“I appreciate you giving up your room for the night,” Beth began, only to see him taking his shirt off and throwing it on the chair beside the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready for bed; the bathroom is through that door.” He opened a drawer of the huge chest against the wall, pulling out a white t-shirt and handed it to her.
“I am not sleeping in your bed with you.” Scandalized, Beth went to leave the room.
“Are you for real?” Razer snapped.
“Don’t be an ass. I am not sleeping with you.”
“Yes… you... are. No one gives up their room here. All the bedrooms are spoken for, the couch is full and so are the two in the back room. But even if they were available, you still wouldn’t sleep alone. One of the other men would be on you in a second.”
“They would rape me?”
”No, but you wouldn’t sleep alone. Come on Beth, I won’t bother you tonight. Let’s get some sleep, I’m tired too.” He did look tired and Beth knew she was acting ridiculous.
“All right.” Beth gave in, too tired to argue further.
Beth took the t-shirt and went into the clean bathroom, getting ready for bed. After washing the light make-up from her face, she reluctantly went back into the bedroom. Razer was already in bed; his eyes followed her across the room. Hastily, she slid onto the mattress pulling the covers up to her chest.
“Need anything? Water?”
“No, thank you.” The light went out and Beth lay back stiffly, angry with herself for how silly she was acting. Razer just made her so nervous she didn’t know how to react. Her body wanted him, but her mind held her back. Her father’s teachings had become so ingrained into her psych, she automatically fought to reject the desires that burned inside her body. Yet the intellectual side of her knew that there was nothing wrong with expressing her sexuality in a committed relationship. The true hesitation that held Beth back was that she knew Razer didn’t want a committed relationship. He wanted a purely sexual one that left his heart and emotions free to come and go among the other women and Beth couldn’t handle that. It would destroy her and Beth couldn’t leave herself so vulnerable.
She turned to her side, closing her eyes. A hard arm slid around her waist, dragging her to his warm body. Beth didn’t protest. It felt strong and safe and as much as she hated to admit it, she was scared. The thought of someone actually feeling enough malice towards her to cause physical harm had her nerves screaming in terror. Beth did not do confrontations well. She always backed down. Even in school she never got in an argument. She was an out and out coward and freely admitted it, but she was good at hiding her emotions. No one had figured out she was terrified, not even Razer.
Razer pulled her tighter against him and the terror eased as her body melted against him, content that at least tonight he was hers.
Razer felt her fall asleep when her grip finally loosened on the arm around her waist. He didn’t know which had frightened her more, the person trying to kill her or sharing a bed with him. He had lied when he had told her that the men wouldn’t let her sleep alone, easily maneuvering her exactly where he wanted her. They wouldn’t have gone near her unless she had asked or given an invitation. But Razer had no intention of telling the timid kitten that little bit of knowledge. Tonight, she was in his bed right where he wanted her.
Chapter 11
Beth woke up with an urgent desire to use the bathroom. Looking out the only window in the room, she saw that it must be early morning. Razer was lying on his stomach with his bare ass showing. How had she not have known he was naked under the covers? Stupidly, unable to gather her thoughts at the glory before her, she got out of the bed to empty her full bladder.
When she was done and washed her hands, she turned the light out and went back to bed. Beth was an early riser, but did not know what to do with herself if she got out of bed. Her eyes couldn’t stay away from Razer and her fingers itched to reach out and touch. Frustrated with herself, she plumped her pillow, lying back down. As she did, Razer rose and pulled her beneath him.
“Can’t sleep?”
“This is the time I usually get up.”
“This is the time I usually am going to bed.” He mocked her.
“Yes, but I work.” Beth regretted her words at his angry look.
“I work,” he snapped.
“You do? I never see you around town.”
“That’s because I don’t work in town, not that there are many jobs available.”
“Then what do you do? Do you work online?”
Razer got out of bed and went to the chest, pulling out fresh clothes.
“I will show you. Get dressed while I take a shower. Evie said she would put some clothes for you outside the door on her way to work.”
Beth gathered the clothes sitting neatly outside the door. Evie had picked a pale cream t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants. The shirt was tight, but the pants fit perfect. She was combing her hair with the small brush in her purse when Razer walked back in with a towel around his hips.
Beth put the brush down tugging her hair back into a tight ponytail, unable to prevent her eyes from watching Razer drop the towel and get dress in jeans and black shirt. Throwing her a smug look, he sat on the side of his bed while putting on his boots.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
Beth was curious about what he was going to show her. Following him from the room, he led them down the stairs and out the front door. Expecting him to go to his bike, Beth was surprised when he led them to the factory that had never been opened.
He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Lights came on, flooding the huge area. She wasn’t sure what she would find, but stacks of boxes and merchandise was not one of her guesses.
“We actually work in the warehouse. Each of us works various shifts. A morning or afternoon shift, four days a week. We close Friday thru Sunday.”
“What do you make?” Beth was impressed.
“Several items.” He walked to one table with many packaged boxes waiting to be shipped. He picked one up, handing it to her. It was a survival kit. “I am a chemical engineer. My job is to find ways to keep food from spoiling, and to make foods that previously were unable to be preserved, preservable.” Walking to another table, he picked up another package, inside it had a plain brown stick that said on the box it was able to draw energy from the environment. “Shade is a mechanical engineer; Evie decides what goes into the medical kits; Knox is our computer engineer and develops our programs so that our customers can order online. You name it, one of our people are experienced in that field.”
“You guys supply the Doomsdayers.”
Razer laughed. “Yes, but not only them. Countries that have a high probability for natural disasters order them to keep their families safe. Our customers are from a wide range.”
“You guys are a corporation?”
“Yes, all the full members living in the house are stockholders, some with a larger piece than the others. Except for Natasha and Bliss, when they become full members they will be given a share.”
“I can’t believe this. I had no idea. No one in town does, they believe and think you’re a motorcycle gang stealing and selling drugs.”
“You can’t tell anyone Beth. It goes against the rules for me to show this to you.”
“Then why show it to me?”
“Because I did not want you thinking I was too lazy to work for a living. I also did not want you thinking the club was guilty of illegal activity. If you thought that, why go out with me?”
“I said people in town thought that, not that I did. I never believe gossip.” She walked around the factory asking questions when it was a product she had never seen before or used in a different way than its intended use. He showed her a small lightweight shovel that had ten different uses, one as a deadly weapon. She was going to order one for herself.
“I wish you had involved the community more, jobs are n
eeded desperately.”
“That was our plan in the beginning until our money was stolen.”
It finally clicked with Beth. “Your corporation put up the original money for the plant. You own the factory, plant, and land around here.”
“The six of us on the board were in the military together and came up with this idea. We pooled every dime we had together and what we could borrow from our families. Everything was on track to open when the machinery was ordered and the money to pay for it wasn’t.”
Beth nodded. “Gavin Stolms took it and disappeared.”
“No, Gavin’s older brother is the club leader. Viper sent him to Treepoint to handle everything up here while we worked in Ohio. We worked hard and put all our cash into opening this factory. He didn’t steal the money from his own brother and the club. He was murdered. We can’t prove it, his body has never been recovered, but we know that’s what happened.”
“Until we find out who killed Gavin, we won’t open the factory to outsiders.”
Beth nodded her understanding. “I don’t think you will ever discover who murdered him. Whoever did it obviously covered their tracks well. The people here love to gossip about everyone’s dirty little secrets, but anything criminal that could potentially harm their families, you’ll find their mouths zipped shut.”
“That’s what we discovered. That’s why we let Sam hang out, trying to find out what we could about the locals.”
“I don’t think that is the only reason Sam hangs out. Does she know about this?”
“No, we keep her away. She’s not allowed on the property Monday through Thursday.”
“Perhaps I could ask around and see what I could find out.”
“Don’t even think about it. You already have a big enough target on your back.”
The sound of a car pulling in outside had them looking towards the window which overlooked the parking lot. Evie was parking her car. Beth frowned, she shouldn’t have been back so early. Looking at her watch she discovered they had been in here several hours, it was almost lunchtime.