Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(113)

Her gaze coming to me, making it official, at least from the old lady perspective that I was Resurrection, felt super good.

And no one could argue what she said.

So no one did.

Core





Rush Allen brought three of his brothers to the meet: Shy Cage, and Dutch and Jagger Black.

Resurrection pulled up some chairs at the table for them.

They were gathered.

Beck started it by saying, “Core’s gonna run shit down.”

Beck looked at him, so Core ran everything down.

When he was done explaining what Nails had been up to, he pointed out the obvious.

“She knows a lot about me. She knows a lot about Hellen. She knows a lot about the history and activities of our club. Too much. She’s from Denver, but she’s lived in Phoenix the past twenty years. People talk, but not to her. What she did to the brothers of Aces High, she’s known and she’s an outcast from most clubs. She’s also not a supersleuth. She’s a biker bunny. This isn’t a black sheep taking her daddy issues out on members of her family. This is something more.”

“She’s being fed info,” Rush said, then added. “Which means you’re being watched.”

Core nodded. “And we’re being investigated. It isn’t just the present she’s raking up, it’s the past.”

The Chaos brothers looked as happy about this as Resurrection.

“Distraction?” Rush suggested to Beck.

“My guess was the same,” Beck replied.

“From what?” Dutch asked.

Beck looked to Dutch.

“That’s what we gotta find out.”

Hellen





I walked in through the garage door after coffee with the girls and called out, “Baby, I’m home.”

Nanook heard me come in and was there to greet me. I returned the sentiment with a rubdown, then I threw my keys in the tray on the desk area in the kitchen where they landed next to Core’s.

We had new additions on that desk. Core bought them.

Seriously, he was getting into this settling down thing.

And I was really loving he was.

The tray was new. As was a charging station that hid cords for our phones. An attractive desk caddy, which held pens and scissors and stuff. And a letter holder with different sections, front for my stuff, middle for Core’s (always empty), back for bills and other we-type things (which he mostly dealt with, but he kept them there until he filed them away so I could see them and arrange to pay my half).

I couldn’t say I went through my section daily (as in, I didn’t check it yesterday), but I didn’t allow it to get out of hand.

Since Christmas was close, I had to go through it more often because of Christmas cards.

And front and center in the letter holder, there was what I knew was a Christmas card that had a forwarding label from my old apartment.

I recognized the handwriting.

I nabbed it, grabbed the letter opener from the caddy and slit it open.

I was tense because I thought I might see a perfect-couple picture collage of Bree with Bryan.

I didn’t, but apparently, Bree took a vacation to the Grand Canyon since we parted ways.

A folded piece of paper had come out with the notecard depicting a selfie of Bree against the backdrop of one of the great natural wonders of the world with Season’s Greetings, xo Bree printed at the bottom.

With trepidation, I unfolded the paper.

I was about to read what was on it when Core greeted, “Hey.”

I turned my head to watch him walking toward me, appreciating the movement of his slim hips in his faded jeans and the stretch of the thermal across his chest.

Most especially, I appreciated the tender look in his beautiful blue eyes that were resting on me.

“Hey,” I replied.

He arrived, put a hand on my hip and gave me a kiss.

“Good time with the girls?” he asked.

“Yes. We’re having a New Year’s Day Smoke at the clubhouse. A big thing, kids, extended family and friends invited.”

He smiled. “Sounds ace. What’s a smoke?”

“You and Beck are in charge of smoking a lot of meat to feed the throng.”

His smile got bigger.

My man liked to feed people.

I waved the paper I held in the air. “A letter from Bree. It came with her Christmas card.”

His smile died and was replaced with a stormy expression. “That bitch sent a Christmas card?”

“I may be reading into things, but it seems she’s spending her friendless hours taking solo vacations.”

He cared nothing for that, I knew, when he asked, “What’s the letter say?”

“I haven’t read it yet.”

He raised his brows and dipped his chin to the letter to indicate I needed to get on that.

So I got on it.

Hellen,

I don’t know how to start this. I miss you and have been wanting to reach out to you, but I didn’t know how.

I thought Christmas was the perfect excuse.

We have a lot of history and so many great memories. I consider myself lucky you were assigned to be my roommate our first year in college. I’m not lying when I say I knew right away that we were going to be friends forever.

Because of all of that, I want you to know that I’m open to hearing your apology…