OWNED: A Dark Bad Boy Baby Romance (Blood Warriors MC)

by Naomi West

  “Well, whoever's doing this shit, we got your back,” Blade said, voicing the opinion of the whole club. “We gotta make sure these asshole don't take anything we do as a sign of weakness. Tanner, you gotta go out there and grab your brother, bring him back. Keep it small, so you don't spook him. But, if I see you tomorrow and he ain't back at your mom's, I'm gonna be fucking pissed.”

  Tanner nodded. “Got it. Need to make sure they don't spot us right off the bat, though. I better take one of the newer guys. Tyke or you, they're gonna know you're with me, if they're as involved as they claim.”

  “He's got a point,” Blade said to Tyke when a hurt look crossed his face. “Take one of the recruits that ain't patched yet.”

  “Which one?”

  “I dunno, just pick one.”

  “Cam,” Tanner said, turning to one of the freshest. “You ready to step up, man?”

  Cam, one of their newest recruits, a tall, lean guy with a crazy mop of curly brown hair, looked around from side to side. “Me?” he asked.

  “Yeah, you dude,” Tyke said with a laugh as one of the guys beside Cam smacked him in the shoulder.

  “Shit, Tanner. I'd be fucking honored.”

  “Good,” Blade said. “We drive out there, after this. We find our prodigal. We bring him home.” Blade turned his attention to the rest of the club. “Anyone got anything else?”

  Heads shook. There may have been other business to be raised, but the whole club recognized that this was priority one for Tanner and Blade.

  “We'll have a cold one waiting for you,” Tyke said as the whole crew broke and exited the meeting room.

  Tanner went to leave with them, but Blade touched his shoulder and told him to stay behind for a minute.

  “What's up?” Tanner asked him as the room finished thinning out.

  “Didn't wanna say this in front of the others, cause I didn't wanna put you on the spot. But, we've all seen you hanging around a lot with Star -”

  “Said earlier, she ain't my ol' lady,” Tanner interrupted.

  Blade held up a hand, calling for peace. “Ain't what I was gonna say. My point is, if we've seen you hanging out with her, the Roaming Wolves may have, too. Ol' lady or not, that might not matter to 'em.”

  Tanner gritted his teeth. “Think they'd do something like that?”

  “Normally? No. But, man, they got your brother hooked on smack. Think they wouldn't come after Star, too?”

  Tanner looked away for a moment and thought about his words. “Nah,” he said, turning back to Blade, “you're probably right. I'll ride out and take care of her, get her situated. Then, meet you guys here.”

  “We'll take my truck,” Blade nodded. “Got plenty of seating.”

  Tanner nodded. “Sounds good. Meet you here in an hour or so.”

  Blade clapped him on the shoulder and shook it. “Cam and I'll be waiting.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Star

  Star had just stepped out of the shower when she first heard the knocking at her front door.

  “Star?” the visitor called. She took a moment to recognize his muffled voice through both the bathroom and front door. “Star? Come on, open up!”

  She hadn't expected him to be back so soon, especially not after the urgent phone call with Blade, all the stuff happening with Brendon, and, of course, the argument they'd just had. He'd picked a hell of a time to come over, too. Not that she was upset, but a little bit of forewarning would have been nice.

  She poked her head out the bathroom door and yelled for him to hold on. She grabbed her towel and wrapped herself up, then wove one around her hair and headed for the door.

  “Coming,” she called as she unlocked the door and opened it to him.

  He was through in a flash, pushing past her. “You need to pack up some clothes, we gotta go.”

  “Well, hello to you, too,” Star said, sarcasm dripping from her words as she shut the door after him.

  “I'm not fucking around,” he said, his eyes and the tone of his voice deadly serious. “You need to pack up some stuff and come with me.”

  “Come where with you?”

  “My mom's house, so I can keep you safe.”

  She held a hand out in front of her, beckoning him to slow down. “Safe from what? Or who?”

  “The Roaming Wolves, babe. I'm worried they might come after you if you stick around here.”

  She crossed her arms across her half-naked body. “And you think your mom's place will be somehow safer? You think they came after Brendon, but your mom is in the free and clear?”

  “Look,” he said, “it's easier to watch you both at the same time, okay? It's just going to be for a couple days.”

  “Look, mister, you're buying yourself a baby, not me. You can't just order me around like this.”

  The look on his face changed a little. He still looked like a hard ass, but something almost imperceptible softened just a bit. He crossed over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

  God, those arms of his still felt amazing, even after their argument that morning. And the way he looked down at her, the way she felt safe with his hands on her. She didn't pull back, she just let herself be pulled to his warm body.

  “Star, babe, I'm sorry. But, I just need you to be safe. Blade and I, we're going back to get Brendon, and I don't want to have to worry about you. But I will worry if you’re here.”

  She sighed and looked away from those hypnotic eyes of his. Even though he'd only worked on her for a minute with them, she'd still felt her knees go weak.

  “Fine,” she said with a groan. “Let me put some stuff together, okay? Like clothes?”

  He gave her a reassuring squeeze, saying, “We'll get this worked out, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  # # #

  “Mom? You here?” Tanner asked as he pushed open the front door and led Star inside the small house.

  “Tanner? That you?” his mom called from the kitchen. The sound of a chair pushing back across linoleum sounded at the back of the house and a somewhat frail-looking old woman came into the living room. “Who the fuck's this?” she asked, not sparing Star's feelings.

  “Star Bentley. The, uh, woman I told you about yesterday. The one Blade told you about?”

  So, his mother knew about them. But, Star couldn't tell how much she knew. She didn't exactly want to tell his mother how they'd originally met. And, she imagined Tanner hadn't told her either. No one wants to tell their mom that they're paying to impregnate some woman.

  Her eyes widened an almost imperceptible amount as she appraised Star and simply said, “Oh. Heard some about you, Star. Not much, though. My boy's not the talkative type, is he?”

  Star could feel the judgment already, in the way his mom looked her up and down, in her tone of voice. She was silently weighing whether or not Star could handle their world, could handle being with a man like her son.

  “This is my mom.”

  “Call me Tova.”

  Star raised a weak hand in a wave. “Hi, Tova.”

  “Mom, I gotta leave Star here with you, okay?”

  “What? Why? What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

  He put his hands out in an almost placating gesture. “Look, Mom, we're going out to get Brendon back. Things have sort of escalated, and the less you know the better. Meantime, Star needs to stay here with you. Make sure you stay safe.”

  Tova Rainier snorted, clearly an old hand at this kind of thing. “I remember hearing shit like that from Pops all the time. Should've known I'd be hearing it from my own son one day.”

  He gave a lopsided, half-hearted grin. “Well, you were right, I guess.” Tova harrumphed and turned to go back into the kitchen. The chair scraped again in the other room as Tanner turned to Star and grabbed her hand. “Alright, babe, I gotta go. Once this is all sorted, I'll come get you, okay?”

  Star nodded. There wasn't much of an option to do anything else.

  He gazed into her
eyes. They had changed. Gone was the icy blueness. Instead, there was longing and a hint of fear. Fear that she might be injured, might be hurt by these other men. Fear that he might lose her.

  She squeezed his hand.

  He leaned down, kissed her softly. This wasn't a kiss like before, a kiss like when they were pawing at each other's clothes, desperate to get out of them. This was soft, sensual, caring.

  Her heart leaped, sped up as his mouth brushed hers so softly.

  He clenched her hand back, holding back his strength so he wouldn't hurt her. Their kiss broke and, still holding her hand, he touched her cheek. “I'll be back, okay?”

  She knew he would be. She nodded, smiling, wondering how things had changed from their original pact. This was supposed to be just about getting her knocked up. He wasn't meant to touch her like this, to hold her hand so tightly and warmly.

  “Okay,” she whispered back. “I'll be waiting.”

  What the . . .? Did those words just come out of her mouth?

  He smiled and left, shutting the door behind him.

  Her knees were almost knocking together from weakness. Star turned, and looked at the old house she was going to be staying in for the next couple days. Tanner's childhood home. She leaned back against the front door and touched her cheek.

  This affection, this caring . . . none of this was supposed to be part of the deal.

  Out front, he started his bike up and rode away.

  # # #

  Tanner

  “This the place?” Blade asked as Tanner signaled him to pull the pickup over.

  “Yeah,” he said. He paused a moment, waiting for Blade to park the pickup, before continuing. “He was in that back alley over there.”

  Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the streets were deserted. Which was a problem. If they were going to try and find Brendon, they needed people they could actually ask.

  “Lemme go inside this hardware store and ask if they've seen him around,” Blade said. “Maybe someone will recognize him.”

  “Sounds good,” Tanner said, as Blade got out and ran through the rain to the front door of the hardware store, arms up protectively over his head.

  “Don't worry,” Cam said encouragingly from the backseat, “we'll find him.” He was dressed up in what he thought a college kid would wear. Jeans, the local school's t-shirt, and normal sneakers. His hair wasn't tied back, but instead was a unruly mob of long, brown curls.

  Tanner bit the cuticle of his thumb and grunted. “This rain's just not going to help, that's all. Goddamn weather.”

  He'd promised his mom they'd find Brendon and bring home, but the odds looked like they were against that. He felt dead inside, to have come this far, just to not be able to find him because of some fucking downpour.

  They sat in silence in the cab of the truck, waiting. Soon, Blade came tumbling out of the hardware store and ran stomping through the puddles of water back to his truck. He was dripping with rain and the smell of wet biker filled the air when he climbed back in the cab.

  “Anything?” Tanner asked.

  He shook his head. “When the weather's like this, clerk said all the junkies disappear from the block. Said it seems like they got some other place they go.”

  “Like a flophouse, maybe?” Cam piped up from in back.

  “Yup,” Blade said. “Maybe some place they can all shoot up?”

  Tanner chewed away, nodding. “Okay. So, what next? Go up to the campus?”

  Blade shook his head. “Didn't you say you and your ol' lady – sorry, Star – swung by some house out here? Got some kind of information from there?”

  Tanner nodded, realizing where he might have been going with this. “You think they might know?”

  Blade shrugged. “Maybe. You got any better ideas?”

  Tanner and Cam both shook their heads. “Wish I did,” Tanner replied.

  “Well, let's go then,” Blade said, starting the pickup. “Weather ain't getting any better just sitting parked here.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tanner

  They pulled up in front of Quentin's place ten minutes later. There was another car sitting out front, an old Ford Focus. But, other than that, the street looked empty.

  “How you wanna play this?” Blade asked.

  “I'll handle it,” Tanner said.

  “You sure? Cam could go as backup.”

  Tanner shook his head. He needed to do something, needed to work off his frustration. Between just sitting around, the rain, and the swirl of emotions he felt about Star, he needed to get up and move. In the truck, with his ass parked in the passenger seat, he was just chewing his fingers down to worried nubs.

  “Nah,” Tanner said, “you guys stay here as backup, in case he tries to run or some shit.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Blade agreed. “Dealers are shifty.”

  “Don't worry. I got an offer he'd be stupid to refuse.”

  Tanner climbed out of the pickup truck and ran up the walkway to the front door. He resisted the urge to pound out his frustration on the front door, and instead did the same as Star had done the first time.

  After a little while, he heard movement on the other side of the door. “Yeah?” called a voice.

  “Quentin, right?” Tanner called back. “Me and Star Bentley, we came by the other day looking for a guy? I was the one on the bike.”

  “I recall,” the voice said. “Don't hear her with you this time, though. Whatchu need now?”

  “Need some help finding one of your rivals.”

  “I'm listening.”

  “Open the door up, man. I'm getting drenched out here, and I bet you don't want the neighbors seeing me on your front porch for too long.”

  “Fine, fine, man. Hold on.” Quentin unlocked the deadbolts and pulled the door open. He was wearing just a pair of loose cotton pajamas, with no shirt to cover his scrawny body. “Come on in, man.”

  The filthy smell hit Tanner like a city bus, almost sending him staggering as he stepped into the crackhouse. He still couldn't believe that Star knew this guy, or was aware that this place even existed. The whole thing just didn't jive with his view of her as little Miss Prim and Proper.

  There was an old, filthy couch that reminded him of one he and Brendon had found out in the countryside when they were just kids, playing in the woods. Only difference was that this one had a half-naked, strung out looking girl that couldn't be more than seventeen passed out on the soiled cushions.

  “Ignore my junkie,” Quentin said as he shut the front door behind Tanner, “and step into my office.”

  The drug dealer led him over to the small kitchen table that was set off in the corner, and each took one of the folding chairs arrayed there.

  “I'm looking for some people,” Tanner said as he sat down.

  “Yeah, your girl Star, she asked me about a guy. You ain't found him yet?”

  Tanner shook his head. “Found him the first time, but he's not around anymore cause of the weather. Guy at the hardware store told my buddy that there's an apartment over there where they go to shoot up. You know the place?”

  “Might.” Quentin crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair. “Why would I tell a guy like you something like that, though? Those guys up in that place, they're all bikers and shit. Don't you motorcycle guys stick together? Why don't you find out from them?”

  “Bikers, huh? What club?”

  “Club? This some girl scout bullshit?”

  “Their vest?” Tanner asked, tugging at his own to illustrate. “What was the picture on the back of their vest?”

  “I dunno, some kinda dog. What were those things in Lion King? Laughed all the time and shit. You know, Whoopie played one?”

  “A Hyena?”

  “Nah, not that.”

  “A Wolf?” Tanner asked, the urgency and excitement clear in his voice. “The Roaming Wolves?”

  “Yeah, yeah, that,” he said, waving his words off. “Gotta fucking jac
kal on their vest.”

  “Wolves weren't in the fucking Lion King.”

  “Whatever, man. That's what they call themselves.”

  “Well, why don't you give me the address? And me and my buddies will go over and pay them a visit? Can't imagine you like the added competition.”

  “How do I know you ain't gonna try and fuck me over on this?”