Heaven Hill Series - Complete Series

by Laramie Briscoe

  Travis groaned, digging his way through years of built up foliage. Rooster knew he didn’t do nature, and this was awful. “I could fucking kill him for putting this shit here.”

  “Are you even sure it’s there? Looks like that piece of earth hasn’t been touched in a long time,” Tyler called out.

  “It has been, just not much, but I swear to you, if some snake comes crawling out of this mess, I’m gone. Travis Steele does not do snakes.”

  The guys laughed at him, giving him a hard time as he shuddered. “Be a man,” Tyler laughed.

  “I am, but I do not do snakes.”

  He leaned forward and snatched up another piece of foliage, pulling it back. “Got it!” There was a large wooden box hidden underneath, and Travis pulled it out, throwing it on the ground. When he opened it, Tyler bumped his back and yelled “snake!” making Travis jump back and scream.

  “Fuck you, Blackfoot,” he yelled. “I got bit when I was little, and it was a motherfucking traumatizing experience. This shit is not funny.”

  Liam and Tyler got themselves under control while Travis sat back down to open the box. He pried it open and started pulling out an envelope. Written on the front of it was a note that said to give it to Liam. “Guess this is yours.”

  Liam was about to open the envelope when Layne and Jagger came running behind the house. “Hey, we got company,” Jagger yelled. He’d pulled his bandana back up over his face, so they knew it wasn’t friendly.

  “Who is it?” Tyler asked as he helped Liam and Travis gather their information—not wanting to leave any of it behind, in case Rooster had more in the box.

  “Some sheriff car has driven by here four times. It’s not Rooster, but the last time, the guy had his cell phone out. We need to get out of here.”

  Travis was confused. Rooster had directed them out to this place because it was so far off anyone’s radar that they should have been able to be out for weeks before anyone knew. He and Liam exchanged a look. Had Rooster set them up?

  They ran to their bikes and fired them up. As they exited the driveway, the sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind them and flashed his lights. “We ain’t stoppin’,” Liam yelled. “I got a bad feelin’ about this.”

  That feeling was reverberating throughout everyone. They took the winding roads as fast as they dared, coming out onto Richardsville Road. This road at least had lines, but it wasn’t any less winding. Even though their bikes were smaller than the sheriff’s cruiser, it was apparent that whoever was driving had much more experience on the road than they did. Travis knew that they needed help, and he knew just the person that could help them. Being a techy sometimes had its advantages. Siri understood him better than anyone else, and he had a hands-free device in his helmet. “Call Cash.”

  Cash Montgomery answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”

  “You know that NOS system you want for your car? That one you’ve promised to work off on the weekends at the shop?” Travis yelled.

  “Yeah,” the younger boy answered.

  “I’ll give the fucker to you if you can intercept this fucking sheriff on 185.”

  “It ain’t Rooster, is it?”

  “Nah, some guy I’ve never seen before, and he’s hell-bent on getting one of us,” Travis yelled over the roar of the bike, his heart beating wildly as he went speeds he was not comfortable with.

  Cash laughed. “Must be their new asshole. He split up the street race on Louisville Road last night, lost a lot of money thanks to him. Word has it that he’s gonna be replacing Rooster. I’ll be there in sixty seconds; I was coming out that way anyway.”

  The two of them hung up, and Travis concentrated on not laying his bike down. They were pushing them hard. These were not race bikes, but Cash had a race car, one that easily won him every street race in this county. At eighteen, he was becoming a local celebrity. As they came upon the intersection that connected Highway 526 to Highway 185, Travis saw Cash’s cherry-colored sports car waiting on them. He could even hear the rev of the engine over their bikes. In the mirror of his bike, he saw Cash wait until the group of them passed—including the sheriff—and then he peeled out, leaving smoke in his wake. It was a few seconds later that Cash caught up to them using the oncoming traffic lane, to inject himself in between the sheriff car and the group of MC riders. Normally, Travis would feel bad about doing this, but they had stuck a stolen license plate on the back of Cash’s car after his last speeding ticket, and he regularly interchanged them. If the sheriff decided to do something, and that was a big if, they would have a hell of a hard time finding out exactly who and where Cash was.

  Cash slammed on his brakes, making the sheriff do the same and giving them a few extra minutes. They took the turn-off at Detour Road and then Cash gunned it, shooting ahead of the sheriff car. It was his decision, who was he going to go after? Was he going to go after any of them? None of them stuck around to find out. They rode straight to the clubhouse. As they all got off their bikes, Liam looked at Travis, breathing heavily.

  “Call Cash and make sure he didn’t get caught.”

  “Will do,” Travis nodded. “I told him that if he did that we’d take care of that NOS system for him.”

  “Sounds good.” Liam started taking his riding gear off. “Just make sure he made it alright. When you’re done, meet us at the table, we need to talk about this.” He held the envelope up in his hand.

  Since becoming a dad, Liam hadn’t exactly gone soft, but Cash was only four years older than Mandy and Drew, and he felt like he had to watch out for him. Especially when he had been doing something to help them.

  The call to Cash took a few minutes. Things had worked out fine, which made Travis feel better about calling him. He’d hated to call the guy in; he was young, but fuck could he drive a car. There was no one else that he trusted to help get them out of that situation more than the man who drove the cherry-red sports car. After he hung up, Travis made his way to the table.

  “Cash alright?” Liam asked. The guy had come to them a few months ago, wanting an engine put in after he’d blown his street racing. Since then, they had all come to like him and had helped him make his car even better. Some of them even bet on him once in a while—it was usually a given that he was going to win.

  “Yeah, he was pulling into his house when I called. He’s good.”

  Liam nodded, happy that had gone well. “Alright, let’s see what this shit is and then figure out what the fuck happened with that cop.”

  Liam opened the envelope and dumped the contents onto the table. He inhaled sharply as he took in the pictures that sat before them. They took him back years, back to a place he didn’t really want to go.

  “What is that?” Tyler asked, turning the pictures so that he could see them. “Are these a crime scene?”

  “They are,” Liam answered. “I didn’t ever expect to see this again,” he breathed out.

  “What are these?” Jagger asked as he thumbed through them.

  “This is the night that changed mine and Rooster’s lives forever. What the fuck is he doing with these?”

  No one could answer that question but the man himself. Liam cursed. He had trusted his old friend, maybe too much. Now he was pissed. He’d finally put this behind him and here this shit was. “Motherfucker,” he spat, as he got up and pulled his phone out, punching a number in furiously.

  Whoever he called must have answered on the first ring. “Explain this shit now.”

  Within minutes he’d hung up. “Rooster’s on his way.”

  None of them knew whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  Chapter Seven

  Afternoon around the Square in Bowling Green was different depending on what time of year it was, Christine was learning. In the late summer or early fall, there were usually concerts in the park, or they were setting up for the Saturday “buy local” events. Now that they were moving into the winter months, she noticed that it wasn’t as busy throughout the day, and at lunchtime it
was downright dead. She never seemed to know what would happen from day to day, but she liked that. Routine had been something that Clinton had thrived on, and while she did like a little bit of routine, there was another part of her that liked to live by the seat of her pants. That part of her was Jagger through and through. The phone rang, and she jumped before shaking her head and picking it up.

  “Thank you for calling the Curly-Q, can I help you?”

  She always had to bite back a snicker whenever she pronounced the name of the hair shop she now worked at, but she loved this place. She didn’t know now what she would do without it. Getting her the job here had been one of the best things that Travis had been able to do for her. She’d never had a job before, besides being a stripper, and this was something that she really enjoyed. There had even been thoughts in her head of maybe attending cosmetology school once she got everything straightened out.

  “Hi! Can you tell me if Shelby has any openings for tomorrow afternoon?”

  Christine checked the calendar that was labeled in pink. Shelby had been named for the Steel Magnolia’s character and pink was also her signature color. “She has one at 4:30 PM if that wouldn’t be too late.”

  “No, that’s perfect,” the voice on the other end said. “I teach, so that’ll give me time to run some errands and then be over there.”

  “And what’s your name?”

  “Bianca Hawks, but Shelby knows me as B.”

  Christine almost dropped her pencil as she wrote the name down. What if Jagger came with his girlfriend? Part of her was okay with that, another part was scared to death. “Alright, Bianca, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Her tone was sugary sweet, over-compensating for the shock, but the other woman didn’t pick up on it. Within moments, they hung up.

  “Who was that?” Shelby asked as she came out of the back, putting some hair clips on her apron. She also carried a broom and a dustpan to clean up after the client that had just left the shop.

  “Bianca Hawks,” she said as normally as she could. “She wanted an appointment with you tomorrow.”

  “I love that girl,” Shelby grinned. “And her boyfriend. Holy hell is he a fine piece of ass! He’s got that dangerous thing goin’ on too, ya know, since he’s a member of Heaven Hill.”

  Christine played dumb, but there was a part of her that wondered what Shelby would think if she told her that Jagger was her brother. “I’ve heard that.”

  “Who am I kidding?” Shelby shook her head. “All those men are fine pieces of ass. But all of them are taken, except for the kinda hot, nerdy one.”

  “Travis Steele.” She could definitely vouch that he was a bit nerdy, but he was hot too. Becoming hotter the more she hung out with him. In fact, they had a lunch date scheduled for today, and she was very excited about it.

  “Yeah, that’s him.” She snapped her fingers. “He’s hot in his own way, but he is definitely no Jagger or Tyler.”

  Christine was kind of offended to hear the other woman talk about Travis like he was a second-class citizen. For the first time—ever—she admitted to herself that he was a good-looking guy. He wasn’t huge in a muscular way; he was strong, but had a little meat on his bones. She liked that, along with the fact that he was always doing something different with his facial hair. Sometimes he had a goatee, sometimes he had a soul patch, she had seen him with a full beard, and she had seen him clean-shaven. All ways she liked him, even when he wore those nerdy hipster glasses that she usually hated on men. She still hadn’t gotten the nerve to ask him if he really needed them or if he did it for a fashion statement.

  “He is hot in his own way. In fact, I think he’s hotter, and he’s really nice.”

  She hadn’t meant to say those words out loud.

  “Have you met him?” Shelby’s green eyes were lit up with an enthusiastic need to be nosey. “I’ve never met them or talked to any of them, but I’ve always wanted to. Jagger’s never come in with B, but he’s dropped her off before. I have a cousin who used to be a stripper down at Wet Wanda’s, and she said they were all polite when they came in, but they were badass if someone got out of line.”

  “I met Travis once before,” she whispered, afraid that even that would be giving the other woman too much info.

  Shelby’s mouth opened to ask questions, but the bell rang, signaling someone was coming into the shop. Christine whirled around and thanked God that it was a regular, and all talk of the Heaven Hill MC was gone. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she saw that she had a missed text from Travis.

  Sorry, I won’t be able to meet you for lunch today, something’s come up.

  Christine tried not to let the disappointment cover her like a blanket. Just because he cancelled plans one time didn’t mean he was getting tired of her. It didn’t mean he was getting sick of her indecisiveness and her need to keep secrecy. It didn’t mean that at all.

  “You wanna tell me what the fuck this is?”

  As soon as Rooster had walked into the room, Liam was on the defensive. It had been a while since any of them had seen Liam get as angry as he was now, but they all knew it was coming. There was only so much stress he could take, and all this coupled with a baby that was just now starting to sleep through the night. The last year for him had been stressful, and now he was over it all.

  “Calm down,” Rooster tried, wincing when Liam slammed his hand down on the table.

  “Don’t tell me to calm the fuck down! I’ve got too much goin’ on in my life to be dealin’ with this bullshit right now. This was supposed to be taken care of years ago. We took the punishment; I did fucking time in juvie. Where in hell is this coming from now? And so help me God, Rooster, if you lie to me, I will kill you.”

  “Are you threatening an officer of the law?” Rooster glanced pointedly at him, still willing to bring up the fact that a badge stood between their friendship.

  “Fuck no, I’m threatenin’ Rooster Hancock who turned tail and ran when things got a little too real for him. I’m threatenin’ the best friend that I did everything I could to give a better life because I knew his parents gave two fucks about him and mine didn’t,” Liam finished, his chest heaving with the effort of the words.

  There was silence in the room as everyone looked back and forth between the two of them. They had all known something had happened when Liam and Rooster were younger, but no one knew exactly what. Neither one of them had been at all forthcoming, and it had always been a thorn in everyone’s side.

  Tyler was the first to find his voice. “I think y’all better tell us just what in the hell went down. We can’t protect anybody if we don’t know the truth.”

  Rooster opened his mouth, and Tyler stopped him with the look on his face. “From the beginning and don’t leave anything out. You do, I’m liable to turn my back while Liam makes good on his promise.”

  “We were stupid kids,” Rooster whispered. “Both of us were dumbasses.”

  “And we thought that nothing could touch us because of how young we were,” Liam added. “It was a bad situation the whole way around.”

  Travis was getting sick of them talking around in circles. He had enough of that with Christine. He wanted the straight truth, for once. “Tell us.”

  The two men exchanged a look, neither one of them wanting to go into what had happened so long ago, but knowing they had to.

  “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Rooster turned on him.

  “Yeah, we all would. I wanna get this shit over with.”

  “That’s funny.” He walked over to where Travis sat and loomed over him. “I was threatened with something having to do with you, cuz.”

  Now everyone was staring at him, questions in their eyes. What the fuck did he have to do with this?

  “I was told you’re harboring someone—is that true?”

  Christine. He had to be talking about Christine. How the fuck had Rooster found out about her? He’d been careful—maybe too careful. “What the hell are you talking about?”

&n
bsp; “My boss pulled me behind closed doors today. He plopped those pictures in my hands along with a container that holds DNA that wasn’t tested way back when, and he told me that he needs the woman you’re hiding. So let me give it to you straight, I’m gonna need you to hand her over.”

  Travis stood up, even though he was shorter than the deputy. “I can’t hand her over, and I won’t.”

  “Somebody wants her back, and they aren’t going to stop until everybody in this room is destroyed. You got that?” His eyes flashed, more pissed than Travis had seen him in a long time.

  “What do they have over you?” Travis asked again, looking back and forth between Liam and Rooster.

  “It’s me.” A small voice came from the doorway.

  None of them had noticed that the door had opened and that someone was standing there, so involved they had been in throwing accusations back and forth at one another.

  “Roni,” Rooster warned.

  She shook her head. “No, it’s time. Maybe it’s time I face up to what I did that night. The two of you have been paying for it for years.”

  No one knew what to say as they watched her walk into the room. Rooster watched her with an interest that they’d never seen him show before. “William talked,” he told her softly, hoping the tone of his voice would soften the blow.

  “Motherfucker,” Liam mumbled under his breath.

  He got up fast, flipping the chair in his wake. It was obvious their pres was pissed. In fact, they’d never seen him so mad before. “Ya know,” he started, chest heaving. He licked his lips and started again. “I figured he’d tell on me someday about some stupid shit I did in his name, but not his own daughter. After finding out I’m really not his son, that made fuckin’ sense, but why would he want to hurt you?”

  She shook her head, putting her hands to her mouth. Why, she wasn’t sure, maybe to hold back the sob that she wanted to release.

  “Because I would never do that to Mandy, I would never do that to Tatum. Drew can handle himself, I see that even now, at his age, but fuck…to do that shit to my daughters? He’s lucky he’s behind bars because if I could get my hands on him.” He turned and punched the wood paneling of the wall, letting out a “fuck” that was guttural.