I stood up and turned back to the crowd, which were still dispersing. I couldn’t see anyone. Not my Dad. Not my stepmother. Not Lara. Not even Aiden’s bear.
I backed away and ran back out to the grass plains around the side of the resort and behind it. The figures followed on behind me. People flowing in all directions. No one knowing what the hell was going on.
I looked back and searched for Aiden again. Was he outside yet? What was he –?
In a gigantic, wave of fire and smoke, the resort then exploded, sending everyone nearby to the ground.
“No!” I cried out. “Noooo!”
I fell to my knees sobbing.
And then, out from the darkness behind me, two giant trucks covered in camouflage colors sped along towards the destruction. Somehow they appeared to not have seen me. I watched in horror as soldiers exited the trucks and hit the ground firing their assault weapons.
Who was…?
How did…?
What is the…?
“Come on.”
A strong hand latched onto my wrist and I jumped in fright. I looked up to see Aiden who was leading me back into the darkness where the trucks had come from.
“What about Lara?” I squealed. “Mom? Dad?”
He stopped a moment and put his arms around me. “I told you to trust me,” he said. “And I wasn’t lying to you.”
“No, you weren’t,” I said.
“Well, now I need you to trust me again,” he continued. “Can you do that, Bianca? Can you trust me?”
“Okay,” I said.
Okay.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I was shaken up. A mess. What I had just witnessed could very well have been the slaughter of my family and friends. I didn’t understand. What was the purpose behind it? What did it achieve? It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair. I just had to hope they were okay. If not all, then most of them.
Aiden was tightlipped when I asked him about it. Whether they’d taken prisoners or just started killing. Maybe he didn’t know what they would do. Or maybe he knew the worst. I just … somehow I couldn’t help but feel it was all my fault. What would have happened if I had never gone back there? If I just let everyone be? Then there would have been no reason for them to be hurt. Of course – there wasn’t a reason anyway – but –
“Please,” Aiden said as we ran through the dark. “You have to be strong.”
“I can’t believe we’re abandoning them,” I wailed. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Don’t worry,” Aiden said. “I have a plan.”
“How can I not worry? Are you really not worried?”
He looked back at me and I could see that he was.
But I also knew that there was no choice but to run. Otherwise we’d meet the same fate that awaited the rest of them.
“What’s your plan?” was the next thing I wanted to know.
“I’ll tell you,” he said. “When we can catch our breaths.”
I’d have to wait until then.
It was about another ten minutes before we got sight of the road. We pushed our way through and made it out there. In the bare orange glow that encompassed this road in the middle of nowhere. I went to continue out to it, but Aiden held me back.
“The trucks could be back soon,” he said. “We don’t want them to see us.”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
Aiden pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open.
“Where did you get that?” I hissed.
“I’m calling my friend,” Aiden said. “He’ll come and get us. Then we’ll find somewhere safe you can be dropped off.”
“Huh? What about you?”
“I have to sort this out. I have to … do what I can for the family. It’s going to be dangerous. I probably won’t come back from it.”
“I’m staying with you.”
“What? No, you can’t –”
“Please Aiden,” I said grabbing his hand. “You have to trust me too.”
He looked at me, pain in his eyes.
“I’m making the call,” he said.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aiden was right to hide where we were. Less than a few minutes after he’d made the call, both trucks pulled out of the darkness and veered off to the road. I squinted from our hiding place, trying to make out if I could see any sign of my family around them, but alas there was none.
“Maybe it’s safe to go back now,” I suggested. “To see how everyone is. To get them help if they need it.”
Aiden pushed his hand through the roof of his head. “I doubt very much there won’t be someone waiting for us there.”
“How would you know that?” I asked.
“I know these people,” he replied.
I supposed he did. But still I was reluctant.
Leaving them there… It was tearing me up inside…
Headlights on the road. Aiden grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.
“That’s Jared,” he said.
Jared, his previously unnamed friend, was a skinny fellow with curly black hair and glasses. We both got into the back of his car from the road and headed in the direction opposite to where the trucks went.
“Hey,” Jared said, looking back to us as he pulled away. “You must be Aiden’s sister.”
“Stepsister,” I quickly corrected. “I’m … not the one who got married today.”
“I know,” Jared replied. “You’re Bianca, right?”
“Right…”
“So what’s been happening with you guys?”
Aiden went on to explain the situation as best he could Jared. It seemed the pair knew each other very well, and Jared was also familiar with the soldiers who had captured Aiden. I wondered where Jared fitted into it all.
“So where do you want me to drop you?” Jared asked. “You obviously can’t go back to my place. They’ll be looking for you there.”
“I want to go to Fort Pacific,” Aiden said.
“Are you crazy?” Jared snapped back. “They’ll just hand you over –”
“All my shit’s still there,” Aiden said. “My weapons. My maps. My contacts. Everything.”
“We already talked about this. You said you were leaving all that behind.”
“This is different,” Aiden said. “Either they’ve killed everyone or taken them hostage. I can’t run from this anymore.”
“You’re not thinking about contacting those fucking ‘people’ are you? When you say contacts, do you mean –”
“Yes, that’s who I mean.”
“But you remember what happened last time don’t you? You remember how they –”
“It’s the only way, man!” Aiden shouted. “The only way out of this.”
“Okay…” Jared trailed off.
“What is all that about?” I asked turning to Aiden. “What people? Where are we going?”
“We’re going to get help,” Aiden replied. “The only way I know how.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Half an hour later we were parked on the corner of a dark road facing towards a fenced off facility known as ‘Fort Pacific’. Aiden told me to wait in the car, but I wasn’t having any of it. I needed to be with him every step of the way.
“I’m not sure what help you’re going to be to me,” he said as we walked towards the fence. “You’re only going to slow me down.”
“I can keep up,” I insisted. “I kept up with you before.”
“This place is patrolled with guards, who may or may not, fire on sight.”
“That seems a little excessive doesn’t it?”
“It depends. When you’re in a spot like that it’s sometimes hard to make the call. And if it’s the wrong one you could wind up dead.”
“Maybe I should stay behind then…”
We stopped at the gate. Aiden frowned at me. “Whatever you do, it’s up to you. As long as you know I can’t always protect you.”
“Right. I know.”
&nbs
p; He lowered his head. “Can you look away for a moment?”
“Why?”
“I hate people seeing me like this.”
“Like what?”
“Just look away.”
“Okay.”
I turned around.
After a moment I heard some shuffling and the sound of the gate being torn. I turned back to see Aiden’s bear and cried out in alarm. I fell on my backside overwhelmed with my reaction.
The bear looked at me grumpily and groaned.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Once a big enough hole was torn Aiden shifted back to his human form and pulled the rest of it away. “And you wonder why I don’t like people looking,” he said.
“Sorry,” I repeated.
“That’s okay. Now just stay close to me. Everything should be fine.”
We entered the facility which was mostly covered with infrastructures we had to narrowly weave between.
After moving around the sides of a few buildings Aiden stopped and stooped towards a small mat the ground. He then pulled it back to reveal an open manhole.
“After you,” I said, after a brief pause.
Aiden went first and then I followed. This wasn’t a typical sewer or anything like that. This area had been renovated for regular use.
At the base of the ladder there was a door which led out to a metallic pathway with bright walls and lighting that reminded me of the underground of a ship. We crossed through a few twists and turns before arriving at the door to Aiden’s former living quarters.
Behind it there was a bunk bed that wasn’t made, a desk full of junk and a few bits and pieces scattered around. I sat down on a small sofa at the back wall, while he rummaged through the stuff.
“I don’t believe it,” he grumbled. “They’ve taken … they’ve taken everything…”
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
“Weapons. Guns. Computers…”
He hurled an empty gym bag at the wall in anger, and then sat down on the sofa next to me.
“What about your contacts?”
“They were on my laptop,” Aiden said. “Although there was one other thing…”
He got up and put his hands underneath the bunk bed. I heard a latch opening and he pulled something out from the darkness. It was hard to see what it was. It was small.
“What’s that?” I asked.
He sat back down on the couch with me. He showed me the small rectangular object.
There was nothing on it except one singular green button.
“I was supposed to press this if I was ever in trouble,” Aiden said. “Years ago. I never pressed it. Maybe I should have taken it with me. But it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway…”
He sighed and let it fall from his grasp.
“Is that something to do with your contact?” I asked.
“No,” Aiden replied. “There was another intelligence agency that wanted me to work from them. But … well, they did black ops. They were CIA or something. Maybe higher up. I was contacted by them and told to call them if I changed my mind. But these guys obviously found all about that.”
“What’s the remote for then?”
“Nothing to do with those guys.” Aiden picked it back up and looked at it. “There was a break in here once. A bunch of radicals rescued some animals that were being used in experiments. I was up, in my pajamas and ran into them. I didn’t call out or anything. So they gave me this and said if I was ever in trouble to use it.” He nodded to the bunk bed. “We used to hide drugs down there. But the General became concerned one of us had been contacted by the rescuers and threatened to punish that person. So I had to hide it. I really … don’t know why I’ve pulled it out now. It’s … So stupid…”
Aiden shook his head. “I don’t want it to be like this,” he said. “I want to be able to rescue them my –”
I put my arm around him for comfort.
Then he looked into my eyes.
“I want you,” he whispered.
“What?” I gasped.
“I have to have you right now,” he said. “Or my bear is going to go insane.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He showed me the underneath of his left arm, and then ran the fingers of his right hand along it. Blood was drawn.
“Ouch,” I murmured. “You’re hurting yourself.”
“Kiss me,” he said.
“You I can’t. We said we weren’t going to. What we did before was crazy, and –”
“Kiss me now or never touch me again.”
I stared at him, not knowing what to say.
Aiden stood up. He walked to the wall and put his arm against it.
“This whole world is falling apart,” he said. “And now I’ve lost you too.”
Without looking at me, he scooped up the remote and headed towards the cabin door.
For a second I was about to let him.
I’d go and find my own way out of here. My own way home.
And then I’d go to the police. And maybe one day, far, far away, I’d get to see my family again. And we’d all be together.
But it was only for a second.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I placed two fingers on Aiden’s shoulder and he whirled around to wrap his arms around me and kiss me deeply. I stumbled back, my mind crying out protests like Hang on a second, and I changed my mind and this doesn’t feel right. I’m pretty sure it didn’t feel right for Aiden either, but that wasn’t going to stop him from groping my breasts and putting his mouth to my neck in heated lust.
The thoughts dispersed. I didn’t want to be into it, especially not when there was so much going on out there – so much horror that could have been inflicted on our family – but at the same time I needed it. Our poisonous escape.
Aiden pulled the sofa cushions out and threw them on the floor. Then he threw me down on the floor with them, lifting up my dress and running his hands all over me as we kissed.
As my hands pressed underneath his shirt, I realized that maybe this wasn’t as disturbing as we were both afraid it to be. There was something deeper between us here. I didn’t just want Aiden to fuck me because he’d been making fun of me all these years and it was a way of clawing back some acceptance. That was just a charade. The first layer. Behind it, I realized that this thing I had now with Aiden hadn’t been building when we were younger. It started on this very night. I had seen him in pain, and I had seen him fight against our enemies with courage and strength. He wasn’t a teenager. He was a man. This was brand new to me, and I was brand new for him.
Soon enough, there was no clothing or friction between our bodies. He entered me and I wrapped my legs tightly around his back as he did so. I could see by the face and the way he continued to gently caress me, whilst fucking me hard at the same time, that this was a complicated experience for Aiden. For part of him, he had his bear, his inner animalistic need to have sex – his brutally hardcore attraction towards me that was like a thirst that would never end. He was aware of that – it was what drove us to the floor here.
But there was something else too. And I don’t mean his ‘feelings’ for me or any of that stuff. But I knew that this act of intercourse was doing something to his psyche on another level. You could say… It was changing him.
I really began to wonder, if he’d ever been this close to anyone before…
My neck drifted back. I could feel the head of his penis was starting to take over me. Even though he’d been fully aroused as we began, I could feel his cock expanding further. The sensations were becoming too much for us. I knew he was on the verge.
I let my head tilt back off the side of the cushion, and he went down there with me. He grabbed my hair with both of his hands, and squeezed it, so hard. So unbreakable. I blindly reached up with my mouth and locked it on his chin, biting down as he came inside me. We both shuddered for a moment, our moans in union together, and then he rolled off me and lay beside.
We stared up at the ceiling together.
“Something’s happening here,” he whispered. “Can you feel it?”
I didn’t answer him.
He already knew that I could.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
As much as I would have liked to, we couldn’t lie there forever. With so much on the line already, perhaps we should have been ashamed we did in the first place. I could tell Aiden wasn’t going to open up any further about what that meant to us. He was withdrawn once more. I was a little disappointed perhaps the encounter had distanced us, but then I thought it was a superficial distance. Neither of us could deny the chemistry between us.
A few minutes later whilst we were putting on our clothes again, Aiden said, “We best get out of here now. I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from here.”
I spied the white remote on the ground.
“What about that button they gave you? Are you going to push it?”
Aiden shook his head. “It’s a dumb idea. I’ll see if Jared knows of any other way we can get in contact with the agency. There’ll be something we can do.”
“Right…”
He helped me to my feet and then turned back to the door.
“I’ll make sure there’s no one around,” he said and walked to it.
My eyes lingered on the fallen remote. I decided to pick it up when he wasn’t looking.
He soon turned. “Let’s go.”
With no pockets to keep the remote intact, I decided to leave it behind.
As his back was turned I put it on the floor once more, and then followed him out.
There were no further incidents as we went back to the ladder and climbed out. The place appeared to be deserted.
Stepbrother Bear: The Complete Set Page 6
