“Okay,” I said. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Two reasons. First, people respect the Reap. More than ever now. We took on big names and won. We took on the Chief and won. Shit, he’s in our pocket now thanks to Slam.”
“You’re welcome,” Slam said.
“And we got our boy, King, out of prison. Off death row. So people respect us.”
“What’s the second reason?” I asked.
Knox smiled. “You’re going to go over there and punch Frankie right in the fucking jaw.”
10
(knight)
* A YEAR AGO *
Damon was out of town for the week. That left me and Priya alone. Completely and utterly alone. Fucking dangerous? You’re goddamn right. What made it worse was that Damon sent me text pics of the women he was fucking. While he was fucking them. One was of him behind some woman, holding her hair like a lasso, making her scream. Another was of his skinny little dick halfway inside a woman and his thumb jammed into her other hole.
It was hard to look at those pictures and then look at Priya. I swore that when I looked into her eyes I could feel that she didn’t love him. That she didn’t want to be with him. She was afraid of him. I had saved up all my money from working for Damon, along with some side mechanic work. I lived with next to nothing and just banked cash.
My plan? To make an offer to Priya when the time came. Ask her to split from Damon and run away with me.
Insanity? You’re goddamn right.
I walked from the living room to the dining room carrying a glass of wine.
Priya was in a nice apartment, all paid for, and she was cuddled up on the couch watching some romance movie. She looked back at me, smiling.
I fucking loved her smile. From the second I saw it. It was like BOOM to my goddamn heart.
I handed her the wine. “Thank you.”
“Anything for you,” I said.
Just looking at her on the couch, in her PJ’s, all casual, tucked in under a blanket, it made my dick go crazy. I had to hurry and take a seat in a chair adjacent to the couch.
“What are we watching?” I asked.
“You won’t like it.”
“Guy and girl fall in love, can’t be together, get together, fight, break up, then get back together at the end.”
“You’ve seen this one,” she said with a flirty smile.
The wine was doing its job.
And that was scary. Because if Priya put her guard down I wasn’t sure how much longer I could contain myself. I wanted her in a way that was like nothing I ever felt before in my life.
“Oh, wait. Is this the one with the rain scene?”
“This one has three rain scenes,” Priya said. “And snow.”
“Holy shit,” I said. “This is like the gold standard of chick flicks then. I better go pour myself a glass of wine and get the tissues.”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
I smiled. “Me? Never.”
Priya sipped some more wine and I saw the way she swallowed it and looked into her wine glass. Something was eating at her.
It’s not your job, Knight.
“Can I ask you something?” Priya asked.
“Sure,” I said.
Idiot.
“Do you trust Damon?”
Now I had Priya staring at me, her eyes innocent, beautiful, destroyed, and begging for help at all the same time. My goddamn job was becoming more and more impossible by the fucking day.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” I said. “That’s way above my pay grade.”
“I know he sleeps with other women,” Priya said.
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah?”
She nodded. “That’s how they all are. They have wives, girlfriends, and women they fuck. I’m not sure what I am anymore.”
I sprung from the chair and crouched in front of Priya. I plucked the wine glass from her slender hand and put it behind me on the coffee table.
“Maybe we should skip this glass of wine,” I said. “I don’t want you to go down this road, Priya.”
“What? The truth?”
I sucked in a breath. “I want you to feel whatever you want. I want you to look in the mirror and know you’re beautiful. I can’t…” I sighed. “Fuck, Priya, I just can’t.”
“Can’t what?” she asked.
Her eyes were pleading for something. Wanting me to cross that line. To take that chance. I never feared risk in my life. To me the worst case was death. And if I was dead, what the fuck did anything really matter then?
I took her hand and squeezed it tight.
“I can’t stand seeing you like this. Holed up. Scared. Questioning yourself. The entire world around you is made up of him and the shit he says and does. There’s a world beyond that.”
“So what are you saying?”
I inched forward. A few seconds later our foreheads touched. I smelled the wine on her breath. She loved the fruity wines. Me personally? If I was to drink wine, I wanted it dry. But this isn’t a fucking wine story.
“I don’t know what I’m saying,” I said. “Just smile, Priya.”
She smiled. “You make me smile, Knight.”
Oh, goddammit, sweetheart. You’re killing me here. You’re fucking killing…
I inched forward some more.
I tasted the wine on her lips. I felt her lips quiver against mine before she kissed me back. When we opened our mouths for another taboo kiss our tongues eased forward, gently touching for a split second.
That’s when I turned my head and groaned. “Ah, fuck.”
“Knight…”
“You’ve been drinking,” I said. “You’re confused and worried. Just let me be here to protect you.”
“Will you at least hold me?” she asked.
She nudged her nose to my cheek.
My cock ached so fucking bad. My heart ached just as bad. It was like there was a string tied between the two, which was different for me because usually my cock was tied to my brain and my eyes.
With Priya, it was completely different.
“Of course,” I whispered.
I stood up, turning so she wouldn’t see the bulge in my jeans, and I sat next to her on the couch.
On the TV, the two lovers were sharing a moment. I watched the movie almost with a feeling of rage. They made it look so fucking easy, didn’t they? The movies always started with the guy working a good job and the girl living so easily. Didn’t anyone know about suffering? Then again, weren’t movies supposed to make people forget about their real lives?
Priya grabbed her glass of wine and shifted her body so she was leaning on my shoulder. The smell of her hair and skin were temptation and torture all mixed into one evil bowl.
I couldn’t breathe without smelling her.
On the TV, the guy touched the girl’s face. They hesitated and kissed.
I looked over and saw Priya’s cheeks turning red.
The scene started to get a little hot.
Priya’s hand moved from under the blanket for me. I grabbed her hand, stopping it from whatever she had intended to do.
I held her hand.
The guy then had the girl in bed, kissing down her body.
I looked over again and this time Priya had her eyes shut. The wine glass was starting to tilt so I grabbed it from her and got it to the table without waking her.
I touched her face and forgot all about the movie. I didn’t need some movie to make me feel something.
I just looked at Priya and felt something.
I kissed the top of her head.
I sat there for the rest of the night, staring at her, knowing that someday we’d be together.
11
(knight)
*NOW*
I chugged my beer on the way over and nudged my way between Frankie and whoever the fuck was sitting next to him. I swayed like I was drunk and tossed the beer bottle across the bar.
“Give me another!” I shouted.
Fr
ankie turned and looked at me. He was clean cut, like the kind of guy that bragged about winning fights yet he never threw a punch in his life. His goons did all the work. He reaped the benefits through fear. Not a bad way to live if you could pull it the hell off.
“You okay?” Frankie asked.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked.
See, I wasn’t supposed to talk to Frankie, but I had a plan in mind. A guy like Frankie wasn’t going to cruise to a bar alone and sit there. He had guys with him and my little question had three guys jump up from the bar. So now I knew who he was rolling with. They were there to protect him.
It also meant I didn’t have much time.
“You want to say that again to me?” Frankie asked. He put a hand out, stopping the guy next to him from coming at me.
So Frankie thought I was drunk. So now I was a worthy opponent.
“Sorry, Frankie,” I said in a stone cold sober voice. “You heard what I said. You greasy little fuck.”
I threw a right and clocked him right in the damn jaw. He flew back right into the arms of his own guys. He grabbed at his face, literally crying and bleeding from his mouth.
Then I had his other two guys right there, ready to go.
I threw a few wild punches just trying to protect myself.
The two lunks came down on me like a forty foot wave. Their fists felt like sledgehammers to my back, dropping me to my hands and knees right there on the floor of a bar.
I looked up and saw Frankie getting ready to take a cheap kick at me with his pointed toe shoe that was all fucking shined up. I didn’t know this guy but he really pissed me the hell off.
I grabbed at his leg and twisted.
“He’s got me!” Frankie yelled. “He’s got me!”
I laughed at how much of a pussy this guy was.
His third guy now entered the picture and kicked, nailing me in the shoulder. Next thing I knew I was being lifted up to my feet. One of the guys threw me against the bar, his paw at my chest.
“What?” I asked. “Is that all you got?”
The guy holding my chest threw a punch. I felt my eye damn near explode with a hot fire pain. But I took it. I was good with it.
The guy then hesitated, which was really fucking stupid.
So I took advantage and threw a punch of my own.
The other two goons were right there to attack me again.
I thought I was left to wolves to fend for myself until I got my ass destroyed. I figured that’s what Knox and the guys wanted. To see if I could take a beating and still get back up. As long as I wasn’t dead I’d be moving.
There was suddenly a flurry of punches. My shoulders, ribs, gut, just punch after punch.
I managed to turn my head to the left and that’s when I saw Slam, Knox, Matteo, and Ari all coming to my rescue. Matteo and Ari had pool sticks and put them to good use, taking out one of the guys. Slam and Knox took the other back to the wall and unloaded on him. I threw an elbow to my right and knocked the third guy away. We were quickly a team as we dismantled Frankie’s goons, leaving them all on the ground.
That’s when I turned to face Frankie again.
He had his hands out, pleading with me not to touch him.
Knox grabbed my shoulder. “Let’s get out of here, man. Trust me.”
“You’re really fucking wild, Knight,” Slam said.
I looked to the bartender. I reached into my back pocket and threw some cash down. “Give me two six packs to-go right now.”
Matteo let out a cheer.
We took our beer and hurried the fuck out of the bar.
On our motorcycles, I followed wherever the hell Knox wanted to go next. We made it up the road for about ten minutes and he pulled over into an open space.
That’s when all the guys gathered around me.
“You’re pretty fucking crazy,” Knox said as he grabbed a beer.
He looked at it and tossed it to me.
“Drink up,” Slam said.
“I can’t believe you actually hit Frankie,” Matteo said.
“Why?” I asked. “You wanted me to do it. So I did.”
“I don’t think anyone’s stood up to Frankie since elementary school,” Ari said.
“Fuck him,” I said. I twisted the cap off the beer. “So what happens now?”
“Well, you kicked a hornet’s nest,” Knox said. “But that’s okay. Whatever the fall out is, we can deal with. You’re right, Knight, fuck him. Fuck all those guys. But they all respect us. Our town. What we do here.”
“Except those trying get into town,” I said.
“And your end game is… patch in with the Reap? Find your girl. Have a kid. And…?”
“Just experience some life,” I said. “Look, Knox, I’ve seen a lot of shit. My last gig was to protect Priya. I was paid cash to do it. I had to endure the shit that prick did to her and others. But it was always about Priya. Even from the old school days. From the wrong side of the tracks.”
“She’s ours?” Ari asked.
“Priya,” Slam said. “I’m not sure I remember her.”
“She was an outsider,” I said. “We’d stand on opposite sides of the fence and talk. Flirt. Sneak a kiss here and there.”
“Forbidden romance,” Knox said with a grin. “I think we’ve all had some of that around here in our lifetime.”
“I’m going to keep my garage and my business,” I said. “You guys can join in if you want. A legit way to earn cash. It’s a good system. Fix up old shit and sell it for tons of cash. A lot of guys come from northern Cali, southern Cali, and even out from Nevada.”
Knox nodded. “So you punched Frankie. But would you take a bullet?”
“What?”
Knox pulled out his gun. “Would you take a bullet?”
I looked at Matteo. He was like stone.
So was Ari and Slam.
I stepped back.
Knox walked toward me, gun pointed at me. He jammed the barrel to my chest and then slid it to my shoulder.
“I won’t kill you,” he said. “I just want to see if you could take it.”
“A bullet,” I said. “That’s what you want. Shoot me. Leave me out of commission. Then patch me in?”
Knox grinned. “Nobody said a thing about patching you in, Knight. You’re from the other side of the tracks. The other side of the fence. You think those old wars die with time?”
“What wars?” I asked. “We were horny teenagers trying to swing our dicks around. We didn’t know any better.”
“And now I’m the one with a gun,” Knox said.
I nodded. “You know what, Knox? Shoot me. I don’t give a shit.”
Knox curled his lip and I waited for the bullet to eat through my shoulder. I didn’t close my eyes. I wasn’t going to brace myself for shit.
When Knox lowered the gun and turned, I was genuinely shocked.
Slam whistled to get my attention and he was holding a leather cut. I had no idea where he got it from.
He threw it into the air and I caught it. A real leather cut. The Reap. The Reaper’s Bastards.
Knox climbed on his motorcycle and looked at me. “Don’t fuck this up, Knight. We need the extra body. You’re tough as nails. You’ve always been tough. I never understood why you were in that goddamn town and why you hung out with those goddamn losers. Just know that the only way out of the Reap once you’re in it… is death.”
I squeezed the leather cut tight. I nodded. “Got it.”
Matteo’s phone rang and he moved away to take the call. I didn’t pay any attention to the call. It wasn’t my business. My business was the leather cut. A chance to sit at the table and talk. To find my girl. To find out the goddamn truth. To figure out my future.
“Fuck,” Matteo yelled.
“What’s wrong?” Slam asked.
“It’s for Knight,” Matteo said.
I looked up. “For me?”
“Priya… she’s in the hospital… she’s having the baby…�
�
12
(priya)
* A YEAR AGO *
Hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry…
I held my brush with my mouth as I fought with my hair. There were always those few strands that wanted nothing to do with looking the right way. I growled as I bounced on my toes, my reflection moving as I did.
I finally gave up, grabbed the brush, and gave it one last go.
I used the fancy clips that Damon insisted I use so I didn’t look like a street corner whore.
But this wasn’t about Damon.
This was about Knight.
It was insane, I know, but he was coming over again. To watch me. To protect me.
The last time, things got really intense between us. I blamed the wine for the sake of feeling guilty, but who was I kidding? We kissed and it was so good. A kiss that I never felt before… well not since the last time we kissed years before.
I brushed loose hair off my shirt and touched my pants. They were PJ’s, just like last time. I thought about changing but I didn’t want to make things too obvious.
Ohgod, what am I doing? What am I trying to prove here?
I felt like there was so much between me and Knight that was left unsaid. I could feel it burning off him. I knew he hated Damon. Even if he wouldn’t admit it.
I knew if I could just…
“I’m leaving,” a voice said as I exited the bathroom.
It was Damon and he just scared the hell out of me.
I let out a yell.
“Damon,” I said. “I thought you were gone.”
“Not yet,” he said. “Leaving now. Was going to wait for Knight to get here. So you don’t have to be alone.”
“I don’t mind,” I said. “I don’t want you to be late.”
“Why? Think I’ll get in trouble?” he laughed. “I make the trouble, Priya. What’s with your hair?”
“My what? Why?” I touched my hair.
“You look like you’re half done up over there,” Damon said.
Wild Knight: a bad boy romance novel Page 4