Club Property: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC (5 page)

He raised a hand to rub his palm on his head, but it was only a long, drawn-out breath that slipped from between his lips. When he said nothing in response to her comment, Carrie went on talking.

“Since I was twelve years old, I wanted to be with you so much that it almost hurt,” she told him. “I knew it was never going to happen on the army base. There was too much stopping it ever getting started.”

“There still is,” Crash pointed out.

Carrie shook her head.

“Not if we want it to happen,” she said. “And I do. That’s why I’m here.”

“And what if I tell you to leave?” Crash asked.

“Are you going to do that?” she asked.

He rubbed his fingertips on his chin, but said nothing for a few moments.

“Do you have somewhere to stay?” he asked.

“No,” Carrie said. “I got on a bus this morning and came here with no other plan than to see you. If you tell me to leave, I’ll just need to go to the bus station and catch a ride home.”

She stroked her fingertips nervously on the hem of the t-shirt she was wearing and was all too aware of Crash’s gaze going to it. It was like the old days when she was a teenager and teasing him, except now they were alone and there was really nothing stopping them getting together.

“OK,” he said. “It’s too late now, so I’m not going to throw you out on the street. You can have the bedroom tonight and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“You don’t have…”

Her words stopped when he raised his hands and she decided to just be quiet and play along rather than trying to force the issue.

“That’s the deal if you want to stay,” he told her. “Any arguments and I’ll kick your ass along to the bus station right now.”

“OK, OK,” Carrie agreed.

There were definitely signs that Crash was still interested in her, and she wanted to stick around to see just where that got her. It was clear that he still viewed her as the teasing youngster that practiced her flirting on him, but she was going to show him that she was now a long way past that. She might be only twenty years old, but she was all woman and about to make him realize it whether he wanted to or not. The urge to be playful and tease was one she just couldn’t resist, however, and she couldn’t stop herself as she got to her feet.

“Do you want your t-shirt?” she asked and laughed as she grabbed the hem to ease it up her thighs and put a lot of skin on view.

“No, you can keep it for the moment,” Crash answered quickly, although he was unable to keep his eyes from the pretty sight of her naked thighs.

“OK,” Carrie said sweetly and picked up her bottle of beer.

She knew the hem of the t-shirt was loose enough that it would fly up if she turned quickly, so she did it and there was a thrill to giving Crash the briefest of glimpses of her pretty, rounded cheeks. A glance over her shoulder when she got to the kitchen door showed that he was unable to stop his gaze following her, and the excitement of that was something more than she’d ever experienced with boys her own age.

“Goodnight,” she said and saw the slight tinge of red on his face when he looked up. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

It was the last exchange between them and she closed the door when she got to the bedroom. There was little chance that anything was going to happen that evening, but it didn’t stop her fantasies kicking in when she tried to get some sleep. It made her want to go to him, but she suspected that she needed to take things slowly to make sure she wasn’t kicked out of the apartment. For the moment she just decided to accept what she had. She was lying in Crash’s bed wearing his t-shirt, and his musty scent was all over her. It was the very least she wanted, however, and she was now in a position where her dreams of Carl McCallister might very well come true in the days to follow.

For more than eight years she’d been hoping to be with the man she’d tracked down that day… and she vowed to herself that she would end the wait as soon as she possibly could.

“Hi, is that Carmen Hopkins?” Bella asked when the call was answered.

“Yes,” Carmen answered. “Who’s this?”

“I’m not sure if you remember me, but my name is Bella Nelson and…”

“Oh sure,” Carmen cut in. “You’re Carrie’s older sister.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Bella went on. “We met when I came to see Carrie a few months ago and we swapped numbers.”

“I remember,” Carmen said. “Are you planning another visit?”

“I’ll be there at some point,” Bella answered although she wasn’t sure if that was true. “I’m actually calling about something else to see if you can help. I got in touch with the college earlier today to speak to Carrie, but was informed that she’s not there at the moment. She never said anything to me about going anywhere, and I just wondered if she’d spoken to you about a trip.”

“No, sorry,” Carmen said. “A few of us went out last night for the birthday of a classmate. Carrie was definitely there because I spoke to her a few times, but she never mentioned anything about going anywhere.”

“She didn’t say anything out of the ordinary?” Bella asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Carmen went on. “Is there a problem?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Bella replied quickly. “We just can’t get her on her phone and my mum wanted to speak to her.”

“Sorry, I can’t help,” Carmen said.

“Do you think any of her other friends or classmates may know something?” Bella queried.

“I’ve really no idea,” Carmen replied and the line went silent, as if she was thinking. “Have you tried Darlene Harper? She and Carrie have been close for the last couple of months. I guess she might be your best bet.”

“Do you have her number?” Bella asked.

“I don’t know it off by heart,” Carmen said. “I’ll need to hang up and check the address book in my phone, but I’m pretty sure I have the number so will call you in a few minutes.”

“Sure,” Bella said. “Thanks for your help.”

The line went dead and she looked at her parents and shrugged her shoulders.

“She didn’t know anything?” her mother asked.

“That was the gist of the conversation,” Bella replied. “Carrie said nothing to her about going anywhere, but she’s going to give me a number for another friend.”

The three of them sat quietly as the seconds ticked past and Bella jumped when her phone rang to break the silence.

“Hello,” she said when she answered it.

“Hi Bella,” Carmen said. “I have the number. Do you have something to write it on?”

“Yup,” Bella said and picked up the pen on the coffee table in front of her.

She wrote the number down and thanked Carmen before ending the call. Her mother leaned forward to look at the writing.

“Do you know Darlene Harper?”

“I don’t recognize the name,” Bella replied. “But I met quite a few people when I was out with Carrie. She might have been one of them.”

“Don’t wait around,” Samuel told his daughter. “Call her right away.”

Bella nodded her head and dialed the number. All she got was ringing before the connection went to the voicemail service. She left a message giving her name and number and asking Darlene to get in touch as soon as she could.

“This is torture,” her mother said and shook her head. “What is Carrie playing at?”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Bella replied. “If she’s making up stories to get out of college, then she obviously has a reason for doing it. It’s not like she just disappeared.”

“She won’t be fine when I get my hands on her,” Samuel said when he got to his feet.

He walked across to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a healthy shot of brandy then lifted the glass to his lips.

“At least give her a chance to explain before you fly off the handle,” Bella urged and got to her feet. “I’m going to bed, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

She got fed up of her father’s intrusion into her bedroom every thirty minutes or so asking her if there was any news and eventually locked the door to keep him out. The hours ticked past with no reply and the two times she tried calling again just got her through to the voicemail service. She eventually fell asleep and it was six in the morning when she woke up and tried the number again. On this occasion the call was answered.

“Hello, Darlene speaking,” a sleepy sounding voice said.

“Hi, it’s Bella Nelson here.”

The voice of the girl on the other end of the line became cautiously alert and it was a sign that she knew something.

“Oh yeah, I saw you were trying to get in touch with me, but I didn’t get the chance to do it last night,” Darlene said. “I was going to call you this morning.”

It sounded like a lie, but Bella ignored it to go on speaking.

“I tried to get in touch with my sister yesterday, but found out she made an excuse to leave college and isn’t there now. There was no point in landing her in trouble with her student counselor, so I was contacting her friends to see if they could shed any light on what she is doing. I spoke to Carmen Hopkins and she suggested that you were close with Carrie and might know something.”

“Well… no, I…”

Bella picked up on the hesitation and growing nervousness of the girl on the other end of the line straight away. She was suddenly in no doubt that Darlene knew something, so she interrupted her.

“Please,” she said. “If you have any information about what Carrie is doing, just tell me. We just want to know that she’s OK.”

There was silence for a few seconds before Darlene let out a sigh and started speaking.

“Yeah, she’s OK.”

“Do you know where she’s gone?” Bella asked.

“It’s more that I know who she’s gone to see rather than where,” Darlene replied.

“And?” Bella encouraged.

“We went out to a nightclub a couple of days ago to celebrate a friend’s birthday and got talking about how everyone has someone they really want to be with,” Darlene went on. “She told me a story about an older guy she had a crush on when she was a teenager.”

“Oh fuck,” Bella let out in a surprised tone. “Carl McCallister.”

“She never actually told me his name,” Darlene said. “But I got the impression that she still harbored feelings for him from the way she spoke. I guess I have to take some of the blame for what she did because I told her if she was still thinking about him after being apart for a few years, then maybe she wasn’t over her crush.”

Bella let out a groan.

“Sorry,” Darlene went on. “It was drunken chatter in a nightclub to be honest. I didn’t really think she would do anything about it.”

“But she did,” Bella let out.

“She came to me yesterday morning and told me she found some websites that can be used to track people down,” Darlene admitted. “She got an address for this guy in San Francisco and…”

“Ah fuck,” Bella spat out. “My dad is going to bloody kill her. Do you know the address?”

“I don’t,” Darlene replied. “She didn’t tell me. All she said was that she was planning to go and see him.”

“I can’t believe her,” Bella let out and shook her head. “Did she say anything else?”

“No,” Darlene answered.

“OK,” Bella said. “Thanks for your help.”

“She’s going to kick my ass for dropping her in it,” Darlene commented.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Bella said and let out a humorless laugh. “After my dad is finished with her, what’s left of her sorry carcass might return to college.”

“That sucks,” Darlene said.

“Tell me about it,” Bella said. “If she gets in touch with you, tell her my dad is on the warpath and that she and her crush better find somewhere good to hide.”

“I’ll do that,” Darlene said.

Bella ended the call and threw her head down on the pillow.

“Stupid fucking idiot,” she mouthed quietly, but to be honest her sister’s actions didn’t come as a complete surprise.

Carrie had been doing unexpectedly crazy things since she was old enough to appreciate the opposite sex, and Carl McCallister was her one real weakness. She’d spent her teenage years following him around like a lovesick puppy and cried her eyes out when he started dating then married another woman.

The rumors flying around at the time were that Carl got together with Sally Connolly as a distraction to Carrie, although Bella was never altogether convinced of the truth of it. She never got the impression that he was the type of man that would take advantage of the infatuation of a teenage girl and she guessed that Sally was just more his type. In the end it didn’t really matter because he quit the army not long after the marriage and disappeared from their lives.

It appeared that Carrie wasn’t over her teenage obsession though and was on her way to find out if Crash really did have feelings for her. That was bad news as far as Bella was concerned, and she groaned at the thought of telling her mum and dad. There was really no other option now and she got out of her bed to have a quick shower then got dressed. Her parents were sitting in the kitchen already when she got downstairs and she felt the glare of her father on her as soon as she walked in the room.

“Well?” he asked in an ominous tone.

She walked across to the table to sit down beside them before she started talking.

“Promise you won’t get mad,” Bella started.

“Just tell us,” her father let out.

She let out a sigh before going on.

“I got hold of Darlene just a few minutes ago.”

“And found out what?” her mother asked.

“Carrie made her excuses to leave college because she wanted to visit someone,” she answered.

“Who?”

“The guy she had a major crush on when she was a teenager,” Bella said.

“Carl McCallister?” her mother let out in a shocked voice.

“I assume so,” Bella said. “Darlene didn’t actually know his name, but we’re all fully aware that there was only one guy Carrie was fascinated with in her teens.”

“I’ll bloody kill him,” Samuel let out through clenched teeth.

“To be honest,” Bella went on, “from what Darlene told me, I’m sure that Carrie’s visit is going to come as a huge surprise to Carl. I don’t think he knows about it or encouraged it in any way. It seems my sister just got the idea in her head after a drunken conversation, and you know what she’s like when she gets the bit between her teeth. There’s no stopping her.”

“Far too headstrong for her own good,” Samuel let out.

“Yeah, well… determined, head-strong parents do tend to pass on those characteristics to their kids,” Bella pointed out.

Samuel ignored the barbed comment as he went on speaking.

“Did Carrie tell Darlene where she was going?”

“Only that Carl supposedly lives in San Francisco,” Bella answered.

“Are you sure she was telling you everything she knew?” he insisted.