Page 32 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

COPPER

It’s a week since the call with Cahir, and I’m in Coal’s office because Sterling has received all the paperwork, and Coal and I are going through it together.

Most of it is what we expected. I’m not sure I’m so keen on the name they’ve chosen for me. I suppose it’s close enough to my name to make it easier for me.

“Cooper,” I muse, pursing my lips and trying it out again. “I guess I’ll get used to it.”

Flicking through the file, I see the address of where I’ll be living and hand it over to Coal. “Here’s the address. Memorise it.”

He takes it from me and reads through the information. I know my brother—he’s worried about this, but it’s the whole reason we came here. This is why this club was started, and I’ll be damned if we fail at the first hurdle.

“Hey,” I tap on his desk until he looks at me, “It’s going to be okay. We’ve got this. ”

“I know,” he sighs, rubbing his hands across his face.

“I wish we could send another brother in with you. What do we know of the woman you're paired with? How do we know she’s trustworthy? Will she be able to help with protection? I know they say she’s trained, but how trained? There are so many unknowns.”

Flipping the pages, I get to the page with the picture of the other operative, and my breath hitches in my chest. She’s gorgeous and most definitely not a stranger.

Well, she is because we’ve never met, but I’ve seen pictures of her when we’ve visited our allies.

I’d kept my distance because I thought she was in a relationship.

Maybe not. She wasn’t who I’d expected at all.

I’d figured it would be a complete stranger.

I look up at Coal, and there must be something on my face because he asks, “What?”

I hand him the sheet of paper with her details, and he curses, “Fuck! It’s making sense now.”

“I thought she was seeing someone?”

Coal shakes his head, “It all went tits up. Now I know why.” He looks up. “You’re going to have to tread carefully with this one, brother.”

I nod, but in the back of my mind, I’m wondering if this is fate. The first woman to catch my interest in years was not only going to be my roommate but also my pretend girlfriend. We’ll be spending a lot of time together, and when I’d looked at the flat listing, it only had one bedroom.

But Coal was right. I’ll have to tread carefully because if she’s the one that had blown everything out of the water with the man she was with, then she’d not be ready for a relationship of any sort.

‘Friends it is then,’ I think, heaving a heavy sigh.