Chasing Down Changes (Moroad Motorcycle Club) (7 page)

"Just go," she whispered. "Go back to Lola."

"You're the one who belongs to me. The money I sent you every month proves my feelings for you. You belong to me. " He held her chin. "Understand?"

"Lola—"

"Has nothing to do with you and me." He leaned in, kissed her softly. "What time do you close the building down?"

She shut her eyes, shook her head, and refused to answer him.

"Keep your snit going if you want, but I'll be back. Don't lock me out and force me to break in." He straightened. "While you're working, think about if you want us to stay here, or you want to stay at the motel with the club."

He waited for her to acknowledge him and she continued to stare at the floor. She had to realize he wasn't going anywhere. He understood changes. He'd gone through hell and back inside the prison, preparing for his release. But, not once had he doubted what was his when he returned.

Obviously, she hadn't planned on him coming home. But, she wasn't spreading her legs for cock. Somewhere in the back of her head, she understood her place and that he still owned her. He only had to remind her of her reasons why she held strong.

He walked out of the room, nodded at the woman he suspected was Keely hiding at the end of the hallway, and exited the second story door, taking the steps down to his Harley. In the alley, he heard a blood-curdling scream and smiled for the first time in years.

That was his baby, and she'd found her spirit.

T
he last customer of the night at Red Light walked into Keely's room. Tiff paused shutting the door and watched Keely limberly bend over and start untying the man's shoes. The women working upstairs made sex and communicating with men look easy.

If only sex were the one thing she and Jeremy had in common, she could fix everything between them, and then send him on his way.

She closed the door quietly, walked down to the main kitchen, and nodded at Marci, who started the egg timer. "Thanks for agreeing to stay here and keep things running for me."

As her personal assistant, Marci lived upstairs as a 'big sister' to the Red Light women, kept a record book of customers, assigned sexual preferences, and when petty arguments broke out between the women, she stepped in and settled things down. More importantly, Marci kept Tiff company while she ran the bordello and had become a friend in the last six years.

"Where are you going to go?" Marci tilted her head and frowned.

Her decision to leave the Sterling Building for five days and decide what she could do to deter Jeremy from her life came after she'd run through all the options available to her. She couldn't stay.

Jeremy had too much control over her, and she was weak. She'd fall into bed with him if he ordered her, or he called her baby, or he looked at her with those sexy, lazy eyes again. She'd worked too hard to rise above what she always believed she was capable of to step backward. Besides, Sheriff Colby wouldn't like hearing Moroad was back in her life.

"It's best that you don't know where I'm going." She checked her phone. "You'll find everything you need in my room. Help yourself to the food in the fridge, too. If any rumors come around about the Feds making a stop, call me."

"Will you be able to help if a raid happens?" Marci stood from the table.

"Absolutely, but nothing is going to happen. You know what to say and do if the Federal agents show up." She gathered Marci in a quick hug. "I trust you. You're the only one I know who can deal with the customers and keep the women in line."

"I have a bad feeling about this," whispered Marci.

Tiff forced a smile. "Don't worry. Red Light will be fine under your care, and Shari has Silver Girls covered. She's going to man the door, and the dancers are going to perform a routine they did last summer. I doubt if the customers will even recognize the dances."

"It's you I'm worried about."

Tiff paused and squeezed Marci's hand. "I'll survive. I've been through worse. Right now, you need to keep the girls calm and not let them question what is going on, especially Hannah. She has a tendency to talk with the men if she gets nervous."

Marci inhaled deeply. "Okay, I'll take care of things."

"I'll check in when I can, and I'll only be gone for five days. The dancers won't come in until Thursday and will only have to do one night on their own. You only have to worry about the bordello." Tiff eyed the timer. "I only have ten more minutes to get out of here. I need to go."

After another quick hug, Tiff picked up her bag she'd packed earlier, walked downstairs, and out the front of the building, locking the door behind her. On the sidewalk, she spotted Sheriff Colby's truck parked under the street light and hurried to the passenger door.

Inside the vehicle, she blew out the breath trapped in her lungs since Jeremy took responsibility for everything she'd done in her life until this moment. Even more shocking than Jeremy forcing his way back into her life, he actually believed she took his money and bought the Sterling Building.

She slipped into the passenger seat. "I can't thank you enough for letting me stay with you, Colby."

Out of uniform, Sheriff Colby reached over and squeezed her hand. His calm demeanor always settled her down and put her at ease. Ever since she was little, knowing he was around, she believed everything would be okay.

"You got a good head on your shoulders, Tiff. You'll get things straightened out," he said.

She smiled sadly. Predictable, steady, and a constant in her life, he had no idea how much she wanted to believe him. Jeremy Aldridge was even too complicated and dangerous for Colby to stand up again.

Sheriff Colby returned his hand to the steering wheel, and pulled away from the curb, looking in his rearview mirror. "You knew the day would come when Aldridge walked out of prison. A few days to pamper yourself and gain your confidence back, you'll come out swinging."

She stared out the window and studied Main Street as the sheriff drove through Federal. Then they left the lights of the town, and she peered out to nothing, letting her mind escape.

"Why are you so supportive of me?" She turned to gaze at him.

At sixty years old, Colby still carried himself with pride. The town residents loved him, and he'd stepped into the role of Sheriff fresh out of FBI National Academy. There was more to the man behind the badge.

Colby laughed, an airy scoff filled with reasons that eluded her. "Stupidity."

She closed her mouth over the answer. "Well, I, um...okay."

"Yep." Colby glanced at her. "I loved your mom, but as the years went by, I realized that the only thing I had going for me was my job. When I went home, all I had was stupidity."

"That's not true." She half turned on the seat. "My mom was difficult."

"Yes, she was." Sheriff Colby sighed. "But she had a wonderful daughter who made the years I tried to help her worth every second."

"You never fell in love with anyone else?"

Colby turned left on the last block of the residential area and took the gravel road toward his house, set high above Federal. "Nope. I've had a good life. I have friends, my job, the community, and you."

Colby came to a stop in his driveway, and his outside security light came on. She looked at the beige single-story ranch style home with white shutters, the four-foot Cyclone fence, the Border Collie barking at the front gate, and the American flag flapping in the breeze by the main entrance.

"And here you are...the sheriff of Federal, keeping everyone safe and rescuing crazy women who are more messed up in the head than usual," she whispered.

Colby chuckled. "Pretty much."

She turned to him and smiled, feeling sad and out of place. "Thank you."

"Let's get you inside." Colby opened his door.

She stepped out of the car. A roar filled the night, growing louder the longer she listened. "Colby?"

He hurried around the vehicle and put her between him and the house. "Stay with me. Do not step away from me."

The biker pulled up on the street, twenty feet from them, and cut the engine. The dog charged the fence in the yard and barked at Jeremy, who ignored the interruption.

She swallowed hard and wondered for a moment what he'd done to Marci when he showed up at the Sterling Building and found her gone. Except, she'd kept her destination to herself and Marci had no idea where she planned to stay.

"Aldridge, stay on the road unless you want me to arrest you for trespassing and harassment." Colby's elbow nudged her as he reached to his side and wrapped his fingers around the butt of his pistol.

Guilt hit her. Colby would arrest Jeremy and it'd be her fault. If she hadn't gone away to try and figure out how to move forward with her life, Jeremy wouldn't be here.

Jeremy held his arms out to the sides of him. "I'm not planning on stepping on your property, Sheriff. I'm expecting Tiff to walk to me, so she can go back to where she belongs."

She reached out and clutched Colby's shirt, afraid she'd crumble on the ground. As a Moroad member, Jeremy firmly believed she was his property.

Honor meant nothing to men who broke the law, except when it came to the women they claimed. That dedication she'd seen in Jeremy, Cam and Christina, Merk and Desiree, built a craving inside of her to have the same thing.

But, reality was overrated, and the fantasy was a lie.

She wanted someone to stand up for her, protect her, and do the impossible. For fifteen years she would've given anything for Jeremy to come back to her and now he was here, doing what she wanted, and confusing her on a daily basis.

Even the arguments, the games, the back and forth pulling to see who was in control that drove her crazy at nineteen years old appealed to her more than the real fear of ending up in prison or losing Jeremy again. Being an adult sucked.

Being an adult who loved a felon was killing her.

She wanted to walk to him and prove she still wanted him.

At the same time, she wanted to run into Colby's house and lock the door before her insanity got ahold of her. She was a grown woman who no longer believed in a badass biker riding up and sweeping her off her feet.

Jeremy needed to understand that she wasn't a Moroad woman anymore, and hadn't been for fifteen years. She'd left the club behind when he'd gone off to prison. She'd rebelled against life, him, and the club when Lola came back pledging her life to Jeremy.

"I'm asking you to leave," said Colby. "While this is a public road, I have no problem hauling you in as a nuisance and for verbally harassing Tiff. In fact, give me an excuse, because I'd like nothing more than to put your ass in prison, Aldridge."

The dog, deciding it wasn't going to escape the fence, stopped barking and instead ran to sniff at a bush in the corner of the yard. Tiff stared at Jeremy, catching his gaze, and willed him to leave and not make trouble.

She used to give him a certain look to get him to do whatever she wanted. At least on the important things, which seemed trivial now. His problem was bigger than drinking too many beers, whipping a joint out in public, or palming her ass in front of her science teacher in the cafeteria.

Jeremy was a felon. He'd killed a man in prison, shot a man along the highway. His crimes went beyond ignoring her for a couple of days until she used sex and flirted her way back to him.

A stony silence washed over Jeremy until she failed to recognize what he'd do. He could kill the sheriff with the pistol she knew he hid in the pocket of his vest. The quietness unnerved her, and a pang of blame soured her stomach.

"Tiff?" Jeremy remained at the edge of the driveway. "Get on my bike."

He owned her.

She'd dedicated her life to him, intending with all her heart to love him until they both died of old age.

He returned to hold his end of the promise. She was the one who broke the rules.

Until he understood her position and she gave him the truth, she had to do what he asked. He deserved a reason why the future wasn't theirs to grab. Their time expired.

"I'm sorry, Colby," she whispered. "I have to go with him."

"Honey, you don't have to do a damn thing that man tells you to do." Colby stood straighter. "You're safe here. I'll keep protecting you like I've always done."

Tears came to her eyes, and she blinked to clear her vision. "I know, but I have to finish what I started so that we both can go on."

"Think about what you're doing," said Colby. "Once you leave my protection, I can't—"

"You're a good man, Colby. I'm just as much at fault for him being here tonight." She stepped around Sheriff Colby, squeezed his arm, and walked down the driveway.

Jeremy's stoic expression never changed. She sought his approval or disapproval over her returning to his side. He gave her nothing.

T
aking Tiff back to the Sterling Building was out of the question. Jeremy opened the door to his motel room and stood back, motioning her inside. She had all her employees ready to jump to her rescue, and he wasn't going to have anyone stopping him from taking what he wanted from her.

Tiff pursed her lips and refused to budge.

"I have no problem carrying your ass inside," he said, unamused.

He was tired, short on patience, and his balls ached. Finding her with the sheriff pushed him into pissed-off territory.

She looked away. Nobody at the motel would help her.

"I'm not going to tell you again." He grunted. "Get in the room."

She stiffened. "I'm not going in there if Lola is inside."

Jesus Christ. She got off on holding a grudge.

"She's not in my room," he said.

When Tiff still hesitated, he grabbed her arm and walked her inside, shutting the door behind them. He looked around for the first time at the place he brought her. The motel's accommodations met his basic needs. There was a toilet, a bed, a dresser, and a chair. Thanks to Christina, he had clothes.

In exchange, his money bought Tiff the Sterling Building. She was living in a fucking castle, and when she pulled her shit together, they could go back to the Sterling Building. He could live anywhere, and she deserved comfort.