Chasing Sergei: Dark Romance

by Aubrey Collins

  The goons pulled Dante back to his feet. His lips were busted and his eyes had been blackened. He’d definitely taken a good beating. Yet she couldn’t help feeling that he might have been exaggerating just how much damage they had done.

  They walked into the wooded area and followed a muddy path. The cord cut deeper and deeper into Taylor’s wrists. The mouth of the gun was only inches from her back. They were being led to their death. She was sure of that. There was no way that they would be allowed to live. Once they got a little bit deeper into the woods, further away from that country road…It would all be over. They would be shot and left to bleed to death, not even able to scream as their mouths would remain covered. A slow and painful end!

  Tears fell down her cheeks. She felt sick to her stomach. Her legs wobbled beneath her.

  The goon pressed the gun into her back. “KEEP WALKING. OR I SHOOT.”

  Chapter 9

  The blows to his jaw rattled his brain. Their fists felt like fucking bricks. But this wasn’t the time to worry about pain. Or his ego, which had taken quite a beaten over the last few hours. He couldn’t stand being bullied, abused, pushed around by other men, especially in front of a woman. This woman. Who was she? He wasn't sure. When he had first seen her in the bar, she had seemed shy, innocent, and unassuming. But when he got her back to her place…a complete different side of her, a wild, primitive, uninhibited side of her had been unleashed. He probably should have just left it at that. But he couldn’t resist. He wanted another taste, another scoop of her honey nectar, another lick and nibble at her clit, another lick and suck of the labia. He wanted to her tight pussy gripping his cock as he pushed into her, wanted to feel her tongue licking around the rim of his ass, then jabbing in and out of his hole. That’s what he wanted. And he couldn’t resist.

  Damn.

  Why the hell had Gus sent him all the way across the country to do something so crazy? Was he trying to get him killed? No way! That sounded crazy! Gus had been damn near like a father to him—definitely the closest thing to a father that he could have ever imagined having.

  “KEEP WALKING, ASSHOLE,” one of the goons barked at him. They had been walking through this wooded area for almost ten minutes. He still hadn’t come up with an escape plan. He still couldn’t believe the trap that he had walked into. But he was convinced that Taylor probably didn’t know anything about what was going on. He could tell by the way that she stared at him that she hadn’t meant to lead Cormier’s private security right to his hotel room. It wasn’t her fault. It definitely wasn’t. But it was sure as hell bad luck. Really fucking bad luck!

  And now they were being marched to their death, marched deep into this remote seeming wooded area, outside of the city. Guns were trained pointed on their backs. Their arms were tied behind them. Their mouths were still taped. No one would hear them scream. All it would take would be two shots. Back of the head.

  Dante had always known that this kind of work could be dangerous. But it had been so long since anyone in the brotherhood had been hurt while doing deliveries. If only they could have just stayed in their lane—the West Coast opioid trade. They have carved out nice swathes of territory for themselves. Not bad for a white trash biker gang. But apparently, that wasn’t good enough for some of the members. They wanted to branch out, get involve with the Chinese. The fucking Chinese!

  The two men behind them began talking in their Eastern European tongue. Serbian. He had heard it before. Those guys can be brutal.

  For the first time in a while, Dante could hear cars. There was a road or a highway nearby. The sun was dipping down. It was getting harder and harder to see. He knew what that meant. He trembled at the thought. But this was no time for trembling. No time for fear or hesitation. He had to find a plan.

  Time was running out.

  Judging from the tone of their voices, Dante sensed that the two goons were unsure how exactly they were supposed to finish the job. While they were hesitating, he had to strike. He wouldn’t have many more chances left.

  “WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! “

  Dante’s eyes flashed around and his ears perked up. Where was that sound coming from? Dogs? If so, that meant there were people with them. He smiled. This might be their chance. Their only chance. They continue walking deeper and deeper into the woods.

  “WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!”

  The barking sound came closer and closer. The goons raised their voices, speaking to each other angrily. Dante looked to his left. He could see houses. Large houses. With all of their windows lit up. The Serbs seemed surprised by the houses, which were only about forty feet away. This was their chance.

  He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

  He stopped walking.

  “KEEP MOVING, ASSHOLE!”

  Dante began walking again. Then he quickly spun, whipping his leg into the goon’s throat, knocking him back. His gun went flying and landed amongst sticks in leaves. It was too dark to see it. The other goon stared at his felled partner in shock. But he didn’t have too much time to wonder what was going on. Dante delivered an even more vicious kick to his chest, sending hi flying backward. His gun flew from his hand and landed silently.

  Dante did his best to calm his nerves. The Serbians weren't dead. They would eventually wake up. They would eventually be hunting him again. Hunting for both of them. The hounds would be hot at their heels.

  “LET’S GO!” Dante said. He reached and took her hand. They ran in the direction of the lights.

  Chapter 10

  His manhood had been restored. He had recovered from the humiliation that those men had put him through. They had embarrassed him in front of a woman. He probably should've killed them, left their brains splattered in the forest.

  But thankfully for those inglorious bastards, there was honor in the way he fought. His father would have been proud of him. And so would Gus. He couldn’t wait to tell the old man about this adventure—Gus, that is.

  He looked left. They were about 40 feet from a row of houses visible through the trees. The house closest to them had all of its windows lit up. It was damn near a mansion. They had to play this right. They couldn’t just go wandering into someone’s backyard, knock on the door, and explain that they had just attempting kidnapping by Serbian thugs and now they were running for their lives.

  That would've been crazy. Insane. Dante frowned and squeezed his temples. His brain throbbed. He paused.

  Voices came from the backyard. It sounded like teenagers. This was their chance. In order to reach the back yard, they had to walk off the path, step through leaves and branches, move in between tall, skinny trees. The night was quiet and dark. The only sound was their feet crunching the leaves and branches.

  Dante was doing his best to calm his nerves. He hoped that Taylor couldn't feel just how nervous he was. Just how full of fear and apprehension. He was completely out of his element. This was some wealthy town outside of the city. He really had no idea where he was. But he had to keep his cool. He was going to get both of them through this. He was already halfway through it.

  They were only a few feet from the entrance to the backyard. The mansion like house looked even bigger. Dante saw a woman through one of the windows. She appeared to be setting a large dining room table. He stopped. Taylor squeezed his hand hard. His eyes scanned the darkness, trying to locate where the voices had come from. He finally saw them! Two silhouettes. Teenagers. His eyes lit up.

  “Come on! Let’s go!” Dante said. Then he began yelling in the direction of the teenagers, “Excuse me! We lost our dog!”

  Dante told the teenagers that he and Taylor were a young couple from Manhattan who sometimes came up to the suburbs to walk their dog. A couple days while walking Zeus in this area he had seen a rabbit and chased after him. They were devastated. Zeus was like a child to them. Taylor played her part in the performance, burying her head in his chest and sobbing. He was almost certain that she was crying about the traumatic, and near death even
ts that had taken place over the last few days. And she was also probably crying because this death trap of n adventure was not even close to being over.

  The teenagers asked to exchange numbers. If they saw Zeus, they would call him immediately. Then they asked if he had any pictures of the beloved dog. Dante’s mouth gaped open. He turned red, slightly embarrassed. That was one little hole in the story that he hadn’t quite thought out.

  “No, I don't have any pictures on me,” he said. “But he’s a light brown pitfall with green eyes.”

  Dante gave them a fake number and told them he would appreciate if they would just keep an eye out for the dog. The teens promised to do so and then offered to drive the distraught couple to the train station.

  20 minutes later Dante and Taylor rode on a Metro North train into Manhattan. They didn't say anything during the trip. But every now and then, they would turn and look into each other's eyes.

  He was beginning to feel a connection with this girl. This wasn't supposed to happen. He didn’t have any space in his life for tender feelings. No space for love. He had to be a focused warrior. The reputation of the Brotherhood was on the line. Both of their lives were on the line.

  Halfway through the hour-long trip, Taylor lowered her head into his lap. He looked down at her. He wasn't used to this kind of tenderness. He wasn’t sure how to handle it.

  When they got back to Grand Central station, they had a decision to make. Where were they going to stay? Would they really be safe anywhere? There was no way that Dante was going back to his hotel room. There was no way that they were going back to Taylor's apartment.

  They stood arm in arm in the large, busy train station. People rushed to and fro all around them. He could feel Taylor’s body begin to heave up and down. She was crying again.

  “Please. Please, don't leave me,” she said, tears streaming from her eyes.

  Dante bit down on his lip as he looked into her tearful eyes. He hated seeing her like that. He pulled her tight, closed his eyes, and sighed.

  Was he going to leave her? Hell no! There was no chance of that. He would never leave her. He had gotten her in this mess. And he felt deeply responsible for getting her out of it. Before things went any further he had to get in touch with Gus. He had to let him know that the delivery hadn’t gone through as planned.

  Dante was desperate for a good meal. They went across the street and sat down in a diner. While sat in the booth, Taylor's eyes kept shifting around as if she expected those goons to come bursting through the door at any moments, guns drawn, bloodlust and revenge in their eyes.

  Before the waitress came to take their order, he reached out and clasped her hands. He stared into her eyes, trying to reassure her. He would be there to protect her. And he would find them a way out of this situation, just like he had in the woods, moments before they were going to be killed.

  Chapter 11

  Dante left the diner and walked around the corner, looking for a safe place to get on the phone. He had some worries that Cormier’s security might have the type of high-tech but not all that hard to obtain software or hardware that would have allowed them to triangulate his cell phone system and then locate him.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Dante said into the phone. “Apparently our Chinese friends didn’t do such a great job planning everything out.”

  On the other end of the line, Gus cursed under his breath. Dante smiled. It was good to hear Gus’s voice. It was reassuring. The Brotherhood was still intact. This failed delivery might end up damaging their reputation a bit. But it wasn’t something that they wouldn’t be able to recover from. They should have never gotten involved with the damned Chinese. What a big, greedy, stupid mistake!

  What had they gained from the deal? A powerful, ruthless enemy. Daniel Cormier. Not the type of man that you wanted to fuck with. But that’s exactly what they had gone and done. He expected that someday soon he would have to confront Cormier’s private security guys again. And when that happened, he expected them to be better armed and determined to do the job right.

  “Keep your head down,” Gus said. “I’ll be in New York in about four days.”

  Dante wasn’t quite sure what he had heard. “What?”

  Gus chuckled. “I feel like it’s time for me to take a working vacation. I’ll get to enjoy New York for a few days and save your ass.”

  “Aren’t you too old to be saving people?”

  “Seems like you need all the help that you can get. Punk.”

  Dante smiled. He loved to jab back and forth with Gus. He only wished that he could have had that same sort of a relationship with his own father.

  “How’s the girl you mentioned?” Gus asked.

  Dante stopped pacing back and forth in the alleyway. He closed his eyes. Taylor was around the corner in the diner waiting for him. She was definitely struggling with trauma and shock. He couldn’t blame her, actually, he was impressed that she hadn’t completely broken down yet. They had known each other for less than a week and already they had experienced a near death moment. It was something that bound them together.

  “She’s fine,” Dante finally said. “She’s with me?”

  “Square girl?

  “Very much so.”

  “You think that she’ll like Big Momma and Baby Girl?”

  “Shit,” Dante said into the phone. He thought about those two trailer park refugees that Gus always kept around him. “I think she will find them to be very interesting people.”

  “Yes, they are definitely interesting.”

  After he finished the call, Dante stayed in the alleyway for a few minutes. It felt good to know that Gus would be coming to town. The Brotherhood would have to lay low for a while. They had to figure out just how far Cormier and his private security services were willing to go. How hell bent were they on bloody revenge? Until they figured out the answers to those questions, it wouldn’t be safe for them to operate out in the open.

  Gus’s RV would make things easy for them as they traveled back across the country. No more hotel rooms. They could live anywhere, in the city or the country. And if they sensed things getting a little bit hot, maybe law enforcement starting to poke around, they could immediately take off. That was just the kind of mobility that they would need.

  Back in the diner, Dante feasted on a delicious twelve ounce Buffalo Burger and a side of fries. He washed it all down with a cool, crisp Heineken. The meat and grease tasted so damn good. So succulent. The juices dripped down her chin.

  Across from him, Taylor hadn’t even touched the grilled cheese sandwich that she had ordered. Her eyes kept shifting around the diner. He struggled to find the right words to say to her. But he knew that what mattered most was action, bold and decisive action that would get them out of this situation.

  He wouldn’t try to talk her through the trauma and fear. He would communicate with his strong, unshakable masculine presence. He would be her rock. No matter what happened, he would be there to comfort her. No matter what!

  Chapter 12

  20 minutes later. They rode in the back of a cab through Manhattan.

  Taylor’s head lay in his lap. Every now and then he could hear her sobbing, could feel her body shaking.

  They had to get out of Manhattan. There was no question about that. Queens? Brooklyn? The Bronx? Yes, that would be it. It was the poorest, most rundown of the boroughs. It wasn’t the kind of place people went if they didn't have to. He asked the cab driver to take them to the best hotel in the infernal borough.

  “Best hotel in the Bronx?” The driver said in a thick Middle Eastern accent.

  “Just somewhere safe and clean.

  “I think I know a place, boss. About 15 minutes.”

  Dante sat back and sighed. He was sick of his life. Ready for it all to be over. Over and done. This game had gone on long enough. He was ready, finally ready for it to be over.

  Having Taylor on his lap like that, leaning on him for strength and support, made him
feel something that he had never felt before. A protective and caring side was coming out of him. He was growing, maturing, finally, becoming a man. It was exciting and scary. He would have new expectations of himself. Trying to live out this Son’s of Anarchy, opioid dealing, biker gang life, no longer seemed worthy of his time. He was ready to… Settle down, start a family, buy a quiet house out in the country. He could ride horses and Harleys. That's what he wanted. The possibility of a different kind of life excited him and scared him.

  He ran his fingers through Taylor’s hair. They would make beautiful children together. And they would have a great story to tell about how they first got to really know each other.

  The cab came to a stop. Dante looked out the window and around him. The area didn't seem nearly as rundown as he expected. Must have been one of the borough’s up and coming neighborhoods.

  “This is the Redwood area, sir,” the driver said. “It’s being gentrified. And this is the Regency hotel. It’s considered the best.”

  Dante nodded. This would be fine—at least for tonight. Taylor would be able to get some sleep and calm her nerves. He wished that he could do the same. But there was no way that he would close his eyes. He would have to remain vigilant and on his guard. Ready at any moment for an attack. They were coming. He knew that. They were listening. Watching. Recording. Waiting for the opportunity to seize him.

  How the hell had he gotten involved in this mess? Why had Gus let him go on this crazy, near suicide mission? Bastard! He would be in town in less than 72 hours. Dante looked forward to seeing him. He looked forward to telling him just how felt about having to do business with the dirty, double-crossing, no good Chinese.

  A Latina in her early twenties sat behind the counter. She smiled at Dante and ignored Taylor. Her tongue swirled around her lips.