Queenie lets out a breath through her nose. “Brittany grew up… somewhere strict.” She doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t push. I’d read the files and knew about Queenie’s upbringing in the strict religious community that seemed to run on its own rules. More like a fundamentalist sect or a cult, than anything resembling organized religion. “She ran. Disappeared. Didn’t leave a note. Didn’t leave a trail. Just—gone.”
My chest tightens at that. The idea of someone simply vanishing, leaving nobody behind with answers.
“Did you know she existed?” I ask carefully.
Queenie’s jaw flexes once. “Yes, but I’d never met her. When I left, I had to leave everything behind. Leaving my daughter was the hardest thing I ever did, but I had no choice.”
I feel my eyebrows lift despite myself. “How did you find out about her?”
“I watched from a distance, tried to make sure she was safe,” Queenie’s voice turns low. “But it wasn’t enough. She ran off when she was eighteen and that was the last I knew—until we discovered she’d been staying with Savage Legion.”
Christina’s eyes narrow. “After the fact.”
Queenie nods and gives a smile. “Turns out, just like her grandma she had a thing for bikers.”
Tessa shifts, bouncing her baby lightly. Her voice is quiet as she speaks. “She was a club girl.”
“Yeah.” Queenie’s gaze flicks to Tessa, then back to me. “And before you start judging her, Emily, she didn’t go looking for trouble. She went looking for freedom. Sometimes those two things look the same from the outside.”
My throat tightens. I don’t say anything because the truth is, I get it. Maybe not the club girl part, but the running. The desperation to build a life that belongs to you.
“So Brittany was with Savage Legion,” I say, piecing it together. “And she met—”
“Tusk,” Queenie says, and for the first time her mouth softens just a little. “One of theirs. Loyal as sin.”
“And Brittany…” I hesitate. “She fell in love?”
“She did,” Tessa says softly. “She got her happy for a minute.”
Queenie’s eyes flick down to Christina’s daughter, then to Tessa’s nursing baby, and something like grief ghosts across her face before she locks it away again. “Britt’s hot-headed like me. Tusk had an ex-wife, Gina, who was a nasty piece of work. Trying her hardest to split them up. Britt found out she was pregnant at the same time she found out Tusk was getting back with his ex.”
“What?” I exclaim.
“It was all lies. He was never getting back with her. But Brittany never knew and took off to Alaska—of all places—where she had her baby alone.”
“Victoria,” Tessa murmurs.
My heart gives a strange little ache. A baby girl. A family. A chance taken away.
Queenie gives a sigh. “Okay, I said it wasn’t gonna be a long story. So I’ll skip ahead. Tusk found her, told her the truth, and brought them both back to Las Salinas.”
I glance across the room again, at Silver, and I don’t know why but I suddenly feel colder. “She got her happy ending?”
Queenie’s lips press together. “Yeah. But Silverhatedit.”
Christina’s voice is dry. “Because how dare a club girl end up loved.”
Queenie points her spoon at Christina without looking. “Exactly.”
My stomach twists. “So she tried to… break them up?”
Queenie lets out a humorless laugh. “Silver didn’t do anything halfway. She didn’t just want Brittany unhappy. She wanted Brittany gone.”
Tessa’s eyes go hard. “She wanted to win.”
“And how did she do that?” I ask, heat rising in my chest. I don’t even know Brittany, but the story hits something in me that’s raw and furious.
Queenie’s gaze sharpens. “Silver found out Brittany wasn’t just some runaway with no past. She learned there was someone hunting her.”
