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.

"Fancy seeing you here, Red," my brother says with a shit-eating grin on his face, and it's enough to have my eyes filling with tears.

"Priest!" I yell, dropping my bags and flinging myself at the massive man. He catches me with a chuckle, and just like that, all my reservations about coming home melt away. A part of me mourns the brotherly love I was robbed of as a kid, but we're here now. It took me seventeen years, but I found my family. One who would never try to sell me for drugs.

"I missed you, Red."

"Stop calling me Red." I sniff, pulling back from the embrace and brushing my fingers over my tear-stained cheeks and through my red hair, mock glaring at him. "You're so unoriginal."

In the past, I thought of coloring my hair just to get everyone to stop calling me "Red," but my hair is the one good thing I got from my mother. She gifted me plenty of mental scars and traumas I'm still working through, but at least I got gorgeous hair.

The unbidden memories of my mother almost dampen my mood, but I quickly shrug them off, turning to the silent figure beside my brother, and a laugh breaks out of me. Priest is built like bull, and his appearance is very much at odds with the stunning beauty standing beside him. I can't help but notice she is about my age, too.

"Rhea, this is my girlfriend, Sky," Priest says, and the shy girl extends her hand for a shake, but I ignore it, going in for a hug.

"Nice to meet you, Sky. My brother won't stop talking about you every time we talk on the phone," I say with a wide smile, and Priest doesn't even bother denying it.

In the two years I have known Priest, he's never brought up being involved with a woman, and I've never seen him with anyone. I thought he was a bit of a softie with me, but around Sky, he is basically a melted marshmallow. It's comical to see.

"How about we go inside, and you can say hi to the other guys. Everyone has missed you."

His words bring me pause, and I fight to retain my smile. "Uh, sure," I say, picking up my purse as he grabs my other bag. "So, you told everyone that I was coming?"

"No, I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Not even . . . um, your best friend?" I say, hoping Priest doesn't catch the tremor in my voice.

"You mean Knight?"

"Oh, yeah. Is he still around?" I ask, trying for nonchalance, as if his name isn't tattooed on my heart and any attempt to move on has only brought me excruciating pain.

"Of course he is. Hey, do you still use that expensive camera he gave you for your eighteenth birthday?" Right before he shattered my heart to pieces.

"Oh, right. I've been so busy with school that I forgot all about that. I still have it, but don't get a chance to use it much," I tell him, forcing a chuckle I don't feel. When I look up, I am met by a confused set of dark eyes that look like mine, but it's the knowing glance his girlfriend gives me that leaves me feeling exposed.

It's almost like she knows, but . . . no one knows.

My palms begin to sweat and panic swells in my throat at the thought of someone finding out the truth of what happened between Knight and me, and what that could mean. Would Priest be forced to pick a side between the best friend he's known his entire life and the younger sister he met only two years ago?

It would be all my fault if that happened.

My eyes shoot up when I feel a hand on my shoulder to find that we've stopped, and Sky is watching me with a knowing smile.

"Red, are you okay?" Priest asks, concern lacing in his voice.

"I . . . I'm sorry, I'm just tired. The flight was long, not to mention the half-hour taxi ride here," I offer weakly.

Priest's dark eyes narrow, as if he doesn't believe me, but it's his girlfriend who comes to the rescue.

"How about we take her home first and let her get settled in, then later, she can see the guys," Sky suggests, placing her other hand on my brother's arm, and he melts. I watch with humor as his features soften when he stares at his girlfriend, and just like that, I've become invisible.

"You're right," he says with a nod, and I can practically read the hearts in his eyes. I snort out a laugh and follow them to their car, bypassing the clubhouse altogether. Priest used to live in the master suite in the big house, but shortly after I'd arrived, he'd bought a house in a quiet neighborhood nearby, wanting to put some distance between me and the club's less-than-legal activities. When I'd left for college, he'd moved back into the clubhouse, but he'd told me that he recently moved back into his other house again shortly after meeting Sky. I'm only visiting for a few days, but I can already tell it's going to be a painful couple of days.

Sharing a house with these two lovebirds is no doubt going to chip away at my sanity, but despite it all, I am happy that Priest found someone.

I know that will never happen for me.

Don't think about him. Don't think about him! I chant in my head as I follow them into the house, and I am quickly distracted from my thoughts when my eyes lock on a gorgeous flower arrangement on the entry table. I take in all the subtle changes to the place that have it feeling and looking warmer.

"I like what you've done with the place," I say, smiling at Sky. I know Priest wouldn't be caught dead near a flower shop, but then again, maybe not. When I turn to find him watching Sky like she holds all the answers to the universe, I know there is little he wouldn't do for her.

I take that as my cue to leave them, and they let me. My bedroom is just as I left it, with a few small changes like the roses on the nightstand and new sheets. The windows are open to let in fresh air, and I find myself wandering over to them, hugging my arms as I stare out and try not to think of him.

But I can't help myself.

His house is right next to Priest's, having bought it the second it came on the market shortly after Priest and I moved out of the clubhouse, and my room faces his living room. Many nights during my first year living here, I found myself spying on the man as he sat on his sofa watching some kind of sports. Sometimes he was shirtless, and I would just ogle him, wondering how those firm, tattooed pecs would feel under my fingers.

Whenever I saw him lift his beer bottle to his lips, I wondered how the alcohol tasted in his mouth. It made me feel like a creep, but I couldn't look away from the beautiful biker that lived next door.

Sometimes . . .

Sometimes, I thought he did it intentionally—walking around his house in nothing but a pair of boxers, letting me see his V-line and dream of those dangerous, stormy gray eyes as I played with myself under the covers.

My sex tingles with need at the memory, and I bite my lip as I stare into the house, startling as my eyes catch on the man standing by his window, watching me too.

I've dreamed of those eyes and that mouth—that body—every night since I left for college. Not one boy at school has lived up to the perfect man staring at me with only a towel wrapped around his narrow waist, water dripping down his hair to his chest and down to his six pack, and—

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I duck down and sink to the floor. My cheeks flush with mortification, and I just want to melt and become one with the floor.

He saw me.

I press up and peek back out the window to find him still standing in the middle of his living room, staring straight into my room. Goddamn him for looking so good with his long midnight hair and delicious tattoos. He looks even hotter than I remembered, and that annoys me for some reason.

"Should have taken the taxi driver's offer to give me a ride back to the city," I whine to myself as I lower back to the floor. How the hell am I going to face Knight now? The man caught me watching his home like some stalker.

There is no way I can face him. My brother's best friend and the vice president of the Steel Order MC. The first and only man I have ever loved. And my only heartbreak.