Steel My Soul (Motorcycle Club Romance) (Sons of Steel Motorcycle Club Book 4) by Vivian Lux Read Free Book Online

to see Crash's glowering face staring up at me.
    I sat back on my heels and stared. So that's what he looks like. The same piercing blue eyes, but somehow in the picture he looked different. Without the boyish twinkle he almost looked frightening. How had I not noticed how his right eye drooped? And what was the deal with those scars on his forehead? How had I missed those?
    I stared at his picture for several seconds before I finally read what I was holding. Benjamin Nelson, 1232 N. 4th St., Apt. 5 A, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
    Benjamin Nelson.
    Ben Nelson.
    Slowly the pieces slid into place. The scars. The limp. Those unforgettable piercing blue eyes.
    Ben Nelson.
    He was back.
    My heart did a weird shiver flop as I remembered the assembly at school. Ben had been in my sister's class, a senior, one of the most popular kids in the entire school. I was just a lowly sophomore who regarded him as nothing short of a rock star.  He was the kid that nobody hated; achingly cool enough to be beloved of the rich jocks, self-confident enough to sit with the desperate nerds and not suffer for it. And when he'd rolled up in the parking lot behind the auditorium on the motorcycle he bought with his own money, it just solidified what we all knew. Ben Nelson was a fucking god.
    Or he was.
    When he had the accident, they gathered the whole school into the auditorium to tell us. He was in a coma, the doctors weren't sure he would make it, always wear a helmet kids. Practically the entire senior class was crying, and I felt myself get choked up too. We were kids, we weren't supposed to have to deal with our own mortality, but the tragic accident that nearly cost Ben Nelson his life shattered us all.
    And then he woke up, and he was a completely different person.
    He disappeared halfway through his recovery, not completing high school, not coming to graduate with his class. He became something of a myth around Lenape, the tragic case of Ben Nelson, a legend passed down from class to class.
    I stared at the picture, tracing my thumb along the ridge of his jaw line. Of course I had known. I just couldn't see past the exterior. But what the hell was he doing calling himself Crash? Why the hell was he looking like some biker hell raiser?
    Why was he here?

Chapter Ten
     
    Crash
     
    I walked out into the winter sunshine and turned left.  The slushy streets were tricky with my leg, but the bright blue sky and the fact that I had just gotten really lucky was more than enough to make me happy.
    Maybe I should ask her for her number or some cheesy shit?
    Right. A chick like that, a gorgeous, sexy enthusiastic fucker, was going to stick around once she found out what she was dealing with. A guy like me, a cripple with a bad brain, homeless and unable to remember the most mundane shit. That was really what she was looking for.
    Right.
    Best for the both of us that I just walk away. She could go find some guy who would marry her and give her a big house and a minivan and shit. I could walk away with the memory of those tits to warm me on the inevitable lonely night.
    Fuck though. This was the hardest time I've ever had walking away from a naked woman.
    My bike was still there in the parking lot of the bar. I guess the owners didn't give too much of a shit about who parked there overnight. Probably had a lot of drunks taking cabs home and coming back in the morning.
    It was still cold as hell out, but the ride would be short. I slung my bad leg over the seat and sat there for a moment. My bike. Riding it was like giving the finger to death in a way that I really enjoyed.  J. was always trying to get me to wear a helmet.  "You almost died, you stupid fuck.  Why're you tempting fate like this?"
    "The devil had his chance to take me," I would smile.  "Figure I'm in the clear now."
    The only thing I had to do when I rode was stay alive. No thought or effort but the energy I expended to stay upright. I rode because my bike had almost killed me, but I