Page 9 of Coal (QUEENS WRAITHS MC #2)

What holds my attention and has me intrigued is that even in a room full of strangers that she knows nothing about, she meets my eyes without flinching.

This isn’t a weak woman. She has strength and steel in her backbone.

There are enough familiar characteristics in her face that I can see she’s family to Kelly, but I’m not yet sure how she fits into their dynamic.

What I do know is that he hadn’t wanted me to know about her because she wasn’t in any of the information we’d found. And that intrigues me.

“What’s your name?” I ask her.

She studies me carefully. I don’t know what she sees in my face, but she decides to reply, “Thea Kelly.”

I hum a little at the news. I’d already figured she was related.

“What’s he to you?” I enquire, tilting my chin to Kelly, who’s getting redder in the face by the minute.

Her eyes flick to him and harden. Her answer surprises me. “He’s my father.”

My eyebrows hit my hairline at that news, and she smirks a little at my surprise.

“I’m his oldest daughter,” she explains.

“Interesting,” I reply with a nod, wondering why she hadn’t been part of the marriage offer instead of the two younger girls.

“Why didn’t he offer you to me?” I enquire.

Thea tilts her head before answering, “Because he needs me for his black-market weapons business, and he knows that if I liked and trusted you, I’d never turn on you. Plus, he knows I’m not what most men go for.”

Frowning at her choice of words, a rumble leaves me, and her eyes widen when I mutter, “Their loss.” And it was.

If the men in her life couldn’t see her worth, then it was their loss.

I’d grown up with a mother who had felt the same way, and I’d watched over the years as my dad built her up.

I had a feeling Thea was the same. It seemed the Tin men had a type.

Getting serious again, I ask, “Do you want to be here?”

That’s when the stupid bumfuck opened his mouth, “Remember what I can do, Thea. Don’t be a stupid cunt.”

The woman in front of me winced at his words, and it had me wondering what he had on his daughter.

Looking at Bolt, I jerked my head to Kelly. “Keep him quiet,” I growl out.

“With pleasure,” Bolt grins. Taking another roll of duct tape from his pocket, he slapped a piece over the bumfuck’s mouth.

Once I see he’d no longer be a problem, I turned my attention back to the woman in front of me who had said nothing through all this, nor had she tried to intervene on her father’s behalf.

“I’ll ask you again. Do you want to be here?”

She shakes her head, “No. But I can’t leave.”

“Why not?” I demand. “What does he have on you? ”

Again, Thea studies me. I like the fact that she isn’t much shorter than me. It would be easier to kiss her if I didn’t have to bend in half to get to her mouth and then thought , ‘What the fuck? Where did that come from?’

Her next words snap me right back into the moment, and a flash of disappointment goes through me. “He threatened my daughter.”

Snapping out a furious, “What? Why? His own granddaughter?”

Thea smiles and murmurs sadly, “Family doesn’t mean much to father, just your usefulness.”

An angry growl escapes at her words, and my words come out harsher than I intend when I bark out, “Where’s your daughter's father?”

Her brown eyes narrow on mine at my tone, and she pokes a finger in my chest, “Don’t bark at me, a dhuine ! If you must know, he’s dead. My father had him killed when he tried to get us away from him,” she tosses her head in her father’s direction.

If his glares had been daggers, Thea would be dead.

Taking hold of the finger that was still pushing against my chest, twining our fingers together so that I’m holding her hand, ignoring the steel pipe in my jeans that had risen when she snapped back at me, I ask more gently this time, “I think you’d better lay it all out for me, sweetheart, so that I’m clear before I kill the man. ”

Kara and Thea snort out laughs at my words, obviously not realising I’m deadly serious. Until she leans forward and, standing on tiptoe, whispers in my ear, “Unfortunately, you can’t kill him yet.”

Raising an eyebrow at her words, I ask, “Yet?”

She bites her lip and nods before answering, “Yet.”

I’m a little disappointed, but we can wait for a bit. “Well, okay then. Tell me why you’re so important to him that he’s threatened your daughter to get you to stay in line.”

Thea squirms a little under my gaze, and her eyes flit over to her sister. They share a look, making me wonder what the hell she did for them.

“Thea,” Kara says in a warning tone.

Thea’s eyes meet her father’s for a minute, and the hate in his eyes shocks me. When her gaze once again meets mine, I can see she’s made a decision but still asks, “How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t, babe. Trust comes with time, but what I can promise is that you and your sisters will be safe with us.

The whole reason we’ve come is to get your sisters to safety.

None of us condone the selling of people, no matter their gender.

When he made the offer, none of us could, in good faith, leave them to their fate.

I’d rather have taken them back with us kicking and screaming than leave them here.

Because the next person he offered them to might not treat them like the precious gems they are. ”

She blinks slightly, as if she can’t believe what I’ve just said. She still doesn’t answer me. Instead, she asks her sister, “Have you contacted Aiden?”

Kara nods. “As soon as they arrived, but I’ve told him there’s no urgency.”

It seemed that Brass and Iron were right; the siblings were tight. We’d not checked Kara for a phone. None of us had seen the need to.

Behind his gag, Kelly is trying to shout, but none of us can understand what he’s saying, nor are we interested in anything he has to tell us.

Ignoring him, I turn back to the intriguing woman in front of me.

I know straight away that she’s made a decision because she straightens her shoulders, throws back her head, and braces, as if she’s wondering how I’m going to take her next words.

“I’m the one that designs and makes all his guns, and I’m also his bomb maker,” she mumbles under her breath.

I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly, but if I had, then I could understand why she was so important to him. “Can you say that again, babe?”

Louder, she states, “I design and make his bombs and guns.”

I smile widely at her words, which has her blinking as if surprised that I’m happy about what she does. “That’s what I thought you said. That’s fucking awesome, babe. Why are you worried about me knowing?”

“Most men aren’t so keen to do business when they hear it’s a woman that’s designing and building their weapons.”

My brothers snort with disgust at her words. We’ve learned over the last year that women think differently to us but are just as deadly as we are, if not more so when it comes to certain situations .

“Then they’re pussies,” I inform her before continuing. “Now that that’s sorted, if we can get your daughter to safety, and as your father offered one of his daughters in marriage to seal any deals we make with him, do you fancy getting married?”

She gapes at me in surprise, blinks, then starts laughing. I think it may have been a little hysterical, but I was overlooking that point.

“What?” she splutters out.

“Babe, I think it was clear in my little speech. To seal this deal, your dickhead father offered me one of his daughters to choose from. Now he may not have put you forward, but you are his daughter, so the deal can go ahead and, quite frankly, there is no way I’d have married either of your sisters with how young they are.

I have a feeling being married to you will never be boring.

You’ll keep things interesting. He obviously knew he couldn’t part with the best of the three. ”

Her eyes grew a little shiny at my words. “What about my daughter?”

“Is she safe for now?” I ask seriously.

Thea nods, “She is. Our younger sister is looking after her for me, but I’ll need to get her within the next two hours.”

“Okay, so I’m taking that as a yes to marriage.”

Thea again laughs.

“Babe, I’m not sure what it is about that word that keeps setting you off. But we need to get to the registry office within the next forty minutes for our slot.”

“Oh feck,” she whispers, her eyes wide with surprise. “You’re actually serious about marrying me.”

“Yep,” just then a thought flits through my mind, “Fuck, you’re not already married, are you?”

She snorts another little laugh, wiping at the tears under her eyes, “No. I’m not really the type of woman most men go for.”

My eyes narrow at her words, but I didn’t have the time to explain that they were all idiots.

“We’ll talk about that later, but first we have to go and pick up your ID and get down to the registry office.”

“No need,” she assures me. “I have my ID on me.”

I wave at her father. “Do you want him to come with? ”

Her lip lifts in a slight sneer as she looks at her father .

‘I guess there was no love lost between them then.’

Turning back to me, she asks, “Do you promise my daughter will be safe?”

“I promise, Thea, she’ll be safe.”

“Then no, just leave him like that here. Someone will be here shortly, and they can deal with him. I would like my brother and sisters there, though.”

Bolt was still standing next to her father. “Make sure he’s secured properly,” I order him.

Immediately, Bolt drops to the floor to do as I ask, securing Kelly’s legs to the chair he’s sitting in.

There’s a commotion outside the dining room. Grabbing hold of Thea’s hand, I push her behind me, taking my gun from behind my back. Nickel’s done the same thing to Kara.

“Wait,” Thea shouts simultaneously as Kara shouts out, “Don’t shoot, Aiden. We’re all good in here.”

A deep voice with a broad Irish accent calls out, “I just want to check on my sisters. Can you call your watchdogs off? ”