Free Tempered Steel (Steel Riders MC Book 2) by Carmen Faye

around?”
     
    “Last night.”
     
    “Really?”
     
    “Beth. She’s nice. Single mom, works hard. You should probably get to know her.”
     
    “Okay, well, thanks for the info on James.”
     
    “No problem.”
     
    She hung up, completely stunned. “My dad is in love with a woman named Beth,” she gasped. “He said I should get to know her.”
     
    “And?”
     
    “He never says that. Since mom, women come, women go. He said this like he planned on marrying her! I need to find out who this bitch is!”
     
    “I think you are at the edge of your “major happenings” meter. Time to eat and get you to bed.”
     
    “Would it be alright if I slept here?”
     
    “Yes. And I would enjoy that.”
     
    After another amazing bout of Neanderthal sex, which always began so innocently soft and passionate, she noticed, they talked for several hours about simple things: movies, books, what they liked to do with yard space. Just regular couple stuff.
     
    “Oh, before I forget, I rented Maison’s Hall for Daphne if she wants to have a wake for Derrick on Saturday,” Hank said. “I have it rented from noon until midnight. And no, I won’t be attending, due to work I’ll have to finish. I also have three bartenders hired with lots of beer and wine.”
     
    “Wow, that is so nice of you,” she told him.
     
    “You don’t have to tell her it was from me. If you don’t think she’ll accept it, then tell her it is from you. I just want her to be able to have a real wake.”
     
    “God, you are getting it real hard from all of this,” she sighed and kissed him.
     
    “Yeah, well, I knew it was going to be difficult, but getting it in the back from my own club all the time — yeah, that’s hard.”
     
    “Can you tell me what you are up to?”
     
    He searched her eyes. “I talked with Knight, and he talked with you, and the three of us seem to feel that it is alright. Once you know things, though, you can’t unknow them. You can learn things in five seconds that will take years of therapy to get back out of your head.”
     
    She laughed a little. “I understand. So, what are you doing, really?”
     
    “I’m getting into a position with Orlin where I will know about all of the drug planes coming across the border. Then, using a fake tracker that I’ve already made, and taking the real one, I’m going to send one of the planes to a location where some men from the club will be waiting. They’ll take the coke, crash the plane, and get back out of there as fast as they can. Then, I pull a disappearing act, and it’s done.”
     
    “All of this, for one plane?” she asked.
     
    “Well, if it was easy, everyone would do it,” he chided her. “One plane is enough. It will be about five million out of his pocket. Plus, he’ll have to figure out how we did it, and then he’ll be questioning everything he does. It will hit him hard and worry him forever.”
     
    Cyn played that through. “And then Knight declares the Howey and Margaret thing resolved, and that the club can move on and expel their grief. He didn’t get away with it: he paid.
     
    “Won’t he be looking for you for the rest of your life?” she asked.
     
    “Not if I’m dead,” Hank told her.
     
    “You’re going to die?” she asked.
     
    “Right in front of him actually, yes,” Hank agreed.
     
    “Explain that to me,” she ordered softly.
     
    He told her about how he was going to set up the false airstrip, and how the DEA would arrive, and the massive battle that would follow, and how he would look very, very dead.
     
    “Hell, with that much going on, he might die — I mean really die,” she said once he was through.
     
    “True. That would be against the directives, but true. Personally, I won’t feel bad at all if it happens.”
     
    She sat up. “Okay, you’re dead and he’s wondering who sent you and how this was done and all of that — which is very cool by the way. But you can’t come back here, can