The fact that she was even in this crowd, not freaking out, was amazing. After Jagger’s set, she turned around and motioned for him to bend down so that she could talk into his ear.
“I’m thirsty,” she shouted.
Her voice was hoarse, and he had to concentrate to hear her.
“You want me to go get you somethin’ or do you wanna come with me?”
She loved the spot they’d claimed at the side of the stage, they could see everything. However, her calves were starting to hurt, and she needed a break from the crush of the crowd. She knew another band would be playing after Jagger, but really he was all that she had wanted to see.
“I’ll go with you.”
He turned around, grabbing her hand with his large one. She grabbed onto his cut as well, knowing that no one would touch it and they wouldn’t get separated in the crowd. Following him as he bullied his way through the crowd, it wasn’t long until they broke the edge and she could finally breathe again. Even though it was winter, the crush of bodies had made it extremely hot and humid.
“You alright?” he asked as they emerged from the crowd.
“Yeah, this was great,” the smile on her face warmed his heart. She’d been around all these people and not had a panic attack or been uncomfortable once. He was prouder of her than he’d ever been of anyone else in his life.
Directing her towards the hallway where they were selling concessions, he saw Liam who’d also headed out of the crowd.
“Had to get out of there. Was starting to get nervous with all those people at my back,” he said as he walked with them towards the concessions.
“Me and you both,” Tyler agreed.
They stood in line waiting for it to be their turn to be waited on. “What do you want?” he asked as they realized they were next.
“Bottle of water is fine with me,” Meredith said.
He directed her over to his other side so that he could grab his wallet out of his pocket. She watched as Liam told Tyler what he wanted as well and then came to stand next to her. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask how Denise was doing since they’d all left her alone for the night. When she went to turn, she bumped into another hard body and turned to apologize.
“Sorry,” she smiled at a tall man who milled around her.
With this many people, she knew that it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to run into others. He smiled back at her, but the look on his face gave her the chills. His eyes were familiar, but she couldn’t place it. She grabbed Liam’s arm and stood closer to him.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“That guy just gives me the creeps,” she whispered back to him.
While he waited for Tyler to pay for the drinks, he put his arm around her protectively. If she felt uncomfortable after everything she’d been through, there was a reason for it. Tyler turned to them, and she could see confusion on his face as he saw Liam’s arm around her.
“Sorry, she was feeling uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay,” Tyler said, grabbing her chin in his hand. “You alright?” he asked her, a softness in his eyes.
“Yeah, I just got a little creeped out when a guy bumped into me.”
Immediately, he was on the offensive. He realized that she had felt fine in the audience full of people, but one man made her feel on edge. He strongly believed in feelings, and obviously she was having them. So was he. It centered in his gut, and he couldn’t shake it. This meant something. “Point him out to me,” he directed.
She turned around in circles, looking for the man who’d given her that feeling. He wasn’t going back to the concert, so she turned towards the exit. “There he is,” she pointed him out as he walked towards the exit.
“Let’s go,” he instructed. He had a feeling about this one. “Liam, don’t leave us.”
His tone said not to question him, even though Liam ranked higher in the club. Liam didn’t hesitate to follow.
“Be quiet and don’t ask questions,” he instructed her as they followed at a distance and watched the man walk around the building.
Tyler increased his speed as they continued to follow. Just then the man’s cell phone rang, and Meredith stopped in her tracks. The sound of the little girl on the ringtone singing Happy Birthday to her daddy made her blood run cold.
When he realized she wasn’t walking with them anymore, Tyler looked back at her. The look on her face said it all.
“That’s him,” she whispered, her body shaking. Her teeth chattered as the shakes went through her.
“Wait here.”
She wanted to tell him not to do this, not to hurt this man, not to get himself in trouble. But she knew that he had to avenge her. Another side of her wanted him to do that.
“Go after him,” she yelled at Liam. “Don’t let him kill that guy.”
A part of her didn’t want to watch this, the other part of her couldn’t do anything but watch.
“Hey motherfucker,” Tyler yelled as he ran to catch up with the guy.
Spinning around, the guy questioned him. “Who you callin’ motherfucker?”
Without answering, Tyler grabbed him up by the neck and slammed his body against the hard brick of the building. “You don’t know me, but I know you. I will kill you,” he seethed quietly. “A few months ago, you raped a woman. That was my woman, and you will fucking pay for it.”
Tyler had to give the guy credit, he didn’t get scared. He actually smiled. “And it was so good too. I wish I would have had more time. She was a hot piece of ass.”
Rage tore through Tyler’s body so strongly that he knew he could snap this guy’s neck in half with no effort. Instead, he began pounding on him. The tear of his knuckles felt good as he hit him repeatedly in the face. When he’d beaten him enough so that the other man slumped to the ground, he started in with his feet, kicking his ribs repeatedly. Breathing heavily, Tyler knew he should stop, he was taking this too far. His hands ached, his back ached, his legs ached, but he couldn’t stop. He kept seeing Meredith that night in his mind. How she’d looked when he’d found her in the parking lot. The way she’d looked when she’d woken up from all the nightmares.
“Get the fuck up!” he yelled. “I’m not done with you.”
Out of nowhere, Liam came up behind him and grabbed his arms. “I think both of you have had enough,” he said quietly.
Unbeknownst to him, tears had run down his face, and he wore the other man’s blood on him. Lifting his hands up to his eyes, he wiped at the tears quickly, hoping that no one had seen his show of emotion.
“I’ll have Jagger take care of him. We’ll take him to the garage and get him to talk. You go take care of Meredith.”
Shit. She’d seen that. She’d seen him lose complete control over his temper. He hadn’t done that in years. He needed a minute to gather himself. Leaning against the wall, he rested his head against it and fought to regulate his breathing. He fought to shut the door on the beast inside him. He hated to let it loose, and he didn’t know how Meredith would react to him now. He’d been so intent on his goal that the other man hadn’t even gotten a shot in. Closing his eyes so he could breathe, he inhaled deeply. Out of nowhere, arms went around his waist.
“You okay?” Meredith asked, her voice quiet. He hated that.
“I’m fine,” he strangled out around the lump in his throat. “Sorry you had to see that.”
“Are you kidding? Nobody’s ever stood up for me before like that. I love you for that.”
That hit him in the chest like a brick. They’d never shared those words with one another, and the fact she did it after witnessing that meant so much more. The tears that he’d shed before came back with a vengeance.
“Turn around and look at me,” she told him, trying to turn him with her own strength.
“Let me get a hold of myself.”
“No, I want to see you. It’s alright if you’re showing emotion, Tyler.”
He turned around to face her, tears still streaming d
own his face. When she saw him, the tears that she’d been holding back came unchecked. Wrapping her arms around him, she buried her head in his chest, holding on for dear life. He held her just as tightly as she held him. When he finally felt like he was over the flood of emotion, he pulled away from her and framed her face with his hands.
“I love you too. There’s absolutely nothing in this world I won’t do for you. You don’t have to worry anymore because when we’re done questioning him I’m gonna beat his ass to death.”
Liam and Jagger ran up to them, grabbing the man up by his shirt. Tyler could have been breathing fire with the look on his face, and he turned to Liam, knowing this was it.
“Call your dad and get his ass in on this too. Tonight we finish this.”
Meredith had never been so scared of what was going to happen in her life.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The entire club had gathered at a warehouse that they owned next to the Barren River. The man that Tyler had beaten sat in a chair, arms tied behind his back, feet tied to the legs.
“What did you call everyone here for?” William asked, as they all assembled.
Liam walked towards the group milling around the doorway. “Please, allow me to explain. This man is the man that raped Meredith. It was a horrible crime, one that affected everyone in the club and our significant others. We’ve all talked over the past few months of what we would do when we found that man.”
“Yeah, we’d kill him,” Steele agreed.
Jagger stood on the same side as Liam and Tyler, flanking the man in the chair.
“Well, we found him,” Tyler pointed at the man sitting in the chair. “The bitch of it is that one man in this room paid this piece of shit to rape the woman that I love. He set up the whole thing.”
Shouts erupted as each of them began pointing fingers at the other.
Tyler whistled loudly, getting everyone’s attention. He went over to where the man sat in the chair and pulled his head back by the hair on his head. Blood poured from his nose and mouth. “Would you like to tell everyone who hired you?”
The man tilted his chin towards their president, blowing the cover on the whole thing.
“Seriously?” Steele asked, backing up from where he stood next to William.
“There were choices that had to be made. I made them,” William defended himself.
Tyler took off and grabbed William by the throat, shoving him up against a wall of the warehouse. “I thought of you like my father for the longest time, and then I find out that you’ve done this. I want to kill you, but I don’t know if I can.” The inner turmoil was apparent on Tyler’s face and his blood thundered in his ears.
“I did what I had to do for the club.”
“The fuck you did. She didn’t know anything really, you could have scared her. You didn’t have to have her raped and beaten.”
“She was a threat,” William argued.
“She wasn’t a threat after old Dickie boy was dead. Yet, you still kept going.”
“You and I both know she never would have stopped. She wanted to break this wide open. She had my secrets at her fingertips whether she knew it or not. Meredith would have known if she looked hard enough.”
“Known what?” Liam screamed. “What was so fucking important that she couldn’t find out?”
“That you’re not my son,” he whispered. “Your mom is a whore and cheated on me. You are not mine, but I paid her back didn’t I? You’ve been my bitch most of your life. You even carry my name.” His grin was triumphant. “I knew that if these men knew you had no loyalty to me they’d leave me and go with you. This club is all I have, and she threatened that. My livelihood was going to be gone if she told you. I know you. You would have taken your mother’s side because she fed you all that bullshit about how she really wanted you when you were a child. You’ve always done what I wanted you to – even when you didn’t want to. If you follow me, then they do. If you don’t, then they push back. I’m not an idiot, you’re my golden ticket with these men.”
That revelation didn’t shock Liam as much as it should have. Rage and hurt did make an appearance, but he put it tightly under lock and key. This wasn’t about him. This was about Tyler and the woman who’d had her innocence shattered by a bastard with a vendetta.
“She would have backed off if you would have just scared her. You didn’t have to ruin her life to do that,” Tyler’s grip tightened on the older man’s neck.
“C’mon Tyler, show me some of that savage mentality that we all appreciate so much.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out a dollar bill, flinging it in Tyler’s direction. “You wanna hurt me son? Hurt me. I’m not one bit sorry for what I did.”
Bringing his forehead close, he banged it heavily on William’s nose, feeling the bone break and blood spurt onto his face.
“Motherfucker,” William groaned.
Tyler leaned in close. “I want to mop the floor with your brains, but I don’t want that on my hands tonight.” Leaning back, he spoke louder. “You’re no longer my president, and you’re no longer fit to run this club. I say we take a vote right this fucking minute. Who’s with me?”
The group was loyal, but William knew they were no longer loyal to him. Somehow in all of the time he had used plotting, these men had become loyal to someone else. It was apparent they were now loyal to Tyler and Liam. He looked around as all of them raised their hands in a show of support.
Looking over at Liam, Tyler motioned for the knife he carried in his pocket. Liam threw it and watched as Tyler cut the President patch off the older man. “You aren’t fit to wear this anymore.” He tossed the patch to Liam and nodded his head. “Looks like your boy is about to take his rightful place at the head of this table. Any objections?”
Not one person raised their hands. Tyler walked over to his best friend. “It’s up to you what we do with him, but that piece of shit sittin’ in that chair is mine.”
Liam nodded as Tyler stalked over to the man in the chair. He pulled his head up so that they looked at one another. “Make sure you get a real good look at my face.”
“Why?” the man asked, his words sounding muffled because of the swelling of his lips.
“It’s the last thing you’re gonna see.” Tyler’s ravaged hands pulled out the gun he carried on him and put the barrel to the side of his head. Without a thought, he pulled the trigger, exhaling as the feeling of revenge went through his body. That feeling settled deep in his stomach. It felt like he could breathe again. The first real breath he had taken since Meredith had been attacked.
“Get on outta here. We’ll take care of everything else,” Liam told him.
Without a look back, he exited the warehouse, got on his bike, and headed for home.
Meredith sat in Tyler’s dorm wringing her fingers together. Denise had offered to let her stay at her house, but Meredith had wanted to know as soon as Tyler came through the doors that he was safe. This is the part she hated about this life – waiting on him to come home, wondering if he was dead or alive.
She knew that if she would have been asked months ago if she would be one of those women who would sit around waiting on this, her answer would have been a resounding ‘no’. Things had changed in her life in so many ways that she hadn’t been prepared for. Some for the worse and some for the better. She knew without a doubt the feelings she had for Tyler were the best.
The door to the room opened, and she saw the man who had made everything right come through it. He was walking stiffly, and she knew the punishment he had put his body through this night had been completely for her.
“You okay?” she asked him.
“I’m hurtin’ pretty good, but it’s over. You don’t have to worry about that piece of shit anymore. I’m not sure what Liam is doing to William, I left that up to him, but your rapist is gone.”
A sense of peace settled over her, one she hadn’t felt in months. “I know I shouldn’t be glad that another human being is dead
, but I am,” she whispered.
“I am too,” he admitted.
She watched as he went around the room, taking off the clothes he wore and then immediately went to the shower. He was quiet, too quiet, and she was worried. Taking off her own clothes, she followed him, getting into the small space behind him.
“I can understand if you look at me differently,” he told her, not turning around to face her.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” she asked as she put her arms around his waist and hugged him to her.
“You saw me beat a man almost to death tonight. I’m not going to lie to you, I shot him in the head, in cold blood. This is the man you’ve been taking to your bed. How does that make you feel?”
She used her hands to turn him around. It took all her strength, but she managed to do it. “I hold no illusions when it comes to who you are. I’ve known that all along. Regardless of what you do, you are still one of the most amazing men I have ever met. One of the gentlest human beings I’ve ever known. You also scare the shit out of me with your intensity. Those are all parts of you. I can’t love one without loving them all. Do I agree with everything you do? No, but I understand the life you live. I’m not asking you to change. I know what I’m getting into.”
For the first time since he had come home, he opened his arms for her and held her tightly to him, fisting her hair in his hand. “I’m just letting you know, I’m never letting you go. No one in this world has ever understood me more than you do, and I’m not willing to give that up.”
“Good,” she smiled at him as she pulled away slightly from his embrace. “Neither am I. We answer to no one about our relationship. And if you scared me physically, Tyler, you know I wouldn’t be here. I know that you’re dangerous, but I also know that you have boundaries. I know what those are just like you do. If I ever feel that you’re getting out of control, I’ll let you know.”
He nodded and pulled her back into his arms. For the first time he really felt no remorse for taking someone’s life, and that did scare him. The only consolation he had was that he knew it was for her, and for her he would do anything.
Out of Darkness Page 16
