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 ass**les 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 admit��at 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.”