JUSTIFIED (Motorcycle Club Romance) (2 page)

“What the hell happened to you?” my father asked. It was well past midnight by the time Ash and I made it to my house.

“Oh, my goodness,” my mom said. In her housedress and slippers, hair pulled back in a ponytail, and glasses on, she could see we were both in poor shape. “Is that blood?!”

“Marina,” my father said. “Ash. What happened? One of you needs to tell me what happened right now.”

My father was terrifying when he got mad. A brut of a man with bass in his voice and narrow, beady eyes, one look from him could send someone huddling in a corner. His arms covered in tattoos and his skull cap always in place, he was known around our town as the president of the Black Dogs MC. Descended from decades of brave biker-loving men, the club had been formed long before I was born. It was our world and it was our lifestyle – all I’d ever known.

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” I whimpered. How do you tell your own father that you were just sexually assaulted? And that your attacker was the son of the president of a rival MC? Perhaps that’s why I’d lusted for Tripp like I did. I knew he was off limits.

I held my head low and felt Ash’s eyes on me. He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Marina was attacked.”

I glanced up and thanked Ash for saying what I didn’t have the strength to say.

“Attacked?” My father, all 270 pounds of him, stood up, fists clenched.

“Tripp Cotton,” Ash said. His face winced and he turned to avoid my father’s reaction.

“What the hell were you doing around that piece of shit?!” my father’s voice boomed.

“Rex,” my mother said as she grabbed his arm. “Shh. You’re going to wake everyone up.” I’d forgotten that my two younger sisters were asleep in their beds down the hall.

“We were at a bonfire,” I said. I still couldn’t look at him. “Tripp was talking to me and then he asked if I wanted to go on a walk.”

My eyes burned hot. I couldn’t finish the rest, and suddenly my body collapsed on the floor. My mother rushed to my side as she and Ash worked to help me back up.

“It doesn’t matter what happened,” Ash said. He held his shoulders back and took a deep breath, fighting off the tears that filled his eyes. “I killed him.”

“You what?” my father squinted as he studied Ash’s face. None of us could tell whether he was proud or furious.

“I-I killed him,” Ash stammered. “I snapped. And then I killed him.”

My father slammed his hands on the table and turned his head away, looking lost in thought for a moment. The three of us stood in silence, waiting for him to speak.

He paced around the kitchen for a minute before grabbing his phone and making a call. “Yeah, Riggs, it’s Rex. Meet me in five at the clubhouse.”

“What are you doing?” my mom asked, fear in her eyes. Her hands clenched at her neckline. They’d been together over twenty years, and she’d seen him do a lot of things, but this was different.

“We’re taking care of it,” my dad said, like it was nothing. Like he was just taking out the trash. “I need to know where the body is.”

Ash and I exchanged looks and his face softened as his eyes filled with a tiny sliver of hope.

“County line road,” Ash said. “Two miles north of the red light intersection. There’s a cornfield and a sign. It’s just before 86
th
avenue.”

My father pursed his lips and sighed as if it was just a mere inconvenience that he had to clean up someone else’s murder; just another day in the life of the Club.

“Take this to the grave.” He turned to all three of us before walking out and waved his finger in our faces. “I mean it.”

Ash took a seat the kitchen table and breathed a sigh of relief. Color was returning to his face, though we both knew it wasn’t over yet. It would never be over. We’d both carry this heavy secret for the rest of our lives, and I couldn’t help but blame myself. I never should’ve given Tripp Cotton a second glance. I never should have walked off with a boy I hardly knew from a rival club. Ash never would’ve gotten himself into that situation if it weren’t for my dumb decisions.

“Go get cleaned up,” my mom said. She tried to hide the worry in her voice, but she didn’t fool either of us. “Both of you.”

Five years later…

I awoke as our car slowed and turned down a gravel road. We’d been driving for at least six hours in the middle of the night and it had been more than a challenge to stay awake. Ash convinced me that I didn’t want to know where I was going anyway. It would be much safer for us that way.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He leaned closer to the steering wheel, straining to stay awake. The car was silent except for the rumble of the road and the chips of gravel pinging the underbelly of our faithful blue Ford. Tucker, our toddler, was sound asleep in the car seat behind Ash. The sky above us was flecked with delicate golden stars. Under any other circumstances I would’ve marveled at how beautiful they were.

I shivered as the air conditioning blew cold on my skin, but I knew Ash needed it to stay alert. As we slowed to a stop at an unlit, deserted gravel intersection, Ash toyed around with the GPS.

“Everything alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m just checking something,” Ash replied.

He was never one to go into detail about anything. Ever since that fateful summer, something changed in him. I supposed killing a man would do that to a guy.

We always knew the day would come when we’d have to uproot our lives and go on the run. The Cottonmouths had been trying to pin Tripp’s murder on someone for years, and five years later they were starting to figure out who’d done it.

The day after Ash had saved me, my father initiated him into his club and within a few short years he’d worked his way up in the ranks, and I’d fallen head over heels in love with the man who had saved me that horrific night. He’d given so much for me. What kind of a man loves a woman so much he’d kill for her? I couldn’t let him go, so I gave him my heart, unconditionally, and never looked back.

We turned onto yet another gravel road. The green sign read something like 237
th
Avenue. I’d never heard of any avenues numbered higher than one hundred before.

“I really have to pee,” I announced.

“We’re almost there.”

Between two buttes about a half a mile ahead were some yard lights. “Those are the first lights I’ve seen in miles. People actually live out here?”

“That’s the house,” Ash replied, checking the rearview mirror. “I asked them to leave the lights on so we could find it in the middle of the night.”

Ahead was our designated safe house. The Cottonmouths were spewing threat after threat, promising to murder the family of their beloved Tripp’s killer. An eye for an eye, they said. The second we got word that Ash’s name was being thrown around their circle as someone they were checking into, we had to bolt. Ash insisted Tuck and I stay as far away from them as possible until he could handle the situation and get the heat off his back.

“I haven’t seen houses for miles,” I said as the reality of our new lifestyle was finally sinking in.

Our Ford skidded on the gravel and came to a sudden halt.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I said in a loud whisper.

“Marina,” Ash turned to face me in the car. I recognized the disconcerted look on his face and shuddered a little. I hated to see Ash upset. He was the anchor of our family. “We always knew this day would come. We can’t stay in that God-awful town right now. The safety of my family has been jeopardized. I will not have that.”

I looked back at Tucker, who was somehow still sound asleep. I hadn’t yet told Ash, but I was roughly six weeks pregnant. We’d had two miscarriages since Tucker, and I couldn’t put Ash through the stress of another one. He worried about us enough as it was. I decided to hold off as long as possible before I would tell him.

Ash cupped my face in his hands and kissed me between my eyes. “You’re my world, you and Tuck. I don’t know what I do without you.”

“We’ll be fine out here,” I said, offering a smile. “I brought a ton of books. We have internet right?”

With that, we continued towards our new home. Ash didn’t know how long we’d be living at this new place. He said he couldn’t risk our safety, and until he knew we were clear, this would be the safest place for us.

My stomach fluttered a little as we approached the driveway to the house. From far away, all I saw were yard lights. Up close, the house was mammoth and lit up like a Christmas tree. It looked a little daunting in the middle of the night.

Ash pulled up as close as he could to the side door and stepped out of the driver’s seat. He unbuckled Tuck from his car seat and gently hoisted him over his shoulder. I stepped out of the car and stretched. As we made our way closer to the house, even more lights turned on and lit up our walkway. I’d never seen so many motion sensor lights around one house before.

Ash pointed to the trees surrounding the house. “There are wireless cameras in every single tree out here. Just so you know.”

I smiled. I knew he was trying to ease my mind. He wanted me to feel as safe and comfortable as possible out here.

We entered the house through the mudroom door and flipped on the lights. We were greeted with a musty smell, like a seldom-used vacation home or an aging fifth-wheel camper. It didn’t bother me though. It reminded me of vacations to our lake home as a young girl. It was the reassurance I needed to feel like I could make this work.

As we looked for the living room we passed through the kitchen. I stopped in my tracks when I saw its condition. “This stove has got to be from the 1950s. And it’s a foot away from the wall. There’s no refrigerator.” I ran to the sink and turned on the faucet. The pipes clanked and water began to sputter out. “At least we have running water.”

Ash carried Tuck to the living room, where he laid him on a scratchy looking plaid sofa and covered him with his blanket. Adjacent to the living room was a huge sunroom with nothing but floor to ceiling windows on three of the four walls.

“All of the windows on this house are coated in a special film so that you can see out just fine, but no one could see in no matter how hard they tried,” Ash explained, rubbing my shoulder. “You could walk around naked with all the lights on and on one would know. But don’t go doing that.” He put his arm around me and pulled me in. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat.”

“I’d like to see the rest of the house if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead. There should be a pull out couch in the living room. That’s where I’ll be for tonight.” We locked eyes and for a brief moment I saw a look of uncertainty on his face. I brushed it off. I had to.

I was a little shocked that he didn’t want to secure the perimeters like he normally would. Then again, this is one of the club’s designated family hiding houses. It’s supposed to be as secure as the White House, only with no secret service men.

Ash left the sunroom, and I could hear him seconds later pulling out the sofa bed in the living room. I noticed a hallway that ran through the middle of the house just past the kitchen. The last door on the left looked older than the rest, so of course I had to check it out first. The door creaked as I opened it and the light automatically flickered on. In front of me was a stunning, polished mahogany dining room table and in each of the four corners of the room were antique grandfather clocks. Each clock was silent and still, and their hands all rested on different hours.

I stood in the dining room awhile longer, examining some figurines that lined the glass shelves of a random curio cabinet, but couldn’t help but feel creeped out. I felt like I had walked into someone’s private life, like I had stumbled upon someone’s secret collection.

Maybe it wasn’t so much as the clocks and figurines that bothered me, as it was the fact that this dining room had no windows and was in a room at the end of a hallway. It just didn’t feel right. I made a beeline for the door when I noticed another door inside the dining room.

I gave into my curiosity and went to what was behind that door. Expecting a closet of some type, I instead was introduced to a completely different room. I stepped into a bedroom that could only be accessed by a dining room at the end of the hall of a huge house out in the middle of nowhere. The light, as expected, switched on as soon as I walked into the room. A single queen-sized bed with a dusty blue comforter rested against the wall. A white, Queen Anne dresser stood across from the bed. I opened the drawers to find nothing but some old undershirts and dingy socks.

There were narrow doors to the left and right of the dresser. It didn’t take long for me to discover that one was an empty walk-in closet reeking of mothballs and behind the other door was a spotless toilet room with a working toilet.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched. I felt safe in the house, but I felt like I was encroaching on someone else’s life. I didn’t like the feeling of knowing the bazaar secrets of a stranger. The peculiarities I had witnessed in the past few minutes already made me feel like it was going to be a challenge to make this place feel like home. The only thing I wanted in that moment was to be fast asleep in Ash’s arms. I needed something that felt like home, because this sure as hell didn’t.

I walked as quickly as I could out of the bedroom, out of the eerie dining room, and back to the hallway. As I passed the vintage kitchen on my right, I noticed something shiny on my left behind swinging doors. I pushed one half of the swinging door open just a peep and couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said aloud. I hated to swear, but I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

Before me was a completely renovated, gourmet kitchen. Stainless steel industrial appliances, swirled granite counter tops, maple hardwood floors, and dark cherry cabinets with crown molding filled this expansive, hidden space. The cupboards, refrigerator and pantry were all completely stocked. I was starting to forget about the creepy dining room. I didn’t ever have to go in there if I didn’t want to anyway.

With a bit of a hop in my step, I left the luxurious kitchen and headed straight for Ash’s temporary sleeping quarters. I tugged off my jeans and sweater and crawled under the fuzzy blanket with my snoring-like-a-bear husband. I slipped behind him and gently forced my arm under his, resting my hand on his warm stomach. His stomach moved up, then down, then up again. The steady rhythm of his breathing relaxed me. I buried my nose in the back of his head. I loved the smell of his hair; a mix of his natural musk and my organic, sandalwood shampoo.

Soon I found myself unable to fall asleep. I tossed and turned as quietly as I could on the stiff sofa bed. The dead silence of the old house didn’t help much either. Ash’s snoring was like music to my ears, like listening to the drone of an old box fan to fall asleep on a sticky summer night. Ash was my old box fan.

My mind raced with the realization that he would be leaving us the next day. I tried telling myself it wasn’t so bad. Ash would be gone for five or six days at a time, then return for two or three days. It would always depend on his work assignments. Sometimes he went on club missions for weeks at a time, and I was not allowed to contact him even for emergencies.

“The logistics are all worked out,” he told me in the days leading up to this night.

“There’s not one thing for you to worry about. Think of it as an extended vacation.”

For days I gathered books, magazines and movies for me, games and toys for Tucker, and projects I knew would keep me busy for an indefinite amount of time. I was told we would be here for an unknown amount of time and there was a slight possibility we could be here for a full year if they couldn’t remedy the situation fast enough.

In the shadows of the living room I saw two bright lights dash across the wall. I pushed Ash to wake him up. “Someone’s here. I just saw headlights.”

In half of a second Ash had already sprung up out of the sofa bed and threw on his pants. He grabbed his sidearm out of the interior pocket of his jacket and headed toward the side door where the car had stopped.