Heaven Hill Series - Complete Series

by Laramie Briscoe

  “The reporter is taken care of. She won’t be a problem after today.” The voice was low, sounding like a movie villain.

  Richard’s eyebrows drew together in question, and his stomach dropped. Whatever this was, wasn’t good. “Who are you, and what the hell are you talking about? I never ordered a hit on a reporter.”

  The voice on the other end of the phone caused goose bumps to break out over his arms and neck. This did not feel good.

  “You did, and I want the other half of my payment.” The steel of the voice told Richard not to argue, but he wouldn’t be blamed for something he damn well didn’t do.

  “I don’t know who the fuck you are. I’m not sure how to explain that to you any more clearly than I already have,” Richard argued.

  “Well then we have a bit of a problem, Richard Joyce, because I know everything about you. I did a job in your name and was paid half for it up front, and now I want my other half. I want that money by the end of business tomorrow.”

  The dial tone in his ear was the only thing that told him the phone call was over.

  Richard cursed loudly. Someone had set him up and now he had two people gunning for him. He slammed the phone down and ran a hand through his hair. It was time to either pull the plug on himself or pull the trigger on his plan – whichever he decided it had to be done now. Either way, he figured this was the end and he’d be dead soon anyhow.

  Steele sat in front of the bank of monitors that watched the numerous interests the club had around the city and beyond. They were almost certain that Richard was going to hit one of them, they just weren’t sure which. He stretched lazily. It felt like he’d been sitting there forever.

  “Everything good?” Liam asked as he took a seat next to the other man.

  “Everything’s quiet. Too quiet really. I expect something to happen very soon. It hasn’t ever been this quiet. Spooky quiet.”

  Just as he said that, a group of men appeared on one of the screens. They wore all black. From hooded sweatshirts to black pants, gloves, and boots. The two of them watched as they broke into a warehouse and breached the front door.

  “This is it. Get everybody ready, it’s time to move.”

  Chaos erupted inside the clubhouse as everyone went about the jobs they had been assigned. The tension was thick as the women and a few Prospects watched the patched members leave. Everyone all hoped for the same thing, that the men would come back intact and no one else would get hurt.

  Hours later, Denise walked out the back door of the clubhouse where a concrete porch had been poured. Sitting down on a lounge chair, she sighed. The tension in the clubhouse was too much for her to deal with any longer. In order to breathe, she felt that she needed to be somewhere else. Somewhere she could let her shoulders drop and lungs expand.

  “This is the part that sucks, huh?” She looked up as Roni came to sit next to her.

  Denise chuckled dryly, running a hand through her hair. “Yeah, I’ve never been very patient anyway. I’m not used to wondering if violence will touch my family or not. It unnerves me a little bit.”

  Roni could understand how someone who hadn’t been brought up in the lifestyle could be worried or confused. She chose to believe that everyone would come back unscathed. They always had. It was the only way she could get through it herself.

  “I’ve never wondered if someone wouldn’t come home. How weird is that? I’ve always believed Dad and Liam can handle themselves. Does that make me odd?”

  Denise laughed. “Not at all. I wish I could be like that. I’ve never been the type of person that just let life be. I always want control of it. I’m scared of the unknown – always have been. I guess that’s what happens when you get pregnant with twins as a teenager.”

  She watched as her friend looked back into the clubhouse where her mom sat on a couch by herself. It was obvious from the look in her eyes that she wanted to go sit next to Lauren, offer her comfort of some sort. Possibly work on their relationship in a way that Liam didn’t want to do.

  “You don’t have to babysit me, ya know? Why don’t you go spend some time with your mom while the guys aren’t here? You can do it with no animosity or looks of death from Liam.”

  Roni smiled. “Maybe you can soften him up. But until then, I think I’m gonna take you up on that.”

  Denise watched as the other woman went into the house and again sighed. She was keyed up and unnerved. She didn’t want her kids or anyone else to see it, but she was feeling wild with nerves. Walking to the edge of the porch, she wrapped her arms around her body. It was a warm night, but there was a chill she felt from somewhere else. She looked up at the night sky, amazed again by how much she could see out here in the middle of nowhere. Knowing that Liam could look up and see the same sky calmed her a little. When she tilted her head back, a fist wrapped in her hair and pulled it sharply. She made the motion to scream, but a gloved hand went over her open mouth. She inhaled, a sweet smell making its way into her nostrils, lethargy immediately claimed her body and she went limp.

  “Can’t believe the VP left you out here with no protection. Denise Cunningham, you’re coming with me.”

  Later, members of the club arrived back at the clubhouse, all pissed.

  “Is it over?” Roni asked, hope in her voice.

  “Not even close. It apparently hasn’t even started. When we got there, no one was there. The lock wasn’t even broken. I saw that damn lock break on the video. I don’t like the feel of this,” Liam grunted, getting off the bike.

  He strode through the clubhouse, frustration apparent in every step he took. This man was playing with them all, and he couldn’t expect for it to continue.

  “Where’s Denise?” he asked Roni. He wanted to bury his feelings in his woman for an hour or two. She took away the tension he always seemed to feel.

  “She was out back on the porch when I last saw her. Mom and I have been talking for a while.”

  Panic seized him and cold seeped into his muscles. “You left her out there by herself?”

  “Yeah, she’s a big girl and we are safe here, remember?” She didn’t like his tone, didn’t appreciate the implications of it.

  “Safe is a motherfucking relative term with this asshole. You better hope she’s still out there.”

  Dread curled up in Roni’s stomach. For some reason she felt scared, and her breath came in short gasps. She watched as Liam went out to the back porch and then turned around, ice in his eyes.

  “She’s not out there, Roni. Where the fuck is she? How long have you been in here?”

  Roni tried desperately to remember what time she had come back inside the building. The conversation with Lauren had been exactly what she needed and time had flown by. “A few hours maybe?”

  “You don’t know where she’s been for a few hours? After I deal with him, I’m gonna deal with you. Sister or not. Let me guess, you probably had something to do with it,” he pointed his eyes towards Lauren. “I’m sure you’d pay off anyone who wanted to hurt me.”

  “No,” Lauren shook her head, but he cut her off with a glare.

  For the first time in her life, Roni was scared of her brother. She saw the murderous rage in his eyes and the look that made other men cower. Roni tried to pull him into her arms, just like she had a million times before, but he shrugged her off and went in search of William. He saw Steele on the way and shouted.

  “Track that motherfucker’s cell phone right now. He’s got Denise.”

  His brothers had heard him shouting, they had heard the fear and panic in his voice. Everyone had come running. In the corner of his eye, he could see Mandy and Drew. For the first time in his life, his mother did something that helped him. She herded them back into the kids’ area. It wasn’t quick enough for him not to see Drew’s eyes. The disappointment in those eyes killed him. He always swore when he’d had his own children that he’d never see that in their eyes. He’d be damned if it happened now. Walking over to that room, he motioned for Drew and
Mandy, the creak of the leather gloves covering his fingers loud in the quiet room.

  “Something’s happened to your mom,” he bent down so that he was more on their level. “But don’t worry, I’m gonna bring her back.”

  Drew’s eyes were always the more serious of the two. “I’m counting on you.” He sounded so much like an adult that Liam did a double take to make sure he hadn’t grown a foot and sprouted a beard. “We’ve never counted on anybody before,” he told Liam, putting his arm around Mandy.

  “He’s right. Nobody’s ever been there for us besides Mom, so we’re counting on you to bring her home.” Mandy was not usually the serious of the two, but her eyes were as somber as he had ever seen them.

  The words those children spoke to him tore at his heart. He knew that he couldn’t let them down. He couldn’t let Denise down. Now that he’d finally found something worth living for, he couldn’t let it slip through his fingers. Liam would not be a quitter the way his mother had quit on him. He would find Richard Joyce and tear him apart limb by limb. Vengeance would be his, and they would never worry about him again.

  War had just been declared.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “You know Liam will come for me.”

  Denise said it in a sing-song voice because she had no doubt that he would be there soon, guns blazing, pissed the hell off, and ready to take her home. She did it to deliberately taunt the man who had taken her. It pissed her off that he had come into her backyard and taken her unwillingly.

  Richard glared at the woman, his hard eyes telling her to shut up. Since she had awakened from the chloroform an hour ago, she had not stopped talking. He had listened in the beginning because he hoped that she would say something he could use. Instead, what she had spoken about were things that he already knew. It was now getting on his nerves, and he was starting to get sick of it.

  To throw her off, he smirked at her, giving her a wink. “I’m countin’ on it, darlin’.”

  The skeevy way he smiled made her want to puke. Was this the man who’d raped Meredith? Was he the one who caused all the issues that were going on with the club right now? What else could she find out? Maybe she could help the club in the way a member’s girlfriend normally did.

  “Are you gonna rape me the way you raped Meredith?” Her eyes were clear, and she showed no fear as she asked him the thing she wanted to know most.

  That question took him aback. “Let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t rape, nor did I have the reporter raped. I’m surprised that you came right out and asked me that though. Maybe you do have the backbone that I originally didn’t think you had. That’s pretty ballsy Ms. Cunningham.”

  Her gut told her that he might be telling the truth, but for some reason she just couldn’t let this go. She wanted to do something to help her friend, and at this moment in time this was all she had. “But you know who did? You probably ordered it. Have you been watching us? I mean how else would you know who I am?” The questions poured from her mouth, all things she wanted to know, and all things she felt that he could answer.

  “Jesus Christ, how does Liam put up with all your fucking questions? Does he fuck you all day and night just so he doesn’t have to listen to you? Shut the fuck up.”

  The glint of anger in his eyes made her obey him. This man was capable of things she had probably never imagined. She could see that in the way he tightened his fists at his sides. Maybe it would serve her best to do what he said and just wait for the rescue she knew would be coming.

  “What does he hope to do taking her?” William asked the group of officers.

  “My bet is that he needs money. If he ordered the hit on her and the hit on Meredith, he owes somebody for that. Richard is not one to get his hands dirty,” Tyler said quietly.

  “So what’s he gonna do? Ransom her?” Liam asked.

  “Possible,” Tyler was thoughtful in his quiet way, probably going over every scenario that they would be faced with.

  “I feel like an asshole just sitting around here, not doing anything. We need to be going to where that GPS says she is and get her out. There’s no telling what he’s done to her,” Liam growled. He wanted vengeance, and he wanted it now. He was sick of sitting around, waiting on something to happen. He would be damned if what happened to Meredith happened to Denise when he could prevent it.

  “We need a plan.” William argued. It was obvious in the way his members were looking at him that he was losing them. Liam was becoming much more of a vocal leader, and they were beginning to follow him without question. William knew that, son or not, he had to get this shit under control.

  “Fuck a plan. It’s obvious he’s getting desperate, which means he’ll get sloppy.”

  William held his hand up. “We don’t want to be sloppy. We want to do this right.”

  Liam fumed. “None of this has been done right. None of this has been handled. We have one woman missing. We have another lying in a bed beaten, raped, and scared of her shadow. Fuck a bunch of this shit. I’m going. Who’s with me?”

  He stood up and watched for the other members. Many of them stood up, obviously wanting to be with him. All battling the bloodlust inside them, wanting to do something to make a difference.

  Fighting to keep hold of his club, William banged on the table. “I have not dismissed this meeting yet.”

  “It’s not yours to dismiss. It’s my old lady he’s got, not yours. This is my problem, and I’ll fuckin’ take care of it.” Liam had never openly defied his president at the table, but he felt strongly about this. No one cared more about Denise than he did, and if anyone was going to get her back it would be him. He would crawl through a desert with no water, walk barefoot over a road of glass, but nothing was going to stop him from getting her back to her family where she belonged.

  William hissed as he saw everyone behind his son walk out of the meeting. “Shit.”

  Meredith lay in Tyler’s bed trying to convince herself to get up. She’d lain in bed for hours, and it hadn’t made her feel any different. She thought that maybe it would make her feel better if she got up and walked around a little bit. Maybe it would lift some of the heavy blanket that felt like it was pressing against her chest. As she contemplated the type of energy it would take in order to do that, the door opened and Tyler walked in.

  “I didn’t scare you, did I?” he asked, walking over to the closet.

  She shook her head, suddenly feeling shy around him. Why, she wasn’t sure, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Interested, she watched as he began pulling weapons out of a trunk in the closet and put on a bullet proof vest.

  “Where are you going?” she asked quietly. She had never seen someone other than a soldier casually strap on that much armor before. It scared her, and it made her wonder just what in the hell was going on. What had happened in the time she had been out?

  He leveled her with a gaze, his brown eyes serious as she had ever seen them. “Some asshole has Denise. We’re going to get her back. Hopefully we’ll get to her before he can do to her what was done to you.”

  Shame rolled through her body, and she ducked her head. Nobody should have to live through that and she wanted to tell him that, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him. The only thing she could bring herself to do was say a little prayer for her friend and hope that whoever this was would have mercy on her.

  “We’ll be back later,” he told her.

  Taking out a gun, he checked the chamber and safety. “If someone who is not a part of this club tries to come through that door, you shoot first, ask questions later. Do you understand me? All you gotta do is click the safety off. There’s one in the chamber.” He flipped it over in her hand to show her how to take the safety off and then laid it on the bed next to her.

  She nodded as she picked it up, weighing the heaviness of the gun in her hand. She watched as he left and then had a seat Indian style on the bed. This was the one thing she could do. This time she could protect herse
lf if worse came to worse. For the first time in her life, she knew that she wouldn’t hesitate to put another human being down if it came to that. It gave her a power that she needed, and she knew that she would do whatever she had to.

  “I figured your old man would be here by now,” Richard taunted Denise as she sat tied up in a chair. He sat on a chair directly across from her. He was straddling the back, feigning indifference as he loosely held a gun in his hands, but she could tell by the bunching of his shoulder muscles that he was beginning to feel nervous.

  In truth she had too, but she wasn’t worried. “I’m sure he’s trying to think of the most interesting way to kill you,” she smiled her most bitchy smile at him.

  “He’ll have to come here first, won’t he? Maybe he’s decided that you aren’t worth it. How does that make you feel?” Richard couldn’t help but needle her. Liam Walker had never been able to commit to just one woman, and Richard couldn’t see him doing it now either. Not with this woman.

  “I’m fine, at least I didn’t get kicked out of my club,” she taunted him in return.

  That stung. She really was a bitch. “Shut your damn mouth,” he growled as he backhanded her across the face with the butt of his gun.

  “You’re really gonna wish you hadn’t done that,” she told him, spitting out blood that was already pouring into her mouth from where she had bitten her lip.

  He leaned the chair forward so that they were nose to nose. “You’re gonna wish you’d never gotten involved with the Heaven Hill MC.” He raised his hand to hit her again when the door exploded and members of the club rushed through, guns blazing.

  Liam, throwing caution to the wind, ran over to where Richard hovered above her and grabbed him by the collar of the shirt, rocking the chair so far back that Richard’s head almost hit the concrete floor. “You are a miserable piece of shit, you son of a bitch.”

  “Now, Liam, I have a business proposition for you. I just need some cash to help get it off the ground.” Richard held his hands up in surrender and had the nerve to laugh, letting the gun fall to the ground.