Out of Darkness (18 page)

“It’s been awhile since I had one of those,” she gasped, hand at her chest over her heart.

“Was it the usual?” he asked, keeping a respectful distance in the bed, just in case this sent her on a downward spiral.

“No,’ she shook her head. ‘This is nothing at all like any nightmare I’ve had before. This one almost made me feel like prey to a hunter. Someone was running after me in a dark alley, and I couldn’t see them, but I couldn’t get away either.”

“Do you think it had to do with what we did here tonight?” he asked.

She thought for a moment and then shook her head. “No, I don’t. I think it had to do with what I wanted to talk to you about earlier.”

“Which was?”

Getting out of the bed, she padded over to where she had put the manila envelopes. It was chilly in the room, so she grabbed the thermal shirt she had taken off of him and put it over her naked body. Walking back over to the bed, she hopped back in and began opening the packages, dumping the pictures all out.

“See, these have pictures in them, and there was one that was sent to my house. It was in storage and I found it when we started going through all that stuff. There are a ton of pictures. Of me, of you, of the club, of Denise, the kids, everyone.”

She spread them out between them on the bed and watched as his eyebrows drew together in what looked like anger.

“The fuck? Whoever took the time to do this sure was around a lot. How did we not notice someone following us with a camera?”

This made him uneasy. What else was going on that they didn’t know about? Was this someone inside the club? That pissed him off.

“I see you already jumping to conclusions, Tyler. Let’s just see if we can find a clue here. Maybe if we can figure out who did this, we can figure out why.”

She was right, his anger would get them nowhere. That didn’t change the fact that he wanted an explanation and he wanted it yesterday.

For hours they poured over the hundreds of pictures that had been sent to her. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. The only thing that could really be gathered was that someone had unprecedented access to the club and no one had noticed.

“Let’s think,” Meredith said, putting her reporter cap on. “Who could have done this?”

“I really hate to think that someone I think of as family did this, but it’s kind of lookin’ that way isn’t it?”

She felt horrible for him. He obviously was not taking this well. “If there’s one thing I learned in all my years as a reporter and a journalist – it’s that not everything is always as it seems. Don’t think you’ve been betrayed by someone you love, let’s look at this from all angles. Okay?”

Tyler knew she was right again. Evidence could be made to appear one way when in reality it was a completely different way. It just mattered how one looked at it.

“Do you have a notebook around?” she surprised him by asking.

“A notebook?”

Her smile was saucy. “Yeah, you know one of those old-fashioned things we used to use in school? It’s got a wire spiral on the side and these things called lines on the paper.”

“When did you become such a smartass?” He didn’t skip a beat as he got out of the bed and walked out of the room.

She giggled as she enjoyed the view he presented, both coming and going. Within minutes he walked back into the room, a notebook and a pen in his large hand.

“To answer your question, I think I’ve always been a bit of a smartass. It’s just who I am,” she winked.

He leaned over and gave her a lingering kiss on the lips. There was nothing sexual in it, just two people who were comfortable with one another enjoying a private moment.

“We’re going to make a list. Ya know, of who could do this. It might be uncomfortable, but we have to know who hangs around this club and had the opportunity to do it.”

“As far as hangers-on? All the girls that throw their panties at the guys, especially at Jagger.”

She raised an eyebrow in interest. She’d heard Jagger sing here and there every once in a while and he sounded good, but she’d heard that sometimes he went to
Wet Wanda’s
and actually put on a show.

“Does he have that many women?”

“Yeah,” Tyler nodded his head. “If that boy wanted, he could have a different lady every night.”

Curiosity got the better of her. “Does he want one every night?”

Nah, there’s this chick at
Wet Wanda’s,
but they officially met at the drags in October. She was on the back of a pickup truck where there was a stripper pole. The truck hit a hole, and she bounced out. Apparently Jagger caught her, tits and all. He’s been pining after her ever since.”

“And you bitched him out, thinking he was after me today? That’s just wrong.”

“I got my point across though. Didn’t I?” he glared at her, not backing down from that argument.

“Anyway,” she told him, not wanting to get into it again. “Who else?”

“There’s Layne. He started prospecting the same time as Jagger. Jagger’s fixing to get a patch, but Layne is further away. There’s opportunity there. He’s everywhere we are.”

With her lip between her teeth, she wrote down the name, along with a couple of the more ardent Jagger Stone fangirls.

“Who else?” she tapped her finger to her chin.

“Everyone else is in these fucking photos.”

“Maybe that’s it,” she stopped shuffling through them. “Maybe they’ve placed themselves into certain situations so that they’ll never be suspected.”

“Okay then, who do you think would do something like that?” Tyler asked, almost afraid of what her answer would be. She was way too smart for her own good.

She swallowed hard. This would be suicide if she was wrong. “What about William or Lauren?”

“As in my president?”

“One in the same.”

Shock registered on his face. This just couldn’t be true.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“H
ow have you been since our last session?”

Meredith sat forward in her seat, a huge smile on her face. She had never been this excited to talk to Doc Jones.

“Tyler is no longer sleeping on the floor.”

Doc Jones clapped her hands together, excited for her patient. “That’s a huge step. How have you been handling it?”

“Not too bad if I do say so myself. I had a nightmare last night, but I don’t think it was necessarily because we had sexual intercourse. I think it was something else.”

“Define something else.”

“I recently decided I want to find out who did this to me.”

That was a bomb if Doc Jones had ever heard one. The progress Meredith had made was substantial, but this was more than she’d ever hoped for.

“Are you really sure you’re ready for this?”

Meredith nodded, crossing her legs. “I’m as sure as I can be. I’m sick of living with this hanging over my head. Tyler has promised to help me, and together we’re doing this.”

Carefully, Doc Jones sat forward. “I caution you again. Do not confuse the feelings you have about your recovery with the feelings you have for Tyler.”

She had known this was coming. “I understand where you’re coming from, and I can honestly tell you that you’re wrong. Even if I never got well, I’d still feel this way about Tyler, and I think he would feel this way about me.”

“Is he out there waiting on you?” she asked, pointing outside.

“Yeah.”

“Do you mind if we bring him into a session?”

Meredith thought about it for a moment. “No, I don’t. Whatever you feel is best. I don’t think we have anything to hide from one another. He’s already seen me at my worst.”

“Tyler, I’d like for you to come in here for a few minutes.”

He looked up from where he’d been texting on his phone. It struck him as odd that the doctor would request his presence, but if that’s what needed to happen for Meredith, he’d do it. Ambling his way into the office, he had a look at the both of them.

“Please have a seat.”

Carefully, he had a seat next to Meredith, afraid that his large frame would break the couch she sat on. “Is this safe,” he mumbled to her.

She did her best to withhold a giggle, but it escaped on its own. “Yeah, I think it’s okay.”

“The reason I invited you into this session, Tyler, is to see where the two of you are with one another. Meredith is very upfront and honest with me, I want to make sure you understand what you’re dealing with when it comes to her.”

This pissed him off. He saw red and did his best to keep his temper in check. “With all due respect, Doc,” he spat the term out like it was a bad piece of food. “I think I’m probably the
only
one who understands how to deal with her. I was the one who found her that night. It was me who took care of her, who held her when she cried, woke her up when she couldn’t wake up from her nightmares, and it’s me who’s promised to avenge her. That’s between the two of us, it doesn’t have to be approved by you.”

Meredith was taken aback by the passion with which he spoke his words. She knew how he felt about her, but to see the way he spoke about it, the way he defended his feelings. It warmed her heart even more.

“I agree with what he said. I don’t feel like I have to explain anything. I never set out for any of this to happen. It just did.”

Doc Jones smiled. “That’s what I wanted to hear. I wanted honest answers, not ones that you had time to cultivate and make sure were just right. I honestly think you’re in a good place here and I think he brings out the best in you.”

Letting out a breath, Meredith felt like they had passed a test of some sort.

“I do, however, caution you. The closer you get to the answers you seek, the more your memories may flare. You may need to go back to journaling regularly and taking your light sleeping pills. It affects everyone differently. Just be aware of what your body and mind are telling you.”

Tyler appreciated the doctor’s honesty as much as she’d appreciated his. “Should she come for more sessions? I can make sure she gets here if she needs to.”

“That’s up to her,” Doc Jones smiled. “At this point in time, I think we can move these down to monthly. Unless you have an episode. You seem to be handling yourself rather well.”

That meant the world to her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.