No more words were spoken.
We climbed up to the platform past the motorcycles in front of the entrance and entered the building.
It appeared to be some type of reception area, but it had been modeled over and was now a recreation area. Several round tables were littered about the foyer with bikers sitting on them, drinking bottles of beer.
Now Aiden looked back.
I could see the confusion sweeping over him.
“Upstairs,” one of the guards instructed him.
We moved past the drinkers and found a wooden staircase up the back which led to a second floor.
At the top of the stairs it opened out to a narrow corridor with closed doors on each side. It was dark apart from light coming from an open doorway on the far left side of the corridor.
As Aiden and I had taken a few steps towards it, we realized that the men weren’t following us. We both looked back together.
“Go on,” the man on the stairs said. “Both of you now.”
We turned back towards the light.
“What’s going on?” I asked Aiden in a hushed voice. “Are we in the fort place we broke into before?”
Aiden nodded. “Yeah. This is a bit bizarre.”
“Is this where everyone is being held hostage?”
“I don’t know,” Aiden said quickly. “Let’s just see who is in this room.”
“Okay.”
We walked forth to the open doorway and stopped there.
Sitting with his feet up on the desk, was a bulky man with a shaved head, smoking a cigar.
I’d never seen him before. Judging by Aiden’s expression, I wasn’t sure he had either.
“Come in,” the man instructed. “Shut the door.”
We did as he requested.
Once inside the room, he stood as we moved to take our chairs.
“Welcome to the Brown Bear Bikers Club,” he declared. “My name is Bruno Rodriguez, and I am the club president. You two are our newest members…”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Newest members…” Aiden muttered. “What is this a joke?”
“Sit down,” the biker president said glaring at us. “Please.”
I looked to Aiden, but he avoided me.
Once seated he put his elbows on the desk and leaned across. “Would you care to explain what’s going on?”
“Would you care to sit back in your chair as I asked you?” the president fired back.
“Whatever,” Aiden said. He adjusted his position accordingly.
“Thank you.” The president took a final drag on his cigar and then butted it into the ashtray. “Newest members,” he said repeating the phrase. “For all intents and purposes, that’s what you are.”
“Do you even know our names?” Aiden demanded.
“One of my men told me earlier, but I forget now. Please introduce yourselves.”
“Excuse me,” I piped up. “If you don’t even know who we are, why did you come after us?”
“I said I don’t know your names,” the president replied. “But I know who you are.” He raised his finger to Aiden. “You’re one of the General’s pets. She was going to use you against my outfit until you went renegade.”
“What are you doing here?” Aiden asked. “In Fort Pacific?”
“This belongs to us now. Along with several of the other facilities. She still has the mother base. Unfortunately I don’t know where that is. Maybe … you can tell me?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you,” Aiden said. “But you gotta cut this newest member shit. I don’t want in your club.”
The president smiled at him. But said nothing.
Aiden’s eyes became darker by the passing second.
“Did you fucking hear me?” Aiden barked.
“All of us here, we’re like you,” the president said. “Some of us are ex-experiments and runaways just as you are. Some came to our abilities in non-artificial ways. Such as me. As it stands now, we have use for you in our organization. If you were to refuse and we were to turn you loose it wouldn’t be long before our enemies picked you up and used you against us. So the only way you’re getting out of here alive, is if you become a member. And you promise to take on the responsibilities that come with that.”
Aiden stood from his chair. “What a load of horseshit. Seriously. Thanks for your time.”
He grabbed my wrist and led me out of my chair and to the end of the room.
I wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing at all.
“You’ll never get out of here alive,” the president declared. “But even if you do – what then? What masterful plan do you have to get your family back?”
“So you do know who we are,” Aiden said, turning.
“That’s what I said, didn’t I? Now think very carefully before you make your next move. Because not only does your survival depend on your inclusion to our club, but your family’s survival depends on it as well.”
“Aiden,” I said. “I think you should listen to him.”
“Do you?” Aiden replied smugly. He turned and glared at the president. “No. I don’t think so. I think that piece of shit can go fuck himself.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Aiden.
Aiden, Aiden, Aiden.
Was it possible he had something up his sleeve? Did he have a plan to go with his direct insulting refusal to side with the people who were holding us captive?
I didn’t get my hopes up.
As we walked down the corridor together towards the stationed guard on the stairs, I knew it was only a matter of time before we were apprehended. And what if by then, it was too late? What if they decided to just finish us both off since we had rejected their generous proposal?
“Aiden,” I said.
My feet would carry me no further.
“Aiden.”
He finally turned around to face me.
“What?” he hissed back.
I shook my head.
He walked back over. “What?”
“You’re gonna get us killed.”
Aiden’s eyes drifted over my shoulder. I turned back to see the president standing outside his office.
“No, I won’t be someone’s bitch,” Aiden scolded. “I won’t –”
“Think about Lara,” I said. “Think about your Mom.”
Aiden was silent a moment. “What about them?”
“We need their help. You know you can’t do it by yourself.”
“We need … these bikers’ help.”
I nodded. “You know it’s the right thing.”
He put his hands together. His cheeks were going red. “And when it’s all over, I’m going to have to run from them. All over again. And they’ll come after you. And Mom and Lara. These people will stop at nothing until I’m bound to them again.”
“Maybe … This is where you belong. Maybe this is the life you were supposed to lead.”
Aiden looked behind him. In the direction of the stairs.
“What’s it going to be?” the president asked approaching.
Aiden looked back to me. The rage and tears in his eyes could only mean one thing.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Alright,” Aiden seethed. “Fine. Whatever you want.”
He wasn’t talking to the president so much as he was talking to me.
The president moved to the side of us. He stared us both up and down.
Aiden shifted his body towards him. “What are you doing?”
“You two are a couple, are you not?” the president asked.
“What?” Aiden spluttered. “No way.”
“No?” he looked to me.
“We’re…” I trailed off.
“She’s my sister,” Aiden said. “No more to it than that.”
“Really?” the president murmured. “Well, do forgive my mistake.”
“You’re forgiven,” Aiden said, rolling his eyes.
“Why don’t we go back downstairs?” the president suggested. “You d
eserve a proper introduction.” Then he looked at me. “Both of you do.”
I blinked a couple of times. I tried to recall whether he said I had to join the club as well, but it was hazy.
Surely, they would just let me out of here.
We continued down the corridor together with the president in between us. Aiden looked over his shoulder a couple of times to make sure I was keeping up, but the president didn’t look back once.
Once we’d reached the floor the president clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, listen up,” he said. “We’ve got a new member here…” He walked up to Aiden and tapped him on the shoulder. “What was your name again?”
“Aiden,” Aiden replied after a moment. “Aiden Phillips.”
“Aiden Phillips,” the president repeated. “He’s the newest outcast of the General’s lot, and claims to know where her new mother base is. Which I’m sure he’ll tell us soon. In the mean time – why don’t you all shake hands and have a little chat amongst you.”
The men got off their stools and moved around to shake Aiden’s hand and introduce themselves.
Aiden seemed a bit out of sorts, but otherwise made no move against them.
The president turned to me while this was going on.
“You don’t belong here,” he said.
“Thank God,” I replied. Then quickly added, “But of course I want to help.”
He nodded. “Follow me.”
He moved around the side of the room and back towards the entrance. He pushed open the door and we stepped outside together. I glanced over my shoulder as the door swung shut.
There was an actual smile on Aiden’s face.
A real one.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The night was so cold I could see my breath as I walked into it. The president, Bruno Rodriguez, was just a little ahead of me, walking across the asphalt car park, his sense of direction assured. I didn’t know what was happening. I suddenly wished I’d never been separated from Aiden. Even if this did mean I’d be released.
That fleeting idea however, was soon quashed. Bruno veered off to the side away from the Fort’s entrance, and towards the area Aiden and I had broken in before. He stopped in front of one of the buildings facing towards the wall, and quietly unlocked the padlock attached to it.
Then he opened the door and stood back for me to enter with him.
The door closed behind us.
When he flicked the light switch, I immediately got a bad feeling. The room was bare, but a wreck. In the back of it there was a kitchen area with used paper cups sitting about the counter. The same cups were lying about the room in random locations, as well as other random objects.
Adjacent to the kitchen area there was a double bed pressed up against the wall.
Just the mattress.
No pillows or sheets.
I looked back to the president.
“Make yourself at home,” he said.
I gave a hearty chuckle and started backing away from him.
He undid his leather jacket and pulled it off. He tossed it to the floor.
“This is sick,” I murmured. “You can’t do this.”
“Do what?”
He kept walking forward.
I kept walking back.
Soon we would be at the bed.
“Can you just give me a moment to talk this through with you?” I rambled. “I mean, surely you must be open to that.”
He kept his eyes on me but said nothing.
“This is ridiculous,” I went on. “You won’t like it at all. I’m not going to go through with it anyway, so you’re just wasting your time.”
The edge of the bed pressed into the back of my knees.
Bruno continued forward.
I was forced to sit on the bed.
He grabbed a hold of my neck and pushed it backward. “You shouldn’t have let on you were his sister,” Bruno said. “If I thought you were his then I wouldn’t have to do this.”
“Wait,” I stammered. “I am his. That was a lie.”
“Yeah right.”
“I’m – I’m serious –”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Knock, knock, knock.
Bruno looked back to the door. His hand fell from my cheek.
“Who’s there?” Bruno called.
The door opened.
Standing in the middle of it was Aiden, alone.
Bruno quickly advanced towards him. I got up from the bed.
“What are you doing?” Aiden asked in a polite voice.
“I’m getting to know your sister for a bit,” Bruno said. “She belongs to the club now.”
“I never said she belonged to you,” Aiden said.
“What do you care?” Bruno asked. “She’s only your sister, isn’t she?”
Aiden blinked. “No. She is more than that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’re together,” I said behind them. “I was trying to tell you.”
Aiden walked past Bruno and stood beside me.
“I don’t believe you,” Bruno said. “Are you not really brother and sister then?”
“No,” Aiden and I both said at the same time.
“Prove it,” Bruno demanded.
“How?” Aiden replied.
Bruno scratched his head. “Kiss her.”
Aiden spun me around to face him. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.
“Satisfied?”
Bruno scowled. “I didn’t mean there.”
Aiden looked back to me. He was almost laughing in his eyes. “Fine.”
Aiden bent down and put his lips to mine.
For some reason they were cold. Awkward. Strange.
Instead of being forced to be with the ugly biker president, now I was forced to be with my brother.
His lips soon parted. I could see the displeasure in his face.
He felt that it wasn’t right too.
We both looked back to Bruno again.
He crossed his arms.
“I didn’t mean there either.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Aiden’s eyes weren’t laughing anymore. I could see them reddening. His whole body was becoming consumed with anger. His bear was about to break free…
“I’m still waiting,” Bruno said smugly.
And then I realized it. What made the whole thing awful.
It came down to choice. The only way it would work is if we chose to do it.
That was the only way we could win.
I reached out and grabbed Aiden’s fingers with mine.
He turned swiftly, in surprise.
I didn’t let our gazes linger. I lured him out to the back of the room. With the mattress and the bed.
Bruno quietly followed.
I lay down on the bed and pulled Aiden on top of me. His face was muddled with confusion and apprehension, but I knew I could drain it out of him. I put both hands to his face and pulled him forward into me. And we kissed again.
As if Bruno wasn’t even there.
His hands closed in underneath my dress and he clutched the sides of my abdomen tightly. Our mouths interlocked and tongues dispersed and connected with one another. He rocked me to the side massaging my breasts and clinging to my back. I let my fingers explore his dense figure as before, becoming more and more familiar with it.
Slam.
Aiden and I looked up from the bed.
Our onlooker had stormed off, obviously annoyed with the display of affection between us.
I put one foot over the bed and stood up, brushing my hair out of my eyes. There was no sound apart from the president’s fading footsteps. We really were alone now.
“Looks like we fooled him,” I muttered.
When looked over my shoulder Aiden was standing there, completely naked.
He lent in towards me and put his lips to my ear. “We sure did.”
Aiden unzipped my dress and fell to the floor below us.
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“What if he comes back?” I asked. “Do you really want him to see this?”
“I think we were ready to for him to see it anyway.”
I turned towards him and let him kiss me all over again.
In it, with him, I was so lost. It was as though there were two sides to him. A side that mocked me, hated me, was annoyed by me – and then another side. One of passion and radiance. One that accepted and longed for me more than anything else.
Aiden slowly lowered me to the floor and fucked me from behind.
The door in front of my eyes never opened.
But like Aiden said…
Neither of us would have cared if it did.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Well, it happened again. Me and my brother. It would probably help if I stopped calling him that. Just stop thinking of him in that way. Because whether we both survived this night or not, I don’t think I could ever really go back to him just being that.
And yet, I didn’t know him. I watched him from the floor as he got dressed, and I realized I had no idea what he was going to do next. Or understood what he cared about.
Or if he felt anything for me.
“You’re not going to tell me it was a mistake again,” I said coyly as I slipped back into the dress. “Because that’s a lot of mistakes we’ve made then.”
He stared at me. Unflinching. “You know I can’t control myself around you. But doesn’t mean it’s for the best.”
We were both on our feet now. Putting on our shoes.
He finished before me and walked towards the door.
“Aiden,” I said. “Stop.”
He turned. “What?”
“How are we going to get out of here?”
“Do you want to leave? We could probably use their help.”
“I was thinking though…” I said. “If we show up with this army behind us, they’re just going to kill them. And we can’t let that happen.”
“Well, it’s better than just turning ourselves over and having them be killed anyway.”
He put his hand to the door handle.
“Wait,” I said walking towards him. “I have an idea.”
Stepbrother Bear: The Complete Set Page 9