ICE on FIRE: Knights of Silence MC Page 2

  “But Katie, he’s a hoodlum. He’s a biker. He’s bad news, sweetheart, and he is only going to break your heart,” she said pleadingly, as if she thought her words were going to miraculously change my mind.

  “You know what Mom, just drop it. You will never understand and I really want to talk to Ace,” I said as I headed out of the kitchen and to the door. She called after me, but I just didn’t want to continue the conversation with her. I knew it was rude, but I was over eighteen and I’d had enough.

  When I got outside, I strolled casually down the driveway toward Ace and his bike. He was freakin’ gorgeous! “Hey, beautiful!” he said. “You look fantastic!” I was wearing a short, full, summer skirt and a t-shirt—nothing fancy, but definitely not the type of outfits he was used to seeing on the women who hung around his club.

  He made me smile immediately, but then I remembered I was mad at him. “Don’t you go and try to butter me up, Ace Corrigan! I’m mad at you!” I paused, and then asked, “Where have you been all summer?”

  “I’ve been busy, Katie Bug. Club stuff. You know how it is,” he replied. I didn’t know how it was. He would never tell me. He then added, “So, let’s start over. Hey, beautiful! You look fantastic!”

  Damn him. He knew I couldn’t stay mad at him for long. I caved and said teasingly, “Thanks, Dragon Slayer. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  “Why do you call me that?” he asked.

  “You mean you don’t know?” I said coyly.

  “You call me that all the time, but you have never told me why. Tell me,” he said.

  “Well, if you must know, you make all the bad things go away. All my fears, all the things that frighten me … you slay them. You are my dragon slayer, Ace. You always have been. You always will be.”

  “Katie Bug, I can’t be all that for you, darl’n. I never know where I’ll be from one day to another. This is no life for you, and I don’t want this life for you. You deserve so much better than an outlaw biker like me.”

  “Then why do you keep coming to see me?” I asked. “This summer was the perfect opportunity for you to cut your ties with me. I thought you had.”

  He shook his head, seeming disgusted with himself. “Because I can’t stay away. You are like a breath of fresh air in the very dark world that I live in. All it took was your text a week ago to let me know that you were leaving. I knew I couldn’t let you leave without saying goodbye.”

  I looked at him smugly. “See, you need me!”

  Changing the subject, he said, “Why don’t you go change and we can go for a ride.”

  I shook my head. “No, I can go like this!”

  “No, your skirt thingy will be flying up all over the place and everyone will be able to see,” he said, not pleased by my suggestion.

  “Look Ace, if I go back in the house, I doubt that my mom will just let me leave with you without an argument. If I promise to hold my skirt down, can we please just go? Please?” I said.

  “You are one crazy woman, Katie Bug.” He shook his head again. “Hop on!”

  I jumped on his bike and he backed out of the driveway. I knew Mom would be angry that I left, but I wouldn’t be gone long. When we got to the bottom of the driveway, Ace revved his Harley and we were off. God, I loved riding on the back of his bike—being so close to him, my body warm and hot up against him. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

  He drove us to Liana’s Lake Park. It was dusk and the sun was setting on the lake. It was beautiful. When he brought the bike to a stop, I hopped off. It was now or never, and I had to make my move. Before he had a chance to get off the bike himself, I swung my leg over his bike and straddled the tank. My back was facing the handlebars. I inched myself up closer to him, and he made a deep groan as our chests touched. Without hesitation his hand slid up under my skirt and he ran his fingers along my thighs. He reached my core and just hovered there as he leaned in and kissed me. It was our first kiss. It was a deep, passionate kiss, and I didn’t want it to end. I had been kissed before, but not like that. It was amazing.

  We finally broke apart just long enough to breathe, and then he kissed me again. The passion that we both had been holding in all those years finally erupted into flames and suddenly we couldn’t get enough of each other. His hand reached underneath my panties and he began to stroke me. I felt like I was about to explode; the pleasure was unbearable. I was holding on to him, my arms encircled around his neck. His left hand was working me over while his right hand was holding me so tight against him I couldn’t move. I wanted him. Hell, I’d always wanted him, but just then it was more urgent than usual.

  He released his right hand and reached down to undo his jeans. After he freed his cock, I was amazed at the size of it and suddenly felt very wet. He groaned again as he hiked my body up on top of him. “Ride me, baby,” he said, and it was my undoing. He slid my underwear to the side as I worked to impale myself on him. He was huge, and suddenly I was overcome with the fear of his size. But I couldn’t stop, not even if I wanted to. I slowly pushed myself down on him. When he broke through my barrier, the pain was excruciating. I tensed. “Katie?” he asked, concerned. “What’s wrong, Katie Bug?” I looked up into his eyes tearfully and I saw the realization come across his face. “Fuck, Katie, you’re a virgin!” I nodded. “It shouldn’t be this way, babe. It should be special. Not frantic sex on my bike.” He tried to break free, but I stopped him.

  The last thing I wanted was for him to stop. My friends had told me that sex for the first time would hurt, but if I just waited for my body to adjust to him, it wouldn’t be so bad. “Ace, please don’t stop. I want this! Please!” I knew I sounded like a child, but I had dreamed about being with him for so long and feared that I would never get this chance again. I couldn’t let him stop now, no matter how bad it hurt. “Just let me get used to you for a minute. I’ll be fine,” I said pathetically.

  “Katie, I can’t. I can’t promise you anything after this,” he said.

  “Please,” I begged. “I don’t care about promises, I just want you.”

  “Katie, you’re killing me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to say no to you, even if I know it’s the right thing to do?”

  “Well, if it is so hard for you, then why are we having this conversation?” I asked coyly.

  “Fuck it, I’m a selfish bastard. Always have been, always will be,” he said as he grabbed my hips and slowly moved me on him. There was still some discomfort, but my body was adjusting to his and as the discomfort began to subside, the feeling of him filling me was overwhelming. I began to relax. He must have known it was feeling better because he began moving me in a way that worked us both into a frenzy. Filling me completely, he called out my name as he found his release. As he was pumping his seed into me he reached down and began to massage my clit. It didn’t take long to find that I was reaching an orgasm too.

  “Fuck, Katie Bug. That was amazing,” he said.

  “Thank you for not stopping. I’ve wanted this for so long.” A long silence stretched between us. The moment was scaring me, and I just had to ask, “Ace. Does this mean that I’m your old lady now?” Oh shit, I can’t believe I just said that.

  He looked directly into my eyes and I could see the love he had for me. He moved a hair away from my face and just looked at me for what seemed like forever. Then he spoke. “Katie, I love you. I’ve always loved you. But you being my old lady is not in the cards for us. You deserve a better life than what I can offer you, babe. I’ve told you this numerous times.”

  “I know, but a life with you is the only life I want. Don’t you think I should decide what is best for me or what I deserve?” I asked.

  “Not this time, babe. You think hooking up with a biker is an idealistic fairytale life. It’s not. We kill and we get killed. It’s not pretty, and I will not subject you to that kind of life. I don’t care how much you plead with me, it’s not going to happen. Besides, you will be much better off with Tyler what’s-his-name.”<
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  “I don’t want him! I want you!” I yelled.

  “Katie, I’m not gonna change my mind. You have always known this. I have made this perfectly clear to you for a while now. I’ve kept my distance on purpose, Katie. I never wanted to give you false hope that there could be anything more between us,” he replied.

  “So you basically just stole my virginity and now you are saying goodbye?” I said angrily. I didn’t care that there would be danger. At least I could face that danger with him at my side. Despite my anger, I knew this had not been about just getting into my pants or fucking the virgin. I knew Ace too well for that. It was obvious how he felt about me and I knew without a doubt he loved me.

  “Katie, it’s not like that, and you know it. I told you that I couldn’t make any promises to you, that I couldn’t offer you anything beyond this. You agreed.”

  “I did not!” I yelled.

  “You did and you know it. If my life was different … hell, we would already be married. We’d have a couple of kids and the white picket fence. But my life is not different. My life requires me to have no connections to anything that I love. I can’t afford to love. They will come after what I love most, and I will not put you in that position. I love you too much.”

  “What do you mean, ‘they’?” I asked.

  “My enemies, the club’s enemies. They are everywhere, baby, and I will not put you smack-dab in the center of all the chaos. I will not do it!”

  “Take me home, Ace,” I demanded. I didn’t want to hear any more. He was telling me goodbye when I’d thought our life was just starting.

  Ace drove me home. It was dark as we pulled into the driveway. As I got off his bike, I turned to him and said, “I love you.”

  He reached over and tugged on my arm, pulling me tight to his body. His hand reached up into my hair and he eased my head forward. His lips were hovering next to my ear. “Forgive me, my beautiful Katie Bug. I will always love you more,” he whispered in my ear, sending chills all through my body. He released me, pushed his bike back down the drive, and left.

  As he pulled away, I muttered to myself, “Holy shit! We didn’t use any protection.”

  Three months later …

  My life was over. It was my wedding day. You would think I would have been a nervous, overly happy bride. But no, I wasn’t that bride. This was not the wedding I wanted. It was not the wedding of my dreams, and the groom definitely was not the man I wanted to marry. I knew I would always remember my wedding with sadness and fear for the life I was being forced to live. I was marrying a man I would never love. I appreciated what Tyler was doing for me, but I knew I would never love him. Not like I loved Ace. But Ace didn’t want his child or me. He’d made that perfectly clear.

  Present day

  Caden

  “Message received. You got me,” I said.

  Mark’s satanic laugh echoed through the phone. He’d been clear. I only had two options: I either had to allow his vengeance to destroy everything that I loved—Emma, Ari, and my club—or allow him to destroy me. The choice was easy. Emma would survive. I had put enough money away that Ari would want for nothing in the event that something would happen to me. It was more than her father ever did for her. My club would also survive and most likely flourish without me. Hawk would take over as President. The club and Edinboro would find peace again. It was an easy choice. It was time to face my half-brother.

  His instructions were clear. I was to meet him in Wattsburg. That was roughly 30 minutes from the shattered clubhouse that lay before me. I turned to Honey, who was devastated by what just happened, and said, “Call Hawk. Tell him what has happened here and that I’ve found Emma. He’ll know what to do.” She looked at me confused and I added, “I have to go.” I turned to leave.

  “Ice, wait,” she called after me. I turned and she asked, tears welling up in her eyes, “Where are you going?” Somehow, I sensed that she knew exactly what I was about to do. I didn’t know how, she but she’d always had a sixth sense when any members of the club were about to head into danger. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she believed that this was the last time she was gonna see me.

  I needed her to help Hawk and the boys heal the club. She couldn’t break down on me now. I walked over to her, kissed her on the forehead, and said as calmly as I could, “Now don’t you go worrying your pretty little head, darl’n, I’ll be back.”

  Chapter 1

  Emma

  “Caden will come for me …”

  Time ticked away so slowly. I couldn’t tell if it was night or day. I couldn’t tell how long I had laid here on this filthy bed, naked and bound.

  “Caden will come for me …”

  But I was wrong. My last thought before I lost consciousness again was that nobody had come for me.

  I awoke to rapid and frantic talking outside my door. Is Caden here? He did come for me, just like I knew he would! As I strained to listen to what was being said, I realized the only voice I could hear was Mark’s. He sounded frantic, and as his words faded in and out, I realized that he was pacing up and down outside the door. What is going on? Could Caden be here and he just hasn’t said anything? Or is Mark really out there talking to himself? I couldn’t make out what Mark was saying at first, but then his words progressively got louder.

  “What the fuck are you gonna do, Mark?”

  “Shut up! Shut up! I’ve got this!”

  “No you don’t, you don’t have shit!”

  “Fuck you! Shut up! You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”

  “If I don’t know what I’m talking about, then tell me—what are you gonna do? You’ve got him in the basement and her in that room. You gonna do what you promised? You need to follow through with your promise to him!”

  “NO! I DON’T!! I can take them both down now. Him for stealing from me what was rightfully mine and her for being a royal pain in the ass that I have had to deal with for the past several years. She was only a means to an end, you knew that.”

  “Of course I did, but did you?”

  “What the fuck! You are fucking with my head! Get out!”

  “Mark, I will never leave you, you know that.”

  “GET OUT! GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!”

  The door burst open and a minimal amount of light crept through the opening. Mark stormed into the room and stared at me. He was creeping me out more than he had when he was in this room before. Then, he had been calm, calculated, and eerie. Now, he appeared unhinged, frantic, and nervous. He was still staring down at me wide-eyed, but then he turned to his right and whispered, “So, asshole, what are you gonna do?”

  He then turned to the left and said a little louder, “I’m gonna do what I planned to do and there is no way in hell you are going to stop me.”

  He turned back to his right and whispered again, “Think about this, Mark. You fuck this up and you can kiss your career goodbye. Do you really believe the Knights will welcome you into their club after this? Do you really think you have anywhere to go, even now? You’re done. It’s all over.”

  He turned back to his left and yelled, “I will do what I fucking damn well please. Get out!” He then turned back toward me and yelled, “Get out!” I was so confused by what I’d just witnessed that I was unsure whether or not he was talking to me. He threw my clothes at me and ordered, “Get dressed!” He walked over to me undid the ties that bound me and ordered again, “Get dressed! Get out!”

  Not wanting to argue with him, I did as I was told. My arms and legs were stiff and felt like jelly at the same time. I was having trouble getting myself to stand steady constantly needing to hold on to something, which made putting my clothes on difficult. Once I was able to balance myself and stand on my own two feet I began to get dressed, as he demanded. As I was buttoning my jeans, my curiosity about what was going on was killing me and I just had to ask, “Mark, what’s happened?”

  He gave me no response. He wouldn’t even look at me.<
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  I prodded, saying, “Why are you letting me go? Where’s Caden? Is Caden here?”

  Again, he gave me no response, but smirked at the mention of Caden. I was confused. Where was Cade, or any of the other Knights? Were they here? Would I find them outside? I had no idea, but at this point, I figured that I was not going to get any answers from Mark and the best thing to do was to get my butt out of this hell hole while I had the chance. I finished getting dressed and rushed over to the door.

  Finally, he looked at me and yelled, “GET OUT!”

  I had no idea where I was or how I was going to get back home. I walked out of the room and entered a dark hallway. Not knowing how to get out of the house that I was in, I looked to him for some form of direction.

  He said, “Down the hall and then take the first right. Now GO!” I followed his instructions and as I was walking down the hall I remember him saying something to himself about having him downstairs. In the hopes that it was Cade, I yelled, “Caden! Caden, he’s letting me go!”

  He quickly came up behind me and pushed me forward. “Not another word! Now get the fuck out before I change my mind!”

  I ran outside the door and found myself alone. Neither Caden nor the Knights were outside to rescue me. Mark did not follow me; he just slammed the door behind me.

  Now what do I do? I found myself in an area that I was not familiar with. I turned back toward the building that I’d been held captive in and was surprised to see that it was a quaint little cottage. It was well-kept, with a perfectly manicured lawn and flowers adorning the front walk. Two rocking chairs were on the front porch. Nobody would ever begin to imagine the horrors that lie within.

  My cell phone was in the back pocket of my jeans, but the battery was dead. I didn’t know Cade’s number, but it was programmed into that phone. It was the only number programmed into that phone. Rebel had taken my personal cell phone when we headed up to the safe house and all I was left with was this burner. I didn’t have any form of transportation, so I began to walk. I had no idea where I was going, but I hoped I would be able to find a place with a phone. After walking for several miles, I came to a gas station. Thank God. I was exhausted, and that gas station was the first ray of hope I’d had since Mark let me go.