Tin Queen Read online

  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 Gypsy 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 bu
rned 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.

  Chapter Five

  Nova

  “I don’t like this,” Dad said, his voice low. “I don’t want you there.”

  “It’s the only way.”

  He frowned. “I have other options.”

  “Like Doug?” I whispered.

  Another frown, this one making the crease between his dark eyebrows deepen. Dad didn’t like failure and Doug had failed spectacularly in his botched attempt at revenge.

  Selfishness was the reason that Doug had failed. He’d gone after the Tin Gypsy he’d considered the easiest target—Leo Winter. But instead of owning it, Doug had tried to kill Leo by accident. Probably so Doug could walk away unscathed.

  There was no such thing.

  The news reports speculated that Doug had drugged Leo and tampered with a jack at the garage, as well as Leo’s truck’s brakes. None of that had been proved yet and if Dad knew the specifics, he hadn’t shared.

  Dad was fickle about exactly what he told me, but he promised whatever secrets he kept were for my own good.

  And while I trusted him, it meant that I had to gather my own information at times. Most came from the news. That was how I’d learned that Doug had rigged a bomb at Leo Winter’s garage.

  The explosion had nearly killed Leo’s then-fiancée, now-wife Cassandra. And it had been Doug’s downfall.

  The staged accidents were a weak attack. Anything could—and had—gone wrong. And Doug was no longer a free man. They’d caught him anyway and his life as a free man was over.

  “Was he acting on orders? Or of his own volition?” I asked.

  Dad didn’t answer.

  “Was he even a member?”

  Dad gave me a noncommittal shrug.

  Apparently, I wouldn’t be leaving here with information on Doug today. Not that I needed it. Today’s visit was simply to check in.

  Dad ran a hand through his hair. There were more gray streaks through the dark strands than there had been during my last visit two weeks ago. The goatee that had once been black was nearly white. He was aging before my eyes, but the fight was still etched into the weathered lines of his face.

  The day I came here and the fight had vanished from his face was the day I’d worry.

  At Dad’s insistence, I didn’t visit often. But with things set in motion, I doubted I’d be able to come here again for a while. I wanted one last meeting with him before I dove deeper into Emmett’s life in Clifton Forge.

  It had been two days since Emmett’s deck, and I could still feel him between my legs. His taste was a whisper on my lips and his scent a ghost on my skin.

  So far, I’d played this slowly, methodically, but I was about to level up, and once I started, I couldn’t risk another visit to the prison.

  “What’s your next move?” Dad asked.

  It was a risk to have told him what I was doing, especially in this room with the camera mounted in the corner and the guard beyond the steel door. I’d hoped to avoid sharing details of my plan with Dad, but when I’d come here today, he’d made an offhand comment about getting in touch with a man connected to the Warriors on the outside.

  The last thing I needed was interference, so I’d explained to Dad my plan and asked him for time. Time to infiltrate Emmett Stone’s life, time to find information that would send him, Dash Slater and Leo Winter to prison.

  “There’s information at Emmett’s house. I’m sure of it. You told me he was into hacking, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s where I’ll start. Now that I’m in, I can dig deeper. But you need to trust me. Give me time.”

  He blew out a long breath and nodded.

  “Thank you.” I opened the manila folder I’d brought in and slid it across the metal table between us.

  Dad leaned on his forearms, bracketing the page before he began to read. To anyone watching, it was just an attorney giving her client some paperwork to review. But shielded by his arms, on the second page, was another letter from Mom and a recent photo of Christian.

  As he read it, I glanced around the room. We’d sat here, in these exact seats, countless times since his sentencing. The room was gray and windowless. His bright orange jumpsuit assaulted my eyes.

  But it was in this room that Dad had finally pulled me into his circle.

  The first time he’d talked about the Warriors, I’d been sure it was a mistake. The only member of our family he’d trusted had been TJ. Dad had always kept Mom, me and Shelby in the dark. But visit after visit, while I pretended to be one of his attorneys, he’d confided more and more in me. The floodgates had opened.

  To his past.

  To my anger.

  Because it was in this room that I’d learned the details of my brother’s death. That it wasn’t just a nameless rival club who’d murdered him, but the Tin Gypsies.

  Dad might think he had options besides me, but I didn’t trust anyone besides myself to see this through to the end.

  He finished reading the letter and looked up. His expression was blank except for the sadness in his eyes. The longing for my mother.

  He loved her as much as she loved him.

  “I won’t be back for a while.” There’d be no more letters and no more photos.

  He nodded, hesitating with the papers before sliding them over.

  “She’s thinking of you,” I murmured.

  “I’m thinking of her too.”

  “Maybe one day she can come to visit.”

  “No.” His tone brooked no argument. “Never.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t want her to see me here. Not like this. We had our goodbyes. We had them every time I left her house.”

  I sighed. “Okay.”

  He gave me a sad smile, then nodded toward the door. Time was up.

  I collected the papers, a templated prenuptial agreement I used at work, and tucked them away in the folder. Then I put it in my briefcase beside my fake ID.

  Technically it was a real ID. I was posing as an associate who worked at Dad’s lawyer’s firm.

  Nancy Lennox.

  We had the same height and a similar build. Her face shape was different than mine, but with the blond wig to match her natural hair color and my thick glasses, no one had ever looked twice.

  Being Nancy allowed me to come and go from here without question.

  “Stay safe,” he said.

  “You too.”

  “I love you, Nova,” he whispered.

  I hadn’t heard those words enough from my father, simply for the lack of opportunity. For his club that had kept us apart. “I love you too, Dad.”

  “Work fast.”

  Dad was worried that as years passed with him in prison, he’d lose his influence. It was a valid concern. People outside of these walls would return to their normal lives and though there were members of the Warriors who wouldn’t spend decades here, they’d be less likely to help him in his battle against the Tin Gypsies in five years than they were now.

  But at the moment, many of them were as angry as Dad. As angry as me. Right now, things were raw.

  Time would dull that emotion. Time would make them forget.

  If I failed, if I couldn’t find evidence to lock the Gypsies away and throw away the key, Dad would call in favors. He’d explore those other options.

  The clock was ticking.

  “I’m counting on you, Nova.”

  “I know. And you can.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  My chest swelled with pride. How long had I waited for his confidence? How many years had I longed for him to include me in his life? It was sad that his arrest had been the catalyst that brought us together. It broke my heart that being in this room was where I’d felt the closest to my father.

  “I’ll be back when it’s done,” I said, shoving to my feet.
>
  “Drive careful.” Be careful.

  “Always.” I walked to the door and knocked. The guard appeared in the window and unlatched the lock. Then, leaving my father behind, I was led through the maze of prison hallways to the checkout station. It wasn’t a quick process coming here, but finally I stepped outside into the August sunshine.

  The parking lot was nearly empty today. Fridays were normally quiet. But tomorrow, Saturday, would be busy, as it was a regular visiting day for family members.

  I walked to the parking lot and slid into the Nova. The riskiest move I took coming here was driving my own car. It was the one object, besides my fingerprints, that could connect the fake Nancy Lennox to the real June Johnson.

  Though with my fake license plates, it would take some effort.

  Luckily, since I claimed to be Dad’s lawyer, the administration hadn’t put me through the full visitor protocol. They’d no doubt done a background check, but they were satisfied to let me in based on my ID alone. Probably because I hadn’t started visiting Dad until after his conviction. The FBI and state prosecutor were busy with the other Warriors and their respective trials at the moment.

  Posing as Nancy, I was simply bringing paperwork to a client to settle his estate. Not that he had many assets left.

  This ruse couldn’t go on forever. But I’d push it for as long as possible.

  The FBI might discover that I was not exactly who I said I was, though without testing my DNA, they’d never know I was Dad’s daughter. It wasn’t really the FBI who concerned me at this point. The worst they could do was keep me from Dad.

  No, my biggest concern was Emmett and his friends in Clifton Forge.

  One of his buddies was Luke Rosen, the Clifton Forge chief of police. I was sure Luke, in conjunction with the FBI, was monitoring Dad’s visitors. They’d find Nancy Lennox on the rosters, but if they chose to follow Nancy . . .

  It was good today was the last visit for a while.

  I climbed in my car, took one last look at the prison through my window, then drove away. Ten miles outside the prison, I stopped on the side of the highway and made sure there were no cars approaching. Then I got out and went to the trunk.