Black Wings MC: The Novel (Motorcycle Club Romance) (5 page)

We stopped in a small town just before dusk. The owners looked nervous as they saw all of the bikes pulling up in the parking lot; effectively forming a barrier line between the restaurant and the road. As the MC walked in, the owners cautiously stood behind the counter. Derek signaled the waitress over to our table.

“
Hello ma’am. We’d like to order.”

“
O…k…” the waitress stuttered. You could tell that she was nervous.

“
It’s ok.” Derek reassured her. He had a calming effect on people—especially women. “I’d like to order burgers and fries for everyone. Put the condiments on the side so they can make them how they like it.”

“
Yes sir, I can do that.” She walked into the kitchen where she and the owners busily cooked all of the food. It was kind of cool sitting down to eat dinner with the MC. Everyone kind of kicked back and relaxed for a little while; something I hadn’t seen since the bonfire. While most of the guys joked around and gave each other shit, Shadow, Animal, Doom and Skull talked business. They discussed their plan of action for once we arrived at the abandoned warehouse.

 
After everyone was finished eating, we left the money and tip on the table before heading to the hotel. It wasn’t the nicest hotel that I had ever seen, but it would do. The day was long and the night was going to be too short. In the morning, we had to set out to cross the Mexican border. The cartel is very dangerous and I didn’t want to think about what might happen.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel while waiting for morning to turn into afternoon. My empty stomach began to turn as I ate the stale donut from the free continental breakfast. The thought of something happening to Shadow or me made me sick to my stomach. Just then, I realized that it wasn’t just the two of us anymore. What about the baby? While I had always dreamt of becoming a mother, the vision of blazing gunfire never occurred in those dreams. I was excited but I had to wait until I could take a pregnancy test before I could tell anyone else. Before I knew it, noon hit and everyone jumped on their bikes, heading towards the border.

Chapter Six

All Hell Breaks Loose

Crossing the Mexican border was the easy part. As we rode and the miles ticked away, my heart began to race while my palms began to sweat. I had that gut feeling that you get when you know something bad is about to happen. If it were a horror movie, the scary music would start right about now.

We finally stopped just after dusk, in an old abandoned industrial park area. The motorcycle club killed their bike engines as we approached the building that Rico said the meeting would take place in. We walked the rest of the way to the building.

Shadow and Animal left the rest of the MC behind while they checked things out. They returned within a few moments to alert us that it was time. Rico had given them completely accurate information and the meeting had just started inside the abandoned warehouse.

“
Stay close and lay low” Shadow whispered to me.

“
Don’t worry, I intended to”, I whispered back.

Shadow led the group through the entrance doors to the building. Oddly, they didn’t have security set up, which is very unlike the cartel. They always have security. I stayed close behind Shadow. Theresa and Stacie stayed near the other men. The difference was, they have been through this before—I never had. They knew what to expect.

As we made our way through the first room in the abandoned warehouse, everything was quiet. The further we traveled through the warehouse; we could hear discussions and arguments. Shadow put his finger to his lip, signaling us to be quiet. Everyone nodded in agreement. We continued to creep up on the groups as their discussion became more heated.

When we found their exact location, the men drew to the front of the line as if they were protecting their women. Shadow kicked the door open as he drew his gun. Animal, Skull and Doom followed his lead. The cartel and La Familia jumped to their feet and drew their guns as well.

“
Don’t do anything stupid Santiago! Paseo, the same goes for you, too!” Shadow began to aim his gun right at their heads. “Tell your men to stand down or we’ll blow this place up!”

Santiago and Paseo ordered their men to lower their weapons. The men were hesitant to follow their orders but they did listen.

“
Good, now kick all of the weapons against this wall!” Shadow demanded as he pointed to the wall that he was standing next to. “And remember, don’t do anything stupid!”

As the men began to kick their weapons to the wall that the MC was standing against, Paseo drew a gun from the back of his waistband. The small black pistol was no match for the assault rifles and handguns that the Black Wings carried.

“
I mean it Paseo! I will blow everyone’s head off. No funny business. Lay your weapon on the table. NOW!”

Paseo stood frozen for a moment and then began to fire his gun at the Black Wings. Without a second thought, the Black Wings began to fire back. We were in another gun fight. Stacie, Theresa and I took cover while the men battled it out. As bullets pierced the walls and door leading out of the room, I feared for my life.

One of the men from the cartel was crawling his way towards us women to grab a gun from the pile of weapons that they had kicked in our direction earlier.

“
DEREK!” I screamed, fearful that the man would succeed and shoot one of us.

Shadow spun around on his heel and tried to fire at the man but the gun was knocked out of his hand by Santiago. The two of them began to wrestle and fist fight with one another. The cartel member succeeded in retrieving a weapon from the pile. As Shadow and Santiago fought, the man grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the corner of the room.

“
Shadow! He’s got Tara!” Stacie screamed.

“
Stand down!” Shadow ordered his men. “Stand down!”

Santiago sucker punched him right in the face. Blood flung across the room as if it were in slow motion. Derek grabbed his jaw and held his other hand in the air as if he were surrendering.

“
Ok, Santiago, you win. Let my girl go!”

Santiago laughed sinisterly. He spat on the floor and nodded at his gunman that was holding me hostage. The man grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked my head back as far as he could. I thought that my neck was going to break. He raised the barrel to my temple and cocked the hammer back.

“
You’re going to listen to me, now. Shadow, all of these years we’ve been doing business and now you want to stop my shipments. Who do you think you are? You don’t do that to someone who has loyally worked with you for so long.” Santiago threatened.

“
No, we haven’t worked together loyally for years. We’ve worked with La Familia for years. We’ve put up with your bullshit. Let my girl go. She has nothing to do with this!” Derek said as he continued to spit blood from his mouth.

“
We might let her go. Once she’s dead. You WILL put ALL of our shipments through and cover them up for us. It’s not hard, Shadow, just look the other way.”

“
Those children. I cannot let those children be sold into sex trafficking.”

“
Then the bitch dies!” he said as he nodded his head as if the assassination was going to happen.

“
NO! WAIT! I think we can work something out” Shadow said in a pained voice.

“
That’s what I thought. What would you like to propose?”

I could see Doom give Shadow some type of signal that went undetected by my captive.

“
We will allow ALL shipments to come through. The prices will be a little steeper though, but everything will get through. Human trafficking is more dangerous as there’s a greater risk of getting caught but I’ll make sure Area 51 is not a problem.”

Santiago paused and thought for a moment before speaking. “No, I don’t think that’s gonna work. Tell the bitch bye!”

“
NO! Ok, wait. What would you like to propose? Please, don’t hurt her.” For the first time ever, I could see fear in Shadow’s eyes. He was fearful for my life; I was too.

Doom began to move very inconspicuously. “Well we would really like to take over Area 51. Make it our own. We don’t need you at all. If that happens, we won’t have to pay you anything for our shipments because you will all be dead.” He began to laugh as he finished his sentence.

That’s when Doom made his move. He suddenly jumped up and sprang into action. Using his leg, he kicked the gun out of my captive’s hand and pushed me to the floor to move me out of harm’s way.  Santiago and Doom began to fistfight as Shadow made his way over to me. Picking me up off of the floor, he wisped my hair away from my face and made sure that I was alright.

Lustfully kissing me, Derek ran his hands through my hair and held me close. It felt as if he hadn’t held me in forever. Suddenly we were pulled apart by a loud explosion. I reached out for Derek’s hand and tried to grab on but the blast was too much. All I could see was fire and bright lights before everything went dark.

Chapter Seven

Broken

Confused and struggling to see through all of the darkness, I searched for Shadow and the others. It was too dark to see anything so I mainly had to feel my way around with my hands. Pain. It hurt. I knew that I was injured but I didn’t know how badly. My head hurt, my back hurt and my leg hurt. I had to see how the others were doing and make sure that everyone was still alive.

I tried to stand up but I fell right back to the ground. Unable to put any weight on my leg, I began to crawl. Crawling and dragging my right leg behind me, I continued to feel my way with my hands. I thought about calling out to the others of the MC but I was scared. I worried that the cartel or La Familia might hear me and try to take me hostage again.

Somehow, through all of the smoke and burning building, I could smell Derek. His scent was something that I could never forget. He had a light, clean smell that was irresistible.

“
Shadow?” I whispered as low as I could. I assumed that since I was able to smell his scent that he was close by.

“
Ooohhh. Over here, Tara, by the wall” he said in anguish.

“
Are you all right?” I whispered back to him.

“
I’m pretty banged up. How about you?” he asked while his breathing sounded labored and strained.

“
I can’t put any weight on my leg. I tried to stand up and walk but I just fell back down.” I whispered.

“
Tara, I need you to go find Animal. He’s my best friend. I want to make sure he’s ok. See if you can find Doom and Skull, too.”

Not sure how I was going to accomplish his request, I told him that I would and began my search for the others. While the room was smoky and dark, I figured I had flown about 6 feet or so during the explosion. I remembered the layout of the room and began to crawl towards the last area that I saw Animal.

I cut my hand on a piece of sharp metal that was lying on the floor. “Ouch!” I whispered under my breath. I knew that my hand was bleeding by the sting of the open wound as I continued to crawl on the dirty floor.

“
Animal?” I whispered.

Nothing. Not one person answered me. I whispered his name again. No response. I was beginning to panic. What if he was dead? How would I tell Derek that his best friend was dead?

“
Animal?!” I whispered a little louder. I began to cough from the smoke that was filling my lungs. We didn’t have much time to find everyone and get out of there before we would all die of smoke inhalation.

Nothing again. “ANIMAL!?” I said in a louder voice, still not in a full or regular tone.

“
Yeah. I’m over here.”

“
Over where?”

“
Behind the big table.”

I began to make my way towards him. There was a small window that was allowing some smoke to clear, making it a little easier to see.

“
Shadow is really hurt. He didn’t say what all was wrong with him but I could hear it in his voice. I can’t stand or put weight on my leg.”

“
I think I’m all right; was knocked out for a few but other than that, I’m ok.”

“
What do we do now? If I can’t walk and Shadow’s in bad shape…”

“
It’s ok. We know people down here. First though, we need to get everyone out of here.”

“
What about the cartel and La Familia?” I whispered, as if them hearing me would alert them to the fact that we were still alive.

“
I’m pretty sure they’re all dead. I know Santiago is dead and Paseo isn’t much of a threat without Santiago.”

“
But how do you know?” I continued in a whispering voice.

“
I brought a small bomb. That’s what caused the explosion. Santiago took most of the impact. If the others aren’t dead, they will be soon. And so will we, if we don’t get out of here.”

“
I can crawl out of here but I’m not too sure about Shadow. How are the others?”