by Naomi West
Tanner nodded, satisfied that his head was in the game, too.
“This is for our family,” Tanner said. “This is for the Rainier, not just the Blood Warriors. Fuck this guy.”
“Right. Fuck 'em.”
Tyke stepped up beside them. “If you ladies are done with your pep rally, we'd like to go inside.”
Tanner turned to him. “You just wanna see all those strippers,” he said, laughing despite the seriousness of the situation.
Tyke faked personal injury, touching his chest over his heart like Tanner had just brutally stabbed him with his words. “I can't believe you'd make that sound like a bad thing, Tanner. You know I've always been supportive of single mothers everywhere.”
“Haha,” Blade said as he came up. “Let's get this thing over and done with. Remember, we spot Aaron, we grab him, we drag him out. We persuade the bouncers and security not to intervene. Got it?”
They all agreed. “I got the bouncer,” Tyke said. “It's Thursday. I know a guy.”
“Good,” Tanner said, then turned to lead the way.
They pushed through the double doors, and the sound washed over them like a tsunami. Fast new rock, Linken Park Tanner thought, was playing at a crazed speed. They really did crank up the tempo on these, he realized, as they pushed through the second set of double doors and stepped into the dark, red-lit strip club.
A girl danced on stage under blue and red lights, her body swaying, thrusting, and grinding to the beat, but Tanner ignored her and swept his eyes across the sparsely crowded club. There, off to the left of the stage. He saw them, four vest-wearing Roaming Wolves with two girls at their table. Or, rather, the girls were on their laps moving to the music, as they sat at the table.
Behind him, Tyke was slipping money to the bouncer and telling him to ignore the show that was about to start. He slipped the security guy a c-note and patted him on the back. As soon as he was done, the five of them began to make their way through the tables to the back of the bar, their feet sticking to the club floor with each step. Brendon picked up his pace and came up beside Tanner, wanting to be the first into the fray alongside his brother when the time came to drag Aaron out of the seedy strip club.
Tanner peered ahead through the dim, smoky club, trying to get a better look at the Wolves seated at that back table. He couldn't exactly tell if Aaron was with them or not. But, at this distance, and in this lighting, none of the guys seated there matched his build.
Blue and red strobe lights flashed around them, and the DJ came over the speaker as the song ended. “Everybody give it up for Candy,” he said, really driving home that iconic DJ strip-club voice. “Give her a chance and she'll dance right into your hearts, guys. Up next we've got Moxy on the center stage, with her premiere dance. Everyone, let's welcome Moxy on her first day at Baby Doll's.”
Tanner didn't glance towards Moxy, or the center stage as an old AC/DC song started up. He had a mild pang of regret that he and his MC brothers were about to put on more of a show than she ever would in this shithole dive.
He stepped closer, finally close enough to get a good look at all the guys seated around the side table.
Brendon stepped up beside him, too. Tanner could feel him going over the guys with his eyes, also.
As the two girls who'd just been dancing and grinding on their laps got up and left, the four Roaming Wolves swiveled their heads to meet the eyes of the Blood Warriors. All of them looked perplexed to see their rivals advancing like they were.
Tanner looked over the faces of the quartet, his eyes flickering to each, realization slowly dawning on him. He shook his head. No, it couldn't be.
From beside him, Brendon touched his arm and got in close. “He's not here, man!” he yelled over the sound of the sped-up, “You Shook Me All Night Long.”
Tanner glanced from the four Wolves to his brother, then back again. He was right. Aaron wasn't here. He balled up his hands into fists of rage, clenching and unclenching till his knuckles popped under the strain. Motherfucker had tricked them like it was nothing! Again!
He whirled back to the others and shook his head, eyes lit like a bonfire. “He's not fucking here!” he screamed.
“What?” Blade yelled back over the music, his hand cupped to his ear.
He didn't need to start a fight here, not over nothing. And, if they stuck around, that's exactly what was going to happen. Tanner shook his head and pushed through the confused men, making a beeline back to the front door and out into the afternoon sun.
The light blinded him for a moment, stunning him. He shook off his confusion, walking over to their bikes, half-dazed with the change in light and his own rage building up inside him.
Brendon was so close on his heels that he caught the double doors before they could slam behind Tanner.
“He fucking tricked us!” Tanner yelled as he climbed onto his bike.
“Who?” Blade yelled as he came out.
Tanner started up his bike. “That motherfucker Aaron!”
“He must have given his bike to one of the guys to ride for the day,” Brendon sputtered through his anger and confusion. “I know that's his bike!”
“Doesn't matter if it is or not,” Tanner boomed over the grumbling of his bike's engine. “Cause he ain't fucking here!” He took off, throwing rocks and gravel everywhere, and high-tailed it out of the parking lot.
Aaron might not have been at Juicy Lucy’s, like they'd thought. But now he had a pretty good idea of where he was.
Chapter Forty-Three
Star
Tova and Star had been there for a little more than an hour, and Tova was already dragging Star's life story out of her.
“So, what happened next?” Tova asked as Star came to the end of her story about her disastrous prom experience with her high school sweetheart, Nick.
“Well, he was so drunk from the Mad Dog 20/20 that he and his buddy had snuck in that he couldn't figure out how the window worked,” she said, stifling a bit of laughter. “And, well, he puked Strawberry Kiwi all over the inside of the car, because he couldn't get the window down in time.”
Tova burst out laughing, clapping her hands as she rocked back and forth on the old aluminum folding chair they'd managed to dig up for her.
“That car stunk for weeks,” Star added, between fits of laughter. “I used everything I could think of, and I still never got it to smell right.”
At the time, having her boyfriend puke all over the inside of her car hadn't been a funny experience. But, putting more than a few years between you and something so depressing always seemed to lighten the tone, no matter what the situation was.
“What'd you do?”
“I drove around for a couple hours with him drunk in my passenger seat, until I finally got hold of my friend Patricia. Then, she helped me take him home.”
“So, did you take him inside?”
Star laughed and shook her head. “I was so pissed, we just pulled up in his front yard and left him there, face down so he didn't choke if he threw up again.”
Still chuckling, Tova wiped a tear from her eye. “I bet that relationship didn't last long.”
Star's laughter slowed. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “He was headed off to college, anyways. This was after my dad had started doing time, so I didn't exactly have a college fund anymore. Heard he got herpes while he was there, though. Kind of makes me feel better.”
Tova reached out and touched her hand again, patting it in a motherly fashion. “Well, hon, everything happens for a reason.”
Star covered Tova's hand with her own. “I know, Tova. I know.”
“Just look on the bright side. All those things happened, and they led up to you meeting my son.”
Star smiled as she looked at the older woman. “Yeah,” she said, “I know.”
Tova was patting her hand still when they heard the car pull up outside the warehouse. Gravel, rock, and dirt crunched under its tires.
“Blade, maybe?” Tova as
ked as she and Star both looked reflexively to the entrance. The older woman's eyes were wide with fear, with uncertainty.
Star shook her head, but said the opposite. “Sure, I guess.” She got up from the chair, a sense of overwhelming dread filling her.
If the car was Blade's, they would have heard the other guys with him. Bikes would have been pulling up outside to join him. But, there weren't any bikes, no rumbling or revving engines. Only silence and the sound of car door slamming shut behind the driver as he got out.
Tova reached out and touched her hand. “I don't like this,” she whispered, even though they were alone in the warehouse. For now.
“I don't either,” Star whispered back.
They both got up from their chairs, as if by a silent cue, and headed farther back into the warehouse, away from the door.
“I didn't tell you earlier,” Tova whispered, “but I came armed. Just in case.”
“Armed?” Star hissed. “Like a gun?” Star hated guns. Always had, always would. Honestly, they scared the living shit out of her, and she wouldn't have known the first thing to do with it. Point the barrel at the bad guy, she guessed, and pull the trigger..
Beside her, Tova nodded in the stark light of the overhead neon tubes. “Pops' revolver.”
The front entrance creaked open. Footsteps crunched on gravel outside, then the sound of boot heels thudding on the concrete floor as the door closed behind their unknown visitor.
Together, their hands gripping each other tightly, the two women ducked down behind a big set of shelves and headed back to the office Star had found earlier.
Boot heels sounded again as their visitor walked slowly through the building. Metal clanged on metal, scraped.
“Hello ladies,” a man's voice, a voice Star recognized immediately, boomed out to the nearly deserted warehouse. The growling, heavy voice was one she remembered from her more recent nightmares: Aaron's voice.
It was him. It was the man who'd kidnapped her and tied her to a tree in the middle of the woods. She tightened her grip on Tova's hand as fear shot through her body and her teeth began to chatter.
Tova gripped her hand back. “Listen,” she whispered harshly, “we'll get through this. Tanner and the boys'll be here soon. You hear me?”
Star tried nodding, but realized she couldn't move her head or neck enough to do make the gesture. She'd frozen in place, the fear creeping up out of her belly like an ice cold hand that wrapped itself around her heart and spine. It was fight, flight, or freeze. And freeze had won.
“Hope you two ain't betting on your men showing up anytime soon,” Aaron crowed, his voice haunting as his words echoed around inside the nearly empty building. “Cause I sent those boys of yours on one merry little chase.”
Oh no. They were here alone, with no hope of the men riding to the rescue. This wasn't some goddamn movie, this was real life. This was real fucking life, and it was about end in a miserable, shitty way.
“I can't do this,” Star chattered, her teeth clicking together uncontrollably as memories from that night flooded her mind. The way his hands had been like vices, how he'd dragged her roughly through the woods, how he'd forced her onto her knees and tied her hands to that tree. This was going to be just like that, but worse. So much worse. Aaron was done just taunting Tanner. He was done flicking his nose and teasing him. He was going to hurt her and Tova this time. Really hurt them both. And maybe more than that.
“You mean you've been through all that shit in your life,” Tova whispered back, a bit of come-to-Jesus in her voice, “and you can't get through this last little bit?”
More metal scraping, more footsteps. They were slowly coming closer.
Star flinched at the noise, her eyes still dead ahead, her teeth clacking together like noise-makers. Yeah, she'd come through some shit, seen some things. But none of that had prepared her for a crazy biker stalking them in an abandoned warehouse!
“I've got a plan,” Tova said, squeezing Star's hand as she leaned in closer and looked her in the eyes. She told the younger woman what part she needed her for. “Can you do that for me?”
Star peered back into those aged eyed, at the lines that crisscrossed her face. The smile lines at the corners of her eyes, the frown lines around her mouth. If she didn't do this, if she didn't help make this plan work, she might not have a chance to look in the mirror and see lines like those grow on her own face. She turned her head and looked away. She breathed deep and exhaled. She could do this, she could handle this.
Tova shook her hand and drew Star's attention back to her. “Hey,” she whispered harshly. “Can you do it?”
Star nodded, despite her overwhelming fear. “Yeah,” she said. “I can do it.” Seemed like things were “do or die,” at this point. Tova's plan wasn't great, but it was at least something. And something was always better than nothing.
Tova gave her a weak, wan smile that looked just as terrified as Star felt. She squeezed her hand one last time and let go.
Star nodded and stood up, walked out from the little abandoned office and darted into the forest of shelving units.
Aaron whistled a slow, but jaunty tune as he continued to search through the warehouse. He was clearly enjoying himself, taking his time. He must have been pretty confident about his prospects of being alone with them for a while longer. He must have sent Tanner and the guys on one wild goose chase all over the county.
She ducked around some shelves, staying low. Up ahead, not fifteen feet away, she could see his legs on the other side of some junk that had been piled up on the floor.
“Don't worry, Star,” he said, the mirth undeniable in his voice. “I won't leave you alone out in the woods this time. I'll stay with you all night long. Did you enjoy that, though? Your little trip communing with nature?”
Star took a deep breath, willed her spine to steel itself.
“Or was it a little too chilly for you?” he continued. “Guess I could have lit a fire for you. Or kept you warm some other way. Seeing as how much you got that biker-lust in you.”
“Or let me grab my coat,” Star finally said as she stood up and circled.
“Oh ho!” Aaron exclaimed when she appeared in front of him. He held a big, heavy crowbar in his hands. That must have been what he was banging against the shelves and scraping along the concrete. But this man in front of her, he didn't look the same as before.
His beard was gone, replaced by a clean-shaven face with heavy features. Not unattractive, but certainly not as straight-up sexy as Tanner, either. Just sort of, well, plain. He'd bleached his dark hair blonde and cut it short. He looked completely different.
All except the eyes, of course, and that damned Roaming Wolves vest of his. Those crazed, intense eyes were still the same. The eyes of a psychopath. The eyes of a frothing-at-the-mouth predator.
Every nerve in her body screamed at her to run, to flee. If they'd been on the Serengeti, he'd have been the lion, and she'd have been the gazelle. And she'd have been dead by now. Star swallowed down her fear, though, and only took a single step back. She had to control herself, had to keep herself from breaking.
He took another step as he whacked the metal tool against the palm of his hand. “Speak, and she shall appear,” he said as he walked slowly towards her.
Star struggled to keep her fear down. “Wh-what do you want?” she asked as she walked backwards with a measured pace, one hand extended behind her to make sure she didn't get entangled on anything or bump into any of the shelves that lined either side.
“Just to talk, little Miss Star,” Aaron said in a chiding tone. “Is that too much to ask?”
“You need a crowbar for that?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Nah, you're right,” he said, flashing her a wicked grin. “You caught me, I lied.” He put out the hand holding the crowbar and playfully slapped the back of it with the other hand. “Bad Aaron.”
“Tanner'll be here soon,” she said, glancing behind her and avoiding a box fu
ll of abandoned screws and washers. “You should go, now, and I'll forget this happened.”
“Oh? But, then I'd miss out on all the fun with you and Mommy. Wouldn't I? And you don't want me to miss out on my playtime, do you?”
“J-just go,” Star stammered, as he took two more steps forward, closing the gap a little more. “I promise, we won't tell him. We'll just let you go back to the Wolves and forget this ever happened.”
“Speaking of mommy Rainier,” he said with a wild grin, “where is the wheezy old bag, anyways?”
“Right here, motherfucker,” Tova said from somewhere on the other side of him. Her words were followed by an audible click as she drew back the hammer on Logan Rainier' revolver. “Now, stop right where you fucking are, or I'll put two bullets in your back without even fucking blinking.”