by Marla Monroe
“You’ve only known me a few days, Merrick. How can you know something like that for certain? I could be a total wimp and decided that everything was just too hard, too much for me to deal with,” she said, frowning at the man.
“Do you think that’s what happened?” he asked her back.
She sighed and shook her head. “No. I think Cassius is right. If I’d found out something that was that important, I wouldn’t have trusted the local authorities. I would have hightailed it out of there to show it where it would get noticed and make the most difference. Without knowing what it was that I might have discovered, I don’t know where I would have gone first,” she said.
“What might she have seen or overheard while out in the middle of the rainforest?” Dom asked.
Merrick and Cassius looked at each other over her head. Merrick sighed. “The thing is, depending on who is involved, anything from illegal poaching, exotic animal capture for private zoos, drug trafficking, to simple murder could lead to someone wanting her dead.”
“But they didn’t just want her dead. They had her, for weeks it looks like, and didn’t kill her. They tortured her, which indicates they needed some time of information from her,” Cassius finished.
“If they just wanted to know what she’d seen and if she’d told anyone,” Merrick continued, “they would eventually have killed her when she couldn’t or wouldn’t tell them and no evidence that anyone was on to them appeared. That puts us back to where we started since they hadn’t killed after at least two weeks.”
“That means they knew she had evidence of something and needed to know where it was since she obviously hadn’t had it on her body when they captured her,” Reece said, rubbing his hand over his close cropped hair.
“River. Until you remember what you saw or knew or where you stashed evidence of what you’d found out, you’re not going to be safe,” Dom told her with a frown.
“Jesus,” Merrick said.
Cassius rubbed her back. “Time for a nap. You need to rest, so we’ll worry about this tomorrow.”
“We need to get her medications filled, but if one of us shows up at a pharmacy, it would look suspicious,” Merrick said.
“Not a problem. Leave them with me,” Reece said. “I’ll get them picked up and handed off to one of our guys. They should be here by the time she wakes up.”
“If you need something for pain and aren’t allergic to anything, we have some leftover meds from when Murdock got stabbed a few months back,” Dom told her.
She hesitated, unsure that it was a good idea to take someone else’s meds.
“Are you hurting, River?” Merrick asked with a slight growl to his voice.
“A little. I’ll just take some Tylenol or something,” she said.
“What kind are they?” Merrick asked, ignoring her.
“Her prescription says Percocet, 7.5 milligrams,” Cassius told them.
Reece had hurried off to retrieve the bottle of leftover medication. He grinned as he returned. “Looks like we have a winner. Percocet, 7.5 milligrams. Doc really did us a favor this time.”
“Great,” Merrick said. He took the bottle from Reece and handed it to Cassius. “Get her settled and make sure she takes one.”
River started to argue, but one look at him told her Merrick wasn’t going to argue with her about it. She would tell Cassius that she didn’t need it when she got ready to lie down. He’d listen and let her have some Tylenol instead. After taking pain pills, River always felt like she’d gone on a drinking binge and didn’t want to wake up feeling that way.
“Take our old room. It’s clean. We’ve moved everything out now that we’re in the new house. Raven loves it. Can’t say I don’t like the added privacy, either,” Dom chuckled. “Nothing like getting interrupted by one of you clowns when we’re busy.”
Cassius grinned. “Yeah, I was waiting for one of us to lose our head every time we knocked and barged in, but it sure was fun.”
Dom glared at him, though his eyes still twinkled with amusement. She realized that he hadn’t minded all that much being walked in on while they’d obviously been having sex with their, um, old lady.
As Cassius led her out of the kitchen carrying a glass of water and the pill bottle, River couldn’t help but wonder where he was taking her. Dom had said for her to take their old room. Would she be isolated all alone? Would the guys be close to her so that she felt safe?
He turned and opened a door at one end of the long hall. She hesitated and he nodded his head for her precede him into the room. To her surprise, the room was a nice size with a complete bedroom suit with a king sized bed centered against one wall. It all looked old but in good shape and appeared clean. The room had been decorated in warm colors of gold and orange. Since there was plenty of light in the room, the colors weren’t too dark.
“It looks very nice. Is there a bathroom close by?” she asked.
“The door to the right outside the room. If it’s closed, someone’s in it. If it’s open, you’re welcome to it,” Cassius said. “Come on, sweet thing. Let’s get you settled. Here’s the pill and the water. Bottoms up.”
“I really don’t need anything that strong. Let me have some Tylenol. That will work just fine,” she said.
“You can bat those pretty doe eyes at me all you want, but it’s not going to change the fact that you’re in pain and need this pill.” Cassius set the water on the dresser and grabbed her hand, dropping a pill in it and closing her fingers around it. “Swallow it. You don’t want me to treat you like a kid and force you to swallow it.”
River felt the blood leave her face. She didn’t want him forcing her to do anything. She quickly swallowed the pain medication and grabbed the glass of water. Once she’d managed to down half of it, she handed the glass back to Cassius and walked over to the bed. Before she could start unlacing the boots and pulling them off, he was kneeling at her feet.
“Don’t even try to bend over, sweetness. You’ll hurt your ribs. I’ll get them. Do you want to leave your socks on for warmth or do you think you’ll be warm enough in bed? There’s another blanket over there on the chair if you need more covers,” Cassius said.
“I don’t like anything on my feet when I’m sleeping if I can get away with it. Take them off, too.”
Cassius had her socks and boots off in mere seconds. Then he helped her stand up and started to pull her shirt over her head. River gasped and grasped his fingers to stop him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Getting you ready for bed. You aren’t going to be comfortable with all of this on. You can sleep in one of my shirts if you want to. It will be big enough but not bulky.”
She frowned at him. “Then go get it and I’ll put it on when you leave.”
He gave her a slow evil grin but let go of the shirt and turned toward the door. He was only gone a few seconds. When he returned, he had an armful of things that he set on the dresser before pulling an overly large T-shirt off the top. The slogan on it had something to do with beer, not surprising. After he handed it to her, he pulled back the covers.
“Get dressed. I’ll be back in a few minutes to tuck you in. Don’t take too long.” He winked and spun around to walk out the door. It snapped shut behind him.
Muttering to herself about stubborn, bossy men, River carefully pulled off her clothes and pulled on the tee he’d brought her. It felt soft to her skin, making her grateful that she hadn’t been forced to sleep in the bulky clothes. Not five seconds after she’d climbed into the surprisingly comfortable bed, Cassius walked back into the room wearing a huge grin and not much else. She was sure her mouth gaped open like a fish out of water.
“Where are your clothes?” she finally managed to gasp out.
“I took them off. I don’t like anything on me when I’m sleeping either, but”—he dropped the towel he’d wrapped around his waist—“I am wearing boxers for your sake. I had to dig down to the bottom of the drawer to even find any. I don�
��t wear them as a rule.”
She frowned. “You wear briefs?”
He laughed, walking closer to the bed. “No, I don’t wear any underwear. Cuts down on the laundry.”
She was sure her eyes were even wider than the doe’s he’d compared them to earlier when trapped in headlights. Why was she shocked? They were bikers and it had already become obvious that Cassius liked to embarrass her. She closed her mouth and struggled to relax her eyes in hopes she wouldn’t look so naive. She wasn’t, not really.
“Fine. Then why aren’t you in your room if you’re going to bed? Then you wouldn’t have to wear them if they bother you so much.” She was proud of how strong her voice sounded.
“Oh, I’m going to bed in my bed, sweetness. Move over. This is my bed now.”
* * * *
Cassius eased out from beneath the covers hoping he didn’t wake River up. She needed the rest. Thank goodness the pill had worked its magic so quickly. He wanted to find out what more Turk had found out that he’d held back with River present.
She hadn’t been pleased when he’d climbed into bed with her. Originally he had only planned on lying on top of the covers fully clothed until she fell asleep, but her sassy mouth was too much to resist. He’d decided to push her buttons and pushed the envelope instead. The feel of all that silky soft skin against his had nearly been more than he could stand. He longed to touch her and taste her in more ways than one.
When he’d climbed into the bed next to her, River had scooted all the way to the other side and had attempted to climb out. He’d quickly pulled her back to the middle of the bed and held her there, careful of her injuries, especially the broken ribs.
Now, watching her sleep, he wanted nothing more than to climb back into the bed with her and let Merrick fill him in later. He knew that wouldn’t be a smart move on his part though. Not only would he end up blowing their chance with her by pushing her too fast, but Merrick would kick his ass as soon as he found out what he’d done already. Cassius sighed and backed slowly away from the bed.
By the time he’d dressed and made it to the kitchen, the other men had left. He fixed a couple of sandwiches and grabbed a beer. They’d be in the sanctuary where they held all official meetings. The garage was closed down by the look of the crew milling around in the den area. Several of them nodded at him as he passed through. Jugs and several of the other ladies were sitting around talking as he slipped behind the bar and knocked on the door. When it opened, he walked inside and took a seat next to his brother.
“Did I miss anything important?” he asked, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.
“Nope. We were just talking about the reports we go in on what the Sons were up to. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. I’m more interested in what The Skulls are doing right now, outside of trying to track your woman down,” Dom said.
“She’s not our woman,” Merrick said in a gruff voice.
“Yet,” Reece said with a soft smile. “I’d recognize that possessive streak coming out in you from a mile away.”
“Bullshit,” Merrick argued.
“We can argue this later. Right now, we need to talk about the rest of what Turk found out. As soon as he gets off the phone over there, we’ll continue.” Dom nodded over to where Turk was standing against the far wall talking to someone.
Merrick turned to Cassius. “Did she fight you over taking the pain pill?”
“Well, she started to, but I told her I’d just treat her like a child and shove it down her throat if she argued about it. That was all it took. I was kind of surprised,” he admitted.
Merrick nodded. “She was a lot more tired than she wanted to admit. The doc only said she could ride a short distance. He didn’t realize we were going to come all the way back here. I’m sure it exhausted her.”
“Not to mention the run-in with The Skulls. Damn, she was good though. She played it just right without going over the top.” Cassius watched his brother’s expression. He wasn’t letting much slip.
“Don’t go getting attached to her, brother. You know she’s going to jump ship first opportunity,” Merrick warned him.
“Not if we convince her to change her mind about leaving,” he said.
Merrick all but snarled at him. “Are you fucking crazy? She’s not going to hang around with a pair of bikers when she’s used to traveling the world.”
“A pair of bikers. Sounds like you’re at least on board with sharing her,” Cassius pointed out.
Before either of them could say anything more, Turk returned to the table and kicked his chair back so he could sit down. The irritation in his movements sang out loud and clear. He scrubbed his hands over his face a few times then sighed.
“This is bigger than we thought. When I came up with a lot of dead ends, I put out some feelers to see if anyone had any idea what might be going on. Whatever it is River saw or heard, it involves the CIA and a few other alphabet soup groups that aren’t officially associated with the government,” he said.
“Fuck!” Dom and Merrick said at the same time. Cassius just held his tongue. He had a sickening feeling it would only get worse.
“So what did you find out?” Reece asked.
“There are several classified ops going on in the area right now, including drugs, poaching, and illegal mining. From what I can glean, there are two major drug operations and one smaller one. Of the two bigger focuses, one is situated along the Negro River in Brazil. There’s a faction of the local government that has been trying to roust them out for the last six months with little success. Unofficially, we have an operation in place working it. That means there are undercover agents inside the operation.”
“So there’s a good chance she stumbled on one of the active missions down there,” Cassius said.
“That would be my guess. The problem is, without official recognition of the operation, she’s a liability for the US as well as the bad guys,” Turk told them.
“Hell,” Merrick said. “Where the fuck do we start trying to unravel this mess?”
The room grew quiet as the reality of what they were up against sank in. Cassius felt as if his gut was a tangled knot inside of him. How could they possibly figure out something that had happened thousands of miles away?
“Honestly, I think our best bet is to work backward,” Turk finally said.
Everyone, himself included stared at the man as if he’d lost his freaking mind. How the hell could they start at the end to figure out who was after her and why? It had all started in South America. That’s where they would find answers, right?
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Turk was on to something though. The tough part of that was knowing that the key to moving in that direction lay with River and her lost memory. She needed to remember what it was she had seen or heard and where she had been headed when she’d landed in New Mexico.
“I don’t like it, but Turk’s right,” he said.
“That means River’s got to regain her memory and fast,” Merrick reminded him with a glare. “Right now, she’s too weak to push and we don’t have a lot of time before someone figures out where she is.”
“We’ll start out with what I do have. Give her a day or two at the most then start working with her,” Turk suggested.
Merrick held up his hand and leaned back in the chair thinking. Everyone knew the man well enough to know that meant he was arranging things in his head to come up with a plan. He and Cassius were both able to compartmentalize information into files that were as intricate as they were detailed with information. They each had specific areas where they had more expertise than the other. He had no idea what Merrick was focusing on, but he prayed it would be a way to help their woman.
Just the sound of that phrase in his mind settled him. They’d kidded around some about sharing a woman when some of the other men had gone that route, but neither of them had really thought they would find a woman worth the effort such a relationship would involve. Now that they h
ad, it was in their faces to really consider it. First, however, they had to keep her safe.
Finally Merrick nodded and drew in a deep breath. “Turk, we need everything you can get us on her trip to South America and everything you can get us on what happened to her once she arrived back. We’re going to slowly walk her through the events in her memory as it unfolds for her.”
“I don’t understand,” Reece said.
“Think about when you are trying to find something you misplaced. When you walk yourself back through the events surrounding the object, you are able to locate it by association. You remember that you had your keys when you were driving home. That placed them in the car. Then you remember dropping them on the counter in the kitchen on the way through the room. That leads to remembering that you were hot and sweaty and you took a shower. Before it’s over with, you remember that you also left your cell phone next to them and when you got out of the shower, it was ringing so you ran to grab it, knocking the keys to the floor under the bar stool. You planned to pick them up after you finished your call, but got sidetracked.”
Everyone just stared at Merrick like he’d spouted out the Canterbury Tales in perfect Old English. Then Reece’s mouth lifted in a lopsided grin.
“Glad I don’t think like you do. I’d be worn out and forget what I was talking about before I finished.”
“Screw you,” Merrick said good naturedly.
“You’ve got a woman now for that,” he said.
Chapter Seven
Something was chasing her. River wasn’t sure if it was a wild animal or a man, but she knew it meant danger. That same danger had been stalking her for days. It had followed her back to Manaus and again in New Mexico. She’d been sure she had covered her tracks, but she wasn’t a spy. It was only a matter of time until they managed to outsmart her and she’d be at their mercy. River had to ditch the evidence and make sure it ended up in safe hands in case she didn’t make it. But where?