Babydoll (Steel Rebels MC #1) [Completed]

FIFTEEN - Guilty secrets

Isabella

The next few days were strange in Isabella's opinion. She was so used to being able to come and go as she liked, that staying put at the club house made her feel antsy. She tried to hide it, because she knew that it was for her own safety and she didn't want to appear ungrateful, because she was really glad that the Steel Rebels were helping her and had welcomed her without asking really anything in return. But the uncertainty was causing her anxiety to rise to the surface.

Most people were gone during the days to do their jobs and Knux was gone even more, since he kept visiting people around the city together with Wrecker and Hazzard and sometimes Hannibal. And none of the men seemed to want to talk to her about the visits, she had tried to ask Knux on Sunday night, when they had cuddled up on her bed after dinner, but all he had said, that she shouldn't worry. He didn't seem to realize that it wasn't something that she could stop. Her head was even more filled with worries, doubts and memories than normally and she hadn't managed to get it to calm down.

She didn't even have anything to do that would give her something else to focus on for a little while. She had asked her lecturers and professors for the course work, but it seemed that for now there weren't any new assignments or papers to do. The exam phase wasn't far of, and she guessed now everyone was just focusing on going over what had been learnt in the past year. She also hadn't been rotated into the chores' list at the club house, so there was no cleaning to be done. She had thought about doing a deep cleaning of the ovens or fridge but felt like she might offend people if she started to go on a cleaning spree. She didn't want them to think that she thought they were slobs, which wasn't the case - Isabella was just used to everything being impeccably clean.

***

On Wednesday afternoon she knew she needed to do anything else than sitting around and went to find Duke, who was apparently working remotely from the club house. Knux was closing the shop today and wouldn't be home until eight or nine in the evening and he had told her to find Duke, in case she needed help or something.

Isabella tried to ignore the fact that her boyfriend would be closing the shop together with Hellcat. She knew she couldn't deal with the jealousy and worry that would fill her head and heart if she dwelled on that fact. She had been right in her assumption that Knux had been sleeping with the attractive woman, because Helium had told her all about Knux's sexual interests on Sunday. It had been a serious case of TMI for Isabella and now she looked at the club girls differently, mentally having categorized them whether they had slept with Knux or not, and she didn't like it. Sometimes not knowing was a blessing, but it was too late for that.

Duke

Duke looked up from his laptop, when someone hesitantly knocked on the open door of the officers' office.

"Little one," he said surprised.

"Hi Duke."

Isabella was twisting her hands nervously.

"I, umm, I."

She stopped, as if unsure how to voice her request. It didn't take a genius to figure out, something was bothering Isabella as she stood in the door frame of their office twitching anxiously. Duke had thought that she was slowly coming out of her shell, but now he wasn't sure. He knew that Knuckles had been away quite a bit in the last two days, still scouting to assess the threat level, but he had thought that the young woman had made friends with some of the other women on Sunday and was slowly settling in. But now she seemed as insecure as when Knuckles brought her in a week ago.

"Come in," Duke told her and nodded to the small sofa that stood in the office.

Isabella looked like she was glad for the invitation and shuffled over, while he rolled over to the couch on his office chair.