Page 116 of Talon (Road Rebels MC 2)
“Come back to the booth when you get the refill,” Viper said in a commanding voice and then he turned from me and walked back to the other guys.
I stared at them sitting together and gulped. How badly did I want to see Gunner again? Enough to risk his life and my freedom? These guys were capable of anything if they thought one of their women was under threat.
***
I was back to sitting with the group after getting the soda refill for Pike, and I tried not to look at Viper, even though he was constantly glaring at me.
The others had migrated from making jokes and guessing who I was out with the previous night; to talking about women in general.
“And the tits on her!” one of them said and I tried not to think too much about the way they were talking about women. I wondered then if Gunner was having breakfast somewhere with his friends and talking about me that way. Although, I couldn’t imagine him actually saying these words. Not after the way he had looked at me. I knew I might have been imagining it entirely, but I felt like we had a connection…we’d experienced a spark the previous night.
“She practically begged me and I was surprised by how tight she was. Like, she gets around you know,” Pike’s voice interrupted my thoughts and I felt a wave of nausea rise up in me at the thought of this poor woman, whoever she was, being talked about like this.
“It’s because she’s flexible. She can really stretch herself,” one of the others said and they all broke into a gut-wrenching laughter.
I knew they all took turns in fucking the groupies who hung around the club. Women who idolized these men and would have done anything, given anything to feel like they were being noticed. I’d seen the women who’d thrown themselves at daddy over the years. Some of whom, I knew he was sleeping with. As did Luke…but they both kept their mouths clean around me. If they ever spoke about these women in this way, they didn’t do it around me. Until now.
“Have you sampled the new one? What’s her name? Natasha, Anastasia or something,” one of them said.
“Nikita,” Viper cut in, but when I looked up at him, his eyes were still on me. He was watching my every move, my every reaction as though he was looking for some sort of sign.
I tried not to worry about him finding out about Gunner, but I couldn’t help it. I’d seen these guys beat people to a pulp. I was sure that they’d killed people too. I knew Gunner had been in the military, but how was he going to defend himself against an entire group of Dragon Knights?
Another laughter from the group interrupted my thoughts, and I looked around the table, still silent because of course, I wasn’t supposed to participate in this particular conversation.
“We need to figure out the payment system though,” one of them said and I crossed my brows, confused. How had the conversation jumped from them laughing about their groupies to making money?
“Someone counts it after every session. Simple as that. We can’t trust these bitches and they probably can’t even count,” Pike said and they laughed again.
I was even more confused. Why were the women expected to count money?
“I mean, have you ever seen them count?” someone said and I parted my lips to speak. I couldn’t help myself but ask what they were talking about.
“Morning boys, Brooklyn, your shift began ten minutes ago,” Tommy, the diner’s owner, had walked up to our booth and was now standing with his hands on his hips, trying to be polite and authoritative at the same time.
“So what?” Viper snapped at Tommy and I watched Tommy flinch. Everyone knew who the Dragon Knights were and they were all appropriately afraid.
“I just wanted to drop in and remind her,” Tommy said, throwing a nervous smile around the table.
“She’ll start working when she fucking wants to,” one of the guys thundered and Tommy had already started backing away.
I really wanted to stay and listen to the rest of the conversation, and ask them what kind of payment they were talking about. But then I figured, that it had something to do with their business and it wasn’t like they were going to let me in on it anyway.
“I should go,” I said and stood from the seat. Viper caught my wrist again and some of the guys hooted.
“Meet us at the bar tonight,” he said to me and from the look in his eyes, I could see that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“I’m working at PJ’s tonight,” I lied to him, trying to keep my shoulders from shaking as he watched me.
“You work too hard sweetheart,” one of the boys told me, while Viper’s grip remained tightly wound around my wrist. He was beginning to hurt me, but I couldn’t protest. In his mind, he believed that he was keeping me safe.
I smiled at them weakly.
“I like to keep busy. I’ll see you guys around. Thanks for dropping in,” I said and tugged my hand away from Viper.
I flipped around and walked away from them, aware of their eyes on me the whole time.
The diner had started getting busy with the breakfast crowd now and I could see the relief in Tommy’s eyes, when he saw me putting on my apron.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Tommy. The boys are just rowdy is all,” I said to him, stuffing a few notepads and pencils into my pockets.
“Not at all!” he said, busying himself with the food so that he didn’t have to look me in the eye. I knew what he thought though…that he had made the biggest mistake by hiring me, but what other choice did he have? Some of the guys from the club had walked in one day and commanded him to take me on. Tommy had to fire someone else to accommodate my wages but he did it, because he was afraid of them. Everyone in these parts were afraid of them…afraid of us…afraid of me.
I’d led my whole life trying not to think about it.
9
Gunner
Hunter was smoking a cigarette, as he leaned against my old beat-up car. We’d been waiting there, staring at the abandoned warehouse for about fifteen minutes. I was the only one who owned a car, while the others rode Harley’s; so, I drove them for the recon mission.
Axel had assigned Tank and Glock to find out what was going on with the Dragon Knights, and they had brought Hunter, Sniper and me along as backup.
We were leaning behind the car, trying to keep a low profile and our eyes on the warehouse in the distance behind the barbed wire fencing. It wasn’t too far away and with the lack of buildings or structures around it, we could hear their voices as and when they appeared.
Not a lot of the Dragon Knights members were around and it was the middle of the day, which meant that we hadn’t been noticed yet.
“So, what are we doing here, again?” Sniper asked, sucking in a mouthful of smoke from his own cigarette.
Tank had been looking through the windows of the car, across to the warehouse, and he straightened himself up.
“Trying to see if these bastards are running a sex trade,” he said and took the cigarette from Sniper to take a drag.
“How are we gonna figure that out?” Sniper asked and Tank and Glock exchanged humorous looks.
“We sit here and watch this place till we get a clue,” Glock said and looked over his shoulder at the warehouse again. We hadn’t seen any of the DK members in a while and everything was quiet around us.
“So, this is their storage space or something?” Hunter asked and Glock grinned at him again.
“What are all these questions for?” Tank snapped in a growly voice.
“He’s only a baby, cut him some slack brother,” Sniper said and I watched as the orange glow at the end of his cigarette began to die as he took one of his last drags. I’d given up smoking when I joined the Army, but I missed it sometimes. The power I had over a burning object in my mouth…the smell of nicotine on my fingers.
“Well, the warehouse is full of storage containers,” Glock said. “So, it’s likely that they’re storing something in there,” he added.
“Like drugs or weapons?” Sniper asked and Tank shrugged his shoulders.
“In all probability,” he said.
“It’s not like they’ll keep their women in there right?” Hunter clarified and Glock exchanged looks with Tank again.
“Anything is possible. This is why Axel wanted us to check this place out,” he said.
I was staring at the warehouse, standing with my hands stuffed into the pockets of my jeans when we saw a girl walking around the front of the warehouse. We could hear her heels clicking against the hot concrete as she walked.
