Trust in Me: A Biker Erotic Romance (Dark Riders MC) (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Two hours later, the tow truck arrives and takes my car away. We follow it to the place where I buy my tires. Then, Charlie takes me home while they fix me up. We are walking up the path to my door when Charlie puts a hand on my stomach, indicating I should stop. “Wait here a minute,” Charlie says quietly before walking the last half-dozen steps up to my front door. He doesn’t pull his gun which I know he has on him, but he looks like he wants to.

When he reaches my door, he gives it a gentle push without touching the knob. When the door swings open, I can feel my heart leap into my throat. Charlie holds his hand up for me to wait. Then, he does pull his gun from its hidden holster. Easing the door open, Charlie squeezes inside.

I hardly breathe until Charlie steps out a few minutes later, the gun once again out of sight. “The place is empty. It looks alright to me, but you need to come see what’s missing.”

I carefully look the house over, but can’t find anything out of place. “They broke in, but didn’t steal anything?” I ask, talking to myself.

“I don’t think this is a burglary. I think it’s a warning.”

“Darren,” I breathe.

“Yeah,” Charlie says. “Get a bag and a few things. You need to come stay with me.”

“Charlie, I can’t do that!”

“You’re going to stay here? Tonight? With a broken lock on your house and someone stalking you?”

When he puts it like that, I reconsider. “Wait here a minute,” I say, hurrying into my bedroom.

Once I’m packed, I throw my bag into Charlie’s car. We make a stop at Home Depot and order a new door and arrange to have it installed. We also pick up a hasp and a padlock. We quickly screw it into the door and frame to provide some security for the house until the door can be replaced.

***

I spend the next three days at Charlie’s apartment and I’m a wreck. Charlie tries to calm me, but I’m jumping at shadows, except when I’m with him. Just the way he comports himself makes me feel safe and secure. At night, the fact that he is sleeping in the living room with his weapon near at hand allows me to sleep.

Wednesday my door is finally replaced. I can move back into my own house. The problem is that I find that I don’t want to leave the security of Charlie’s company. I wrestle with the problem all day at work. I finally decide that I can’t stay there alone. Not the first night anyway.

“Charlie,” I say when he picks up the phone. “My door is fixed, but can you stay with me just this one night?” I ask sheepishly.

“Why don’t you just stay at my place?”

“Because I need to get used to sleeping at my own place again. But, I’m just nervous this first night, that’s all. I haven’t seen Darren in the last couple of days, but I can feel him watching me.”

Charlie is silent for a moment. “Okay. I’ll see you there about six. I’ll bring your stuff.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Charlie.”

“See you in a couple of hours,” he says before hanging up the phone.

CHAPTER SIX

True to his word, Charlie pulls into my drive just minutes before six. I had arrived about twenty minutes before and realized there is a problem. Charlie’s apartment is on the second floor. I feel safe in his bedroom alone because the windows are high off the ground. My house is a small single story with low windows.

I’m still stewing over the problem as we eat dinner. “How’re you doing?” Charlie asks. Before I can answer the doorbell chimes. “Expecting anyone?” he asks motioning me to keep my seat as he rises to answer the door.

“No one,” I say shaking my head, my blood running cold.

I stay out of sight of the door, but I can hear Charlie and Darren talking. “What do you want, Darren?” Charlie asks coldly.

“I saw that there had been some trouble. Such a nice neighborhood, too. Thought I would stop by and see if I could help.”

“Funny you would notice something like that from just riding by,” Charlie says.

“Yeah. I have good eyes.”

“Then you should be able to see the door is fixed and you can be on your way.”

“Yeah. Okay. I get the message. You think you can protect her. I guess we’ll see. What she needs is to come with me. Let the Knives protect her. Then stuff like this might not happen again.”

“Maybe,” Charlie allows. “It’s always chicken-shit guys that do stuff like this. Cutting tires. Breaking into houses. They always seem to do it when nobody is around. I wonder why that is?” Charlie pauses for a moment. “I think it is because they’re just pussies,” he says, his voice laced with contempt.

“You better watch your tongue,
Charles.”
Darren says. “One day your mouth is going to write a check your ass can’t cash. Tell Aubrey I’ll see her around.”

I hear the door slam and Charlie appears from around the corner. “Shit! Charlie, what are we going to do?” I ask. I have never been as scared as I am at this moment.

“We’re going back to my place. Get your things. I guess all the Knives were out there. Eight or ten of them at anyway. At least at my place they have to come through the door.”

I throw several things into my bag again without regard to color or style. I just want to get the hell out of here. When Charlie opens the front door, I can see at least six guys leaning against their bikes at the curb in front of my house. “Fuck,” I breathe.

Charlie closes the door. “I’m afraid the shit is about to get deep. I’m going out first. Shut the door behind me. Leave your bag. When I pull up in front of the door, you run like hell and get the car. Got it?”

I nod, mute with fear. I used to think of myself as one ass-kicking-biker-bitch, but I’m quaking in my boots now. Charlie opens the door and I close it behind him. When I hear his car start with a growl, I put my hand on the knob. I hear his car wail up through the power band, so I throw the door open. Charlie is just skidding to a stop in the grass in front of my house, opening the car door as he does. I jump into the car and even before I’m in good, he’s dumping the clutch. The four wheels of his car spin up my grass, as he does. I’m still trying to get buckled when we bail over the curb and into the road. We clip a bike on the way past.

Charlie hooks the car left and struggles to control the slide, as the car scrabbles for grip. The turbocharged motor screams. Finally, the car hooks up and we are gone.

“Here they come,” Charlie says gritting his teeth. “You’d better hold on.”

Charlie flings the car around a corner. The tires wail in protest, as he hangs the car out in a tidy little drift. I grit my teeth hard to keep from screaming in terror, as I hold on to the dash and the grab handle above the door. I’ve been riding bikes with Charlie for more than three years, but I had no idea he could handle a car like this. I wish I could say I’m impressed, but I’m too scared.

We get caught at a light at the intersection of the main road leading to my house. I look behind us and can see at least nine guys on bikes hauling ass toward us. Charlie revs the engine hard and dumps the clutch. He launches the car into traffic. He darts and weaves for a few minutes, cutting his passes way too fine. He creates a cacophony of horns and tire squeals in his wake. Finally, he slows to match the pace of the traffic and relaxes. “I think we lost them, but there’s been a change of plans. We need to go someplace other than my house. They’ll go there looking for us. We need to find a hotel or something like that. Somewhere we can get the car out of sight until we can sort this out.”

I nod, still unable to speak.

“It’s going to be okay, Aubrey.”

I can feel the tears threatening, but I will them away. “I can’t thank you enough, Charlie,” I finally say.

“It’s okay,” Charlie says with a small smile. “I won’t let anything happen to you. You can trust me.”

Less than an hour later, Charlie signs us into the DoubleTree, as Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hill. He asks for a room at the back. We get into the room, then he goes back out and parks the car a few blocks away at the Bohemian. Charlie’s car is a bright blue Subaru WRX STi with gold wheels. It is fairly easy to spot. We hope that if the car is parked in the lot of a different hotel it might throw the Knives off the scent, if they find it.

I wait, pacing in the room until Charlie gets back. I nearly jump out of my skin when he raps on the door. The moment he is in the room, I pull him into my arms and lay my face into his shoulder. I need to feel the touch of someone.

He wraps me up in his arms. “It’s going to be okay, Aubrey.”

I say nothing for a long time as we stand there. Charlie slowly strokes my head. “You got a room with only one bed.” I finally say, as I begin to relax. “Isn’t your girlfriend going to object?”

“I didn’t have a lot of options,” Charlie says. “I’ll sleep in the chair or something.”

I pull out of his arms. “And the girlfriend?” I ask.

Charlie gives me a soft smile. “No girlfriend.”

“Why not?” I ask, genuinely curious. Finally, seeing Charlie as his true self, women should be falling all over him.

“I don’t know,” he says with a shrug. “Girls just don’t dig me. The good girls are kind of put off by the fact that I ride a bike. The bad girls…I guess they don’t like the way I look. Not bad boy enough for them, I suppose. Besides, I told you, I have a hard time trusting people and that makes it tough, too.”

I suddenly feel bad for Charlie. “You can trust me, Charlie,” I say softly.

“I trust you, Aubrey,” Charlie says simply.

“No. I mean I won’t hurt you. I had no idea who you were until these last few days. You’re completely different than I thought you were. Where did you learn to drive like that?”

“I don’t know. It’s just something I learned to do. I like to drive and ride fast,” Charlie says. Then, he pauses. “So, the ‘different’ part, is that good or bad?”

“It’s good. I like what I see. You combine the best traits of a nice guy and a bad-ass. I know we like to pretend we’re bad-asses in the
Dark Riders
, but really we’re just a bunch of regular guys making a few extra bucks. I can’t see anyone else in the club standing off eight or nine guys like you did at my house.”

“They’re not stupid enough to do something in broad daylight. Darren may be crazy, but he’s not that crazy.” Charlie points out.

“Maybe, but that still took a shit-load of guts.” I sit down on the bed, suddenly so very tired. “What are we going to do tomorrow? I have to go to work and so do you. We can’t stay here long. It’ll bankrupt us both.”

“I’ll take you to work and pick you up afterwards. Don’t go out at lunch. We’ll figure something out then,” Charlie says sinking into a chair.

I look at Charlie and I can feel my lips pull into a smile.

“What are you smiling at?” Charlie asks.

“You. I was thinking of you as my knight in shining armor.”

Charlie smiles slightly. “Some knight.”

“I don’t know. You’ve impressed the hell out of me so far.” I pause, thinking over what I want to say. “Charlie, I don’t want you to sleep in the chair tonight. Will you hold me tonight? Please.”

I see Charlie begin to squirm. “Aubrey. I, um, don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Why? We didn’t bring anything to sleep in, so we’ll be in our clothes. You were holding me a couple of minute ago. I just…you made me feel safe when you were holding me.”

Charlie relaxes into another of his soft smiles. “Okay. Sure. That’ll be a lot more comfortable than the chair. I sure as hell won’t be sleeping much tonight anyway.”

I laugh. “Yeah. Me either.” I pat the bed and scoot over. It’s not even ten yet, but I’m just exhausted. Charlie slides in behind me and I snuggle in close. Charlie’s arms close around me and I notice he is very careful to not touch me in a sexual way. Charlie really is a nice guy. I close my eyes and enjoy the contact.