Page 11 of Knight
His throat cleared. My eyes immediately snapped up to his and the look I received wasn’t one that made me want to move in any further. He was unhappy, and that was putting it nicely.
“In or out, Gwenie,” he said as his hand gripped the doorknob tighter. “Pick one.”
“I missed you, too,” I said with as much strength as I could muster. I may have had the slightest bitter bite to those words even if it was the truth. But it wasn’t this Knight that I had missed.
For just a split second I saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes. A tiny crack in his armor. And it made me wonder ifmyKnight was still in there somewhere. But then it was gone and I suddenly felt cold as I forced my feet to move forward into the apartment.
“Brass,” Knight said moving into the kitchen where my dad had wandered off to. “I’ve got to get down to the docks. Here’s the spare key. Room is down that hall.” He pointed to the hall off to the right.
I took a moment to look around. The whole space was very open and the far wall was lined with windows that let enough light in to almost make the place feel warm and homey. However, the sparse, dark furniture and bulky leather couches did their best to fight against that feeling. The huge TV seemed to be the focal point of the living room and I was surprised I didn’t find empty bottles littering the coffee table and posters of half naked girls on the wall.
The place actually looked surprisingly clean. As I stepped into the kitchen I even noticed that the sink was free of dirty dishes and there weren’t any crumbs on the counters. Then again, maybe he didn’t even spend enough time here to make a mess. That could have been why the place seemed so untouched.
From growing up in the club, I knew that even though they had a place of their own, a lot of times the brothers seemed to crash at their room at the compound. I imagined that Knight probably did the same.
The kitchen was pretty decent sized and showed into the living room with a half wall. The whole place screamed ‘open space.’ I wondered how much time I would actually spend out here. If this tension and distaste Knight had towards me was going to stay like this then I imagined I wouldn’t come out of my room unless I absolutely had to. While I wasn’t one to hide away, I also wasn’t one to put up with that kind of treatment.
A soft sigh escaped my lips as what I assumed was his bedroom door closed behind him. It was directly off the left side of the living room. It looked like we would have a whole apartment of separation. That was good. At least I wouldn’t have to hear him doing things, like going to the bathroom and snoring…and entertaining any women he brought over.
Ugh. That last thought made my heart drop. I mean, I knew there was no way that he wasn’t having sex. Especially being as attractive as he was, I was sure he had panties dropping at every move he made.
“The guys should be here soon to help put all that shit together. Let’s go check out your room.” Dad said breaking me out of my thoughts.
I gave him a tight smile and a little nod then followed him down the hall to my new room. The room was a good size. I took in the dark hardwood floors that looked liked they had been redone recently. The walls were a clean white. The two windows were huge and let in the perfect amount of light. I loved it. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Just then a ruckus caught both of our attention. It seemed to be coming from the front of the apartment and by one of the voices that fluttered down the hall, I knew that our help had arrived. Taking off down the hall without waiting for Dad, I made my way to the group of brothers and skidded to a halt just in time to not crash into B-ry.
“Holy shit! Little Gwen had done grown up,” he said in a thicker country accent than what he really had. I giggled as he held his arms out wide. Without hesitation, I jumped into them and he swung me around a few times.
B-ry was from the West Tenn. chapter. Like Knight and me, he’d grown up in the club. His dad was the VP and B-ry prospected the moment he was old enough.
“Enforcer,” I said as I looked at his cut. “Big man now, huh?” His huge smile beamed with pride.
Though I knew it wasn’t a light job, I had no doubt that with his muscles and buzzed head he could be downright intimidating when he turned the charm off. In fact, I had seen it once, and only once, and I didn’t ever want to again.
“Yep,” he supplied. “Where’s Knight?”
“Docks,” I answered with a shoulder shrug.
“Right…well, shall we get this party started?” He clapped his hand together, the sound echoed off of the walls, then he rubbed them together.
I looked around at who else had come to help. I knew none of them. I noticed that two of them wore prospect patches and I wondered how new they were.
“This here is Fitz,” B-ry started with the introductions. He pointed to a guy that looked a few years older than me at most. I looked at his cut and saw he was wearing the treasurer patch. “He came from the South Carolina chapter. The prospects are…shit, I forgot your name.”
By his tone, I could tell he was messing with the prospect he was looking at.
“I see how it is. Next time I give you a tattoo, it’s gonna be of a princess instead of a skull.” The guy raised a joking brow and I laughed. “Sketch and this here is Tripp.”
I put my hand up and gave a little wave.
“Gwen, why don’t you figure out where you want everything and we’ll start bringing shit up. The guys will put the furniture together and move it where ya want. Mattress should be here in a couple of hours.” Dad pulled me in for a side hug then walked out the door, the other guys trailing behind him.
With all of us working, the furniture was built in record speed. Before I knew it, the guys were moving things around the room while I gave direction. It only took another hour to get the right set up. I wasn’t trying to be picky but I wanted that stuff set up right so I wouldn’t have to worry with it again.
The small desk was pushed up in front of one of the windows. The bed was in the middle of the right wall, furthest from the door. I just needed to get some curtains and a few things on the bare walls and it would be perfect.
“I ordered pizza. Figured we could at least feed these guys for all the hard work they did,” Dad said as he looked around the room. I couldn’t tell by his face what he was thinking.
“Good idea,” I said with a nod. I realized then that I was hungry and pizza sounded friggin’ amazing. “Thanks for all this, dad. I will be fine.” I tried my best to assure him.
I knew I would be but there was still that nervousness about being in a new place. And not to mention the apprehension of living with Knight. But if that was what it took to keep my dad from freaking out with worry every second of every day, then that was what I was going to have to deal with.
“I know. But you are my baby girl, it’s a parent’s job to worry,” he said trying to hide his emotions.
“I’ve got all these great guys around, no need to worry at all.”
“Yeah,” he said with a grunt giving me a look. A look that very much said he wasn’t so sure about that. Then he turned and walked off muttering something about breaking skulls if any of them so much as breathed too close to me. I couldn’t help but laugh at his overprotective grumpy ass.
