Star
Star had just stepped out of the shower when she first heard the knocking at her front door.
“Star?” the visitor called. She took a moment to recognize his muffled voice through both the bathroom and front door. “Star? Come on, open up!”
She hadn't expected him to be back so soon, especially not after the urgent phone call with Blade, all the stuff happening with Brendon, and, of course, the argument they'd just had. He'd picked a hell of a time to come over, too. Not that she was upset, but a little bit of forewarning would have been nice.
She poked her head out the bathroom door and yelled for him to hold on. She grabbed her towel and wrapped herself up, then wove one around her hair and headed for the door.
“Coming,” she called as she unlocked the door and opened it to him.
He was through in a flash, pushing past her. “You need to pack up some clothes, we gotta go.”
“Well, hello to you, too,” Star said, sarcasm dripping from her words as she shut the door after him.
“I'm not fucking around,” he said, his eyes and the tone of his voice deadly serious. “You need to pack up some stuff and come with me.”
“Come where with you?”
“My mom's house, so I can keep you safe.”
She held a hand out in front of her, beckoning him to slow down. “Safe from what? Or who?”
“The Roaming Wolves, babe. I'm worried they might come after you if you stick around here.”
She crossed her arms across her half-naked body. “And you think your mom's place will be somehow safer? You think they came after Brendon, but your mom is in the free and clear?”
“Look,” he said, “it's easier to watch you both at the same time, okay? It's just going to be for a couple days.”
“Look, mister, you're buying yourself a baby, not me. You can't just order me around like this.”
The look on his face changed a little. He still looked like a hard ass, but something almost imperceptible softened just a bit. He crossed over to her and wrapped his arms around her.
God, those arms of his still felt amazing, even after their argument that morning. And the way he looked down at her, the way she felt safe with his hands on her. She didn't pull back, she just let herself be pulled to his warm body.
“Star, babe, I'm sorry. But, I just need you to be safe. Blade and I, we're going back to get Brendon, and I don't want to have to worry about you. But I will worry if you’re here.”
She sighed and looked away from those hypnotic eyes of his. Even though he'd only worked on her for a minute with them, she'd still felt her knees go weak.
“Fine,” she said with a groan. “Let me put some stuff together, okay? Like clothes?”
He gave her a reassuring squeeze, saying, “We'll get this worked out, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
# # #
“Mom? You here?” Tanner asked as he pushed open the front door and led Star inside the small house.
“Tanner? That you?” his mom called from the kitchen. The sound of a chair pushing back across linoleum sounded at the back of the house and a somewhat frail-looking old woman came into the living room. “Who the fuck's this?” she asked, not sparing Star's feelings.
“Star Bentley. The, uh, woman I told you about yesterday. The one Blade told you about?”
So, his mother knew about them. But, Star couldn't tell how much she knew. She didn't exactly want to tell his mother how they'd originally met. And, she imagined Tanner hadn't told her either. No one wants to tell their mom that they're paying to impregnate some woman.
Her eyes widened an almost imperceptible amount as she appraised Star and simply said, “Oh. Heard some about you, Star. Not much, though. My boy's not the talkative type, is he?”
Star could feel the judgment already, in the way his mom looked her up and down, in her tone of voice. She was silently weighing whether or not Star could handle their world, could handle being with a man like her son.
“This is my mom.”
“Call me Tova.”
Star raised a weak hand in a wave. “Hi, Tova.”
“Mom, I gotta leave Star here with you, okay?”
“What? Why? What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”
He put his hands out in an almost placating gesture. “Look, Mom, we're going out to get Brendon back. Things have sort of escalated, and the less you know the better. Meantime, Star needs to stay here with you. Make sure you stay safe.”
Tova Rainier snorted, clearly an old hand at this kind of thing. “I remember hearing shit like that from Pops all the time. Should've known I'd be hearing it from my own son one day.”
He gave a lopsided, half-hearted grin. “Well, you were right, I guess.” Tova harrumphed and turned to go back into the kitchen. The chair scraped again in the other room as Tanner turned to Star and grabbed her hand. “Alright, babe, I gotta go. Once this is all sorted, I'll come get you, okay?”
Star nodded. There wasn't much of an option to do anything else.
He gazed into her eyes. They had changed. Gone was the icy blueness. Instead, there was longing and a hint of fear. Fear that she might be injured, might be hurt by these other men. Fear that he might lose her.
She squeezed his hand.
He leaned down, kissed her softly. This wasn't a kiss like before, a kiss like when they were pawing at each other's clothes, desperate to get out of them. This was soft, sensual, caring.
Her heart leaped, sped up as his mouth brushed hers so softly.
He clenched her hand back, holding back his strength so he wouldn't hurt her. Their kiss broke and, still holding her hand, he touched her cheek. “I'll be back, okay?”
She knew he would be. She nodded, smiling, wondering how things had changed from their original pact. This was supposed to be just about getting her knocked up. He wasn't meant to touch her like this, to hold her hand so tightly and warmly.
“Okay,” she whispered back. “I'll be waiting.”
What the . . .? Did those words just come out of her mouth?
He smiled and left, shutting the door behind him.
Her knees were almost knocking together from weakness. Star turned, and looked at the old house she was going to be staying in for the next couple days. Tanner's childhood home. She leaned back against the front door and touched her cheek.
This affection, this caring . . . none of this was supposed to be part of the deal.
Out front, he started his bike up and rode away.
# # #
Tanner
“This the place?” Blade asked as Tanner signaled him to pull the pickup over.
“Yeah,” he said. He paused a moment, waiting for Blade to park the pickup, before continuing. “He was in that back alley over there.”
Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the streets were deserted. Which was a problem. If they were going to try and find Brendon, they needed people they could actually ask.
“Lemme go inside this hardware store and ask if they've seen him around,” Blade said. “Maybe someone will recognize him.”
“Sounds good,” Tanner said, as Blade got out and ran through the rain to the front door of the hardware store, arms up protectively over his head.
“Don't worry,” Cam said encouragingly from the backseat, “we'll find him.” He was dressed up in what he thought a college kid would wear. Jeans, the local school's t-shirt, and normal sneakers. His hair wasn't tied back, but instead was a unruly mob of long, brown curls.
Tanner bit the cuticle of his thumb and grunted. “This rain's just not going to help, that's all. Goddamn weather.”
He'd promised his mom they'd find Brendon and bring home, but the odds looked like they were against that. He felt dead inside, to have come this far, just to not be able to find him because of some fucking downpour.
They sat in silence in the cab of the truck, waiting. Soon, Blade came tumbling out of the hardware store and ran stomping through the puddles of water back to his truck. He was dripping with rain and the smell of wet biker filled the air when he climbed back in the cab.
“Anything?” Tanner asked.
He shook his head. “When the weather's like this, clerk said all the junkies disappear from the block. Said it seems like they got some other place they go.”
“Like a flophouse, maybe?” Cam piped up from in back.
“Yup,” Blade said. “Maybe some place they can all shoot up?”
Tanner chewed away, nodding. “Okay. So, what next? Go up to the campus?”
Blade shook his head. “Didn't you say you and your ol' lady – sorry, Star – swung by some house out here? Got some kind of information from there?”
Tanner nodded, realizing where he might have been going with this. “You think they might know?”
Blade shrugged. “Maybe. You got any better ideas?”
Tanner and Cam both shook their heads. “Wish I did,” Tanner replied.
“Well, let's go then,” Blade said, starting the pickup. “Weather ain't getting any better just sitting parked here.”