Stepbrother Outlaw: The Novel (Dark Steamy Stepbrother Romance)

by Craft, Lana

  “Trent,” Eden spoke up, tired of holding back. “I need you to explain what's going on here. I need you to explain why you told everyone back at the hospital that you were my fiancé. I need you to explain why you brought me to a shitty house in the middle of nowhere…and most of all...” She paused and took a deep breath before she continued speaking. “I need you to explain why I find you so familiar when I’ve never met you in my life.”

  Trent sat down at the kitchen table and cracked open the bottle closest to him, taking a long drink and tensing his jaw at the burn. “I’ll tell you everything I know,” he finally said, rubbing his jaw and flicking his gaze up to meet hers. “As long as you’re willing to help me fill in the blanks.”

  Chapter twelve

  “So you found me in the bathtub at your clubhouse,” Eden managed, pausing to consider his words. The next detail was the most embarrassing. Just when she thought she had it all figured out, the blind spots in her memory failed her again. “Naked...and you called 911?” Trent nodded and swallowed back the last of the bitter liquid from the smudged bottle in his hands. “Why?” Eden questioned, shaking her head. He had told her everything he knew, but all she felt now was even more confused than she had been to begin with.

  Trent cracked his knuckles and looked down at his watch. Miles should have been here by now. He thought about calling him to see what the hold up was, but the perplexed look Eden was giving him kept him planted firmly in his seat. “Is that what you think?” he replied, finding his voice. “That I'd find a woman foaming from the mouth and not do everything in my power to make sure she was okay? Look…I know I might look a little scary compared to what a girl like you is probably used to, but I'm no monster.

  “A girl like me?” Eden challenged. “If I’m really so different than you, why’d you come back for me at the hospital?”

  “Oh come on.” Trent went quiet and shook his head. This was the part he was worried about. The part he didn't know how to put into words. He knew why he had saved her life. It was the decent thing to do, the human thing to do. But why had he come back for her? She wasn’t like him. She just another spoiled rich girl with a silver spoon in her mouth…

  Wasn’t she?

  “Tell me this,” Trent said instead, changing the subject, his words slow and precise. “What were you doing at our clubhouse to begin with? It hardly seems like your neck of the woods.”

  Eden laughed. That was the understatement of the century. The shitty clubhouse, or whatever it was, was certainly nowhere she would go unless she was desperate, but when a fix calls it calls and what small amount of coke she had stashed in her medicine cabinet had proved incapable of curving her appetite on its own. It was supposed to be a simple pick up. No small talk, no pleasantries, and certainly nothing that would leave her naked and incapacitated.

  Feeling lightheaded all over again, Eden stumbled towards the overstuffed sofa across the room and collapsed on it, folding her legs up under herself. Trent cracked open another bottle and took a long drink from it, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “Well?” he urged, bringing Eden back down to reality.

  She shrugged. “I was just enjoying the party like everyone else,” she lied, licking her lips. “I guess things got a little out of control.”

  “Try a lot,” Trent countered. “Look, I get that child stars are known for being pretty wild, but do you always strip naked and fall asleep in random bathtubs?”

  “What about you?”

  “What?”

  “Do you always dodge questions?” Eden continued. “Because last I checked, you never told me why you came back for me at the hospital. You didn’t have to. You don’t even know me. So why did—”

  “Because,” Trent interrupted, exhaling a deep breath. He entered a small bedroom and Eden followed him without thinking. “You remind me of someone I once knew.”

  “Seriously? That’s your answer?” Eden covered her eyes when Trent pulled off his shirt to reveal a perfectly chiseled chest. He snickered at her reaction and reached inside a dusty dresser, pulling out a plain t-shirt and easing it over his head.

  “Yeah,” he said with a nod, turning to face Eden and allowing his eyes to linger on her breasts for just a second too long. “This girl I knew when I was your age. You look a lot like her.”

  “Oh I get it,” Eden said, leaning forward against the doorframe. “The one who got away?”

  Trent shook his head. Then, changing his mind, he nodded. Eden followed him back into the living room and took a seat beside him on the couch. “Something like that,” he muttered, stretching his legs and resting them on a wooden coffee table in front of me. “Want a drink?” he offered, reaching for one of the bottles he opened earlier.

  Eden started to respond, but remembering that she had overdosed not even twenty-four hours prior, Trent quickly retracted the offer and brought the edge of the bottle to his mouth instead, taking a long drink and clenching his jaw at the burn. There was something about it that never failed to make him feel more alive.

  “Probably not a good idea,” he said instead.

  Eden rolled her eyes. “You're hardly one to talk,” she shot back, mocking him as he took another long drink. He turned to face her and grabbed her hand, catching her off guard. “What are you doing?” she breathed, flicking her gaze up to meet his.

  “Making you shut up,” Trent said, his liquor tinged breath grazing her neck as he pulled her body flush against his. She tensed beneath his grip and he stroked her hair away from her face in an attempt at getting her to loosen up. “You're a smart ass,” he commented. “But I suppose you already know that.”

  Eden swallowed hard as Trent’s calloused hands made their way down her body. She palmed his chest in a weak attempt at getting him to stop, but the butterflies in the pit of her stomach told her that she didn’t really want him to. None of it made sense, but then again, nothing about the last day and a half of her life really did. Trent held her tightly by the waist, his eyes never leaving hers as he spoke, his words coming out slow and precise. “I came back for you because I couldn’t get you off my mind. I needed to make sure you were okay.”

  A cloud of uncertainty clouded Trent's gaze as he watched Eden digest his words. He wasn't entirely sure how she would react, but he had to get it off his chest.

  Eden swallowed hard, a soft breath escaping her mouth as Trent bent forward and closed the distance between them. His lips were every bit as soft as they looked, and as she parted her own to accept him, everything around them faded away, and all they were left with was each other.

  Chapter thirteen

  Midway into their make-out session, a loud bang sounded from the front of the house and three men paced through the front door. Eden jumped but before she could react, Trent’s body was ripped from hers and when he tried to put up a fight, he was knocked unconscious with a metal bar.

  Eden tried to scream but her throat was hoarse, making it impossible. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Trent’s unconscious body. She tried to reach out to him, but her body wouldn’t cooperate with her mind.

  Everything that happened next unfolded in slow motion.

  “Please,” Eden begged, stumbling backwards against the kitchen table as two of the men slowly closed in on her. “Don’t do this.” Unfortunately for her, they didn’t seem like the type to negotiate. One of them, the largest and meanest looking of the two, grabbed her roughly by the hair and tossed her to the ground beside Trent’s limp body.

  In a cloud of fear and hurt, Eden realized right away that she recognized the man lingering behind him. It was Miles, which meant that she had almost certainly been set up. There were gaps in her memory, entire blind spots really, but as she took in the other two men pacing before her, the truth of the situation began to settle over her all at once.

  How had she not noticed the similarities in their appearances before? It was so obvious now to her now, as she looked back and fourth between him and Trent, that they were related. They shared
all the same features. The only difference was that Miles was far more menacing.

  “Is this the bitch?” the largest man asked.

  Miles hesitated before nodding and Eden’s heart slowed to a dull thump against her ribcage. Everything Trent had said to her was bullshit. He didn’t care about her anymore than Miles did. It was obvious now that he was only a small part of a much larger puzzle.

  Eden whimpered as the largest of the men paced back and fourth in front of her, his muddy boots making heavy contact with the ground. “There's no one else here,” he finally spoke up, turning to the second man, who was obviously the one in charge.

  “No shit,” he said, clearing his throat and spitting on the ground. He reached inside his leather cut and pulled out a gun, turning his attention to Miles and waving it at him. “Where's the money?” he asked, his voice making it clear that he was done playing games.

  “Be cool man,” Miles spoke up, holding up his hands and stumbling over his words. “There’s no need for that. Look…I told Trent to bring her for a reason. I know for a fact that she has money. Plenty of it actually. Just…be cool.”

  “Cool?” The man laughed and shook his head. “I thought I made it clear that I make the rules here?” he continued, keeping the gun aimed steadily at Miles’s forehead. “I told you to tell him to come alone, with the money ready. Now unless you want both their blood on your hands, I suggest you go find it.”

  Eden shuddered as Miles’s anxious gaze grazed her own. He was hardly an upstanding guy, but she never would have pegged him as someone capable of this level of betrayal. Regardless, he appeared every bit as distraught as she was, a fact she contributed to the gun being aimed at his head.

  Keeping his arms in the air, Miles walked into the bedroom where Eden and Trent had been just a few moments prior with the other men lingering close behind him. “Well?” the man holding the gun bellowed, tapping his watch. “Time is up.”

  The sound of his fingers pulling back on the guns safety sent a shiver down Eden's spine. “Wait!” she cried out, but her voice sounded foreign and not at all like her own.

  The man swiveled around in the doorway, pointing the gun at her in the process. She shut her eyes, willing herself to continue speaking. “H-he’s right,” she stammered. “I have money. I can pay you.”

  The man went quiet for a few moments and scratched his jaw as he thought it over. “Alright,” he finally said, the inner workings of some kind of accent surfacing in his tone as he dropped his gun and waved her over. “Come here.”

  Eden pulled herself to her feet, silently willing her legs to stop shaking. She slowly made her way over to him, keeping her eyes glued to the floor to avoid making eye contact with him. Before anyone could react, Trent began to stir awake on the floor and let out a deep groan as he came to. Immediately on guard, the man waved the gun at him, nodding at Eden to remain still.

  “What the fuck?” Trent bellowed, recognition surfacing in his expression as he looked back and fourth between Miles and the other men. “Miles! What the fuck is going on here?”

  Just then, the second man stepped forward from where he was posted near the front door and grabbed Trent by the neck, pulling out a gun of his own and pressing it against his temple. “Look here,” he said in broken English. “If everyone follows a few simple orders, no one will get hurt.” He paused and lit a cigarette, flicking the ash onto Trent’s shirt. It smoldered through and burned his flesh but he clenched his jaw and didn’t react. “Do we have an understanding?”

  Eden, Miles, and Trent all nodded their heads.

  “Great,” the man said, flashing them a smile and exhaling a ring of smoke from between his chapped lips. “Now Trent, since your brother here is having so much trouble, why don’t you be a dear and go get us our money.”

  Chapter fourteen

  Miles was in deep shit and he knew it. A few months back, he had taken out a loan behind the clubs name, and now he owed the wrong people a lot of money. More money than he had ever seen in his life. Fronting costs, collateral costs, late fees. All of that adds up fast, even more so when you’re dealing with hardened criminals.

  For weeks, Miles had been attempting to narrowly avoid the situation, but it appeared as though his hens and finally come home to roost.

  These guys would stop at nothing to get what was owed to them, and Miles knew that if he didn't act quickly, he’d be putting more than just his own life on the line. As soon as he had told Trent to bring Eden with him, he regretted it. It was a stupid decision made in the heat of desperation, and now he had to find a way to rectify it before someone got hurt.

  More importantly…before she got hurt.

  Trent made his way into the basement where their father’s gun cabinet was located, slowly descending down the rickety steps with the men in close suit behind him. Miles was the only other person on the planet who knew of its existence, and in his haze, he rationalized that it had to have been why he had told them the money was down there. It was the only shot they had at defending themselves.

  Miles followed close behind them as an unmarked rage simmered its way through his veins. How could he have allowed the situation to get this out of control? He cursed himself for even making the deal to begin with. At the time, he told himself that it was for the club. He rationalized it by telling himself that they needed the cash for a clubhouse they could be proud of, and maybe even new bikes, but the fact of the matter was, he had blown every last dime of that loan on himself.

  It started with padding out his supply of narcotics and escalated to overpriced call girls and other materialistic luxuries. Simple pleasures that made him feel more alive. Then came the bigger things. The things that were harder but not entirely impossible to hide—like upgrades to his bike and cross country rides he'd take on a whim—never planning ahead in regards to the cost of food, hotel rooms, or gas.

  Miles was reckless and the money was gone long before the club ever knew of its existence. Not even Trent knew about it. For six long months, Miles had been living a lie while simultaneously hiding in plain sight. The men always knew exactly where to find him. The only thing that even remotely surprised him was that they hadn’t come sooner.

  Regardless, it wasn't supposed to happen like this. Miles had played out the scenario over a dozen times in his head. He planned to deal enough coke to be able to pay them back tenfold when they eventually came knocking, but as usual, life had a way of making other plans.

  “Tie her up,” one of the men said once they reached the bottom of the steps, nodding at Eden and tossing his second in command a thick piece of rope.

  Miles’ blood boiled as beads of sweat formed near his hairline, finding shelter in his brows. In the center of the dimly lit room, a light bulb flickered above his head.

  Eden whimpered and bit down on her bottom lip as the largest of the two men pushed her up against a metal utility shelf in the corner of the room, tying her wrists tightly behind her back and securing the other end of the rope to the shelf.

  What happened next wasn't something any of them saw coming.

  The man grabbed Eden roughly by the neck, causing her to choke and sputter as his buddy approached her from the front. “Money,” he said, nodding at Trent and releasing some of the pressure on her throat long enough for her to gasp for air. “Now, or we have some fun with the girl.”

  That was all the encouragement Trent seemed to need. He quickly went to work on opening up the storage cabinet, not missing a beat. “Look,” he began, swallowing hard. “I just…I need to reach into my pocket for the key to unlock this thing.”

  “Alright,” the man in charge said, gyrating his pelvis up against Eden’s tense body and groping her breasts as she whimpered beneath him. “But any funny business and the girl pays for it.”

  Trent nodded and clenched his jaw. Miles could tell by the look on his face that it took everything in him not to pummel the motherfucker right then and there. He didn’t understand what he and Eden had shared the ni
ght before, but it was obviously something, and regardless of the situation they were in, he couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous.

  “Please,” Eden begged. “Hurry up, Trent.”

  Trent met eyes with her and nodded as a pained expression worked its way across his face. He reached into his jeans and pulled out his keys, going to work on the cabinet’s rusted lock.

  “Here,” the second man spoke up from the stairwell, nodding at Miles, who was standing in the corner of the room in a silent rage. He caught the gun tossed to him with shaking hands, nearly dropping it as the man snickered, a final ring of smoke escaping his lips as he tossed his cigarette to the ground and stomped on it with the heel of his boot.

  “Point that at him,” the man directed, nodding at the gun and then at Trent. “Maybe it'll encourage him to work a little faster.”