Out of Darkness Read online

  He’d been given the opportunity to drive point tonight on this run and he’d gotten them lost, even with a motherfucking GPS.

  “It was right before we left, I swear to you,” he argued, hitting the GPS that kept giving them different directions, no matter how many times he set the destination on it.

  Losing his patience, Liam grabbed it out of the other man’s hands. “Steele, fix this fuckin’ thing and get us the fuck out of here. Denise expected me an hour ago, and I’ll be damned if I’m sleepin’ on the couch because dimwit over here can’t work a piece of technology. Not to mention I’m gonna disappoint my son because he’s playing a damn football game right now,” Liam growled. The tension between him and his father – that they had kept between the two of them for the most part – made his words much rougher than he intended.

  Steele walked over and grabbed the GPS, putting the destination in again and laughing when it showed them the correct route. “What the hell were you doin’, Jagger?”

  “The same fuckin’ thing you just did.”

  “Curse of the skull mug strikes again,” Steele advised him. “Told you not to touch that thing.”

  Blowing out a frustrated breath, Jagger screamed. “No one told me not to touch it.”

  “Let’s just get the hell out of here,” Liam said, not able to help the grin that came to his face. Jagger was never going to live this down.

  “You hungry?” Tyler asked.

  They had been sitting outside for hours. Nighttime had already come pitch black, and with it, much cooler temperatures. November in Kentucky could be a crap shoot. Sometimes it was very cool, sometimes they suffered through an Indian summer. This year, it was already turning cool.

  “Yeah, but I’m so warm and comfortable with you right here. I don’t wanna get up,” she admitted.

  Just then his stomach gave a loud growl. They both laughed and she sat up, bringing the blanket with her.

  “I guess we better feed you.”

  The two of them walked into the house, holding hands. He directed them into the kitchen and walked over to the refrigerator. “I don’t even know what I have here. Hopefully something halfway decent.”

  She reached up into the cabinets, trying to find staples. Finally opening a door with food behind it, she spotted some cans of soup. “Do you have cheese and bread? We can have soup and grilled cheese.”

  That was agreeable to both of them, and they worked alongside each other in a comfortable silence. When it was done, they had a seat at the kitchen table and began eating.

  He moaned as he took a bite of the grilled cheese. “This is so good,” he praised her.

  “Thanks, just like my mom used to make. I loved when I was little and it was almost winter and we’d have grilled cheese and chicken noodle or tomato soup. Those are some of my best memories.” That was the only time she ever really felt like she and her mother had something in common with one another. They would sit for hours over their soup, talking until her dad got home, and then the conversation would turn to what he expected her to do when she grew up.

  Immediately she felt bad, he didn’t have those memories and she could see it in his eyes. Even if hers weren’t great, she still had them. He took another large bite and swallowed loudly. “Would it freak you out if I told you I want to make those memories with you?”

  She set down her food and grasped his hand. “Not at all. I wanna make those memories with you too.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Did I miss anything important?”

  Liam looked up from where he sat on the garage floor, putting together some parts for a bike he was working on. “I’m so glad you’re back, man. Oh my God, it’s been crazy since you left.”

  “I was only gone for a little bit,” Tyler laughed, pulling over a chair so that he could have a seat.

  “The curse of your damn cup is alive and well. Jagger got us lost, the GPS wouldn’t work for him, he’s still nursing himself from that fall, and to top it all off he broke the starter on his bike,” he held up the parts in his hands.

  “How did he do that?”

  “Like I need to tell you. Everyone firmly believes it’s your curse.”

  Tyler laughed so hard tears streamed down his face. “This is getting way out of hand. I never thought that cup would cause all this grief. This is great.”

  “Is it cursed or not?” Liam asked, leveling a glare at the other man.

  “Don’t try to scare me with that look. You know I don’t scare easily. It is whatever you think it is,” he said cryptically.

  “You’re getting on my nerves about this fuckin’ curse,” Liam mumbled. “Fuck,” he screamed as his wrench flew off the part he was trying to fix.

  Tyler laughed again. “You should watch that blood pressure, old man. It can sometimes get to ya.”

  “You’re not gonna tell me the truth,” he yelled at Tyler’s retreating form.

  “You already know the truth.”

  “Cryptic bullshit is gonna be the death of me,” Liam mumbled as he took a deep breath and went back to work.

  “Denise, you here?” Meredith yelled as she lightly knocked on the front door.

  “Upstairs, come on up.”

  That was unusual, Denise upstairs towards the bedroom this late in the day. Meredith checked her watch to make sure she was right on the time of day. Sure enough, it was a quarter after one.

  “You okay?” she asked as she came into the bedroom.

  Denise was on the ground in front of the toilet, lying on the cool tile floor. “Something I ate totally did not agree with me. I’ve been sick since this morning,” she moaned.

  “What did you eat?” Meredith asked, having a seat on the floor and leaning against the front of the tub.

  “We had a cookout at the clubhouse. I really think it could have been the shrimp. As long as I stay horizontal on the cool tile, I’m fine. Enough about me, how were the past couple of days for you?”

  The blush that covered her face couldn’t be helped. “It was good,” she admitted.

  “Oh c’mon. I’m lying on the bathroom floor after puking my guts out. Give me just a little bit more than that. Tyler Blackfoot is a hot piece of man meat and you’re telling me it was good.”

  “It was better than good, it was amazing. I can’t even describe how great it was.”

  “Are you feeling better about yourself?” Denise asked carefully. She’d known without Meredith having to mention a lot to her that she was feeling pretty low.

  “You know, I am. I feel like I’ve reclaimed a part of myself. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we didn’t have sex, but we made such a step forward in our relationship. We talked, we ate, we just hung out. It was, hands down, the nicest time I’ve ever spent with a man.”

  Denise nodded in agreement. “You know until I met Liam, I never really knew what a nice time with a man was either. Funny how everyone wants to label these guys as outlaws, but they’re nothing but perfect gentlemen to us.”

  “Funny how that works out, huh?” Meredith laughed.

  “It’s good to see you laugh.” Denise smiled. “I know we weren’t exactly close when all of this went down. Actually, I think I kinda hated you for coming into my house and trying to tell me how to run my business.”

  “I really shouldn’t have done that,” Meredith cringed, covering her face with her hands.

  “No, I think your heart was in the right place, even if you were a bit of a bitch about it.”

  “You are such a nice person. My heart was all about getting up in your business and getting an anchor spot on the news,” she shook her head. “I was so naïve and selfish, and all I could think about was myself. When I wonder why all this stuff has happened to me, I just think about how selfish I was.”

  “Don’t even think that. Yes, you were kind of annoying, but you were trying to better yourself. No one deserves what you went through, Meredith. Nobody.”

  “Is it bad for me to say, I’m kinda glad it happened the way it
did? I mean there’s no way I would ever want to be raped, but I’m glad it brought me to the place I’m at now. I’ve never had a friend like you before, never had someone to hang out with or anything. I was always too busy working and trying to make something of myself to get involved with anybody else in any kind of way. I’m glad it opened up my eyes.”

  The past few days have been some of the most amazing of my life. I feel like I’m finally healing, like maybe that’s what Doc Jones wanted me to do all along. I feel like I can finally breathe and I’m not going to break down at every curveball that’s thrown at me. For the first time I feel strong.

  Meredith sat her journal down with a sense of accomplishment. The words she’d just written she truly believed. No matter what life threw at her, she would be able to handle it. In the back of her mind, she realized another truth. She was ready to find her rapist. She wasn’t sure how, but she would find him.

  Tyler came through the door scowling, only to grin as he caught sight of her. “Hey.”

  She flirted back, “Hey, I have a favor to ask you.”

  He had a seat beside her and turned so that he faced her, showing that she had his full attention.

  “I want to find my rapist.”

  The words hit him like a ton of bricks. That was his dream too. He had mentioned it a few times to her, but she had blown him off. Now, it looked as if their minds were as connected as their bodies were. “I want to find him too. I’ve already been looking, to be perfectly honest with you, but there’s not a whole lot to go on.”

  “I have contacts in the community from my days at the news station. There has to be someone who can help. Those days after are such a blur to me, I still don’t quite understand what all happened. I had a lot of people telling me things about the clubs around here. Someone knows who this guy is. Someone paid him to do it, and they did it to send me a message. I want to know why. What was I on to or what did I uncover?”

  This made him uneasy. What if she got close to it again? What would they do to her this time? Now the stakes were so much higher. “I don’t know if I like this,” he admitted.

  “What do you think I was on to?”

  “I have no idea, we weren’t exactly talkin’ buddies back then if you remember,” he grinned.

  “I wanted to be. I thought you were so hot.”

  It was unlike her to gush, but he liked it. Her giddiness was cute. “I thought you were pretty hot yourself. Why don’t you get all your stuff out of storage and we can comb through it. Maybe fresh eyes and your time away from it will give us an idea.”

  He had a good point and she was agreeable to it. “Will you take me over there tomorrow to get the stuff? I don’t wanna go by myself.”

  “I don’t want you going over there by yourself either. I have a run tomorrow, so I’ll let you know when I’m available.”

  “Oh, so I need to pencil myself in?” she played along with him.

  “You know me, I’m busy, but I’ll do my best to make time for you.”

  This playful side of him was new and she loved it. There were numerous facets to this man who she previously had thought of as being only one dimensional. It showed her again just how much she’d had her eyes closed to the world around her before. Her eyes were definitely open now, and she was going to make sure she never missed anything again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Where is the semi?”

  Liam had the exact same question. They had been sitting in the parking lot of a local clothing manufacturer for over an hour. Word had it that the manufacturer was in deep with the Mexican Cartel and within some of the shipments of clothing lay weapons that were needed to win the drug war. Since Heaven Hill had signed on to help, they were expected to make sure the semis got to the state line where another MC picked up the run.

  “This guy was supposed to come here, drop off his trailer, pick up another, and be gone, right?” Liam verified with Jagger. “You didn’t fuck this one up, right?”

  His nerves were on a string. His eyes met William’s and he could see the triumph there. This wasn’t working out and William knew it. Almost like the fucker had planned it. Their relationship was strained, at best, these days. It made Liam and his guys look weak.

  “I didn’t. I think I’ve finally gotten over the curse of the cup. I’ve gone a full fifteen hours with nothing bad happening to me,” he knocked on his head for effect. “This run was written down and verified by Tyler.”

  “I thought so,” Tyler agreed, putting a cigar in his mouth and lighting it. “I’ve talked to this motherfucker like three times. He knew what time to be here. Something must have happened.”

  “Call one of the girls,” William advised. “Make sure he didn’t get picked up or there wasn’t an accident. They should be manning that scanner.”

  Turning away from the rest of the group so that he would be able to hear well, Tyler made the call. When the call was picked up and he heard Meredith’s voice, he was surprised.

  “Hey where’s Denise?” he asked quietly. He didn’t want to alert Liam that she wasn’t at her usual spot running the scanner for them.

  “Still sick, she’s either in bed or running to the bathroom. I seriously need to get her to the ER, but she insisted that you guys needed help with this. I manned the scanner when I was at the news station, so this has been kind of fun. I’ve written stuff down that sounds interesting to me, but I really don’t know what I’m listening for,” she explained.

  He blew out a breath of smoke and sighed. “Okay, first we’ll get this run over with and then we’ll deal with Denise.”

  “Are you smoking?” she broke in. “I’ve smelled it and tasted it on you, but I’ve never seen you do it.”

  “Yeah, cigars, made with a friend’s tobacco. They aren’t something you can buy in a store. I like mine sweet.”

  That explained why he always tasted so sweet when she kissed him.

  “I need info on a truck driver, he should have been driving a semi headed toward the warehouse we’re at. Look at the GPS signal on the computer connected to the scanner. You should be able to see right where we are. I don’t know where he was coming from, but he should have had a trailer attached.”

  She scrolled through the notes she’d made, things that interested her. She found one where she’d noted a license plate number and the fact that it was a semi.

  “Looks like your boy did get picked up. I made a note of a semi with an Alabama license plate. Rooster pulled him over about an hour ago, and they impounded the semi. Driver was taken to jail. Charges didn’t come over the scanner though. At least, I didn’t write them down so he may not have gone before the judge yet.”

  “Fuckin’ Rooster. Alright, I’ll see you in a bit then,” he slammed the phone closed and wanted to scream. He hated when things didn’t go as planned.

  “Rooster got our boy.”

  There was a groan that rumbled through the group. “Damn it,” Liam yelled. “Guess we’re headin’ back to the house.”

  Tyler put his hand on Liam’s shoulder, holding him back from the group. “Meredith said Denise is still sick and she’s contemplating taking her to the ER.”

  “I told that woman that I wouldn’t leave if she was still sick, and she told me she was fine. She even smiled when I left. I had no idea she was still feeling bad,” his glare would have melted other men.

  “Now don’t go in there all pissed off at her. If she’s still puking, that’s two days straight. She probably feels like shit.”

  “Point made. How do we convince her to get her ass to the ER?”

  “We’ll figure it out, let’s get the hell outta here.”

  “Did you tell Liam that I’m still sick?”

  Meredith couldn’t help but grin. “So what if I did?”

  “I’ll kill you,” Denise threatened from her place on the bed.

  “When and how? You can’t get up for more than a few minutes and when you do, you’re head is hanging over the toilet. Nice try. Besid
es, I told Tyler, not Liam.”

  “Might as well have, the two of them share a brain for the most part.”

  Going over to the dresser, Meredith opened the drawers and grabbed a clean pair of sweatpants and a clean t-shirt. “C’mon, let’s get you dressed. We’ll get you to the hospital when Tyler and Liam get here.”

  It was on the tip of Denise’s tongue to tell her to fuck off, but at the last moment her stomach lurched again. Maybe Meredith was right, something about this was off. She couldn’t deny how weak she felt. “Okay, I think I’m gonna need your help.”

  By the time the roar of motorcycles could be heard coming up the drive, Meredith had Denise down the stairs and sitting on the couch. A trash can sat in front of her, one that she’d already had to use a few times. Though nothing other than stomach acid came up anymore.

  Meredith ran to the front door, waving at Tyler and Liam. They cut off their motorcycles and ran towards the front porch.

  “How is she?” Liam asked, his fear written on his face.

  “Still sick. I convinced her to go to the doctor. She’s sitting on the couch dressed. I really don’t think she has the energy to walk out here to your truck.”

  “Where are my kids?” he asked as he took off his chaps and road gear to try and calm his nerves. When he had brought Denise into the fold of this family, he had brought along her twin teenage children. Everyone had taken to them as if they had been in the family since the beginning.

  “Roni’s, Denise had already sent them over when I got here. She did the same thing to them as she did to you – sent them off with a smile.”

  “Damn her,” he growled, stowing his stuff in his saddle bags.

  She watched as he took the stairs of the porch two at a time and thundered through the front door.

  “Hey,” Meredith smiled at Tyler.

  “Hey yourself. Thanks for convincing her to go to the doctor. When I told him she was still sick, it looked like he was about ready to ring her neck.”

  “Yeah well so was I. While they’re gone, do you think we can make that time to go get that stuff out of storage?” she asked.