Forged in Peril

Ambitious paralegal Bristol Chaplin knows that achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer won’t be easy, but there’s a price that even she isn’t willing to pay. When a dark secret threatens to destroy her career, she’s forced to seek help from the man she thought she’d left behind forever.

Private security operative Cameron Forge is content to spend his life serving God and protecting the innocent. But as the woman who broke his heart brings danger straight to his doorstep, he realizes that keeping her safe might be his toughest mission yet.

With hidden threats lurking behind every shadow, they have no choice but to uncover the truth about who is hunting Bristol before it’s too late. Even if it means putting their lives–and hearts–on the line.

Serve. Protect. Redeem.
Forge Brothers Security is a clean and Christian suspense romance series. Each book is a standalone and can be read in any order. Tropes for Forged in Peril include second chance, protector hero, private security, and office romance.

Chapter One

The engine shuddered as Bristol pressed her foot against the gas pedal.
“Come on, Boris,” she said, glancing down at the RPM gauge with a sigh. “Not now. Do this at lunch or something.”
After a few more seconds of protest, the car shifted into third gear at last, though Bristol had little doubt that the stubborn old Ford Taurus would indeed pull the same stunt later.
It had been several weeks since the transmission had started to act up, but unless she went to her mother for yet another favor, Boris was just going to have to survive a couple more weeks. As long as her new company was keen to pay her on time, she figured they’d make it. At least, she hoped so.
She reached down and took hold of the travel mug of green tea resting in the console, careful not to let the temperamental lid pop free as she took a small, careful sip. The taste was familiar and comforting, despite the uncertainties of the day ahead, and she was thankful that she’d stopped for it at the Screaming Peach Cafe on her way out of Silver Grove.
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.
Bristol reached over onto the passenger seat, fiddling with the contents of her tote bag and trying not to remember what a jerk she’d been to him. He and his family had been nothing but kind to her, but she’d been standoffish–especially when he’d offered her a job in their security company’s legal department as soon as he found out that she was finished with her bachelor’s degree and paralegal program.
She could still imagine the way that she’d rebuffed his generous offer, telling him that she could take care of herself, and that she already had a job with a very prestigious local firm, thank you very much.
She cringed as she tightened the lid on her water bottle for the third time, not wanting to risk dousing the rest of the contents of her purse.
Dorling & Porter was prestigious, all right.
Prestigious enough to protect their own favored lawyers, no matter their conduct, and no matter the cost.
It had taken every ounce of humility Bristol had to write an email to Cameron’s assistant the week before, asking if they were still hiring for any legal positions. At that point, she was desperate enough that she would have been thankful for a gig in the mail room, but she knew Cameron, and despite how she’d treated him, she was confident that he’d help her as much as he could.
So it had not been a surprise when she’d received an email back less than six hours later, telling her that their lead–and currently only–paralegal had recently gone out on maternity leave, and that they were desperate to bring in a competent replacement. He’d offered her the job then and there, without even asking for an interview.
Now, she realized that maybe talking to him beforehand might have made things a whole lot easier, but it was too late to do anything about it now.
With a final reluctant glance at her watch, she hitched her bag over her shoulder and climbed out of the car, pressing the lock button on her keys a couple of extra times, just in case.
“Not that anyone in their right mind would break into you, Boris,” she said, glancing around to ensure that the garage was otherwise empty before starting toward the stairwell.
With any luck, most of the other employees would roll up in their BMWs or whatever they drove closer to eight, and no one, not even Cameron, would realize that the dumpy old Taurus with the mismatched fender belonged to her at all.