Page 22 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

THEA

My body ached, but in a good way. It had been a few days since we’d had our fingers tattooed with our names.

It was like a switch had been flipped in Coal.

I think we’ve had more sex in the last few days than I’d had in my life.

I more than likely should be bothered by his possessiveness, but I found I loved it.

I was never in any doubt about how he felt about me, and he wasn’t shy about showing his affection.

It didn’t matter who was around. If he wanted me on his lap, then I was on his lap; if he wanted a kiss, then he kissed me.

He treated Shea like she was his. And I loved him for it.

Yep, I loved him. I wasn’t sure that I believed in love at first sight.

Lust, yes, but love? I’d always been sceptical when I’d heard people comment about it happening to them.

That was until it happened to me. I’d heard about how Tinman and Maggie had met and wondered if it was just a Tin thing, but then I’d spoken to Sera O’Shea when she’d come over to set up our trackers, and she’d had me in stitches telling me about how she’d met her husband in the morning and that she’d been in his bed and his home by that night and had never left.

I’d not said anything to Coal yet. It didn’t seem right to just blurt it out.

While we’d spent every night together, things were getting busy for the brothers.

Copper would be leaving for a little while, it seemed.

I’m not sure why, but I knew that they’d be needing weapons sooner rather than later.

I was waiting for Tinman to pick me up to look at a site for my new workshop.

Although it would be months until it was ready, for now, I’d be working in an old barn on the back end of Maggie’s property.

This morning the men were cutting a road through the boundaries from the Queens Wraiths’ property to Maggie’s for easier access and so that we no longer had to use the main road.

It meant that anybody watching us wouldn’t be able to tell when we moved between properties, which is why Coal and his brothers were cutting the road.

They didn’t want anyone knowing about it.

Once the property that the Cursed Skulls had bought for the paintball venture was completed, they’d do the same there .

After I’d looked at the barn with Tinman, we were meeting back at the clubhouse for Church.

It was the first time I’d attend. Coal wanted me in so that he could let me know what they were involved in.

He’d said that it was unusual for MCs to involve their women in what they did, but as I was making their weapons, I’d be involved anyway, and it was a way for me to keep safe.

For the moment, they’d keep it to a case-by-case basis when it came to Old Ladies and how involved they’d be.

His mother and sister had no interest in knowing what was being discussed in Church, and he respected that.

As for me, it would be up to me how much I wanted to know beyond what my job entailed.

“Ma,” I look up from packing Shea’s bag when she slaps her hands on the table of her walker in frustration, as if the wall she’d got stuck in front of had appeared out of nowhere.

Chuckling, I leave the bag and walk over to where she’d got herself stuck, pull her away from the wall, and turn her around.

Laughing when she zooms off, squealing with laughter until she bounces into the back of the couch.

I thought I’d have to save her again, but she figures it out pretty quickly and is off again.

Shaking my head at how spoilt she was getting.

The walker had appeared at our house the day after she’d spent the day with Maggie and Opal.

I wasn’t sure who’d bought it, just like I wasn’t sure who’d bought the various toys that appeared in our front room.

The clothes could only have been Maggie because they were washed and folded.

I’d given up telling her to stop spoiling Shea; I figured it was a grandmother’s prerogative.

All I could hope was that one of Coal’s brothers found a woman sooner rather than later and started popping out bairns because we’d be running out of room with the way they were buying shite.

The front door opens slowly after someone knocked. Tinman calls out, “It’s only me, Thea.”

“Come in, but watch your shins; Shea’s in her walker,” I warn.

Tinman pops his head around the door, a big grin on his face that widens further when Shea sees him and goes crazy, zooming as quickly as she can towards him, arms already up.

Spoilt baggage. I love it, though. That they’ve taken us into their family without batting an eye, welcoming Shea with open arms. It wasn’t something I’d expected in my life, and because I’d never had it, I didn’t know what I was missing.

I’m glad that we’ve found our way to each other.

“Shea-Shea,” Tinman croons, bending to scoop her out of her walker and bringing her close, kissing her cheek. “I see you’re loving the wheels Daideó got you.”

“Ha,” I say, pointing my finger at him with a smile, “So you’re the culprit. I wondered who it was.”

“Of course. I had to make sure I got my girl her first wheels,” he smirks at me.

“She’s bloody lethal with them,” I tell him, zipping up the nappy bag and putting it on the floor by the door. “Let me get my boots on and Shea’s shoes, then we can go.”

“Where are her shoes?” Tinman asks, looking around. “I’ll put them on while you get ready.”

“Thanks, they’re over there,” I say, pointing towards the shoe rack under our coats. “She probably doesn’t need them yet, but Coal insisted as she’s started pulling herself up on the furniture.”

Tinman finds her shoes and plonks her on his lap, making quick work of getting them on her. I guess the man would have experience having had five bairns. I’m not sure why I didn’t think he’d been a hands-on dad when Coal was, even though Shea wasn’t his. He treated her as if were.

Not wanting to make a big deal out of it, I bend my head to get my own shoes on, ignoring the way my eyes stung with tears at how Coal’s whole family loved on my baby.

When I’m done, I stand and grab the bag I’d packed for Shea, following Tinman out the door and closing it behind me, making sure it locked.

We were secure here, but Coal had insisted that we make sure that we still put security first, and having lived like I had on my da’s property, I agreed with him.

It didn’t pay to be lax. Mistakes happened, and people got hurt when you did.

Tinman had come over in Maggie’s vehicle and was walking towards it. “Do you need me to get the car seat out of our vehicle?” I ask him, veering off that way. I’d assumed we would be going in it, so I’d brought the keys with me.

“No need,” Tinman assures me, opening up the back door and showing me the same car seat we had.

He casually strapped Shea in, completely unaware of what seeing it had done to me.

It was at that moment that I had an epiphany.

I needed to get over my trust issues and let Coal’s family in.

All the way in. They’d made it very clear that Shea and I are family .

“You coming?” Tinman asks. It’s then that I realise I’m still standing in the same spot that I’d been in when I first questioned him.

“I’m coming,” I assure him, hurrying toward the door he held open for me and clambering in. Turning to look over my shoulder at Shea, I have to smile when I see how many toys are dangling on one of those hoops that attached to the window for her to play with.

“Right, let’s go show you this barn. I think it will do for now until we get yours built. The roof is watertight, and it’s solid. It’s further back on the property, and you can’t see it from the house or the road. Although it isn’t soundproof, so we’ll need to think of something to do about that.”

Shrugging, I say, “I can use silencers for now. It’s not the best because it’s a pain to keep changing them out, but it will do for now.”

“How did you get into building guns and bombs?” Tinman asks. I hesitate to answer, so used to keeping what I did a secret. This was my family now, though, and Tinman wasn’t asking out of curiosity. He was genuinely interested.

“My mam,” I answer. “She was his go-to for weapons, and when he realised she was not just selling them but also designing and building them, he used his charm to coerce her onto his property, then basically kept her prisoner in the same cottage I was living in when Coal and the brothers came. He never married her. I was eight when he killed her, but by then I’d been working with her and learning probably more than I should have.

I don’t think he meant to kill her. She was his golden goose, but he lost his temper when she mouthed off at him, and he shot her.

” My voice softens until I fall silent as I remember seeing my mam fall to the ground and the blood spreading in a pool around her.

“You were there?” Tinman says, taking my hand. He squeezes it before letting it go. “I’m sorry, honey.”

I blink to stop the tears that rise at his kindness. “Thank you. I was there, but nobody knows that. Her death was swept under the carpet, and I was moved into the big house. It wasn’t long before Aiden and his mam arrived. She didn’t last long either. Kara and Maeve’s mother lasted the longest.

“Anyway, when I was in my early teens, I found my mam’s notebooks with all her designs and taught myself.

It wasn’t too hard. I’d learned more than I thought I had while I’d been with her.

I perfected some of her designs and added my own.

I’m good at what I do, and he knew that, which is why he kept me out of sight and off the record.

I went by my mam’s name for my identification.

The only people who knew I was related to my da were the ones that he wanted to know. ”