presence. Nicole glanced at Prez, who was looking at her sternly. This couldn’t be good.
“Duke, here, tells me you spent three weeks with Riot.” She felt a wave of betrayal knock the air from her lungs. Why had he said anything? Fair enough, Duke had never said he wouldn’t tell anyone but she thought he’d understood her reluctance. This wasn’t her chosen life and she didn’t want to be dragged into a war that wasn’t hers to fight. She knew lying wasn’t an option and that she would be made to answer if she refused. She dreaded to think what that could involve.
“Yes.”
“Yes? That’s all you have to say?”
“I told Duke earlier, I don’t wanna get involved.” She made sure to not even glance towards Duke through the whole conversation. She’d plead with Prez to understand if he would listen. She knew he wouldn’t. ‘Club first’ was basically a founding principle throughout the whole biker community. She knew it would have been one of the reasons that Duke would have approached Prez.
“That’s not your decision to make.” His voice was sharp with authority.
“Anything I know is useless anyway. It was two years ago.” She made one last attempt to get out of it. Maybe she could bargain.
“I’ll decide if something’s useful or not. Get talking.” His eyes were fixed on her and now wasn’t the time to mess around but she needed to try to get something out of this. As Duke said, it’s all business. She hesitated for a second, building up the courage to do something so ballsy.
“Okay. Could this count as the compensation you’ll want from my Dad?” Her words came fast and all in one small breath. She was glad they weren’t all jumbled.
She knew every late payment came with some kind of penalty, otherwise there would be no incentive to pay on time. Most of the time it was markers, money and a swift ass kicking. She’d had to sacrifice birthdays and Christmases so her dad had the extra money to cover compensation in the past, now she wanted something back. Hell, she deserved something back.
Prez stayed silent and just stared at her. She thought for sure she’d pushed too far when he didn’t answer straight away and now she was more desperate to get out of this place than ever. After what felt like forever, he answered.
“Deal.” Air rushed into her lungs in relief. “First I want a layout of their compound. Everything you remember. Doors, windows, outbuildings. Everything.”
“Okay.” The crushing sensation on her chest lifted as relief flowed through her entire body.
Her brain felt scrambled as she started to search her memory for every detail she could. Duke, rose to get paper and pens from the office and Kick, went to get refills for everyone. A new brother slid in next to her, she was startled by how much he resembled Duke. He had the same colouring and his features were similar, but he wasn’t as physically imposing as Duke. He didn’t affect her the way Duke did either. It was impossible not to compare them to each other.
“I’m Razor. You are seriously hot. I bet you’ve got a sweet tasting pussy. You owned?”
He said this so quickly and seriously that she couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped her, she was so startled by what he’d said. He hit her with a panty dropping smile. Was he serious?
“Fuck, that’s a great laugh. What other noises do you make?”
At this she laughed even harder and felt some more of her leftover tension slip away. Someone cleared their throat just as she was going to try to answer. She looked across at Duke. He wasn’t looking at her, he was staring daggers at Razor. Prez, slapped the table making her jump. All her tension rushed back.
“Here, get to it and explain while you go.” He pushed a pad of paper and a pen in front of her.
She started drawing and describing everything she remembered. She had to keep going back and redraw what she’d done so far because she remembered more and more as she talked it
Learning to Kill: Stories