KNOW ME (DEFIANT Motorcycle Club)(9)

put my question into words.  “So, as far as Orion goes.  I mean, he’s sort of a good

guy, right?”
Rachel’s face grew thoughtful.  “Sometimes,” she said carefully.  Her answer didn’t

make me feel much better.
I didn’t see Orion for the rest of the afternoon.  Rachel fed me and clothed me and

took me on a walk around Quartzsite.  We visited a small drugstore where I was able to

use the money Orion had given me to buy a few necessities.  After that we came across a

curious secondhand bookstore which was housed in a ramshackle building and overseen by

an old man who didn’t wear clothes.  Belatedly I noticed the ‘Nudist on the Premises

’ signs.  I bought a pile of books anyway, figuring they might be a worthy distraction

from whatever the coming days had in store.
As Rachel and I returned to the Riverbottom the sun was beginning its slow descent.  I

lowered my head, feeling a tear escape.
“What’s wrong, hon?” Rachel circled an arm around me.
I managed to give her a weak smile.  “I just wish it was yesterday, that’s all.”
Rachel nodded with sympathy and didn’t ask any further questions.
Inside the bar a group of men were gathered in a circle, Orion at the center.  They all

wore the identities of the Defiant.  Orion noticed us walk in and he nodded, beckoning.
A row of shot glasses lined the bar.  Each man took one as did Rachel.  Orion placed

one in my hand and I looked around uncertainly.
When Orion started to speak his voice was thick and mournful.
“I lost a brother today.  Crest Tolleson was like my other half from the time I could

walk.  He was a hell of a man, a hell of a rider.  And shit, even though we parted ways

a decade ago, I’ll miss him every f*cking day.”  Orion tipped his head back and

swallowed the shot.  I thought I saw tears in the corners of his eyes.
Everyone else seemed to take that as their cue to drink and so I did the same.  A long

moment of silence followed.  My head was beginning to swim; from exhaustion, from the

alcohol, from the stress and grief of my father’s murder.  There would be no funeral. 

This was the only goodbye I would get.
Orion’s voice reached me clearly.  “Rachel,” he ordered.  “Put her to bed.”
Rachel led me back to the room which Orion had taken me to earlier.  I guessed it

belonged to him.  As I did as well, I reminded myself.  I let Rachel help me into a

soft t-shirt and then sank onto the bed.  For a long time I slept and it was,

mercifully, dreamless.




Chapter Five


I awoke with a mighty gasp, bolting upright.  The room’s small window let in enough

light so that I was able to identify the time as somewhere in the middle of the

morning.
A quick glance around the room reminded me of everything.  The terror of yesterday, the

heartbreaking loss of my father, and finally the odd arrangement I’d somehow agreed

to.
Speaking of which, the man who had announced that today he would f*ck me until I couldn

’t stand sat watching me from a small table in the corner.  Spread out in front of him

were the books I’d purchased from the naked bookseller.
I stared warily back at Orion Jackson.
He motioned to the books, reading off the titles.  “Oliver Twist, Catcher in the Rye,

Wuthering Heights.”  Orion lit a cigarette and blew a plume of smoke toward the

ceiling.  “You’ve a taste for the classics, huh?”
I nodded, pulling my knees up to my chest.  “I’ve read them all before.”
“Then why the hell would you read them again?”
I shrugged.  “Familiarity.  I enjoyed those stories.  They made me happy.  And I guess

now they remind me of being home.  I was studying English Lit, you know.  To be a

teacher.”
Orion leaned back in his chair, taking another drag from his cigarette.  He wore no

shirt again and I tried to keep myself from staring at the tanned and muscled expanse

of his chest.  He grinned at me.  “You sleep like a f*cking rock.”
I was startled, then noted the rumpled pillow next to me.  “You slept here?”
Orion blew more smoke.  “I live here, Kira.”
“Right.” I hugged my knees more tightly.
For a fleeting second a strange look sifted across the rugged features of Orion’s

face.  I thought I saw something like uncertainty trouble his blue eyes.  And then it

was gone.
“Rachel left you some more clothes.”  He motioned to the pile by the door.  “She’ll

take you shopping today if you like.”
“Okay,” I sighed, and rose tentatively off the bed.  “Um, I need to use the

bathroom.”
“Are you asking for permission for Christ sake?”
“No,” I flushed hot in the face and picked up the pile of clothes.  “I was just,

well, I mean because of what you promised yesterday…”
He laughed.  “Yeah, something about f*cking you until you’re raw, right?”