Merrick: Harlequins MC (45 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY FIVE

Moments after Damon had left the room, Cassie dropped down to her knees and pulled the bag out from under the bed. It was heavy and she grunted with the effort. Time was ticking away and she knew McReed and the cops would be at her door any minute. Damon was only going to be able to hold them off for so long. She needed to get out of there, but there was no way in hell she was going to leave Damon there holding the bag – literally. She wasn't going to let him take the fall for it.

She got to her feet and had to use both hands to pick it up. She carried it across the room to the door and set it down. She pressed her ear to the door and then looked through the peephole, making sure the coast was clear. Not seeing anybody in the hallway, Cassie opened the door and stuck her head out, just to be sure. It was clear.

She took a deep breath and hefted the bag again. Using the strap, she slung it over her shoulders and hustled herself out of the room. Rather than heading for the elevator, though, Cassie went the other way and headed for the stairs. She walked as fast as the bag would allow her to go – which wasn't very fast at all. But at least she hadn't toppled over. That had to count for something.

Taking one last look behind her, Cassie opened the stairwell door and slipped inside, letting it swing shut behind her. She stood at the top of the staircase and held her breath, listening for the sound of footsteps in the stairwell below her.

Confident she was alone, Cassie finally exhaled and started descending the stairs. Her mind was a blur of activity. She didn't know where she was going to go. She had no plan. She knew she couldn't go back to the clubhouse – not that she had a ride to get there. But even if she did, she couldn't take that chance. She had no ID on her and couldn't get herself another motel room. And besides, Kingston was such a small place that if she did get into another hotel room, it would only be a matter of time before McReed found her there.

She hit the ground floor and was facing an exit. A door out of the hotel. There was a second door, as well. Cassie opened that second door and peered inside. There was a staircase that led into the room below the hotel. It was dark and smelled musty. Cassie slipped inside and quietly shut the door behind her, plunging her into near darkness. On the floor below her, there was a dim light burning. It didn't do much to dispel all of the gloom down there, and it certainly didn't do anything to wash away the darkness where she was standing, but it should be enough for her to see once she got down the stairs.

Fumbling around, she found the handrail and gingerly picked her way down the staircase. Reaching the bottom floor, Cassie looked around. The basement of the hotel was filled with a collection of junk. There was a room to the side that held the hotel's laundry facilities, but the main room she was standing in was filled with things collected over the century the hotel had been in business.

She ran her finger over a stack of boxes that stood next to the staircase and cringed at the thick layer of dust that coated her finger. Obviously, this wasn't a very well used portion of the basement. Other than the laundry facilities, which the hotel used to wash their sheets and all, it didn't look like anybody came down into the basement at all. Or at least hadn't in quite some time.

Which gave her an idea.

Cassie walked back into the far corner of the basement. She looked around and then found what she wanted. There was a large pile of junk sitting there – boxes upon boxes that had been covered with a drop cloth. Cassie set the bag down and lifted up the drop cloth. She pulled out a couple of the boxes and then slipped the bag in their place. She stacked the boxes back in front of the bag, and then threw an old sheet she'd found on top of it before replacing the drop cloth.

She stood back and looked at it from all angles. She was confident the bag couldn't be seen and was well hidden and protected. Which was good. Cassie was smart enough to know she wouldn't have made it far with that bag in tow. It was just too damn heavy and she wouldn't have been able to carry it for long stretches. If she'd tried to haul it out of the hotel with her, she probably would have been in big trouble. She probably would have been caught by McReed or one of his guys and with a bag full of money, weed, and guns over her shoulder, she would have gone away for a long, long time.

“That should work,” she muttered to herself.

Cassie knew she had nowhere to go. She knew she was more than likely going to have to spend the night outside somewhere. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in that basement. If she were, it would lead to a search of the area and the discovery of the bag. But if she went elsewhere, holed up in another place and they happened to find her, a search there would yield nothing. But it was cold out there and all she had on was a thin jacket. She ran over to the laundry room and started poking around in their baskets, rifling through robes, sheets, and other items until she smiled, finding what she was looking for.

She pulled the blanket out of the basket and folded it up as small as she could get it. Finding a backpack in the corner, Cassie stuffed it inside the bag before turning and rifling through the basket a second time. It took a few minutes, but she eventually came away with a second blanket, which she also folded and fit into the backpack.

She didn't know why, but Cassie had the feeling that she was out of time. She needed to get out of there. Shouldering the pack, she climbed the staircase again. Pressing her ear to the door, Cassie listened for a few minutes before feeling confident enough that she was alone to open the door. She peered out into the stairwell, listening and looking around. She heard nobody, which prompted her to step out into the stairwell and push the handle on the exit door.

Cassie stepped outside and found herself behind the hotel. The night air was cold, making her glad that she'd swiped the second blanket. The forest pressed close to the rear of the hotel and Cassie remembered that on one of her walks recently, she'd found an old abandoned cabin in the woods It had probably been a hunter's lodge at one time, but it was a building that was starting to be reclaimed by nature. She thought it might be a good place for her to hole up for the night.

Setting off, she walked briskly through the woods, listening for the sound of footsteps – or animals that wanted to eat her. A nearly full moon hung high in the sky overhead and sent silvery lances of light through the forest canopy overhead. The forest floor was dotted with silvery pools of moonlight that illuminated small areas of the floor but did nothing to dispel the shadows and gloom of the rest of the forest around her. It was beautiful in a way, but it was also creepy in another. It seemed too close to all of those horror movies she'd loved as a kid.

“Yeah, now I just need some hockey mask wearing freak holding a machete to jump out from behind a tree.”

Cassie laughed to herself but kept moving. She walked for a good half hour or so before she found the clearing she was familiar with. A small cabin, well in the throes of decay, stood at the center of the ring of trees. The moonlight bathed the clearing in a silvery monochromatic light that was both beautiful and entirely cold at the same time.

She ran over to the cabin and stepped up onto the porch. It groaned and creaked beneath her feet in protest. It was more than obvious that nobody had been there in a very long time. The front door was missing so she stepped inside. It was a one-room structure that was completely empty – save for some empty beer cans, food wrappers, and soiled condoms. Clearly, the kids of Kingston knew about this place.

With no other options, Cassie shrugged and dropped the backpack to the floor. She sat down and opened the bag, pulling the blankets out and spreading them over her. She pulled them tight, hoping her body heat would warm up the inside of her impromptu human burrito.

Cassie leaned back against the wall behind her. She was tired. Exhausted. Though she knew she needed to be alert and vigilant, she wanted to sleep, as well. Leaning her head back against the wall, Cassie closed her eyes. She vowed to only sleep for a couple of minutes. After that, she was going to be awake and alert.

But the darkness of sleep washed over her like the tide, pulling her down into their depths and into a deep, peaceful sleep.

CHAPTER
TWENTY SIX

“That was a great idea, Carl.”

Damon stormed into the clubhouse kitchen where Carl was sitting drinking a beer and reading a book. He looked up when Damon spoke and cocked his head. “What are you talkin' about?”

“Cassie,” Damon snapped. “And that bag you told her to hold for you.”

Carl looked down briefly, a look that was almost unrecognizable on his face. “Yeah, I'm sorry about that,” he said. “It was a spur of the moment kind of a deal. We needed to get the stuff out of there since Breaker was able to tip us off about the raid. I have to say, it worked perfectly.”

“Yeah, it worked perfectly,” Damon said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice like molasses. “Right up until McReed and his goons showed up at the hotel looking for me and Cassie.”

Now it was Carl's turn to cock his head and look at him with an expression that said he didn't understand. “McReed showed up at the hotel?”

Damon nodded. “Which means, we've got a rat in the club. Somebody tipped McReed that Cassie was staying in that hotel.”

Carl shrugged. “Either that or he followed you.”

“Could be,” Damon admitted. “But what were you thinking giving her that bag? It's filled with shit that will send whoever has it to prison for a long, long time.”

“And I was making sure none of us were holding it,” he said, his tone a little sharp. “Unless you like the idea of spending the rest of your life in prison?”

Damon fell silent and looked down at the floor.

“Yeah, I didn't think so,” Carl said.

“Still, man,” Damon finally spoke. “You're sacrificing Cassie? You said it yourself, she's not part of this club. She's not one of us. You wanted her out of here and she's gone. She's out of your hair. Why pull her back in and put her at risk by making her hold that shit? Why couldn't you have stashed it somewhere else? I know you've got a hundred different bolt holes.”

Carl's jaw clenched and Damon could tell he was getting upset. He wasn't one who liked to be contradicted or have his judgment questioned. Carl was open-minded and willing to listen to rational, intelligent discussion and debate. And he was even willing to change his mind about a topic if presented with a compelling reason to do so. But when he made up his mind about something, he made up his mind. If he thought it was in the best interest of the club, that's what he was going to do and you'd have a better chance of convincing the sun not to rise on a given day than change Carl's mind about a decision he made in the best interest of the club.

“Like I said, kid,” Carl said though clenched teeth, “it was a spur of the moment thing. We knew the raid was coming and we needed to get rid of that shit. We needed it out of the club and off our property because it would have drawn cops like honey draws flies.”

Damon shook his head and leaned against the counter. “I have no idea where she is, man. Or the bag.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I have no idea where Cassie and that bag are.”

“How? You were with her.”

Damon sighed. “Was with her. When the cops showed up, I told her to get herself out of there. Told her to slip out the back of the hotel and get the hell away.”

“And?” Carl prompted.

“And she took it upon herself to snatch that bag before she left,” Damon said quietly. “I was going to take that bullet but Cassie didn't let me. She took the bag and ran. I lost her because McReed hauled me down to the station to question me about her disappearance. And, of course, what had been in the safe and what Cassie was carrying.”

“How does he know she's carrying?”

“He doesn't for sure,” Damon said. “He's guessing at this point. But that empty safe really turned his world upside down and he's sure that its contents would be total game changers.”

Carl exhaled, a look of sheer relief crossing his features. “I'm glad she did it. Took the bag with her. The last thing we need is for you to wind up in prison, kid. We need you here. I need you here.”

“Yeah, except now she's in the wind,” Damon said. “I have no clue where she is. She's not going to come here and she can't go back to the hotel.”

“No, that place is going to be crawling with McReed's people.”

“She has no family around here, no friends,” Damon said. “And she has nowhere to go.”

Carl leaned back in his seat and took a long swallow of his beer. He looked consumed in thought. What he was thinking, Damon didn't know. But he was hoping that it had something to do with going out there and finding Cassie and bringing her back.

“She's out there alone and she's got nowhere to go,” Damon said. “She's not going to do real well on her own out there.”

A wry grin crossed Carl's face. “Yeah, she strikes me as more of an indoor kinda girl. Not one who likes to get out there and rough it.”

Damon shrugged. “Exactly. And with how cold it's gotten lately, there is a very real chance of her contracting frostbite or suffering from exposure. She doesn't even have a thick coat. She's out there on her own with nothing protecting her from the elements.”

“Cassie is a lot tougher than you give her credit for, Damon. She's a smart girl. Resourceful. She knows how to take care of herself because she's a survivor. She went through hell with her old man but she did what she had to do to survive. This isn't any different.”

Damon sighed. He knew, in a sense, Carl was right. Cassie was tough. She was smart. And she was a survivor. It wasn't yet cold enough out there to really be worried about frostbite, but it had been getting cool enough that exposure could be a real concern. But Damon wanted to believe – had to believe –Cassie could handle herself. That she was smart enough to figure out how to survive a night out in the wilds.

“Try to not worry too much, Damon,” Carl said, his voice gentle. “Cassie is going to be just fine. You'll see.”

“I hope you're right,” Damon said. “I really hope you're right.”

“I know I am. Cassie is going to be fine.”

They sat in silence for a few moments as Carl finished off his bottle of beer and set the empty back down on the table. Damon ran a hand through his hair. He felt like he needed to do something. He didn't want to just stand here hoping and praying Cassie would be coming back before too long. Damon wanted to be out there looking for her.

“This is how she's trying to make her bones,” Carl finally said.

“What are you talking about?”

“She made a decision when she took that bag,” Carl said. “She accepted the responsibility of hauling that thing around her neck like a goddamned albatross. And she did it know that if she got caught, the hammer was going to be dropping on her and her alone. She obviously wanted to protect us by taking that bag and puttin' all of that liability and risk on her own shoulders. She did us a real solid and is trying to earn her bones with the club.”

“I wish there were an easier way to do it.”

“Yeah well, there's not,” Carl said. “I'll tell you what, though, if Cassie can make it back here and not have the cops in tow and if she can help take the heat and eye off us, I'll welcome her back with open arms. She'll have proven herself. She'll have shown me she's devoted and puts the club first. If she can do that, she can stay here as long as she wants.”

Damon paced the kitchen restlessly. His mind was filled with images of things that could go wrong if Cassie was, indeed, stuck outdoors. Carl wasn't wrong when he said she seemed more like an indoor kinda girl. She wasn't used to the outdoors. She didn't know how to survive out there. The more he thought about it, the more concerned he grew. And the fact that his mind was filled with images of terrible, grisly deaths wasn't helping in the least. “I have to go,” Damon said.

“Where?”

“I'm going out there to find her and bring her home.”