Hard Proof (Notus Motorcycle Club Book 1)

by Debra Kayn

  She slid out of the booth. "I'll get the door. You finish the rest of the tables."

  For the next several hours, she worked in a daze. Wayne came back inside the bar, and she stayed aware of him sitting in the back booth as she went through the motions of treating each customer special and serving them their food and drinks. She took money, counted change, and remembered who ordered what food off the menu automatically. Though she couldn't remember any details, her body went through the motions, her manners came out of habit. Nobody complained, and her tips filled her pocket, so she succeeded in holding it all together.

  They needed to hire two waitresses because she and Gracie couldn't continue working the same schedule day after day. It was too much for them, and business was steady and supposed to climb higher the closer they got to the peak of summer. But, until she knew what would become of her future, she couldn't disrupt someone else's. If she landed in prison, the bar would close, employees would be out of a job, and it would be another thing to add to her list of terrible things she'd done.

  She stopped in the middle of the room. Everyone had their meals. Gracie covered those who were only drinking. Paxton, dear Paxton, worked flawlessly without any help in the kitchen.

  Gracie carried two drinks and, as she passed Clara, said, "Take a break, sis. I got it."

  Retying her apron, she walked over to Wayne, leaned down, and kissed him before sliding in beside him. "You're probably bored stiff."

  He put his arm around her. "I'm okay."

  His empty glass sat in front of him. She tapped the table. "I'll get you another drink in a few minutes."

  "How about some coffee instead." He yawned. "Gomez called. He's coming in at ten o'clock when his shift ends."

  She slipped her fingers into his hand under the table. Her curiosity got the best of her. She wanted to know why they were meeting. His friendship with the lieutenant made her nervous. She had no idea how far back they went or how loyal Wayne was to working with law enforcement.

  "Have you been friends with Lieutenant Gomez for a long time?" She looked up at him. "You seem to be close."

  "We've known each other for twenty years. Gomez came on the force when Notus started doing every search that came up." Wayne ran his hand over his jaw. "He's a good guy. He's got a decent relationship with his ex-wife, and he spends a lot of time with his two kids when he's not working. One of the fairer cops on the force that doesn't have an attitude about asking for help from the outside."

  "You?" she said.

  "Without him backing us, the police department wouldn't give us the information we needed to search, and we'd have to work as a private contractor and contact the families. That doesn't work too well when you're a biker. With the P.D. validating us, the families want us helping." He brought her hand over to his thigh and held on. "Listen, sweetheart. We need to talk about what you plan to do when the bar closes tonight. Thad got a crew into your house earlier when he grabbed your clothes for work. Your room is cleaned now, and I have no problem staying with you at your house, but I'd like to have you come home with me. Gracie's welcome, too. Hell, she can sleep with us again."

  She studied him. Any other man would have had an ulterior motive for the invite. She couldn't count how many times men have tried to get her and Gracie to sleep with them, to their disappointment. Her and Gracie wanted to be viewed as individuals, not some sick sexual pleasure.

  Wayne only had concern written on his face. His dark eyes studied her, and his seriousness over the situation alarmed her.

  "Is there something else going on that we should be afraid of?" she asked.

  Wayne's gaze lifted and he raised his hand. "Gomez is here."

  She squeezed his thigh. "Wayne?"

  He leaned closer, kissed her softly, and said, "We'll talk later."

  Sensing Lieutenant Gomez behind her, she nodded and slid out of the booth. Still on the clock, she smiled and stepped out of the way.

  "How are you doing...Gracie? Clara?" Lieutenant Gomez winced. "Sorry, I can't tell you two apart."

  "It's okay. I'm Clara." She reached into her pocket and removed her tablet, having never seen Lieutenant Gomez without his uniform on. Tonight, he looked younger in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, more laid-back and less intimidating. "Would you like anything to eat or drink while you visit with Wayne?"

  He sat down and clasped his hands together on top of the table. "I'll take a beer. Thanks."

  "Coming right up." She made her escape.

  At the counter, she watched the two of them talk. Wayne leaned forward, his head bent as if keeping his voice low. There was something going on, and they weren't going to talk while she was around them.

  She set the mug of beer on a tray and stepped into the kitchen to grab Wayne his coffee. Gracie pushed through the door following her.

  "Hey, what's going on at booth three?" Gracie stood beside her at the coffee pot.

  Clara leaned over and looked for Paxton and found him at the grill with his back to them. She whispered, "I don't know. He's meeting with Lieutenant Gomez, but before he came, Wayne was pretty intense about us coming to his house and not staying at home."

  Gracie shuddered. "Trust me, I'm nervous about staying at the house, too, but all our stuff is there, and we're going to have to go back."

  "We have our toothbrushes and makeup in our purses." Clara put the pot back on the warmer. "All we need are clothes for tomorrow. We could stay one more night with Wayne, don't you think?"

  "I don't know, sis," said Gracie. "Couldn't Wayne sleep at our house?"

  She nodded. "He said he would."

  "Then, let's go home. It'll be harder if we keep staying at Wayne's."

  Her sister was right. It would also be easier to talk to him with no interruptions from the members of his club, since Thad, Chuck, Glen seemed to pop in at all hours at Wayne's house.

  "I need to get out there and give them their orders." Clara pushed out the kitchen door and carried the tray to Wayne's booth.

  She quietly placed the drinks in front of them and slipped away without interrupting their conversation.

  The longer they talked together, the more nervous she became. Tomorrow morning, she'd need to come clean with Wayne. Would he feel more loyalty toward a man who he'd been friends with for twenty years or her, the woman he'd only recently started sleeping with?

  She stayed busy, cleaning while she kept up on customers, talking with the ones who enjoyed some chatter and made sure everyone stayed happy while staring at the clock above the bar. When Paxton left work, Gracie double-checked the lock on the back door twice, and Clara followed her each time. Even the bar felt unsafe since their home was broken into. No one could slip in the back, but the man who had trespassed in their home could walk through the open front door whenever he wanted.

  Clara looked around at the remaining customers. It could be any one of them, and she'd have no idea. Nowhere was safe. Her and Gracie had no idea their lives would be shaken up by danger when they'd moved back to St. John's.

  ***

  He ripped the Duct tape off the plastic covering the broken window off the car completely and tossed the wrapping into the street. The empty driver's seat pissed him off. "Damnit."

  The remote control for the garage door was gone. He looked up and down the street. He'd fucked up.

  Instead of putting the controller back, hoping the broken window would go unnoticed until he could get set up for when he brought one of the twins back to his house, he should've taken the control with him. Now he had no way to get into the house without someone noticing.

  He banged the heel of his hand against the side of his head. Think. Think. Think.

  The women couldn't outsmart him. He was better and more skilled now. They wouldn't get away with fucking up his plan for them. Once he was done, they'd regret trying to stop him.

  He took a deep breath, then another. Unlocking his clenched fists, he let his anger out. There would be enough time to make himself feel good once he
got his hands on one of the twins.

  Chapter 23

  Gracie passed in front of Clara's bedroom carrying a basketful of laundry. Clara got up from lying beside Wayne on her bed and shut the door. She needed to talk with Wayne, but she wanted to have sex with him again first.

  Not because she wanted to soften him toward giving her an answer and protecting her once she opened her mouth. She was selfish and desperately needed the connection with him that made her happy. As if there was a future for her after they were done and before she put them both into an impossible situation.

  She stripped off her shirt, looked over her shoulder at Wayne and caught him staring at her naked ass. "Thank you for moving my room around."

  After they'd come home from the bar last night, she'd jumped in the shower, and came out to Wayne putting her bed in the middle of the wall, covering the spot that had been peed on and then cleaned. She could now walk around the bed, free of the reminder of what happened in the middle of the room. It would've taken a long time for her to comfortably walk across the carpet, cleaned or not, and now she didn't have to worry about it. He'd removed one of the stresses out of her life.

  In fact, anytime she'd needed help, whether she knew she did or not, he'd been there for her.

  "No problem, sweetheart." He propped himself up on his elbows. "Now how about you get your ass back to bed."

  She tossed her shirt onto the dresser. Naked, she stepped back to the bed and held on to the post at the corner of her bed. "I like waking up with you when you don't have to rush off to work."

  He lifted his chin, beckoning her closer. "Our days off don't mesh, or we could spend more time together in the mornings."

  "I know." She returned to him and straddled his body. Running her hands over his stomach, she inhaled deeply. She was still tired from the short night. "I'm hoping someday, I won't have to work at the bar as a waitress and barmaid, and take a more managerial position. Then, I can take different days off, and work won't take up all my waking hours."

  Wayne grabbed a condom off the nightstand and handed it to her. She wrapped her fingers around the condom and hid it in her fist. "Not yet."

  She wiggled down his legs. His cock, hard and pulsating, bobbed against his stomach. He was perfect in every way. Circumcised and a soft mat of hair at the base that showcased his thickness. She stroked him, lowering her head. With her tongue, she circled the end of his dick, moistening the skin, then surrounded him with her lips.

  Wayne's legs stiffened underneath her and then relaxed as he groaned in pleasure. She held on to the base of his cock and brought her mouth up and down slowly on him. She stroked him with her tongue, adding pressure. The heat of his body warmed her, and she rocked on her knees, rubbing her breasts against the top of his thighs. The thin spackling of hair on his legs tickled her in the most pleasing way.

  He wound his fingers in her hair, not guiding her movements, but connecting with her. She shifted and raised her gaze, looking over his hard stomach, his broad chest, and found his eyes looking down at her. How could she tell him the reason why she made him a part of her life without losing him?

  She sucked harder, wanting to please him. To prove how much she was falling in love with him.

  Wayne's hold on her hair tightened and he pulled her up gently. Her mouth came off him with a pop.

  He held out his hand. "Condom."

  She tilted her head, aroused and caught up in what she was doing. "Huh?"

  "The condom," he said. "I need it."

  The condom. The condom. The co—

  "Oh." She handed the protection she still clutched in her hand to him.

  His mouth softened. She swung her leg off him and sat on the bed, watching him roll the condom on his cock. God, she loved his hands. Broad, thick, long fingers. The roughness of his skin stimulated her every time he touched her.

  He was always secure and coordinated, clearly confident in himself. While she couldn't keep a clear thought in her head because her body and soul only wanted one thing. Him.

  Wayne's stomach tightened, showing off his muscles, and he left the bed. She stared at him, lost on what had happened. She'd been sucking him off. Then, he stopped and left the bed.

  Touching her lips with the tip of her finger, the numbness and pulsing remained as evidence that she'd starting giving him a blow job.

  He turned around and held out his hand. She slipped her fingers into his palm and let him pull her off the bed and to her feet. She stood in front of him vibrating and overwhelmed and lost. He turned her around and lifted her hand to the post at the end of her bed.

  "Grab on, sweetheart." He placed his hands on her hips.

  She reached up with her other hand and wrapped her fingers around the post. The vulnerable position with Wayne at her back, unable to see him, unable to know what he planned, unable to do anything but hold on and not crumble at his feet, stimulated her excitement.

  Everything came down to this moment, standing naked, unprepared, highly aroused. Trust him or bail out, give up the plan her and Gracie changed their life for, or reach out and grasp happiness.

  Wayne used his foot and spread her legs. She leaned forward, arching her back. Her pussy spasmed, expecting, hoping, needing fulfilled.

  He trailed his finger over her slit and centered on her clitoris. Her legs quivered. She hung on to the pole, curling her neck around the wood and using her shoulder to brace herself.

  She melted as his fingers manipulated her pleasure to soaring levels. The bed in front of her grew unfocused in her gaze, and she gasped for her next breath, and then her next.

  Then, his hand was gone, leaving her panicked that he'd stop before he slid his cock inside of her giving her more. She rocked to her toes. Her lower body shuddered, taking his size.

  The only thing keeping her on her feet were his hands on her hips and her life-saving hold on the pole.

  He thrust in and out. Her eyelids closed and her lower stomach spasmed. "God, yes."

  Her orgasm hovered on the edge, and she touched it. Skimmed it. Lost it. Found it. Grasped it.

  She rocked back and almost went down when her knees gave out, but Wayne held her up as pleasure exploded and flowed and spiraled and knocked her senseless. Somewhere in her subconscious, she was aware of Wayne's hands on her hips tightening and his pelvis bucking against her, then of him grunting in completion.

  Her head fell forward between her outstretched arms. She inhaled in a big breath through her nose because her mouth was dry. That was...intense.

  Wayne wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her upright and supporting her. She leaned her head back against his chest and sighed. From the beginning, he'd stepped into her life freely. No coercion, no pressure, no games. As if he understood what she needed when she'd shown up at Vavoom's. But, that was crazy thinking. He had no idea. He was only being Wayne.

  "Wayne?" she whispered.

  He kissed the side of her head. "What, sweetheart?"

  "I need...I need to take a shower." She couldn't say it. Not yet. Once her senses came back, and she had complete control over herself, she'd tell him what brought her and Gracie back to St. John's and why he was in her life. She patted his arm, straightening her shoulders, lifting her head off him.

  Then, she'd ask him to do what she and Gracie couldn't do.

  "Go ahead." He patted her bare ass. "Let me wash off quick, and I'll get dressed. I need to check in with the club and Gomez."

  "You're not going to leave yet, are you?" She turned around and found him halfway across the room heading toward the bathroom.

  "I'm just going to step outside while I make the calls." He disappeared into the bathroom, and the shower came on.

  To keep herself from changing her mind about talking with him, she gathered her outfit for the day. Oddly enough, her stomach calmed. Wayne had done that for her. He'd made her feel secure and loved. Now, she only wanted to get past today and work on loving him back the way he deserved with no lies, no ulterior motives.<
br />
  Wayne walked out of the bathroom naked, dripping wet, and kissed her before moving to the dresser where he had draped his clothes last night. She left him and jumped into the shower he'd left running for her. She could do this. She had to do it.

  It was now or never.

  They couldn't live in fear. Their mother's murderer needed to pay for taking her away from them.

  Chapter 24

  A car drove by Clara and Gracie's townhouse. Wayne checked out the older man and woman going under the twenty-five miles an hour speed limit as he sat on his motorcycle in the driveway. Over the phone pressed to his ear, Gomez listed his frustrations with the unsolved cases.

  He put the phone in his other hand and pressed it to the other side of his head. "Have you looked in the database for old rape cases, stalking, harassment charges? This guy will probably be a repeat offender. Someone local."

  While Annie Morgan hadn't been sexually assaulted, Megan Hillard had been violated. Both bodies were found naked and abandoned in an area not frequented by foot traffic. Yet, their bodies were placed as if the killer had taken time after their deaths to make them comfortable. Limbs were down and together. Eyes were closed.

  "I've got Officer Whitley researching past cases for those who were sentenced for similar crimes." Gomez continued, "Besides being young, both victims had long blond hair and had similar family backgrounds. There's something there, right in front of me, and I can't see it. If they'd both been sexually assaulted, it would make more sense, and we could declare it a violent sex crime. Now, we're stuck between a sex related homicide and premeditated murder, on top of abduction charges. There's only one thing that would point to a lust murder."

  Wayne stood from his bike. "What's that?"

  "I can't say. It's the one thing that we're keeping back from the families and the public." Gomez cussed. "I'm waiting for a call back from the detective on my request to make the information public. Maybe someone, somewhere, will call in with a clue."