King of Diamonds (Desert Sons MC Book 3) (20 page)

“I will let the owner know as soon as we hang up.”

“I’ve got to go, Marshall. There is a drug store around the corner. I need to go get some bandages and pain meds for Jack. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know how he’s doing.”

“Please do that.”

***

Over the next three days, they spent most of their time in their room as Tina helped nurse Jack back to health. They didn’t make love, though they spent a lot of time lying in the bed, wrapped in each other’s arms.

By the fourth day Jack’s voice was almost back to normal and, except for his sore knee, he was feeling much better. Tina had called Marshall faithfully each evening and given him a status report.

The owner of the Harley dealership where Seth and Marshall worked had called in an outside auditing firm and found that Seth had been either over-reporting sales or under-reporting income for years. He had embezzled over ten million dollars, though it was unclear where the money had gone. He hadn’t returned, but if he did, there was an arrest warrant with his name on it waiting for him.

They decided to stay one more night in Baton Rouge and leave early the next morning for Jacksonville, Florida. They spent the afternoon replacing Jack’s ruined phone and cleaning the inside of the truck to get the Louisiana mud off the seats. For the first time since their slugfest in the swap, they made love that night.

***

They pulled out of Baton Rouge early the next morning and drove straight through to Jacksonville, where they stopped for the night. That left them a short two-hour drive the next day to reach Savannah.

“What happens after we drop the truck tomorrow?” Tina asked as they cuddled in the sleeper. She was relaxed and at peace. She and Jack had made love beautifully and she was still basking in the afterglow.

“We’ll find someplace to live,” he said as he slowly caressed her back.

“Any idea where?”

“Any place you like. Where do you
want
to live?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care as long as you are there.”

Jack smiled. “Same here. Do you want to live in a city or more out in the country?”

“I think a big town or small city. Maybe the size of Roswell.”

“Lots of places like that.”

“Yes. But not too far north. I don’t want to be cold all the time.”

Jack grinned. “You’ll get no argument from me on that.”

“I love you, Colt,” she said. They had made an effort all day to use only their new names so they could get used to them.

“And I love you Jac,” Jack replied.

Tina sighed in perfect contentment and wiggled in a little tighter. She smiled as she closed her eyes, feeling warm, content and comfortable, and waited for the darkness of sleep to take her.

***

“This looks like the place,” Jack said as the truck grumbled to a stop outside of a building with
TransAtlantic Intermodal
emblazoned over the door.

Tina flicked the card Rodchenko had given them with her finger. “I guess we just go in and ask for this Leslie Almaredy?”

“I guess,” Jack said as he set the brakes with a hiss. “You go in and see what you can find out, and I will start getting our car and the bikes unloaded.”

Jack didn’t even have the Audi unhooked, much less unloaded, before Tina returned. “She said to take the truck here so they can they can containerize the cars.”

Jack looked at the address on the card Tina handed him. “Shit. Okay. I guess we’ll leave the bikes in the parking lot and you can follow in the car. Then we’ll come back for the bikes. Did Leslie say how far away this was?”

“Just down at the docks. A couple of miles, she said.”

“That’s not so bad,” Jack said as he pulled the lever to lower the ramp.

***

“Now what?” Tina asked as they sat down in the Audi. The truck had been delivered and their obligation to Goremykin was now complete.

“Now we find a place to store the hogs until we find someplace to settle.”

“I was thinking the mountains. Someplace green,” Tina said.

“Where are you thinking?” Jack asked as he tiptoed the car through the busy dock area.

“Tennessee or North Carolina, maybe?”

Jack grinned. “Sure. Why not? It’s a place to start anyway.”

They found a place for lunch, and while they ate, Jack called around until he found a storage facility to store the bikes. It took them the better part of the rest of the afternoon to get the bikes safely secured, so they decided to wait until the next morning to leave for their grand adventure.

They checked into an upscale motel before they ventured out on a walking tour of Savannah. Together they strolled through the old part of town before they stopped for a nice dinner at a restaurant that caught their fancy. After dinner they continued their walk in the cooling night air before they returned to their motel. There they made love, first slowly and then again much harder and faster, until they both were panting and exhausted.

***

Jack and Tina spent the next four weeks prowling through Northern South Carolina and Georgia, Western North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee. They went where they wanted, when they wanted, and stopped in any town that caught their fancy. They laughed and loved as they traveled, and as the miles and days passed, their bond continued to grow and strengthen.

Two months after she had tried to steal Jack’s motorcycle, Tina was hopelessly in love and could no longer conceive of living without Jack in her life.

Jack, for his part, was consumed with his feelings for Tina. She had completely taken his heart and the pain and guilt he once carried was nothing but a fading memory.

“What do you think?” Jack asked as they sat in a coffee shop in Boone, North Carolina. It was a bright, crisp, winter day, with just enough nip in the air to make walking snuggled in close together a delightful treat.

“I like it. It is so beautiful here.”

“Yes it is,” Jack said, holding her gaze until she blushed and looked away.

“I mean the scenery.”

“So do I,” he said, his stare unwavering.

“Oh, would you stop it!” she scolded as her smile grew even wider.

“Shall we pop into a reality office and see what they have to offer?”

“Yes, let’s. But first, I want to finish this latte.”

Jack grinned into his own cup. Tina was developing a taste for the finer things in life. Good food, good wine, good beer, and good coffee… and that was just fine by him.

***

When they tumbled into bed that night they were in high spirits. They had seen a house they both loved. It was small and tucked out of the way on the side of a mountain, but its views were stunning. The next day they would look to see what business opportunities may be in the area. If things worked out, they may have found their new home.

EPILOGUE

Tina turned slowly in their house. It was two days before Christmas and their furniture had just been delivered. They had closed on the small cottage outside of Boone yesterday, and tonight they would spend their first night in their new home. The thirteen hundred square foot home, a former vacation destination of doctor and his wife from Raleigh, was perched on the side of a mountain with a breathtaking view into the valley below from the two-story glass wall. The log home was a temple to wood, stone, glass, and light… and Tina loved it.

When the realtor had shown them the house, Tina had fallen in love with it. The house had a single, huge open room on the bottom floor that contained the living room, dining room, and kitchen, with a bath and laundry room tucked in behind. Upstairs was a loft bedroom and bath that looked out over the first floor and, more importantly, out of the windows to the valley below. A giant stone fireplace in the center of the glass rose all the way to the peak of the vaulted roof and completed the perfect atmosphere for making love. That was something she and Jack were doing that evening, whether he knew it or not.

She heard the garage door rumble up and she dashed to the back of the house to wait for Jack. As he entered the laundry room she threw herself into his arms and kissed him passionately.

“The furniture came!”

“I see,” he said with a grin as he stepped into the kitchen. “Our first night in
our
home.”

“Did you get what you were looking for?” she asked. Jack had left an hour before, leaving her at home to wait for the furniture, while he went to town to pick something up. What it
was
, he wouldn’t tell her.

“I did.”

“Where is it?”

Jack’s grin grew even wider as he brought his hand out from behind his back. In it was a small, black box. Tina felt her heart thudding in her chest as he cracked the box open to reveal a diamond ring.

“It’s the only thing this house needs to make it perfect. Jacqueline Marie Wendell, will you marry me?”

Tina couldn’t hold her tears, the first tears she had shed since Louisiana, as she took Jack into her arms and exclaimed, “
Yes!
”