Page 8 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

I’m not surprised when the front door of the house next to Moira’s opens and Butcher steps out.

Moira smiles and says something, making his lips twitch, but that’s about it.

My attention is drawn to my brother and Blue, who both seem to have a death wish because one, then the other, press kisses to Moira’s cheeks, making her giggle and the man behind her scowl.

It’s amusing as fuck to watch. “Quick, Pres, open the door,” Blue pants slightly, “before the big fucker comes over and tries to kill us.”

Sniggering at the two of them, I open the front door and enter the house. Once the food is revealed, we fall on it as if we’ve not eaten in days.

“Fuck me, that was good,” Nickel moans, rubbing his stomach. “I think we need to add a bakery to the roadhouse and get Moira to come and run it.”

“I doubt the scary fucker living next to her will let you pinch her away from him,” I laugh, “but the bakery isn’t a bad idea. Speak to Mom about it. Because you’re right, this shit was good. ”

We spend the rest of the evening going over plans for tomorrow.

They have to be loose because we have no idea on what we’re going to find when we get there.

Blue will hole up somewhere to keep an eye on everything.

Brass will do the same. Iron and the rest of the brothers will come in with me.

Kelly was expecting a few of us, so it won’t look strange.

***

We leave early again to beat the traffic. The meeting is to take place at around ten in the morning, but I want to get there earlier and catch him unawares.

And catch him unawares, we did. We rode our sleds right up to the front door of his mansion, ignoring one of his guards frantically waving us towards a road at the back of the house.

He wanted to do business with bikers. Well, he was going to get schooled in how we would be doing business going forward.

He thought he would be able to tell us what to do.

He was in for a surprise. Switching off our sleds, my brothers and I dismounted as one, and as a unit, we walked up the steps and into the house past the maid who had opened the door when we pulled in.

We made sure we made a lot of noise, stomping in, talking loudly. My mother would cringe at our lack of manners, but I needed Kelly to think we were uncouth, uneducated bikers to see how he’d react.

From the depths of the house, we heard an irate voice tell someone, “Go find out what all the noise is.”

Catching Copper’s eye, I tilt my head towards where the voice is coming from.

We all walk that way; the brothers slowly drop off to watch our backs until it’s just me and Copper who walk into the breakfast room.

Kelly is sitting at the head of the table, face red with anger at our audacity.

The only other person at the table is the eldest daughter, who looks nothing like the pictures we’ve seen.

She’s dressed in a light pink pantsuit; her blonde hair is swept up into a fancy twist and she has make-up plastered on her face.

She gives us a bored look and continues to eat her breakfast, ignoring her father’s blustering. He’s been cursing and demanding to know what we think we were about since Copper, and I walked in. Ignoring him, I throw myself down into a chair at the table while Copper ambles over to the window.

“What is the meaning of this? I told you ten o’clock, and I gave you directions on where to go,” Kelly spews out angrily.

Raising my eyebrow, I help myself to the food on the table, casually replying to his tirade, “Morning, Kelly, we got here early, and I didn’t think you’d mind us stopping by for breakfast.”

Kelly sputters, and his eyes dart towards the door, looking for his guards.

I know that by now my brothers would have taken care of them.

They wouldn’t be coming. From the corner of my eye, I catch the amusement in the daughter’s face.

Reaching over, I hold out my hand, “Name’s Coal, I’m the President of the Queens Wraiths. ”

She turns intelligent eyes towards me and shakes my hand. “Kara.”

“Ah, yes, the oldest daughter that he’s willing to sell to the highest bidder.

” I flick the knife I’d picked up to butter a piece of toast towards her father, who shoves his chair back with a hard scrape, shouting out, “Now look here, you gobshite, this isn’t how I do business.

You will do as I ask, and we’ll conduct business away from my family home. ”

Copper is behind him in the next second and pushes him back into his chair.

I raise my eyebrow in the direction of Kelly, “Gobshite, huh? That’s what you want to call the President of the Queens Wraiths?

I’m not sure how you thought this was going to work, Kelly, or how your other customers do business, but we’re bikers and we do business the way we want to do business.

Now I believe you wanted to form an alliance by selling off your daughters, so why don’t you shut up and let me get to know this one and find out how she feels about her father selling her? ”

Kelly stutters and blusters but doesn’t try to stop me.

I think he’s realised nobody is coming to save him.

Knowing that Copper is capable of restraining him or killing him if we need to, I turn towards Kara and study her face.

There’s a jug of water on the table. Grabbing a napkin, I wet it and hand it to her, saying, “Wipe that shit off your face. It doesn’t suit you. You look better without it.”

Surprise lights her face as she takes the cloth from me, asking, “And how would you know what I look like?”

Snorting a laugh, I inform her, “We may look like we don’t have a brain in our heads, but we never go into a situation without finding out what we can about the other party.

It helps keep our brothers alive.” When she’s wiped her face clean, I continue, “What do you think about the deal your dad wants to strike with us?”

She looks surprised at my question, and her gaze turns shrewd. “You want my honest answer?”

“Of course, honesty is best in my opinion. It stops shit like this from happening,” I motion towards her father, “I don’t trust dishonest people, as you can see.”

“I can see that,” Kara answers. “Honestly, I hate him and all he stands for and the fact he’s basically sold me to the highest bidder, but if it meant keeping my younger sister safe, I’ll do what I have to.”

Humming a little under my breath, I wonder how Kelly managed to be so rotten.

But his daughter had not only balls but a moral compass.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” I assure her.

“We only came to see if you and your sister needed help getting away from him because, no offense, as pretty as both of you are, you’re too young to be sold off like a commodity. ”

Kara’s mouth gapes open. “Seriously, you came all this way to save us not knowing who we are or if we were even worth it?”

There’s a derisive snort from the other end of the table, and Kelly laughs.

“You’re na?ve. If you believe what he’s saying, Kara, he’ll use you up and then turn to your sister.

Nobody is brave enough to go against me and win.

You know that, and I know that. I have something he needs, and the only way he’s getting it is through you. ”

Grinding my teeth, I stare at Kelly long enough that he starts to squirm before turning back to Kara, asking, “Fucking hell, girl, how do you put up with this dickhead on the daily?”

She’d started to tense up at his words but relaxes slightly when I ask her the question. She laughs softly and goes to reply, but we’re interrupted by a shout of pain and a woman shouting, “Let me go, you sap . You’ll not be touching the girls.”

“Oh, shite,” Kara squeals, getting up hurriedly, “don’t let them hurt her.”

“Would you stop, woman? I don’t want to hurt you,” Nickel growls out before shouting, “Ow, dammit! Jesus Christ, will you stop? Bolt, stop laughing and help me for fuck’s sake.”

The door flies open, and Nickel stumbles in with what can only be described as a whirling dervish in his arms. All I see is a flash of red hair and wild eyes before Kara is across the room and wrapping her arms around the woman, pulling her away from Nickel, who bends over panting.

“Thea, it’s okay, it’s okay. Calm down,” Kara says, pulling the woman away from Nickel. How she’s managing that is beyond me because the woman tops her by at least four inches.

Copper calls out to Bolt and Iron, who are standing laughing in the doorway. “If all is good out there, can you two find something to tie this fucker up with?”

Bolt pulls a roll of duct tape from his pocket and tosses it at Copper, who grabs it and starts to tie up Kelly.

Ignoring the women for the minute, I look over at Iron. “Is the house secure?”

“Yeah, Pres, we rounded up the staff and locked them in the pantry. They’re good for now. We can let them go once we get the lay of the land here.”

With that worry gone, I turn back to the women, who are standing with their arms wrapped around each other.

They’re both pale and looking worried. Recognising her as the woman who’d piqued my interest yesterday when she’d left the cottage, crooking my finger towards her, I call her to me.

She’d taken on a bunch of strange men to get to Kara, and I was interested to find out why.

She gives Kara a look but unwraps her arms from around her and walks over to me.

When she reaches me, I stare down at her. While she’s tall, she’s still shorter than my six foot four. She isn’t what I would call pretty or even beautiful; what she is, is interesting.

Now that she’s closer to me, I can see that she has clear brown eyes, her face bare of any makeup, with a scattering of freckles dotted across high cheekbones, and her full lips hold a natural pink colour.