Page 3 of Forged in Peril

The small coffee shop was owned by her mother’s old friend Iris, and the cozy, somewhat dated interior was almost as familiar as the mobile home she’d spent most of her childhood in.

She’d intended to grab only the tea, having scrounged together just enough change from the bottom of her purse and the cupholders of her car, but Iris had insisted on feeding her a full breakfast platter on the house.

Supposedly, it had been offered in celebration of her new job, but Bristol knew better.

Gossip traveled fast in Silver Grove, and her moving back in with her mother somehow qualified as newsworthy. Bristol wouldn’t have been surprised if half of the sleepy town knew the precise, humiliating balance of her checking account by now.

She took another long drink as she merged onto the freeway, thankful that the Monday morning traffic was strangely light, even though she was heading into San Antonio closer to rush hour than she’d intended.

Still, she was thankful for her full belly and the accompanying encouragement that Iris had offered her. She hated accepting charity from anyone, but for the time being, she had been forced to let go of her pride more than once.

If taking a handout from Iris helped her to reach her goal of moving back into her own apartment a little bit faster, it would be well worth it.

As she settled into highway speed–Boris, thankfully, was still on his best behavior–she couldn’t help but to let her mind wander to her old apartment.

Though she had moved out almost a month ago, she still half-expected to wake up there every morning, the sunshine shafting in between her lacy white bedroom curtains. Though it was tiny and overpriced, it was located right in downtown San Antonio, ‘close to the action’, as her mother would say, and her kitchen window had a view of the River Walk.

She had lived there for barely two years, but it had been long enough for it to feel like home, and now it belonged to someone else.

Bristol reached for the radio dial, turning up the volume as the weather reporter drawled on about the drizzling rain that was supposed to arrive in the late afternoon. She turned it off again immediately, her attempt to distract herself a total fail.

Now that Christmas had come and gone, she found the dull, cloudy January weather depressing.

“Maybe all of this is a mistake, Boris,” she said, not caring how ridiculous it was to name and then talk to a car. She had a few friends in the city, but none that would understand her current predicament, and she had burdened her mother enough already. At least Boris didn’t judge.

It was too late to turn back now, anyway. She was expected to arrive at Forge Brothers Security within the next thirty minutes, and she knew she’d need at least fifteen minutes to work up the nerve to actually go in.

Cameron Forge was going to think that she was crazy, taking him up on his offer after all of this time, but she could see no better way out of the mess she’d found herself in.

She’d just have to put on a brave face for the sake of her future.

Step one, get out of her mother’s house.

Step two, save up at least part of what she needed to go back to school.

If she put her head down, she could achieve both of her goals in a year.

And if Cameron had a problem with her during that time, she’d just have to do her best to stay out of his way.

As she pulled off of the freeway ramp, she could see that the traffic was picking up as thousands of people poured into their offices, ready to tackle the week ahead. Despite everything that had happened, she couldn’t help but to feel a twinge of melancholy as she passed the street that led toward the glittering office tower housing Dorling & Porter, Attorneys at Law.

For two years she had walked into that building six days a week, sacrificing the majority of her waking hours trying to carve out a place for herself as their top paralegal. She had put their clients and lawyers above everything else in her life, forgoing dinners with oft-neglected friends and Saturday morning coffee dates with potential suitors in favor of writing reports, filing paperwork, and preparing for court. And even after all that she had done to prove herself, it hadn’t been enough.

One night, one lapse in judgment, one man’s word against her own, and it was all over. Losing her career had been bad enough, but that wasn’t all that had been taken from her. Not by a long shot.

Bristol tried to shake off the dark thoughts that threatened to consume her as she turned onto the correct street, eyes scanning the side of the street for a parallel parking space before she remembered that she’d been given an access code for the garage. She pulled around the back of the building, punched in the number at the gate, and slowly rolled down the underground driveway, pleased to see that the place was surprisingly well-lit.

It didn’t take her long to find a parking spot in a secluded but bright corner, and though it was nearing seven-thirty, she was in no hurry to head inside.

Avoiding Cameron Forge while working at his company was going to be impossible, she knew, but she could afford to delay the awkwardness for just a little while longer.

Despite moving back to San Antonio two years prior, for the most part, it had been easy to avoid the Forge brothers. They lived in a different world than she and her mother did, and there were few places where their paths would naturally cross.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

After weeks of cajoling, Bristol’s mother had nearly dragged her to a bake sale at her church in Silver Grove during her first Christmas back in town, which just so happened to be the same church that the Forge family had been attending approximately forever.

And, of course, all of the brothers had chosen to show up at the bake sale, including Cameron.

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