Out of Darkness (13 page)

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.

“Should be alright,” he shrugged. “The run for tonight was called off since our driver got arrested. Some of the guys are going to see what they can find out about that. I came with him to make sure Denise is alright. Since he’s taking her to the ER, I really don’t have anything else to do. Consider the time made,” he teased.

She reached out, pinching him on the arm. “Thanks so much, I’m glad I rank that high.”

The teasing stopped as Liam came out of the front door, carrying Denise in his arms. He tossed the keys at Tyler. “Open the door and let the seat down so she doesn’t have to sit straight up.”

The other man caught them with one hand and beat feet over to where the truck was parked. As Liam held Denise close, running a hand over her forehead, Tyler worked quickly to do as instructed. When he was finally done, he stood back to allow Liam to place her inside the truck.

“I brought a blanket, just in case,” Meredith reached in, putting it around her friend, tucking her in as she would a child. “Snug as a bug in a rug,” she whispered, causing a weak smile to spread across Denise’s face.

“Let us know how things go,” Tyler said as he stood with Meredith, an arm around her shoulders.

“Will do, we’ll see y’all in a bit.”

“Whatever you do, when they make you wait, don’t cause a scene,” Meredith warned Liam.

“I know, I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise shit.”

That was the best she could ask for. As the truck drove down the drive, the couple stood watching the fading brake lights.

“While we wait for them, let’s go check out that storage unit,” Tyler said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the bike with him.

“I missed you,” she admitted, reaching up on tiptoes to kiss him.

“Good to know, I’ll take that greeting anytime you wanna give it. Let’s get out of here and find out what we all missed the first time around.”

A feeling settled in her stomach, heavy enough that it felt like it was holding her down. She knew the answers to her questions lay there, but she still wasn’t sure if she wanted those answers or not.

Chapter Seventeen

“W
hat do you want from out of here?” Tyler asked, gazing at the sheer volume of stuff that was wedged inside the storage unit.

She thought for a moment. “Anything marked research. I know there are a couple of boxes. I need the laptop and the two computers as well as the contents of my desk.”

“Well we didn’t plan this out too well, did we?” he laughed, looking at his bike. “Let me call Jagger and have him bring my truck.”

“You have a truck?” This was news to her.

“And a car. I’m mysterious,” he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

There were so many things she didn’t know about this man, and the more she found out, the more she wanted to know. “What kind of truck and car do you have?”

“Your normal boys’ toys,” he shrugged.

“Jagger, I need you to bring my truck to the storage unit that Meredith’s stuff is in. If you can manage it, try not to break anything and try not to wreck it.” Without even saying goodbye, he hung up.

“Why are y’all so mean to him?”

“He’s new, we’re always mean to the new ones. I guess I could be a little bit nicer to him since he did get my curse, huh?” he teased, a bright smile on his face.

Not rising to the bait, she came over to stand in front of him. “Whatever you say, Mr. Blackfoot. Do you want to go ahead and start getting some of this stuff out, or do you want to just wait on him?”

He looked around, and seeing no one else but them, he stepped closer to her. At one time, being this close to him would have made her nervous, but now she was used to it, actually ached to be this close to him.

“I think we can just wait on him.”

His large hands went to her hair and tangled there, tilting her head just the way he wanted before his lips claimed hers.

She moaned when his mouth captured hers. Almost immediately she let him take over, direct her in how he wanted to take her mouth. His tongue stroked the roof roughly, taking more than she dared let him take before. Unable to prevent it, her hands went around his body, holding him closer to her. They pressed together in the darkness of the storage lot, a light a few feet away the only thing keeping them out of complete darkness. Letting his hands slide down from her hair, he ran them softly to her neck, needing to feel skin against skin.

Pulling her lips from his, she smeared her lips down his neck, stopping to suck at the pulse point in the middle. His heart beat wildly under the smoothness of her lips. It made her feel empowered, to make his heart beat this fast.

“You burn me up,” he admitted as she used her teeth to lightly nip at that same point on his neck.

She stepped back, looking up into his eyes. “I’m glad. You burn me up too, it’s only fair.”

He ran his hands down her back and gripped her around the waist, backing up against the side of the building. Making her feel like she weighed little more than a feather, he easily lifted her up and pressed her there with the weight of his body. Unconsciously, she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“If this doesn’t become good with you, you let me know,” he whispered fiercely to her.

The fact that he always worried about her pissed her off and warmed her heart all at the same time. While she wished he didn’t have to worry about anything, she was so glad that he did. “Understood.”

Pushing her up higher against the building put her nipple even with his mouth. She grabbed his hair as his tongue soothed the hardness through the layers of her shirt and bra. It was madness, she’d never been in this situation before. All she knew was having him go all alpha male on her was the hottest thing she’d ever seen in her life. His large hands grasped the globes of her ass as he squeezed them, pressing her nipple deeper into his mouth.

Her feet dug into his lower back as he ate at her, wanting him closer. She wanted to feel some part of his skin that didn’t have clothing on it, but he’d been dressed for battle. Long sleeves covered his arms, leathers covered his legs.

“I wanna feel you,” she moaned in frustration.

Bringing his hands from her ass he moved them around to the front of her body, caressing her stomach before moving them further up. Goosebumps broke out on her flesh as she felt his fingers run up her naked skin. She loved the feel of his hands against her. It was becoming her favorite feeling in the world.

“Not enough,” she complained.

This had quickly gotten out of hand, he realized. In the background, he could hear the roar of what he knew was his truck. He had to stop this before Jagger caught them in an even more compromising position. Setting her down, he pulled her shirt so that it covered her bare stomach and tried to push her hair back into place. He tried to fix the things he could.

What he couldn’t fix was the wild look in her eyes, the swollen lips that even now begged for his kiss, the wet spot on the front of her t-shirt, the out of control cadence of her breathing.

“Bad place to start that, huh?” he tried to lighten the mood.

“Can we finish this later?” she asked as she saw Jagger pull up behind Tyler’s shoulder. “Jagger’s here.”

“Absolutely,” he promised. “Put this on,” he instructed her.

He took off his cut and the long sleeved shirt he had on. Underneath the long sleeved shirt, he wore a tank top. Throwing the shirt towards her, he put his cut back on and turned to face Jagger. He really didn’t want his brother seeing the wet spot on her shirt. Walking over, he intercepted him to give her time to put the shirt on over her we one.

“Thanks for coming. Did you have any issues gettin’ out here?”

“Nope,” Jagger smiled confidently. “Like I told you, I think I’ve broken the curse.”

Tyler couldn’t help but grin. “Whatever you say.”

He instructed Jagger on what they needed to get out of the storage unit, not letting Meredith pick up or move anything. She grumbled as she sat on the sidelines watching them do all the work. Every now and again she would get a text from Denise or Liam telling her that they were giving Denise fluids and then running some tests on her. One text she got made her stomach clench.

“They’re keeping Denise overnight,” she told the other two.

“Do they know what’s wrong with her?” Tyler asked, concern etched on his face.

In her heart, Meredith thought she knew what was wrong with her friend. Denise had avoided all questions that she had asked about a diagnosis. She’d only said she’d talk to her face-to-face in the morning.

“Not yet. I need to talk to you later though.”

He looked at her, not sure what she wanted to talk to him about and why it seemed to have something to do with his friends. “When we get to the clubhouse, I’ll be sure and make time for you.”

“Thanks,” she laughed. “I’m glad I’m important enough for you to make time for.”

A few hours later, they’d loaded everything into the truck, and Tyler directed Jagger on where to take it and unload it.

“Do you really think the answer to why and who attacked me is in that stuff?” she asked him as they watched Jagger drive away.

“I’m not sure, but I truly think that there may be a good clue there. What happened to you wasn’t some random act of violence. It wasn’t like someone came upon you and just decided to violate you. It was an attack, it was personal, and it was planned. Now if that had anything to do with me, I sure as hell want to know about it. I wanna make things right if it’s because of this club, and I will take it out of the man’s hide. Don’t doubt that.”

The look on his face told her how serious he was. She didn’t doubt him at all, and the murderous glint in his eyes spoke of just how serious he was.

Chapter Eighteen