Heart of Steel

by Cathleen Cole

  Steel suddenly grinned down at me. “But that can wait until tomorrow. I think we’ve earned the right to spend the rest of the day in bed… don’t you?”

  Steel laughed, picked me up, and tossed me over his shoulder. I yelped and pounded him on the back. I couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly though as I remembered the first time, he’d done this, in this very building. We’d come full circle. He took the stairs two at a time, heading for his room and I shrieked when the slap he laid across my ass echoed down the hallway.

  I had a lot of things I was going to have to work on, fix, or cut off completely with Mackenzie’s, the FBI, my mother, my uncle, this new relationship with Steel, and college. But like Steel said, that could all start tomorrow. I’d take it a day at a time, and I’d work it out, one way or another. I was looking forward to getting my life back on track.

  I laughed as Steel dropped me on the bed. He stood staring down at me as he pulled his shirt off. Letting my eyes roam over him I couldn’t believe how my life had changed in the last year. Some things had dropped me to my knees, to the point I thought I’d never recover. I’d thought I’d forevermore be walking around living a half-life. As Steel laid his body over mine, I realized he was a big reason that I was beginning to feel alive again.

  Chapter 53

  Remi

  The next morning Steel brought me back into the city. I wasn’t looking forward to meeting with my uncle, but it was something that had to be done. We pulled up in front of my house and I jumped off his bike and gave him a quick peck on the lips, mind already on what I needed to do today. “Thanks, I’ll let you know how it goes.” In my hurry, I missed the bemused expression on his face.

  Quickly walking to the front door, I opened it but paused when I realized I didn’t hear his bike start. Glancing over my shoulder I sucked in a startled breath when I found him directly behind me. “What are you doing?” I asked, turning around to face him.

  “You think I’m letting you meet with that piece of shit alone?”

  I frowned at him. “He’s still my uncle, Steel. He’s not going to hurt me.” Steel folded his arms over his chest and raised a brow at me but remained otherwise silent. Not wanting to argue on my front porch I walked inside and grabbed one of those massive arms to pull him in behind me.

  “He’s not going to talk to me if you’re sitting there. I need to figure out what’s going on.” We’d argued about this last night too. Steel didn’t think Uncle Caleb was going to admit to anything and I thought I could at least get him to be honest with me about what happened at the warehouse.

  “Something bigger is going on, Remi, and I know for a fact it has more to do with just you and your uncle. But he is a part of it somehow.”

  “Well, how are we supposed to figure it out if I don’t talk to him? He’ll get suspicious if I come back and act like nothing’s happened. So, I may as well try to get anything out of him that I can.” I wasn’t sure if Uncle Caleb was a part of everything going on, but Steel and the other guys seemed to think he was. It seemed strange to me that I now trusted Steel and his brothers more than the uncle I’d known for my entire life, but they had saved my life. They were also helping me take care of the issues I was having with the FBI.

  I was reasonably sure that Preston would be able to keep me from going to jail, but how long would that take? And what kind of impact would it have on the business? I still hadn’t been able to talk to Uncle Caleb about how the FBI had gotten paperwork that only an employee at Mackenzie’s would have been able to access and hand over, or how the Agent knew I was dating Steel.

  There were too many coincidences piling up and they were all pointing back to my uncle. He was the only one who had an issue with Steel and me and was the only one who stood to benefit from me being out of the picture.

  “Fine. You can come, but I’m talking to him alone.” That seemed to have pacified Steel slightly. I quickly got ready to head into Mackenzie’s and tried to ignore him. That was hard to do since he was sticking to my side like a shadow. I knew he had a protective streak, but he was taking it a bit far since we were standing in my own home.

  You were kidnapped outside your dad’s house. On the front lawn of your childhood home, in broad daylight, the voice in my head helpfully reminded me. Suddenly, having Steel’s bigger than life presence nearby felt comforting.

  Soon we pulled into the parking lot at Mackenzie’s. Uncle Caleb immediately rushed out the doors and wrapped me in a hug. He completely ignored Steel who was watching us intensely. “Thank God, Remi! I was so worried.”

  Pulling back, I searched Uncle Caleb’s face. He didn’t appear to be lying but I wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t, because he was good at it, or because I wasn’t good at spotting it. “Really, Uncle Caleb? If you were so worried why did you run away from the warehouse?” Guilt washed over his features. “Why didn’t you call me last night to check on me?” He held up his hands, stopping my questions.

  “Let’s go inside and talk about this. Not out here.” He shot a disdainful look at Steel. “Thanks for bringing her home.” Wrapping an arm around my shoulders he started to guide me inside. I dug my heels in, pulling us to a stop.

  “Steel is coming with us.” Uncle Caleb’s eyes widened then narrowed. As his mouth opened Steel cut him off.

  “I’m not letting Remi out of my sight.” He moved up beside us and pulled me out from under my uncle’s arm and against his side. My heart fluttered like a butterfly and I tried to shove the girly emotions aside. I could swoon about Steel’s romantic, protective nature later but for now, I needed to concentrate. Uncle Caleb looked silently between us before he gave in.

  “Fine, but we’re still having this conversation inside.” He led us back to the meeting room. After we’d settled down around the table Uncle Caleb sighed. “I’m so sorry, Remi.” He dropped his head into his hands. Any other time I would think he was distraught. But I’d caught a look in his eyes before he’d covered them. The same look I’d seen when Agent Flynn had glanced at him when I’d asked her how she’d gotten that paperwork. My uncle was having a harder time hiding whatever secrets he was holding.

  “I was only concerned about getting you out of there but then the shooting started and I… I panicked.” He lifted his head and met my gaze. How had I never seen this? His eyes weren’t devastated, like his tone of voice implied. Sure, they were crinkled around the corners and he had heavy wrinkles in his forehead, but the look in his eyes was cold, assessing. He was lying to me.

  I glanced over at Steel but like usual, his face gave nothing away. I needed to play this smartly. It wouldn’t help for Uncle Caleb to realize I suspected his involvement in any way. “It’s okay, Uncle Caleb. I was terrified too. I don’t blame you.” I felt more than saw Steel tense up beside me. Ignoring him I continued. “Did you see anyone else leave… when you did?” I almost said ‘when you ran away’ but putting him on the defensive wasn’t going to help.

  “Your mother. She wasn’t too far ahead of me. There was a car there waiting for her. She jumped in and it took off.”

  “Someone picked her up?” Uncle Caleb tensed at my question.

  “I don’t know. Yeah, I guess.” He tried to evade. He hadn’t meant to say that.

  “Did you recognize them?”

  He shook his head then reached forward to hold my hands between his. I had to repress a shudder. His eyes hadn’t changed. Had they always been like this and I had never noticed? Or was he getting desperate? “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was going to look for you this morning if you didn’t come in.”

  It was eleven a.m.; he wasn’t going to look for me. He hadn’t even bothered to call and see if I was alive. “Thanks, Uncle Caleb,” I choked the words out. They wanted to get stuck in my throat. “I’m glad you’re okay too.”

  “I should probably get back to work.” He dropped my hands and stood. “Take the day off. I can handle everything here today.” Concern was shining on his face, but it still hadn’t reached h
is eyes.

  “I think I’ll take you up on that,” I replied even though I wanted to stay. I needed the time to figure out what was going on and I couldn’t do that here. He gave me a smile before leaving. He’d ignored Steel the entire time.

  “He’s lying,” I said as soon as he left the room. Steel glanced over at me in surprise.

  “I’d say so too. Why do you think he is?”

  I chewed on my bottom lip. How was I supposed to explain it? “I could see it in his eyes,” I said lamely. “I know it sounds dumb, but I’ve known him my whole life. Something is different. The only real thing he said was about my mother.”

  “That was my impression too. Who do you think picked her up?”

  I shrugged, “I have no clue. Do you think that there are surveillance cameras at that warehouse?” Steel’s brows went up in surprise. He quickly pulled out his phone.

  “Rat. Did you find anything on that footage from the warehouse?” He listened silently.

  I guess they were already a few steps ahead of me. I wasn’t used to having to cover up illegal activity, but these guys clearly excelled at it. The thought of that didn’t make me as uncomfortable as it once had. It was working out to my benefit for now. Did that make me a bad person? I paused in my musings. Did I care if it did?

  Steel hung up and grabbed my hand, pulling me up as he stood. “Rat has information and Cade wants us to head back to the clubhouse.”

  “Why didn’t he just give you the information over the phone?” I asked, impatiently.

  “Cade wants to talk in person.”

  I thought about arguing but finally conceded and left with him. I waved at Janet as we walked out the door. If I was going to be a part of Steel’s life, the club was going to play a big role in mine. I was going to have to get used to doing things that benefited the group as a whole.

  Climbing on Steel’s bike I wrapped my arms around his waist and thought about that on the ride back to the clubhouse. Somewhere between dodging bullets yesterday and right now, I’d decided I was in this for the long haul. I wanted Steel and that meant accepting everything that came along with him.

  Chapter 54

  Steel

  I strode into the clubhouse; Remi was close behind me. Sitting at the island in the kitchen were Cade, Riggs, Gunnar, Axel, and Rat. Everyone said hello to Remi as we sat down with them.

  “Sorry to bring you all the way out here in the middle of the day,” Cade said, looking at Remi, “but it’s important.”

  She nodded and looked around at everyone. They were all staring at her expectantly. She shot me a deer in the headlights look before replying. “That’s alright. What’s going on?”

  “Steel told you that we’ve had Rat digging into what happened with the Lycans and with the FBI?” Cade shot me a long look after Remi nodded. It was calculating and I knew exactly what he was asking without him needing to verbalize it. He was about to spill some pretty big club secrets in the next few minutes. He needed to know I was completely on board with Remi and that I was planning on making her my old lady. We didn’t share anything with outsiders but the old ladies in the club knew exactly what was going on. It was rare to ask the brothers to keep them in the dark. They needed to know our business in order to keep themselves and our families safe.

  I nodded at Cade, silently answering yes to his question. Remi glanced back and forth between us; her brows knitted together in confusion. Cade put his forearms on the island and leaned forward.

  “We found out a little over a month ago that there were drugs being dealt in our territory.”

  Remi tore her questioning gaze from me and focused on Cade as he started speaking. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I hadn’t told her much of what the club was involved in yet and this would give me an opportunity to see how she reacted.

  “After kids started getting hospitalized, we realized those drugs were being laced with Fentanyl. We also found out that it was the Lycans who were dealing them. They wanted to make it look like our club was responsible.”

  Remi absorbed that for a moment before she spoke. “So… you do deal drugs. Just not the drugs laced with Fentanyl?”

  Cade grunted in affirmation. Riggs clarified, “We only sell clean drugs.”

  Remi pursed her lips and considered his words. “Okay. What does this have to do with me?”

  This time it was Rat who spoke up. “While digging around, trying to figure out how to pin the stolen car parts on someone else I found out that Mackenzie’s has been sending a truck down to the Mexico/US border once a month. Of course, there is nothing on the official manifest about the shipments. Knowing our problems with the Lycans, and the fact that we still don’t know where they’re getting those drugs from, I took a guess. Sure enough, Mackenzie’s Trucking has been transporting cocaine from Laredo for the Guzman Cartel and delivering it to the Lycans.”

  Remi gasped then clapped a hand over her mouth. She looked at me, eyes huge. “I had no idea.”

  “Of course you didn’t, Rem,” Riggs said soothingly before I could say anything. “None of us thought you had anything to do with it. You’re not exactly the criminal type.” Everyone chuckled at that, including me

  Remi glared around the table. “Then who is involved? How long has this been happening? How could I not have known?” She groaned the last question and put her head in her hands. I put my hand on her back and rubbed comfortingly, motioning to Rat with the other, to answer her questions.

  “It’s been going on since your dad got sick,” he said apologetically.

  Remi’s head shot up. “Uncle Caleb,” she said, her voice was as dark as the look on her face.

  “Yes, and a couple of your drivers.”

  “How did you find all of this out?”

  Rat flinched, his mouth opened and closed a few times and he looked at me in a panic.

  “He went through the electronic files at Mackenzie’s,” I answered for him. Remi looked shell shocked. I left out that he’d hacked the security cameras at the Laredo Port of Entry and the Homeland Security internal systems.

  “But I have a firewall system, or something. I don’t remember what the guy called it exactly.”

  I smiled reassuringly at her. “There isn’t much that can keep Rat out.” She looked over at him and he shrugged sheepishly.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “We’ll talk about that later.” I had to bite my lip to hold in my laughter. Rat’s face went sheet white at her declaration. “How did my uncle get involved with a cartel?” I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. I was ready to have all of this be over and done with, for her sake. If anyone deserved a break, it was Remi.

  “Actually, I think he’s just a middleman,” Rat’s voice cracked and he cleared it before continuing. “I’m sure he’s working with someone else. They’re the person with the connections to the cartel and the Lycans. I haven’t been able to figure out who though.”

  I sat up straighter at that and let my hand fall from Remi’s back. If Rat wasn’t able to find out who Caleb was working with, they had to have a lot of resources. Cade, Riggs, and I all exchanged glances. Every time we seemed to catch a break in this mystery, something else got thrown in and we had to start back at square one.

  “That’s not all…” Rat ran a hand down his face. Anyone could see he was miserable having to deliver this news to Remi. “Your uncle has been embezzling from your company, for years. Like, since before your dad died. Your accountant had to be covering it up for him. They would have known, having access to all your accounts.”

  Remi closed her eyes and her hands clenched into fists on top of the counter. “Thank you for telling me. All of it, thank you for everything, Rat.” She shot him a warm smile. The depressed look melted off his face. “I’d rather know and fix it than be in the dark.”

  “There’s good news too!” Now he was downright excited. Gunnar grinned at me from across the table.

  This should be good if it’s got both of them this excited. Th
e look on Remi’s face was pure resignation. I could tell she didn’t want to hear much more news today.

  “With everything I found I was able to link all the stolen car parts to the Lycans, and the shipping of them on your uncle,” Rat quickly explained. “Hopefully you don’t mind…” he hesitated. “I already set it up so that the FBI would ‘find the evidence’ themselves.”

  “Seriously?” My brows shot up. “None of it will blow back on Remi? Or the club?”

  “Nope,” Rat said smugly. “And I made it just hard enough to find that they won’t suspect that the evidence was planted. The guy going through the files should find it somewhere between the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.” He met Remi’s gaze again. “I won’t be able to do anything about the embezzling issue. Bringing that up will cause too many questions with the FBI. It might make them take a closer look at you. So, I’m afraid those years of money are lost to you. But, if it’s any consolation, your uncle and those drivers will be going to prison and they’re going to have an MC and a cartel pissed off at them.”

  “I really don’t know how to thank you all.” Remi folded her hands together. “Not only for getting me out of trouble with the FBI…”

  “Well, my idiot brother sort of got you into that, to begin with,” Riggs joked and shot me a grin. I flipped him off.

  Remi laughed and continued. “That’s true. But still, it means a lot to me. Plus, you found out it was my uncle doing all of this and that he was stealing from my dad. I just…” Her voice sounded watery and now everyone looked distinctly uncomfortable. Luckily, she pulled herself together because Axel looked like he was about to throw himself out of the window to escape her tears. “It just means a lot that you went to so much trouble to help me.”

  “We’re family. It’s what we do for each other,” Axel’s voice was gruff, and he was looking at a spot above her head.

  “You don’t even know me.”