Dirty Little Secret

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Dirty Little Secret Page 14

by Laramie Briscoe


  “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Tyler. I promise, she’s in good hands.”

  When Tyler left, Rooster took a deep breath. This was going to play out only one way. He was going to have to give the information to the proper authorities, and then he was going to have to hand in his resignation. He was too far in now, and if he was honest, his heart was no longer in law enforcement. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he glanced at the picture that was the lock screen and had to admit that because of the woman who decorated it, his heart was now a lot more outlaw. The thought didn’t even give him the anxiety that he knew it once would have. For Roni he would do whatever it took.

  “I want to thank the two of you for coming to see me.”

  Meredith laughed softly from where she sat. “Like we had any choice, Rooster, but I know that my big, bad husband is right outside the door. I know you aren’t going to be stupid like that.”

  Christine sat beside her, picking at her fingernails. “I’m not sure what you want with me,” she said softly.

  Rooster was glad to have Meredith with him. He, like the rest of them, knew what had happened to her, and he had a feeling that some of the same things had happened with Christine. He wasn’t sure at all how to approach this, so he did it with as much caution as he could. “I don’t think you lied to Travis and Jagger about what happened to you at Clinton’s house, but I think you withheld some information. I also think that you knew some things were happening, but you weren’t sure what they were. I need your help.”

  “I don’t know how I can help you,” she argued.

  He pulled one of the pictures out of the packet that the boys had provided him with. “Some of the guys went onto the property today to do some surveillance on him. We want you free, we don’t want you to have to worry if he’s going to come back and find you. We want you to live your life in peace,” he explained. “When they got there they found a dozen shallow graves with what looked like women in them.”

  Her face was stone cold until he mentioned the women, and then it cracked and her shoulders heaved, sobs tearing from her throat.

  Meredith quickly put her arms around the other woman. “Jesus, Rooster! Couldn’t you have eased into that?”

  Did this woman really think there was a way to ease into the fact that they had found shallow graves on a farm in Simpson County? “Really? No matter how you slice this, it’s awful, sick, and twisted. You can’t spin this, reporter.”

  “I knew something was going on, but I didn’t know what. They just disappeared, after they got pregnant.” Christine whispered.

  “Did you know for sure they were pregnant?” Rooster questioned, softly. That was a fact they hadn’t known about, but it would make sense.

  “There were all the signs.” She shook her head. “But I didn’t know for sure, it’s not like we ever had a doctor come see us.”

  “Is there a reason why you never became pregnant?” Rooster asked as gently as possible.

  She diverted her eyes. “I did things, things I always heard were old wives’ tales, but I counted on them. They worked,” she laughed harshly. “I don’t know if it’s because of what I did, or if maybe I just can’t have children. Thank God that I never had to deal with what the rest of them had to deal with.”

  “Did you ever see him hurt any of the women?”

  Tears sprang to her eyes, and her throat started to close. “He hurt all of us in some way—whether it be mentally or physically. He backhanded me a few times, so there’s nothing I don’t think he didn’t do.”

  “So it would be within the realm of possibility that he killed these women?” Rooster finished for her.

  “I heard him once, arguing with someone. I’m not sure who it was, but the other person was telling him that he was going to have to stop. There were only so many women that could go missing in the community before people became suspicious, and he wasn’t sure he could get him out of it anymore.” She told him about the cats dying one by one and the bloody towels.

  Rooster had a sinking feeling that person had been someone at the sheriff’s office, hiding this whole thing. “I just want you to know that they aren’t going to mention your name. I’m taking all this information to the FBI as soon as I leave here, but your name will be left out of this.”

  “We’re married,” she cried. “How is my name going to be kept out of this? I want a divorce; I don’t want to have anything to do with him anymore.”

  “You leave all of that to me.”

  Meredith had kept quiet throughout the exchange. “I’m so sorry for everything that you’ve been through Christine. There’s a part of me that understands some of what you’ve gone through. I was raped in the past. I’ve been working for over the past year to get beyond it. I know a great person that you can talk to—if that’s something that you need.”

  Christine looked at the other woman. “I appreciate that. Right now, I’m not sure what I want to do, but I will keep it in mind.”

  “Can you help me get this to the people I need to get it to?” Rooster asked Meredith. “I don’t want this intercepted before I have a chance to get it people who aren’t being paid off.”

  She nodded. “I know exactly who you need to talk to. After the bank robberies and the disappearance of Raymond Tucker, the FBI sat up a field office here. I just so happen to know the special agent in charge. Don’t ask how I became chummy with him, but I can get you where you need to be. Give me until tomorrow morning and let me take a few pictures of the information you have.”

  If there was one thing Rooster knew, it was that Meredith was capable of almost anything; he’d seen it numerous times. She would be an invaluable friend to have, and he was glad she was on their side. It didn’t escape him that he was already thinking of himself as a member of the Heaven Hill MC; even if that wasn’t an idea he had entertained for a long time. Things were about to change, and it was time. He wasn’t the same man he’d been years ago—the job had worn on him, and he was now ready for something new, something different. As soon as he wrapped up giving this information to who needed it and covering his ass, he was gone. He hadn’t felt this free in a long time, and he knew part of that was because of the visit he had paid to Roni. He was ready to give this part of his life another chance—provided that he and Liam could work through their own bullshit.

  Times were definitely changing.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “You saw it?” Christine asked Travis as she made her way into the room the two of them called their own. “You saw the graveyard?”

  He nodded. “That was something of the freakiest shit I have ever seen in my life. The fact that someone could kill for what seemed like sport, to me, is insane. Granted, we’ve done some things as an MC that I think people might look down upon, but we’ve never done it for the fun of it.”

  “I think I know why he did it,” she told him, swallowing roughly.

  “I don’t know if I want to hear,” he admitted. Walking over to where she stood, he put his arms around her neck and pulled to him.

  She held on for dear life, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I think he saw them as a sacrifice, you know, to God, and that since he was doubly sacrificing, then he would be more heavily favored. I know it sounds weird, but if you could hear him sometimes,” she covered her ears. “He would chant, and those chants had to do with offerings, and it was always after that another woman would disappear.”

  He wanted to take this away from her, show her that this was such a skewed version of life. “I promise you, Christy. This is not how life really is; it’s not how it’s supposed to be.”

  “Will I be happy with you?” she whispered against the tears in her eyes.

  “You will. I will live every day of my life proving to you that I’m good enough, that I will never do anything to hurt you intentionally. I’m not going to promise to never hurt you, because we both know that love hurts. It’s just a fact of life.”

  “Is that what this is? L
ove?” she asked him, scared to say those words.

  He crowded her, pushing her back against the door, and put his hands at her neck, tilting her chin up. It forced her eyes to meet his. “I think so,” he grinned. It was crooked and so endearing that she had to grin back.

  “I think so too,” she whispered. “But I am so fucking scared, Travis, so scared.”

  “Haven’t I proven to you how serious I am?” He was careful to keep his tone level, to not make any overtures that she would see as threatening.

  She thought back to everything he had done for her. He’d kept her secret when he hadn’t had to, he’d gotten her a job, a house, a dependable car, and then when all of that had been threatened, he’d moved her into his dorm room. All the while, he’d lied to her brother and everyone else in the clubhouse to help her feel safe. Then he’d gone to the place that had been the scariest for her, with Liam and her brother; he had broken into Clinton’s property and gotten the information that would send the man to jail. He had set her free. That may not have been what he set out to do back six months ago when they had first met, but he’d given her everything.

  “You have. You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. I am so damn lucky to have you. I’m lucky that you’ve been there at every turn, especially when this all got to be insane. I’m lucky you’ve slept by me every night since I got here, and I’m so lucky that you still believe in me.”

  “I do,” he agreed. “I believe that you can be and do any damn thing you wanna do. Clinton Herrington may have ruined one part of your life, but he didn’t ruin the whole thing. Don’t let him. We have our whole lives ahead of us. What you’ve endured has been more than anyone should have to endure in their whole lifetime, but you’ve gotten it out of the way. It won’t always be smooth sailing, but as long as we’re together, I want to live it.”

  “I do too.” She smiled up at him.

  It was that smile that made him feel like he’d won the lottery and that he was the luckiest man in the world. Unable to hold back this time, he bent his head forward, capturing her lips with his. He reached up, tangling his hands in her hair, tilting her head back. With her neck exposed, he got busy, licking, sucking, biting, any patch of skin that he could get to. She sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck. He slid his hands down her back, picking her up against him, and walked them over to the bed.

  “Promise me,” she told him, ripping her mouth from his. “Promise me that I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and this has all been some kind of crazy dream.”

  “It’s not, I swear to you.” He shoved his cut off, his shirt over his body, and then went to work on her clothes.

  Looking back, Christine wouldn’t be able to tell anyone how it happened. How she ended up with her back against the mattress, his body pressing hers against it, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she loved the feel of his body covering hers. At one point this would have caused her a lot of anxiety. It always had with Clinton, but she loved this, she loved when Travis lay over top of her so that every inch of his body covered hers. She didn’t know where she ended and he began.

  “You okay?” he asked, his lips trailing down her throat as he grasped her hands and held them up above her head, twining their fingers together.

  She smiled, moaning when he slipped inside her body. “Perfect.”

  He didn’t miss the tears that came to her eyes. “You sure?”

  “Yeah.” The shake of her head was watery, and those tears spilled against her cheeks. “Never thought I’d be here, never thought I’d feel so free.”

  Travis understood everything that she said, and he knew the emotions running through her were strong. He buried his lips into her neck as he canted a rhythm into her body. She was right—everything about this was perfect. He knew he would never be able to have this with anyone besides her. He had never wanted it with anyone besides her and knew that he never would. His thrust increased when her legs wrapped around his waist. He could feel her getting softer, feel her accepting him more. Her heels dug into his back, and she moaned loudly, straining against his hands.

  “Feel good?” he asked, his mouth near her ear.

  She took a deep breath, nodding, hissing when his teeth captured her earlobe. Reluctantly, he let go of one of her hands and ran it down her cheek and neck, tilting her just as he liked her. There, he captured her lips with his, his tongue stroking against hers. He knew that she was into it when the free hand left the mattress and tried to bury in his now non-existent hair. Instead, she moved it down to his neck and curled her fingers around the side, holding him as closely to her as she could. Travis let himself go, pushing his hips deep into her body and then pulling out with the frantic pace. The hand he’d had at her neck trailed down her body until it go to her core. He moaned into her mouth, ripping their lips apart as he felt the wetness there.

  “Fuck, Christine,” he rasped.

  “It’s you, all you,” she breathed against him. She tilted her hips up, knowing that he would finish her off before she could even give voice to the question. She trusted him with every ounce of herself, completely trusted him. She had never been able to say that about another human being before, and she loved that she could say it about him.

  His fingers that were entwined with hers griped tightly, and his head buried back in her neck as he gasped, grunting loudly against the hot skin there. There was something about the quiet way he let go of himself that she loved, that always pushed her over the edge. Their heavy breathing mingled with one another, and they lazily moved against each other until they came to a slow stop. It was peacefully quiet between the two of them, and she sighed deeply, knowing this was exactly where she wanted to be, knowing this was exactly who she wanted to be with.

  Meredith hung up her phone, glancing at the three men who faced her. If she were a lesser woman, the three sets of eyes that were Rooster, Liam, and her own husband would have made her cower. But this, this was her area of expertise, and even though she didn’t do it as a job anymore, she loved when she got to play. “We need to drop it off at News Center tonight. The field officer is going to meet us there. He’ll have his team, and once they view it and deem it worthy, they’ll be paying Clinton a visit before the end of the night.”

  “Can we tag along?” Liam asked Rooster.

  Usually Rooster would say no, but since he knew this was the last job he was going to pull for the sheriff’s department, he shrugged. “Whatever you wanna do. Just remember that after tonight I won’t be able to do any of you any favors. Make sure Jagger and Travis stay under control, if they do go.”

  Liam wanted to question his old friend about what he meant by not being able to do them any favors after tonight, Jagger had mentioned that Rooster was feeling stifled. There had been a weird sense about him for the past few days, almost like he had made decisions that he didn’t want to discuss. “You leavin’ the force?”

  “I think we’re gonna need to talk, but I don’t want it to be here, and I don’t want it to be now.”

  That made Liam uneasy, but he agreed, mostly because of everything that Rooster had done to help them out. He couldn’t keep asking without giving something in return. Every relationship had to have the perfect combination of give and take—and he was getting nervous that he was only taking from Rooster lately.

  “Alright, so we’re heading out there?” Tyler asked.

  “We are,” Meredith nodded. “I’m gonna throw this out there, I don’t think we should tell Jagger and Travis where we’re going or what we’re doing. There’s too much going on, and they are both way too close to the whole situation. That’s the last thing Christine needs—to see her brother or boyfriend get hauled off in handcuffs for trying to kill her husband. Let’s just go get this over and done with, then we can come back and tell everybody the outcome.”

  Liam rolled that around in his head for a few minutes. He knew that what Meredith said was right and that it would be what was best for the club, not just for a few people. “Sounds
like a plan. Let’s go get this over with.”

  He made his way out to his bike, watching Rooster as he did. He wasn’t stupid; he knew what was going on, and he knew that after this was over Rooster was going to come to them and want to be a part of the club. That wasn’t as surprising as it had been at one time, and he would welcome his once best friend back with open arms. The plans he had for the club from here on out would benefit from any and everything that Rooster could bring to them. He was sick of saving damsels in distress, he was sick of putting his family in danger—they were going back to what they knew after this was all over. Working at the shop and runs at night. He was sick of sleeping with one eye open, worried that some freak would come in the middle of the night and slaughter them all. It was a false sense of security, Liam knew that, but he also knew where he was comfortable. Comfortable for him was on the back of a bike, not trying to keep his guys from imploding. That part was over.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Meredith could feel Tyler’s gaze on her back as she met with one of her former co-workers and the field agent of the FBI in charge of the Bowling Green area. She could tell just by the way she felt that he was twitchy, that he didn’t like her being around all this law enforcement, but she knew that Clinton was much bigger fish than Heaven Hill had ever been for them. Religious zealots were a dime a dozen, but the Feds always looked good in the public eye when they could bring a group of them down. Waco being the perfect example. They would gladly tout the America experience and get patriotic, and then they would look like the best people in the world. For a few days, even the conspiracy theorists would put their trust in the government. She knew that as soon as she called her contact with this information, they would call in for a full-scale operation.

  She smiled slightly at her husband as she walked over to where he stood. “They’re about to give us some bulletproof vests, and it’s okay for us to ride along, as long as we stay at the periphery.”

 

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