Stepbrother Bear - Complete (10 page)

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Aiden slowly unhanded me and raised
the phone to his ear. He stared at me for a brief moment and then turned away.

“Hello…?” he
muttered.

My fingers
scratched underneath my wrists.

“I can’t say
… Yes … Yes … Where are you…? Just tell me where you are and I’ll come to you…
Yes… I will… Uh-huh… No, I’ll talk to her… Right… Okay…”

He hung up.

“Well?” I
demanded.

He handed me
the phone. “They’re calling back.”

“What? Why?”

“They want to
talk to you.”

“Okay…” I
looked down at the phone. “When are they calling?”

Aiden
shrugged. “Soon.”

“What did
they say to you?”

“I know where
they are. They … just asked us to come in.”

“And why do
they want to talk to me?”

“Probably
want to make sure you’re coming too.”

“But…” I
shook my head. “What should I tell them?”

“Whatever you
like.” Aiden turned his back to me.

I stared down
at the phone. “Why didn’t they just talk to me when you were talking to them?”

“I don’t
know,” Aiden sighed. “They just said they’d call back.”

And he was
getting frustrated with me. I suppose I should be grateful he didn’t tell them
to go fuck themselves.

I turned and
looked down the other end of the road. Cars were still passing along. Their
headlights poured out in front of them.

So many other
people. Just walking along the footpath. Living their lives. Oblivious to the
tragedies of tonight.

I could hear
music coming from somewhere. I could hear laughter.

It was almost
as though I could be back there at the wedding. All I had to do was lie to
myself. Close my eyes. And a part of me would be there…

Buzz-buzz.
Buzz-buzz.

I flipped
open the phone and put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hello?” a
woman’s voice responded. “This is Bianca Phillips?”

“Speaking.”

“It’s so good
to finally talk with you. Aiden’s already told me a lot about you.”

“He did?
When?”

“That’s not
important,” the woman said quickly. “The most important thing is that you
answer my questions to the best of your ability. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now,
are you and Aiden planning on coming to see us now?”

“We’re at a
taxi bay,” I said. “So we’re just figuring it out.”

“Let me
guess. He doesn’t want to come in. He thinks we’ll kill your family anyway.”

I turned back
to Aiden.

He’d already
moved away to talk with one of the taxi drivers. He may not have even been
aware that I was on the phone.

“Uh. I don’t
really know,” I said. “We haven’t discussed it.”

“But I just
gave you a chance to discuss it. What did he say to you when I got off the
phone with him?”

“Not much.”

“Not much…”
the woman trailed off.

I waited for
her response. “Hello?”

Still
nothing.

After a
moment there was some rustling in the background. I pressed my ear into the
receiver.

“What’s going
on?” I whispered.

Suddenly –
screaming.

I recognized
the voice.

It was Lara.

“Stop it!” I
shouted. “Don’t do that to her!”

More rustling
on the phone line. Footsteps.

“Hello?” I
tried again.

“If you don’t
want your family to be hurt then you will answer my questions truthfully and in
full,” the woman scolded.

“What did you
do to her? Why was she screaming?”

“There are …
certain devices I have at my disposal here. Have you ever heard of shock
therapy?”

“What?” I
spluttered. “Just … Just don’t –”

“Now,  are
you ready to answer my questions?”

There was a
tap on my shoulder.

Aiden.

I pulled away
from him and continued down the footpath. “Yes, I’ll answer them. But … he’s
right here.”

“I don’t care
where he is,” the woman said. “Now – are you going to come in to see us?”

“Yes,” I
said.

“Then tell me
where you are. Exactly.”

I looked back
to Aiden.

“What’s she
saying to you?” he asked.

I covered the
mouthpiece. “She wants to know where we are. She’s torturing –”

Before I
could act, Aiden ripped the phone out of my fingers and smashed it on the
ground in front of us.

“What?” I
cried. “No! You didn’t!”

I stooped
over, trying to piece it back together.

Aiden grabbed
a hold of my shoulders and pushed me to the ground.

“You think
this is a game?” he cried. “You think you can just fuck us for no Goddamn
reason?”

“She’s
fucking torturing them,” I squealed. “What are we supposed to do if –?”

Aiden’s
expression changed. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. “Oh no,” he said.

“Oh no,
what?” I mumbled, climbing back to my feet.

He grabbed me
again. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing,” I
cried.

“You told her
where we are!”

“I didn’t,” I
protested.

“What did you
say?”

“Nothing,” I
stammered. “Just – I mentioned we were at a taxi bay…”

Aiden let go
of me. He started backing away. “You fucking fool. Stupid fucking bitch fool.”

My mouth
dropped in shock.

Then I heard
it. The sound of grinding engines and speeding tires.

I glanced
over my shoulder and saw the lights of the motorcycle gang were upon us.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Aiden rushed to the nearest taxi and
climbed in slamming the door behind him. I hurried quickly to jump in the
backseat, with Aiden already yelling at the driver to put his foot on it.

The driver
however, had other ideas. By the time he’d moved the folder in front of him to
the back of the car, and indicated to pull out into the road, the bikers had
already raced ahead to create a barricade to stop us.

“What are
they doing?” the driver asked, trying to make out the road ahead. “I’m not
going to get past them.”

More bikers
were driving along the side of the footpath towards us, from either direction.

“Fuck!” Aiden
shouted.

He kicked
open his door just as the biker’s arrived.

I remained
where I was, simply crouching to the floor of the car. But it wasn’t going
anywhere.

Outside, I
could hear Aiden having words with the bikers.

Swear words.

But he was
soon silenced. I literally heard his choking scream before the thud on the
pavement.

“Aiden,” I
whispered.

The backseat
door immediately opened soon after. I was scooped up into the heavy chest of
one of the bikers. I did my best to fight him off, but even with all my vicious
flailing about, I still tripped over my own feet once I’d broken free.

I put my
hands up, to shield myself from my oncoming attackers, even though I knew it
would be useless.

Aiden was
lying on the ground, a few feet away from me, snuffed out. Unconscious.

He was the
last thing I saw before the rag came down and pulled me into the darkness.

CHAPTER NINE

Aiden was already awake when my eyes
opened. I could tell because I could feel his arms around me, holding me. Other
than that, it was pitch black. We were in the trunk of a car that was presently
being driven.

After a few
more moments of consciousness, I let out a startled cry.

“It’s okay,”
Aiden said, running his hands through my hair. “It’s only me here.”

His cheek
pressed against mine.

“Where are
we?” I asked, even though I doubted he knew more than I.

“I just came
out of it,” he said. “They drugged us with chloroform I think.”

“I remember,”
I said.

“Are you
okay? Can you breathe properly?”

“Yeah. I
think so. How long do you think we’ve got in here? Can the air run out?”

“They
wouldn’t do that to us,” Aiden said. “I think they still want me alive.”

“What about
me?”

He fell
silent.

I shuffled
out of his embrace, and squinted, trying to make his face out.

“I said, what
about me, Aiden?”

“You know I
don’t have all the answers,” he said.

“Well, we
need to come up with a plan or something,” I insisted. “You have to figure out
a way to save us.”

“I’ll try
talking to them,” Aiden said. “But I don’t like our chances from here.”

“Aw you
prick,” I scolded.

“What?”

“You don’t
even give a shit about us, do you?”

“That’s not
fair,” Aiden protested. “I’m just being honest with you.”

“Not good
enough. You need to figure something out.”

“Alright,
alright,” Aiden muttered. “I will.”

Silence.

The seconds
passed.

“Are you thinking
of something?” I asked.

“I would if
you just shut up for half a minute,” he barked back.

The car went
over a bump of some kind. On the way back, my body collided with Aiden’s.

“Hello…” he
whispered in my ear.

I went to
slap him in the face, but instead hit his shoulder.

“What’s that
for?” he cried.

“Just stop
it,” I said. “I’m freaking pissed at you right now.”

“Pfft.
Nuh-uh. I’m pissed at you.”

Without even
realizing why I was so angry, I lashed out wildly into the dark at him,
punching and kicking and clawing.

“Stop,” he
said.

I didn’t. I
just kept going.

I didn’t care
if it was hurting him or not.

I was the one
who was hurting.

“
STOP IT
,”
he growled in an unearthly voice that scared me half to death.

“Aiden?” I
said after a moment.

“What?” he
replied in his normal voice.

“What the
hell was that?”

He paused.
Enough time. Enough road. Enough thought passed before he responded.

Enough for me
to already know the answer.

“My bear,”
Aiden said.

CHAPTER TEN

Eventually the car slowed down, the
sound of the tires crunching gravel filling our ears as it swung round
searching for a park. Soon enough the trunk lid popped open with three of the
bikers standing around pointing their guns at us.

“Get out,”
came the order. “Slowly.”

I went first.

As soon as my
feet hit the ground I was grabbed by the wrist and pulled into the chest of the
nearest biker. He wrapped his hairy arm around my throat as Aiden made his way
out of the trunk.

I could see
now we’d been in the taxi cab the entire time.

But no sign
of the original driver.

“Okay then,”
came the next order. “On you go.”

The
implication was to walk around the side of the cab and keep going until we
reached the towering building in front of us. There were motorcycles lined up
in perfect order outside it.

I turned
around briefly and started to realize where we were.

Fort
Pacific…?

“Eyes ahead,”
the man who had previously grabbed me said, nudging me further.

Aiden didn’t
look back at me. His vision was solely focused on the building in front.

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…”