Queen of Clubs (Desert Sons MC Book 2)

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.

Queen of Clubs copyright @ 2014 by Kathryn Thomas. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or review
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CHAPTER ONE

“Sons,” Jack Carter called as he gathered everyone’s attention. “We’ve got a problem.” Everyone wandered up to hear what the Vice-President of the Desert Sons motorcycle club had to say. The excited babble fell silent almost immediately.

“Our Chinese buyer backed out of the deal.”

Tina Harris felt the chill of impending doom. Not eight hours ago, she, Jack, and three other members of the Desert Sons had pulled off the slickest heist ever when they got away with a hundred million dollars’ worth of classic Ferraris.

“What? He can’t do that!” Michelle, the wife of the club President, cried beside her.

“He can, and he did,” Seth, the President, said. “But I’ll be fucked before we give him his deposit back.”

A rumble of agreement rippled through the crowd. “What happened?” a man whose name Tina couldn’t remember asked.

“We don’t know exactly,” Greg, the treasurer, said. “It looks like he is either about to be arrested or has been arrested. When I spoke to his office and told them his merchandise was ready to ship, they told me he wasn’t available and that his assets had been frozen.”

“What are we going to do, Jack?” Nicole asked quietly. She and her husband, Marshall, the Sergeant at Arms of the club, had been Jack’s best friends for years. They were in a tight spot, but if anyone could figure a way out, it would be Jack.

“I don’t know, Nic. I really don’t,” he said dejectedly.

Tina’s heart sank to her shoes. She became involved as an unofficial member of the Sons when Jack recruited her for her pickpocketing skills. A week ago she had broken into the clubhouse for a place to sleep and something to eat. When Jack had caught her, then felt sorry for her and let her go, she had taken his wallet with her.

That didn’t sit well with him and he had run her down. But rather than beat the shit out of her, as she expected him to do, he had taken her in and then later recruited her to help with the heist. She had done her part and was going to use her cut of the twenty-two-million-dollar sale price to create a new identity, start a new life, and leave her troubled past behind her. But fate had shit on her yet again.

She turned and walked away from the group, unable to hold back her tears of frustration and disappointment. Twice now she had tried to get her life together and go straight, and twice it had come crashing down around her. Now there would be no new life and no leaving her criminal past behind.

***

She had just finished shoving her few meager belongings into a plastic grocery sack when Jack found her.

“You okay?” he asked as stood behind her at the edge of the bed and stared at the sack. At 6’2, he could easily see over her 5’3 frame.

“Yeah,” she said quietly as she stared at the bag of all her worldly possessions. Four pairs of pants, four shirts, a pair of shoes, and underwear accounted for the sum total of her life.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes. There is nothing here for me now.”

“What about your new life?”

“What new life, Jack? You’ve got no buyer. You can’t sell the cars… they’re too hot. You said so yourself. The best thing you could do is sink them in Elephant Butte or Caballo Lake.” She turned to face him. “I will be forever grateful for what you did for me. For taking me in and… being kind. But you don’t need me around anymore. I’m nothing but bad luck. Every time I try to get my life together something bad happens and I…”

Jack pulled her to him and held her tight to her chest. He said nothing, and after a moment he felt her shudder as she began to weep softly. “Shhh…” he murmured as he rocked her gently. “It’s going to be okay.”

“How? How is it going to be okay?” she sniffed.

“I don’t know. But I gave you my word. I can’t do the million that I promised you, but I have a little money put aside. And I will get you a new identity.”

Tina wept harder as his kindness and generosity touching her deeply. Not since her father died had she ever felt so… loved? Protected? Cared for? She didn’t know, but her emotions overwhelmed her and she sobbed into Jack’s chest. “I don’t want your money, Jack,” she finally said as she tried to pull herself together and dry her tears. “Why would you do that for me?”

“We made a deal,” he said.

“The deal fell through.”

“But you fulfilled your end.”

It was true, she had, but she still couldn’t take his money… not after all he had done for her. Today made her week. She had worked and paid her debt to him for breaking the window to get into the clubhouse. She was free to go and she couldn’t impose on his kindness further. “I stand with the others,” she said. “I’ll get paid when everyone else does.”

He smiled as his cheek rested on her head. A week ago she would have leapt at that deal. “And the new identity?”

“When I can pay for it myself. You’ve done enough for me already. I can’t... I won’t... ask you to do more.”

“So you are just going to leave?”

“There is nothing I can help with now.”

“Stay,” he said. “Just give us a few days. A week. Let’s see if we can turn up another buyer.”

Tina pushed out of his arms. “Why, Jack? Tell me why you want me to stay.”

He looked at her and he felt a flutter in his heart as something changed inside of him. That same kicked dog look she had a week ago was back as the weight of her troubles crushed the life out of her.

“Because I want you to. I want you to stay, not because you owe me anything, but because you
want
to.”

She looked into his eyes and whimpered, gathered herself, then whimpered again as tears leaked from her eyes. She wanted to stay, but why would he want her? The twenty-four-year-old fuck-up that had pissed her life away and gone to prison for it.

“But why?”

“Why what?” he asked.

“Why do you want me to stay? Why do you care? Nic told me how you have a different woman every night. She said that me being here a week was a long-term relationship for you. So why do you want me to stay? I don’t understand… I don’t understand why you care, why you are being so nice to me.”

He looked at her while he tried to understand his motives himself. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Nic’s right about me. I’m not proud of that, but it is the way I am. The way I was. But… you’re different somehow. I just want you to stay.”

“For how long?”

“Until you are ready to go.”

That stopped her cold. “What are you saying, Jack?” she asked.

“I don’t know! Look, my whole world was turned upside down not a half-hour ago. I don’t know what I’m going to do with these
fucking
cars. I just need something, someone, I can depend on.”  

“And that’s me?”

“Yes. In hindsight you’re the only reason this worked at all. Had it not been for you there is no way we could have pulled this off. Other than that little fib with the money, which I can understand, you haven’t lied to me.” He paused as he looked into her eyes, then decided to come clean. “Tina, I like and admire you. I like the fact that life has shit all over you, kept knocking you down, and you kept getting back up. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been after your dad died, and then your mother got all weird over it, and you were forced to basically fend for yourself. You did what you had to survive, and you did. I need some of your strength right now.” 

She looked at him and swallowed hard as she tried to reel in her emotions.
Nobody
had
ever
admired her before—not for anything positive anyway. She stepped to him and embraced him as she placed her head on his chest so she could listen to his thudding heart.

“I’ll stay,” she murmured. 

He relaxed as tension he didn’t even know he held flowed out of him at her words. He slid his arms around her. “Thank you.”

She didn’t move or respond as she smiled softly. Possibly the shittiest day of her life just got a little better. “What are we going to do?” she asked, her smile growing a bit wider at the use of the word
we
instead of
you.

Jack picked up on her wording.
“We
are going to find another buyer and sell these fucking cars. Even if we only get a million or two for them, they will be gone and this whole fucked up mess will be nothing but a bad memory.”

“How can I help?”

“You can’t. I can’t. The Sons are compartmentalized. That way if the shit hits the fan, it doesn’t drag us all down. Brett and Cheryl will be making some calls. If anyone can find a buyer, those two can.”

“They’re married?”

“No. Not even dating, why?”

“No reason. I was just wondering if they were like Marshall and Nic, Seth and Michelle.”

“Tina and Jack?” he teased.

“We’re not married,” she pointed out.

“I know. But no, they are not even an item. Cheryl is a full member of the Sons.”

“So if you have women members, why isn’t it the ‘Desert Sons and Daughters’?” she asked with a smile as she pulled out of his arms.

“The club jackets are already made up.”  

“Oh,” she said, then snickered.

***

That night, as they lay in Jack’s bed and snuggled, he was quiet. They had made love that morning, and they had been going morning and night most days. But tonight he was passive, more interested in snuggling than fucking. Tina could understand that. It was Jack’s ass that was really on the line. All the other members of the Sons had plausible deniability, but not Jack. If anyone took a fall it would be him, so she could understand his slight brooding passivity tonight. As he gently caressed her thigh and breast she smiled into the darkness. Before Jack, she thought the only reason to be in bed with a man was to fuck. But just being held in his warm embrace… there was something to be said for that as well.  

He held Tina snuggly to him. He’s wasn’t sure why, but just having her close made him feel better. If she could survive all the shit she’s been through then he could surely survive this. This was the first time in the more than five years of the Sons running this kind of business that they had been left holding the bag.
It was bound to happen sooner or later,
he mused,
but why did it have to happen on
this
deal?
He pulled her a bit tighter to him. He wanted her, but at the same time, just holding her calmed him. That is what he needed right now… some stability and calm.

Earlier in the day, all the Sons had snickered as they watched a local weekly news roundup program on the big screen in the lounge. Their heist was the lead story and pushed the rest of the week’s news off the headlines. The report valued their theft at
more
than one hundred million and the police were completely stymied. They were unable to figure out how the thieves had managed to get in and get out without being seen or heard, setting off no alarm, and left not one shred of evidence. The Sons had laughed out loud when the police spokesman expressed confidence the culprits would be apprehended soon. 

That was before the deal had gone to shit, of course. Now it wasn’t so damn funny because, given enough time, they
would
get caught. You can’t hide six blood-red antique Ferraris forever.

“Jack?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“It’s going to be okay,” she said with confidence.

He smiled. If she believed it, then it probably would be.