Chapter 1

CHAPTERONE

Jane Morgan.

There she was.

Only she was no longer Jane Morgan, she was now Calypso Gardner. Before that she’d been Harley Jenkins. And before that, she was Corinne Lawrence—the name she’d been given at birth.

The woman had not only changed her name, but she’d bleached her hair blonde and cut it to her shoulders. The length suited her, but her natural dark hair looked better against her pale complexion.

Either way, the woman was a knockout—but dark as she was fucking gorgeous.

A knockout sitting on a stool at a bar alone.

That made my play a no-brainer.

I made my way across the crowded tiki lounge and sat on the stool right next to hers even though there were half a dozen empties that wouldn’t put me in her space.

Her head turned, presumably to see who’d sat next to her.

I opened my mouth to say something but immediately closed it.

Spectacular green eyes full of fear locked with mine. Jane’s body swung back, and her lips parted. Lips that were undoubtedly shiny from gloss, but that would look better if they were wet from my kiss. Her now-tanned-from-the-Hawaiian-sun cheeks colored pink, taking her beauty from gorgeous to leaving a man speechless.

This woman was the sister of a man I despised.

A piece of shit I was going to help put in jail.

She was also the woman who was going to help me do just that.

That was, if I didn’t drown in those extraordinary eyes first.

Her shoulders slumped and she whispered, “You found me.”

Indeed I had.

After months of looking.

“You know who I am?” I asked.

“Yes, Mr. Wright, I know who you are.”

I took in her stylish sundress, the dangling earrings, the thin silver chain around her neck, all the way down to her sandaled feet. Nothing about her said biker bitch; not the way she dressed, not her understated makeup, not her posture, not the way she spoke. Yet her brother, Zeus was the president of the Horsemen MC.

Jane came out of her slump, squared her shoulders, and asked, “Why are you here?”

“Why am I here?” I repeated.

“Yes, Mr. Wright, that’s what I asked.”

I could get down with her calling me Mr. Wright in her sweet, prim, sexy voice while I was balls deep inside of her and she was panting my name. But right then when it was laced with condescension it pissed me off.

“Did you forget?” I returned.

“Forget what?”

“You called us,” I reminded her.

A few months back, Jane Morgan had called the Takeback office asking to speak to my boss, Wilson McCray. We’d been in the middle of a situation, therefore unable to take the call. By the time Wilson had returned Jane’s call, her number was disconnected. I’d gone by her place to find it still fully furnished, but she was nowhere to be found. A quick check showed she hadn’t used her credit cards or bank account since she’d made the call. And with her brother being who he was, that sent up red flags.

“I don’t understand how a phone call leads to you flying across the Pacific to track me down.”

“You don’t?”

Before Jane could answer, the bartender stopped in front of us and tipped his chin.

“Nothing for me,” I told him before he could ask for my drink order. I glanced at Jane’s empty glass. “Do you need a refill?”

“No thank you. Just the check, please.”

I watched as she lifted a small purse off of her lap, unzipped the clutch, and pulled out a credit card.

I snatched the card before she could hand it to the bartender and checked the name.

Calypso Gardner.

New identity. New credit card. New bank account in her fake name. That didn’t come cheap, at least not good documentation that would hold up under heavy scrutiny. Which meant, she’d paid a fortune, something she couldn’t have afforded according to Jane Morgan’s bank accounts.

“Hey,” she snapped.

“Zeus pay for that?” I asked and placed the card on the bar.

The woman flinched, actually flinched at the mention of her brother.

What she didn’t do was answer.

“Why are you here?” She went back to her earlier question.

I waited for the bartender to place Jane’s bill in front of her, waited even longer while she looked it over, then pushed her card toward the man.

As soon as he walked away I educated her on something I’d assume she was already well-versed in but it seemed she wanted to play dumb.

“When women connected to your brother go missing we pay attention. When that woman contacted us right before she goes missing, we not only take notice, we go looking for her. And we take notice because your brother is a morally bankrupt, piece of shit who treats women like property that can be rented out or sold.”

That got me another flinch.

What the fuck?

She had to know what her brother was into or at the bare minimum what he was capable of.

When she didn’t say anything I prompted, “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Now are you going to explain why you called then disappeared?”

“I’d rather not.”

That wasn’t the response I was looking for but it was at least honest.

The bartender was back, sliding her fake-name credit card and receipt in front of her. She took her time spelling out Calypso Gardner is pretty, scrolling letters and I wondered if that was to buy her time or if she was concentrating on remembering not to sign Jane Morgan—which was not the name she was born with but the name she’d used the longest.

Why so many name changes?

Who was she hiding from?

I waited for her to put her card back into the ridiculously small purse before I pushed for an answer knowing my next move wouldn’t win me any favors.

“You know protecting him makes you just as guilty as he is.”

“Protecting who?”

I felt my jaw clench.

“Zeus,” I bit out.

“I’m not protecting Trevor. I have nothing to do with his business.”

I didn’t believe that.

“When you called you told Mia that Zeus told you to call us.”

“I did.”

Christ, this was like pulling teeth. If I didn’t know any better I’d think the woman worked in law but I knew she’d been an office manager for a fence company for the last few years.

“Why did he tell you to call us?”

“He thought Takeback would help me but after I made the call, I thought about it, and realized there was no way Wilson would help the sister of the man who he’s trying to put down.”

Interesting.

“So you know Takeback’s actively investigating your brother but you’re not involved in his business.”

Jane’s eyes went from alert and darting around the mostly empty bar area to narrowed on me in a flash.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You can’t live in Coeur d’Alene and not know Wilson McCray has made it his personal mission to dismantle the Horsemen and with that take down my brother.”

That might be true but I wasn’t buying it.

“Yet he thought a man who thinks he’s a piece of shit would help his sister, why’s that?”

“Because Trevor thinks that Wilson’s a good man who would help a woman whose father has promised her as payment, despite the issues between them,” she hissed, and I tucked away that information.

Now it was my turn to flinch.

“What the fuck?” I raged. “Your father promised you as payment? Not that it matters but what the hell are you supposed to be payment for?”

“You’re right, it doesn’t matter. None of it does. I’m here and he hasn’t found me yet so it’s all good.”

That was naïve as shit. If I could find her, someone else could as well.

“Hate to break it you, Jane, but your man in Oregon gave you up and all it cost me was five grand.”

Her lips parted and brows pinched.

“Asshole,” she breathed.

She got that right.

“So, it matters—all of it. And as much as it pains me—and I mean my gut is turning as I say this—but your brother’s right. Wilson is a good man, and if you’d waited a day for him to call you back you could’ve saved yourself a fuckton of cash on that new identity that’s now worthless and we would’ve gotten you someplace safe.”

Her gaze slid away and her posture slumped back to defeated.

“Actually, nothing matters anymore,” she rasped and stood. “This was always going to end this way.”

Everything about Jane Morgan screamed beaten down and dejected. She was a complex riddle; nothing about her made sense. What was worse, everything about the woman called to me—the sister of a man I was going to help put in prison.