Chapter One
Present day...
Hell’s Fire Riders compound...
Kelly Jane Hines Montross smiled as she remembered Shay’s reaction when she told him about the baby.
First of all, it hadn't come out the way she’d wanted it to.
She had planned a huge surprise baby reveal with streamers, balloons and everything.
Then secondly, he was so stunned she worried that he didn’t want a baby, but she was wrong.
Shay wanted one and he had been on cloud nine ever since she told him.
Kelly felt restless tonight and she didn’t know why. Her pregnancy was still early and she barely had any symptoms. No, that wasn’t what bothered her.
Shay still hadn’t come home. It had been two weeks. She’d known that his work would do that when she got involved with him. But damn, she missed him sometimes. Yes, she had plenty to do around the compound. She was a great bike mechanic and with the forty bikes here, something always needed fixing.
She’d been remembering bits and pieces of her past. Of how she met the one man in her life that drove her almost crazy at times but she knew that he was the only man meant for her.
Shay wasn’t an easy man to live with but he was hers and she’d told him when they got married, that once the deed was done, that she wouldn’t allow him to leave her.
And Shay had vowed that he never would.
Right now, though, she needed an embrace from her man. A kiss would be the added bonus. And man, could Shay kiss. She slowly shook her head and remembered their very first kiss.
Five months ago...
Kelly smiled at him. “I am honored. According to Pappy, you rarely share any inside info.”
Shrugging, he admitted, “Maybe that’s true.
But lying is out for me. Rather than risk the lives of myself and my men as soon as I could, I got into intelligence work, so I didn’t have to lie anymore.
I was better working intelligence than undercover anyway.
Finding the truth and digging to understand why people did what they did, suited me much better.
And I’m a one-woman kind of man. I’ve been looking for you most of my life.
Why would I risk you for something else? ”
“Then kiss me already,” she ordered.
Shay leaned over the table. She met him halfway and sparks flew when their lips met. Kelly moaned and Shay groaned as his blood felt like it was on fire.
His tongue thrust into her mouth and everything except the two of them faded away. All they could do was feel. Her scent embraced them both. Lavender and leather. Shay finally broke the kiss and it left them both gasping for breath.
“Wow,” she whispered as she trembled visibly. “All of that from just a kiss?”
Shay smiled. “Yeah, all of that from just a kiss. Still want to see where all this goes?”
Kelly nodded. “Heck, yeah. You know what we bikers say.”
Shay paused and studied her face as he waited for this saying with curiosity.
“Ride to live. Live to ride.”
Shay bit at his lip as he hesitated to say, “That is an oxymoron.”
Kelly blinked at him. “I can see this relationship will be totally interesting, to say the least.”
Shay actually let out a boisterous, full laugh, of the likes he hadn’t done in many years. He got to his feet and reached out for her hand.
Kelly put her hand in his and together, they went back to the clubhouse....
Many a night after they made love, they would lie in bed and Shay would ask her about her life before they met. What it was like growing up in Iowa with just her mother.
And she had told him most of her childhood but not everything. There was one part she hadn’t mentioned to him and that part still hurt her heart. A totally unexpected event... a mystery that she never solved.
She walked over to the windows of their house and looked outside into the shadows of the night. Shay would finally be home tomorrow from his latest mission.
But as she stared out into the darkness, she felt something was coming. In the pit of her stomach she knew her past was going to connect and she didn’t know if she was ready for it or not.
She locked the front door and shut off lights as she went through the house. Their house was a lovely place and had turned out beautiful. They were safe here too, as their home was only about 400 feet away from Pappy’s Compound house. Yet, locking up was a habit with her. One she never broke.
Now she glanced out through the kitchen window and saw the patio.
She felt an overwhelming urge to sit outside for a bit.
..maybe it would help to relax her. She went outside and sat down at the table there.
Before she left the kitchen she had grabbed a bottle of orange soda.
After she sat down, she set her phone on the glass table and opened the bottle.
She looked next door and saw Comanche sitting outside too and raised her bottle at him.
He lifted the beer he was drinking in return to her salute.
Neither motioned the other over, so each of them sat in the silence of the night.
Kelly hadn’t told the guys about being pregnant. It was still very early and she wanted to wait at least another month. Besides, she knew they would flip and then not allow her to work on bikes or even ride one. No, she would wait, she was only a few months along still and not even showing yet.
She peered up at the stars and just sat there.
It was good to have all the guys still here with her.
She had thought they might leave when she married Shay, but they didn’t.
And they had all found their spot. In mechanics or heading into missions that Shay and Pappy lined up.
She always tried not to worry about them and Shay.
The man took too many chances but that was one of the things she loved about him.
He loved his country and despite officially leaving the service, he still served.
She finished her drink and was about to stand up when her phone rang, disturbing the silence. She looked down at it, not recognizing the number on the screen. The area code was Iowa. It had been a long damn time since she had been there. She picked it up and tapped the screen, “Hello.”
An audible gasp came from on the other end then a distracted female voice called out, “Kelly? Is that really you? Please tell me it’s you.”
Kelly froze. “Char? Charlene Richards?”
“Oh, thank God.” Char sighed hard. “I’ve been trying to find you for over a year. I was so hoping you would remember me.”
Kelly paused then asked, “Where did you go? One day you were there and the next you weren’t. What happened to you?” She swallowed hard and added, “I thought we were best friends growing up.”
“Oh honey, I thought so too,” Char told her.
“The night we left for good, my uncle came for us,” Char explained.
“Our mom’s brother, Victor. He busted through our door then he and my mom had a fight.
He told her she had disgraced the family long enough.
He needed her to come home and do her duty for the family.
Mom told him she had walked away from the family for a reason and she wasn’t going back. ”
Kelly could read the shock in her voice, but she didn’t say anything yet. She just listened.
“Victor told my mom she didn’t have to live like she did now.
That all she had to do was come back and apologize to our mother and take her place again.
” Char caught her breath and then she stumbled on, “But Mom told him she wouldn’t come back and she didn’t owe her mother any apology because she hadn’t done anything wrong.
She just didn’t want to be in an arranged marriage for the purpose of a business deal.
That’s when Victor looked around our house and said, So where is your husband then?
Why then are you living here in this dump of a house? You know what mother’s rules are.”
Kelly had to ask, “What were the rules about?”
Char paused then said, “My grandmother is a powerful woman and rich too. My mom told us that all the children were to be married off to the highest bidder and that my mom was supposed to marry a man named Taggert Williams before I was born. But my mom didn’t love him, she loved my dad instead and they had to run away to be together.
My dad’s name was Luke Richards and he died in a construction accident two years after Rosie was born.
I was ten at the time and I saw how hard my mom worked for everything we had after my dad was gone.
We had to give up the house and move to the neighborhood where we met you, remember? ”
“I remember,” Kelly said quietly. “I remember your mom too.”
“Yeah well, that night Victor hit my mom, over and over. In fact, he left her there, on the floor unconscious. Do you remember my little sister Rosie?”
“Yeah, I remember her. Sweet little Rosie. Of course.”
“He grabbed me and Rosie. We fought him then he had another guy come in. He hit us and they made us leave. They had to literally drag us out of that house and drove away with us. He took us to our grandmother’s house in Kansas City and that old biddy made our lives hell for the next six years.
She groomed me and Rosie to make us biddable brides to gain our place in society.
We were nothing more than slaves to gain another link to our grandmother’s business empire. ”
Kelly gasped and asked. “What did you do?”
Char went quiet for a few seconds then she said softly, “I took a note from my mom’s book and I ran away before grandma dearest could sell me into marriage with a man three times my age.
I walked from Kansas City back to Iowa and that’s where I found my mom’s headstone.
That beating Victor had given her along with both of her daughters disappearing.
.. it killed her. She died of a broken heart. ”
“Oh, my God,” Kelly whispered. “What have you been doing since then?”