TRIGGERED: A Romantic Suspense Bundle (5 Books)

by Evie Nichole

  He looked at me strangely, his head cocked to the side as if he was thinking. I thought I saw something for a moment, a flicker in his face like he was conflicted about what to do. Then, finally, he answered.

  "Sure. No problem, Josh. I hope you find him. We’ll head South to the den, meet us there the day after next, okay?" He smiled again. That grin which meant kindness or pain in equal measure.

  "Thanks for understanding, Drake. You and the boys want to come up to my room for a slug of whiskey?" I asked, not really wanting them to.

  "No thanks, Josh. We’ve got something we need to take care of."

  Drake, Anton, and Hendrix walked over to their rides, and started them up.

  "Remember now," Drake shouted over the purr of his bike. "We need you back to the den on time, this job can’t wait any longer, okay?"

  It wasn’t a question. It was an order. I nodded, smiling, and inside my heart raced. What was this job? I had flashes of that night two years previous, of the crash, of Daniel lying dead. I’d known after that night what it really meant to be a Hornet, what it meant to be one of Drake’s Night Riders.

  I am become death, destroyer of worlds...

  It was Maxine’s world we had destroyed that night. Oh, Maxine... How I wished we had met under different circumstances...

  Drake had given me just one more day. I was going to use it, to spend time with Maxine, to enjoy her smile, her voice. Then, it was back to the road, away from that ray of hope towards the storm clouds on the horizon, back to the Hornets’ den.

  Chapter 11

  It was time for our third date. People often joke about what that means, about what’s expected, but I had no intention of sleeping with Josh. I just wanted to enjoy his company... Maybe a kiss at the most... But that was all.

  He’d suggested a film, but I’ve always felt that going to the cinema is a bad idea on a date. Not because I don’t like the cinema – I love going to the movies – but more so because you can’t have a conversation. It’s a strange idea to me, especially when you’re first seeing a person. Sure, you can go to the cinema and enjoy not talking with your boyfriend, but that’s because you know him. You spend plenty time chatting, it’s just nice to sit back and watch a piece of escapism together without being bogged down in a need to talk.

  It’s different at the start. It’s harder. You have to get to know each other, find out his little ways. What type of person is he? What does he like? Is he kind? Is he a keeper?

  How can you learn any of that if you’re stuck in a darkened room where you can’t talk for two hours straight – or 4 hours; Daniel once took me to see a Lord of the Rings film and I felt like I’d been there all day.

  No, the cinema was definitely out. For some reason, I wanted to see how Josh would react in a different environment. More than that, for selfish reasons, there was a type of place I hadn’t been in some time. That was because it was somewhere I’d drag Daniel to, going alone seemed difficult for me.

  Museums have always fascinated me. When I was a little girl there was a small museum where we lived in Kelso, mostly local history, but they had a suit of armor from England. It dated back to the 16th century. I was fascinated with it, my dad would take me to see it. There it stood, worn with age, but the metal still had a shine to it. I used to imagine that it had belonged to one of King Arthur’s knights. Of course, the completely wrong time period, if King Arthur ever existed at all, but it was a fun idea to me then, a romantic idea. It still is.

  Daniel always supported my obsession with old things. The house was mainly modern in décor, but I’d sneak in an antique or two. It wasn’t the cost, not even the look which attracted me to such things. It was the story old things could tell. All those previous owners, perhaps they’d even been privy to extraordinary events. It was a connection to the past I suppose. It seemed ironic to me somehow that Daniel had hidden that key underneath one of those antiques, one of those pieces of the past. Now the key was a part of his past, but unlike that old oak chest of drawers, he had no future. It was cut short.

  As Josh and I walked into the museum on the corner of Bridge Street, I felt a pang in my chest. It had been so long since I had visited one I was completely unaware of how much I had missed it, wandering between the exhibitions – the paintings, the fossils, the sculptures, the relics of a bygone era.

  I just hadn’t been able to bring myself to wander around such a place on my own. My dad was gone, he’d been the one to accompany me as a kid, my sister for a while after that, then Daniel... Going to a museum would just be a reminder of how lonely, how alone I really was. The very idea made me feel like a relic myself, something cast aside from a previous life, one which was happy.

  But there I was with Josh. He smiled, and I was impressed that he was actually interested in some of the exhibits. Mainly the natural history stuff. That surprised me. He was staring at a dinosaur fossil intently.

  "What you thinking?" I asked, tugging on his arm affectionately.

  "I can’t believe these things used to walk around. They look like monsters," Josh said.

  "Maybe they’d think you were a monster if they were staring at you," I laughed, and Josh joined me.

  "Very funny... I like it here. It’s quiet."

  We walked through a doorway into another section of the museum, our footsteps echoing out.

  "I think that’s why I’ve always liked museums and libraries. The silence helps you get away from the hustle and bustle, you know?" I said.

  "What about churches?"

  "Oh, I like the silence of them too. I was in Europe once, I visited a cathedral in Florence with my fiance. It was so quiet there, and even though I’m not religious, for the first time I understood why people go to these places. You’re alone with your thoughts, but not alone."

  I hadn’t realized I’d done it until Josh asked me about it: "You were engaged?"

  It had just sort of slipped out. I had mentioned Daniel, something I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to do. Josh was a break from the past, and there was I pulling my baggage back into things.

  "Yeah, I was." That was all I could muster. It wasn’t a topic of conversation I wanted to have. I just wanted to enjoy myself with Josh, I needed to get away from the grief, but now the doors had opened, and Josh was clearly going to ask about it.

  We stopped in front of a huge mural painting on a pristine wall. It was of a battlefield during the civil war. The sky was grey, and beneath it the soldiers of both sides lay dying on a grassy plain. Their faces were etched with regret, and in my mind they were questioning in their last moments why they had to fight at all.

  "I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, Maxine."

  That seemed like such a strange thing to say. If it had we wouldn’t have been there in that museum together, and yet Josh looked almost grief stricken. It was as if he sensed my pain and had taken it in.

  He didn’t ask anything else, which I again thought was strange, but we just stood there looking at the painting. In the silence I could feel it. The grief sitting in the back of my throat. I tried to fight it, but the very mention of Daniel had set me off. I felt as though I had to explain myself to Josh.

  "He died two years ago." I kept staring at the picture. I dared not look at Josh, any sign of sympathy and I’d start crying. "It was a car accident... Not so much an accident actually, we were forced off the road by a group of bikers. The car crashed. I spent some time in hospital, and Daniel, my fiance, was dead."

  I waited for a response. But there was none, at least nothing verbal. Josh gently put his arm around my shoulders. I rested my head on his, and that’s when it happened. I started to cry.

  "Shhh... It’s okay, Maxine. It’s okay," Josh said in a whispered, soothing voice.

  But it wasn’t okay. I guess in some way I’d thought the grief had faded away enough, that I wouldn’t feel this way again, but the museum... A place I would have visited with Daniel... Me there with a biker no less, another man. The guilt was terrible.


  I sobbed, and then in a moment which made me shiver all over, Josh looked down at me and wiped the tears away from my face. It’s funny that you never really know what you need until you have it. I’d needed someone to do that, to wipe the tears away, to say that everything would be okay, to make me feel like life was worth pursuing.

  "Take me home, Josh," I said through the tears.

  "I’ve just got my ride..."

  "That’ll be fine... I just want to be away from here." I was too upset to really know what that meant.

  We walked out of the museum, and as we did so I felt as though the emptiness of that place watched us, watched me; eyes followed us, at the time I thought it was the terrified soldiers in that painting, but I now know it was something else.

  A couple of streets away, Josh’s bike sat on a sidewalk. It was glorious, chrome, bright and shining.

  "You ever been on a bike before?" Josh asked.

  "No, I’ve always thought they were too dangerous," I said. I was now regretting saying that I didn’t mind riding home.

  "Only in the wrong hands. Here, take this helmet," Josh handed me a black helmet, and as I touched it, for some reason I felt a shiver run up my spine, and not in a good way like before.

  "Don’t you need one?"

  "No, I’ll be fine," said Josh. "Hop on the back, put your arms around my waist, and don’t let go, okay?"

  After giving Josh directions to my apartment, I reluctantly did as he asked. When I put the helmet on, it was as if the world changed, it became a shadow of itself through the darkened visor, but it wasn’t cold or isolated It was kind of comforting in a way, and I realized then that Josh probably got the same quiet solitude from riding that others got from sitting silently in a cathedral. This was his church. Wrapping my arms around Josh’s waist I felt safe, even on that bike. I could feel his body beneath his clothes, and it felt hard and athletic. Deep down, I could feel an excitement building.

  "Hold on!" Josh said, and the bike burst into life.

  We shot off down the street at speed. The sense of acceleration was incredible. We twisted around corners, and underneath I could feel the power of the bike. Yet as ferocious as that seemed, the beast was tamed in Josh’s hands. I didn’t know much about bikes, but I could tell he was an expert. He deftly cornered, opening his ride up only when necessary, knowing implicitly when to break.

  My hair fluttered out the bottom of my helmet, and in that moment it all made sense. I understood why Josh loved to ride. It was dangerous, it was exciting, it was... Freedom.

  As we drove, the grief receded to the back of my mind. I was in the moment, genuinely in the moment for the first time in three years. I laughed and giggled, not sure if Josh could hear me over the roar of his bike.

  It felt amazing! And in that moment I knew that I didn’t want that feeling to ever end.

  Then, just like that, I was outside of my apartment building. I stepped off the bike and looked at Josh in amazement.

  He laughed: "First time is always something special."

  "I loved it! I can see why you like to ride."

  "It’s about more than the thrill, it’s about more than the freedom, it’s where I feel I belong," he said.

  That’s when I knew that the opportunity to know Josh was fading fast. There was something in his voice which told me that he wasn’t going to be around for long. Going by the look on his face as he talked about his bike and riding around the country, I didn’t feel there was a future in it. But that was okay. It wasn’t about the future. It was about that night. It was about feeling alive and being happy for that; being in the moment, rather than a spectator of it. I felt ready.

  "Are you coming up? The night is young..." I said, without even realizing what I was insinuating.

  "I thought you wanted to finish our date for the night?" He had a concerned look on his face.

  "I just didn’t want to be in the museum any more, Josh. I’m okay now. I thought maybe we could just watch a film upstairs... But if you don’t want to..."

  "Let’s do it." He smiled, and we walked into my apartment building together.

  I felt like a teenager again. The last time I had invited a man back to where I lived was when I was dating Daniel, funnily enough three dates in.

  "Welcome to Castle Maxine," I said as we walked into my hall. I then put on a voice approximating a real estate agent. " As you can see the apartment has a spacious lobby, with full kitchen and bathroom amenities."

  "I don’t know, I hear the previous tenant was a bit of an oddball, she liked jazz and museums..." Josh laughed at his own joke.

  "Very good. Would you like a drink?"

  "Sure, my hotel isn’t that far from here, I could probably just walk and pick my ride up in the morning."

  We opened a bottle of red wine, and Josh had a look through my DVD collection for a film.

  "My God, you like your horror films, don’t you?" he asked, observing that the ratio of horror films to other genres on my shelves was pretty high. "Do you like to be scared?"

  "Sometimes," I replied, pouring Josh a large glass of red. "Found anything you’d like?"

  "I don’t really get the chance to watch many movies... You pick..." he said.

  "I know!" I rushed to where he was standing and grabbed a DVD. "You’ll love this..."

  "That’s hype if I ever heard it."

  "Okay, if you don’t love it, I’ll just have to entertain you." I didn’t know what I was suggesting, but it felt good. My heart raced as I put the DVD on and sat next to Josh on my couch.

  The film was called Sideways. It’s about two friends going on a bachelor party trip through the vineyards of California. Very funny, very sad, but uplifting in a way. In some of my darker times it had helped me through. Watching the main character Miles dealing with losing his wife and his father, trying to find his place in the world again. I related to it a lot. The main reason I thought Josh would like the film was that it was also about two guys on the open road. Deep down though, I wanted to watch that film with another human being. Another person who I felt romantically involved with. As if to say to the character Miles in the movie, Hey Miles, look at me, things are going to be just fine for the both of us.

  I didn’t share any of this with Josh in case he thought I was being silly.

  Within ten minutes of the film, and a glass of red wine each, we had gone from sitting next to each other to almost embracing. Josh put his arm around my shoulders, and I nestled my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating. That apartment had been so empty for so long, to feel something else, someone else alive next to me was... Exhilarating.

  Josh started laughing about twenty minutes in, as if the quirky humor in the film finally made sense to him. By about halfway, he was laughing riotously. He had such a cute laugh, it started off small and then grew as he found a line funnier and funnier.

  Eventually I realized, I wasn’t watching the film. I was watching Josh. That was what I was interested in. I watched the smile on his face, the glint in his eyes, and then, suddenly, he was watching me. We stared at each other for what seemed an eternity. The film blended into the background. It was just us, just the two of us sharing a deep connection which we’re magically formed in just a few days and nights. Then, as if reading my thoughts, he leaned in and kissed me.

  This time, I was not holding back. I was giving myself up to the moment, to the passion. Like riding on the motorbike, I was allowing myself to be free. Josh opened his mouth as he kissed me passionately, and I teased inside with my tongue. His touched mine, and as it did, I felt a shudder of pleasure well up inside of me.

  He touched my hair with his hand, running his fingers through it. Each touch was careful, gentle, and never misplaced, but as we grew into each other’s embrace, things heated up for both of us. He kissed my neck, and I could feel my lustful drive awaken inside of me. For too long I hadn’t embraced it, hadn’t allowed it to run free. Now, in Josh’s strong arms, I was finally able to enjoy
being with a man again. His smell, his touch, his taste.

  I moved my hand down his denim shirt, and then underneath. I let out a quiet sigh of pleasure as I touched his stomach. He was athletic, strong, his body chiseled It was as if he was forged of the road, as hard as it, but when he looked into my eyes and I into his, I could see that there was care, there was kindness too. The road hadn’t beaten that out of him. It had made him strong, yet the vulnerable Josh who’d been abandoned by his father was still there underneath, gentle and sensual to the touch.

  I rubbed underneath his shirt, and then he took his hand and placed it underneath my top. He touched my breasts, caressing them. We both moved together, and as our lust increased, we began to tear the clothes from each other. I pulled his shirt off, and then I couldn’t help myself, I ran my tongue over his rock hard body. I licked his nipples. It had been three long years since I’d had sex, and it was showing. I had to have it.

  He let out a groan, and then moved on top of me. Removing my skirt, he ran his fingers across my inner thighs, and then he touched me. Sliding his fingers inside. I quivered with pleasure, and quickly undid his belt, removed his jeans, and felt his hardness.

  It was all too much. He moved on top of me. As he pushed inside, I smiled with delight. It felt good to have a man inside me again, to feel entangled with another person as one. In that impassioned embrace we made love, sweat dripping from both of our bodies, he moved deeper and deeper inside. As we both climaxed together, he kissed me with conviction, and then we lay together for several minutes, exhausted, panting, and utterly satisfied.

  "Are you okay?" Josh asked me.

  "Better than okay, that was amazing."

  "It was."

  We kissed again, and on that couch, entangled as one, we fell asleep.

  When I woke during the night I felt relieved, satisfied, exhausted all at once, an overwhelming serenity. Josh was still sound asleep, he looked so cute as he snored ever so quietly. He may have been a biker, but when you peeled away the rough exterior he was as vulnerable and fragile as the rest of us.