Coal (Regulators MC 3)

Both women laugh at me.

“Coal doesn’t have a woman … or a kid,” Morgan says between her chuckles.

“I saw him with them today.”

“Paisley, there are some”—Morgan pauses—“quirks to Coal. He doesn’t have a woman. He refuses to tie himself to someone like that.”

Desirae and I both look at the woman who is a close friend to us, surprised that she knows so much about any man other than Ice. Morgan isn’t overly social. She is organized and likes her life exactly how it is.

Desirae’s shock is what has me more surprised. Since Morgan’s man is Ice, the president of the MC Hammer rides with, the two of them are together more than me. They don’t say much about their men or the club, other than they are in love and happy.

“Look,” Morgan explains, “when my sister Madyson went missing, Ice and the Regulators put everything into finding her. When she was found … Well, we stayed with Coal for a bit.”

“You, like, lived with him?” I can’t help the shock on my face. “I’ve met your man, Morgan; I don’t see that sitting well with him.”

“It was a complicated time. Anyhow, one thing I learned about Coal, he umm …” She hesitates, which isn’t like Morgan.

“He what?” I screech, feeling like this is some important piece to the puzzle of the man who has interrupted my every thought since I hit him.

She looks at Des, then me, then laughs. “I don’t know how to say this except the way it was said to me.”

Des joins Morgan in the fit of laughter, while I sit here, lost.

“I can only imagine what you’ve been told.”

Des continues to laugh.

“Okay, so Coal, he umm …” She composes herself. “He only fucks pussy he pays for.”

“What!” I can’t believe my ears. “What am I supposed to take from that?”

“He doesn’t have a woman. He only has sex with prostitutes,” Morgan explains honestly with sadness in her eyes. “He’s a really good guy. Something had to happen to make him so jaded. I don’t know what. Brett doesn’t say anything, except to accept the men as they are, so I do.”

My mind races, wondering what scarred the man so deeply that he feels he can’t have real love and commitment in his life.

All thoughts of cookies and soaps disappear as I decide the best way I can fix the karmic power between us is to find out what changed Coal and how to reverse his stance on life and love.

It will take some time, but for him, I somehow think it will be worth every second.

Chapter Four

~Coal~

I sit in Ice’s office so we can go over the club’s business reports together. It’s our once a week meeting where we go over the financials and any issues there might be between the different strip joints we own.

We are halfway into what needs to be looked over when Screech pops his head into Ice’s office.

“I know you’re busy, Prez, but you’re gonna want to hear this shit that just came across the police channel.”

I look from Screech to Ice and raise my eyebrows. It’s unlike Screech to interrupt one of our meetings, so it must be important.

Ice waves him into the room, and we watch as Screech walks in. I note that his baggy clothes seem looser than they normally are. Has the man lost weight?

I don’t have time to ask because our intel man launches right in on his information.

“About thirty minutes ago, a body was found over in Highland Oaks Park.”

“Isn’t that a dog park?” I interrupt.

Screech nods. “Thing is, they couldn’t exactly tell it was a body at first.”

Looking confused, Ice asks, “Why the hell not? You would think the easy part of homicide’s job is to tell if a body is dead or not.”

Screech shakes his head. “It’s not like that, boss. They had a hard time identifying it as a body, because it’s not a fucking body anymore.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I ask. Really, my tolerance for beating around the bush is non-existent on a good day. Today is not a good day. I’m ready to shake Screech to just break down what’s going on so we can figure out what the fuck any of this has to do with the Regulators.

Crossing his arms, Screech leans forward and says in a low tone so only we can hear, “What the police actually found was a pile of what looked like fresh canned dog food and a separate pile of bones.”

“Holy fuck. Tell me you’re kidding,” I demand, completely disgusted with the ramifications.

He shakes his head again. “Sure as shit ain’t a laughing matter, man. The only reason they figured out it was the remains of the human body is because somebody’s dog choked on one of the victim’s teeth and coughed it up. Little old lady damn near had a heart attack when she saw her precious little Shih Tzu do that. Her grandson heard her screaming and called the cops.”