Anvil (Book 1): Chrome Kings MC, #1

By Kathryn Thomas

This is book 1 of the Chrome Kings MC romance series! Books 2 and 3 of this motorcycle club romance series are available everywhere now!

 

She hid my daughter from me. Time to pay the price.

 

GABRIEL

 

She was the best thing I ever let go.

 

Nothing compared after Stella Hayes – no matter how much I drink, how many women I bed, how much money we rake in… she was branded in my mind.

 

But I can't go back to her. Not now. Not ever.

Because I left for one very, very good reason:

 

To keep her safe.

 

But when club business brings me back to my hometown and forces me to confront the past I left behind, I discover that all those old emotions are still there.

 

Especially when I find out that Stella has been hiding the daughter I never knew I had.

 

STELLA

 

Break my heart once, shame on you.

But break my heart twice?

Shame on me, and all the other stupid decisions I made in the process.

 

I loved Gabriel Prince. He was all I ever wanted.

And then, just like that, he vanished without a word, and left me to pick up the pieces.

 

And raise our child… alone.

 

I wasn't going to let that stop me, though.

Gabriel didn't need to know about our daughter.

Hell, he didn't deserve to know. especially because I thought I'd never see him again.

 

But three years later, he's back, and all those stupid decisions I made are coming back to haunt me.

 

It only takes one touch for me to give into his temptation – over and over and over, until I'm screaming his name.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBook Publishing World
• Release date: Apr 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393918875

Book preview

Anvil: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Chrome Kings MC Book 1)

By Kathryn Thomas

She hid my daughter from me. Time to pay the price.

GABRIEL

She was the best thing I ever let go.

Nothing compared after Stella Hayes – no matter how much I drink, how many women I bed, how much money we rake in... she was branded in my mind.

But I can’t go back to her. Not now. Not ever.

Because I left for one very, very good reason:

To keep her safe.

But when club business brings me back to my hometown and forces me to confront the past I left behind, I discover that all those old emotions are still there.

Especially when I find out that Stella has been hiding the daughter I never knew I had.

STELLA

Break my heart once, shame on you.

But break my heart twice?

Shame on me, and all the other stupid decisions I made in the process.

I loved Gabriel Prince. He was all I ever wanted.

And then, just like that, he vanished without a word, and left me to pick up the pieces.

And raise our child... alone.

I wasn’t going to let that stop me, though.

Gabriel didn’t need to know about our daughter.

Hell, he didn’t deserve to know. especially because I thought I’d never see him again.

But three years later, he’s back, and all those stupid decisions I made are coming back to haunt me.

It only takes one touch for me to give into his temptation – over and over and over, until I’m screaming his name.

CHAPTER ONE

Stella Hayes pulled four-dozen Kaiser Rolls from the oven and set them aside on the cooling rack. Once they were completely cooled she would bag them up, six to a bag, for sale. She enjoyed working in the bakery of On A Roll and took great pride in the quality of the items she made. June Rodgers, the owner of the upscale grocery, gave her a free hand to make whatever she liked, so long as it sold well enough to cover the expense of making it, and she’d developed a local reputation and a loyal following. She baked continuously from eleven until about six, making fresh bread, cookies and various cakes and pies, all made from scratch, and all made from ingredients she picked from the store’s stock, including the recipe on a card taped to each item sold.

Rodgers had objected to including the recipes at first, but Stella pointed out the recipe helped sell other items in the store, most of the people who bought from the bakery would continue to do so because they normally didn’t have the time or skills to make it themselves, and the customers liked the fact that the store was open and honest about how the items were made. He relented, and even expanded upon the idea by having Stella offer baking classes four times a year customers could sign up for. The bakery didn’t make a lot of money, but it was a big draw for the rest of the store, and it was one of the things, along with cut-to-order meat and the store’s diverse and impeccably fresh produce, that separated On A Roll from the big chains that competed on price.

She pulled a rack of baguettes from oven and placed them on cooling racks, allowing the long loaves to cool as she began to bag the Kaiser Rolls. The big rush started around three and ran until about seven, and she wanted to make sure she had enough prepackaged items ready for the busy moms and dads. She had a clerk to help work the counter during the rush, but she did all the preparation and baking, making good use of the three commercial ovens with steam injection, and the heavy mixer that could handle up to twenty-five pounds of batter or dough at a time. There was never a shortage of clerks wanting to help her because she alway rewarded them for their help with something from the discount table. She suspected Rodgers knew she was giving away items that were about to be donated to the local food bank, but he never asked and she didn’t bother to tell.

The giant mixer was whirring away as it stirred the batter for her butter sheet cake. She made four a day, two with chocolate frosting, one with vanilla and butter, and one with cream cheese. She was amazed anyone would buy the cakes since they were so easy to make, but it was a rare day that all four weren’t sold. She’d just finished pouring the batter into a giant sheet pan for a cake she would later quarter and frost when she saw the men stride in. From her station in the bakery, she had a good view of the front door and registers, and enjoyed watching the comings and goings of the patrons.

They were obviously part of a club or organization, each man wearing a black leather vest with a silver shield on the back. Inside the shield was silhouette of a man, shown from the neck up, with lines of silver defining his shape on the black background. The image had glowing red eyes staring out from below his low-riding gambler’s hat and the lower part of his face covered by a bandana. The men all wore jeans and heavy boots, their arms covered in tattoos, and were most definitely not the typical On A Roll customers.

She’d was sliding the cake into the oven as the men began to line up at the register, loaded down with beer and junk food. She grinned as Robin nervously rang the men out, keeping her eyes down as she performed her task, not that she blamed her actually. If the men had stopped at the bakery, she would have probably been a little intimidated by them, too.

She watched as they picked up their beer and snacks and walked out of the store, grinning again as Robin visibly relaxed and then turned to face her as she twisted her face into an exaggerated mask of surprise. Stella snickered, gave her a wave, then turned away as the oven began to bleat for her attention, announcing the completion of the four fruit pies.

STELLA CHUCKED HER flour covered apron into the hamper and stripped out of her store uniform of khaki pants and deep green shirt, slipping into a pair of shorts and a light blue t-shirt. The Carolina Diner didn’t have a dress code, other than to dress neatly, so she dressed for comfort. After nine hours at her regular job, she wasn’t in the mood to try to impress anyone with her sense of style, especially for minimum wage plus tips.

She threw together a quick sandwich for dinner and wolfed it down. She had an hour between her jobs. The bakery closed at eight, and she went on shift at Carolina Diner at nine where she worked until it closed at midnight. The only way she could make it work was both the diner and the store were within a ten minute drive of her apartment.

By the time she arrived at the diner the heavy dinner rush was mostly over and that usually made for light work. The lighter workload was good, especially after working a full day at her regular job, but the tips were pretty thin, too, which wasn’t as good.

Two more months. She only had to hold it together for two more months, then