedroom. After letting myself in I shut the door and kicked off my boots, beforetossing my vest onto a chair in the corner of the room. I smiled and face planted onto the bed, where sleep quickly claimed me. I was too fucking exhausted to dream, and that quiet, black abyss was just what I needed.
Until the goddamn phone started to ring.
And ring.
I tried to ignore it. Tried to slip back into that deep sleep that would leave me refueled and energized for another day, but the fucking thing just kept ringing.
And ringing.
“Motherfucker,” I growled and reached blindly for the phone on the nightstand. “Yeah?” The word came out on a frustrated grunt.
The feminine voice that finally answered was soft, almost a whisper, but it was also familiar. “Falcon, is that you?” It was so fucking familiar I was sure I was still asleep and dreaming.
My eyes snapped open and my stomach dropped as I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I knew that voice well though I hadn’t heard it for three years. I’d spent two straight weeks listening to her laugh and smile. And come so many times it was burned into my mind like a fucking brand. “Viv?” She’d been part of the two best, most erotic weeks of my life before she fucked off back to her rich doctor fiancé, leaving me as nothing more than a bad boy memory. Or so I thought. “What’s wrong?” Clearly there was something wrong because why else would she be calling me? She could try to remain calm all she wanted, it was what made her a damn good surgeon, but I heard that thread of something in her voice. It was unease or fear.
“I…” she began and then stopped. “I need your help. Please.”
It was that plea combined with the anguish in her voice that got to me. “Where are you?”
Vivian inhaled slowly and rattled off an address. “Please hurry, Falcon.” And with those three words, the call ended abruptly.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed, my heart pounding as I got to my feet. My head was still fuzzy from lack of sleep, but I was still dressed so I shoved my feet back into my boots, grabbed my keys, and went back to my bike. As the engine roared to life and I got on my way, I wondered what the hell had happened in her life that she needed me.
There was something beneath her clipped words that put me on edge, something she hadn’t shown me in the short time we spent together. She’d been confident in her skills and her smarts, but she’d been sexually shy until I showed her another way. But that vulnerable hitch in her breath beneath her surgical calm? That shit had my instincts on edge.
I arrived at the address she gave me, it was a gas station, one of the few in town that didn’t run twenty-four-seven. I slowed cautiously, then parked up near the entrance. The lights were off, the doors were locked, and the place looked abandoned. My hand went to the gun at my side as I walked around the pumps and then the ice machine to find nobody around. The air pump and tire pressure machines hummed idly but there was no one there either.
Fuck that.I pulled out my gun and went around the back, ready for what I had no fucking idea. But I was ready. I resisted the urge to call out to her just in case this was some fuckin’ trap.There were no cars parked aside from the green Chevy with an orange sticker on the windshield.
“Falcon,” she whispered behind me.
I spun but I still didn’t see her. A few steps forward and I spotted a small figure huddled into the covered entrance of the bathroom. There was another small figure behind her, but I could hardly make them out because Vivian used her body as a shield. “Vivian?” It was a small someone, I realized. No, not a small someone, a kid.
She moved slowly as she got to her feet, reaching behind her for the kid who wrapped both arms around her leg. “Falcon, you came.” The shock in her words was accompanied by a small, relieved smile.
I listened to what she was saying, but I couldn’t stop staring at the kid under the flickering fluorescent light of the bathroom. He was three, maybe four years old with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Just like mine. The wispy curls and the chin dimple could’ve been me when I was his age. “Who’s this,” I asked casually even though I already thought I knew the answer.
Her smile faded for a quick second, but it returned, this time full force and filled with pride and love as she looked down at the kid and then to me. “I have a lot to explain but for starters, this is TJ.”
TJ. It could stand for anything. Hell I knew two guys named TJ and the letters didn’t stand for shit, but I knew that wasn’t the case here. “TJ.” It wasn’t a question, but Viv nodded anyway.
“Yeah, TJ.” She crouched down and put her hand on the kid’s back. “TJ, this is Travis, but his friends call him Falcon.”Some silent communication went on between them before the boy stepped forward and held his arms out to me as if he knew me.
Holy shit.“Hey,” I managed around the big fucking lump in my throat. My chest tightened with something I couldn’t name.
The boy’s arms stretched up in that universal kid speak forpick me up, dammit.
