Black Wings MC: The Novel (Motorcycle Club Romance) (2 page)

Well, who was I to argue? A tall, sexy hunk of a man wants to protect me? Sure! I’ll go with him.

“
Ok Shadow. I’ll come because I trust you. Not because I want to.”

“
It doesn’t matter if you want to or not. They hurt you. You’re a part of this now. I’m going to make sure that they get payback.”

“
Are the other guys alright?”

“
Yeah, they’re fine. Right now Skull, Doom and Animal are finding out who did this. I think I already know who it was.”

He made it very clear that there was no more time for questioning. We had to get moving.  Even though I was scared of what was to come, I knew that I would be safe with Shadow. I still wondered what his real name was. He was mysterious, but it attracted me to him even more.

We hopped onto Shadow’s bike not long before dawn. Once I was settled in behind him, I wrapped my arms tightly around his chest. It was solid, muscular and firm—just like his biceps that I felt earlier around the bonfire. I gave him a slight squeeze as he began to pull away from my brother’s house. As we rode down the long stretch of highway, I began to wonder where we were going. Shadow seemed to know exactly where we were headed. The vibration of the motorcycle was beginning to do a number on me. I could feel my loins aching for Shadow. There’s something about dangerous men and fast motorcycles that make you have naughty thoughts on the back of a bike.

As we slowed to turn onto the next highway, just after daybreak, he reached around and squeezed my thigh. My heart melted. Maybe he is a good guy. I smiled back at him as he began to turn. My body was becoming weary, my thoughts were grumbled. I needed to sleep; I was so tired. I hadn’t prepared for any of this to happen.

Soon we arrived at what looked like an old shack in the middle of the desert. As the warm New Mexico sun began to heat up the afternoon, I took in my surroundings. It must have been at least fifteen years since anyone had lived there. The windows were filthy; covered with at least six inches of desert dirt and dust. Cobwebs crept over the door frame, dancing in the light breeze.

“
Where are we?”

“
Some place safe. We’re going to stay here and lie low until Animal calls.”

“
Whose house is this?”

“
You’re sure full of questions.” He said as he grinned at me. There it was—that look in his eyes that said I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. The butterflies danced around my belly. “Let’s go inside. We can do some more talking there.”

My belly began to rumble; this time from hunger. It had been at least twelve hours since I had eaten. There was no way that any food in the old desert house could possibly still be good.

I followed Shadow inside of the small, rundown shack. As I stepped over the threshold, I noticed that all of the furniture looked antique. The air was stale, yet I felt at home. We sat at the small round kitchen table.

“
Look, Tara, I’m so sorry that I got you into this mess. The last thing I want to do is drag another person into this crazy fiasco. You have to know that I respect your brother deeply and I would never put him or any of his family in this place.”

“
What’s going on?”

“
Things are complicated, Tara. I’m not sure where to even start. Me, Storm, Animal, Skull and Doom have all ran together since we were kids. All of our parents work for the government in Area 51. Since everything had to be so top secret, our parents kept us on a tight leash. As we became teenagers, we were all a little rebellious. We also learned that we could make money by controlling things. People realized that we had knowledge, which also gave us power.”

“
So, all of you created your own motorcycle club? The Black Wings?” I asked in almost a whisper, as if it were sinister to say.

“
Well, not at first. At first, we were a bunch of smart asses who liked having control and power. We realized that we could make money. Area 51 has so much security around it that nobody could do anything illegal or without government knowledge. That’s when we created the Black Wings.”

“
So, what do you guys do? Are you bad guys?” I was almost afraid to ask but I had to. If my life was at stake, I had to know what was going on.

“
Not exactly. I mean, we are no angels by far but we do some good things, like keep Area 51 safe. A lot of other MC’s and gangs would love to take Area 51 down to the ground. Because of our knowledge, we can get around security whereas no one else can. This helps other MC’s and gangs do what they need to do and it keeps Area 51 safe because we can help them get all of their illegal shit around security. Because of us, there’s no need to harm Area 51.”

“
Go on….” I said as I was mesmerized by his piercing eyes and masculine chest.

“
We started out protecting Area 51. The cartel brings shitloads of drugs into Texas and New Mexico. Their biggest problem is Area 51. Since the cartel will not cross the Mexican border, they need help. They work with a group from Las Cruces. They call themselves “La Familia”. It’s a Mexican motorcycle club.”

“
And that’s who attacked us?”

“
That’s what we think. I’m still waiting on more information from the guys.”

“
Why did they attack us? I don’t understand.” I said as I twirled my hair around my finger, giving him my best flirty eyes.

“
La Familia has always gone through us to help get drug shipments past Area 51 and into other parts of the U.S. Their leader, Paseo, doesn’t want to deal with us anymore because they have to pay a steep price. He wants to keep all of the money.”

“
So they attacked us so that they could wipe out the Black Wings? So they’d have more money?” It was all beginning to make sense to me.

“
Well, that’s only part of it. About a month ago, one of the guys was driving a suspicious vehicle. A large cargo van. It’s not their style and that’s not how they normally ship. We stopped them before they got too close to Area 51 and discovered that they were child trafficking.”

“
Child trafficking? Like selling children?”

“
If you want to call it that. They were selling young children to strangers for sex. We might not be completely on the up and up, but we do NOT stand for child sex slaves!” He said as he pounded his fist into the table.

I could see that he was getting visibly angry just thinking about it. Still, I had to know more.

“
What happened when you found the children?” My stomach began to turn as I thought about those poor children being sold for sex.

“
We made them let the children go. I called Storm and told him where we were at. He met us on site with his work van and took all of the children to an Indian reservation. We also told Paseo that it was going to cost him.”

“
Did he pay? Maybe he doesn’t have the money and that’s why he’s trying to kill you guys.”

“
No, not yet. We told him that he could not bring anymore drugs past Area 51 until he pays up. The Black Wings also delivered a strong message that we will not stand for child trafficking.”

“
What did you do?” I asked in a whisper. I was beginning to worry that I knew too much.

“
We destroyed all of their drugs after the children were safe. The cartel is not happy about that so now ‘La Familia’ is in deep shit on both sides of the border.”

“
This is a little too much to take in. You’re scaring me Shadow. What if they kill us?” My head was swimming as I tried to take in all of this information. Maybe I shouldn’t ask any more questions.

“
I’ll protect you. Now and forever. I promise.”

I smiled at him and asked, “Promise?”

He kissed me on the forehead and told me to get some sleep. We were going to have a long journey ahead of us.

Chapter Three

Morning Love

Not long after daybreak, I rolled around in bed—tossing and turning is more like it. ‘Where was Shadow?’ I wondered. Still exhausted from the day before and unable to keep my eyes open, the battle of sleep finally won. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

A few hours later, I could hear Shadow singing in the kitchen. That man had a voice from heaven. I would never get tired of listening to him belt out tunes; that is, if we stayed together forever. No one had ever said that we were anything official yet. I didn’t ask and he didn’t say. The thought had crossed my mind more than once. I wondered if he had the same thoughts as I.

Coffee! I could smell freshly brewed coffee and the sweet smell of hickory bacon sizzling in the pan. I climbed out of bed and made a quick pit stop at the lady’s room before heading to the kitchen. I stole a glance in the mirror as I passed it. I looked rough. Rough was a nice way of putting it, actually. I looked like I hadn’t brushed my hair or bathed in days. My makeup was a mess.

“
Tara?” Shadow called from the kitchen.

“
Be right there”, I answered as I tried to tame down some of my wild hair before leaving the restroom. After I finally won the battle of locks with my hair, I tried to fix my makeup and at least wipe away my raccoon eyes.

“
Come on, Tara, we don’t have much time.”

“
I’m coming” I called as I shut off the bathroom light and turned toward the kitchen.

I could see that Shadow had been up for quite a while before I crawled out of bed. He cooked us breakfast, plated it and had fresh juice on the table. For a split second, I recalled the fact that no man had ever made ME breakfast. It was always the other way around. It felt good.

“
Good morning, beautiful” Shadow said as he watched my eyes wonder around my plate. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when I began to dig into my breakfast.

“
Morning” I said as I chewed on some bacon. I gulped down my juice and asked, “What’s the plan for today?”

“
I’m still waiting on the guys to call me. I should be hearing from Animal soon. Eat up, babe. When he calls, we’ll have to leave right away.”

“
Will I have time for a shower?”

“
As long as you hurry, but at the pace that you’re inhaling your breakfast, I think you’ll have plenty of time.”

I smiled and blushed; embarrassed that he basically just called me a pig. He winked as he said it, so I think he was just teasing.

“
Where did the food come from?” I asked, remembering that there was no chance in hell that the kitchen had any good food in it.  

“
I ran into town while you were still sleeping. You’re beautiful when you’re asleep. Did you know that?”
 

“
No, I’m not. Stop it”, I giggled, “you’re embarrassing me.”

“
It’s true. I could watch you sleep all night…and I’d like to for the rest…”

The phone rang before he could finish his sentence. ‘What was he going to say?’ I asked myself. It was Animal.

“
It’s about damn time you called”. He took the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker phone, placing it on the center of the kitchen table while I gobbled down the rest of my breakfast.

Animal answered back. “I would’ve called sooner but I had to be sure. You will NEVER believe what we found out.”

“
Spill it.”

“
La Familia is definitely behind the attack. I think Paseo ordered a hit on all of us but he never hires any guys that can get the job done. Thank God.”

“
Why do you think Paseo is behind it?” Shadow asked with concern and anger in his voice.

“
We were able to catch up to one of the SUV’s that attacked us and ran the driver off the road. When the SUV finally stopped, Rico got out and took off running on foot. We chased him down and took him to an abandoned airport.”

“
Ok, so you found Rico. What else did you find out?”

“
So far he hasn’t told us much. I think you should come down here and question him for yourself. You might be able to get him to talk a little more. He’s pretty tight-lipped.”

“
Ok, are you at Scott’s old location?”

“
Yeah. It was the closest place that we could get to and question him without the others finding him.”

“
We’re on our way”, Shadow said as he hung up the phone.

“
Can I still take a shower?” I asked in a meek voice, afraid that he would say no.

“
Babe, make it quick. We have to get up there soon. I’ll get something for you to put on.”

I dashed into the bathroom, my heart beating in my chest. Was this it? Were we about to face an angry motorcycle club? I wondered if Rico had been one of the men who fired shots at us. Chills ran down my spine as I took a glimpse of my arm in the mirror, staring at the gunpowder burn from the bullets that whizzed past us.