Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) (26 page)

When Ashley shut the dorm room door behind her, she was met with three sets of anxious eyes. Holding up her hands, she warded off their questions.

“She’s fragile, barely holding it together, just like Denise told me before I went in there. You guys have
got
to be careful with her,” she warned, looking squarely and directly at Tyler. There was no way he knew just how close Meredith was to the edge, just how little it would take to push her over.

“Did she tell you anything?” Tyler asked.

If she hadn’t known him for as long as she had, she would be completely terrified. He made such an imposing figure, leaning against the wall, huge arms crossed over his chest. Dark eyes so serious, staring holes into her. Ashley, however, knew how to deal with him and refused to be intimidated.

“No, she’s very quiet about it. That’s kind of what worries me. I’m leaving you some sleeping and pain pills for her. You watch her with them. I don’t think she’s suicidal, but you never know how people are after something like this. That’s always a concern. If she spikes a fever or gets worse through the night, call me. I also suspect she has a mild concussion. Wake her up throughout the night and make sure she can answer a few simple questions. She should be able to, even on this medication. Anything strikes you as weird, call me, I mean it,” she stabbed Tyler with a look that dared him to ignore her.

They all nodded, and she handed the bag of pill bottles to Tyler. “In addition, make sure she takes every antibiotic in that bag. It will protect her from STD’s and any other virus the man may have been carrying. There’s also the morning-after pill in there, she needs to take it immediately after she takes a shower. I’ve also got her on a round of HIV medication. You called me in enough time that everything should be okay, but it’s imperative that she follow these recommendations. I told her all of this, but she wasn’t too impressed with me. I want you to reiterate.”

Tyler nodded. These were all things he hadn’t been in the right mind to think of. This was why he was glad he had called Ashley, because all of this was scaring the absolute shit out of him. “I’ll make sure she takes everything.”

She knew that he would.

“Everything she should take tonight, I have in that little container,” she indicated a clear pill bottle. “The rest, you should be able to figure out. Like I said, questions, call.”

“We got it.”

She grabbed all her stuff and turned to leave. Before she made it all the way out the door, she turned. “Be patient with her and try not to force her. Have her come to you. Denise, you talked her into seeing me, try to talk her into seeing a therapist. I have a feeling she’s going to need it.”

The officers sat around their conference table discussing club business.

“What are we going to do about Richard?” Liam asked, looking at all of the men he called ‘brother’.

“Well, we can’t just wait on him, we could be here forever.”

William turned to communications expert Steele. “Can we figure out where he stays?”

“It shouldn’t take too long. I hacked into his bank accounts the other day, and he’s paying AT&T so my money’s on the fact that he’s got an iPhone. That’s got a GPS on it.”

Liam grinned. “There’s an app for that.”

“That there is.” Steele grinned back. “There is one good thing about the technological boom. It makes my job easier.”

“Okay,” William boomed. “You find out where he is. We need to watch him a couple of days and get his pattern. We’ve got everybody on lockdown here, so we should be able to do it relatively easy. We get his pattern, and then we strike when he least expects it.”

Tyler cleared his throat. “If we find out for sure he’s behind Meredith’s rape, I want him.”

“I understand that, but this is club business,” William started.

“That wasn’t a request, Pres.,” Tyler interrupted.

Normally the president of the club wouldn’t deal with someone interrupting him and making demands, but Tyler was different. To put it mildly, pretty much everyone was just a little bit scared of the Native American with the wild look in his eyes.

“Duly noted.”

“So what do we do now?”

Liam answered. “Now boys, we just sit back and wait. He’s gonna hang himself, we just have to give him enough rope.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

R
ichard Joyce knew he had to do something. Bookies were
this close
to putting out hits on him, but one in particular was willing to deal. He wanted a piece of property located on Highway 185 that belonged to the club. If he could get his hands on that land, he knew he would be able to wipe his slate clean and perhaps live another year. A plan had developed in his head. He could give the bookie a small piece of the land and then take the rest to sell for a profit. The overage would allow him to set up residence elsewhere
and
stay alive. He had to get this taken care of and the sooner the better. The bank would know sooner rather than later that he’d begun to skim off the top. Prominent citizens of Bowling Green were bound to start noticing their bank accounts becoming smaller. Amounts taken out weren’t exorbitant, but Richard knew that many of them kept a close watch on their accounts. His game was about to be up, and he knew it. Something had to happen, and it had to be now. When this started, he only thought it would be for a short while, he couldn’t keep this up.

Not for the first time he cursed his gambling habit. Something he had never been able to give up. Even with the club it had been bad – so bad that he probably still owed them dues – because he’d never been able to afford them when they were owed. He figured he had never learned one good lesson in his life, and this was probably how it was supposed to end up.

At his side, his phone rang and he answered, not sure of the number. It seemed like he was getting calls at all hours of the day from unknown numbers. It did no good to screen them, they just kept calling. He sighed as he answered.

“Yeah?”

“The reporter is taken care of. She won’t be a problem after today.” The voice was low, sounding like a movie villain.

Richard’s eyebrows drew together in question, and his stomach dropped. Whatever
this
was, wasn’t good. “Who are you, and what the hell are you talking about? I never ordered a hit on a reporter.”

The voice on the other end of the phone caused goose bumps to break out over his arms and neck. This did not feel good.

“You did, and I want the other half of my payment.” The steel of the voice told Richard not to argue, but he wouldn’t be blamed for something he damn well didn’t do.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are. I’m not sure how to explain that to you any more clearly than I already have,” Richard argued.

“Well then we have a bit of a problem, Richard Joyce, because I know
everything
about you. I did a job in your name and was paid half for it up front, and now I want my other half. I want that money by the end of business tomorrow.”

The dial tone in his ear was the only thing that told him the phone call was over.

Richard cursed loudly. Someone had set him up and now he had two people gunning for him. He slammed the phone down and ran a hand through his hair. It was time to either pull the plug on himself or pull the trigger on his plan – whichever he decided it had to be done now. Either way, he figured this was the end and he’d be dead soon anyhow.

Steele sat in front of the bank of monitors that watched the numerous interests the club had around the city and beyond. They were almost certain that Richard was going to hit one of them, they just weren’t sure which. He stretched lazily. It felt like he’d been sitting there forever.

“Everything good?” Liam asked as he took a seat next to the other man.

“Everything’s quiet. Too quiet really. I expect something to happen very soon. It hasn’t
ever
been this quiet. Spooky quiet.”

Just as he said that, a group of men appeared on one of the screens. They wore all black. From hooded sweatshirts to black pants, gloves, and boots. The two of them watched as they broke into a warehouse and breached the front door.

“This is it. Get everybody ready, it’s time to move.”

Chaos erupted inside the clubhouse as everyone went about the jobs they had been assigned. The tension was thick as the women and a few Prospects watched the patched members leave. Everyone all hoped for the same thing, that the men would come back intact and no one else would get hurt.

Hours later, Denise walked out the back door of the clubhouse where a concrete porch had been poured. Sitting down on a lounge chair, she sighed. The tension in the clubhouse was too much for her to deal with any longer. In order to breathe, she felt that she needed to be somewhere else. Somewhere she could let her shoulders drop and lungs expand.

“This is the part that sucks, huh?” She looked up as Roni came to sit next to her.

Denise chuckled dryly, running a hand through her hair. “Yeah, I’ve never been very patient anyway. I’m not used to wondering if this violence will touch my family or not. It unnerves me a little bit.”

Roni could understand how someone who hadn’t been brought up in the lifestyle could be worried or confused. She chose to believe that everyone would come back unscathed. They always had. It was the only way she could get through it herself.