Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (2 page)

“What the hell happened to you?” my
father asked. It was well past midnight by the time Ash and I made it to my
house.

“Oh, my goodness,” my mom said. In her
housedress and slippers, hair pulled back in a ponytail, and glasses on, she
could see we were both in poor shape. “Is that blood
?!
”

“Marina,” my father said. “Ash. What
happened? One of you needs to tell me what happened right now.”

My father was terrifying when he got mad.
A brut of a man with bass in his voice and narrow, beady eyes, one look from
him could send someone huddling in a corner. His arms covered in tattoos and
his skull cap always in place, he was known around our town as the president of
the Black Dogs MC. Descended from decades of brave biker-loving men, the club
had been formed long before I was born. It was our world and it was our
lifestyle – all I’d ever known.

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” I
whimpered. How do you tell your own father that you were just sexually
assaulted?
And that your attacker was the son of the
president of a rival MC?
Perhaps that’s why I’d lusted for Tripp like I
did. I knew he was off limits.

I held my head low and felt Ash’s eyes on
me. He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Marina was attacked.”

I glanced up and thanked Ash for saying
what I didn’t have the strength to say.

“Attacked?” My father, all 270 pounds of
him, stood up, fists clenched.

“Tripp Cotton,” Ash said. His face winced
and he turned to avoid my father’s reaction.

“What the hell were you doing around that
piece of shit
?!
” my father’s voice boomed.

“Rex,” my mother said as she grabbed his
arm. “
Shh
.
You’re
going to
wake everyone up.” I’d forgotten that my two younger sisters were asleep in
their beds down the hall.

“We were at a bonfire,” I said. I still
couldn’t look at him. “Tripp was talking to me and then he asked if I wanted to
go on a walk.”

My eyes burned hot. I couldn’t finish the
rest, and suddenly my body collapsed on the floor. My mother rushed to my side
as she and Ash worked to help me back up.

“It doesn’t matter what happened,” Ash
said. He held his shoulders back and took a deep breath, fighting off the tears
that filled his eyes. “I killed him.”

“You what?” my father squinted as he
studied Ash’s face. None of us could tell whether he was proud or furious.

“I-I killed him,” Ash stammered. “I snapped.
And then I killed him.”

My father slammed his hands on the table
and turned his head away, looking lost in thought for a moment. The three of us
stood in silence, waiting for him to speak.

He paced around the kitchen for a minute
before grabbing his phone and making a call. “Yeah, Riggs, it’s Rex. Meet me in
five at the clubhouse.”

“What are you doing?” my mom asked, fear
in her eyes. Her hands clenched at her neckline. They’d been together over
twenty years, and she’d seen him do a lot of things, but this was different.

“We’re taking care of it,” my dad said,
like it was nothing. Like he was just taking out the trash. “I need to know
where the body is.”

Ash and I exchanged looks and his face
softened as his eyes filled with a tiny sliver of hope.

“County line road,” Ash said. “Two miles
north of the red light intersection. There’s a cornfield and a sign. It’s just
before 86
^th
avenue.”

My father pursed his lips and sighed as
if it was just a mere inconvenience that he had to clean up someone else’s
murder; just another day in the life of the Club.

“Take this to the grave.” He turned to
all three of us before walking out and waved his finger in our faces. “I mean
it.”

Ash took a seat the kitchen table and
breathed a sigh of relief. Color was returning to his face, though we both knew
it wasn’t over yet. It would never be over. We’d both carry this heavy secret
for the rest of our lives, and I couldn’t help but blame myself. I never
should’ve given Tripp Cotton a second glance. I never should have walked off
with a boy I hardly knew from a rival club. Ash never would’ve gotten himself
into that situation if it weren’t for my dumb decisions.

“Go get cleaned up,” my mom said. She
tried to hide the worry in her voice, but she didn’t fool either of us. “Both
of you.”

Five years later…

I awoke as our car slowed and turned down
a gravel road. We’d been driving for at least six hours in the middle of the
night and it had been more than a challenge to stay awake. Ash convinced me
that I didn’t want to know where I was going anyway. It would be much safer for
us that way.

I watched him out of the corner of my
eye. He leaned closer to the steering wheel, straining to stay awake. The car
was silent except for the rumble of the road and the chips of gravel pinging
the underbelly of our faithful blue Ford. Tucker, our toddler, was sound asleep
in the car seat behind Ash. The sky above us was flecked with delicate golden
stars. Under any other circumstances I would’ve marveled at how beautiful they
were.

I shivered as the air conditioning blew
cold on my skin, but I knew Ash needed it to stay alert. As we slowed to a stop
at an unlit, deserted gravel intersection, Ash toyed around with the GPS.

“Everything alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m just checking something,” Ash
replied.

He was never one to go into detail about
anything. Ever since that fateful summer, something changed in him. I supposed
killing a man would do that to a guy.

We always knew the day would come when
we’d have to uproot our lives and go on the run. The Cottonmouths had been
trying to pin Tripp’s murder on someone for years, and five years later they
were starting to figure out who’d done it.

The day after Ash had saved me, my father
initiated him into his club and within a few short years he’d worked his way up
in the ranks, and I’d fallen head over heels in love with the man who had saved
me that horrific night. He’d given so much for me. What kind of a man loves a
woman so much he’d kill for her? I couldn’t let him go, so I gave him my heart,
unconditionally, and never looked back.

We turned onto yet another gravel road.
The green sign read something like 237
^th
Avenue. I’d never heard of
any avenues numbered higher than one hundred before.

“I really have to pee,” I announced.

“We’re almost there.”

Between two buttes about a half a mile
ahead were some yard lights. “Those are the first lights I’ve seen in miles.
People actually live out here?”

“That’s the house,” Ash replied, checking
the rearview mirror. “I asked them to leave the lights on so we could find it
in the middle of the night.”

Ahead was our designated safe house. The Cottonmouths
were spewing threat after threat, promising to murder the family of their beloved
Tripp’s killer. An eye for an eye, they said. The second we got word that Ash’s
name was being thrown around their circle as someone they
were checking into
,
we had to bolt
. Ash
insisted Tuck and I stay as far away from them as possible until he could
handle the situation and get the heat off his back.

“I haven’t seen houses for miles,” I said
as the reality of our new lifestyle was finally sinking in.

Our Ford skidded on the gravel and came
to a sudden halt.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I said in a
loud whisper.

“Marina,” Ash turned to face me in the
car. I recognized the disconcerted look on his face and shuddered a little. I
hated to see Ash upset. He was the anchor of our family. “We always knew this
day would come. We can’t stay in that God-awful town right now. The safety of
my family has been jeopardized. I will not have that.”

I looked back at Tucker, who was somehow
still sound asleep. I hadn’t yet told Ash, but I was roughly six weeks pregnant.
We’d had two miscarriages since Tucker, and I couldn’t put Ash through the
stress of another one. He worried about us enough as it was. I decided to hold
off as long as possible before I would tell him.

Ash cupped my face in his hands and
kissed me between my eyes. “You’re my world, you and Tuck. I don’t know what I
do without you.”

“We’ll be fine out here,” I said,
offering a smile. “I brought a ton of books. We have internet right?”

With that, we continued towards our new
home. Ash didn’t know how long we’d be living at this new place. He said he
couldn’t risk our safety, and until he knew we were clear, this would be the
safest place for us.

My stomach fluttered a little as we
approached the driveway to the house. From far away, all I saw were yard
lights. Up close, the house was mammoth and lit up like a Christmas tree. It
looked a little daunting in the middle of the night.

Ash pulled up as close as he could to the
side door and stepped out of the driver’s seat. He unbuckled Tuck from his car
seat and gently hoisted him over his shoulder. I stepped out of the car and
stretched. As we made our way closer to the house, even more lights turned on
and lit up our walkway. I’d never seen so many motion sensor lights around one
house before.

Ash pointed to the trees surrounding the
house. “There are wireless cameras in every single tree out here. Just so you
know.”

I smiled. I knew he was trying to ease my
mind. He wanted me to feel as safe and comfortable as possible out here.

We entered the house through the mudroom
door and flipped on the lights. We were greeted with a musty smell, like a seldom-used
vacation home or an aging fifth-wheel camper. It didn’t bother me though. It
reminded me of vacations to our lake home as a young girl. It was the
reassurance I needed to feel like I could make this work.

As we looked for the living room we
passed through the kitchen. I stopped in my tracks when I saw its condition.
“This stove has got to be from the 1950s. And it’s a foot away from the wall. There’s
no refrigerator.” I ran to the sink and turned on the faucet. The pipes clanked
and water began to sputter out. “At least we have running water.”

Ash carried Tuck to the living room,
where he laid him on a scratchy looking plaid sofa and covered him with his
blanket. Adjacent to the living room was a huge sunroom with nothing but floor
to ceiling windows on three of the four walls.

“All of the windows on this house are
coated in a special film so that you can see out just fine, but no one could see
in no matter how hard they tried,” Ash explained, rubbing my shoulder. “You
could walk around naked with all the lights on and on one would know. But don’t
go doing that.” He put his arm around me and pulled me in. “I don’t know about
you, but I’m beat.”

“I’d like to see the rest of the house if
you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead. There should be a pull out
couch in the living room. That’s where I’ll be for tonight.” We locked eyes and
for a brief moment I saw a look of uncertainty on his face. I brushed it off. I
had to.

I was a little shocked that he didn’t
want to secure the perimeters like he normally would. Then again, this is one
of the club’s designated family hiding houses. It’s supposed to be as secure as
the White House, only with no secret service men.

Ash left the sunroom, and I could hear
him seconds later pulling out the sofa bed in the living room. I noticed a
hallway that ran through the middle of the house just past the kitchen. The
last door on the left looked older than the rest, so of course I had to check
it out first. The door creaked as I opened it and the light automatically
flickered on. In front of me was a stunning, polished mahogany dining room
table and in each of the four corners of the room were antique grandfather
clocks. Each clock was silent and still, and
their
hands all rested on different hours.