Page 23 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

We’d pulled up in front of the building they thought would work for me by the time I’d finished speaking.

We were silent for a minute, and I was just about to get out of the vehicle when Tinman spoke again.

“I’m sorry your dad was such a dick, Thea, and didn’t appreciate the beautiful gems he’d been given.

But in a way, I’m glad because it brought you to us, and if ever there was a woman perfectly suited to Coal, it’s you.

I’m going to say something as his dad now, not as his brother. ”

Surprised, I turn towards him so that I can see his face as he continues, “Being the President of an MC can be hard and lonely at times.

Coal is going to need a strong woman who will stand next to him when needed and be the person he bounces ideas or thoughts off when he has to.

I know that most think that the men in an MC keep their women out of it and most do.

“But there are some who are stronger for their Old Ladies knowing what is going on. Red used to keep his Old Lady in the know, and I know Maestro does the same with Stacey. I’d tell Maggie information that I thought she should know, even when it used to piss my best friend Chains off.

She’s my partner in everything, and if I thought it would keep her and the children safe, I’d tell her whatever I thought she needed to hear.

“You’ll be in a unique position anyway, as you’ll be far more involved than you otherwise would be.

Anyway, other than my approving of you for Coal, I also wanted to say that from my and Maggie’s side, we are beyond happy that Coal married you because not only did we gain another daughter, you brought us a grandbaby to boot, and I’m fucking thrilled to spoil another little girl.

” He grins at me with those last words, and I can tell he means every word.

“Now,” he slaps his hands down on the steering wheel, “let’s get you into the building so you can see if it will work. ”

“Okay,” I agree with a smile, opening my door and walking around to the driver's side. He’s already got Shea in his arms by the time I make it around, which has me shaking my head. Spoilt little baggage .

The first thing that I know will need changing is the wooden doors—they need to be solid steel.

Even if this is only temporary, I need to know my creations are safe when I leave here.

I don’t want them getting into the wrong hands.

Tinman opens the doors, and I’m surprised when we walk in to see that it’s not only clean but dry and bigger than I expected, with high windows that allow light in but are too high for someone to look in.

I turn around in a circle so that I can take it all in.

“It can work,” I say with a nod.

“There’s no bathroom, though,” he warns.

“Aye, that would be a problem if I was here long term, but I’m only here until they’ve built the new place for me. I can manage for a few months. How far am I from our house or yours?”

“You’re actually closer to yours from here than ours. If you’re happy with this, I’ll drive you to where they’re cutting the road, and you can see how close we are. Coming along the main road and then past our place and the orchard adds a lot of mileage on.”

“Okay, show me where the new road will be?” I tell Tinman. I hold my hands out to take Shea, but she pushes me away, wrapping her arms around Tinman, nearly throttling him, making me laugh, especially when she tells me loud and clear, “No.”

Tinman snickers and presses her head to his chest with a laugh, “Come on, baby girl, let’s go see your dad.”

She lifts her head, demanding, “Da.”

Amused at my little girl and how she’s taken to all the Tin men and how she has them wrapped around her little finger.

Leading the way out of the barn, I wait for Tinman to close up the doors, but with Shea not wanting to let go of him, I end up locking the doors for him.

He’s already got Shea in her car seat and waiting for me by the time I’m done faffing with the lock.

A digital lock is going to be a must. I didn’t have the patience to mess around with keys and trying to lock the doors when my hands would be full.

Handing him the keys, I climb into the vehicle, thanking him for getting my door.

That was another thing that I’d had to get used to.

It seemed like I’d ended up in a club where the men liked to do things for their women.

I can’t lie; I loved it. After years of being overlooked, except by my siblings, it was nice to be spoilt a little.

Whichever women ended up with the brothers would be lucky women .

Tinman’s right. Five minutes later, we reach the men clearing the trees. And man, what a sight it is. The day’s warm, warmer than your average spring day; a few of the brothers have taken their shirts off and are bare-chested, sweat gleaming against chiselled abs and muscular arms.

I’m a woman, so of course, I notice them all.

But the man that has my attention is the one who has my name tattooed on his finger.

The same man who brought every mountain man's fantasy to life with every swing of his axe. My heated gaze travels up my Old Man’s body from his dirty and scarred boots, up his muscular thighs that bunch with every swing he takes, to his naked back.

I may or may not have licked my lips when his muscles rippled as he brought the axe above his head and down onto the log he’s chopping.

His checked shirt is tucked into his back pocket, which only adds to the sexiness.

Conscious that the man’s father is sitting next to me, I bite my lip to hold back my husky moan.

I wonder what it would cost me to have him dress like that in our bedroom.

I’m not sure where this hunger’s coming from, but if it isn’t for the company, I’d be stripping that man and riding him until I couldn’t ride him anymore.

‘Jesus, I need to get a grip,’ I think to myself as Coal looks up as we drive closer and park.

Not that I can see his eyes through the dark glasses he’s wearing, but something must have shown on my face because his eyebrows rise and then he smirks at me before he turns and brings the axe down one more time, finishing up the log he’s been chopping.

“Show off,” Tinman chuckles before he slants a laughing look my way. “Yep, the best thing ever to happen to him.”

My cheeks flush with colour at his words, and there’s no stopping the smile that breaks out over my face as we watch Coal walk towards us.

“Hey, baby,” Coal says through my open window, leaning in to kiss me quickly before greeting his dad, “Hey, Dad, what are you all doing here?”

“Thea needed to see how close she was to home because there’s no bathroom in the barn. And your princess was demanding to see you.”

“Yeah,” he grins, looking pleased, and peers into the back toward Shea, “Hey, princess.”

“Da,” Shea shrieks loudly, “up.”

Coal chuckles and walks around to her side, unbuckling her and taking her out, much to her delight.

“There’s a cool box with sandwiches from Maggie in the back and some drinks if you guys want to take a break,” Tinman calls out to the other brothers.

Before he’s even stopped speaking, they’re downing tools and beelining to the back of Tinman’s vehicle. Assuming we’ll be here for a while, I open my door and get out, walking over to Coal and Shea. He holds his arm out for me, warning, “I’m pretty sweaty, baby.”

“Oh, I know,” I smirk up at him, getting closer and wrapping my arms around him. I don’t care about the sweat, not with how hot my man looks holding our baby.

“Mmh,” Coal rumbles huskily, pressing a kiss to my lips, “I noticed you watching me.”

“It was hot. You’re hot, mo ghrá.”

Coal’s just about to kiss me again when Copper interrupts us. “Give me my niece before you two corrupt her with the amount of eye-fucking you’re doing,” he says, plucking Shea out of Coal’s arms and walking off with her.

I laugh as I watch them go. “I love it when you speak Irish to me,” Coal admits. “Are you ever going to tell me what it means?”

“Maybe,” I smile happily up at him, “one day.”

“Damn, baby, happy looks good on you.”

“Thank you, a ghrá . It feels good to be happy and safe. I wish I knew if my sisters and Aiden were feeling the same way.”

Coal sighs and rests his cheek against my head, watching his brothers messing around while they devoured whatever food Maggie had sent them.

“I know, baby. You can take comfort from the fact that your brother has been planning for this for a long time, and he’s got plans in place.

I don’t know where he sent your sisters, but I gave Kara my number before they left us in Ireland and told her to use it if she needed to. ”

Emotion fills me to the brim, and I can’t stop the words as they tumble from my lips as I raise to my toes, whispering “ A ghrá mo chroí ,” I kiss him with all the feeling that I have bubbling up inside me.

What he’s done without me asking cements the feelings that have slowly been creeping up on me over the last few days with every little thing he’s done to ensure that not only are Shea and I safe but that my sisters know they have other options.

Eventually, we have to come up for air. I’m not ready for the world to intrude on us yet, so I tuck my face into his neck and breathe.

Coal doesn’t say anything, as if he knows I need a minute.

He threads his fingers through my curls and rubs my head.

When I feel like I can speak without crying my eyes out, only then do I lift my head.

My “thank you” is heartfelt. Coal’s eyes soften. He presses a soft kiss to the side of my mouth. “You’re welcome, baby.”

I wipe at my cheeks and turn towards where the others are standing near the back of Tinman’s vehicle.

They’ve all turned away from us to give us a semblance of privacy.

Shea is standing in the open back, bouncing and shrieking happily, with Copper keeping a close eye on her.

Although I think they’d all be rushing to catch her if she even looked like she was going to fall out.

Turning back towards Coal, I tell him, “ Mo ghrá means my love and a ghrá mo chroí means love of my heart.”

Coal pushes his dark glasses up on his head, his eyes soft, “I love you too, Thea. Never expected you when we rode to Ireland, but I’m glad that we did because I can’t imagine not having you and Shea in my life.”

He’s quiet for a bit before he grumbles, “But we couldn’t have picked a worse time or place to declare our feelings. All I want is to take you home and spend hours loving your body. Adulting and being the Pres sucks big time some days.”

Laughing, I hug him one last time before turning towards the others. Slipping easily under his arm, I tease, “Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you. In the meantime, you can vent your frustrations out on the trees you still have to remove.”

“So mean,” Coal mutters, but he’s smiling, so I know all is good. And I’ve got a warm feeling thrumming through me that has nothing to do with how much I want this man, but more to do with how he’s not shy of showing me how much I mean to him. He promised that I’d grow to trust him, and I have.

When we get to Tinman’s vehicle, he helps me up onto the open tailgate and then sits next to me. Shea straightaway climbs into his lap to share a sandwich with us.

We spend the next hour with the brothers, going over what I thought of the barn and what I would need to make it work.

“We need steel doors on there. And a digital lock of some sort. Plus, we need to up the security— cameras, alarms, etc. I can booby trap some of it, but I’d rather not if I can help it.

I’ll need a solid metal table to work on, plus a few other things, but I’ll make a list and get it to you by Church tonight.

Some of what I’ll need, I can tell you where or who to get it from. ”

“Okay, baby, sounds like a plan,” Coal agrees. “We’ll work on the road for another couple of hours. We’ll do Church at around five. Opal is going to look after Shea, and Mom is going to cook us supper at the clubhouse. We’ll eat together after Church.”

“Okay by me,” I answer as I scoot down off the tailgate, taking Nickel’s hand when he offers it to me. Turning, I take a now sleeping Shea from Coal. Reaching up, I give him a quick kiss before stepping back, “I’ll see you a bit later.”

Coal slides off the tailgate to stand next to me, the rest of the brothers ambling away to continue with whatever job they’ve been given. Tinman walks away, leaving me alone with Coal. “Damn,” Coal mutters, resting his forehead against mine. “I wish I was going home with you.”

“Me too,” I reply, “but the quicker you get this done, the quicker I can get to work and the safer you’ll all be. And, mo ghrá, I need you all safe. So,” I step back and tap his arse with my hand, making him jump and glare at me; I laugh and tell him, “get that axe swinging and hurry home.”

Turning, I walk away, and he gets his revenge by swiping at my arse as I walk past, making me giggle.

I’m smiling the whole time as I strap a sleeping Shea into her car seat and get into the passenger seat, waiting for Tinman to climb in.

Twenty minutes later, I’m waving goodbye to Tinman, and I’ve put Shea in her cot to finish her nap.

Making myself a cup of tea, I sit at the kitchen table and take the time to think over my morning and my declaration.

Did I regret telling Coal how I felt about him so soon into our relationship?

Was it too soon? Probably, but I find I didn’t care.

Because of my upbringing, I learned to tell those closest to me how I felt, knowing that they could be taken from me at any time.

I’d made a commitment when I’d said, ‘I do’.

A commitment that I took seriously, and I’d cemented it when I’d agreed to have his name tattooed on my finger.

So, no. I didn’t have one iota of regret in letting him know how I felt, not when he showed me every day how much both Shea and I meant to him.

I’d use the skills I had to keep my new family safe.