Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17053 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
I’ll decline it immediately, of course, but I still shouldn’t expect the worst when nothing has—
“There you are.” Those three words are enough to shatter any illusions that he’s here for anything other than something twisted.
Fear claws at my chest as soon as he opens his mouth, and I fight back my urges to scream. Had it been any other sentence, I might’ve mistaken it for something else.
But those words imply he’s been looking for me. Hunting me. And now he has me. Cornered in the farthest end of a long grocery store.
“Professor? Can I help you with something?” I do my best to appear strong, but my shaky voice betrays me. “You could’ve emailed if it was something urgent.”
Emailed, waited until tomorrow at uni, anything apart from trapping me in a grocery store.
“It couldn’t wait.” He doesn’t stop walking even as he nears me. Not until I’ve taken a few more steps and tucked myself anxiously into the corner between a refrigerator and a shelf full of pet food. “I had to see you, Lora, without James Knight getting in the way of things.”
“He won’t be happy when he hears about th—”
“And that’s why he won’t be hearing about it,” Professor Callahan snarls as his face starts to twitch in anger. “I’m rather upset at his intrusion the other day. We were making good ground.”
“Professor, I don’t want to send you the wrong message, so I’ll say it clearly.” I gulp down, harvesting every ounce of strength I can muster. “I’m not interested in going out with you, and I would appreciate it if you respect my wishes.”
“And I’d appreciate it if you heard me out without jumping to conclusions,” he hisses in response.
He hasn’t tried to touch me yet, and for that I’m thankful. But with how hot he’s entered this conversation, I don’t see myself walking away from it unscathed. The best I can do is cry out for the shop owner’s assistance and hope he isn’t afraid of what the professor might do.
What pisses me off most about this whole situation is having to rely on a stranger’s aid when it comes to a man I should be able to trust. Professor Callahan has taken on his role as teacher and guide to the students, and he’s betraying that trust without care or concern.
But the more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I become.
If he’s doing it this freely and out in the open, I can’t be the first poor soul he’s approached.
But if luck is on my side, and Knight received my message, I might just be the last.
7
KNIGHT
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Knight,” Talon, my second-in-command, interrupts my workout. I’m on my ninth rep of my sixth set, and my arms are burning, almost as badly as my temper.
“There’s no reason to panic.” Not yet anyway.
“There’s a lot to worry about with two factories opening up just outside Boulder.” Talon watches me do my bicep curls, but it’s more like he’s looking through the action than at it. As if staring deep into the void, and unluckily, it’s staring right back.
“Like what?” I have my own theories as to the potential chaos a mega-corporation’s factories might bring, but I want to hear it from Talon’s mouth. He has his head screwed on right with these kinds of things.
“An influx of workers.” He crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe leading into my office. “New faces mean new trouble.”
“The Knight Riders will show them what happens to troublemakers.” I drop the dumbbell at my feet.
University towns aren’t known for their high crime rates. Boulder was a rare exception to the rule. An Ivy League university, with the majority of residents too old to parent anything to stop ne’er-do-wells from never doing well, and students with rich folks, made our little town a hotbed for criminals.
It was a different landscape when we moved here. But I had bigger dreams and aspirations for how I wanted to run my MC back then. Visions of grandeur, my own factories, producing narcotics to ship and distribute all across the country. Who’d think to look in a town like this? Where most come at the end of their lives, and the rest are just starting out.
I guess spending too much time with the old folks gave me a different view on the world. Sure, crime pays, and we have different operations that keep us afloat, but serving the community has given the Knight Riders a clean face. Most people can overlook a few misdeeds.
I suspect that’s where Talon’s real concerns come from.
“And what about our operations?” he asks.
Right on cue, as if I’m a fucking oracle.
“We continue as normal. Anyone who causes trouble learns the hard way that no one fucks with the Knight Riders.” Blunt and to the point.