Page 1 of Knight's Last Chance

Chapter One

Rhea

“Miss, are you okay?”

I nod, fighting back the laugh that bubbles up my throat, but a smile manages to pierce through. A smile empty of humor. The driver must read the nerves in my eyes and the empty smile because his brows draw in concern.

“I’m fine,” I whisper, the tremble in my voice betraying the fact that I am anything but fine. We are outside the gate at the end of the lane leading to the most notorious motorcycle club in all of Austin’s headquarters. The men behind this gate are some of the most feared men in the city, even the cops are wary of them. It makes sense that the taxi driver would be concerned about leaving me out here all alone, but he doesn’t need to be.

This is perhaps the safest place for me in the entire world.

None of the men behind those walls would hurt me. Priest, the club’s president, happens to be my brother and is very protective of me. He would lose it if someone dared mess with his precious younger sister.

No, the reason for my nerves has nothing to do with being scared of the men who live beyond the gate. I’m not concerned for my physical well-being, anyway. My heart on the other hand . . .

“I can drive you back if you want,” the taxi driver offers, and I am tempted to take him up on it. I could always call Priest and tell him that I canceled the trip because of schoolwork. I could come up with all kinds of excuses, and he wouldn’t even question it.

But . . . he would know.

My eyes move to the cameras outside the gate, and I let out a resigned sigh. The land owned by the Steel Order MC is well protected with high-tech security features, and the moment we drove up to the gate in the taxi, I have no doubt that Priest was immediately alerted.

Leaving now will make him question what’s made me run away.

Or rather, who.

He can’t find out. No one can ever find out the embarrassing truth of what happened a year ago.

The one person that has kept me away for an entire year resides behind those walls, along with my brother and other club members, and the thought of seeing him again eats at my insides. I could have gladly stayed away for another year or two, but when Priest called to tell me he was planning to propose to his girlfriend, I knew I couldn’t stay away anymore. I had to be here for my brother and his soon-to-be fiancé.

No matter how much strain being here puts on my heart.

“A pretty young lady such as yourself has no business going in that house full of animals,” the taxi driver, who I seemed to have forgotten about spits out. “I’ve heard things about those monsters that still give me nightmares.”

“They won’t hurt me,” I say firmly, fighting back the urge to defend the men within those walls. The taxi driver seems to have made up his mind, and I bet anything nice I say about the MC will just fly over his head. I don’t blame him for thinking they are bad people. Besides, the Steel Order MC has built its reputation around being ruthless, so it’s only natural that this man and everyone else is terrified of them.

With another sigh, I dig into my purse for cash to pay the taxi driver, tipping him generously. He takes the money, and I notice the hesitation in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re safe here?”

I nod, flashing him a smile, and this time, it’s genuine. “I’m fine,” I assure him, and he must take my word for it because the moment I’m standing outside his car with my luggage, he drives off. The smile on my face drops when I turn around to face the gate.

There are a hundred reasons for me to walk into the only place I have ever considered home, but only one glaring reason that I hesitate.

When I showed up here two years ago with nothing but the clothes on my back, I was trembling with fear. Like everyone else in Austin, I’d been told that the Steel Order MC was a gang of ruthless animals who tore through anyone and anything that dared get in their way.

A part of me had been expecting to be shot on sight, but I’d had nowhere else to go. I was a seventeen-year-old runaway looking for the brother I’d only recently learned existed. I’d found out the truth by accident, and it was a secret my mother never intended for me to discover.

The secret about the child she’d had fourteen years before me.

“That son of a bitch is just like his old man. I ruined my body and youth pushing the brat out of me, and he won’t even send me any money,” my mother had revealed during one of her drug-induced highs. She’d then gone into a slurred tirade of how ungrateful her son was, and that’s how I’d learned about Priest.

When I found my way to the MC’s clubhouse after running away from home, I was starving and desperate, but one look at Priest’s dark eyes and I knew that we were related. Except it wasn’t just Priest who gave me refuge.

The entire MC took me in like one of their own and loved me like they’d known me all my life. Doting on and spoiling me like I’ve never experienced in my life, but I had to go and ruin it.

Like the dumbass I was, I fell for the last man I should have fallen for.

Knight.

The gate opens, the loud noise drawing me out of my thoughts and pulling me back to the present. Priest walks out with a pretty blonde girl by his side, and my lips part with a smile.

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