New Title 6 (20 page)

 Skepticism
ran through my mind; still, I took a seat opposite him as he sat behind a large
wooden mahogany desk that held papers scattered everywhere. “You have a nice
home,” I said.
Why am I being polite to the guy?
I cleared my throat.
“Um, I mean, what am I doing here?”

 “Thank
you to the first.” He smiled. “And to the second, I have some questions, to
which I am sure you will have the answers for.”

 “Sorry,
but I doubt that. I don't know you.” I looked down to my lap and adjusted my
skirt.

 “Pam,
please come in,” he called.

 I
turned in time to see the door open, and my jaw dropped. In walked the Pamela
Anderson-wannabe from swimming this morning.

 “You
have got to be shitting me,” I uttered. My eyes watched her as she walked over
to...heck, I didn't even know the guy’s name, and stood beside him smiling
smugly.

 “I
can see that you recognize my girlfriend, Pam Knowles.”

 I
snorted. I couldn't help it, and said, “Seriously, buddy, you need to find a
new girlfriend.”

 He
glared at me. “So what happened this morning was true? You verbally insulted
and harmed Pam in front of my child.”

 I
gasped.

 “You
see, Zara, I do not take kindly to this type of behavior in front of my child,
and I do not appreciate having my girlfriend mentally and physically hurt.”

 I
slapped my hands on the desk and stood yelling, “Say what now? Look, buddy, I
don't know who you are, and you seem like a nice sort-of-guy, but I can tell
you now, I never did anything to your Pamela Anderson-wannabe.”

 “She's
lying,” Pam spat.

 “Oh
my frigging God. Are you really trying this on?” I glared and turned to her
fella, offered an eye roll and added, “Buddy—”

 “Travis
Stewart,” he supplied.

 I
sighed deeply. “Travis, I didn't even see a child with her. I only approached
her because she was, and I'm sorry to tell you this, hitting on
my
man
in front of
his
child. My man’s son found me sitting down and he looked
worried by it, so I got up to get rid of her. I may have called her a dog in
heat, but other than that, I never did or said anything that was not
appropriate.” I raised my hands in the air and let them fall. “This is why I
was tasered and brought here? Jesus, how bad is my luck right now? You know
what? I really don't need this. I have enough going on.” I flopped back in the
chair.

 “I'm
sorry, Zara—”

 “What
are you apologizing to her for?” Pam snapped.

 Travis
glared up at her. “Clearly, she is having a hard time in life at the present
time.” He stood to gaze down at her; she took a step back. “Tell me, Pam, is it
true what you have told me, or is what Zara was saying true?”

 “Travy,
it wasn't like that; she's lying.”

 We
all turned to the door when we heard a commotion outside of it. The door flew
open, and in it stood Violet holding out her gun, pointing it inside the room.

 “Travis?”
She looked as though she knew him. She relaxed her form and stepped further in.

 I
looked from Vi to Travis, and then back. Wait a cotton pickin' minute. “That's
your Travis?” I gasped. I turned back to Travis and appraised him in a new
light.

 “Violet.
What are you doing here?” He was clearly shocked.

 Vi
shook her head and placed her gun away.
Hang on,
s
hould she really be
carrying a gun?
Because when I left, she was well on her way to being
drunk. And where in the heck was Talon?

 “I
came for Zara.” She walked over to stand beside me.

 “Where
are my men?”

Vi
shrugged. “Unconscious. Travis, what's going on here? Why kidnap Zara?”

 “Pam
here told me Zara abused her in front of my child. I couldn't stand for that; I
needed to have a word with her.”

Vi
scoffed. “Zara wouldn't hurt a fly.” She jerked her head sideways to Pam.
“She's lying.”

 “I
am not,” Pam screeched.

 “Oh,
just give up,” I said to her, then to Travis, “Ask my man; he'll tell you.”

 “Travis,”
Vi said, catching his attention. “You
really
should have went about this
in a different way.”

 “Why?”

 “She's
Hawks property.”

 “Fuck,”
he hissed. “Whose?”

 “Talon
Marcus.”

 “Christ.”
He turned to Pam; just from his look, I would have been scared as well. She was
taking step after step away from him. “Get the fuck out of my house. You lied,
and now I have this shit to fix; you're fuckin' lucky I don't kill you. You
stupid bitch, in front of my baby; you whored yourself in front of her?” He ran
a hand through his hair. “Leave. Now.”

 She
ran from the room.

 “Christ.
Fuck!” Travis said as he paced the room, only to stop behind the desk again. “I
am truly sorry for this, Zara.” He looked to Violet. “When will I be hearing
from Talon?”

 “Not
sure. He doesn't know yet.”

 Scoffing
I asked, “How'd you pull that off?”

 “I
told the guys I'd be able to get you back before he found out. It was just
lucky I saw those idiots leaving with you over one’s shoulder. I followed and
rang Griz on the way. He freaked; I told him I'd have you back soon, so we
better get going.”

 “Wow,
you’re like a super-agent.” I grinned.

 “Yes.”
I watched Travis smiled appreciatively, his gaze wandering up and down Vi's
body. He turned back to me. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do
for you. Again, I am sorry for the way my men treated you, and for
this...terrible misunderstanding. I'm sure I'll be hearing from Talon soon.”

 “Don’t
worry too much; it wasn't so bad, and I'll let Talon know that. I'm just
thankful you know what a...nasty person your girlfriend is now. No one needs
that around their child.”

 “That's
true. You sound like you speak from experience.”

 I
smiled. “I have a six-year-old daughter. It was just lucky enough I got away
from my nasty before it could touch her.”

 “Zara,
we better go,” Vi said.

 “Maybe
one day, when we have more time, you could explain further on that topic?”

 I
cocked my head to the side. “You know what, maybe one day I will. And I'm sure
Violet would love to come along as well.”

 He
smirked, knowing full well that I knew about their past. “That would be
wonderful. Coffee with two beautiful women.”

 “Alrighty,
I'll be in touch; it was nice to meet you, Travis, and I'm glad it was you who
kidnapped me.” I smiled brightly and walked to the door with Violet following
as she laughed.

 Travis
cleared his throat and said, “I had heard Talon had claimed an old lady. Now I
can see why he has done it so quickly. I look forward to seeing you
both
soon. Please remember that if there is anything you need, call upon me.”

 “You
may regret that,” I said.

 He
chuckled.

 We
got outside to a vehicle that wasn't familiar to me. I looked at Violet, who
was staring back smiling. “Whose is this?” It certainly was a beauty.

 We
both got in before she answered, “Not sure. I had to find something quick to
follow. But at least I'll be dropping it back, and hopefully, whoever this baby
belongs to, they will be none the wiser.” We both giggled.

 What
a frigging night.

Arriving
back at the pub I could already see Griz, Pick, Deanna, Julian, and Blue
standing outside waiting for us. As soon as we pulled up, my door was flung
open, and I was pulled from the car by Blue, who examined my body for any signs
of injury. Well, that was what I guessed he was doing when he ran his hands
over me.

 Deanna
shoved him out of the way saying, “You can cop a feel later. Bitch, what the
fuck?” She grabbed me into a tight hug; a second later Julian joined in.

 “Guys,
it’s all okay. It was
all
a misunderstanding. Travis didn't know his men
were going to taser me—”

 “You
were fuckin' tasered?” Griz roared.

 “Holy
Mother Mary.” Julian gasped; tears welled in his eyes.

 “Asses.
I'd like to have a chance at tasering them back,” Deanna said with an evil look
in her eyes as she rubbed her hands together.

 “Shit,
we need to tell Talon,” Pick whispered. He looked worried.

 “Don't
worry, Pick. I'll explain it calmly and sweetly, and things will be fine,” I
reassured him.

 Well,
that's what I thought would have happened. I didn't expect what did.

V
iolet parked the car that she stole back where it was, and
thankfully, no one had been out looking for it. Vi ended up coming in Griz’s
car with us so we could drop her at home along the way. She sat in the middle
of Julian and Deanna, as I was up in the front with Griz this time. On the way,
she explained a few things about good-old-rough-loving-Travis. They met in
University, both sharing a love of Math. They'd dated for a year, had
mind-blowingsex (her words, not mine), but then he chose to move to Melbourne.
He'd asked Violet to come with him; she said she wasn't ready for that. She
loved the country and her family too much to leave it behind. He made the
decision to still leave; they visited and wrote for a while longer, but their
lives eventually changed. They both became busy with their careers and drifted
apart. I could tell it was something she had always regretted.

 Travis
was now a top-notch-businessman. Well, he'd have to be to have security men
working for him—who tasered people. I doubted I would ever get over that fact.

 Travis
also had that huge-ass house and expensive suit, which explained that he had
money. So what had he been doing with a fluff-head like Pam instead of tracking
down Violet? Someone had better have a talk with him. Of course, that someone
had to be me. I smiled to myself and gave a mental pat on my back.

 After
dropping Vi off, we pulled up to the compound. I hadn't been watching where we
were heading—again, so I wasn't expecting it to be here. I just assumed Talon
had left me to have a good night with the girls—Julian was now one of the
girls— and had gone home to the kids.

 Wow,
that sounded fan-blooming-tastic in my head.
Gone home to the kids.

 So
I was a little confused to why Talon would still be here at one in the morning.
And how had Griz known he was here?

 Pick
was ahead and he opened the door to the motorcycle clubhouse, which I had never
been inside before. What I had expected (which was run down, dirty and smelly)
was so different to what I saw. As we entered, there was a small hallway with a
room on each side. The doors were closed, so I didn’t get to see what was
behind them. The hallway led us into...I supposed you could call it the main
common room. It was large. Two massive tables and chairs were off to the left,
and just behind them was a bar where three bikers sat whom I hadn’t met. To the
right of the room was a row of couches where they’d sit back, chill, and shoot
the shit. Right in front of us, across the empty wooden floor, was another long
hallway that was aligned with many other doors.