Chapter 38
BLAIZE
The next morning, I informed Damon I would be coming to his territory.
It was a common courtesy even if I was in charge of all of them.
Damon had been in charge of this territory for a little over ten years now.
He had just taken over for his father a few months prior to my arrival in West Haven.
He never dealt with Elijah or cooperated in his business dealings.
He paid his dues and minded his own territory.
Elijah’s reign was tighter here, but he had power beyond.
Kadence messaged me, telling me she loved me and how she was excited to see me tonight.
I made someone very happy in a past life for her to still want me after everything I’d done to her, but fuck, was I grateful.
I needed to stop letting this life take control of my future.
If I wanted to make Kadence happy, I needed to show her how much I appreciated her.
This relationship stuff was more difficult than I remembered, but with me and Olivia, we went headfirst before knowing anything about each other.
Eventually, I knew everything, but we also got married two months in.
With Kadence, I wanted to date, to learn what made her tick, her fears and aspirations.
Fuck, I was asking a lot when I couldn’t communicate my feelings.
Hunter was ready to wring my neck because of it, too.
The two of them had a trauma dump after the funeral, and now Kadence knew everything there was to know about Hunter and Drew.
Damon met me outside the pub and gave me a stern nod.
He held the door open, and instantly, eyes found me as I walked in.
My name was something people feared, but no one really knew the face of Blaize Matthews.
Everyone expected Blaize to be a six-five, burly biker covered in dark tattoos with blood on his hands.
Not a 5’9 woman dressed in leather with long, dark hair with an undercut.
I had tattoos and blood on my hands, but a woman was never what someone expected when they heard the shit I’ve done.
I chose the name Blaize because when I met Olivia, I burned her mother’s house to the ground for what she allowed that man to do to her daughter.
The fire was fierce, a rampage of red and orange reflecting into the night sky, and that’s what I wanted people to think about when they saw me.
Bethany Matthews sounded like a Sunday school teacher.
Olivia was the only person who knew my name, but Bethany Matthews doesn’t exist. She never did.
“Hey, boss,” a stout man behind the bar called out, looking at Damon.
“Roger's been a bartender here for years. If anyone knows things about Eli, he will.”
I nodded, walking up to the bar. The man was short with a beer belly and a badly receding hairline. He looked at me with a neutral face as his hand cleaned a glass. “Whatcha looking for?”
“Elijah West. He used to hang around here?”
“Ole Eli sat in that corner booth with a hot little redhead, Ava. Thought it was his ole lady, but they never touched, only talked.”
“Has she been here since he died?”
“She came in here recently, yeah. I didn’t think it was her, because she had on an awful blue wig.
” I reached into my bag, pulling out the folder Damon gave me.
The one photo I knew was Kadence, but I laid out the other handful of photos for him to see.
“That girl is a cutie, but she’s not Ava. Ava’s a bitch, looks like one, too.”
“All she gave you was Ava?”
He nodded. “I mind my business and serve the liquor. She mentioned something ‘bout a club and some new ‘bitch’, as she put it.”
My eye twitched, knowing he was talking about Hades and Kadence. Someone was trying to ruin me once again. I pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and slid it to Roger. “If you have any more information or any videos in these fancy little cameras, it’ll be appreciated.”
“I’ll get with Damon and let yer know.”
I nodded, looking at Damon as we walked out of the pub. “If he knows anything, I need that information.”
“I’ll keep you updated. I’ll see if anyone else knows about someone named Ava. I never heard of her.”
“Me either. I’m assuming she is using a fake name? Did Elijah have a girlfriend?”
He pulled out Marlboro red 100’s and brought a cigarette to his lips. “Not that I know of, but Elijah didn’t talk about his personal life. If he had a twin, maybe that’s the connection now? Ava and this twin could be dating?”
I rubbed my temple. Five years passed since Elijah’s death. Why did someone want to come out of the woodwork now? It didn’t make any sense, but this whole situation was fucked. “I’ll see if Hawke or anyone else knows anything in town. He ruled for a while, but now people might talk.”
“I’ll get you what you need, Blaize. Until this person is found and taken off my territory, you get all the freebies.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thank you. I should get back. Whoever this Ava person is will get what’s coming to her.”
When I was stopped at a red light twenty minutes away from Westhaven, I pulled my phone out and called Kadence. I let it connect to my Bluetooth in my helmet. I wanted to talk to her and hear her voice before tonight.
“Hi,” she chimed brightly.
“Hi, princess. What do you say we have a special night together? Just the two of us.”
I heard the revving of a motorcycle before Kadence spoke. “Yes. I miss you. Are you okay?”
“I am, princess. I’ll be even better when I can hold you.”
“I love you.” And then my world shifted when I heard bullets flying. “Shit!”
“Kadence?”
No! No! No!
“I’m coming, Kadence.” I revved my bike and hit the gas. The call dropped, but I quickly told Siri to call Hawke.