Riding the Night

Page 24

AJ nodded. “You’re right. So why else would she leave?”
His phone vibrated and he pulled it out of his chaps, relieved when he saw Teresa’s number come up. “Where the hell are you?”
“I knew you were going to be mad at me. I found the Fists.”
He wasn’t mad. He was relieved she was okay. “Where are you? Where are they?”
She told him what had happened and her location.
“Don’t move, and for God’s sake, don’t attempt to contact them until we get there.”
AJ closed the phone and shoved it back into his jacket pocket.
“What?” Pax asked. “She okay?”
“Yeah. She’s fine. A dozen or so Fists showed up in the bar. When they left, she followed them to a campground about thirty minutes from here.”
“Oh.”
“That’s all you have to say is oh?”
“Well, I don’t really like her going off on her own, but it was a smart move on her part.”
AJ dragged his hands through his hair. “I don’t like it. What if the guy who killed Larks spotted her?”
“Obviously he didn’t, so give her some credit for thinking on her feet.”
“And going off by herself is what got her . . . hurt . . . before.”
Pax climbed onto his bike and turned to look at AJ. “What do you want to do, man? Build a bubble around her or put a bodyguard on her who’ll be with her forever? You have to let her have her independence.”
“Independence is fine. This is different. She should have called us.”
“They’d have been gone by the time we got here. And we’d have lost a chance to find them. And Teresa isn’t stupid. She isn’t going to walk into a trap.”
AJ sighed. “I know. I just . . . worry about her.”
“So do I, but if you start pushing her into a corner and telling her the world isn’t safe, all you’re going to do is scare her. And then everything we’ve tried to do for her these past few days will be for nothing, because she’ll never get over what those assholes did to her. Women get raped in their own homes when their doors and windows are locked tight, AJ. What happened to Teresa had nothing to do with circumstance or location and you and I both know it. It was a calculated move by the Fists to get Joey’s attention and make him cave. It doesn’t mean she can never ride anywhere alone anymore. You have to give her some space.”
AJ stared at him for a few seconds. “You’re right. I do. But I won’t stop worrying about her.”
“I know, man. I know.” Pax started up his bike. “Now let’s go find her.”
It was a long ride and it gave AJ entirely too much time to think about things, especially things related to Teresa. Like why he was so protective of her. Yeah, he understood he maybe felt responsible for what had happened to her five years ago. If he’d stayed put, if he hadn’t left, things might have been different. They might have stayed together, and he might have been with her that night. Maybe she would have never had to go through that trauma.
And maybe the universe just didn’t work that way. But he couldn’t help feeling like he needed to be by her side now. Whether that had anything to do with him abruptly leaving all those years ago, he had no idea. All he knew was he craved being near her right now. And right now was pretty much where AJ’s world existed.
They pulled into the lot and found Teresa’s bike tucked behind a motor home. She wasn’t near her bike though, so they had to hunt for her in the dark. AJ’s phone buzzed with a text message from Teresa that said she was near the ledge on the northeast side of the lot, by the trees leading down to the campground. He signaled Pax and they moved toward the front of the lot, spotting Teresa crouched down in the dirt.
She was safe. That’s all that mattered.
For now.
SIXTEEN
TERESA WAS GLAD TO SEE THE GUYS. IT WAS COLD AND DARK
and she wasn’t afraid to admitat least to herself—that she preferred their company to skulking alone in the darkness.
“See them?” AJ asked as he got in position next to her, Pax next to him.
Fighting back another shiver, she shook her head. “Too damn dark to see other than random shapes and campfires. I hear lots of partying going on, but I didn’t want to go into the campgrounds and risk being recognized.”
“Good call.”
“I’ll get the binoculars,” Pax said, pushing off and heading for his bike.
“Tell me those are night vision,” Teresa said to AJ, watching Pax disappear into the darkness.
“You know about night vision stuff?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know some things. I do read and watch crime shows.”
AJ snickered. “Not quite the same thing as what you see on TV and read in books, but yeah, they’re night vision.”
Pax returned a few minutes later and nestled into a crouch next to Teresa.
“I saw them drive down the main dirt road and dip over a hill. I didn’t see them turn so maybe they stayed straight on.”
Pax nodded, adjusting the binoculars to the left where the entrance to the grounds was. He swept them slowly over the camp. Teresa waited, biting her lower lip, not wanting to disrupt him, but oh she really wanted to take a look.
“Here.” Pax handed them to her.
She grinned, surprised. “Really?”
He showed her how to work them. “It might take your eyes a few seconds to adjust to them, but then you’ll be able to see like it’s daylight.”
She looked through them. Pax was right. At first, everything was fuzzy, but after a while she adjusted.
Wow. It was easy to distinguish what was what in the campground. She couldn’t see someone’s eye color, but she could identify people easily enough.
“Look south, all the way to the edge, beyond that thick group of trees. The Fists are there, separated off by themselves.”
She followed Pax’s instructions, moving the binoculars slowly so she wouldn’t lose her bearings. There, beyond a cluster of tents where people had gathered to be together, were the Fists, settled by themselves at the far corner of the campground, cut off from the main group by a line of trees.
She handed off the binoculars to AJ and turned to Pax. “Gives them plenty of privacy, doesn’t it?”
Pax nodded, frowning. “Also makes it damned impossible to go riding in there to check them out.”
“Because there’d be no reason to go that far in. They’re at the end, the facilities are midway. No one would have any reason to breach their campground.”
“That sucks,” AJ said.
“Yeah,” Teresa said, wrinkling her nose as she pondered a solution. “So now what?”
“Maybe one of us stays here to keep watch. I assume you didn’t spot your guy?”
She shook her head. “Well, no. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t there.”
She waited for Pax and AJ to doubt her, to tell her they’d tried, but they’d located the Fists, the guy she claimed had killed Larks wasn’t among them, and it was time to pack it up and head home.
“They could be hiding him. There’s a motor home tucked in behind their tents,” Pax said.
“Really? I didn’t see that.”
He handed her the binoculars. “Look again. It’s butted up against a group of bushes. Hard to see because all the tents are set up in front of it, but it’s there.”
She did look, straining her eyes like she was trying to find what was different about two pictures that looked exactly alike. Then she spotted it. “I see it now. Wow, I totally missed that the first time.”
“They’re hiding it,” Pax said.
“For a reason, obviously.”
“What reason?” Teresa asked AJ.
AJ shrugged. “Don’t know. But we’re going to have to find out.”
“How are we going to do that?”
AJ grinned at Teresa. “We need Grange’s RV.”
THEY’D GOTTEN LUCKY WHEN THEY SHOWED UP AT THE ENTRANCE to the campground. There were a few spaces available, and one just happened to be on the southeast side, behind the Fists. The owner of the campsite said it wasn’t an ideal spot because it was remote and a good walk to the facilities, but to them it was perfect. A wall of trees and bushes separated them from the Fists, so they wouldn’t be able to see them from their campsite, but the three of them could damn sure hike through that thicket and spy on them.
Their second round of luck was the RV Grange owned. Pax had gone back to the house to grab the RV and trailer his bike behind it. They looked just like a bunch of travelers, now, not out of place at all.
Teresa thrilled at the thought as they set up camp, then went inside the RV. Spacious, but one bedroom, and that was pretty tiny.
“No way are all three of us going to fit in there.” Two people, yes. Three, and considering two of those persons were sizeable males? She didn’t think so.
Pax gave her a lopsided grin. “You can sleep in there. AJ and I will sleep on the couches.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not sleeping in that bed without you.”
“Then I guess we’ll be snuggling.”
Despite the chill coming in from the open windows and the goose bumps on her skin, the look Pax gave her and the thought of sharing the tiny bed with both of them heated her from the inside out. “I like snuggling.”
AJ came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “Much as Pax and I would like nothing more than spending the rest of the night warming you up, we need to get to work.”
He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, then released her. She zipped up her jacket to ward off the chill and turned to him. “What do we need to do?”
“Get close enough to the Fists’ encampment to get a glimpse of who’s there.”
“And see if the guy who killed Larks is camped out there?”
AJ nodded.
“Which means I get to go with you.”
“We’re not about to leave you here by yourself,” Pax said. “And you’re the only one who knows what this guy looks like, so yeah, you’re going with us.”
Excitement shot through her at the thought of skulking through the woods in search of the bad guy. Okay, maybe she watched too much television. But it still felt good to be included in something that had the potential to be dangerous. The old adrenaline junkie inside her awakened and jumped up and down, eager to get started.
“So what do we do?”
AJ glanced at his phone. “It’s almost one-thirty. They might be in bed for the night, but maybe not. I say we head over now.”
“Do we want them asleep or awake?” she asked.
“Awake. I want to know who’s out there. If they’re all in tents or in that RV, we’re not going to get a chance to check them out.”
“What if they’re all asleep?”
“Then we’ll be back there in the morning to scope things out.”
She nodded and let AJ and Pax take the lead.
Pax took her hand, his gaze direct. “Be careful of every step you take. Walk where we walk, especially when we get close to their camp. One snap of a branch of crunch of a leaf under your boots will alert them to us.”
“Okay.”
“It’s not going to be easy, because it’s going to be dark in there. We’ll move slow and stay close so you can follow easier.”
“You can trust me. I’ll be careful.”
He palmed her neck and brushed his lips against hers, then smiled. “I know you will.”
She shuddered at the warmth of his kiss; she always felt enveloped by something she couldn’t put words to when either Pax or AJ touched her or kissed her. She wanted time to think about that, to sort it out, but now wasn’t that time.
They headed toward the thick trees that separated them from the Fists. AJ went in first and Teresa followed, with Pax taking the rear. True to her word, she was attentive, mirroring AJ’s every careful move. The woodsy floor was littered with twigs and leaves and just about anything and everything that made noise if you stepped on it. Teresa cringed each time their boots made a crunch or snapping sound. It was late enough that most of the camps had quieted down for the night—but not all the camps, fortunately. And those raucous sounds carried, thankfully, masking whatever missteps the three of them took as they made their way through the woods.
The first thing Teresa saw was a faint light, then she heard the low sounds of voices. AJ held his hand up and she stopped, Pax coming up next to her.
They crept toward the entrance of the Fists’ camp, staying low and out of sight. AJ led them to the north, where they had a clear view but were still hidden within the shelter of trees and bushes.
Now Teresa could see the Fists’ campfire. There were six of them sitting in a circle around the fire, drinking beer, smoking and talking. The wind picked up and smoke blanketed the circle, partially obscuring her ability to identify them. She waited, her heart pounding, for the wind to shift.
Now. She leaned forward and blinked, wishing it were daylight so she could see better, but hoping the campfire would provide enough light. Two of the guys were bald. She scanned their faces and necks, but she knew without a doubt that neither was the guy who killed Larks. Disappointment sank into her stomach. She turned to AJ and shook her head.
Pax gently tugged on her arm to lead her back toward their own camp. Teresa shook her head and pointed toward the RV.
“Can’t. Too dark and too many people. Later,” AJ whispered against her ear.
Still, she resisted, her gaze lingering on the darkened RV. What if he was in there? They were so close.