Chapter 8
Brooklyn
I was giddy, feeling a wobble in my knees as I entered the diner for my morning shift. The previous night with Gunner had given me wind beneath my wings. I’d never thought that someone could make me feel this way. Make me forget my biggest losses. And yet, even though Luke was still in the back of my mind…I was happy today.
I had a smile on my face when I entered the diner, but it slacked immediately when I saw the guys sitting at their usual table. They didn’t all come in every morning, but they liked to drop in from time to time to check in on me. Viper and the others from the Dark Knights were sitting together in one of the booths and he waved when he saw me come in.
I was early, by at least twenty minutes and figured that the best way to get them to leave me alone would be to spend a few minutes with them before my shift started. I walked over to them, sensing the glow on my face and hoping that they wouldn’t notice.
“Where were you last night? I called you,” Viper said, shoving a big piece of pancake into his mouth. I watched as the syrup dribbled down his cheek and he wiped it up with his forefinger.
“I was out. With a friend,” I said, feeling my cheeks redden.
“A friend!” One of the guys said and the others made cooing noises as they smiled at each other. Viper had a grin on his face as well, but I could tell that he wasn’t enjoying the joke.
“Which friend?” he asked and I flipped a bunch of my curls off my shoulder and sat down at the edge of one of the seats, across from him. The guys scooted over to make space for me, and one of them offered me one of their milkshakes.
“You don’t know…her,” I said the last word just in time, but the others had noticed. They were laughing again, while Viper glared at me.
“Ya know, Rex was missing from the bar last night. It wasn’t him you were out with, were you?” one of them said and nudged another one’s ribs. I knew they were kidding around right now, but the jokes would soon turn serious if they knew the truth. I was still blushing, trying to avoid Viper’s deathly stare.
“Were you out with Rex?” he asked, even more serious now. I shook my head.
“No, I wasn’t,” I said and nervously knotted my fingers together on the table. I couldn’t believe they were capable of making me feel this guilty about something like this. Luke or my father would never have made me feel this threatened.
“And Blade left the bar early. It could be him too,” someone said and I watched in horror as Viper’s face darkened and he narrowed his eyes at me.
“Was it Blade?” he asked and I shook my head again.
“No, I told you…it was just someone…a friend,” I said and I smiled weakly while the others were still joking around.
“Will you get me a refill, sweetheart?” Pike said, handing me his glass that was empty of soda and I took it from him.
“Of course,” I said and stood up quickly, in a hurry to get away from them; especially Viper…because I felt like he could see right through me.
But I had barely managed to walk away, before I felt Viper’s steely grip on my wrist. He had whipped me around to face him.
“You’re seeing someone,” he said and I tried to muster courage from somewhere and hold my chin firmly up to him.
“It’s none of your business,” I told him and he tightened his grip on my wrist.
“Don’t be stupid, Brooklyn. It is my business and it is the club’s business. Who you date is very much our business,” he was speaking through gritted teeth and he had brought his face close enough to me so I could smell the stale beer on his breath. It nearly made me gag.
“Let go of me, Viper,” I snapped, trying to pull my hand away from him.
“Don’t be ungrateful, Brooklyn. We are looking out for you. I want to protect you. The rules are what they are to maintain loyalty,” he said, finally releasing my hand. I rubbed at my wrist where a bright red spot had appeared.
“And what rule is that?” I asked him, glaring at him with flared nostrils. I couldn’t believe he was treating me like this. I trusted him with my life, because Luke had…but this was too much. He was trying to control me. Just like the rest of the club.
“You’re not allowed to date anyone outside the MC. You know the rules, sugar. I don’t make them. I’m sure your daddy taught you well,” he said and his lips curled in an evil smile.
I could feel my chest rising and falling, as those words sunk in. Daddy had spoken to me about it years ago, in my teenage years and I hadn’t paid much attention to it then. He had said that the rule existed in order to keep the loyalty within the club, so that we all operated as one big family. But he had never objected when he saw me with guys outside the club. Not that there were many and neither were any of them serious, but daddy hadn’t taken that rule as seriously as Viper was taking it now.
“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.