Juan (Falcon’s Rest MC #6)

Chapter one

Amber Murray waited in line behind two young men as they unloaded four cases of beer and a plethora of chips, cookies, and other snacks. She smiled to herself. A party at the lake, or on one of the river tributaries, was definitely in the offing.

Her phone dinged with a text, and she shifted her basket to her other arm. Pulling the device from the back pocket of her shorts, she brought the screen to life.

Juan: How’s the setup going?

Amber: Not there yet. Will keep you posted

Juan: It’s busy down here already

Like many of his brothers in the Falcon’s Rest Motorcycle Club, Juan had been co-opted into volunteering for one thing or another throughout the day.

Youth Day had started as a single day over eighty years ago but now spread over all three days of the Memorial Day weekend.

Locals, both those who lived in Mystery Lake and those who’d left but still called it home, packed the area.

A sort of homecoming weekend for the entire town.

The event organizers and businesses spent all year planning, but no one ever complained.

With the winter snow melted and the full summer not yet upon them, it was the only weekend that the locals claimed for themselves.

This was only Amber’s second, and she already loved the tradition.

Amber: Good, more chance of hitting our goal. You all good?

She inched forward as the young men shifted from unloading their cart toward the card reader.

Juan: Parking lot is almost full. We’ll be closing it up and handing the cash over to the treasurer. Will head to the Hedy float after that to see if they need extra hands. Call if you need help. Or anything

Gratitude mingled with a little bit of awe rolled through her. She escaped a living hell just over a year ago, landing in Mystery Lake not long after, thanks to Juan and his brothers. While always grateful for what they’d done to help her, sometimes her life now seemed too good to be real.

Amber: We’ll be fine

Juan: Then you won’t need to call, but if that changes, call. Sí?

“What are you doing with all this?” the checker asked, reaching for her basket filled with fifteen bunches of mint.

She pocketed her phone without answering the text and set the basket on the conveyor belt.

To some, the question might sound nosy, but Craig had a son in culinary school, and she ensured that all fifteen members of Falcon’s Rest had three hearty meals a day.

She had a lot of menus and a frequent need to dart out for last-minute items. She and Craig knew each other well.

These purchases weren’t for the Falcons, though. “Miguel was worried we wouldn’t have enough mint for the garnish, so I offered to grab what I could find.” She smiled as Craig scanned the first, then counted the rest. “I wiped out your supply, I’m sorry to say,” she added.

His blue eyes crinkled with a smile. “All for a good cause,” he replied, gently adding the bunches to her tote.

And it was. Not only would it raise money for the project that encouraged girls to consider studying STEM, but generations of people had grown up looking forward to the delicious, refreshing drink when the stand was originally run by Olivia’s grandmother.

When she passed away, the tradition died with her.

Amber and Miguel brought it back last year, and now those who’d enjoyed it as kids reveled in revisiting the sweet childhood memory, while creating new ones with the young people in their lives. A richness of a different sort.

As the machine processed her payment, she and Craig chatted idly about the events and the crowds. Then tucking the receipt into her purse, she slung the tote over her shoulder, promised to drop off a cup of lemonade to Craig when the crowds allowed, and headed out.

Pausing under the shade of the overhang, she pulled her phone back out. To find four more texts from Juan.

Juan: Da?

Juan: Oui?

Juan: Yes, Juan, I’ll call if we need anything

Juan: I’m fresh out of other ways to say that. My Pashto is rusty

She laughed. While all fifteen of the Falcons were good men, there were a few she was closer to.

Juan being one of them. His steady, confident presence in her life over the past year had given her reason to trust him, and he’d never given her cause to regret it.

Marley and North were the other two. Marley’s laid-back approach to life and penchant for late-night chats and tossing out esoteric questions had reminded her how wonderful curiosity could be—a perspective she’d lost during the violent years of her marriage.

And North had spent hours with her in her garden, his gentle approach to nature, to life, feeding and healing her soul.

Amber: We’ll be fine, but thank you for the offer

Juan: I don’t think that’s how you spell, “yes, Juan, I’ll text if we need anything”

Her lips twitched. She knew when she was beat. Not a bad battle to lose, though.

Amber: Yes, Juan, I’ll text if we need anything

Juan: Good girl

Juan: Wait, that sounded gross.

She laughed again.

Juan: Have a good time and keep me posted. You and Miguel will rock it today

Her laughter turned to a heartfelt smile. Whatever she did to deserve people like Juan and the rest of the Falcons in her life she didn’t know, but she’d never take them for granted.

Amber: Thank you and will do

She slid the phone into her purse and started toward her car, but a voice stopped her.

“Amber!”

She paused and searched for the source. A voice she knew well.

Spotting the lovely, curvy blond heading her way, her summer dress fluttering in the gentle breeze, Amber smiled.

“Juliana, it’s good to see you. Aren’t you supposed to be helping with the final touches on the float?

” The parade didn’t start for another three hours, but the Hedy Experience float always stole the show.

Which meant it was all hands on deck when it came to prepping and building.

Juliana came to a stop in front of her and shook her head with a smile. “I’ve been released from duty. I’m useless with crafts. I tried to tell Olivia that, but she didn’t believe me. After tripping over a stack of lumber and nearly taking out the back half of the float, then she believed me.”

Amber chuckled, picturing Olivia’s horrified look. “Sorry that happened, but I’m guessing there are better uses for your skills?”

Juliana made a face. “You’re now looking at the official assistant float handler.”

“And what exactly does a float handler do?” Amber couldn’t help but ask through a laugh. She loved the tradition of the weekend, but Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade it was not.

“I release the floats,” Juliana replied, waggling her eyebrows. “I have the power to wreak or prevent chaos.”

“Choose wisely, my friend.”

Juliana laughed. “That’s what Simon said.” Simon, or “Stone” to pretty much everyone but Juliana, was a member of the Falcons and Juliana’s fiancé.

“I don’t want to keep you,” Juliana continued, her eyes darting to the tote.

“But I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to draw up a menu for a dinner Simon and I are hosting at our place in six weeks.

I don’t want to ask you to do the cooking, because we want you to enjoy it with the rest of us, but everyone knows your menus are the best.”

Amber arched her brows. “Celebrating anything in particular?” She dropped her gaze meaningfully to the ring on Juliana’s finger.

“There’s a lot to celebrate right now,” Juliana answered vaguely.

“We thought it might be nice to be intentional about that. Mantis and Charley just got married, Callie and Philly have the baby on the way, and Helia is moving in with Monk and Kendall permanently in two weeks.” She paused in her recitation of all the changes in the Falcons club.

Through marriage, birth, partnerships, and other means, lots of new “family” members were joining the original fifteen.

“I’m so glad Helia is coming when she is,” Juliana continued.

“Kendall will be off for six weeks to that coding camp she got into. Someone will need to keep Monk from driving down to San Jose every other day to check on his sister. Oh, and Viper and Lina got new bikes. Although admittedly, I don’t think that rises to the same level as everything else, but Simon assures me it does. ”

“And Hawkeye is officially done with his reserve duty, Marley’s mom is coming for a visit, and Superman and Stein just negotiated the purchase of that apartment complex the club plans to turn into low-cost housing for the seasonal workers,” Amber said, then added, “And how could we forget Lovell moving in with Daphne?” Callie’s sister, Daphne, had come to Mystery Lake to visit, fallen in love with another Falcon, and recently made the move permanent.

Much to Amber’s delight as the two had been close years earlier and she loved having her friend back in her life.

She also hadn’t put all the changes and events together in one list, and Juliana was right, they did have a lot to celebrate.

No one deserved it more than the remarkable group of people who’d landed like a bomb in her life just over a year ago.

The good kind of bomb, of course. Her life had needed blowing up, had needed to be destroyed so she could build something new.

“Of course,” she said. “I’d love to design the menu. Who’s doing the catering?” Amber knew a few of the caterers in town, and they each had different strengths and weaknesses. Depending on whom Juliana and Stone picked, she’d work with them to tailor the menu to their forte.

“Her name is Simone Dupry. She’s new in town but comes recommended by my bonus parents.”

Amber knew enough of Juliana’s story to know she referred to Emmanuela and Rocco Rivabianchi, parents of her best friend, Chiara. The couple owned an Italian restaurant in San Francisco—a local institution really—and if Ms. Dupry came recommended by them, Amber looked forward to meeting her.

“Great, can’t wait to meet her. Can you put us in touch?” Amber asked.

Juliana nodded. “Yes and thank you. Once the weekend is over, I’ll send you each other’s contact info.”

After promising to stop by and pick up lemonade for the parade crew, Juliana hurried off to the coffee shop on the other side of the grocery store.

Amber watched her for a moment, then turned and headed to her car.

As the late-spring sun hit her shoulders, sending a sting of warmth through her body, she marveled at how much her life had changed in the past fourteen months.

She didn’t like to think about the situation she’d left behind, but what she had now?

It was incredible. Safety, security, and a new job starting in two months.

A job that never in a million years would she have thought she’d not only want, but know she’d be damn good at.

She’d been little more than a broken shell—breathing, eating, and sleeping, but doing little else to stay alive—when the Falcons brought her to Mystery Lake.

Slowly, she’d found purpose in helping Dottie, the Falcons’ house manager and surrogate mom, in the kitchen.

Then she discovered the healing powers of growing her own garden.

Those two things eventually melded into a love of creating menus and cooking.

And in eight weeks, she’d officially be the first consulting chef for the new eleven-room inn the club was launching in Napa Valley.

As a business, it was an outlier to the Falcons’ other companies, all of which were based in Mystery Lake.

But Monk had inherited the property from his father, and rather than sell the large estate and winery, he and his half-sister, Kendall, had opted to turn it into an inn.

An inn that would give people like her—people who’d managed to escape horrendous relationships—a chance for a new start.

She paused in the parking lot, gesturing for a royal-blue SUV to back out of its spot. She didn’t mind the wait. The day would be busy; a few moments of the sun on her skin and the gentle caress of a mint-scented breeze…well, there were worse ways to spend ten seconds.

The driver waved her thanks and proceeded toward the exit as Amber walked the remaining twenty feet to her car. She smiled when it came into view. It wasn’t anything fancy, not like what she used to drive. But it was hers, and she’d researched, picked, and paid for the small Toyota SUV herself.

Rounding to the driver’s side, she slowed as something white fluttered in a gentle draft.

Her stomach twisted in anticipation as she eased forward, step-by-automatic-step, to stand within reaching distance of the paper tucked under her windshield wiper.

No more than two inches wide and five inches long, it shouldn’t cause dread to pool in her veins.

But she was well acquainted with psychological warfare, and two notes in three days?

Well, she recognized an opening salvo when she saw one.

A breeze caught the ends of her hair, sending them fluttering over her shoulders, a gentle movement at odds with the heavy thud of her heart and weighted stillness that pressed in on her.

The first note, with the words “Call me” written on it, followed by a phone number, she’d ignored.

A mistake, she’d assumed. Meant for another woman.

After all, she’d found it after dinner at the Dirty Boom, a local—and crowded—pub.

She’d tossed it into one of her cup holders, then thrown it out the next day.

But two notes in three days…

She scanned the area as she reached out.

A man and a teenage boy crossing the parking lot.

Two young women leaving the coffee shop.

A family pushing a loaded cart out of the grocery store.

But an older woman, leaning against one of the pillars supporting the overhang, seemed to be staring at her.

Amber cataloged her features: curly dark hair liberally sprinkled with gray, about five foot four, symmetrical facial structure, and dark eyes.

Attractive in a sort of feral, dangerous way.

She had her hands tucked into the pockets of a jacket too warm for this time of year, but not so warm that people would notice.

The woman smiled. Amber’s breath hitched.

Was she enjoying Amber’s discomfort? The woman shifted her right arm, her hand sliding from her pocket.

Amber’s heart jumped painfully in her chest and in a flash, she cased all the places to take shelter.

Then the woman laughed with such delight that even in her heightened state, Amber wondered what could bring on such joy.

The woman lifted a phone to her face, tapped the screen, touched her ear, then turned and walked away.

She hadn’t been watching Amber at all, just staring at the middle distance as she spoke on the phone.

With a deep breath and an admonishment not to overreact, Amber wiped her palm on her shorts, then plucked the offending paper from beneath the wiper. With shaky hands, she flipped it over.

“She didn’t die”