Page 14 of Blade

“You’re my own knight in shining armor. Always helping a damsel in distress, my hero,” she says, then adds, “For effect, imagine I’m fluttering my lashes and swooning.”

Damn, she makes me laugh.

As soon as I hang up with Emryn, I get her text. I move to the compound and out of the noisy garage to make the call. Demon and Orion are coming out of Guard’s office, with the big man himself right behind them.

“You look like you want to murder someone,” Demon says jokingly.

“Close,” I respond. “The movers Emmy hired to bring her shit are screwing her over. Time to make a call.”

“Before you do that, let me look up that number,” Orion intervenes with that strange expression he gets every now and again.

I learned a long time ago that when Orion gets that look, you have to let him ride it out. He leads us back to Guard’s office, and Orion takes his place at the computer. I rattle off the phone number and wait for Orion to do his thing.

“Hmmm,” he says. It doesn’t take long for him to get lost in what he’s doing.

“Bud, you want to give me a clue as to what you’re doing?” I ask.

“The company is real, but the owners are in debt up to their necks. Something shady is going on. Get ’em on the phone, not about Emryn, but to see if they’re willing to do a job for the club. If they do, we know they’re blowing with your girl, and then we’ll have a totally different conversation with them,” Orion says.

Orion was dead on the money with the moving company. As soon as I wanted to schedule their truck for a big load for the same date as Emryn’s delivery, they accommodated us. This means that besides Emryn, they’re bumping someone else’s delivery. Dan and Steve Emond are brothers and owners of the moving company. And they’re clearly scammers.

With their address in hand, suffice to say that they’ll be getting a visitor. Correction, several visitors. Demon and Ghost have decided they’re coming along for the ride. I call War to let him know what’s going down. I’m prepared to work well into the evening to get caught up with the cars I have on my roster, and since I’m not meeting with Emryn until nine tonight, it’ll give me plenty of time to do what I have to do.

“I’ll get a couple done myself,” War says. He’s a great mechanic, but his real strength is numbers. He does all the accounting for the shop and oversees the books for the parts and services side of the business.

“I owe you,” I reply gratefully.

It’s a good day for a motorcycle ride. It’s a great time to take advantage of the warm fall weather, because soon, the snow will fall. I want to take Emryn out on a ride before it gets too cold. Maybe tonight, we’ll head over to the diner for a burger, and she’ll have her first ride with me.

Ghost is riding up front with Demon and me following. We’re just arriving at our destination, which happens to be an old, run-down barn with a couple of moving vans sitting out front. The second they hear the roar of pipes coming from our bikes, two men come out to greet us.

We get off our bikes and move toward the two men, “Dan and Steve, I presume?” I say.

“Yeah, I’m Dan. This is my brother, Steve.” Dan jerks his thumb at his brother, then stretches his hand out for me to shake.

I take his hand, but instead of shaking it, I pull him to me, throwing him off-balance. When we’re nose to nose, I growl in his face, “I’m Emryn’s man. The woman you’ve been fucking over. That stops now, asshole.”

I feel his whole body start to shake.

“Fuck! Shit! Sorry! I can explain,” Dan stutters. His brother backs up but doesn’t get far because Ghost reaches out and grabs him by the collar of his shirt.

“I’m a reasonable man,” I begin with a sneer. “I’ll hear you out, then beat the shit out of you. And when all is said and done, Emryn’s load will get delivered on time tomorrow, and without a dish being broken.”

Dan spews lame excuses, none of which are believable. I proceed to knock him around, enough for him to feel the aftereffects. Ghost was less gentle with Steve, but then again, Steve has a big mouth, and Ghost wasn’t having any of it. Demon had to intervene before Ghost got carried away.

With the two men lying on the ground, I say, “Tomorrow, at two o’clock as promised, Emryn’s shit better be there. If not, there won’t be a place you’ll be able to hide where I won’t find you. You get me?”

“Got you,” Dan answers raspily, clutching his ribs.

As we walk back to our bikes, Demon says, “Well, that was fun.”

Ghost finally cracks a smile, shaking his head, and I slap my hands on the backs of my brothers.

“Thanks for this,” I tell them.

I wait until I’m back at the compound before calling Emryn to tell her the news and to expect the truck tomorrow.

“How did you get them to agree?” Emryn asks.

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