Big Bad Fake Groom: A Billionaire's Virgin Romance

by Tia Siren

  I did my best to keep my eyes down during the wedding, but it was hard to not look out at the gathered crowd of bikers. The bruised and bandaged bunch that Axel had roughed up sat toward the back. I tried to avoid their gazes the most but found it hard to do.

  I still couldn’t reconcile my feelings about how Axel had handled the situation just a couple days ago. I wondered if it had been good of him to handle those men in such a way.

  When my mom and Duke finally said “I do,” I felt a wave of relief. My brain cleared enough for me to realize what I had to do, and it had to be done today. I needed to tell Axel that I couldn’t see him anymore.

  I found him by the snack table during the reception, talking with a few of his buddies. He made me swoon, seeing him in his suit. At the same time, he looked out of place wearing something so formal amidst the band of leather-clad bikers.

  “Axel,” I said.

  He shooed his friends away, and I slowly walked up beside him.

  “It’s over, Hellen,” he said.

  I wasn’t expecting him to say anything so quickly.

  “I’m going to be the next leader of this club,” he added.

  “While I agree with you, how would that have anything to do with us?”

  “Your mom is my stepmom. If I showed up anywhere with you nearby, I would get a lot of looks. People would start asking questions that I don’t think I could answer,” he said.

  I nodded. At least we were both on the same page, but for severely different reasons. Still, I needed to let him know my own feelings.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He gave me a quizzical look, and I continued.

  “You protected me from all the guys who would have probably done far worse,” I said. “It’s too bad I didn’t meet you sooner.”

  He guzzled down the last of his beer and set the glass on the table. Then he reached out and pulled me in for a hug.

  His warm embrace left me dumbfounded, and I wished, again, that it wouldn’t end.

  “Come visit sometime,” he said.

  I nodded and strained to hold back a couple of tears. I needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

  9.

  “Did you have a safe flight, sweetie?” my mom asked over the phone.

  “Yeah, Mom. I slept through the whole thing,” I replied.

  I had left before the reception ended. My mom was sad to see me go, but she understood I had a life to return to. I wished her all the best and gave her one long hug before I left. I even got another bear hug from Duke; he was almost as emotional as my mom was, but he expressed it very differently.

  “So tell me, will you come visit me soon?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Mom, I barely even got home.”

  “Oh, I know, but considering it was near three years since I saw you last, I was hoping you’d come back for the holidays this year,” she said.

  “Okay, Mom. I’ll be back this year for the holidays. I promise,” I said.

  A knock at the front door startled me, followed by the jingling of keys unlocking the lock. Joyce and her kids ran in and started attacking me with hugs; they were really sweet kids.

  “Mom, I’ll have to call you back. I have company,” I said.

  I clicked the receiver off after we said our good-byes and turned to Joyce, who looked about as tired as I expected her to be.

  “How long have you been back?” she asked.

  “I just walked through the door about ten minutes ago,” I replied.

  Joyce walked over to the window and looked down at the street.

  “Did you get a load of the package out front? It has your name on it,” she said.

  I stepped to the window, a confused look plastered over my face. Looking down I saw a package, still wrapped up and waiting.

  “That’s for me? You shouldn’t have,” I said, making my way for the door.

  “I didn’t,” she replied. “Secret admirer? Maybe Mark wants to win you back.”

  I bolted down the stairs, my curiosity giving me chills as I walked. I started forming all sorts of crazy theories, but none were as crazy as the truth.

  A card sat perched on top and read as follows:

  “Hellen,

  “Maybe this will give you a taste of freedom from your cage. From Axel.”

  I ripped at the paper to discover the gorgeous bike I had seen in his shop, shiny and new. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, and it was apparently all mine.

  “I didn’t know you liked to ride,” Joyce said.

  “To quote you: You gotta keep an open mind,” I said.

  I threw a leg over the seat, and it felt comfortable. Then I realized there was a slight problem. I didn’t know how to ride…yet.

  *****

  THE END

  MOTORCYCLE CLUB Romance – Outlaw Biker’s Bride

  1.

  Good people were hard to find, and sometimes you had to rely on bad people to get the job done. I was used to dealing with bad people. Jimmy wasn’t the worst, though. I had been used to much worse in my youth, and I swore I’d never go back.

  “Come on, man, how much farther?” I asked in a whisper.

  He leaned around the corner of the alleyway.

  “This is it, I think,” Jimmy replied.

  When you were desperate, you did a lot of dumb things. The dumb thing I was doing this time involved Jimmy, some dealers, and a whole lot of drugs I had stashed in my jacket.

  “Okay, just wait here. They don’t know I brought you, so don’t come out unless I say it’s safe. If this works out, you’ll make an easy two-large,” he said.

  I nodded and leaned against the wall. I just wanted this to be done so I could go home and relax. None of this would have been a problem if I hadn’t decided to quit my job. And I probably wouldn’t have quit if my boss knew how to keep his hands to himself. Now I was stuck with college tuition that I couldn’t afford.

  Jimmy strode out from the alleyway confidently. I was surprised he was able to muster up much of anything in this situation. I couldn’t stay my curiosity about where we were, so I peeked around the corner as Jimmy had done.

  I was looking out at a loading dock, not particularly big, but large enough to fit a pair of small trucks inside. A few large men were standing around in the dim light that exuded from the dock interior, looking as intimidating as possible.

  I wanted to laugh at how silly boys acted when they did things that some would consider illegal. They always seem to puff up their chests and show off their small muscles. If only they’d seen what I had seen in the past, they’d know what a real man looked like.

  There I went again, thinking about people I swore I’d never think about again. Like a splinter stuck in my mind, I always felt the need to pick at it. Some people were like that, too. You thought you’d managed to forget about them, but they always came back, and usually it was harder to forget them the second time.

  I heard their voices echo in the darkness—another thing boys liked to do when trying to sound tough. They always like to speak loud and with deep voices. I smacked my head against the wall to stop thinking about it, and that just gave me a headache.

  “Jimmy, what the hell are you doin’ here?” I heard from the tallest of the bunch. “You shoulda been here a while back. You’re late.”

  “I…er…got your stuff,” he said. “I know it’s late, but I thought you might be able to make an exception this time?”

  I could hear the trepidation in his voice. His cool exterior had already melted, and he was back to being the timid guy I knew.

  “Yeah? Then where is it?” replied the man with a sigh.

  “It’s nearby,” Jimmy replied with a cracked voice. “I wanted to see the money first.”

  The tall man cracked his knuckles and stared at Jimmy for a second, but then he walked back inside. The silence was almost too much to bear for the few moments the man was gone, but then his footsteps echoed into the night again as he strode back onto the dock. I
could barely make out a small envelope in his hand.

  “Where’s my stuff?” he asked again.

  Jimmy smiled and motioned for me to come and join him, so I took a deep breath to center myself. I could feel my heart beating in my ears as I stepped out from behind the corner.

  “Show them, Celia,” Jimmy said.

  I reached into my purse and pulled out the bag he’d given me earlier and held it up. One of the brutes waddled over to me and grabbed the parcel, taking it to the man in charge.

  I could make out the man’s face a little better now. I didn’t recognize it, but he looked chiseled and eastern European. The man in charge turned to me and smiled. It felt like he was eyeing me up. I didn’t like it in the slightest.

  He held out the envelope, and the same brute from before took it and handed it to me.

  I stayed silent as Jimmy took the envelope out of my hand and started counting the money. After a second, he turned to me and nodded.

  “Let me give you guys a ride, wherever you want to go,” said the rich stranger.

  “Whatever you say, Mr. Novak,” Jimmy said, hastily stuffing the envelope in his jacket pocket.

  Mr. Novak turned to his phone and said something I couldn’t make out. Then a car pulled down the alley toward the dock, but it wasn’t any car. It was a police car.

  I started hyperventilating, worried that I was about to end up in jail. Mr. Novak didn’t look worried in the slightest; Jimmy looked about as confident as I did.

  Mr. Novak started laughing.

  “Don’t worry about them; they’re your ride.”

  The two officers stepped from the car, one of them holding a phone that looked similar to Mr. Novak’s. Nothing they could say would have removed my worry completely, but I sighed to give myself a little bit of relief. Mr. Novak must have been worth a lot of money to be able to buy off the police.

  Jimmy and I walked hastily over to the police that were already opening up the back doors. I ducked my head down and leaned in. It was not the first time I had been in the back of a police car, and I really hoped it would be my last.

  Jimmy pulled out the envelope and stuffed it into my purse. I looked at him quizzically, and in response he shushed me.

  “Where to?” the cops asked.

  “Fourth and Jefferson,” Jimmy replied.

  The driver nodded, and we started to drive. It wasn’t a far destination, and it was decently close to home, and I needed a shower and some sleep to calm my nerves.

  The police continued to drive. I watched out the window as we drove straight past the destination. My heart started beating hard again.

  “Hey, you just passed it,” I said.

  They didn’t respond. We just kept driving. Before long, we were out of the city and heading upstate. I was hoping they’d stop, but I knew they wouldn’t.

  Almost an hour later they pulled over. The only thing I could see were trees and a single stretch of highway. I had a really bad feeling about this.

  They cracked open the back door, guns drawn.

  “Out,” they said.

  I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. I followed their instructions but kept my eye out for an escape.

  “Jimmy, you were a week late again. Mr. Novak doesn’t like dealing with people who aren’t on time with deliveries. Since he can’t just fire you, he is doing the next best thing.”

  We marched through the forest for a few minutes before finding a hastily dug hole in the forest.

  “It’s too bad you had to get her involved,” they added.

  I wanted to break down and cry, but I knew now was the worst time. This was reminding me of a few times when I had been with my ex-boyfriend. I knew he’d done some things that were less than legal, and sometimes he would bring me along. I’d seen him beat people until they could barely breathe, and then his boys would just take the loser away and I wouldn’t see him again.

  The odd part was, that wasn’t the reason I stopped seeing him.

  “Get in,” the cops said, gesturing toward the hole. Jimmy acknowledged his fate and stepped into the hole. I, on the other hand, wasn’t in the mood to die tonight.

  One of them waved his pistol at me, trying to usher me into the hole.

  “Just get in, Celia. They’re probably just trying to scare us, right?”

  Bang. Jimmy was dead. He slumped over in the hole, lifeless. I panicked and kicked the officer near me. He must not have had the best footing, because he toppled over on top of Jimmy. It was my break, and I took it.

  I sprinted through the forest toward the road we had just left. I could hear the officers starting to chase me from behind, but they were a ways off.

  I considered my options. I remembered they had left their keys in the ignition before we left. Cops always did stupid things like that. So, I just kept running.

  Their footsteps grew louder, and I could hear the brush cracking under their weight. I could barely see a thing, but in the heavy moonlight I was able to make out the silhouette of their car. The lights were still on inside.

  Then an arm reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I yelped in surprise.

  “Stop right there, girlie,” he said.

  I grabbed the thing nearest to me, a stick, and stabbed it into his hand as hard as I could. He screamed in anger, and I heard him try to draw his gun with his other hand, but it clanked to the ground.

  I sprinted the last distance, completely out of breath, running entirely on adrenaline, until I was nestled into the driver’s seat. I heard a smash on the passenger side door; the officer I had stabbed was frantically trying to get in the car. I reached over and locked the door before he could open it.

  I cranked the key and the car started up.

  “Get out of the car, you bitch! I will find you, and I’ll do worse than shoot you,” he shouted.

  I floored the pedal and the wheels burned out as I shot off into the darkness. I breathed my first sight of relief as I drove down the road. Finally, I gave in to all the emotions I had denied myself until now. Jimmy was dead, murdered by two officers. I couldn’t go to the police; they wouldn’t believe me. I couldn’t call any of my friends, the few that I had; they would just be put in harm’s way.

  There was only one place I could think to go, the only place I had ever really felt safe in my entire life. I had to go back home; I had to find Rex and get him to keep me alive.

  2.

  I ditched the cop car when it finally ran out of gas. It was a liability anyway, as I’d heard that their cars were easy to track, so it was for the best that I left it.

  I had driven more than 200 miles last night, and I was exhausted. It didn’t help that blood was spilled all over my shirt. Some of it was Jimmy’s and some of it was probably the officer’s I had stabbed.

  I hitchhiked my way into a small town that didn’t seem to have much more than a gas station and a diner. That was fine, though. People who live in parts like this were tougher than most. I let my guard down a little bit.

  Rex and his boys liked to keep to the open road, and I hoped they’d be somewhere nearby. At least I was 200 miles closer to the place I’d last seen him.

  I pulled out my phone and dialed his number only to get his voice mail.

  “Don’t bother,” it said.

  I was about to hang up, but I couldn’t help myself. I left a message.

  “Rex, it’s me, Celia. I’m hunkered down in a diner called Jack’s Shake Shack, and I was hoping to see you again. I’m in a tight spot,” I said. Then I remembered the money in my bag, “I can pay you!”

  The message clicked off, and I returned the phone to the receiver. I felt completely hopeless. I sat down at the café bar and rested my head in my hand. I laid my phone on the table in front of me and stared at it, hoping it would ring.

  “Can I get you some pie?”

  I looked up at a waitress holding a pot of coffee and leaning on the bar.

  “How about a cup of that coffee to go with it?” I said.

/>   She smiled and poured me a cup.

  “Waitin’ on somebody?” she asked.

  “Something like that,” I replied.

  She came back with a slice of pie. I pulled a few dollars from the envelope of cash, and as I did so, she held up her hand.

  “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. It’s on the house,” she said.

  I dug into the pie as though I hadn’t eaten in days. I was truly exhausted. Then my phone started ringing. My heart skipped when I saw the caller ID showed the name Jimmy. I picked it up and answered.

  “Hey there, girlie,” said the familiar voice of Mr. Novak. “You got something of mine, and I’m going to get it back.”

  A look of horror was plastered on my face; I thought the waitress noticed.

  “Tell you what: You bring me back my money and I’ll let you go. Besides, that money belongs to the cops whose car you stole. I’m sure they’ll want it back more than me.”

  I clicked off the phone. I didn’t want to hear anymore. Thankfully the phone didn’t start ringing again. I needed to run.

  Then I heard rumbling, distant at first but getting closer. Then the sounds made the café shake, and I saw a group I hadn’t seen in years drive by the front of the diner and come to a halt.

  I heard heavy footsteps clomp along the ground. Then the door to the diner tore open to reveal Rex, the mountain of a man I had once dated.

  “What the hell took you so long?” he said.

  3.

  “Hi, Rex,” I said with an embarrassed smile.

  He walked in and nodded at the waitress, barely acknowledging my existence. He took a seat at the diner bar, next to where I was sitting, and waited for the waitress to pour him a drink.

  He had some new tattoos I didn’t recognize. His arms were completely covered almost to the knuckle, and his chest was covered more or less. He wore a simple black leather vest with his crew slogan on the back: Ride or Die. Words I knew he lived by.

  He looked bigger than I remembered; perhaps he had more muscle on his hulking body. He was still a sight to behold, standing over six and a half feet without boots on. I looked tiny in comparison.

  I wasn’t the smallest person in the world, and in fact I was pretty tall for a girl at almost six feet. I’d never had a problem defending myself, or keeping guys away. And few men were able to make me feel so small. I was also a bit gangly for some, but I still had some nice curves that drove men wild. Still, there was only one man I liked driving wild, and he was sitting right next to me.