Brand_A Steel Paragons MC Novel Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  CHAPTER ONE Brand

  CHAPTER TWO Brand

  CHAPTER THREE Cami

  CHAPTER FOUR Brand

  CHAPTER FIVE Brand

  CHAPTER SIX Cami

  CHAPTER SEVEN Cami

  CHAPTER EIGHT Brand

  CHAPTER NINE Cami

  CHAPTER TEN Brand

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Cami

  CHAPTER TWELVE Brand

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN Cami

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Iron

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN Cami

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Brand

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Brand

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Cami

  CHAPTER NINETEEN Brand

  CHAPTER TWENTY Cami

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Brand

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Brand

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Cami

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Brand

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Cami

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Cami

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Brand

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Cami

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Brand

  CHAPTER THIRTY Brand

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Cami

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Cami

  Epilogue

  Cami

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Find Her

  Play List

  Other Works

  Brand

  A Steel Paragons MC Novel

  (The Coast: Book 2)

  By Eve R. Hart

  Copyright

  All right reserved.

  The scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. This book or any portion thereof my not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations used in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental.

  Warning: This book is intended for readers 18 years and older. This book contains violence, harsh language, and explicit sex scenes.

  Cover image credit Shutterstock.com/stefanocavoretto

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to everyone that has been patiently waiting this story. To everyone that has been in love with Brand from the very beginning and wanted to see him get his HEA.

  Prologue

  Cami

  Colors.

  There were so many different colors.

  And I loved them all.

  Every shade. Every tint.

  Even as a little girl, I couldn’t get enough.

  I would stare at the leaves, dancing with the sunlight behind them, watching as the shade changed the greens ever so slightly.

  I would wake up early just to watch the sky light up at the break of dawn. The vibrant pinks and purples as they pushed out the midnight blue. Then the yellows fading and turning into the light blue that would color the day.

  When I would go to the beach, I wouldn’t swim. No, I would stand there, ankle deep in the water, watching as the waves brought in the white crest into shore. I’d watch as the ocean blue would give way to an almost clear, revealing the pale yellow sand underneath.

  Colors lit up my world and I lived for it every day.

  Guess it was no surprise that I later turned that love of seeing into creating. Putting a brush in my hand and it was now me that was manipulating the colors and mixing them into just the right shade I wanted.

  That first stroke was the one that always got me. The bright contrast of color against the stark white canvas.

  Then I learned the value of shading. Maybe grays and blacks don’t appeal to some, but to me, it was the balance to all the color. So when my hands worked the pencil or charcoal, I was able to always see more out of a single line. I saw the blending before I even moved my fingers to make it happen.

  Dove gray.

  Poppy red.

  Sage green.

  Tangerine orange.

  Canary yellow.

  Warm. Cool. Dark. Light.

  I loved them all.

  But I did have a few favorites. Those colors that would always make me smile and feel whole the moment I laid eyes on them. The ones that always seemed to complete the pop of color I was missing in a what I was working on.

  Prussian blue. Not to be mistaken with peacock blue, no, I would argue until I was out of breath that they were not the same color. Prussian was brighter. The most beautiful blue I’d ever seen. And peacock, while still lovely, had a bit more green to it.

  And orchid purple had stolen my heart as well. There was something about the pink tint that seemed to warm the cool color just a little.

  Maybe I thought about things too much.

  Maybe it made me a little bit weird.

  And maybe one day I’d find someone that wouldn’t just say the grass is green.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Brand

  “Ethel!” I did my best to speak loudly but not shriek.

  “Oh, shit,” she said adjusting the camera angle from her cleavage to her face. “Did I hit the video thing again? I thought I hit the speaker one.”

  I couldn’t help but to laugh. Ethel was pushing eighty and completely insane. Not in an ‘old, I’ve lost my mind’ sort of way. No, she was very aware and with it. The woman was just in her own kind of world and wasn’t afraid to say or do whatever was on her mind. And she had a more active sex life than most of the brothers. Or so, it came off that way. It wasn’t something I wanted to know, but I did, nonetheless.

  I’d met Ethel when I was back at Moon Hill. The Steel Paragons’ chapter that I’d prospected and got my patch at. She was the grandmother of Reagan—my good friend, at one time. Years later, Reagan was still a bit of a sore subject for me. But it was something I tried my hardest not to think about. I kept telling myself that she was happy, and so I vowed to be happy for her.

  “When did I last call you?” she asked.

  That woman was smart as a whip, so I knew she remembered when she last talked to me.

  “Three days ago, Ethel. You told me you made those praline brownies and you wanted me to try them. I’m still waiting for the mailman, he hasn’t come today.” I knew she was calling to see what I thought about those things. She did this a couple times a month. She’d find some crazy recipe off of Pinterest and give it a shot. Then she’d send them to the shop to see what I thought. I wasn’t sure why she wasted all that money on shipping things to me when I knew she had the whole club there that would jump at the chance to get her goodies. And I was talking about the ones she baked, not the ones she was always trying to show everyone. Yes, wild was a very respectable word to describe Ethel.

  “Well, damn.”

  I laughed again. I had a special place in my heart for her. While I missed her dearly, I could only take her in small doses.

  “I promise I will call the moment I put it into my mouth,” I said with a smile.

  “Okay, fine,” she said with a fake sound of disappointment in her tone. “How are things down there?”

  “Good. Shops picking up. I’m actually booked up for the next three weekends, so that’s good. Looks like I have a bunch of appointments down during the week, too.”

  I was proud of the shop. Branded In Ink was more or less my place but I always said it belonged to the club. I had full ruling o
ver every decision made, even if I chose to go to my prez, Iron, about them. And every time he would wave me off and simply tell me to ‘get to it.’ We’d been open a little over a year and things were picking up fast.

  Currently, the shop had three tattoo artist, one of which also did piercings. I’d thought about bringing on another artist or two but the search hadn’t been going well so far. It had to be someone that not only had talent that complemented what we already had going on there, but they had to mesh with us, too. The shop was a zero percent for drama and I wanted to keep it that way.

  “Well, hot damn. That’s good news.”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “So, there’s no chance you’d leave that place and come back here, huh?”

  This wasn’t the first time she’d said something like that.

  “Ethel,” I said and held back a sigh. “You and I both know it’s better for me here.”

  “I don’t believe that horse shit for a minute. You were so good to her and I just think that maybe you guys could work something out. All of you. You know? Like have one of those…oh, what are they called…you know? The relationship where there are three people in it. There’s a name for it. I was reading up on it the other day. God knows, I love Nathan like no other, but with the two of you, she’d never want for nothin’.”

  And that was the moment I should have hung up. Inside I was laughing and banging my head against the top of the counter all at the same time. I had to constantly remind myself that it was just how Ethel was.

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work. One, I’m not really that kind of guy. I like the one-on-one thing. Call me old-fashioned or something. And two, I’m pretty sure both of them are just fine with what they’ve got. He makes her happy, he’s everything to her and he thinks the same of her.”

  The Reagan thing was complicated. I had no idea what was really going on with me back then. Reagan was genuine and tough. She was sunshine and rainbows all while having a backbone. She was…intriguing, to say the least.

  The big question was, did I love her?

  The complicated answer to that was yes and no. Was I in love with her right at this moment? No, I knew that much. Had I been at one point? Maybe? I couldn’t say for sure, but I did have some strong, deep feelings for her, I could admit that much.

  The thing I missed the most was her friendship, I knew that for sure. While we still talked from time to time, we weren’t as close as we’d once been. And I often wondered that if the circumstances hadn’t forced us together, then maybe we wouldn’t have even gotten that close to begin with.

  But that was neither here nor there.

  She was happy and Loch loved her with everything he had in him.

  “You got someone special then?” she asked.

  “No. Haven’t had time.” That was partially true. I hadn’t been actively looking for anyone was more the truth. The bell on the shop door jingled. “Ethel, my next appointment’s here. I’ll call you the moment I open the box.”

  “Alright. I hope it’s an old man that wants you to tattoo his wrinkly dick.”

  “Thanks for that,” I laughed as I tried to wipe the image out of my mind. I hadn’t come across a customer with that request yet, but that wasn’t to say it wouldn’t happen one day. And no, I didn’t have a clue what I’d do when that situation presented itself. “Bye, Ethel.”

  With a blink, I switched into work mode. I didn’t have time to think about things that would never be or the reasons why and how I’d ended up here. The truth might have been that I didn’t let myself go there because I wasn’t sure if I was ready to figure out all the answers. I knew deep down that I might not like them. But that was the great thing about keeping busy and constantly having people around, it gave me an excuse to keep avoiding.

  By nature, I was in my head a lot. I wouldn’t say that I lived in my head, but being an artist, my brain was constantly working out the angles of every situation. I knew they weren’t stories and the details of the past could never be changed, but that didn’t stop me from always wondering ‘why’ to everything.

  That was my biggest life mystery, you could have said. While I could see all the little threads that weaved themselves together and brought me to the place that I was, I wasn’t always so sure that if just one of those threads had been removed that I’d end up here. Right here, sitting in this shop that oddly smelled like home to me. Dipping my needle into a tiny cap of ink and making the image in my head come alive on someone’s skin.

  But then again, I wouldn’t want life to be any different. So, really, it was silly to wonder such things. If I was honest with myself, I would have said that I wouldn’t have changed a thing in the past. That if I was given a choice, I would choose the same exact path. The future may be uncertain, but I could have said that I wasn’t worried about it. In my heart, I knew it would turn out how it was meant to be.

  I mean, it wasn’t like I really would know any differently, anyway.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Brand

  The shop was oddly quiet. This day had been a bust so far, and I wasn’t expecting it to get any better. I had come to find out that Thursdays were the worst day of the week for business. I’d been toying with the idea to close up the place on Thursdays from now on, but for some reason, I kept showing up to open the shop every week.

  “I got you the special,” Sketch said as he plopped the white paper bag on the countertop beside me.

  “What is it?” I asked as I dropped my pencil without a care where it landed and began to unroll the top of the bag. I looked up to see him giving me a ‘fuck if I know’ shrug.

  “Uh, there’s three different cheeses on there, I know that much.”

  “She suggested it, huh?” I raised a brow at him. I didn’t even need him to answer to know the truth. “This is the third time this week, man.”

  With a sigh, I peeled back the wrapping that held the mystery sandwich. I had no doubt that whatever it was wouldn’t be that bad, but it just wasn’t what I wanted. I’d been craving the number three from the deli two blocks away, but it seemed that sending Sketch to make the hike to get the food was the wrong move. He came back with something that wasn’t number three every damn time.

  I had an idea that it had something to do with the cute girl that took the orders at the counter. For some reason, she suggested the special of the day to him every time, and the asshole never turned it down. Even though he wouldn’t ever eat it. No, that special always ended up in front of me, and on my dime too. Meanwhile, he got whatever he wanted, extra meat and all.

  “Is this vegetarian?” I asked, pulling up a corner of the sliced bread.

  “It might be,” he replied with a careless nod as he all but unhinged his jaw to bite half of his sub.

  While I wasn’t some macho, meat only man, the soggy thing I held in my hands was far from the rare roast beef and salami sub I wanted to fill my mouth with.

  Not to mention the thing was cut in half on the diagonal. Who did that shit to grown-up sandwiches? And as I picked up one half of it, I imagined myself taking a bite right out of the middle then holding it up to my mouth like some sort of strange sandwich smile. Yes, like I used to do when I was five. Don’t even tell me that I was the only one that did that, I would know you were spouting lies.

  The bell on the door jingled and my eyes snap up from the sad soggy mess in front of me. A huge smile threatened to split my face because…well, why wouldn’t it with this guy? It might have been a couple of months at most since I’d seen him, but he seriously felt like my long lost twin.

  “What’s up, Chris?” I asked as I hopped off of my stool and round the counter to greet him. We did our usual hand dance—I mean man-slap thing, and then ended with a quick hug and slap on the back. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming down?”

  With a quick shrug, he flopped down on the velvet couch in the front of the shop. Something was up, I could tell by the look in his eyes, only I hadn’t the first clue
what it was.

  “I missed the beach?” The fact that his voice went up an octave while his face did some sort of weird scrunch thing wasn’t lost on me. “And you. And Lake. And Ky. Oh, missed you too, Sketchy-boy.”

  “What did I tell you I would fucking do to you next time you called me that?” Sketch said with a half-joking tone.

  “Punch me in the head and tattoo a vagina on my nuts. Yeah, yeah. Deal with it, because I might be here a while and I, for one, think the name is perfect.”

  “First, I said pussy. Who the fuck says vagina, anyways?” Sketch rolled his eyes and shook his head. “And two, fuck you.”

  A boisterous chorus of laughter bounced off the shop walls. Those two liked to do their best to get under each other’s skin, but it was all meant in good fun.

  “Wait,” I said pinning Chris with a hard stare once our laughter died down. “What do you mean a while?”

  “So,” he said as he folded forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. “Long story short, I had an uncle I didn’t really know much about. Dad and his brother had a falling out long before I was around and didn’t talk. Well, that brother, my uncle Roy, died and left his inheritance to Dad, my brother, sister, and me.”

  I was doing my best to understand where the fuck he was going with this. I’m sure the confused look that overtook my face helped him to move it along.

  “My point is, I recently came into enough money to buy a house of my own. I mean, not like I didn’t actually have the one in Moon Hill. But it was sort of like a had to instead of a want to. So, I was thinking about where it would be that I might want a house, and the beach popped up in my head. Loaded up the car with everything I wanted to keep. Sold the rest. And here I am.”

  He smiled as he stretched his arms out wide like it was just as simple as that.

  “You’re moving here?” I couldn’t even lie, I was pretty damn excited.