Knox's Stand

Chapter One

“Case dismissed” Judge Creech slammed down the gavel and the crowded courtroom began to empty.

“Thanks, Ms. Richards.” Diamond turned to the spoiled man standing by her side.

“Don’t thank me. If you get caught driving drunk again, lose my number. My bill will be in the mail.” Diamond began putting her papers back into her briefcase, angry at herself for taking Luke Baxter’s case in the first place. Her brief foray into criminal justice was as bad as she had feared it would be. She hated defending clients that were guilty as hell but had the money to afford her fee.

Sighing, Diamond put her regrets behind her, knowing this case would take care of several outstanding bills and give her some breathing room for a couple of weeks. Treepoint might be small, however it had an abundance of lawyers, each competing for clients.

When her bills came due, she had a choice of either beginning to take cases like Luke’s or become an ambulance chaser. She had picked the lesser of two evils, but she was beginning to doubt herself when she saw Luke cockily leave the courtroom. The dumbass is probably heading to the closest watering hole to celebrate.

“Want to grab some lunch?” Diamond smiled as Caleb Green came to stand next to her as she snapped her briefcase closed.

“Consorting with the enemy?” she asked the assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney.

“We could never be enemies, Di.” Although he had been flirting with her the last couple of months, she had yet to accept one of the many dinner invitations he had issued. Caleb was good looking, always impeccably dressed and he was a constant gentleman, opening and closing doors for her.

She didn’t know why she wasn’t attracted to him, but she wasn’t. He had the same attitude as several of the men she had dated in the past; perhaps she was simply saving herself the inevitable heartbreak in becoming involved in yet another relationship that had the same markings of failure.

“So, do you want to grab some lunch?” Caleb asked again, holding the door to the courtroom open as they walked through it into the busy hallway.

“Sounds good, I’m starved.” Diamond felt his eyes running over her body, but refused to let it bother her. She was tall at five-nine and wasn’t model thin. She had learned long ago that she was never going to be skinny with her love of cooking and food. Diamond liked to think of herself as curvy, not fat, and from the way Caleb was eyeing her breasts under the demur blouse she was wearing, she thought he would agree with that assessment.

Walking across the street once they were outside, they entered the diner to find it packed. It was the lunch hour and the diner had good food, therefore it took several minutes before Caleb managed to snag them a table.

Taking their seats, they sat down across from each other. Diamond picked up the menu to study it while Caleb ordered drinks for both of them.

Trying to decide between the fried chicken or a healthy salad, she wasn’t paying attention to the other customers in the restaurant when Caleb’s low voice drew her eyes away from the menu, “I see one of your former clients is here.”

“Who?” Diamond asked, looking up from the menu.

“Winter Simmons. She’s sitting over there in the corner with that biker gang she runs around with now.”

“It’s not a gang, it’s a motorcycle club,” Diamond corrected.

“There’s a difference?” Caleb asked snidely.

Diamond gave him a sharp look. “Yes, there a difference.” Diamond made herself take a deep breath, calming herself against Caleb’s prejudice.

It was exactly because of the same ill-informed prejudices that her childhood had been made miserable. As she had grown older, she had placed distance between herself and her parents’ club. Her parents had been together for almost thirty-five years, and while she did not agree with their lifestyle, neither did she call it something it wasn’t. She had been raised with the motorcycle club, learning the hard way of the contempt that people viewed them with.

When she had graduated college she had moved back home, but grew tired of the judgmental attitude of everyone who was aware of her parents’ connection to the Destructors. Especially since the club made regular use of her services without paying for them, and becoming a regular pain in her ass, Diamond had decided to move to Treepoint. She had wanted a fresh start, yet still be close enough to visit her mother.

Caleb gave her an inquiring look as the waitress arrived to take their order, diverting his attention from questioning her any further. Aware of Caleb’s judgmental personality, she ordered the chicken salad and sat back in her chair, unhappily staring at the nearby diner’s plates of fried chicken and biscuits, not surprised when he ordered a salad for himself. She was a better judge of character than he was, Diamond thought.

Her eyes surveyed the room, going to Winter Simmons’ table, who had been a client of Diamond’s only two months ago. Her fiancé, Viper, the president of The Last Riders, was sitting next to her at the largest table in the diner. Diamond also recognized Evie and Bliss, who had been at the school board meeting where she had represented Winter to regain her job as a high school principal.

Winter was very attractive and her face glowed with happiness. The two other women at the table were knockouts as well. Evie was a brunette who carried sexy easily while Bliss was neither too large nor too small. She was perfect from her sultry face to her short, spiked blond hair in a large over-sized t-shirt that said ‘bite me’. The t-shirt was low cut and displayed the curves of her firm breasts. Both women were sitting on each side of the huge, completely bald man sitting at the table. She had seen him the day she had met Winter at the clubhouse of The Last Riders for the first time.

He had come down the steps from the upper floor, entering the huge living room of the clubhouse with two women. He hadn’t been wearing a shirt, showing his huge, muscular chest. The two women he had entered the room with had been scantily clad, just wearing t-shirts. It had been obvious to her what the three had been doing upstairs. It had been like stepping back in time to her childhood, seeing the same crap that had been going on in her parents’ motorcycle club.

Diamond started to turn her eyes away when they were caught and held by the large man sandwiched between the two women. A spark of desire struck her; she had always been attracted to large men since she herself was so tall. Unfortunately, they always were drawn to the little delicate ones that were sitting next to him. Self-disgust with herself had her giving the staring man a look of contempt. A lot like the one she had worn when she had been angry with Caleb moments before.

Angry at her knee-jerk reaction to an unwanted attraction, she shifted her gaze back to Caleb, trying to divert herself from the scrutiny she still felt on her. She began discussing the case they had just fought over while putting the large group out of her mind. It wasn’t easy; they were a boisterous group and Diamond was relieved when they stood up to leave the restaurant.

Her relief was short lived as the group made their way to her table. She could tell from Caleb’s expression he wasn’t pleased when they stopped at their table.

“Hello, Ms. Richards. How are you doing?” Winter asked curiously, looking at Caleb.

Diamond gave Winter her patented, lukewarm smile. “I’m fine, and you?”

“I’m doing well. I’m enjoying my new school.” Winter gave her a smile in return, however Diamond could tell that the intelligent woman hadn’t missed the snub of not being introduced to Caleb. Hell, Diamond was doing her a favor, but Winter had probably taken it as an insult.

“I’m glad you were able to work things out with the school board.” Diamond had been relieved that both Winter and the school board managed to work out an agreement. Winter had fought the school system to keep her job, and while not retaining her position as the principal of the local high school, the school board had agreed she would be acceptable to replace the one that needed to retire at the alternative school.

“It’s good seeing you again.” Diamond gave her another cool smile. This time, The Last Riders got the message. They all stiffened while Viper gave her a hard look at her snub of his fiancée. Winter didn’t let it faze her, merely ignoring their angry glares.

“You’ll have to come to lunch with Sex Piston, Killyama and Crazy Bitch sometime. It was good to see you again, Diamond.” With that parting shot, Winter and The Last Riders moved to leave the restaurant. Barely managing to keep her face from showing her embarrassment, Diamond met the angry glare of the large man as he threw a contemptuous look at both her and Caleb.

“Who’s Sex Piston, Killyama and Crazy Bitch?”

Diamond skillfully evaded the question. “We better finish; we have to be back in court in thirty minutes.”

Caleb looked as if he was about to ask the question again, but she quickly took a bite of her salad and Caleb began eating his lunch while he threw her several inquiring looks. Afterwards, they each paid for their own lunch before returning to the courthouse.

Diamond’s next case was another DUI. This time her client received a stint with rehab and a device placed in his car that he would have to breathe into for the ignition to start. She wasn’t upset about getting those requirements; he hadn’t been given jail time and he would get some help with his drinking problem. That was what she called a win-win situation.

Diamond drove home afterwards, tired after the long day. Her mind kept wandering back to the episode in the diner. Winter had witnessed her rocky relationship with her sister, Sex Piston. Diamond was the first to admit she deserved the set down for her behavior, yet she had felt uncomfortable with the large group surrounding the table. She had been well aware that the judgmental townspeople as well as Caleb were eavesdropping on their conversation.

As she passed the local motel, she saw the local sheriff and the coroner’s car. Wondering what had happened, she almost pulled over, but didn’t. She was sure she would read about it in the local paper tomorrow.