Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) (22 page)

His large hand enclosed hers, and he brought it up to his lips before turning it over and placing a soft kiss on the pulse point at her wrist. “I know all I need to know. You love your kids, you’re loyal and honest. You know that I love my family, my club, and I’ll always protect you. What else do you need?”

“It’s not conventional,” she argued.

“If you haven’t noticed this about me yet baby, I’m not conventional. If I have a feelin’ in my gut, I’m goin’ with it,” he quirked an eyebrow at her. “And to be honest, you aren’t really conventional either. Don’t let society’s rules about what’s conventional make you uncomfortable with what we do.”

“Is that how you do everything in life?” she asked.

“For the most part. I’ll admit to you that it sometimes bites me in the ass, but when it works out it’s usually the best time of my life.”

Denise yearned to be like him, to just let things fall as they may, but she had her kids to think about. “I’m a mom,” she explained.

“I realize that, honey. And I promise you this, no matter what happens between us your children will always be taken care of. Just let this happen. We may be together forever.”

“And we may not.”

He brought his hand up to her cheek. “And we may. What’s life without risks?”

“Comfortable.”

“Tell me,” he begged, leaning his head into her neck, nipping her ear. “Do you want comfortable? Or do you want this out-of-control feeling we get whenever we touch each other?” he breathed, causing goose bumps to pop on her arms.

“The out-of-control feeling,” she whispered, relenting to the feelings he evoked within her.

It was hard on her though, leaving everything up to chance. A part of her conscious argued that her carefully laid plans had backfired on her before. Why not do what she wanted to for once in her life?

“Do you wanna take the long way home?” he asked after dinner. They sat on his bike, waiting for her to fasten her helmet.

“Yes,” she agreed. Anything to allow her to keep her arms around him and hold on tight. Riding the bike with him had become her favorite pastime and one she didn’t want to give it up anytime soon.

He cranked the bike and revved it, causing her to dig her nails into his cut before they took off onto Scottsville Road. He eased into a lane of traffic that would take him onto the interstate and allow him to hit the back roads that would take him all the way to his house.

As they stopped at a light, he leaned into her. Reaching his hands up, he caressed hers where they rested on his flat stomach. He snuck a kiss through her open-face helmet, groaning when her hands moved down further to the apex of his thighs.

“Not here baby, it’s hell ridin’ with a hard on.”

She threw her head back and laughed. It felt good to be free with him. To do everything that she’d always thought about doing but had never been sure she would ever get to do.

The light changed, and they raced off into the night.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“S
o I talked to Mom last night. To see what she had to say about Richard.”

Liam groaned. He really didn’t want to talk about club business, especially not after the amazing night he’d had with his lady. However, he knew this was important. There had to be a reason that Richard was looking into framing the club, and he needed to know why.

“Do tell.”

“According to her, there was a power struggle at one point between him and Dad. During that power struggle, Mom says that she and Richard got close. What she meant by that, I don’t know. She wouldn’t go any deeper into it than that. She did tell me that Richard wanted to break off into his own charter, and Dad wouldn’t approve it. They had a protection run for Jeffrey Norris. Apparently he was skimming off the top of the books for the city and buying black market electronics. He would in turn sell them on the street for a straight profit. That money then came back into the drug trade. Mom thinks that Jeffrey and Richard had a back-end deal with said drug trade. Jeffrey supplied the money, Richard supplied the drugs. When I asked Mom what she thought about why he wanted to pin this on us right now, she thought it might have something to do with bonds on a life insurance policy.”

She stopped, letting this all sink in. It was obvious that Liam was having a hard time processing.

“A life insurance policy? This is an awful lot of bullshit to hand out to a lot of people for a motherfucking insurance policy.” He couldn’t believe it was as simple as that.

“With Jeffrey’s body never found, they couldn’t have him declared dead. He’s been a missing person. Since Richard’s been buying up all this property and buildings, she figured his cash reserves are being depleted, especially since he’s not earning with the club anymore. Apparently, Richard is the beneficiary on one of Jeffrey’s policies because of their back-end deal. Mom thinks, too, that at one time they may have been trying to go legit together – that’s neither here nor there. His name is on a life insurance policy, she knows that for sure. If he can get the money and hurt the club at the same time – why not? There’s also all that land the club owns out on Highway 185. You know people have been trying to get it for years, they think it’ll make a great housing community. If the club gets taken down, then he could have a legal right to it. He was here when the club started. I’m sure his name is on the deed to most of that land. Mom offered to check on it for us, since she works at the courthouse.”

The information took a while to sink in, and when it did Liam cursed. “So this isn’t some spur of the moment bad decision on his part. He’s thought this through.”

“Exactly. We need to be on our toes.”

“What about the reporter? Where does she fit in all of this?”

Roni shrugged. “Collateral damage? I think she was just a pawn, and she’s talked to a few too many people. I’m a little scared for her. My thought on it is he used her to figure out who we were using, to gain himself an ally. When that didn’t work, he just started playing with her. Now he’s fed her bad information, and he knows for sure she’s shared it. In his eyes she’s a narc.”

“We can’t worry about her. She’s made her bed, she’ll have to lie in it,” Liam dismissed Meredith’s role in this.

“You wanna tell your bff that? Tyler is so far into that girl I don’t think he knows where she ends and he begins. We have to warn her. She really could be in trouble and being cute is not going to get her out of it. These people could
really
hurt her.”

“Fuck,”
he hissed. “I’ll call him and let him know. Tell him to give her a heads up. I have a feeling that ‘special report’ was nothing but a set up on their part.”

“I hate to say this, but you may wanna warn Denise too. Just because
we
don’t hurt woman doesn’t mean they don’t.”

He groaned. “We just had a motherfucking conversation about keeping her safe. This would have to happen now.”

“Maybe we should do a lockdown for a few days. Until you can find Richard and find out exactly what he’s doing. I mean, he’s gonna be sticking close by. As soon as that report comes back and gets filed, he’s going to petition the court. You can bet your ass on that.”

She had a point. It appeared Richard wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted, and that meant money and blood on his hands. “I’ll talk to the old man.”

Meredith was beginning to feel uneasy. Her body was still sore from what it had gone through in the explosion, and now her contact from the Vojnik was running late. He was never late. This wasn’t exactly the best part of town to be in, and nerves were starting to make her stomach queasy. Pulling the jacket she wore tighter around her body, she paced by the river that flowed through the outskirts of the city. She stood under a bridge that most teenagers used for prom pictures, but she didn’t feel any of that lighthearted carefreeness at this time. At night this turned into a very different place. Homeless men and women inhabited the underbelly where the abutments marked the beginning and end of the structure. Tonight, though, everything appeared quiet. That didn’t stop the nervousness in her stomach at the way the lights made shadows on the ground. Her hands shook with fear, even though she tried to portray a sense of calm. Looking at her watch, she cursed. Her contact was almost an hour late, and she was about to jump out of her skin.

“I’m gonna wait five more minutes, and if the asshole isn’t here by then I’m leaving,” she muttered.

Tyler had tried calling her on her way here, but she’d ignored the call. She was sick of all of this. Denise had been right, she was a pawn and she didn’t know how to make this better. Maybe Tyler could help her, maybe he couldn’t.

Blowing out a deep breath, she turned to begin her pacing again. Out of nowhere, something hard hit her from behind, and she fell to the ground face first. Stunned, she tried to rise up on her elbows, only to feel the hardness of a male body atop hers. She tried to scream, but a gloved hand clamped over her mouth. Thinking quickly, she launched her teeth into the skin of the leather, but it did nothing more than muffle her scream even further. Thrashing about, she threw her head back trying to hit her attacker, but the assailant grabbed her hair tightly and pulled. Tears sprang to her eyes as she tried to escape, screaming hoarsely. Releasing his hand from her mouth, he shoved her face in the dirt, rocks, and trash that littered the ground.

“Please,” she begged, feeling his hand skim her backside as he pulled her pants and underwear from her body. “No,” she cried into the ground.

At this moment, she knew that no one could hear her. Trying to scream only succeeded in more dirt coating her tongue and throat. She dug her fingers into the ground, feeling her nails break as she clawed at the dirt.

“This is a message, and I hope you hear it loud and clear bitch. Stop tryin’ to play clubs against each other.”

All too soon, she could feel his nakedness against her skin and then he shoved himself into her from behind. She cried out, trying desperately to get as far away from the pain as she could. It lasted for only minutes, but felt like hours. She prayed harder than she’d ever prayed that this man would be fast. The feel of semen hitting her back repulsed her so much that she vomited.