KNOW ME (DEFIANT Motorcycle Club)(17)

kept regular hours but Monday morning likely wasn’t a popular drinking occasion no

matter where you were.
Rachel was her usual chatty self and I listened carefully as she told me about the men.

She had definite opinions about all of them and she spoke freely.  Teague was an

*.  Maddox played too hard.  Brandon was still wet behind the ears despite being

a former Marine.  She rattled them off one by one as if recounting the traits of her

brothers.
“And Casper?” I smiled, rolling pretzel crumbs into a pile.
“Hard ass with a wicked humor who gets me hotter than the desert sand in July.”
I had one more question.  “Orion?”
That one she hesitated to answer.  “Yeah, he’s tough.  Don’t think you can lie and

get away with it.  I swear there’s a supernatural sense in those wild blue eyes.  But

you should make up your own mind about him.”
“Fair enough.”
The two women I had seen were a pair of sisters named Talia and Adele.  Rachel said

Adele was sweet but Talia was a sneaky bitch who hid it well under innocent eyes.  She

was on and off again with Grayson, a blustery ex con from New York who was the newest

to the club.
I enjoyed Rachel’s company a great deal.  Crest had never approved of my associating

too freely with the women who hung around the Warlocks, though a few of them had taken

an interest in a motherless girl being raised among men.  Maybe my father saw them as

something inferior to what he expected his daughter to be.  Or maybe he figured I was

something like my mother and wouldn’t be happy in their rough world.
When the door to the bar opened I was startled.  We’d been idling around for a few

hours and aside from the brief occasion Talia popped her head in only to be barked at

by Rachel, we hadn’t seen anyone else.
There were two of them and they wore denim cuts which said ‘Mojave Marauders’.  A

quick glance at Rachel told me she was immediately uneasy but in one blink she buried

the look.  She motioned for me to retreat and turned to smile at the men.
“Been a while, Angelo.  Boys aren’t around but I’ll get you whatever you’re thirsty

for.”
I headed down the hallway which led to the back door, all the while feeling eyes

appraising my bare legs.
One of them chuckled, addressing Rachel.  “Fresh meat?”
I sharply turned a corner and flattened myself against the wall.
“New girl.  Her name’s Kasey and don’t get any ideas.  She’s already spoken for.”
“Who’s doing the speaking?”
“The boss.”
“Ah, enough said.  Just give us a few cold ones and we’ll enjoy the atmosphere for a

few minutes before leaving you to your housekeeping.”
The fact that Rachel felt it necessary to lie about my name was enough to let me know I

ought to stay put until the place was clear.
Angelo and his buddy drank and casually joked with Rachel for about twenty minutes

before moving on.  I heard the crank of their bikes as they fired up the engines and

rolled out.
I counted to fifty and returned to the bar.  Rachel was folding white dish towels.
“Did Orion tell you to do that?”
“Give you an alternate identity?  Not in so many words.  He said anyone who would ask

after you doesn’t need to know anything.”
I nodded, a growing disquiet in my gut.  “So he’s worried.”
Rachel straightened the long chain of the silver cross she wore around her neck.  “He

’s being cautious, Kira.  If he was really worried he wouldn’t have left you here

alone.”
Rachel let me linger around a while longer and then decided it probably wasn’t a good

idea for me to be hanging out in the bar until I talked to Orion.
I wasn’t especially pleased at the thought of returning to the silent house.  But with

the ache in my most tender parts I wasn’t up to walking around too much.  I looked

through the pile of books I’d acquired and finally settled down for a long spell with

Dune.  I’d always loved the intricacies of Frank Herbert’s world and my new, sparse

surroundings were strangely reminiscent of Arrakis, the perilous desert planet. 

Reading had been my escape ever since I was a little girl.  For a long time my most

prized possession was a small case filled with Golden Books with titles like Pokey

Little Puppy and Tawny Scrawny Lion.
The day passed quickly and as the darkness began to descend bringing with it the yips

of nearby coyotes, I was struck by the sudden recollection of who had given me that

treasured book collection.  It had been a birthday gift.  From Orion Jackson, my father

’s best friend.




Chapter Eight


I slept later than I’d meant to.  As I sat up I listened carefully.  Only silence

answered.  Orion hadn’t yet returned.
As I pushed the covers back I felt a bit petulant.  Was this how it would be?  Orion

would just use me for what he needed and take off without a word of explanation,