Tarek bleeding aces mc i.., p.1
Tarek: Bleeding Aces MC Iowa, page 1
Tarek
Bleeding aces mc Iowa
erin trejo
Copyright © 2023 by erin trejo
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 1
Tarek
With my cigarette between my lips, I walk out of our strip club and into the steamy night air. I take another drag and flick the cigarette to the ground before turning and walking down the alley next to the club.
I’m halfway down the alley when I see something that doesn’t belong here. A long leg covered in dirt is stretched out from behind the dumpster.
I walk closer and squat down, touching the exposed ankle before slowly dragging my fingers up the leg. When I look up at their face, I see it’s a female. She isn’t moving. I scoot up and feel for a pulse, and when I get one, I blow out a breath.
“You ain’t dead,” I mumble to myself. I reach up, move the hair away from her face, and discover she’s beautiful. Her full lips are slightly parted, long lashes fluttering against her cheeks. I wonder how she got here. Why she’s here?
I pull my cell out and call the manager on staff in the club. Nick comes out quickly and takes a look at the girl.
“She isn’t one of ours,” he tells me.
“You haven’t seen her?” I ask, looking up at him.
“No,” he shakes his head. Well, shit. If she isn’t one of ours, what the hell is she doing back here?
“I’m takin’ her with me,” I announce as if it’s the best idea I’ve ever had.
“What the hell do you mean you’re taking her?” he asks, a little laugh in his voice.
“It means I’m takin’ her with me. We don’t need the cops around here, Nick.”
“Okay. Yeah, I get that. What are you going to do with her?”
“I don’t know yet,” I tell him as I reach over and slide my arms under her legs and neck. I lift her off the ground, and her head lolls against me. I turn on my heel and head for the truck. Thank fuck I opted to bring the cage tonight instead of my bike, or I would have had to deal with the cops.
“Open the back door for me,” I order Nick the closer we get to the truck. He walks around me and opens the back door before I slide the girl inside. Once she is situated, I close the door and step back, running my hand through my hair.
“Second thoughts?”
“Well, I don’t typically pick up random half-dead girls out of the ally.” I smirk.
“This would be a first, huh?”
“Somethin’ like that. Let me get her back to the clubhouse. You need to get back inside; shit’s pickin’ up. I’ll let you know if I find out anything about her,” I tell him. He nods and walks toward the door as I walk around the truck and climb into the driver’s seat. I start the truck, back out of the alley, and head onto the main road. I wonder what the guys will say when I bring home a half-dead woman.
I grin at the thought and drive toward the clubhouse. In no time, I’m home and pull into the parking lot. I hop out, round the truck, open the back door, and slide the girl out. I toss her over my shoulder and whistle a song as I carry her inside.
No one pays me much attention as I carry the girl through the main room and down the hall to the rooms. I could have taken her to my house, but this seemed a better idea.
I shove my door open and walk toward the bed, where I gently lay her down before checking for a pulse.
“What the hell is this?” Twitch asks. I smile at him over my shoulder as I place her on the bed. Then I pull the handcuffs from the drawer next to the bed and hook one to her wrist and the other to the headboard.
“What’s it look like?” I ask him.
“It looks like a dead girl. What the hell are you doin’ with a dead girl, Tarek?” Now I flash a bigger smile and turn to face him, my hands on my hips.
“She ain’t dead, brother.”
“She looks dead.”
“Yeah, she’s in rough shape,” I admit.
“Then what the hell happened to her?” I glance back over my shoulder at the girl before looking back at my brother.
“I don’t know. Found her like that,” I explain.
“You found a half-dead girl and decided to bring her back here?” he asks. I nod my head. Yup, that sounds about right.
“Yeah.”
“Jesus, Tarek. Do you have any idea who she is?”
“Nope. She didn’t have any ID on her,” I tell him.
“You checked?”
“Of course, I checked.”
Twitch looks around me at the girl once more, and I grin bigger. I grin like I won a fucking prize. Like I won the lottery. What the hell is wrong with me?
“I can’t believe you brought her here.”
“What was I supposed to do with her? She was outside the strip club.”
“She ain’t one of the dancers?” I shake my head.
“No. I asked Nick. He didn’t know who she was.”
“She was just lyin’ out there?”
“Yeah. Half dead,” I reply.
“So now what? What the hell are you gonna do with her?”
“Keep her.”
“Keep her? What the fuck, Tarek?”
“What? Why can’t I keep her?”
“She isn’t yours to keep! Hell, we don’t even know who the fuck she is!”
“That means nothin’.”
“You’re sick, you know that?”
“Why?”
“She’s half dead, brother!”
“Half dead. The other half ain’t dead,” I point out. Twitch runs his hand over his face, clearly exasperated with me. I can’t say I blame him, either. I can be a lot to handle.
“You have problems,” he says once more.
“I know, like, what am I gonna name her?” I tell him. He looks at me, and I mean really looks at me now. I know how to push their buttons, and I do it often. I’m good at it.
“What you’re gonna name her? That’s the only concern you have at this point?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“I’m outta here. Enjoy your dead girl.” I watch him leave before turning back to the girl on my bed.
“LaLa. I’ll call you LaLa.”
Chapter 2
Pierson
My body aches. My arm hurts. My head hurts. I didn’t know I could feel so shitty, and I’m not even dead. What a waste of pills.
I pry my eyes open, and I’m greeted with darkness. Maybe I am dead. No, I shouldn’t feel a damn thing if I was. And I can feel everything.
I groan as I try to roll to my side, but something keeps me from moving my arm. I lift my head, and nausea rolls through me. I drop my head back onto the pillow and clench my eyes shut. Memories of what I witnessed assault me. My heart picks up a beat, and I feel slightly panicky before I realize I’m not there. I’m not there anymore.
I sigh and try to open my eyes, and even though I’m dizzy, I force myself to look around. The room is dark, and I have no idea where I am or how I got here. All I remember is sitting behind the club and holding a handful of pills in the palm of my hand. Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to keep the bottle lying next to me. There was no way they would find out who the hell I was that easily.
I remember putting the pills in my mouth and swallowing them. Everything else slowly faded from there. And now here I am.
I still don’t know where here is. I blink rapidly and look at my arm. It’s being held above my head by something. That’s when the dim light filtering in through the window hits something shiny. Is that hand cuffs? My heart beats faster, and the thought of them finding me hits me hard. I’m cuffed to the bed. They found me. They had to have found me. There’s no other reason for me to be handcuffed to a bed and not dead.
I was so careful. I planned it out perfectly. No one would look in the fucking alley. No one would think to look there for me. And yet someone did. They found me, and now I’m cuffed and at their mercy.
I can feel the tears well up in my eyes before slowly running down my cheeks. They will make me pay for this. I know they will.
Just as the thought hits me, the door opens, and someone enters. I close my eyes and wish the tears weren’t staining my cheeks as a light flips on in the corner. I keep my eyes closed, pretending to be still asleep.
“How long has she been out?”
“Fuck if I know,” I hear two voices but don’t recognize either of them.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Just what I said. I don’t know.”
“About two hours,” the other responds.
“She should be wakin’ up then.” No. No, I can’t wake up and return to the horror I know is waiting. I don’t want to. I won’t do it. And now that they know I saw and ran, they will surely kill me after dragging it out.
“Then why isn’t she?” They want me awake to torture me, to draw this out and make it as painful as possible. A sob lodges in my throat when I feel hands on me. Don’t flinch, Pierson. Don’t flinch. I keep repeating to myself in my head. If they see me flinch, they’ll know I’m awake, and I can’t have that. Not yet. I have to figure out a way out of here first. I need a plan.
“Pulse is better,” the one says as he presses his fingers to my neck. “In fact, that motherfucker is thumpin’ pretty hard.” Shit. I can’t stop it!
“What do you mean?”
“She’s awake, brother. Fake sleepin’.”
“The fuck you mean she’s awake?” My pulse thumps harder against his fingers.
“Just what I said. She’s awake. Her heart is poundin’ against my fingers,” the man says. Keep calm, Pierson. Just keep calm.
“She’s clearly asleep,” the other argues.
“If you think so. She looks fine to me, though. Nothin’ much to worry about. She should be fine tomorrow.” His fingers leave my flesh, and I want to sigh in relief, but I can’t. Instead, I keep playing the sleeping role.
I listen as they move around the room before the door closes, and there’s nothing but silence. Then and only then do I open my eyes and turn my head. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have waited. Sitting there staring me down is a man I’ve never seen before. His lips curl into a grin as he looks at me and sits back in his seat.
“Hey, LaLa.” Who the hell is he talking to? Does he think I’m someone else? I don’t answer him and have no plans to do so. “Should have known you weren’t asleep.” Still, I say nothing as I stare into the man's dark eyes across the room.
“Not much of a talker?” he asks. “No. Seems not. That’s okay. You don’t need to talk. You just need to listen. I like you, LaLa. I wasn’t sure if I would, but I’ve decided I do. I don’t have many rules around here, except one, do not ignore me. When I talk, I like an answer even if it is a one-word answer.” I blink my eyes. I won’t answer him. I won’t tell him whatever it is he wants to know.
“I guess the first thing I’d like to know is why you were in that alley.” I won’t tell him. I won’t say the words, and he knows it. I can see it in his eyes.
“Remember the rule?” he asks, standing from his chair and walking toward me. He stops at the edge of the bed and kneels to be at eye level with me.
“I ask the questions, and you answer, LaLa.” His voice is calm, almost too calm. Why isn’t he hitting me? Why isn’t he beating the answer out of me? I narrow my eyes at him and take him in. He doesn’t look like one of their men. He doesn’t act like one, either. He can see me taking him in and decides to do the same. His eyes move over my face before stopping on my lips, which slowly part.
“Yeah, I like you, LaLa, but the silent thing is gonna have to end. I don’t pretend to read minds, and I sure as hell won’t start now,” he warns as his eyes come back to meet mine.
“Maybe we should start a little simpler. Like, what’s your name?” Before I can think better of it, I play along with who he thinks I am. I open my mouth and say the name he’s been calling me since I opened my eyes.
“LaLa.”
Chapter 3
Tarek
Oh, I like her. I like that she’s using my shit against me. A slight smile tugs across my face as I look at her.
“LaLa,” I repeat the name she just said. Maybe the drugs she took affected her brain. Maybe she doesn’t know who she is, and she’s just going with whatever I say.
“You were in an alley, LaLa. Do you remember that?” She shakes her head slowly but keeps her gaze locked with mine. I don’t know if she’s lying. It’s hard to tell by looking at her because she seems so calm now. Not like before when her heart was beating out of her chest.
“You were unconscious when I found you. Do you know why?” Again, she shakes her head. I want to hear her voice. I want her to answer me, but I don’t know how to make her talk. I don’t want to force her too much and have her shut down on me.
“You gotta give me somethin’ here, LaLa. What were you doin’ behind a strip club?” I wait this time. She can’t shake her head in answer this time. She has to open her mouth and give me an answer.
“I don’t know,” she whispers. That’s a start.
“You don’t remember?”
“No,” she replies softly. Maybe the drugs did a number on her. Doc said there were drugs in her system. It’s possible she doesn’t remember.
“Want me to tell you what I know?” I ask her. She nods her head slowly as she looks at me. I shift and sit back on my heels before taking a deep breath and blowing it out.
“You OD’d. Whatever pills you took, you overdosed.”
“I did?” she asks quietly. I nod my head before running my hand through my hair.
“You don’t remember what you took?”
“No.”
“Do you remember why you took them?” I ask this time.
“No.” I can see how her eyes shifted slightly, and her breathing kicked up a notch. She knows why she took them, and she isn’t telling me. And that’s okay. I don’t need her story just yet. I can wait.
“I want you to know you’re safe here. You’re safe from whatever you were runnin’ from,” I tell her. It’s true. She’s safe here, but why am I keeping her here? Why don’t I just set her free and let her go on about her life or the taking of it? No, I can’t do that. I can’t let her kill herself. I let that happen once. Never again.
“Safe?” she asks, tugging at the cuff on her arm. Smart girl.
“That’s for your safety. I can't take that off until I know what you were doin’.” Her eyes flash with anger as she looks at me and then turns away. I run my fingers along her jaw until she turns back to me.
“You can’t be trusted, LaLa. You tried to kill yourself,” I tell her. She shakes her head slowly at first before she opens her mouth.
“I didn’t.”
“Yeah, you did. There’s no sense in lyin’ to me. I know what you did,” I whisper as Lala glares at me.
“What do you want from me?” she finally asks.
“The truth, LaLa. I want the truth.” When she doesn’t move to answer me, I shove off the floor and stand to my feet. I look down at her as she watches me, but I don’t say anything else. Instead, I turn and walk to the door.
“You can’t leave me like this,” she says.
“Oh, yes, I can. I do whatever I want with you, LaLa. You belong to me now,” I inform her.
“You can’t do this! Is that what they said? That you could keep me. They’ll never let you! You have to know that,” she screams this time. That intrigues me, but I don’t let on that it does. Instead, I smile and nod before leaving the room and closing the door behind me. Ridge is coming my way, and I find myself grinning at him too.
“What are you smilin’ about?”
“LaLa’s awake,” I tell him.
“You couldn’t have come up with a better name?”
“What’s wrong with LaLa?”
“It’s stupid,” he deadpans.
“Says you. She seems to like it.”
“Is that what she said?” he asks as I shake my head.
“No. I asked her what her name was, and she said LaLa. So I assume she likes it,” I tell him.
“You’re insane. What else did she say?”
“That they won’t let me keep her.”
“Who are they?”
“Don’t know, brother. She wouldn’t say. I figured I’d give her some time to come to her senses before askin’ again. She’s been through a lot.” Ridge huffs out a laugh before scrubbing his hand over his face.
