Page 3 of Xander
“What did he do?” he asked with a tilt of his chin towards the man at my feet.
I locked my gaze with his, and with zero hesitation, I said, “He was in the process of raping a teenage girl.”
The man nodded, then took a puff of his cigarette, and asked, “How old are you?”
“Eighteen,” I told him.
He nodded, then held his hand out to me, “Nuke.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and then crossed my arms over my chest and waited.
He dropped his hand and snickered, “Introducing myself is a gesture of common courtesy.”
I didn’t reply.
I watched as he hardened his jaw, and then he said, “Killed men for a lot less.”
“Killed men for staring at me too long,” I said.
He chuckled, “Point made.”
“Could use you. You want to join a brotherhood, come by the clubhouse,” he said as he pulled out a card from his kutte and handed it to me.
I looked at the card, then back at him, “Why?”
He snorted, “I like men who stand up for the weak and aren’t afraid of the consequences.”
I jerked my chin, then I took the card from him.
***
Two weeks later, after watching the clubhouse trying to get a read on it, my mind had been made when I watched three of the brothers beat the shit out of a man they had witnessed backhanding his woman in town.
A year after that, I was a full-fledged member of the Soulless Outlaws Motorcycle Club.
Two weeks later, after they had all witnessed a certain set of skills that just came easily to me, I was promoted to Sergeant at Arms.
And for the next seventeen years, I’ve done my job with relish.
But never letting anyone fully in.
That lasted untilher.
***
Like the storm that rolled in the night before she arrived, I should have read the warning.
‘It never rains forever.’
– Nola’s Truth To Live By.
Prologue II
Nola
Age 5
“Uncle Merlin! Aunt Tempie!” I screamed as I raced down the driveway, my dark brown hair in pigtails swinging back and forth.
