Chapter 4 EMMETT #2
My mystery woman had been on my mind all week, and though telling Mom I’d met someone would get her off my back about Tera, this was not the type of relationship I’d share with my mother.
“Anything exciting happening?” I asked Mom, ready to change the subject.
She frowned but went along with it. “Yes, actually. I started cleaning out your father’s side of the garage.”
I blinked, replaying her statement to make sure I’d heard it right. “Oh.”
“It’s time, Emmett. It’s time to put things away.”
Time? Fifty years could pass and it still wouldn’t be enough time. My throat tightened. “Do you, um . . . need help?” Say no.
She gave me a sad smile. “Only if you want to help.”
No, I did not. Dinner churned in my stomach.
I wasn’t ready for this conversation. It had been years, over a decade since Dad had been murdered, but I still wasn’t ready.
And during all that time, I’d been sure Mom hadn’t been ready either.
Dad’s things had been in the garage for that long, and to my knowledge, she hadn’t touched them.
“Why now?”
She shrugged. “I’m not getting any younger, son. I don’t want you to deal with this when we’re both gone.”
I was out of my chair before she could finish her sentence. “I gotta go.”
“Emmett—”
“I’ll think on Dad’s stuff.” I spoke over my shoulder, already heading for the door. The walls were closing in on me, and I needed some air.
Mom followed, standing in the doorway as I straddled my bike, shoved a pair of sunglasses over my face and roared away.
I’d text her later but what I needed at the moment was the road.
Why would she spring this stuff about Dad on me tonight? What was going on with her? She wasn’t that old. Was she sick?
Maybe I’d have answers if I hadn’t raced out of her house.
Shit. She’d worry, so I rode to the closest gas station and pulled over to shoot her a quick text.
Sorry. Caught me off guard.
Her reply was instant. It’s okay. Love you.
Love you too.
I tucked my phone away and filled up the bike since I was here. And when I returned to the road, the grip of panic had loosened its hold. The sun was warm and night still hours off, so I took advantage and rode around town.
My first route was past the garage, making sure that the thick chain around the gates was secured.
For years, we’d left the lot open but after all the shit that had happened with Leo these past few months—that son of a bitch Tucker Talbot’s nephew staging accidents in the hopes of taking Leo out—we’d started locking up.
There were cameras mounted on the exterior of the building and I’d added motion sensors just about everywhere. At least twice a week an animal set them off at night, but thanks to the cameras, I could check both the lot and inside of the shop from my phone.
We’d installed new floodlights that would flicker on after dark and if someone managed to break in, Dash and I would be alerted immediately.
If the Warriors or their family members were going to come after us, they’d have to be at the top of their game. Considering their major players were all in custody, I liked our odds.
We were being careful, making sure that the women and kids didn’t go anywhere alone. And I made time to do whatever sleuthing I could online. Sometimes all it took was checking a person’s social media feed or text messages. Most loved to overshare.
Every morning I checked my alerts. Hacking had been a longtime hobby, another escape and a skill I’d put to use for the club. A skill I was still putting to use.
There were a few Warriors who were not in jail or already convicted and in prison. Some had been released on bond as they awaited their trial. Those members were mostly in Ashton, but I checked their bank accounts and credit cards daily to ensure there was no sign of a trip to Clifton Forge.
Beyond them, there were known relatives of the Warriors, though that list wasn’t as accurate as I would have liked. Hell, we hadn’t even considered Tucker Talbot’s nephew a threat because he hadn’t had any connection to his club.
But that hadn’t stopped Doug Hamilton from trying to kill Leo.
So I watched family too, especially Tucker Talbot’s ex-wife and two daughters. Thankfully, they were exactly where they should be—South Carolina.
The Arrowhead Warriors had been our enemies for what felt like my entire life. After an FBI raid at their clubhouse over a year ago, their gang had been shut down, but that didn’t necessarily erase a threat.
Their president was a ruthless son of a bitch.
Tucker Talbot was currently serving three consecutive life sentences in prison but that didn’t mean he didn’t have ties to the outside world.
And obviously he blamed us for his club’s ultimate demise—even though the paranoid motherfucker had kept video evidence on his members that was more useful to the FBI than any evidence the Tin Kings could have produced.
I wasn’t going to try and make sense of that bastard’s thoughts. All I could do was put up the best guard I could manage and pray to God no one slipped through the cracks.
That we didn’t have another nephew come to Clifton Forge to exact Tucker’s revenge.
On paper, Doug Hamilton hadn’t appeared to have anything to do with his uncle. Still, he’d come after Leo. Doug had failed but Tucker would find another pawn.
Maybe if we held him off long enough, he’d run out of toadies. Hell, maybe one of his own brothers, a Warrior who Tucker had damned to prison with his video footage, would do the world a favor and shiv the fucker between the ribs.
A man could hope.
Until then, we prepared. Maybe Tucker’s daughters would prove to be a threat. Maybe it would be another Warrior’s family who came after us. All we could do was keep our eyes open and pray we saw the threat before it was too late.
Leaving the garage, I rode toward another one of my rentals across town. I didn’t stop, only took it in from the outside to see that the lawn had been mowed.
It was a two-bedroom house occupied by an older bachelor who worked at the fire department.
The windows were dark and his truck was missing from the driveway, probably because he was on a long shift at the station.
Another dream renter who took care of the place like it was his own and never missed a rent check.
From there I rode to the office complex I’d bought two years ago. It had taken me a while to fill the space, but with the insurance agency, the nail salon, the nutritionist and the speech pathologist, I had four long-term leases locked, and barring a disaster, it would run on autopilot.
That was the goal. Eventually I wanted enough properties and local business investments that my money would go to work for me. I loved being a mechanic and working at the garage, but an early retirement was the dream.
While I was still able in body and mind, I wanted to cut myself loose of that daily grind. Maybe I’d spend months on the road. Maybe I’d head south during the winter. Without a wife or kids, I had nothing tying me down.
A lot would depend on Mom and what she needed as she aged, but I wasn’t going to be trapped in a job my whole life.
Not that I thought of work at the garage as a job.
I was lucky to enjoy every minute I worked when most men couldn’t say the same.
Regardless, the day I hated my job was the day I walked.
My investments were the key to my freedom to do so.
As of last month, every one of my property investments was covering its mortgage through rent. I’d be paying off Tera’s place first, owning it free and clear like I did my own home. Mom’s place was paid for, something Dad had ensured long before he died.
He’d made sure she was taken care of, even after their divorce.
And after his death, he hadn’t saddled her with much of a burden. She’d planned his funeral. She’d cleared out his place, bringing his things to her garage, where they’d stayed beneath tarps and canvas cloths for years.
And now she was clearing it out. She’d be putting him away.
I should help her do it. I should carry that weight.
Except I wasn’t sure I was strong enough.
It had taken me years to get over Dad’s death. Given the tightness in my chest, maybe I still had work to do.
But not tonight. Tonight, I rode. I breathed the summer air and let the rumble of my bike tune out the thoughts in my head. I rode to escape.
Sex was a decent alternative too.
My bike seemed to steer itself toward The Betsy, drawn by the possibility that my mystery woman was there. She’d left my house last week without a word. Whatever her reasons, she seemed to be good with casual sex. Maybe she was coming off a bad breakup—I hadn’t asked.
If our night together last week was the last time, I’d be disappointed. But I also knew better than to get attached to a hookup.
It was that thought that turned me around. That sent me home instead of the bar.
I was all for uncomplicated sex. But women rarely let it stop there. No matter what they said, feelings always got involved. So I made sure to set boundaries and cut a girl loose before it would hurt.
That had been Dad’s advice. Better to leave a woman wanting more than break her heart.
There’d never been a shortage of women at the clubhouse. Sex had been easy, especially with a Tin King patch on my back. Those days, all I’d wanted was to fuck, fight and ride. The money we’d made had been a bonus.
When the time came to disband, there were brothers who hadn’t wanted to give up the life. Leo had been that way, even though he’d voted in favor of shutting down. But not me.
I wished I missed the club. Maybe I should. But with every passing day, I summoned less and less longing for the old days.
I missed my dad. I missed Draven.
But not the club.
Money still got earned. And sex was still easy to come by.
I slowed as the turnout to my place came into view. I lingered at the mouth of my driveway, contemplating a security gate. The house itself had alarms and motion sensors inside and in the garage, but the property was wide open. Vulnerable. Untamed.
Making a mental note to do some research, I continued on up the drive to home.
The end of August was hot and this year had been dry, but here on my property, with the towering trees, the air was cool once I slipped between their shade. I dragged in the earthy pine scent just as a flash of gleaming black caught my eye from the house.
The Nova.
I guess I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t quite ready to end this little fling.
After parking the bike in the garage, I hit the deck, walking the length of the house. There was no way she’d made it inside, not without tripping my security system.
I found her on my favorite chaise lounge overlooking the backyard. There was no way she’d missed the thud of my boots on the porch boards, but she kept staring at the forest as I approached and took the seat beside hers.
Finding any other woman on my deck would have freaked me out that I’d hooked a clinger, but not this woman. She hadn’t even asked for my name or offered her own.
Her name wouldn’t take much to discover. I’d memorized her license plate after the first night. A quick search and I’d know her address, phone number, bank account balance and shoe size.
But why spend that energy? This was a physical relationship, and for once in my damn life, I didn’t want to have all the information.
Information meant saying goodbye to the mystery. Information would tarnish the allure. Information would only lead to questions, and at the moment, I didn’t want answers.
Tonight, I just wanted to escape.
“Hey there, Ace.”
“Hey, baby.” Baby worked and she didn’t seem to mind. I didn’t mind Ace either, especially in that sultry voice.
“Are you going to ask me why I’m here?”
“Nope.”
The corner of her mouth turned up.
“Are you going to sit there? Or get over here?” I motioned to my lap and the growing bulge behind my jeans.
That earned me a full-blown smile. Her dark eyes sparkled and those pretty, rosy lips spread wide. One day soon, I’d like to see those lips spread around my cock.
Devil that she was, she made me wait. She made me sit there, my dick hardening each time I caught her floral scent. Then finally, she swung her legs over the edge of her seat, stood and straddled my lap.
Her hands dove into my hair and released it from its tie. It hung to my shoulders as she ran those manicured nails against my scalp.
Then she leaned in and brushed her mouth against mine, teasing for a few seconds, before the grip on my patience shredded and I took over.
I put a hand on the back of her head, pinning her mouth to mine as my tongue swept inside those sweet lips.
She moaned, sinking her center into my lap. We ground against one another until I needed more and stripped away her gray silk blouse. The matching slacks came down next. Her heels with those familiar red soles were kicked free as she worked the belt on my jeans.
The second I had a condom in place, she took me in.
There was nothing slow or gentle about how we fucked, out in the open with the wilderness as our witness.
We came together in a rush, a tangled mess of mouths and limbs and pants and cries. And when we were done, she stood off me so I could dispose of the condom. I slipped inside and disabled the alarm system.
She was dressed and on her way around the deck, headed for the Nova, by the time I returned outside.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked, catching her by the front door.
She smirked and slid close, her hand palming my ass. “Don’t worry. I’m not done with you yet.”
I chuckled. “Got a phone number?”
“I do.”
“Gonna give it to me?” I’d given her mine but she’d never called.
“Depends. Are you going to get clingy?”
Fuck, but she was perfect. “I don’t need promises or expectations. Just sex.”
She studied me for a moment, then rattled off her number.
I memorized it immediately.
“See you later, Ace.”
“Drive safe, baby.”
She laughed and then, tires spinning on the gravel, disappeared.
Her license plate was burned into my head, along with that phone number.
Yeah, I should probably look her up. But not this time.
Besides, I’d cut her loose soon enough.