Dex saw it too and didn’t think I was crazy?
He handed over a card with a name and address.
“What’s Crystal Ball?” The address was way the fuck down in the city of Empire. Not sure how he expected me to find my way there.
“Club owned by my MC. Come down and see me. I’ll find you some work.”
“Uh,” I hesitated and considered handing the card back. “Whatever the job is, it has to be legal, and I have to get it approved by my caseworker. Plus, I have no way to get there.”
He stared at me for a second. “You always such a rule-follower, Roman?”
“No, but I’m not really in a position to do anything about it unless I want to get moved to another home, which I’d rather avoid.”
He nodded as if he approved of my answer. “You’re awfully level-headed for your age.”
“Sometimes.”
“Give me a time to come up with another lead. In the meantime do me a favor.”
Finally, the reason he came to see me. I lifted my chin and waited for him to continue.
“Look out for Juliet. Her uncle’s nastier than ever. Make sure everything’s okay there. If it’s not let me know and I’ll handle him.”
“I noticed he’s a prick. You think he’d hurt her?”
“Don’t know. Not sure she’d tell me if he did.”
“But you think she’ll tell me?”
“If she trusts you.”
He picked his helmet up off the seat of his bike and strapped it on.
“Wait,” I said. “When’s her birthday?” It had been bugging me all night that I didn’t know.
Dex smirked and gave me the date which was three weeks from today. That made her younger than me by about eight months.
“My cell’s on the back of that card,” he said. “Call me if she needs anything.”
* * *
Cards of Love: Knight of Swords is available now. Order it here.
Note From Autumn
After that epilogue, there’s no need for a preview of Zero Tolerance, right? You can however, pre-order it by going here.
As promised, you finally know who both Grace and Chance are. YAY!
Now I can finally tell you how this Rock/Teller storyline came to be.
As I was finishing up More Than Miles, Mr. Lake and I were discussing “the baby book” as I also referred to After Burn at the time. I knew I wanted to bring Inga back one more time. Maybe a paternity issue…and boom! Mr. Lake said, “What if Rock is Teller’s father?”
I immediately said, “No that’s dumb. He’s not old enough to be Teller’s dad.”
But the seed was planted.
I ran back and looked at my timeline and all the birthdates of my characters and realized, yes, Rock could be Teller’s father. You’d be surprised how many male celebrities brag about losing their virginity at a young age—I started my research there. I actually wrote the scene in Kickstart my Heart where Rock hits on Mallory, long before I finished After Burn/After Glow. I plan to release Kickstart in chapters through my newsletter very soon, so definitely check that out for a glimpse of a young, cocksure Rock!
So back to Teller’s paternity.
Hadn’t Wrath been cracking mini-me jokes about Teller and Rock for years? Didn’t the guys, especially the younger guys (Murphy and Teller) look up to Rock like a father?
I really, really warmed up to the idea.
After I knew this fact about Teller and Rock, it made more sense to write Teller’s story next. Plus, after all the things Teller went through in More Than Miles and his heartbreaking scene in White Knuckles, I needed to give Teller his happily ever after. Plus, I just loved Charlotte so damn much, I wanted to bring her into the MC. So those of you who have been waiting all this time for Z’s book, you can blame Teller, and of course, Mr. Lake.
I could’ve gotten bogged down in those pesky DNA-paternity testing details, but um, yeah, I chose not to. So, once again, I bent reality to suit the needs of my fictional world, and I don’t apologize for it. You’re here for the romance, not the science, right?
I know a lot of my readers were really speculating that Chance was Inga’s son. And I guess that might have made sense and I could have had fun with that, but in my heart, I’ve always known Chance was Lilly’s. You have no idea how proud of myself I am for not letting that slip, no matter how many sneaky ways some of my dear readers tried to pry it out of me!
I also had the epilogues in Beyond Reason wouldn’t have made a lot of sense if Chance was Inga’s son. So, we still have no idea who the father of Inga’s child is. Sorry, Inga!
While I don’t think the cast of characters for After Glow was as big as After Burn, I had a lot of fun hanging out with Chaser again. I hope you enjoyed catching up with Liam, Keegan, and Jake from Bullets & Bonfires and Warnings & Wildfires too!
What does the future hold?
Well, Z’s story, obviously. I’m feverishly working to finish that. Fair warning: I think it will be two books. It’s only fair since Z has waited this long! Of course now that I’ve said that, it probably won’t be. Oh, the joy of being a bad planner!
After Z…well, Jake’s book, Matches & Misfires is very much on my mind. Cards of Love: Knight of Swords changed some things, so I’m not sure how to finish Vapor’s book now, even though I really want to. Murphy deserves his wedding book. I have this certain fighter whose story I want to tell (you met him in Warnings & Wildfires.) And damn, I think it’s time for Grinder to be released from prison and find his HEA too. I even think I know who he’ll end up with. We’ll see who ends up winning!
I sure wish I could write as fast as the ideas come to me.
Love and Gratitude,
Autumn