Free Exquisite Karma (Iron Horse MC Book 4) by Ann Mayburn

threats being made, and then it had escalated to a club sweet butt being raped and beaten then left on the road leading to the Iron Horse MC clubhouse.
    It was a message, and an insult, all rolled up into one.
    Not that I gave a fuck about any of that. I was far more concerned with the woman who had been taken, a girl scarcely older than I was whose only crime was partying with Iron Horse. The girl, Ashley, had paid dearly for that sin. They’d cut up her face, and while we had a plastic surgeon who would work miracles on her, it would take time. I’d set her up with a job on the Caribbean Island Iron Horse owned to get her away from the bad memories.
    I hadn’t been to the island yet, but Beach promised me when things calmed down we’d go there for two weeks. While we wouldn’t have the whole sixteen-mile island to ourselves—half of it was rented out to people willing to pay obscene amounts of money for a private beach—the other half was Iron Horse’s official vacation club.
    Yeah, it seemed weird that one of the perks of belonging to the MC was vacationing for free in a tropical paradise, but I’d seen where the island was on the maps and realized it was in a very good position for smuggling. Not that I’d asked Beach about it, he’d just give me blank face and tell me the less I knew the better, but I wasn’t stupid and I was the daughter of a gun smuggler. I’d seen enough of my father’s work to know how most supply routes operated, and that island was perfectly positioned for smuggling stuff from South America.
    For the tenth time, I tried to process the words I was reading, then gave up with a sigh and kicked my chair back from my white-wood computer desk. The whole room was done in shades of white, ranging from a bright crystal to a deep cream. The space wasn’t huge, but it did have large windows that looked out over the gated front drive of our home, and down the steep hill beyond to a great view of the majority of Austin. Our place was on top of one of the ridgetops, so on a clear day like today, it felt like I could see forever. The view was surprisingly green thanks to the recent rains and I allowed my gaze to take in the beauty, hoping it would soothe me.
    My emotions were all over the place as a knot of worry grew in my belly that left me feeling slightly nauseous. I knew from my intelligence network, aka the old ladies of Iron Horse, that a couple of the brothers had gotten busted during a run, but we didn’t know who yet. Only thing anyone had heard was the club’s kick-ass lawyers had been called in to arrange bail. My man was handling stuff behind the scenes, no doubt greasing the right palms and calling in favors to get his boys out. I’d had no idea how corrupt the government was until I got together with Beach. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, has a price, and my man often knew just what to offer to get what he wanted.
    Still, I worried. I worried so much I was exhausted with it, and considered going to sleep on the small daybed in my office, but my rumbling stomach reminded me I’d skipped breakfast.
    I made my way downstairs to the bright blue and steel-grey kitchen, where one of our maids, Juanita, hummed as she bustled about the kitchen. Her well-rounded hips shook as she danced to whatever music was playing on her headphones. I loved to watch her move; she still did salsa with her husband a couple times a month, and you could just tell by watching her that she was having fun. When her dark brown eyes met mine, she flushed, then laughed and pulled her earbuds out.
    “How are you doing, Ms. Anderson?”
    “Good. Tired and hungry. Do we have anything you could heat up real quick?”
    “Of course. What are you in the mood for?”
    “I don’t know…my stomach’s kind of off.”
    She gave me a considering look that I didn’t understand, then smiled in a way that softened her whole face. “How about we do grilled cheese again? I will even cut the crust off for you.”
    Laughing, I