Drew and Dalton watched as Squirrel walked over to his pickup, got in, and motioned for them to follow.
“He needs it too bad to mess this up,” Dalton said before they started their bikes.
Drew nodded, because he knew his friend was right. Squirrel was in a bad way, and if he didn’t get a fix soon, things would go even worse.
Charity waited a little while as she and Mandy combed through the paperwork on the table before she opened her mouth.
“Are you okay?”
Mandy’s head popped up from where she’d had it bent over the paperwork and glanced at her. “Yeah. Why?”
The two of them had never had trouble talking to one another, and Charity hoped it wouldn’t start now, but she wanted to make sure her friend was okay.
“They shut you down pretty hard, and you looked like you wanted to say something, but you didn’t. Being in a male-dominated world most of the time, I know how bad that hurts.”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Mandy mumbled. “It pisses me off. I could help them if they would let me. I’ve learned to do a lot of things over the years, and I’m not saying I would be helpful in a situation that called for a shootout or someone kicking the shit out of someone else, but I’m smart,” she argued.
“You are, we both are,” Charity agreed, thinking Mandy wasn’t done yet.
“And Dalton? He and I had the biggest argument this morning.” She bit her lip. “I guess that’s what’s bothering me more than anything. We didn’t get to finish it, and I want to.”
Charity laid her paperwork aside and gave her friend her full attention. They hadn’t had much time since she’d come back to talk about anything that didn’t involve this case—it was time to have that talk. “What’s going on?”
Mandy clamped her lips together tightly and Charity swore she could see her bottom lip quiver before she brought it back under control. “Dalton and I have been together for almost eleven years. Eleven years. Do you know we don’t even live together?”
She got up and started pacing the kitchen. “I asked him recently if I was ever going to be able to expect a ring, and he acted like it was the worst question I could have ever asked. He told me he loves me, but he’s not sure if he’s in love with me the way that my dad is in love with my mom, the way that Tyler’s in love with Meredith, or the way that Drew loved you back in the day,” she admitted, her voice low.
Charity felt her heart constrict for her friend. That was an awful thing to hear, and even more hurtful to hear from someone you’d given almost half your life to. “Oh, Mandy.”
Mandy turned so that she faced her friend, tears quietly streaking down her face. “But that’s the thing, Char, I do love him that way, and potentially giving him up scares the fuck out of me. He’s the only thing I’ve ever known.”
“Funny how things change isn’t it?” Charity asked softly.
“I know. Back in high school, it was me who wasn’t sure, and Dalton who was positive. He was so scared he’d never be good enough for me, but I’ve watched him grow. He’s become a great man, and a hard-ass member of Heaven Hill, but somewhere along the line he got complacent with our relationship, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to give him up, he’s my world, but I want that kind of love. I want to look like you did this morning when we walked in. I could tell just by the look on your face what you and my brother had done last night.” She had a seat back at the table.
Charity felt her face burn. She felt sorry for Mandy, but wasn’t sure what she could offer her.
“This is your decision to make. You have to figure out how far you want to go with him, how long you want to stay in a relationship that may have no payoff. Just know that I’ll always be here for you no matter what.”
She reached over and grabbed Mandy’s hand, squeezing tightly.
“I know.” Mandy sighed. “I know.”
And sometimes that was all that could be offered, and Charity hoped it was enough.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As they went further into the county, Drew turned on his phone and enabled the GPS so that Travis could track where they were going. That served two purposes. The other members of Heaven Hill would know where they were if help was needed, and later, if they wanted to come back out here themselves, they would know how to get here. Drew had learned to live by his gut, and his gut was telling him now that this was okay. They weren’t going to be ambushed once they got there. This was honestly a man who knew they needed information and he needed money. Business transaction, plain and simple.
Squirrel stopped his truck in front of a building and motioned for them to come around. “I’m not going inside,” he told them as they idled their bikes next to his truck. “If Dixon knows I’m the one who showed you, I’m dead.”
Drew wanted to tell him he was dead no matter what. The drugs would probably kill him before Dixon could or would.
“How do we get in?” Dalton asked, looking at the outside, wondering what the security set-up was.
“Do I look like a criminal?” Squirrel asked sharply. “I might be a drug addict and steal every once in a while, but I don’t break into places.”
Dalton leveled him with a glare. “An addict with a code of ethics. How touching.” He reached in the truck’s window and grabbed him by the back of the neck. “How do we get in?”
Squirrel tried to move away, but Dalton kept his hold. “Ohhh, let go, man!”
“How do we get in?”
Drew pulled a cigarette out of his pack and lit up, blowing smoke in Squirrel’s face. “Sometimes, my buddy, Dalton here goes a little off the rails. You might remember that from high school. Do you want me to let him go off on you?”
“Fine! Go through the door on the left-hand side, there’s a security system, but there’s a delay on it of about thirty seconds. I’m telling you, I’m not going in with you.”
“We don’t want you to.” Dalton let go of his neck, slamming it back into the seat.
“I want my money.”
Drew reached into his pocket and peeled off two hundred-dollar bills. “Here, but if this comes back to bite us, we’re taking it out of your hide. You got that?”
Squirrel nodded. “Got it.”
They watched as he squealed tires, leaving the parking lot in a cloud of smoke. Looking at each other, they shook their heads. He’d always been a bit weird, and some things obviously never changed.
“We need to call this into Steele, make sure that alarm doesn’t go off,” Drew said as they walked around the building.
“Already on it.” Dalton had his phone out and was furiously texting and taking pictures of what they were working with. His phone rang, and he answered it, indicating with a nod that it was Travis.
Drew moved back from the door, watching as Dalton did as he was instructed, and within minutes, they were in. Immediately, Drew had drawn his gun, and they were on alert, breaching the entrance. Both of them tensed, waiting for the alarm to sound, and when nothing did, they relaxed.
The lights were already on, and the two of them looked at rows and rows of merchandise. It looked like it was their own private Walmart, but some of it was very high-end, and it ranged from jewelry to weapons.
“What the fuck is all this?” Dalton asked, his mouth wide open as they looked up and down the aisles.
“This is his security. If something happens with anything else he’s got his hands in, he’s got this to fall back on, but he must be selling it off the radar. Since most of this should have been taken in the robberies, they have to be watching for it at pawn shops, I wonder who he’s moving this stuff through,” Drew gazed around, taking it all in.
Dalton had walked one aisle over and whistled through his teeth. “Dude has some pretty large diamonds in here, like enough that it would buy us a small island in the Caribbean.”
Drew started snapping pictures and so did Dalton as they tried to take a preliminary inventory of what he had.
“You got that right, but he’s got
to watch who knows about this place because this puts him at every scene of every crime. He’s hiding this because he’s the one who did it, and the cops aren’t onto him yet,” Dalton said, snapping pictures just as furiously as Drew.
They could use this, and they would, to protect the women in their lives.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Charity stood up from the kitchen table, stretching her back. Mandy and Dalton had left over an hour ago, and she had spent that time plotting locations on a map and looking for something that would give her an indication of a pattern. So far, nothing.
“C’mon.” Drew walked around the table and grabbed her by the waist. “Dad just called and said they’re having a bonfire at the clubhouse. I don’t know about you, but I could stand to get out of here and away from this for a while.”
Earlier, she’d gone to her apartment and gotten some clothes, not sure if she was ready to go back yet. He hadn’t seemed like he was having an issue with her staying, so she would do it as long as it felt right. “I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”
They were having an unseasonably cool October, and a bonfire sounded like a great idea to her. “I’m gonna go change into something that’s a little warmer.” She indicated the T-shirt she was wearing.
“I’ve got a jacket and hoodie you can wear too.” Drew leaned in, kissing her on the forehead before releasing her so that she could go upstairs to where her clothes were.
He watched her take the stairs and had to pinch himself again. He wasn’t sure how everything he’d ever wanted had landed in his lap, but he knew without a doubt he wasn’t going to take it for granted. He had done that back when he was young and dumb. He’d learned a lot since then, even if he hadn’t had a chance to put it into practice.
Walking over to his closet, he grabbed out a hoodie and an old jacket, one he’d worn when he was much smaller. It was hard waiting for her to come down the stairs; he struggled with wondering if there would ever be a day when she wouldn’t, if she decided to leave and never come back. That was a fear he had, he assumed from their teenage years. A large part of him understood that was the past and he couldn’t keep holding it up as a prediction of the future, but at the same time, it was hard not to. When he heard her footsteps, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“You ready?” he asked, as he turned around.
“If you’ve got a jacket, I sure am.”
She took his breath away, like she always had. She wore a gray, long-sleeve thermal shirt with a pair of jeans that fit her like a second skin, showing off the curves she had, tucked into a pair of black boots that made him hard just looking at them. She had been gorgeous in high school, but now she carried herself in a way that radiated confidence, and it made her that much sexier in his eyes. Her dark hair was straight, falling down towards her shoulders, and while she did wear makeup, it wasn’t the makeup her mom had always tried to smear across her face. It was light, natural, and did nothing but accentuate the beauty she already had.
“You’re beautiful,” he complimented as his own boots ate up the space between them. He licked his lips as he moved the coats to the crook of elbow and used both his hands to push her hair back, tilting her mouth for him.
“Drew.” It was a breathless gasp before his lips captured hers.
Kissing her now wasn’t much different than kissing her then, the only thing was she’d learned how to control a kiss since she’d been gone. She now paced it, didn’t get too overly excited like she had back when they were kids. If someone asked him, he’d say that now she liked the slow burn of passion rather than the combustible explosion they’d had so often before. It was a new experience, learning to let her control the pace, but damn if that lazy pace didn’t turn him fucking on.
He breathed heavily as he gripped her jaw and pulled back, letting her breath wash over him.
“You sure you don’t want to stay here and forget the bonfire?” she asked, her eyes bright as she looked up at him.
It was tempting, so fucking tempting, to hide her away and keep her for himself. But he couldn’t. He had to show his dad, especially, that he was going into this with his eyes wide open this time, that he and Charity were on the same page, and that he was man enough to handle it if she walked away again. He wanted her to meet Tatum as a teenager. If he had to lose her again, he wanted those memories to hold close to his heart and to keep him warm on a cold night. He didn’t want all the speculation he’d had before and all the wondering of why.
This time, if things came to an end, he would be a man and deal with it; he would learn to move on and live his life, but he would do it with memories better than the last ones.
“I thought about it, but at the same time, there are people who want to see you, and I can’t keep you to myself all the time.” He ran his hand down her back, cupping her ass, letting her feel what she did to him. “Not that I don’t want to, because damn do I want to, but there are other people who’d like to see you.”
She wanted to ask if Liam was one of those people. She knew from talking to Mandy that he hadn’t been a fan of hers after she’d left, and it made her nervous to know he was going to be here tonight. “I’m not sure all of them want to see me.” She rested her forehead against his chest.
He chuckled. “Regardless, sweetheart, you can’t help but make an entrance.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Riding on the backroads of Warren County towards the clubhouse took Charity to places she hadn’t been in years. In her mind, she thought back to all those nights she and Drew had snuck out of their respective houses and met each other in a field, in a barn, behind the clubhouse, wherever was available. She gripped him around the waist as he took a curve at a higher rate of speed so that her stomach did a somersault. No matter how fast he went with her on the back of his bike, she felt safe; she’d always felt safe with him.
She figured that was one of the reasons she’d agreed to help Meredith with this case, and why she’d decided to come home. It had been long enough, but too, she knew that no matter what, Drew would keep her safe. Oh, she wasn’t stupid; if he’d had a woman in his life, she would have declined the plea for help and found someone in the area she knew could take care of business as good as her, but when she’d called Mandy and asked what was going on in Drew’s romantic life—she’d done a happy dance to find out he wasn’t with anyone. Now, she hoped they could make it work, she hoped that she could keep him, and she really hoped that Liam Walker didn’t give her too hard of a time.
They turned the corner to the clubhouse, and she breathed deeply as the smell of burning wood invaded her nostrils. Living in the city for so long, it had been a lifetime since she’d smelled a bonfire. It brought her back to long nights here with Mandy and Drew—the first time she and Drew had kissed, and the first time they’d gotten up the courage to get a little frisky in the bed of his dad’s truck. So much of her life was entwined with this place and the surrounding miles—it felt good and, at the same time, a little déjà vu to be here again.
They pulled up beside the bike she recognized to be Dalton’s, and he parked, shutting it off.
“You okay?” he asked as they got off, and she put her arms around her waist.
“Yeah.” She nodded, taking the helmet off. “Just colder than I imagined it would be. Once we get by the fire, it shouldn’t be bad.”
“Then let’s go.” He grabbed her hand, pulling her with him through the gravel, into the grass, and back to the fire pit that had been built before Drew and Mandy had ever come to live at the clubhouse.
Drew could tell by the way Charity gripped his fingers that she was nervous. He didn’t blame her. Liam had been pretty vocal around anyone who would listen about how the girl had broken Drew’s heart. He knew some of that had gotten back to her, probably in the form of his gossipy sister. Gossipy when she wanted to be and holding her tongue when she had to.
“It’s okay.” He pulled her to his side and threw his arm around her shoul
der, pulling her close to him. “You’re good here.”
“I know.” She nodded, but he could hear the hesitancy in her voice, see the uncertainty in her eyes.
As they approached the fire pit, they could hear the voices get louder, could hear the laughter, and smell booze mixed with the smoke. People began to notice them and started calling out their names. Drew did his best to greet them and introduce Charity to anyone who didn’t know her. Throughout the whole thing, he kept an eye on her, trying to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed, but he was afraid when they finally had a seat in some chairs that had been brought for him that she was, especially when she saw they were sitting next to his family.
Drew watched as Liam took a sip of his beer and the last drag off his cigarette before throwing the butt in the fire. He grabbed hold of a s’more Tatum brought to him and took a bite before he turned to the two of them.
“How’s it going?” he asked, speaking to them as a couple.
Charity had crossed her legs, and Drew looked down, seeing her kicking her foot. A habit he recognized from most women as a nervous one. He put his arm around her chair and looked his dad square in the eye.
“It’s going good.”
Liam cocked his head to the side, observing the two of them with keen eyes. “You sure?”
Denise smacked Liam on the leg as she witnessed what was going on. “You’ve got to stop trying to intimidate her. Charity, honey, Tatum and I are going up to grab some more stuff to make more s’mores. C’mon with us.”
Charity had never gotten out of a seat so fast in her life. It almost tipped over. “I would be happy to.”
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