BILLIONAIRE BIKERS: 3 MC Romance Books (55 page)

“Make that phone call.”

Brighton was sitting in the chair outside Audra’s room. Lucas knocked on her door, but there was no response.

“Audra? Lucas. I need to talk to you.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said through the door.

“Are you dressed?”

No response.

He opened the door slowly. She was lying face down in the bed. She had recently requested a chair in her room, and he sat down in it now, even though he couldn’t see her face from his position. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees.

“Audra, it’s important that we talk.”

“Why?” she said with her voice raised. “Why do we need to talk?”

“I would appreciate it if you would lower your voice.”

“Aren’t you the boss? Don’t you usually make unilateral decisions? This isn’t going to turn out good for anybody, no matter what.”

He cocked an eye at her. “It doesn’t compromise your safety.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“Audra, I just need to know what you have told Brighton.”

“Why, so you can get your story straight?”

Anger flashed across his face, but his voice was still controlled. “I need to know what you have said to him about us.”

“Us?”

“Yes, about our relationship.”

“Relationship?”

“You’re not a parrot, Audra. Yes, anything about the interaction between you and me.”

“Ohhh, interaction.”

She was dragging this out, and it pissed him off.

“If it makes you feel better, I haven’t told him anything. He just has a hunch that I have a crush on you or something.”

The relief was visible in his face.

“Do you?”

She said nothing.

“Do you have a crush on me?”

“I don’t think you want me to answer that.”

“I want you to answer any question I ask you.”

She just stared at him for a moment. “It’s way more than a crush, and I daresay, not only on my part.”

He looked away from her, took control of his expressions and emotions, and looked back.

“So, Brighton attacked you?”

The exchange between them was hesitant and drawn out, each afraid of saying the wrong thing.

“He was more aggressive than I anticipated, but he didn’t exactly attack me.”

“Meaning…?”

“You’re trying to make this very difficult, aren’t you?”

“I have decisions to make…major decisions…and I need to get all the possible input I can before I move.”

“I was flirting with him and probably teasing him.”

“Probably?”

“Okay, I was teasing him.”

They sat in silence, looking at each other.

“I know what you’re thinking, but you’re too smooth to ask. Why, if I have feelings for you, was I messing around with Brighton?”

“That’s what’s in my mind?”

“You wouldn’t tell me if it was, so let me just answer the question. I’m mixed up, messed up, afraid, and about a half-dozen other adjectives I could use. I need to be comforted. I can’t seem to comfort myself. I love the delicious sexual tension—it’s the closest thing I can get. But I felt I was being unfair to you as the
boss
of this operation. So, I turned it on Brighton. I was in denial about what problems that could cause.”

“Apparently,” he said. “How does a little girl like you know about
delicious sexual tension
?”

“I read a lot. I’d seen the term a lot of times, but I actually had no frame of reference for it until now.”

“Audra…” He got up from the chair and came to sit on the bed beside her. He looked at her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. He came close to whisper to her, but not like someone with a secret, it was soft and seductive. He placed his hand behind her neck.

“Audra,” he said in a whisper, “if I could have you and keep you safe and keep my job, I would. You intoxicate me. That’s a pretty word, I know; but, it’s the right one. I feel drunk and high under your power. That’s why I can’t allow myself to love you and still keep you safe. There is nothing in this world that I would love more than to lie down beside you and to make love to you all night long.”

While he was saying this, her body was in full flush, she was so aroused.

He pushed back from her, then said in a louder voice, “But I can’t.”

Can’t…can’t…can’t,
it echoed in her head.

She leaned up and caught his mouth, parting hers. When he felt her wet mouth on him, he was nearly wild. He kissed her, crushing her to him and pushing her back onto the bed. She looked up at him, his dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes poised over her. Her expression was screaming, “Take me! Take me, now!”

He jumped off the bed and whispered, “I just can’t.” He swallowed hard.

She sat up and nodded. She knew.

“I want to comfort you or to help you find comfort…but I don’t know how to do that and stay sane,” he said.

Lucas adjusted himself and left the room while Audra lay back on the bed. He didn’t realize how much comfort he had just given her.

# # #

Lucas made the call to the headquarters. He gave no details, saying he would file a full report, but that he needed a replacement and preferably a female.

It was late. He would wait till morning to tell Brighton. Lucas would relieve him in the night; but surely, he wasn’t going to cause a problem for the next few hours. Lucas had to get some sleep first.

# # #

Audra awoke to see Brighton standing at her bedroom window, looking out with the infrared glasses. If she just didn’t move, he wouldn’t know she was awake, and, hopefully, would just leave.

She closed her eyes again and began to drift. In a little bit, she woke again with the impression Brighton was still in the room. She looked toward the window, but he wasn’t standing there. Again, she didn’t move, trying to ascertain whether or not there was really anyone there without alerting them that she was awake.

As her ears adjusted to the silence, she heard ragged breathing. She held her own breath, trying to figure where it was coming from. She finally realized it was coming from the chair she had sitting in the corner, which was now cloaked in darkness.

What was their intent? Was it Brighton? Should I flip on the lamp? Get up and run? Was it possible that Lucas is sleeping in the chair, watching over me?

The breathing was a little louder now, inhaling raggedly, more rapidly, then suddenly it stopped, and she heard a small sound as if from someone’s throat. It suddenly dawned on her what she was hearing. She jumped up on the far side of the bed toward the door and ran a few feet down the hall, pounding on Lucas’s door.

“Lucas! Let me in!”

She shoved on the door to find that it wasn’t locked. He met her halfway across the floor.

“There’s someone in my room!”

He pulled her in and shut the door.

“Calm down,” he said holding her shoulders, “are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”

She shook her head. “No. There is someone there. They were in the chair in the corner.”

He moved to the door, pulling her behind him. He opened it a crack, listening.

“Did you tell Brighton?”

“Brighton?”

“It’s his watch.”

“I didn’t see him in the hall.”

“Pull the chair over by the closet there and sit in the dark. I have to look. Lock the door behind me.”

She did as he said.

Lucas stood in the hallway, listening and hearing nothing. He moved to Audra’s room, stepped through the door and flipped on the overhead light. There was no one in the room. He looked behind the curtains, in the closet, under the bed. Nothing.

Shit!
Whoever was there was getting away right now—if there was someone. However, as he turned from the closet and looked toward the chair, he saw something white stuffed into the crack between the seat of the chair and the side. He walked over and pulled it out to find a pair of her panties.

He jerked her curtains open, checking the windows again. Then, he started calling for Brighton. He looked in Brighton’s room, and then woke Bill up.

“Get dressed, Bill. I need you to look for Brighton. I’ll be in my room. Audra is there, scared to death.”

Bill had his pants half on by the time Lucas finished his sentence.

“And Bill? Be careful.”

Bill went out on the back porch to look around. He and Lucas both felt that the back garden was the most vulnerable place despite the eight foot wall.

He lifted the glasses to his eyes to scan the trees. A sudden motion caught his attention. A large, leafy branch bobbed up and down. It wasn’t the wind. There was hardly a breeze, let alone a gust. It could’ve been a large cat or some other kind of critter. Bill stayed focused on the branch as the bobbing subsided, hoping for a clue or a glimpse of whatever—or whoever—was responsible for the branch’s motion.

Soon, the leaves were still and blended with the other leaves, and Bill’s focus blurred.
Was it this branch or that?
He felt the tension leave his body. It was a calm, peaceful night. Perfect, actually. He grimaced, amused by his own paranoia, but justifying his overreaction as coming with the territory. If you’re constantly on the lookout for Boogie Men, he mused, you will imagine seeing Boogie Men.

He lowered the binoculars, catching a brief glimpse of dull, black metal protruding from the same cluster of leaves. Light flashed, but before he could recognize it as a muzzle flash, the bullet tore into the center of his chest and knocked him against the wall. He looked down and saw the blood spurting from his chest, but only for a second. The second bullet hit him in the gut, and then he stopped seeing anything at all.

From the hallway, Lucas heard the heavy thud of Bill falling to the wooden porch floor. He paused, thinking it was Bill coming inside. He strained to hear the door open, but the sound was so subtle. Every sense alerted at once. There was someone in the kitchen, and he was quite sure it wasn’t Bill. He doused the hall lights.

His instincts flashed and he had a single goal, protecting Audra. Running down the stairs took them right by the kitchen door, so there was only one other way out. He had to chance that the person was acting alone.

He swung open the door to Audra’s room. Her shoes were right by the door where he had told her to leave them, and her bag was on the desk beside the door. When he knew they would be moving to the camp, he had told her to pack a single bag.

He took a second to look out the window and saw Bill’s feet dangling off the porch, confirming his hunch. He grabbed her bag and shoes and moved back to his room. Dammit! He had told her to lock the door. He kicked the door in. She screamed until she realized it was him. He grabbed her and pushed her out of the room and down the hall to Brighton’s room.

Lucas opened the door quietly, and they started across it, but the ancient floor boards squeaked. He pulled her quickly aside and pushed her toward the window. A bullet tore through the floor narrowly missing them both. That had to have come from the library, so the assailant was tracking them, Lucas realized. He was behind her in a flash, pulling open the window shutter to find the window already open.

He took her hand and stepped through to the roof, tossing her bag to the ground and pulling her behind him. He turned to steady her as she came through the window. He heard the front door opening, realizing they would have to be quicker than their assailant.

There was no chance now of reaching the car, so he jumped down into the neighbor’s yard to the side of the house and turned back, indicating that she should do the same and that he would catch her. She didn’t blink an eye. She just jumped, and he broke her landing. Still clutching her hand, they both started running toward the street behind them.

They came up against a fence which he leapt and then helped her over. They ran straight to the street, instead of risking more fences. To Lucas’s surprise, Brighton pulled up in his car with his window down. “Get in,” he said.

Lucas pulled open the back driver’s side door, pushed Audra in and jumped in beside her. Lucas wasn’t sure he trusted Brighton at this point, but Lucas had his Service weapon out. Brighton could just turn and shoot Audra, but he could have done that before now if he didn’t care about the outcome other than her being dead. He had to know that Lucas would kill him the second Brighton pulled the trigger.

They sped to the bottom of Nestor Lane and out onto Highway 4 heading north.

“Camp is this way?”

“You got it,” Lucas said.

“Taylor’s dead.”

“I figured.”

“No bag, again?” Audra asked.

Lucas looked at her. She should be screaming and crying with no idea what was happening to her, but she was inquiring about her bag. There must be a volcano down inside her ready to explode. He hadn’t picked up on this before—she was just completely ignoring the big stuff and concentrating on the details at hand. He was amazed she hadn’t completely dissociated already.

“Actually….” Brighton said, reaching down onto the front passenger seat and lifting up the bag for her to see.”

“How did you do that?” Lucas demanded. He had thrown the bag down into the front yard, but they had been forced to jump to the neighbor’s yard instead when the assassin came out the front door.

“I came around front and saw him just as he ducked back into the house, figuring to follow you. I grabbed the bag and hauled ass to the car. The back wall must have detained him just long enough for us to get away.”

Lucas said nothing. He had to process that.
Was it possible that Brighton was the shooter? Anything was possible
, he supposed,
but some things didn’t seem to add up with Brighton
.

“Th…thanks,” Audra stammered.

Lucas kept his eye out the back window but he saw no lights following them. When they got to Murphy’s, he was tempted to pull off the road somewhere hidden to see if someone passed by in a few minutes, but it was likely too risky at this juncture.

Once they got through the town, Brighton accelerated. Lucas kept his hand over Audra’s. The road started to climb up into higher elevations and the tall pines loomed black before the headlights, nearly swallowing them as they passed by.

They got to Arnold and went on through. It was the only place that seemed to have a little bit of life despite being the wee hours. Then, the darkness engulfed them again.

When they saw the sign toward Big Trees State Park, Lucas directed Brighton to pull off the road, backing into a place where they were pointed toward the highway, peering out between the trees. From their position, they could see anyone coming, but they were mostly hidden from the road. A huge street lamp marking the park entrance would allow him to see details.

About three minutes later, the same pickup Lucas had seen in front of the empty house came up the road. Just as it was about to pass them, Brighton flashed the headlights, and the brake lights on the pickup came on.

Audra screamed, and Lucas reached up, pistol whipping Brighton, knocking him unconscious.

The little pickup roared up into their space. Lucas jumped out, emptying his gun into the driver’s side windshield. The vehicle lurched and stopped. The horn started to blare.

Brighton stirred, and Audra jumped out and ran into the woods, screaming Lucas’s name.

Lucas peered into the pickup and saw the driver hunched over the steering wheel. He ran back to their car, jerked open the driver’s door and pulled Brighton out. Brighton came to and grabbed for Lucas’s gun. They grappled for a second, but Lucas got the upper hand and knocked Brighton out again. He stood there for a second with the pistol to Brighton’s temple before whipping out his handcuffs. He handcuffed Brighton and rolled him onto his stomach away from the car.

When Lucas stood, Audra was standing at the car, soaking wet and shivering.

“What the…?”

She didn’t respond.

“Get in back and lie down,” Lucas commanded.

She did as he said, and he got a blanket from the trunk and threw it over her. He started the car and sped off, back the way they had come. In a few minutes the car slowed, and she could tell he was pulling off the road again. This time they were speeding back on a gravel road through the trees. He got on his cell phone, calling the Calaveras County Sheriff’s department, telling them the whereabouts of the incident at Big Trees. Then, he called headquarters, reporting Bill’s death. She noticed that he didn’t mention camp or indicate in any way where they were actually going.

After they had driven for a half hour, he slowed so he could turn around and look at her. “I’m cold. Really cold,” she said, her teeth chattering loud enough for Lucas to hear.

“I know,” he said. “It’s just a bit farther.”

It seemed to her as if they drove for another hour, turning off the gravel road onto dirt. The car bounced, throwing them around and nearly throwing her off the seat.

“This was obviously meant for an off-road vehicle, but it’s got to do right now.”

Suddenly, they hit a large rock with a metal bang.

“Shit,” he said. “The oil pan.”

He drove it until the engine started smoking.

He pulled to the side as far as he could, and they got out. He shouldered her bag, and pulled her out.

“Can you walk?”

She nodded, but looked dazed. She was shivering. He pulled the blanket around her shoulders but pulled it up so it didn’t impede her legs. “It’s not far now,” he said. “Just over that rise.”

They trudged to the top of the hill and looked down into a small camp with a scattering of cabins.

“This is actually trickier than coming up,” he said. “Go down sideways like this,” he showed her. “You will keep your footing better that way. The rocks here are loose.”

He walked backwards in front of her, holding her hand, holding her up, and helping her every step as she half-stumbled and slid down the hill.  When they got to the bottom, he wrapped her up again, and they walked with his arm around her shoulder.

He opened the door to one of the cabins, casting the light from his flashlight around the room.

He led her to a bed in the corner of the cabin. He helped her strip off her wet clothing and wrapped her in the bed quilt. She sat on the bed, leaning back against the wall and drawing her knees up to her chest.

He searched through kitchen drawers coming up with a lighter and paper. Then, he found tinder and firewood in a log holder next to the big wood stove. It was an airtight stove, but luckily there was a window in front so that firelight illuminated the small room.

By the time he returned to her, she was shivering and unresponsive, although her eyes were open. He found a chest which held a cache of army blankets and he brought three more. He helped her lie down, spreading them over her, stoking the fire a bit, and loading a couple of big logs. Returning to the bed, he stripped and crawled in next to her. He turned her away from him and spooned up behind her, holding her body to his in an effort to warm her quickly.

He woke every little bit, checking on her and checking the fire and the temperature in the room. At last she seemed warm, but he was worried that it would head the other way—that she would get a fever. Although it was still in the 60s during the day, the nights dropped below freezing. She had gotten wet and even though her exposure to the cold was brief, the shock would undoubtedly have its effect, as well.

He slipped back in beside her. She was out of the woods now, more than likely, and he should have just gotten dressed and slept in the easy chair. There was a loft upstairs with a bed, but there was no way was he leaving her side right now. He began to stroke her silken skin, across her back and down. Just below her rib cage and above her hip on the left side, his fingers swept across raised, hardened skin, and he paused. She flinched slightly in her sleep and made a tiny sound of pain. He realized it had to be one of the scars from the shooting.

He wrapped his palm across it tenderly. She stirred, and he withdrew his hand, waiting for her to settle back to sleep.

When he woke the next time, the room was overly hot. She had turned toward him and was partially uncovered. Her face was glowing. He reached up and touched her with the back of his hand. It was just as he feared—her body was compensating by alerting her immune system, and she was feverish.

He adjusted the covers around her again. While she may have been warm for a while, her fever would cause her to chill again. He got up and adjusted the flue of the wood stove in an attempt to dial back the heat a bit. She didn’t need extremes. He put his jeans on and went outside to piss. It was clear and warm, sixties probably.

He was tempted to check out the rest of the camp, but he wanted to be nearby when she woke so she wouldn’t be frightened.
Jesus!
he wondered.
How much more could this woman take
?