Out of Darkness Read online

  This made him uneasy. What else was going on that they didn’t know about? Was this someone inside the club? That pissed him off.

  “I see you already jumping to conclusions, Tyler. Let’s just see if we can find a clue here. Maybe if we can figure out who did this, we can figure out why.”

  She was right, his anger would get them nowhere. That didn’t change the fact that he wanted an explanation and he wanted it yesterday.

  For hours they poured over the hundreds of pictures that had been sent to her. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. The only thing that could really be gathered was that someone had unprecedented access to the club and no one had noticed.

  “Let’s think,” Meredith said, putting her reporter cap on. “Who could have done this?”

  “I really hate to think that someone I think of as family did this, but it’s kind of lookin’ that way isn’t it?”

  She felt horrible for him. He obviously was not taking this well. “If there’s one thing I learned in all my years as a reporter and a journalist – it’s that not everything is always as it seems. Don’t think you’ve been betrayed by someone you love, let’s look at this from all angles. Okay?”

  Tyler knew she was right again. Evidence could be made to appear one way when in reality it was a completely different way. It just mattered how one looked at it.

  “Do you have a notebook around?” she surprised him by asking.

  “A notebook?”

  Her smile was saucy. “Yeah, you know one of those old-fashioned things we used to use in school? It’s got a wire spiral on the side and these things called lines on the paper.”

  “When did you become such a smartass?” He didn’t skip a beat as he got out of the bed and walked out of the room.

  She giggled as she enjoyed the view he presented, both coming and going. Within minutes he walked back into the room, a notebook and a pen in his large hand.

  “To answer your question, I think I’ve always been a bit of a smartass. It’s just who I am,” she winked.

  He leaned over and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips. There was nothing sexual in it, just two people who were comfortable with one another enjoying a private moment.

  “We’re going to make a list. Ya know, of who could do this. It might be uncomfortable, but we have to know who hangs around this club and had the opportunity to do it.”

  “As far as hangers-on? All the girls that throw their panties at the guys, especially at Jagger.”

  She raised an eyebrow in interest. She’d heard Jagger sing here and there every once in a while and he sounded good, but she’d heard that sometimes he went to Wet Wanda’s and actually put on a show.

  “Does he have that many women?”

  “Yeah,” Tyler nodded his head. “If that boy wanted, he could have a different lady every night.”

  Curiosity got the better of her. “Does he want one every night?”

  Nah, there’s this chick at Wet Wanda’s, but they officially met at the drags in October. She was on the back of a pickup truck where there was a stripper pole. The truck hit a hole, and she bounced out. Apparently Jagger caught her, tits and all. He’s been pining after her ever since.”

  “And you bitched him out, thinking he was after me today? That’s just wrong.”

  “I got my point across though. Didn’t I?” he glared at her, not backing down from that argument.

  “Anyway,” she told him, not wanting to get into it again. “Who else?”

  “There’s Layne. He started prospecting the same time as Jagger. Jagger’s fixing to get a patch, but Layne is further away. There’s opportunity there. He’s everywhere we are.”

  With her lip between her teeth, she wrote down the name, along with a couple of the more ardent Jagger Stone fangirls.

  “Who else?” she tapped her finger to her chin.

  “Everyone else is in these fucking photos.”

  “Maybe that’s it,” she stopped shuffling through them. “Maybe they’ve placed themselves into certain situations so that they’ll never be suspected.”

  “Okay then, who do you think would do something like that?” Tyler asked, almost afraid of what her answer would be. She was way too smart for her own good.

  She swallowed hard. This would be suicide if she was wrong. “What about William or Lauren?”

  “As in my president?”

  “One in the same.”

  Shock registered on his face. This just couldn’t be true.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “How have you been since our last session?”

  Meredith sat forward in her seat, a huge smile on her face. She had never been this excited to talk to Doc Jones.

  “Tyler is no longer sleeping on the floor.”

  Doc Jones clapped her hands together, excited for her patient. “That’s a huge step. How have you been handling it?”

  “Not too bad if I do say so myself. I had a nightmare last night, but I don’t think it was necessarily because we had sexual intercourse. I think it was something else.”

  “Define something else.”

  “I recently decided I want to find out who did this to me.”

  That was a bomb if Doc Jones had ever heard one. The progress Meredith had made was substantial, but this was more than she’d ever hoped for.

  “Are you really sure you’re ready for this?”

  Meredith nodded, crossing her legs. “I’m as sure as I can be. I’m sick of living with this hanging over my head. Tyler has promised to help me, and together we’re doing this.”

  Carefully, Doc Jones sat forward. “I caution you again. Do not confuse the feelings you have about your recovery with the feelings you have for Tyler.”

  She had known this was coming. “I understand where you’re coming from, and I can honestly tell you that you’re wrong. Even if I never got well, I’d still feel this way about Tyler, and I think he would feel this way about me.”

  “Is he out there waiting on you?” she asked, pointing outside.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you mind if we bring him into a session?”

  Meredith thought about it for a moment. “No, I don’t. Whatever you feel is best. I don’t think we have anything to hide from one another. He’s already seen me at my worst.”

  “Tyler, I’d like for you to come in here for a few minutes.”

  He looked up from where he’d been texting on his phone. It struck him as odd that the doctor would request his presence, but if that’s what needed to happen for Meredith, he’d do it. Ambling his way into the office, he had a look at the both of them.

  “Please have a seat.”

  Carefully, he had a seat next to Meredith, afraid that his large frame would break the couch she sat on. “Is this safe,” he mumbled to her.

  She did her best to withhold a giggle, but it escaped on its own. “Yeah, I think it’s okay.”

  “The reason I invited you into this session, Tyler, is to see where the two of you are with one another. Meredith is very upfront and honest with me, I want to make sure you understand what you’re dealing with when it comes to her.”

  This pissed him off. He saw red and did his best to keep his temper in check. “With all due respect, Doc,” he spat the term out like it was a bad piece of food. “I think I’m probably the only one who understands how to deal with her. I was the one who found her that night. It was me who took care of her, who held her when she cried, woke her up when she couldn’t wake up from her nightmares, and it’s me who’s promised to avenge her. That’s between the two of us, it doesn’t have to be approved by you.”

  Meredith was taken aback by the passion with which he spoke his words. She knew how he felt about her, but to see the way he spoke about it, the way he defended his feelings. It warmed her heart even more.

  “I agree with what he said. I don’t feel like I have to explain anything. I never set out for any of this to happen. It just did.”

  Doc Jones smiled. “That�
�s what I wanted to hear. I wanted honest answers, not ones that you had time to cultivate and make sure were just right. I honestly think you’re in a good place here and I think he brings out the best in you.”

  Letting out a breath, Meredith felt like they had passed a test of some sort.

  “I do, however, caution you. The closer you get to the answers you seek, the more your memories may flare. You may need to go back to journaling regularly and taking your light sleeping pills. It affects everyone differently. Just be aware of what your body and mind are telling you.”

  Tyler appreciated the doctor’s honesty as much as she’d appreciated his. “Should she come for more sessions? I can make sure she gets here if she needs to.”

  “That’s up to her,” Doc Jones smiled. “At this point in time, I think we can move these down to monthly. Unless you have an episode. You seem to be handling yourself rather well.”

  That meant the world to her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  As they approached the clubhouse on the way back, Tyler pulled off to the side of the road and shut the bike down.

  “I’m going to take you over to Liam and Denise’s. She just got home from the hospital, and I want you to visit with her for a while.”

  Meredith didn’t like what Tyler wasn’t saying. “What are you going to do while I’m there?”

  He shrugged his shoulder. “Just look around. See what we’ve got goin’ on in the clubhouse. Somebody took those pictures, and I’m going to find out who it was.”

  She sighed. His mind was made up, and this is what he was going to do. It would do no good to tell him that she didn’t think it was a good idea.

  “I just want you out of there while I do it.”

  “Can you at least tell me what you’re going to search?” she asked.

  He tried his best not to roll his eyes, but sometimes her need to know everything wore on him. “I’m going to try and see if Layne has anything right now. Like I said, I don’t suspect Jagger. I’ll still take a look at all his stuff, but today I want to rule the two of them out.”

  “You’re scared it’s William, aren’t you?” she asked, her eyes searching his.

  He leaned down, kissing her softly on the lips. “So are you.”

  She couldn’t deny it. He had the power to destroy her, and he’d wanted to before. When she laid out the pros and cons of all the people they suspected, he was at the top of the list. If anyone had a hell of a motive for setting her up and wanting her gone, it was him. He had always thought and assumed she had the power to bring the club down, and maybe she did, but whatever she had – she didn’t know it. It was something that he only knew the truth about. Unless he spelled it out for her, she wasn’t sure she’d ever know just what she held in her hands.

  “You know if it’s true, it’s going to kill Liam,” she fretted.

  “Hey,” he grasped her around the neck. “If there’s one thing I know about Liam, it’s that he doesn’t stand for lying or women being hurt. If his dad did this, he would want to know.”

  She did her best to give him a smile, to show him that she believed what he said, but it fell short.

  “Let’s get you to Denise’s. That way if something does go down, you at least have an alibi.”

  She did not like the sound of that at all.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Not that I’m not happy to have you here, but what the hell is goin’ on with you?”

  Meredith looked up from her phone, not sure how long she had been staring at it. Obviously a long time since Denise looked seriously pissed. What Tyler had thought would be an amazing idea had really started to backfire on her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re tense, edgy, distracted. And you keep looking at that damn phone. What the hell is goin’ on?” Denise demanded.

  Pasting on a happy smile, Meredith shook her head. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t use your reporter face on me. Seriously, is something wrong with you?”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Denise everything. She wanted to badly. The two of them had confided in one another over so many things since their rough beginnings of friendship. But she just couldn’t do it. Not with this. It would put this woman right dead center in the middle of whatever was happening.

  “I had a nightmare last night. My first one in a long time.” That part was at least true.

  Immediately the look on Denise’s face softened. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought you were moving past that. I really hate to hear it.”

  “I thought I was to, but maybe some things are just gonna take a little while longer to get over.”

  Especially the fact that the man who would be your father-in-law may have had me raped. She thought to herself.

  “Enough about me, tell me about you. What are your plans now that you’re preggers? I know that you had talked about wanting to find a job.”

  The heat effectively off her, Meredith did her best to concentrate on what her friend said.

  “You’re right. Now Liam doesn’t want me to work. He wants me to stay home in case I have any more complications. He doesn’t want me doing anything more strenuous than housework, and that’s even debatable.”

  Meredith cocked a brow. “Lemme guess. You’re debating it, and he says it isn’t even up for discussion?”

  “You know us so well,” Denise laughed.

  There was a lull in the conversation. It wasn’t uncomfortable really, just a lull.

  “So does Tyler look as good naked as I imagine he does?”

  Meredith spit out the drink of water she had just taken. “What?”

  “Oh come on. It’s written all your face that you got laid last night. I have pregnancy hormones racing through my body already. Let me live a little.”

  Touching her chin to mop up the water that had dribbled there, Meredith wondered. Could people really tell she and Tyler had done the dirty? Was it written all over her face? That made her a little uncomfortable and a little proud all at the same time.

  “Better,” she giggled. “He looks so much better than you think without his clothes on.”

  Denise joined in the giggling as the two of them settled in for an afternoon full of girl talk.

  Tyler almost growled. He was beginning to get very frustrated. He had searched the rooms of Jagger and Layne and come up empty handed. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions. In this club, in this life, jumping to conclusions could get a person killed. But he was really beginning to think that his president had something to do with what had happened to his woman.

  “Travis,” he yelled as he went into the main area where they kept their computers.

  “Yeah?” the computer guru asked, coming out from under a group of them, a lollipop hanging from his mouth.

  “What were you doing?” Tyler asked as he saw him roll out with the apparatus they normally used to check under cars.

  “Really techy shit. Trust me, you don’t wanna know. What can I help you with?”

  He was so going to hell for this. “William asked me to come get his phone. He’s stuck at the shop, and he told me that you were putting a new blocking device on it.”

  In all actuality, Tyler had heard this news in passing a few days ago when he’d been at the shop. It was William’s personal cell phone, and as such he didn’t want anyone to be able to track him unless he wanted them to.

  “Yeah, here ya go,” Travis reached over to a box that held a ton of cell phones and pulled one in particular out. “Tell him that he’ll need to reset his passcode. I had to change it in order to make the necessary changes to the phone.”

  Tyler grinned. “Will do.”

  He walked out of the clubhouse normal as could be, hopped on his bike, and drove it a few miles down the road before pulling over to the side. A stand of trees provided him a little bit of privacy as he began scrolling through calls made and texts. There were a few numbers that he called more often than others. He
quickly transferred those numbers to his phone, along with a few names and a few email addresses. He realized very quickly that everything older than a few days was gone from the phone. It was obvious William kept his phone clean.

  Changing the passcode to something he could remember, he started up his bike and drove towards the shop. The ride to get there seemed to take forever. He hated suspecting someone that he respected so much of something so heinous as rape. Even if he had ordered it, that wasn’t how Heaven Hill worked. As he pulled into the parking lot, he saw William’s bike there. Parking his and shutting it off, he made his way into one of the bays that housed the cars they worked on.

  “Hey, pres, got somethin’ for ya.”

  William looked up from where he was changing spark plugs on a late model car. “What’s that?”

  Tyler held up the cell phone and flashed him a smile. “I saw Travis at the clubhouse. He asked me to bring your finished phone to you. He had to put a new passcode on it to download the information. I wrote it down for you and stuck it in your case,” he explained.

  Grabbing it, William nodded a thank you and went back to his work, never questioning why Tyler had it.

  Walking back over to his bike, Tyler had a seat on it and stared straight ahead. His mind worked a million miles an hour. Since he had the passcode, he could look in that phone at any time. In days, the answer to what had happened to Meredith could be theirs. Now, however, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the truth anymore.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “That must be either Liam or Tyler,” Meredith commented.

  She and Denise had taken up their favorite spots in the house. Out back on the screened in porch. Being November it was a little cool, but Liam had outfitted a space heater for the area and blankets kept them plenty warm. It was beautiful, especially with night falling.

  “Could be both,” Denise yawned, covering her mouth with her hand.

  When the front door opened, they heard a virtual stampede of feet on the hardwood.