Black Wings MC: The Novel (Motorcycle Club Romance) (17 page)

“
Well?” Shadow asked.

“
Yeah, I think I can but we need to get back to headquarters. I have some tools at the clubhouse that I should be able to use.”

“
Shadow? What if they can tell that you’ve disarmed it?” Tara asked, fearful of what the cartel would do.

“
Baby, I told you. Don’t worry. Even if they can see that it’s been disarmed, what are they going to do all the way in Mexico? You’re safe now.”

“
Shadow…it’s just that, well….I don’t want them to come after me, or you, or anyone else.”

“
Don’t worry about it baby.” He said as he stroked her hair behind her ear.

Shadow helped Tara onto the back of his bike as the MC headed back to headquarters. With one arm broken, she was only able to hold onto Shadow with her good arm. It felt good to be holding on to him, even if she was in immense pain. The ride seemed to take forever as the MC rode down the highway. Tara was worried if the cartel had put a tracking device on the bomb. When they got to headquarters, she stopped Hawk before they went inside.

“
Hawk, do you think there’s a tracking device on this thing?” She asked as she pointed to her back.

“
Nah, I checked that when I was looking it over. I don’t think they’re smart enough to do that. It looks like a pretty simple, homemade bomb.”

Tara followed him inside with Shadow right behind her. Hawk had her lay face down on an old tattoo chair that was near the bar and asked her to remove her shirt. After she took her shirt off, Hawk got down to business. Shadow watched intensely as Hawk wiggled wires and disconnected various components of the bomb.

“
There ya go, good as new”, Hawk said as he patted Tara on the back.

“
Really? That’s it?” She asked, shocked that he had already disarmed the bomb.

Hawk nodded at her, indicating that she was safe now. Tara smiled the biggest grin she had ever had and threw her arms around Shadow. “Oh my God, babe, I never thought I would hug you again.” She said as she drank in his smooth, clean scent. He could feel her entire body relax as he wrapped his arms around her.

“
It’s over babe. It’s all over. You’re safe now. Let’s get you to a hospital.”

“
But what about those children?” She asked once more.

“
They’re going to be ok. Skull and Animal are going to take them some place safe so that they’ll never be hurt again. Let’s go.”

Before Tara could respond, Shadow had her out the door and was helping her into the van. Within minutes, they were on their way to the hospital. During the drive, they rehearsed what she would say as to how her arm got broken. They decided on a story that she was moving some of the baby’s bedroom furniture around by herself, refusing to wait for help, when she had a horrible back cramp and jerked up on it, causing her arm to break. They rehearsed the story over and over on the way to the hospital.

Within five hours, Tara and Shadow were leaving the hospital and on their way home. Tara couldn’t stop thinking about those poor, sad, scared children. “Where were they taking them?” She finally asked, breaking the silence in the van.

“
Who?” Shadow asked, unsure of what she was referring to.

“
All of those children”, she replied.

“
Oh! Them. One of the guys knows someone at a nearby Indian reservation. It’s pretty isolated. They’re going to drop them off there for now until we can figure out something better to do with them.” Tara felt relieved that the children and women would be safe. She began to doze off until they arrived home. As Shadow pulled into the driveway, a groggy Tara began to awake.

“
It’s ok babe. You can stay asleep. I’ll carry you to bed.” He softly whispered to her. Tara nodded her head in agreement.

Shadow walked over to the passenger side of the van and opened the door. Studying her arm cast, he developed a plan on how to get her into their bedroom without hurting her. He slowly lifted her out of the seat of the van and carried her up their front steps. Before going inside, he caught a glimpse of the soft moonlight stroking her cheek. She was absolutely beautiful and he could stare at her face forever. He continued inside and carried her to the bed. Helping her take off her pants, he helped her into bed and tucked her in before climbing in next to her.

Chapter Twenty-One

Moving Along

The next morning, Tara awoke completely starving to death. It felt like she hadn’t eaten in years. She looked over to her left and saw that Shadow was already out of bed. Stretching first, she got out of bed and slipped on her silk robe before heading downstairs to see where he was. As she reached the top of the stairs, she smelled food cooking. She smiled as she raced down the steps, still cradling her broken arm that was now set in a cast.

“
MMMmmm”, she said as she walked into the kitchen. “That sure smells delicious!” Her eyes danced over the stove top as she saw the pancake batter beginning to brown.

“
Are you hungry?” Shadow asked as he kissed her good morning.

“
Starving!” she replied.

Tara walked over to the cabinets and reached for two glasses. As she made her way over to the fridge, she couldn’t help but notice that Shadow was watching her every move. She continued on to pour each of them a glass of juice.

Sensing that he was still watching her, she turned and looked over her shoulder. “What?” She finally asked.

“
What?” he answered.

“
Why do you keep staring at me?”

“
It’s just good to have you home. I was worried that I’d never get to watch you prance around the house again.” He began to make his way toward her.

“
Well, it’s good to be back home. I must admit, I was a bit worried too.”

Shadow wrapped his arm around her small, pregnant waist. “Did they treat you ok? Did they hurt you?”

“
Shadow…”, Tara responded. She held a finger up to his lips to silence him.

“
No, Tara, I need to know.” He demanded in a soft voice.

“
I’m fine.”

“
That’s not what I asked. Did they hurt you?”

“
It’s over now. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
I didn’t ask if you wanted to talk about it. Are you ok?”

Tara was hesitant to answer him. She knew that if she told him all of the things that she saw and heard, as well as what they did to her, he could never live with himself.

“
Yes, I’m ok. I saw some things that I wish I would’ve never seen in a million years. They are some bad people, Shadow. I don’t like you dealing with them.”

“
I know baby.” He said as he brushed her hair out of her face. “If they hurt you in any way, I’ll kill them.”

She got on her tippy toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m ok, I promise.”

Tara wouldn’t dare tell them how they only gave her crackers to eat and warm water to drink; nor would she tell him how they argued over who would rape her first. She also didn’t tell them how they raped some of the younger girls repeatedly in front of anyone and everyone. She knew those were things he could not live with.

“
You need to call your doctor. You missed your appointment while they were holding you hostage. I also want to make sure that you’re really ok and that the baby is fine.”

“
I know. I thought about that the second day that they had me. I’ll call as soon as I eat.”

Tara walked over to the stove and began to remove the pancakes that were a little overly cooked. After she plated their food, she walked their plates over to the table one at a time and began to stuff her face as soon as she sat down. Shadow smiled as he watched her scarf down her breakfast. He knew that she hadn’t been fed well and was glad to see her eating.

When breakfast was over, Shadow cleared the table since she couldn’t do much with only one good arm. Tara pulled her doctor’s card out of her purse and called the doctor to reschedule her appointment. While the doctor’s office had her on hold, she began to think about all of the events that had occurred over the past week; and then she thought about those children. ‘The children!’, she thought. Surely the cartel had to know by now that those children never made it to the Arizona border. After she hung up with her doctor, she went to find Shadow. He was upstairs taking a shower in the master bath.

“
Shadow!”

“
What?”

“
Have you heard from the MC? The cartel has GOT to know by now that those kids didn’t make it to the border.”

“
Yeah, don’t worry about it babe. We’ve got everything under control.”

“
Don’t worry about it? You weren’t the one with the bomb strapped to your back! Tell me what’s going on. Have you guys heard from the cartel or not?” Tara was becoming angry.

“
What did your doctor say?” Shadow said, trying to change the subject.

“
I’ll tell you what he said when you tell me what the cartel said.”

Shadow rolled his eyes as he rinsed the soap off of his muscular body. “Miguel is pissed. They say we’ve got one coming to us. Animal is taking care of things right now.”

“
And what about me? Do they know that we disarmed the bomb?”

“
I’m not sure if they know that or not. Now tell me, what did your doctor say?”

She thought about it for a moment before responding. “Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there is an opening tomorrow and they can work me in. The bad news is that I can’t get the ultrasound until next week.”

Shadow turned off the steaming shower and wrapped his towel around his waist before climbing out of the shower. Tara loved to his naked, muscular body. Even though he didn’t work out, he was still pretty cut. She decided to drop the cartel bit for a little while but she made a promise to herself while she was captive that she would ensure that she always knew what was going on. Her turning a blind eye may have left her a vulnerable and easy target.

The next day, she and Shadow went to her doctor appointment. The doctor took all of Tara’s vital signs and listened to the baby’s heart beat. After a thorough examination, he announced that mom and baby were just fine but he did warn Tara about her weight. She needed to eat more to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Shadow glared at Tara with an “I told you so” look on his face. She rolled her eyes at him.

“
Well, only a few more days until we know if it’s a boy or a girl.” She said as they held hands while walking out of the doctor’s office.

“
Yep, just a few more days. It’s on Tuesday, right?”

“
Yeah, Tuesday afternoon. I can’t wait.”

That evening, they were going out to dinner but Shadow needed to stop by the clubhouse before they went. “I don’t understand why we ALWAYS have to go to the clubhouse, even when we’re on a date.” She said, obviously annoyed.

“
Because I’m the president and I need to take care of something.” He explained as he hopped out of the jeep.

Tara waited in the car while Shadow went inside. Shadow needed to talk to the MC about the cartel and find out the latest scoop. Animal informed him that the cartel was pissed about the children not making it to the border. They were demanding to know where a van-f of children and women went.

“
So what did you tell them?” Shadow asked.

“
I just said that they were all safe and that they could go fuck themselves.” Animal told him.

“
What did they say?”

“
They said they were going to kill that pregnant little bitch and hung up on me.”

“
Who? Tara?” Shadow asked.

“
That’d be the only pregnant person that I know.” Animal replied.

“
So do they think she’s dead?”

“
I haven’t heard back so I’d assume that they think so.”

“
Good.” Shadow said. “I’d rather they think she’s dead than them come back for her.”

Animal nodded in agreement. “Hey, do you have that thing that we picked up?” Shadow asked Animal.

Animal looked at Shadow as if he were speaking Swahili. “You know, that thing!” Shadow gave him a look that spelled out exactly what he was referring to.

“
Oh..oh yeah! I got it, follow me.” Animal said as he picked up on what Shadow was talking about.

After Shadow was finished inside the clubhouse, he returned to the car and apologized for taking so long. “They think you’re dead.” He told her as she drove off.

“
They do?”

“
Yeah, Animal said that they told them the pregnant bitch is dead since the kids didn’t make it to the border and we haven’t heard anything back from them. We’re assuming that’s what they think anyway.”