Page 167 of Timeless

I frowned. How much did he know of Amber’s past?

“Do you know about her connections to the silent killers?” Rev asked.

“Yeah, she was one before she left Tae’s side.”

“She wasn’t just one of them, Jackson. She controlled them. They answered to her.”

“Nah, they didn’t.” Rev must have got confused. “They answered to Tae. Amber was just a sniper. A marksman.”

“Tae called her his gray lady. And the silent killers answered to the gray lady. She wasn’t just a marksman. She wasthemarksman. Tae trained her with the intention of her being his wife but also to lead beside him.”

I remained quiet. My eyes focused harder on Amber. How the fuck did I not know how deep she was in? She was fucking lucky Tae let her leave. She had power, real power, and here she was living in the suburbs. Tae’s reaction to her leaving him made more sense now. Amber had the ability to turn his men against him.

If the hitmen answered to Amber, or used to answer to Amber, there was a chance they would follow her lead, if she reached out to them.

Tae realized that the minute she picked me over him. I couldn’t take my eyes off Amber. When I asked her to retire, I had no idea what she was really walking from.

“So, stealing a trained woman, who doesn’t just have connections but knows what is needed to lead. Well, Jackson. Making her queen may be the smartest move you make.” Dad’s voice brought me back to the moment.

I was silent again. I never expected him to accept my plan to bring Amber up to my level, let alone did I expect him to approve and encourage it.

My mind was still trying to come to grips with who Amber had been. She wasn’t just Tae’s right hand. She was his equal. His queen. Which meant if she could be his, she had the ability to be mine.

I was immediately pissed off with myself. Why the fuck did I ever let her become Tae’s queen? Amber might not have married him but he had given her equal power to him. When he asked Amber all those years ago about forming a partnership with him, she didn’t realize she was already in a partnership with him. He already treated her as his queen.

He just wanted her to realize it.

“Making her queen means she will be as heavily targeted as you. You do realize that, Jackson?”

“I’ll make sure she is always safe.” I butted out my cigarette. Her safety would always come first. She and Jack would always come first.

I knew the men who swore their commitment to me never planned on listening to a woman. They respected men, not women. Women were property or just something you used. Not something you looked up to or showed respect.

But that was exactly what my men would be doing, respecting and looking up to Amber.

That is, if she agreed. The fact she said she didn’t trust me the other morning ran through my mind again. How the fuck was I going to earn her trust back? Maybe giving her half of my empire might prove to her how much I love her, and how much I want her in my life.

But I knew I couldn’t tempt her or dangle the queen title in front of her on the condition she married me. No. I was going to do what Tae did, offer her a partnership, with no strings attached.

If she agreed, she would be working beside me and then it would give me more time to earn her trust. I didn’t want to block her out of my life again, like last time. I wouldn’t go back to hiding shit from her.

I was going to man up, and be real with her. Tell her the truth.

“Jackson?”

I blinked suddenly, forgetting completely I was on the phone to Rev. “Yeah?”

“Don’t rush her. I never thought I’d say this about a woman but we need her. We can’t expand without making more enemies; we can’t afford to make new enemies without having the means to back it up.”

I frowned. Had Rev missed the whole point to why I wanted Amber leading beside me? “I’m not offering her to be my queen, just so she can pull old strings and turn our enemies into friends of the club.” Did Rev really think I was just giving Amber this position to get us marksmen? “I don’t give a fuck if she doesn’t draft one ally to us.”

I heard the sharp breath in Rev took and exhaled slowly, muffling the phone. “Don’t underestimate the power she had. She had men and women pledging to her. Don’t be a stubborn fool and not accept them when she offers them to us.”

I scoffed. “You really think Amber is going to turn on Tae?” I knew Amber. As much as I wanted Tae dead, she still loved him. Maybe wasn’t in love with him. But she loved him. Enough to trust him in her new life. Enough to let him be a part of Jack’s life. She may have picked me the other night but I knew very well that Tae wasn’t out of her life.

“Like I said, don’t underestimate her. You can hang up now, avoid the forced goodbye.” As soon as Rev finished, I did just that. I hung up on him. Normally, I wouldn’t let him finish a sentence. Tonight, would have to be our longest phone conversation.

I still had time to get a few hours’ sleep with Amber or I could start the phone calls and get the boys up and put my plan into motion.

---