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? Love?” 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, b
ut 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.”
He was proud of her, proud that she was so willing to help other people, willing to sacrifice the life she had etched out for herself after her rapist had taken away a part of her life. It was getting chilly now that they were moving into November, so he put his big hands on her cheeks to try and get some of the redness out. “You stay behind me, no matter what.”
“I will always trust you to protect me, I promise you that.”
Rooster walked over, Liam in tow. “I just got a call that they’ve raided the sheriff’s offices in three counties, and they’ve arrested those same three sheriffs.”
“You think those are the ones that were working with Clinton?” Tyler asked, his eyebrow raised.
“Pretty positive,” Rooster nodded. “They’re going to get rid of anyone who can tamper with evidence before they go get him. The amount of bodies you all found on his property—this is going to be huge. I have a feeling they’re going to find Jagger and Christine’s parents amongst the dead.”
Nobody else had said those words, but Meredith had thought it too. “I figured too, especially when B mentioned that Jagger had been back and their house was abandoned. I have a feeling that when a person ceased being an asset to him, he got rid of them any way he could.”
“Meredith!”
Her head whipped around as she heard her voice called. It was her old co-worker. “We’re heading out.”
She nodded, and the group of them walked over to where the bikes sat, each of them putting on the bulletproof vests. It was quiet as they got dressed, ready for battle, even though this wasn’t their battle this time. They followed the convoy along, none of them really sure what they would face when they got there.
Christine was deep in a cocoon of warmness. Her body was comfortable, and she could feel strong arms around her. The only thing invading the peacefulness was a loud knock at the door.
“Ignore them, they’ll go away,” a deep voice against her ear said. That voice was scratchy with the sound of sleep and caused goose bumps to form on her arms. She loved when she could hear him like that. It meant even more now that he had told her how he felt about her.
A few minutes later, it was obvious that the other person was not going to go away. Finally the two of them got up, both covering themselves minimally as Travis made his way to the door. “What the fuck do you want?” he asked as he slung the door open. He took a step back when he saw Rooster standing there, a stark look on his face. “What?”
“I need to talk to Christine,” he told Travis.
“No, you can talk to the both of us.”
Rooster grimaced. This was the part of the job he hated. The part where he had to do notification, even if the person he was notifying probably wouldn’t give a shit what he had to say. He watched as Christine walked over towards the door, pulling the shirt that she wore down past her thighs. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but it has to be by the book.”
She nodded.
“You are Christine Herrington, the wife of Clinton Herrington?”
“I am,” she nodded. “But I go by Christine Stone now.”
“Earlier today a search warrant and arrest warrant was served on Mr. Herrington for the property that housed his home and horse barn. When federal agents tried to execute said search warrant, Mr. Herrington fired on them before turning the gun on himself. He was pronounced dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
She was in shock. That was the only thing she could think of, because what Rooster was telling her was not computing in her brain. “He killed himself?”
“Yes, in front of no less than twenty agents who were all trying to talk him down.”
A little piece of her had known this was how it would end. He wouldn’t go to prison, he wouldn’t pay for any of his sins here on earth, he had always thought himself better than that. It had always struck her as weird that he thought that way, because out of anyone she knew, including her parents, he had committed the worst.
“There was paperwork found at the scene that you’re probably gonna need to take a look at. He had money, it will all come to you,” Rooster was saying. “There was also a journal that is really freaky. You might want to read it, you might not. It talks about why he did what he did.”
She nodded, not understanding any of it. The only thought that kept rolling through her head was she was free. She was right and truly free.
No one would come looking for her again; she didn’t have to look over her shoulder. She could go back to her job at the hair salon, live her life with Travis (wherever that took them and whatever it was), and she would be free. “I’m free,” she grinned.
“You are,” Rooster told her, understanding exactly what she meant.
The tears came quickly, and she wasn’t even sure why. It should have been a relief, and in all reality it was, but the feelings were so intense that she had to release them somehow. “I’m happy about this, is that bad?” she choked out, looking at the two cousins that stood over her.
“No.” Rooster shook his head before Travis could answer. “There are bad people in this world, and I’m learning that not everything is clear cut. He was a bad man. This world is going to be better without him. Anyway,” he took a step back, “I had to notify you, and now I’ve done that. I hope this gives you some peace.”
“It does, you have no idea how much.”
He did have some sort of idea, because he was beginning to feel peace too. The decision he’d made was going to be easier to follow through than he’d ever thought possible. “Well, I’ll be seein’ y’all.”
Travis stopped him, putting his hand on Rooster’s arm. “Thanks for coming to tell us.”
Rooster motioned Travis out of the room and shut the door. “I’m giving you a heads-up. That was my last official duty. I’m on my way right now to turn in my resignation.”
“What?” Travis’ mouth opened in shock. “This is what you’ve wanted to do your entire life…are you kidding me?”
Heaven Hill Series - Complete Series Page 94
