Stepbrother Bear - Complete (9 page)

CHAPTER THREE

Streetlights. Traffic. A whole world
of civilization in front of us. It was just after nine thirty pm as we pulled
up along the sidewalk opposite a gas station on the corner of town. Aiden got
off the bike first and then helped me off. He pulled me forward a bit and then
we started walking along the footpath and into town.

“Where are we
going?” I asked. “Do you … have a plan?”

Aiden’s head
was bowed. Silent.

I briefly
looked back to be certain we weren’t being pursued.

“I think we
lost them,” I said.

“Not for
long,” Aiden replied. “They’ll figure out we came this way eventually.”

“How would
they do that?”

“They have
their ways.”

Once again,
it seemed Aiden knew a hell of a lot more than he was letting on. I didn’t need
to know absolutely everything with what had happened but some indication would
have been nice.

“Will you just
tell me at least where we’re going?” I tried again.

“Look, I…” he
trailed off.

We stopped at
an intersection, and he pressed the pedestrian buzzer. We stood there waiting
for the
Walk
sign to go green.

“That’s not
an answer,” I said after a moment.

“You don’t
want to be involved in this,” he replied. “It’s too dangerous for you.”

“Why? Because
I’m a girl?”

Aiden threw
his hands up in the air. “How are you supposed to defend yourself if they find
us again?”

“I don’t
know. But … maybe we should go to the cops. Just tell them what happened.”

“That’s
great, ugly,” he muttered. “Just great.”

The light
went green. We started walking.

“Well, how do
you think you’re going to handle this shit on your own?”

“I’ll find a
way.”

“Find a way…
Look, you ain’t telling me shit. And unless you do, then I
will
go to
the cops.”

Once we had
finished crossing the road, Aiden grabbed my arm and shoved me up against the
nearest building wall. “With what story?” he demanded. “What are you going to
tell them?”

“I don’t
know,” I said, pushing him away. “How about the truth?”

“The truth?”
he laughed, shaking his head.

“What’s so
funny?” I muttered. “What … you think they won’t believe me?”

“Would you
believe it if someone told you the same story?”

I shrugged.
“Maybe I’ll leave out the bear part. Alright? Just tell them about the people
who attacked the wedding. They’re probably already investigating it anyway. At
least then they’ll know where to look…”

I knew I was
becoming emotional. My face was flushing. Tears were forming.

It was all
catching up with me.

“Why can’t
you just trust me?” Aiden said. “Could you do that?”

“We almost
just got killed,” I yelled back at him.

“And whose
fault was that?”

I looked away
from him. Then I straightened myself up from the wall.

I started
walking up the road again.

Aiden hurried
to my side. “Don’t get upset with me now. You have to own what you did.”

“You’re the
one who told me about it,” I snapped. “You practically waved that thing in my
face. I couldn’t help it.”

“And now
Jared is dead.”

“Oh…” I gasped.
“You’re such a dick.”

My feet were
moving faster and faster. I didn’t even know if I was trying to get away from
him, or I just wanted him to chase me.

“Will you
slow down,” he demanded. “Can we just have a proper conversation?”

“Oh you want
to talk now huh?”

“Yes.”

I stopped.
“Where the
hell
are we going?”

Aiden sighed.
“I was thinking about putting you on a train somewhere.”

“What? How
would that work?”

“Get you out
of the city. Just get you far away.”

“Do you have
any money?” I asked.

“Yeah… I could
get some for you.”

“And what
about you? Where will you go?”

“Maybe it’s
better you didn’t know.”

“Tell me. I
want to know.”

Aiden rubbed
his hands together. “There’s one other guy I know. Who might be able to help
me. I didn’t want to call him though…”

I nodded.
“And?”

“He might be
able to put me in touch with my old contacts.”

“So who is
he? Where is he?”

“A former
doctor of mine. He’s at the research facility where it…” Aiden trailed off. He
seemed to be having trouble with the words.

“Was he the
one who…?” I asked.

“Yes,” Aiden
replied. “He made me like this.”

CHAPTER FOUR

We weren’t talking about it. What had
happened between us. It wasn’t a part of the conversation, but I knew it wasn’t
far away from either of our minds.

Aiden
couldn’t look at me properly. I didn’t know if it was because he was developing
new, difficult feelings for me, or he was trying to slaughter the feelings that
were left. For me, I found it hard to be close to him. Especially when he was
facing me. I think we were both confused by the taboo. There was a sickening
pang of disgust that went with it, along with the progression towards what had
driven us there in the first place. Maybe we didn’t want to believe it had
happened. And yet out of all the things that had happened tonight, it would be
hard to say that our shared moments were the worst of it…

“Stop it,”
Aiden said. “Stop trying to convince me you’re up to this.”

“You need to
stop treating me like I’m your little sister,” I countered. “I’m a grown woman.
I can make my own decisions.”

We were
walking again now. Up ahead was the tunnel leading down to the train station.

“What do you
even think you can help me with?” Aiden asked. “Seriously, what do you have to
add that will help us?”

“Maybe some
common freaking sense.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,”
I said. “And if you don’t let me come along with you, then I’m going straight
to the cops. Which I probably have a good mind to do anyway.”

“That will
just put you in even more danger.”

“How so?”

“You think
they’re not going to be able to find a girl in a police station, who is making
up stories about bears and government secrets? You wouldn’t last an hour in
there.”

“You know
none of this would have happened if you just stayed where you were,” I said
sourly. “They wouldn’t be after us like this. Mom and Dad and Lara would all be
okay.”

“They might
still be okay,” Aiden said.

“Really?”

He shrugged
and shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is that we have to shut their
operation down before it gets any more out of control.”

There was a
pause.

“Hey,” I
said. “Who were the guys on the bikes? What did they want?”

Aiden gritted
his teeth together. “I don’t know.”

“I thought
you said that if you pushed the button they were supposed to come and help
you.”

“Look, I don’t
know, alright?”

“And how did
they get there so fast? I mean – is their base or club house only five minutes
down the road from Fort Pacific?”

“I don’t
know!” Aiden shouted.

“Well, you
must know something.”

Aiden
stopped. Right outside the train station tunnel.

“I’m not
going down there,” I said. “I don’t care. I’m coming with you.”

He looked at
me and closed his eyes  a moment. Then he turned and walked towards the
building at the side of us. There was an ATM machine there.

“What are you
doing?” I said hovering over his shoulder.

After his
transaction was complete he turned and stuffed a pile of cash into my hands.

“That’s five
hundred dollars,” he said. “Get yourself a ticket to another part of town. Find
a motel or something and crash there for the night. I promise when you wake up
tomorrow morning that there will be some resolution.”

“Resolution?”
I spluttered.

“I mean
you’ll be safe. Safe to go back…”

He stepped
away from me. 

I stared at
him, still clutching the money in my hands. “Do you see any pockets on this
dress?”

“Huh?”

“Where am I
supposed to put it?” I said angrily and threw the money at him.

“Hey!” he
cried.

It bounced
off him and hit the footpath. Some of it blew away.

“Son of a
bitch,” he cursed.

Once he had
collected what was left, he stuffed the money in his pocket and then grabbed my
wrist.

“Okay,” he
said. “You want to play it that way? Fine.”

“Where are we
going?” I asked for the hundredth time as he dragged me along.

“We’re going
to sort this shit out, like I said before,” he replied. “But whatever happens
to you in the meantime – I’m not even going to feel bad about it. It’s your own
fault for slowing me down.”

“Well, I
don’t care if anything bad happens to you,” I retorted.

“Good,” Aiden
said.

“Good.”

CHAPTER FIVE

This is us in our love-hate
relationship. Not that it is a relationship. And it would probably be hate-hate
anyway. But here we are. At each other’s throats.

There’s a
minute or so of silence as we’re walking towards wherever Aiden wants to go,
and we’re both supposedly mad with one another. I knew that I hated him. His
behavior towards me at least. How it seemed like before meant nothing. Not that
it did, but you would think maybe since we’d been so intimate with one another,
and we’d shared our bodies in not one – but two fits of passion – that maybe,
just maybe… He might be able to treat me like a normal human being.

I wondered
what it would be like. To be his girlfriend. I’d never really known Aiden to
have a girlfriend, although he’d certainly been around with a few of the girls
at a school. But I wondered – what would it be like to be his girlfriend? Had
he ever even had one? And if not – maybe he didn’t know how he was supposed to
behave.

“What are you
doing?” he challenged.

We were stuck
waiting at another intersection.

“Huh?” I
said, waking up from my thoughts. “What did you say?”

“You were
smiling,” he said. “A really … like weird smile.”

“I was not,”
I said crossly.

“Yes, you
were,” he continued. “I’m just curious what would make you smile at a time like
this.”

“I wasn’t
smiling. So just drop it – okay?”

“You were
thinking about me, weren’t you? Thinking about us?”

The crossing
sign turned green. I abruptly continued ahead.

“Just where
are we going now, exactly?” I asked. “And why did we leave the bike back
there?”

“Don’t change
the subject.”

“I’m sorry,”
I replied sarcastically. “What were we talking about?”

“Us,” he
said. “I can see it’s on your mind.”

“Ew. No way. Gross.”

“Ha, ha, ha,”
he chuckled. “I must really be inside your head now.”

“Is this your
way of getting rid of me?” I shot back. “Because it’s not going to work.”

I walked a
few paces before I realized he had stopped.

I turned back
and saw him playing about with his phone.

“What are you
doing?” I asked.

He held up
his finger for me to hold on.

I tried to
stay still but couldn’t help chewing on my lip.

“Shit,” Aiden
muttered.

“What is it?”

Aiden sighed.
“Are you sure you can handle it?”

“Yes, I can
fucking handle it. What?”

He handed me
his phone. On the screen there was a photo of a van with its doors at the back
open, revealing a bunch of people lying on the inside, bound and gagged. I
could see Lara and both our parents were among the group.

“What the fuck?”
I gasped. “Who sent you that?”

“It came with
a message,” Aiden explained. “It said if we don’t turn ourselves in, they’re
going to kill them.”

CHAPTER SIX

Aiden reached into his jacket and
pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He calmly selected one, plucked it out and
proceeded to offer me one from the packet.

“No thanks,”
I heard the words come out of me.

He put the
pack away and proceeded to like his smoke. We stood still together as he took a
few drags.

“What are
you…?” I murmured. “What are you doing –?”

“At least
they’re still alive,” Aiden said.

“Alive? But
for how much longer?”

Aiden nodded
and pursed his lips. “As long as they’re alive in this moment, then that’s what
we have to focus on.”

“So what are
we going to do?”

He looked at me
sideways.

“Or … what
are you going to do?” I stammered.

Aiden flicked
the cigarette away. “The plan hasn’t changed. We’re going to the research
facility.”

“What about
them? What happens if we –?”

Aiden shook
his head and put his hands in his pockets. “There isn’t anything we can do.”

“And why is
that exactly?”

“If we allow
them to capture us, they’ll kill us, kill them, and then no one will get
through this.”

“Oh and you
just know this for a fact.”

“It makes
logical sense, doesn’t it?”

“Uh… Uh…”

“Uh… Uh-huh. Sinking
in yet?” he rolled his eyes. “Come on let’s get out of here.”

He started
walking again.

“Where the
hell are we going?” I demanded. “We’ve been walking around here forever.”

“There’s a
taxi bay up the road. If you want to go somewhere else we can arrange that.”

“And why did
we abandon the motorcycle? Seems like it would have been much easier if we kept
on going with it.”

“I don’t
trust vehicles that belong to my enemies,” Aiden said. “You ever heard of a
tracking device?”

“Tracking
device? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“There’d be
cops anyway looking for the vehicle most likely. It wasn’t safe to drive
around. Now, if you’re done with all the questions, maybe we can just have a
little peace and quiet for two seconds.”

I fell
silent. There was still a lot to say. A lot of questions to ask and answers to
be given.

But he wasn’t
working with me. He was just going off on his own and doing his thing, and I
could be a part of it, or I could go my own way.

I didn’t know
what to do.

And the worst
part about it, was that my family was counting on me.

Or should I
say our family.

Counting on
us.

“What?” Aiden
said seething through his teeth. “What now?”

He’d spotted
the tears in my eyes. Saw I was on the verge of breaking down. And I wasn’t
even trying to use it as a tactic to get through to him, but…

“Bianca,” he
whispered as I fell into his arms.

“Do the right
thing,” I said between breaths. “Tell me it’s all going to be okay.”

“I’m sorry,”
Aiden replied. “That isn’t the right thing.”

I touched his
cheek.

He touched
mine.

“Do it,” I
said. “Don’t joke around. They need us now.”

There was a
buzzing coming from Aiden’s pocket. I knew it wasn’t the cigarettes.

Still holding
me, he took out his phone and looked at the number.

“Who is it?”
I asked.

Aiden
swallowed. “It’s them.”