Chapter Five
The first month of dating was not what Eden imagined.
For the first week, there was absolutely no sign of Razor. He didn’t stop by the house, but he did text to let her know something had come up, and he would call her the moment he got back to town. It all seemed reasonable.
Maeve had to also leave town, as she had a couple of jobs that had come up.
She had a couple of author websites she needed to redo and work through.
It was a lot of work getting the books into the categories requested, resetting the whole website, making it easier and more accessible.
Rather than constantly looking at her cell phone, she worked from morning to night, taking short breaks to have breakfast and dinner.
She was not much of a snack person. She had gotten out of eating snacks long ago.
By the second week, the same thing happened, as did the third and fourth week, and then they were into March.
Razor was not cold, though, he called every single day, asking how she was. She talked about the elements of work she could. She asked him about his day, and he was always vague, but that came as no surprise to her, seeing as Mac had also been.
After four weeks, and her sister moving from job to job and not returning home, she ran out of food and had no choice but to make her way to the grocery store. Usually, she and Maeve went shopping together. She sent her sister a quick text to find out exactly what she wanted when she came home.
This was not unusual for Maeve to spend weeks, if not months at a time, working. She would be on one job and get a call to go and do another. Eden knew she had traveled from the States to the UK, to France, and then on to Italy, all in the name of work, and her sister loved it.
Ten minutes later, Maeve had sent her a text with all the stuff she wanted, including ice cream. If ice cream was on the menu, that meant it wasn’t long before she would call time-out and come home for a break. They were both workaholics, but they also knew balance was everything.
They had both witnessed their parents do nothing but work.
One had been a lawyer, and the other an accountant, damn good at their jobs, respected, and they earned a good living.
However, they had also seen how tired they had gotten, how they rarely had time for family.
It’s why she and Maeve had been able to slip into a routine while living together.
It was the same back home, when their parents were alive. They rarely saw them.
When they were killed, they had both been devastated. They had spent a lot of time talking about intervening, trying to talk to their parents, to spend time with them. They never did, and their parents never got the chance to know them.
Eden missed that chance to get to know them, but it was something she and Maeve were conscious of and tried not to fall into the same trap.
Money made life easier, but it didn’t make anyone happy.
Work could be enjoyable and fulfilling, but it wasn’t the end-all of life.
Balance was the key. Taking time. Living life.
Grabbing her cart, she made her way into the grocery store and started to gather ingredients.
First, she went to the produce aisle, because whatever she could get there would then determine what went with it.
She was a sucker for fresh vegetables, and with spring already taking a grip on town, the produce section was loaded with amazing products.
Fresh peppers were a must. She spotted some eggplant and zucchini, which she wasn’t a massive fan of, but in small quantities she enjoyed them. They all looked amazing, and she knew some stir-fry was in her future.
Once she had loaded up on vegetables, herbs, and salad ingredients, it was then off to the meat section. She loaded up on chicken, though she was a lot more reserved with the beef and pork. There was no way she was cooking lamb, as she was not a big fan of it.
Next, she looked at the fresh fish but then decided to check the frozen section. She was not a woman who liked to prepare whole fillets of fish. She liked that work done for her, and the bagged stuff was just as easy to deal with.
Once that was done, she went to the baking section, because she was out of chocolate chips. It was there that she gasped and spun around.
“Those better be for your brownies,” Razor said.
She looked at him and was shocked. He’d grown a beard and looked a little rough around the edges. She didn’t know why, but she threw her arms around his neck, then pulled back.
“I had no idea you’d returned home,” she said, and then felt a little awkward hugging him.
They were just seeing each other. Holding hands, kissing, and hugging were supposed to be built up.
“I got in an hour ago. I had to talk to Doc and the rest of the guys, but I came as soon as I could.”
“How did you know I was at the grocery store?” she asked with a frown.
“Texted your sister.”
“You have my sister’s number?”
“She insisted I have it now that I’ve shown an interest in you.”
Eden frowned. “How is that possible, when I’ve not really told my sister that we’re ... seeing each other?”
The truth was, she didn’t know how to label it. She also didn’t want to put that much emphasis on a label, so she had just kept it to herself. It was a first for her as she usually told her sister everything.
“I asked your sister,” Razor said.
“What?”
“I asked her if she had a problem with me ... getting to know you. Dating you.”
“I had no idea. What did she say?”
“Oh, she told me if I hurt you the same way Mac had done, she was going to cut my balls off, and then, while she was at it, she was going to do the exact same thing to every single guy at the club.”
Eden’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope, not even a little bit, and I have a feeling your sister was being serious.”
“She was.”
She wouldn’t put it past Maeve to take a knife to any of the guys for hurting her.
“I can’t believe you asked her.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. “It’s all good, babe. So, what do we have here, and what do we have cooking?”
She held up chocolate chips. “Brownies.”
“Woman, I would crawl over broken glass to eat your brownies.”
This made her smile.
Razor didn’t let her go, he put his hand on her waist as she finished the shopping. She noticed they were getting strange looks, but she didn’t care about that. People would judge, she was used to it.
She and Maeve had been judged for not crying enough at their parents’ funerals.
She had even caught the gossip claiming they had done it.
She was not the confrontational type. Maeve was, and she went off the deep end and brought those rumors to an abrupt stop.
Maeve didn’t like people talking bad shit about her, and she couldn’t blame her.
At the counter, Razor surprised her by helping her pack the bags as well. He was a gentleman, and as they made their way outside, she spotted his bike parked next to her car.
“I’ll follow you home.”
She was not going to complain. Even though they had talked every night, she hadn’t realized how much she had missed him. This was a whole new feeling for her.
****
Club business had dragged on longer than Razor had wanted it to. There had been some mix-up at one of their bases where they transported the drugs. The updates had been hazy, and the details vague, and Doc hadn’t liked it.
Razor, along with five others, had to ride out and check what was going on. They discovered they had been robbed, and this pissed Razor off.
The reason it was vague was, the guy that handled the security of their base was in the hospital. He’d been attacked by ten men, and there was no way he would have been able to protect the base. Doc was pissed.
Razor and several of the guys had to track the shipment, and of course it stunk of the Mafia, only they claimed not to have anything to do with it.
It turned out to be a small-time pimp who was looking to make a lot of money fast. He attempted to water the product down and fed it to his girls so they would stay in line.
The pimp was long gone, the product dealt with, but it took close to a month to deal with the problems. Razor knew he couldn’t just leave it, so he had no choice but to have calls with Eden.
They were not enough. He didn’t want to tell a woman he wanted to get to know her, date her, and then be reduced to fucking phone calls. It pissed him off.
Stepping out of Eden’s shower, he made his way across the room and looked into the mirror.
There had been no time for shaving, but while he was at the grocery store, he’d paid for a grooming kit, and it was time to take off the beard and mustache.
He needed a nice, clean face. He knew some of the guys loved a face full of hair, but not him.
Within minutes, it was gone, and he was starting to feel like himself.
Now, he could handle shit with ease.
His body was heavily inked. He loved getting tattoos, and each one meant something to him.
The biggest was on his back, the Chaos Monsters MC patch.
The base of his back had the flames, and rising from them were monsters about to cause the chaos.
Doc’s grandfather had designed it on the back of a freaking napkin, and it had stuck ever since, and most of the guys get it inked on their body in some way or another.
Chaos Monsters MC was his life.
Cleaning up his mess, he made his way back into Eden’s bedroom and got changed into his jeans and shirt before making his way downstairs.
He hadn’t stopped long enough to take a shower back at the clubhouse, just long enough to get Doc and the guys up to speed, then his only mission was to get here as fast as possible. He did that as well.
The scent of chocolate was heavy in the air and as he made his way to the kitchen doorway, he watched Eden work in her element. He saw the oven was on. She had one of those ovens that was in the wall at chest height. The light was on.
She was at the stove that faced him, and as she looked up, she smiled.
“Chicken or steak?” she asked.
“Whichever you’re having.”
“We’ll go with the chicken.”
He had no idea what she was cooking, but he saw several bags of meat on the counter that looked prepped and ready for cooking.
“Are we feeding an army?” he asked, pointing at the food.
“No, no, Maeve and I like to have our meals prepped this way. When meat and chicken is on offer, we buy it in bulk, bring it home, prepare it, and stuff it in the freezer. We have good food for a cheaper price, and half the job is already done. Marinated chicken, pork, and steak. Then diced cuts for pies and stuff like that.” She shrugged.
“We plan ahead. Also, Maeve doesn’t like to spend hours cooking and preparing.
She likes to just open jars and bags, and shove everything in a slow cooker.
She is the slow-cooker queen. It is how she got to all the jobs she did, then came home and put a hot, cooked meal on the table. ”
“You love your sister, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do. She could have left me, you know. She didn’t have to take care of her baby sister, but she did. I’m grateful to her for that.”
“She loves you,” he said. It was clear to anyone who looked. Maeve took care of Eden and still did.
He knew if he hurt Eden, Maeve wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him. There was something in her eyes that said she meant business, and he had no reason to doubt her.
There was a small ping, and Eden went to the oven and pulled out a baking tray of brownies.
“You asked,” she said. “You can’t have one right now, it would burn, but they should be good enough after lunch.”
He watched as she turned the chicken, then added some cheese, and he watched her prepare some rolls.
“Do you want butter or mayo?”
“Mayo,” he said.
She slathered the mayo on, added lettuce, tomato, and some thin rings of onion.
Next the chicken went on, and she topped it with a little hot sauce, closed it up, sliced it into three, and put it on a plate, handing it to him.
She did the same with her own sandwich, and rather than eat indoors, they made their way outside onto the small porch.
“Crap, I forgot to mow the lawn,” she said, and wrinkled her nose. “I’ll do it after lunch.”
“I’ll mow the lawn.”
“Razor, you don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.”
“So, is, uh, Razor your name?” she asked.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I don’t ... that’s all in the past. Razor is my name.”
“Do I get to know what it stands for?” she asked.
He looked toward her. “Not yet,” he said.
She was still a civilian. He got the name Razor because that is what he killed a man with once.
It was in a bar, a long time ago, when he was first prospecting for the Chaos Monsters MC.
There were a lot of guys who wanted to earn that patch and gain the respect of the rest of the club. Respect was earned.
The shit he had to do would give a lot of people nightmares, but he knew he was showing his loyalty to the club.
Some guy had lost at the tables. He didn’t like that all his money was gone, and rather than handle it and not continue with his gambling habit, he decided to blame everyone else around him.
He went at Doc, who had been close by, with a razor in his hand, and Razor sliced it across the guy’s neck before he could even fire his gun.
The guy went down. That night, he earned his patch.
He became part of the Chaos Monsters MC.
This was his life.
Eden couldn’t know, because her loyalty was not with him, not yet. There were rules that needed to be followed. Mac certainly didn’t tell her about them. He would, eventually, when she was ready.