“You have no reason to be scared, darlin’. The compound may look like hell, but it’s the safest place on earth when you’re hiding from life.”
“Why are you there?”
I take a deep breath because spilling my truth doesn’t come easy for me.
“I was in the military, and my commanding officer decided I was better suited to life with Ryder King than under his command.”
“But you’re a motorcycle club. I don’t understand.”
“To the outside world, yes, we are. It’s a clever disguise to keep us away from the spotlight because if anything, we are more a special forces unit dealing with the enemy within.”
I’m surprised at her soft chuckle, and I tighten my hold.
“It suits you.”
“If you say so, darlin’.”
My attention turns to tomorrow, and I should really warn her about what to expect.
“There’s something you should know.”
“Okay.”
She sounds hesitant, as if I’m about to deliver a clusterfuck of a truth bomb, and I groan.
“You may believe you are seeing two of me when we get there. It’s not the drink talking; I have a brother. Razor.”
“You do?”
She half-turns and smiles up at me and shaking her head, giggles, “Wow, two of you. That sounds like trouble to me.”
“It is.”
An easy grin spreads across my face and I wink. “Obviously, I’m the one who got all the looks and personality. Razor is a surly motherfucker whose personality never developed.”
“Does he look like you then?”
“We’re identical twins.”
“Wow. That’s, well, cool.”
“It is. It’s probably why we’re patched into The Reapers because Razor was in the same unit as me and we played too many tricks on our commanding officer.”
“Tricks?”
“Yeah. It helps being identical, and we both have different strengths. We used that to our advantage, and if I was better at something, I would step up, even if his name was called. It also helped if one was on duty and the other had somewhere else to be. We played that role to suit ourselves, and it pissed Captain Stanley off, big time.”
“That sounds harmless to me.”
“It was mainly but then Razor killed someone he shouldn’t, and the heat turned up real fast.”
“Who did he kill? I mean, you don’t have to…”
“It’s fine. The guy deserved it. We were out in the local town after payday. The guys ran riot once a month in the small town where our unit was stationed. That night we were indulging in the usual shit of drinking and getting laid. There were ten of us that night and it got a little out of hand. Well, to cut a long story short, Razor was taking a leak and when he finished, he heard a muffled scream in the alley. None of us are afraid to investigate trouble, and he was no exception. Anyway, he saw a soldier fucking some girl against the wall, and his hand was over her mouth, and she was struggling to get away.”
Delilah gasps and I hiss, “Razor pulled the guy off her and threw his punch, but the guy wasn’t going down without a fight. The girl ran off, leaving the two soldiers in a fistfight, and when the guy pulled a knife on my brother, he plunged it into his stomach.”
“Oh my God.”
