Stepbrother Bear - Complete by Rosette Bolter Page B

introduce
themselves.
    Aiden seemed
a bit out of sorts, but otherwise made no move against them.
    The president
turned to me while this was going on.
    “You don’t
belong here,” he said.
    “Thank God,”
I replied. Then quickly added, “But of course I want to help.”
    He nodded.
“Follow me.”
    He moved
around the side of the room and back towards the entrance. He pushed open the
door and we stepped outside together. I glanced over my shoulder as the door
swung shut.
    There was an
actual smile on Aiden’s face.
    A real one.

 
    CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
     
     
    The night was so cold I could see my
breath as I walked into it. The president, Bruno Rodriguez, was just a little
ahead of me, walking across the asphalt car park, his sense of direction
assured. I didn’t know what was happening. I suddenly wished I’d never been
separated from Aiden. Even if this did mean I’d be released.
    That fleeting
idea however, was soon quashed. Bruno veered off to the side away from the
Fort’s entrance, and towards the area Aiden and I had broken in before. He
stopped in front of one of the buildings facing towards the wall, and quietly
unlocked the padlock attached to it.
    Then he
opened the door and stood back for me to enter with him.
    The door
closed behind us.
    When he
flicked the light switch, I immediately got a bad feeling. The room was bare,
but a wreck. In the back of it there was a kitchen area with used paper cups
sitting about the counter. The same cups were lying about the room in random
locations, as well as other random objects.
    Adjacent to
the kitchen area there was a double bed pressed up against the wall.
    Just the
mattress.
    No pillows or
sheets.
    I looked back
to the president.
    “Make
yourself at home,” he said.
    I gave a
hearty chuckle and started backing away from him.
    He undid his
leather jacket and pulled it off. He tossed it to the floor.
    “This is
sick,” I murmured. “You can’t do this.”
    “Do what?”
    He kept
walking forward.
    I kept
walking back.
    Soon we would
be at the bed.
    “Can you just
give me a moment to talk this through with you?” I rambled. “I mean, surely you
must be open to that.”
    He kept his
eyes on me but said nothing.
    “This is
ridiculous,” I went on. “You won’t like it at all. I’m not going to go through
with it anyway, so you’re just wasting your time.”
    The edge of
the bed pressed into the back of my knees.
    Bruno
continued forward.
    I was forced
to sit on the bed.
    He grabbed a
hold of my neck and pushed it backward. “You shouldn’t have let on you were his
sister,” Bruno said. “If I thought you were his then I wouldn’t have to do
this.”
    “Wait,” I
stammered. “I am his. That was a lie.”
    “Yeah right.”
    “I’m – I’m
serious –”

 
    CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
     
     
    Knock, knock, knock.
    Bruno looked
back to the door. His hand fell from my cheek.
    “Who’s there?”
Bruno called.
    The door
opened.
    Standing in
the middle of it was Aiden, alone.
    Bruno quickly
advanced towards him. I got up from the bed.
    “What are you
doing?” Aiden asked in a polite voice.
    “I’m getting
to know your sister for a bit,” Bruno said. “She belongs to the club now.”
    “I never said
she belonged to you,” Aiden said.
    “What do you
care?” Bruno asked. “She’s only your sister, isn’t she?”
    Aiden
blinked. “No. She is more than that.”
    “What are you
talking about?”
    “We’re
together,” I said behind them. “I was trying to tell you.”
    Aiden walked
past Bruno and stood beside me.
    “I don’t
believe you,” Bruno said. “Are you not really brother and sister then?”
    “No,” Aiden
and I both said at the same time.
    “Prove it,”
Bruno demanded.
    “How?” Aiden
replied.
    Bruno
scratched his head. “Kiss her.”
    Aiden spun me
around to face him. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.
    “Satisfied?”
    Bruno
scowled. “I didn’t mean there.”
    Aiden looked
back to me. He was almost laughing