Beth's Absolution: A small town, opposites attract, suspense novel (Twisted Willow), page 1
Beth's Absolution
Maria Secoy
All Write Well
Copyright © 2023 by Maria Secoy
All rights reserved. v.1
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
eBook Edition ISBN-13: 978-1-961330-02-3
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-961330-03-0
Cover design by Elijah Toten.
Also By Maria
Looking for more love and adventure in Twisted Willow? Check out:
Gloria's Gumption
Available on Amazon & KU.
A killer is circling closer, but Gloria refuses to hide away.
Gloria and Collin will have to set aside their difference, and keep their clothes on, long enough to find the killer before Gloria becomes the next victim.
This action-packed, serial killer thriller will have you cheering on Gloria and Collin even while the killer zeros in on the next target.
According to Cora
Available on Amazon & KU.
A love that sees through the past to shine a light on the future is a love worth killing for.
When Cora's past catches up with her and reveals secrets that strike at Mac's anger issues, the two of them will need to trust each other to survive.
This action-packed, romantic suspense features a survivor determined to live life to the fullest and man so plagued by rage, he believes the world is better without him. Join Cora and Mac as they rediscover trust and hope with each other.
Letting in Liz
Coming November 2023 to Amazon & KU!
Liz has always loved Brandon, but he knows she won't forgive him for what he's done.
Liz and Brandon have loved each other since childhood, but a miscalculation by Brandon leads to a crime he can't undo. When she finds him injured in the middle of a winter storm, it will take a holiday miracle for their love to blossom.
This standalone novella has plenty of steam but no cheating. Liz & Brandon get their HEA despite his social struggles and her refusal to stay out of his business. Then again, his quirks and her nosiness might be the key their future.
***
To read more about life hiking along the Appalachian Trail, be sure to check out Maria's On-Trail Love Adventures:
Alongside Lucy and Standing by Stephanie
Available through Amazon & KU or purchase a signed paperback through my author website https://www.mariasecoywriter.com/home
Dedicated to my husband, Bryan.
I say, "I want to hike the AT," and he buys me a sleeping bag.
I say, "Let's quit our jobs and move to the mountains," and he starts looking for housing.
It doesn't matter if we're packing trees full of fireworks or driving 5000 miles to camp our way through a bunch of state parks, my husband is up for all the adventures!
His heart and courage are huge. His drama is small. His love is strong and steady.
Contents
1. CHAPTER 1
2. CHAPTER 2
3. CHAPTER 3
4. CHAPTER 4
5. CHAPTER 5
6. CHAPTER 6
7. CHAPTER 7
8. CHAPTER 8
9. CHAPTER 9
10. CHAPTER 10
11. CHAPTER 11
12. CHAPTER 12
13. CHAPTER 13
14. CHAPTER 14
15. CHAPTER 15
16. CHAPTER 16
17. EPILOGUE
Also By Maria
Acknowledgments
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
Beth
Some people will tell you that home is where the heart is. Others suggest it’s more about the people you’re with. To Beth, home was a giant pile of bullshit assholes who wanted a woman to serve them. But then, Beth’s home was an apartment a few blocks from the clubhouse of an outlaw motorcycle club. Their headquarters was where she spent most of her time though. Even as an adult, her job was to tend the bar there for all the club members.
“Your dad’s here,” Cameron said as he downed his shot and motioned toward the door with his eyes.
“Shit,” Beth muttered under her breath as she squeezed the liquor bottle in her hand. This was not what she fucking needed right now. It was early afternoon, but the biker club was already shifting from daytime drudgery to evening activity. Ledgers were updated and stored, errands were wrapping up, and plans for the night were made over early drinks.
She turned slowly and watched her father stride across the room with her brother hot on his heels. The whole club went quiet as everyone turned and nodded, showing their respect for Phil Harper, her father. He’d been the president of this outlaw motorcycle club since before she was born. Apparently, it was the announcement of her mother’s pregnancy that made him decide it was time to remove their previous leader. Rumor had it, her dad made a road trip through their entire territory to spread pieces of the body up and down the eastern seaboard as his way of announcing his new leadership.
Matt, her older brother and the vice president, might be the only person she disliked more than her father. At least she respected her father’s intelligence and leadership. Her brother was just plain stupid, but he’d take a bullet for the great Phil Harper––if there were anyone watching. If no one else was around, Beth gave it even odds that Matt would be the one pulling the trigger. She doubted he was smart enough to understand the true value of loyalty.
Beth poured another drink for Jake. He was playing possum and hoping everyone important forgot he was sitting there. For every leader, a strong crew needed loyal followers, and Jake fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, outlaw bikers were not known for treating people like him well.
As soon as Jake nodded his thanks, Beth stepped back to return the bottle of Jack to the self. Along the way, she noticed her dad was wearing a suit instead of his usual jeans, T-shirt, and leather cut. Her eyes rolled back in her head of their own accord. Phil must be playing the role of legit, presentable businessman today. It was something he did on occasion to keep the locals from bothering them too much.
“Hey, Prez,” Cameron said as Phil stepped up to the bar beside him.
“Cameron,” Phil answered before shifting his gaze to Beth. “Beth, I heard you had a visitor last night.”
Fuck. This is exactly why Beth was hoping to avoid seeing him today. “Yeah, some pig tried to ask me about recent trips and travels.”
He leaned across the bar toward her. “And did you discuss the matter with him?”
The fact that Phil questioned her loyalty while Matt stood beside him and smirked made her wish for a way to pull out the shotgun from under the ice bin and go nuts on the entire place—or at least on her blood relations.
“Of course!” Beth pasted on the fakest smile she could muster and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I told him all about the warehouse in Goochland and how it was just full of goodies.” Beth’s hip was sticking out so far from the rest of her body that she thought it could break apart at any moment, but if Phil thought she would sell out the club, who was she to deny him.
“You’re such a sassy little shit. Someday, somebody’s going to make you an old lady and teach you how to act right.” Dad was determined to find a biker strong enough to tame Beth, bring her to heel, and force her to sign a marriage license.
Beth would rather learn to eat glass and go run away with the circus. She was careful to turn away from Phil and make eye contact with Cameron before rolling her eyes and asking with dripping sarcasm, “Can I get you a drink, Dad?”
“Not now. I’ve got real work to do. I just wanted to be clear about one thing.” Phil waited for Beth to turn back toward him. Once he had her full attention, he raised his voice loud enough for everyone in the clubhouse to hear him. “If I hear so much as a rumor about anyone breathing anything more than oinking noises in the directions of any pigs, they will end up being the last sounds your living body ever makes.”
He never broke eye contact with Beth, but every biker in the place nodded their agreement. Some even mumbled polite, “Yes, sirs.”
Then he and Matt gave Beth one last glare before they both continued through the club and down the hall to Phil’s office.
“Have a great afternoon, Prez,” Cameron said, but he didn’t get a response.
“Pull your head out of your ass,” Matt snarled at Beth as he stuck close to their dad’s coattails.
“Shit,” she whispered under her breath as Jake smacked his glass down on the bar top. It pulled her attention to him, so he offered Beth a polite smile before pointing at his glass to indicate he’d like another.
“Just coke this time,” he said softly once she was close enough. “I get the feeling this is not going to be a day I want to be stumbling drunk.”
&
nbsp; “You going home to Sarah?” Beth asked him, referring to his wife. He’d been trying to make dinner at home a priority, even if he had club business that required his attention later that night.
Jake’s face cracked into a giant grin. “Hell, yeah!” He tipped his glass of soda in her direction as a solute. Once he’d taken a sip, he added, “You should try finding yourself a good man, Beth. Getting laid regularly does wonderful things for a person’s disposition. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for you to settle down. Maybe don’t follow your dad’s advice and become an old lady, but meeting someone legit and going clean could be good for you.”
Just then, Matt came back out from Phil’s office and looked around with his phone in his hand. “Craig, we’ve gotta go. Business calls.” But he didn’t move toward the front door. Matt’s eyes continued to scan the bar before landing on Cameron. “We need backup. Cameron, you’re with us.”
Beth watched the color drain from Cameron’s face before he nodded, finished his drink, and stood up from his barstool.
Son of a bitch. Beth had been fighting hard to keep Cameron out of the worst of the club’s shit. Yeah, he was a fully patched member, so she couldn’t keep him out of all of it, but she tried to at least keep him away from the deals with buyers. Letting him go with Craig and Matt would be like dropping a lamb into a den full of hangry wolves. Those two assholes would sacrifice Cameron in a heartbeat.
Thinking fast, she shuffled over to Jake and leaned close to him to ask, “Could you watch the bar for a while?”
He studied her face for a minute but eventually agreed. “Yeah, but you gotta be careful. Sarah likes you.” As he stepped around the end of the bar and passed behind her to take her place, Beth felt him slide a gun into the back of her waistband. She had been wondering if Sarah was enough to push Jake to step back from the dirtier business of the club. Choosing to tend bar while arming Beth to go watch Cameron’s back pretty much confirmed that thinking. But honestly, good for him. Beth couldn’t help thinking the whole club would be better off focusing more on legit business and less on running guns.
Then her phone pinged as Cameron connected his GPS location to the device. It wouldn’t perfectly update in real time, but it would ping every five to ten minutes. It was enough that she didn’t need to worry about following the three of them. Beth could just move in the same general direction and end up at the same place they did.
When a club girl dropped off a very tiny Cameron at the clubhouse with a note saying the baby’s father should deal with it, Beth had been the one to take him under her wing. Phil had taken one look at the baby and announced that it didn’t matter who the father was, the club would be raising the tot. Luckily for Cameron, by the time he was five, he was a miniature version of Craig. Beth wasn’t sure if they’d ever done a blood test, but with their distinctively rich, bronze skin and almond-shaped eyes, it would be tough to argue that their matching, unique blend of Native American Indian and Asian features was a coincidence.
She grabbed her purse and headed outside. She and Cameron might have both grown up, but they were still closer than most siblings. He’d been the one to help her with maintenance on her F150 when she’d refused to let anyone who disrespected her to touch the thing. That decree had ruled out the majority of club members, and they’d taken to viewing her work on it as an entertaining pastime. Cameron was a strong enough mechanic to quietly help her out without making her look or feel like an idiot. That was the thing with the two of them; they always watched each other’s backs. Plus, the hard work had paid off. Her truck might be ten years old and have a hundred thousand miles on it, but when she turned the ignition, it didn’t even hesitate.
Just as she pulled out of the parking lot and had to decide which way to turn, her phone pinged with an update on Cameron’s location. She turned left to go toward the dot.
Eventually, Cameron’s GPS pinged twice in a row at the same location. It was an old warehouse, right along the river at the edge of the city. Beth certainly didn’t know all of the club’s usual exchange places, but she knew this was not one of them. They usually met further away from the city, not closer to it.
Beth did a lap and had no trouble spotting the three bikes. It didn’t look like the buyer had arrived yet, so she found an out-of-the way place to park, pulled her rifle from her trunk, and climbed a ladder up the side of the building to perch up on the roof. Cameron was the only club member who knew about her rifle, and even he didn’t know how often she practiced with it. Sure, she loved the shotgun her dad gave her, and Jake’s pistol was much appreciated, but Beth had long-ago decided she needed some specialized skills. It was way back before she even hit puberty. The guys in the club had never acted untoward with her, but she wasn’t naive enough to believe that would always hold true. She might have a pussy, but that didn’t mean she’d rely on it as her only asset.
Beth got settled in a position where she could see the guys below her, and less than a minute later, a car drove in at an angle that she knew would blind her guys with the bright headlights—even through the daylight of this cloudy afternoon.
Sure enough, Matt and Craig both raised their hands to shield their eyes. Cameron had positioned himself off to the side and against the building, so he wasn’t in the direct beam of light. Beth wasn’t sure if it was him being smart or Matt accidentally giving him good directions, but either way, it was a relief to see.
The driver’s door flew open with the engine still running, and Mike from the Russian crew that operated downtown stepped out of the car. What the fuck was he doing here? The club had never sold them guns before. They mostly ran casinos and pimped girls.
“You have my sample?” Mike asked while keeping his body behind the car door. He wasn’t stupid. There was zero chance of Craig or Matt getting a shot at him. With the door, it would be hard for Cameron to get anywhere near him either. Thankfully, Beth’s position offered a height advantage his car door and bright lights couldn’t compensate for.
Craig pulled his backpack off his shoulder and opened it before walking toward Mike.
“Stop right there,” Mike demanded. “Throw the sample to me. You come any closer, and the product will be tainted by your blood and brains.”
Both of Mike’s arms were resting on the doorframe, making it looked like he was unarmed. Beth looked at his car more closely and spotted a passenger with a pistol resting on the rolled down window of his, or her, side of the car. She was betting none of the guys could see it.
Craig pulled a small baggie from the backpack and tossed it to Mike. “Here. It’s good shit, as promised.”
She wasn’t close enough to clearly see what was in the bag, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to make an educated guess. The Deadly Coyotes Motorcycle Club had never dealt drugs before. They’d had plenty of chances too, but that was one line Phil didn’t want to cross. It was part of why Beth respected him as her father, and this was further reason not to respect her brother. She couldn’t help wondering if Phil was aware of Matt’s actions. She was pretty confident he had no clue about the current drug deal, but did he know how much Matt was betraying him and the rest of the club?
“Looks good,” Mike said. He reached back into the car to grab a duffle bag. “You understand I have a gun on you, yes?” Mike confirmed.
“Yeah, and I’ve got one on you, so I think we’re good.” Craig jerked his head back toward where Cameron was standing.
Then Craig and Mike strode toward each other and swapped bags. Beth watched Matt pull a gun from the back of his waistband at the same time a third guy stepped out of the back of Mike’s car and rested the muzzle of a rifle on the top of the now-open rear door.
Mike and Craig both froze.
“I need to count it,” Craig said.
“And I need to check the full contents of the bag,” Mike agreed.
