Page 7 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

“We will, Pres,” he answers. Turning on his heel, he goes to the ladder and disappears from sight. I hate that we’re all separated, but I have to have faith in my brothers that they know what they are doing.

We spend the next few hours walking from window to window.

There’s not a lot of activity. I’m leaning up against the wall, looking out towards what looks to be a cottage, although it looks almost derelict.

It has thick curtains covering the windows.

The garden is overgrown with brambles and weeds, but the path is clear, and that should have been my first clue that there was somebody inhabiting the cottage.

A flash of colour catches my eye, and I straighten, moving closer to the window as a woman appears.

I can’t see her features from this distance, but I can see she’s tall, has bright red curly hair hanging loose down her back, and she’s dressed in dungarees and work boots with a coat thrown over it all to ward off the slight chill.

There’s something about her that piques my interest, and I want to curse.

Nothing good can come from it, not if I want to do business with Kelly.

Then I perk up. Unless she’s a daughter, then that could work.

She looks older than the two we’ve been offered, not that we were seriously thinking about the offer, but that could change if she was part of it.

“What are you looking at?” Copper wants to know.

Tilting my head towards the window when he stands next to me, we watch as the woman turns back towards the door, but we can’t see who she’s talking to.

She says something and waves before walking quickly towards a large building close to the cottage.

We’d assumed it was another barn, but as I watch her putting in a code on the door before opening it, I know it is something else.

We’d have to find out what it was.

“What do you think?” I ask Copper.

“I think we wait for Brass and Iron to come back, then have them look. None of us are quiet enough. We need to do something about that.”

“I agree. We’re going to have to step up our training before we go on any missions,” I answer. We stay watching the building and the cottage, but when nobody comes out, we rotate to another window.

Brass and Iron come back close to three hours after they left us. Both are filthy, making me wonder what the hell they’ve been crawling through.

“Let’s go, Pres; we’ll talk at the sleds,” Brass tells me, motioning towards the stairs.

We leave as quietly as we came, not saying anything until we’re back at our sleds. Blue is waiting for us, his rifle dismantled and stored away.

Once we’re all together, I turn towards them all. “What did you find? ”

“He’s a fucking dick,” Brass fumes. “Caught him forcing himself on one of the staff members. I was just about to intervene when one of the daughters interrupted them. The youngest one, and while she made as if she didn’t care, I noticed her making hand motions to the maid, getting her out of there.

I don’t think the kids are in on anything, including the son. ”

“I have to agree,” Iron continues where Brass leaves off.

“I overheard the son, Aiden, talking to someone about the plan going ahead tomorrow, depending on the meeting with the bikers. From the rest of the conversation, it seems like there’s about to be a restructuring in this organization.

It seems the last straw was him putting the girls up for sale. ”

“Okay, is there any way to get in touch with the son without raising suspicion?”

They both shake their heads. “Not that we can see, Pres. It’s probably better that they don’t know that we know. It will all play out the way it should then.”

Nodding my agreement, I turn towards Blue, who's been quiet up till now. “Did you see anything?”

“Not really, other than they dragged a guy off towards a shed at the back of the house. I’m assuming he’s done something to piss them off, but other than that, it was pretty quiet.

After Kelly left for what I’m assuming is work, the brother and the girls came out.

He took the younger one in the school uniform, I’m assuming, to school.

The older of the two girls went back into the house, but I saw her leaving from the back, and then she hot-footed it somewhere.

I’m not sure where, though, because I lost sight of her once she was behind the large structure near the barn where you were.

From their body language, I’d say the siblings are tight, and I have a feeling the girls are in on whatever the brother has planned. ”

Thinking about everything they’ve told me, it seems like Kelly has issues in his house that he doesn’t know about.

“We’ll keep to the plan for now. We’ll meet with the fuckhead tomorrow as planned, and we’ll have to wing it.

Did you see any security? There wasn’t much happening on our end, except I think we know where he has the weapons made, either that or it’s where he keeps the girls he traffics, but I’m leaning towards weapons.

There was nobody guarding the door, and it was locked with a key code.

I was going to have you check it out, but didn’t have time to tell you about it before we left. ”

“He has a few guards, all armed. They look like thugs. I’m not sure if they have any training, but I’d say probably not. They seem the type to use brute force rather than stealth. Do you want me and Brass to head back to have a look at the other building that you saw?” Iron answers my question.

Clapping him on the shoulder, “Thanks, brother, but it can keep. I couldn’t see any windows from where I was standing for now. We’ll leave it. Let’s get out of here and get something to eat and plan for tomorrow now that we’ve seen the property.”

My brothers don’t waste any time starting up their sleds.

We leave the same way we came, pulling over on the side of the road as we wait for Bolt and Blue to clear our tire tracks from the dirt.

It’s a pleasant ride until we hit the centre of the city.

Once we clear it, we’re able to move much faster.

As we’re approaching where we’re staying, I see the bakery that Moira mentioned and ride my sled into a parking space with the rest of my brothers following suit.

“We’ll stay out here,” Iron states, motioning to Brass and him. “We’re filthy.”

“We’ll grab you something,” Copper tells him .

Dismounting, we enter the bakery, and straightaway my stomach rumbles. I’m starving; breakfast was a long time ago.

Moira turns towards us with a wide smile and starts to talk as soon as she sees us. “You made it. Just in time too, I’m closing in about thirty minutes. I’ve got a box of stuff put aside for you. Hang on, and I’ll get it.”

She bustles off, and I have to chuckle. None of us had even managed to greet her before she hustled off. My brothers joined me in my amusement. Bolt was looking in the cabinet. There were a few meat pies left and a couple of loaves of bread, but that was about it.

Seems like Moira was doing okay. “Here you go,” she chirps brightly, coming out from the back carrying a massive box. Nickel hurries around the counter and takes it from her. “Jesus, doll, this weighs a tonne.”

“I’m stronger than I look,” Moira grins up at him. “Now I know you guys are on bikes, but I’m going home in an hour, and I can drop it off. But I thought you may like something to tide you over.”

Nickel opens the box, and I’m stunned at what she’s packed us. There’re sandwiches, pastries, cupcakes, and a few pies. “Babe, you have to let us pay you.”

“Oh no,” Moira blushes. “This is on me, I offered after all.”

“Nope,” Bolt informs her, opening up her till and putts banknotes in the drawer. “That’s not how it works, babe. You have a baby to feed and clothe. Can you add the pies and the bread to the order and bring it with you?”

“Oh, of course,” Moira looks slightly stunned. “But I think you overpaid me for what I’ve given you.”

Bolt shrugs and replies, “Treat Mikayla with a day out.”

Moira’s eyes fill with tears, and she reaches over, hugging Bolt, who gently pats her back, “Thank you.”

Bolt nudges her back. “No thanks necessary, doll. We can tell this is quality food, and Mikayla was cute as fuck and made our day yesterday.”

Moira laughs, wiping at her face, “Yep, my daughter is a card and keeps me on my toes. Thank you. I’ll bring these over as soon as I’m home.”

“Here,” Copper scribbles a number on a napkin. “ This is my number; call and one of us will come out and get it. I don’t want you carrying it, babe. In fact, what do you need done in here, and we’ll all leave together?”

Moira beams at him. I don’t think I’ve ever known a sunnier woman. She seemed to be the essence of goodness. “I’m nearly done. I just need to close up the till and mop the floor, but I can do that in the morning. So, just the till.”

“You go ahead and do that; we’ll wait outside until you’re ready. When you are, holler, and one of us will come and put the box in your car.”

“Okay,” Moira agrees, whirling towards the till as she starts to cash up. We leave her to it and go outside to wait with our sleds, explaining to Brass and Iron what’s going on.

Thirty minutes later, Moira pops her head around the door. “I’m ready.”

Bolt walks towards the door and disappears with her.

It’s not long, and he’s jogging back to us from behind the building.

Moira pulls out of the parking and onto the road.

We follow along until we get to our road before splitting off to park in front of the house we’re staying in, and Moira parks in front of hers, opening up the boot .

“Come on, brother, there’s more than just the box now,” Bolt tags Blue as he hustles past and towards Moira’s car.