Burnt Rubber: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC (14 page)

“They’re here.”

The sound of Marion’s shout came to Six and he walked through to the lounge to see her standing at the side of the window. He moved across beside her and saw the truck pulling in to the driveway of the property. Crash maneuvered the vehicle around to the rear of the building and was getting out when the door of the property opened.

“How was the trip?” Six asked.

“Quiet,” Crash replied. “We did like you asked and scouted around for a while after leaving the bar, but there was nothing unusual as far as I could see.”

“Everything was fine here too,” Six replied. “It doesn’t appear that anyone is on to us yet.”

“Is there beer in the house?” Crash asked with a grin.

“Haven’t been out yet,” Six told him. “I need you to make a run.”

“Fuck,” Crash let out. “And here was me thinking I was about to relax with some food and drinks.”

“Just get your ass in the truck and go get something,” Six went on and held out the piece of paper he was holding. “We need this too. Marion reckons you should find it in a photography or drug store.”

“What is it?”

“The gear needed to develop Marion’s film,” Six replied.

Crash unfolded the paper and made a face as he read it. He then looked up.

“I won’t get this stuff in a godforsaken town like Mossyrock.”

“Yeah, you might need to go further afield,” Six agreed. “But we need that equipment to get a look at the photographs Marion took.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Crash replied and turned to Carrie. “Let’s go.”

She nodded her head and the pair of them made a move to get in the truck.

“Park up behind the wall when you return,” Six shouted after them and saw Crash raise his hand to acknowledge the comment.

“Behind which wall?” Marion asked.

Six turned to see her standing at the door of the property watching him.

“Come on and I’ll show you,” he replied.

He moved to the Harley to get it running, and Marion closed the door and then walked over to sit behind him. They waited for the truck to disappear from view before making their way out of the driveway and turning left to head towards the end of the street. Once there, they made another left turn and almost immediately veered towards a gap between two buildings. It was wide enough to let a single vehicle pass through, and she could see straight away they were behind the wall that ran along the rear of the properties on the street they were staying on.

The wide dirt track they were traveling on seemed to be perched on top of a wooded hill with the ground falling away from the properties. Six stopped the bike at a marked location and Marion was sure that the safe house was just over the wall. She got off and waited for him to do the same.

“This is the way we go if we need to make a break for it,” he said. “Just get out the rear door and over the wall.”

Marion’s eyes slowly opened wide as she stared at the barrier between her and the house.

“It must be nearly eight feet tall,” she let out.

“Just think of Jake Fiori with a knife,” he replied. “That will give you the incentive to get over.”

“That’s not funny,” she replied in a flat voice.

“Sorry,” he said with a grin. “There’s a covered water barrel next to the wall. It’s about three feet high. Just get on that and you’ll make it over fine. There’s a small road at the bottom of this hill. We get to that and we can make a run for it.”

“OK,” Marion said. “So, what do we do now?”

Six motioned his head to the wall and she made a face.

“There’s no water barrel on this side,” she pointed out.

He moved to the wall and clasped his hands together before staring at her expectantly.

“I’ll give you a boost.”

“This is nuts,” Marion said reluctantly, but she eventually moved across and lifted her foot to his hands.

He hefted her up easily and she made a grab for the top of the wall. His hands went to her butt to push and her feet scrambled against the concrete as she hauled herself up. She eventually managed to get herself sitting on top of the wall and looked down.

“How do you get up?” she asked.

Six took a few steps back to give himself a run at the wall and in seconds was sitting beside her.

“Easy,” he said with a smirk. “Now just lower yourself down to the barrel.”

Marion took a glance. The round wooden container seemed a long way down from where she was sitting, but she eventually gripped the top of the wall and lowered her feet. When they touched the cover, she made sure she was balanced before letting go and then jumped down to the ground. Six quickly followed.

“See?” he said. “We’ll make a Roadrunner of you yet.”

“No thanks,” she replied. “I have a job already. I’ll pass on being a criminal.”

“The money’s better,” Six teased her.

“Yeah, but I don’t have to kill anyone to get it,” she shot back.

“Me neither,” he told her. “Didn’t you see how good I was at avoiding violence in the bar?”

“I remember,” she said as they walked inside to await the return of the others.

It was almost two hours before Carrie and Crash showed their faces and the four of them then unloaded the truck.

“Did you get everything?” Six asked as he stared at the bags covering the kitchen table.

“I think so,” Crash replied then nodded his head towards Marion. “But you better get the expert to check.”

Carrie removed the bags of food and drink from the table and Marion started looking through the others.

“Well?” Six asked.

“I think everything I need is here,” she replied.

“OK,” he went on. “Carrie, you help Marion get this gear through to the small downstairs bedroom. Crash, you get the truck out of sight behind the wall. The Harley is there already.”

Everyone immediately got going and within minutes the photography equipment was through in the bedroom.

“Nobody comes in here while I’m working,” Marion said. “Don’t disturb me and just wait until I’m finished. I don’t want things getting messed up by someone opening the door.”

Six nodded his head and watched as she shut herself in the room. He returned to the kitchen to find the other two already drinking beer.

“Do you think she can do it?” Crash asked.

“She seems confident enough about it,” Six replied. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Marion’s hands were shaking as she began the work. Developing a roll of low-light black and white film was something she’d done many times before, but there was never so much riding on her getting the job done correctly. She tried to calm her mind and fully concentrate on what she was doing to make sure she didn’t mess up. It needed longer than she would normally have taken, but she managed to work her way through the process of developing the film without any mishaps. When the finished negatives were hanging up to dry, she let out a sigh of relief and sat down in the darkness. Under normal circumstances she would have waited at least three or four hours to make sure they had dried properly, but on this occasion she only sat for around half an hour before going on to make a set of prints.

She wasn’t surprised to see that the camera she used in combination with the specialist low-light film did the job. The last three photos she’d taken clearly showed the faces of the killer and his victim, with the knife also clearly in view as it struck the man’s throat in the very last image. The date and time stamp weren’t really needed, but were a further verification that the pictures were taken on the day of the murder. It was the evidence Six needed to clear his name and her testimony to a court would back that up… if they actually got that far. There was still no guarantee they would because of the situation they were in, but the photos were a start to making things right.

Marion grimaced when she saw the name of her employer emblazoned along the edge of the prints. It was something she’d always done and it was too late to take it out. She glanced at the negatives and considered cutting the name
Bay Republic
off, but changed her mind and simply hung them up again. It took a short while for the prints to dry before she finally let herself out of the small bedroom. She went in search of the others and found them sitting at the kitchen table.

“Well?” Crash queried when he saw her walk in the room.

She moved across to the table and dropped the prints down on it.

“Fucking hell,” Carrie said when she looked at one of those showing Jake swinging the knife towards his victim. “He really is one crazy son of a bitch.”

“There’s no disputing them,” Crash said after glancing through the photos. “They definitely show who the real murderer is.”

“So… what do we do now?” Marion asked.

“Have something to eat,” Six said. “Carrie cooked us some pasta and there are beers in the fridge.”

The mention of food brought out her hunger, and she walked across to spoon some pasta onto a plate then grabbed a beer before making her way to the table. She sat eating and drinking as the others continued to discuss Jake Fiori. The conversation then moved on to what they should do, with ideas being tossed around then dismissed before they eventually decided to sleep on it and see what they came up with the following day. Crash was the first to get up and went to get a couple of beers from the fridge then hauled Carrie to her feet.

“See you in the morning,” he said.

Six and Marion watched as the other two walked out of the kitchen before their eyes met.

“It’s a pity you used that small bedroom for a darkroom,” he said with a smirk. “It means there are only two left.”

“Carrie and Crash will take one,” Marion commented as she saw where things were going.

“Yeah,” Six replied before he took a drink of beer and put the bottle down. “And the other bedroom is mine.”

“Hmm… where does that leave me?” she went on with a smirk.

“Well, we could share,” Six answered. “But I don’t want you feeling me up again when I’m sleeping.”

“How about I do it when you’re awake instead?”

“That works for me,” he said and got to his feet.

The surge of anticipation hit Marion hard, but she hesitated.

“You know this is crazy,” she let out.

“Yeah,” he replied then immediately grabbed her hand to drag her to her feet. “It’s the stupidest thing I’ve done in my life… Well, one of the stupidest.”

Marion gasped as she was led to the door of the kitchen. Considering the danger they were in, the distraction of getting involved with each other was insane, but neither of them were able to stop what they both knew was about to happen. She followed willingly as she was taken upstairs and they listened to find which of the bedrooms was being used. It wasn’t difficult considering the noise that Carrie and Crash were already making, but they weren’t interested.

Six led the way inside the empty bedroom and they were all over each other the second the door closed. Marion got the wind knocked from her as she was banged against the wall, but all she could think about was the touch of the muscled body trapping her in place. The way her new lover’s lips crushed against hers was thrilling and the burst of hot arousal surged through her. She ground her belly against his as their mouths remained locked together and her excitement grew at the stirring of his erection. It was growing so hard against her and she couldn’t believe the unstoppable surge of longing that gripped her.