Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series) (23 page)

The man turned her over, and she fought to look at him, notice anything about him that may help her later. She squinted up at him, but he wore a black mask and there was no light. She did see blue eyes so she knew he was Caucasian.

“You keep your nose out of club business or even worse will happen to you next time,” he threatened.

She could do nothing more than nod as tears streamed down her face. He began to get up, but as he did he leaned over her, and his fist knocked her first to the left and then to the right. She curled up into a ball, trying to protect herself as he hit her again and again. When he was finished, he pulled a dollar bill from his pocket and threw it down on her chest.

“For services rendered.”

As he walked away, she heard his phone ring with a ringtone that would forever be implanted into her brain. A little girl sang
Happy Birthday dear daddy
. This man was someone’s father; the thought made her even sicker.

She waited a full five minutes before raising herself to her knees and pulling her pants up. Her body screamed in pain, and she groaned loudly. Swaying, she wiped the blood from her face and looked around slowly. Her vision swam as she fought to drag herself up to where she had parked her car. There were no steps to take her to the parking lot, and her body protested in agony with every step she took. It had been through a lot the past few days. Just as she crested the top of the hill and pulled herself up, she heard the rumbling of a bike echo through the night.

Shivering, despite the fact that she now sweated, she pulled her tattered shirt tightly around her body, keeping her head down. She had no idea where her jacket had gone, and she hadn’t thought to look for it. Meredith didn’t know if this bike was friend or foe and, to be honest, she had few friends when it came to the biker community. That was now painfully true. The bike pulled in next to her car, and it took all the courage she possessed to look at the rider. Her lips trembling, her teeth chattering, she cried out when she saw that it was Tyler.

“Help me,” she whispered, her lip quivering as the tears and shakes overtook her body.

“Good God, Meredith. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. What the hell happened?” he asked as he took his helmet off and strode quickly over to meet her.

“Take me home,” she pleaded.

Taking in the bruising high on her cheekbones, around her eyes, and the blood caking her lips, he shook his head. “Home, hell. You need a doctor.”

“No doctor! Just take me home.”

He cursed, he had been too late in warning her. He’d gone to her duplex and waited for hours. When she hadn’t shown up, he’d taken off, searching the city for her car. Finally seeing it sitting in this empty parking lot had struck him in the solar plexus. Pulling out his pre-pay, he punched in a familiar number.

“Yeah, I found her, but she’s been beaten badly. If you aren’t home, you go check on Denise right now. I have a feelin’ this is just the beginning.”

He hung up and held his hand out to her. “Give me your keys. I’m taking you someplace safe.”

Meredith wanted to argue with him, tell him that she didn’t need to be taken anywhere besides home. Instead she handed him the keys she’d had in her pocket the whole time. Listlessly laying them in his palm, she sobbed.

“Why didn’t I use those? I had them in my pocket. Why didn’t I use it to stab his fucking eyes out?”

Tyler didn’t know what to do. If he tried to put his arms around her, would she flinch? Did she need comfort?

“You did the best you could with what you had, and that’s all anybody can ask.”

His calm words washed over her, and he directed her to the passenger side of her car. Once he had her in, he made another call on his cell. In the distance she could hear him asking a Prospect to come and get his bike. When he got in behind the wheel, she knew they were heading for the clubhouse, and she had to wonder exactly what kind of reception would be waiting her there.

Chapter Twenty-Five

D
enise sighed deeply; it had been a very long day. She and Mandy had decided to completely clean the house they had been calling home, and her body was screaming. It was obvious to her she needed to start a workout program once her body allowed her to actually bend her arms after this. Of course Mandy hadn’t felt anything, she’d run off with Andrew as soon as the sun had gone down. They had started having bonfires at night with other club kids and some of the younger club members. It had bothered her at first, but now she realized just how much she enjoyed her peaceful nights. She also loved that her kids had met others who lived this life and who understood it. The development of her kids was
the
most important thing to her, and in the past few days she realized just how much of a home
they
had made here. Their independence gave her independence, and that was a great gift that she had not counted on when she started this.

“Oh shower, how I love you,” she moaned, letting the hot water rush over her sore muscles. Just maybe she’d be able to walk in the morning. If she played her cards right. When her fingers were pruned and the water began running cool, she got out. The hot water heater in this house was huge, so if she’d used it all, she had been in there quite a while.

Shutting the water off and stepping out, she winced as she reached over to grab her towel. The muscles in her back protested, and she groaned. Wrapping the towel around her body, she grabbed her brush and tried to pull it through hair made curly by the shower. The steam in the bathroom at least made her muscles feel pliant, and she felt like she could move just a little bit better.

“I am in such bad shape,” she groaned. This must be how most women felt after doing Zumba for the first time.

Carefully walking into the bedroom, she sat on the bed and unwrapped the towel from her body. Downstairs, she could hear the front door shut and smiled, it was about time Liam got home.

“Liam, I need a massage,” she yelled, leaning back on the bed and striking a pose. She had never done anything like that, but maybe it was time she started. Denise hoped that he would appreciate it.

She waited for a few minutes, and when there was no answer she called out again. “Liam?”

The stairs creaked, but she noticed that she hadn’t heard the heavy stomping of his motorcycle boots. There had been no noise of him putting his keys on the table in the hallway, she hadn’t heard the shuffling of mail that he usually brought in. Something wasn’t right. The hairs on her arms stood on end, and she began to feel uneasy. Her aching body protested as she quickly sat up, grabbing sweats and a shirt that Liam had left beside the bed after his workout earlier in the day. They swallowed her whole, and she cursed as she tried desperately to tie the drawstring on the pants. The bottom of the pants went well over the edges of her feet, and she fought to kick them out of her way. Her hands shook violently, but she finally got them tied and tiptoed her way back into the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it before sinking down in between the toilet and the wall. If anything happened, maybe it would offer her some sort of protection.

Her heart beat rapidly, threatening to come out of her chest. She felt like one of those crazy girls in a horror movie waiting to die. Trying to regulate the breath rushing out of her mouth, she heard the floor creak in the bedroom and slapped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She wished she had something, anything, to protect herself with. The door handle jiggled as someone tried to turn it. Moments passed and she thought that maybe the person on the other side of the door had left. She was just about to get up when muffled gunshots sounded and bullets came through the door near the door knob. It felt like time was moving in slow motion. She could swear she saw the bullets whizzing by with her eyes.

That was it; she screamed bloody murder and cursed herself for backing into a corner. Now she had nowhere to go. A glass jar sat on the counter, holding q-tips. Thinking quickly, she grabbed it, throwing it as the door opened. Sheer luck finally won out as it hit the intruder in the head, and he screamed, blood pouring out of the knit mask that covered his face. He was tall and she was willing to bet he was strongly built. He took up most of the doorway that he stood in. If he approached her for hand-to-hand combat, he would likely kill her, and she knew that she couldn’t allow that to happen.

Downstairs, the front door crashed open, and Denise heard Liam’s voice yelling for her.

“Upstairs. There’s a guy with a gun!” She screamed, hoping with everything that she had that Liam could save her.

The man in the doorway glared at her. The only thing visible were blue eyes, and it looked like he was contemplating what he wanted to do with her. They both could hear Liam scrambling up the stairs, and the guy with the gun made a split decision. He turned, aiming the gun at the window in the bedroom, and shot it out, jumping from the second story just as Liam made it into the doorway. Liam held his own gun and yelled as the unknown man jumped from his bedroom window.

“You okay?” he asked Denise as he saw her standing in the bathroom, her face pale and her body shaking.

“Yeah, thanks to you. I hit him in the head, he probably can’t make it far,” she informed him, motioning to all the glass on the floor.

“That’s my girl.” He pulled out his cell, letting the person on the other end know that Denise was fine and what had happened. Hanging up, he motioned toward her.

“Did he hurt you?”

Shaking her head, she answered. “No, I hid in the bathroom, like a wuss.”

“Nothing wrong with stayin’ alive, baby.” He crossed the threshold and scooped her up in his arms.

Hugging herself tightly to his body, she buried her head in his shoulder and let him know what her worst thoughts had been. “I really thought I was a goner there for a minute. I thought it was you at first, and I was lying naked on the bed.”

He shuddered, knowing just what could have happened. Knowing the horrors that had been done to Meredith, he breathed easier. “Thank God you figured out it wasn’t. Pack some stuff. We’re goin’ on lockdown at the clubhouse. They hit Meredith tonight too.”

Her blood ran cold. Something felt off. “What do you mean they hit her?”

Framing her face with his hands, he told her the news he didn’t want to tell. But he knew that he had to be honest with her. “She was beaten and raped. Tyler found her and brought her to the clubhouse. Right now she needs her friend. Can you pack some clothes for her?”

Was that what the man had been planning to do to her? Was this a planned attack on the club? “Was he going to do that to me?” she asked, eyes wide.

“I don’t know, but at this point we have to assume the worst. That’s why we’re going on lockdown. Even my damn mother will be there,” he grumbled.

She knew there was danger if his mother was going to be included in the protected bunch. “Let me get a bag. Are the kids already there?”

“They are,” he confirmed. “You want me to pack for us while you pack for them?”

“We’re just all gonna sleep out in the open?” she asked, wondering what kind of clothes she should pack. Her hands shook with the residual adrenaline that coursed through her body. She dropped her bag twice before she finally picked it up and took a deep breath.

“No darlin’. Brothers have dorm rooms,” he put his hands on her shoulders, calming her with his mere presence. He knew that what had transpired had affected her.

She didn’t know what that meant, but she assumed this was another lesson in the world of a motorcycle club.