“Hop in. I'll give you a ride home.” He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “You were heading for the bus, right?”
“Right.” Caroline realized that there was no polite way to refuse the offer, and she had no real reason to not want to be in the car with him. Jillian might be right, and she just needed to give Jake a second chance. “Thanks.” She got in. “I appreciate it.”
“Anytime. No need for you to walk when I'm going your way. I was actually going to leave a little present for Jillian on the porch, but you can take it inside for her.” He motioned to the back seat where a pretty potted plant sat. “She's not a huge fan of cut flowers.”
Caroline smiled. “She's also got what she refers to as a black thumb. It's the reason she doesn't have any plants.” She grinned at the look on his face. “Don't worry. I'll help her keep it alive.”
“Thanks and I'll keep her black thumb in mind for future gifts.” Jake stopped at a light. “Look, I know that you've got your doubts about me. Right now is a good opportunity for you to ask me anything you might not want to ask me in front of Jillian.”
“I'm Jillian's friend. I want the best for her, that's all.” Caroline highly doubted Jake was the best. He was too smooth. “I'd be a liar if I didn't tell you I think that things between the two of you are moving fast. Maybe too fast.”
“That's fair. And I agree, it's been fast. I always laughed at those people who said that you could meet someone and just know that they were the one for you. I thought they were fucking fools, and then I saw Jillian. And I couldn't help but talk to her. Yes, things have gone quickly, but I'm using my head. We both are.”
“You bought her a car. A car.”
“My sister, she's a little spoiled, tired of her nearly new car and got another one. Jillian's been saving and mentioned a couple used cars that sounded like they were only four wheels and mismatched doors. I simply got her a much better car, and she can use that money for something else. It's a big gesture, but I felt better knowing that she wouldn't be walking around in the dark.”
“Do you love her?”
“I thought that I answered that. Yes. I love her. I am in love with her, and I'd be obliged if you'd keep that to yourself because she doesn't know yet. I haven't figured the right way to tell her yet. I do know that it's not the right time.”
“No. It's not. She's got a lot going on right now.”
“Her brother. She's heartbroken that they argued. I think that it would do her some good to sit down and talk to him. I think that we should ask him to have dinner with us tomorrow,” Jake said.
“I'm not sure that's such a good idea. I think they both need time to cool down some more.” And Edge needed time to detox. She didn't figure he'd been checked into a traditional program with a visiting room for families and sleepy time tea. “You've got to give Jillian time.”
“I'm worried that too much time will take a toll on her. But maybe you're right. So, Jillian tells me that you're seeing that guy again. Your biker.”
“I'm not sure that I'd call him mine, but yeah, we're seeing each other again.” Caroline realized this was the longest car ride she'd ever endured. Each topic made her more uncomfortable than the last, but she knew for sure, she was going with her gut. She didn't like Jake.
“You should invite him to dinner tomorrow. I'd love to get to meet him. And maybe it's a way for Jillian to heal a little bit about Edge. I mean, she can't really avoid Nightshade forever because they're a pretty big deal.”
“I'll ask.” Caroline was glad to see the house come into view.
“Fantastic. I know that Jillian's going to make something delicious. I'll bring a nice wine for you ladies and a nice bottle of something a little stronger just in case your man decides to show. Buster, right?”
“Right.” Caroline unhooked her seat belt as he parked.
“I'll carry the plant in for you. It's rather heavy.” Jake smiled. “Wouldn't want you to break a nail or anything.”
“Thanks.” Caroline bit back a more sarcastic reply. Not only did Jake give her a stomach cramp, he was obviously one of those guys who didn't think a woman could do for herself. It made him an even odder choice for Jillian, who was independent to a fault.
He followed her in, put the plant down and left. Caroline went to the door after him, engaged the deadbolt and put on the chain. It was probably a sign of paranoia and her possible descent into madness which made her go around the house to be sure all of the windows were shut and the curtains drawn.
Still, she felt a sense of unease. Buster still hadn't reached out to her, so she assumed she was on her own for dinner, popped a frozen pizza into the oven and headed for the shower. She was done just about the time her pizza was, grabbed the book from her purse and sat down to eat in the living room.
Caroline was on her second slice and just starting a very steamy scene when someone pounded on the door. She dropped the pizza and the book as the knock came again. Caroline scrambled for her phone, her battery was dead. Shit. She hadn't even noticed.
“Caroline!” The voice that called out belonged to Ace. A feeling of dread formed in her stomach as she rushed to the door. “What happened to your phone?”
“Battery died. What's wrong?”
“Grab your shit. We've got to go. There's no time to explain it, Caroline. Buster will explain it once we get there. I promise.”
<#<#<#<#
There was an eerie stillness to the bar when Caroline followed Ace inside. She figured the two men, who she'd never seen before, who were guarding the gates were a bad sign. They'd had on different cuts, had a more street edge to the way that they dressed and carried themselves.
Ace shut and locked the heavy door behind them. “Sit down. Buster will be along in a minute. You're safe here. There's no need to be scared.”
“I want to know what the hell is going on.”
“It's not my place to tell you. Have a seat. Wait it out. Take a drink if you need to.” Ace started to turn away. “Do you... do you know where Jillian is?”
“She's got a cleaning job today, on the other side of town. Why?” The last thing she'd expected was for Ace to ask anything about Jillian. If she wasn't mistaken, the expression on his face was one of worry. Caroline realized that he still had feelings that he wouldn't admit. It gave her a spark of hope that maybe Jillian would forget about Jake.
“Call her and tell her not to go home.” He swallowed hard. “Tell her to be careful and that she needs to reach out if anything strange happens.”
“Ace, you're really scaring me.”
“Just wait for Buster and make the call, please.” He didn't say anything else but took the stairs to the second floor two at a time.
Caroline walked over to the bar, around it and grabbed the first bottle she put her hand on. She knocked back three shots of Southern Comfort before she felt steady enough to put the bottle back. She found a cold bottle of water in the mini-fridge, drank it down and called Jillian. Her friend answered on the first ring. “Hey, where are you?”
“I'm with Jake, having a drink at this coffee place by my cleaning job. Why? What's going on?”
“I can't really say but don't go home. Something is up.” Caroline knew that she couldn't give too many details, not that she had any details.
Jillian sighed heavily. “Let me guess, this something has something to do with those who shall not be named. Sorry, Caroline but I don't want to hear it.” Caroline heard Jake say something in the background and then he was on the phone. “What's going on?”
“I really can't go into it.” Not to mention she didn't really want to go into anything with Jake, but apparently Jillian wasn't going to listen to her any longer. “The short version is, it's not a good idea for Jillian to go home. Maybe you could suggest a romantic night instead, like a room at one of the casino hotels where you eat dinner in bed.”
“Ah.” Jake cleared his throat. “I see. I think I can handle putting together something.”
Caro
line turned around at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. “Sounds perfect. I've got to go.” She could see the blood on Buster's face even from across the room. “What happened? You're bleeding.”
“I'm fine, Caroline. The scalp tends to bleed a lot.” He walked over to her. “See, I'm in one piece.”
“What happened?” She grabbed greedy handfuls of his shirt and pulled him to her once she could reach. The feel of his body against hers was a comfort that she hadn't realized she needed.
“Do you trust me?” Buster wrapped his arms around her.
“Yes.” Caroline was surprised just how quickly she'd found the answer. It would seem that this unknown, but obviously serious, situation had cut through all the bullshit in her mind. Of course, the Southern Comfort had probably helped some.
“And I trust you. I'm going to need your help. We're going to need your help.” He corrected. “Nightshade will owe you. We always pay our debts.”
“I'm not worried about being repaid, Buster. I'll help.” Caroline pulled back so that she could get a better view of the wound on his forehead. “You might need stitches. At the least, you need to get it cleaned. I can do that. I'm not a doctor but I can handle basic first aid. I can...”
“There's a doctor here. She needs a hand. Do you think that you can handle that? If you can't, there's no shame in it, so just be straight with me.”
Caroline had little experience with blood and guts, but she'd seen enough horror movies that she should be suitably desensitized to it. Besides, she wanted to do something because standing around with her thumb up her ass didn't sound like “I can handle it.” He nodded and took her hand. She noticed the blood on the sleeve of his shirt and the shirt itself.
She'd known that something bad had happened, but to see the evidence of it made dread creep back into her stomach. But she said nothing. She followed Buster up the stairs and into what was now apparently Nightshade triage.
The scent of blood was thick in the air. There was a pile of bloody bandages on the floor. She couldn't see the face of the man on the bed, but he had long dark hair, from what she could see. Monroe was on a chair with what appeared to be duct tape wrapped around both of his hands. It wasn't as bad as Caroline had imagined. She felt herself relax slightly.
“I got you some help, Maggie,” Buster announced. “This is Caroline.”
Caroline recognized the short-haired brunette who appeared to be about twelve months pregnant. “She knows who I am. Tell me what I can do, Maggie.” The woman and her husband had been frequent customers at Baked. Hector was dead now. She wondered if she should say something but decided not to.
Maggie smiled. “Thank God you brought me someone with a brain, Buster. I appreciate that. Caroline, the cuts on Monroe's hands need to be cleaned out. Flush them with the bottled water and then the brown solution. They're not deep enough for stitches, so we're going to close them with medical glue. And by we, I mean you,” Maggie informed her. “I've got to make sure this one doesn't bleed out.”
Caroline froze for a moment. This was so out of her comfort zone and what was familiar that she could have laughed. She didn't just. Instead she straightened her shoulders. Buster rubbed his hand over her lower back. “You've got this. You stay up here. Help Maggie, and I'll be back for you later. Okay?”
“Okay.” Caroline turned to where Monroe was sitting. “Alright, let me see your hands.”
<#<#<#<#
Caroline felt like there was still blood on her hands, even though she'd washed them a dozen times and used more hand sanitizer than was probably safe. She was in the main room of the bar, on a floral sofa that looked like it had come straight from someone's grandmother's house. It was still covered in plastic. Or maybe that was deliberate, to keep it from getting bloodstained.
“Here. Drink this.” She looked up as Amelia approached. “It's tea. It's calming.” Caroline accepted the cup. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't know what to say, so instead she just sipped the warm liquid. Amelia sat down next to her. “How are you holding up?”
“I'm okay,” Caroline replied. “Confused but okay. How about you?”
“I'm not surprised you're confused. Buster hasn't been back to talk to you. Must have been scary for you to just get scooped up by Ace.”
“I know. And yeah, he scared me from the moment he got there, but I was never scared of him, if that makes sense.”
“It does,” Amelia confirmed. “You handled yourself really well tonight. You should be proud of that. You seem to be handling all of this pretty well, actually. You and Buster have been seeing each other for a couple months now, right?”
“Something like that,” Caroline replied. “Just ask what it is you want to ask, Amelia.” She got the feeling this might not remain a friendly chat for very long.
“Alright, straight to the point. I like that.” Amelia lowered her voice. “Does he know that you're in love with him?”
“I never said that I was in love with him. We're just...” Caroline stuttered and then just gave up. She sighed. “It's complicated. And it's not funny,” she added when Amelia chuckled.
“I'm not laughing at you. I'm just thinking about how complicated things were for me and Danny. I can tell you one thing, it was worth it. All of it.”
“The two of you are great together,” Caroline told her. “Is he okay? Did he get hurt?” She hadn't seen Danny at all since she'd left the room upstairs.
“He's got some bumps and bruises. He's had worse. You're not going to ask me what happened?”
“Would you tell me if I did?” Caroline took another sip of the tea. “I know that you wouldn't. And no, I'm not going to ask. I've figured out there are things that I don't know. Buster will tell me what he can, and that's good enough for me.”
“Fair enough.” Amelia smiled. “You should go upstairs, there's a third bedroom up there. Get some sleep. It's almost two.”
“Shit. I've got to be at work in six hours. That's not going to be possible, is it?” Caroline took out her phone. She let out a laugh. “What am I supposed to say?”
“Tell him that you're sick, that you must have caught the bug going around Nightshade,” Amelia suggested. “He's a friend of the club, he'll figure it out. You're a friend to the club now, too, in more ways than one.”
“I guess that you're right.” Caroline sent the text. “Are you sure that you don't want to take the room instead?”
“I'm positive,” Amelia replied. “I caught a couple of hours earlier.”
Caroline took her at her word and walked up the stairs. Her phone vibrated. Ryan hoped she felt better. Everything had a slightly surreal feeling to it, possibly because she was so tired. All of the emotions rolling through her had really taken their toll.
She found the room to be clean, the bed made up, and there was even a tee shirt folded neatly on the pillow. The door to the room didn't lock. Caroline decided it would be worth the risk of being walked in on for the feeling of getting out of her clothes. The shirt was new, the material a little stiff, but it still felt pretty good. It felt amazing to actually slide beneath the surprisingly soft sheets. She yawned, and she knew that she was absolutely exhausted. Her last thought was that she'd forgotten to turn off the light, but she was so tired that she couldn't be bothered.
Caroline woke to the feeling of someone else on the bed. She panicked for an instant but then she smelled Buster's cologne and felt his hand slide over her hip. “You okay?” She shifted closer to him, felt his warmth and weight against her body.
“I am now.” His fingers slid beneath the shirt, found her skin. Caroline felt a tingle rush through her. “How are you? Amelia says you were a huge help tonight.”
“I'm better now, too.” Caroline shifted closer to him as his fingers grazed her upper thigh. “I'm glad that you're okay.”
“I'm sorry about dinner. I'll make it up to you. Do you want to go back to sleep? You've got to be tired.” His fingers continued to stroke the very tops of her thigh. Suddenly Carol
ine was anything but tired. All she wanted was him, in her and on her.
“I'm not tired.” To prove her point, Caroline shifted her leg and laid her hand over his. She heard him growl; it sparked the heat between her legs to know that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She almost came the second he started to touch her, really touch her. A frustrated groan escaped her throat as he pulled away. “Just one second, Caroline. Don't worry. I'm not going far. Stay like that, just like that.”
Caroline felt his fingers run along the exposed length of her thigh. Her nerves seemed to ripple at the touch. She nearly begged. His weight returned to the bed behind her, his hand slipped up the back of her knee. The move opened her up to him. She should have felt exposed, but instead she felt sexy, powerful even. Her head flew back against his chest as she felt the tip of him press against where she needed him the most. She did beg then, but there was really no need. Buster filled her with one powerful thrust. Her body burned as it stretched, screamed in protest but that soon changed to pleasure.
Caroline tried to scream but she couldn't. It was hard to even breathe because she'd never come so hard or fast before. Even when she could still feel her body twitching, she felt the tingling coil winding in her stomach. “Fuck. Fuck.”
Buster chuckled and pushed her onto her stomach. “Get up on your knees. I've been thinking about fucking you like this.” He ran his hand down her back, pushed down softly beneath her shoulder blades. Caroline lay down, kept her back arched. Anticipation tingled though her when he pushed down on her lower back. “Oh, fuck yes. Just like that.”
Caroline expected him to enter her again. She'd braced herself for it. Instead she felt his fingers between her legs. “Oh. Oh.”
“Don't move. Just take it. Just feel it.” He slid his fingers inside of her just as his thumb grazed over her clit. Caroline whimpered, arched her back more, desperate for him to be deeper. She wanted to be filled, to feel him completely inside of her.
Through The Weeds (Nightshade MC Book 2) Page 13
