The moment she saw him again, lightning sizzled through her and not only touched her soul but torched it, set it aflame.  Looking through the dirty cracked window, she stared at his oh so familiar profile.  The straight nose and those bow-shaped lips that she had hungered for and kissed seemed to be still the same.  He hadn't changed a bit in...how long was it now?  Two years?

Could it really be two whole years since she had last seen him and gazed into those steely bluish green orbs?  Was it really 24 months since she had beheld that tight, condescending brutal smile?  The warmth and moistness that suddenly flooded between her legs and flushed her skin to a fever pitch brought everything back in less than a second.

Katherine stared at her ex-lover with such a determined and solemn expression that she almost thought that through sheer force of will she could make the clock turn back time.  She closed her eyes as if she might realize the fantasy.

Her heart thudded to her feet in a nosedive as she remembered all the reasons why it wasn't possible.  She staggered and her legs crumpled underneath her, and she slid down the cold concrete of the garage wall.

The memories took her back, back to a simpler time when her life had been much less complicated.

She had just arrived in Melbourne to stay with her aunt after the death of her mother.  In spite of the great physical distance that had separated them, her mom had always been close to Aunt Marie.  After the fatal heart attack, her aunt had flown to Canada and wouldn't take no for an answer from her headstrong niece who didn't want to be a burden.  She had insisted on taking her under her wing.

"It's not good for a young woman to be all on her own.  You need someone to look after you.  Look at you!  You're not sleeping.  You're not eating.  You come back with me, and we'll put our heads together, fatten you up a bit and get your life back on track."

It was easy to tell that Aunt Marie was not a native Australian and had been married to an Italian.  Poor Uncle Roberto.  He had been dead five years now.

She had capitulated without a great deal of resistance.  Adapting to the different climate and culture had taken awhile.  She was quite happy to discover that she could discard all her heavy sweaters--no, not sweaters, jumpers--and the fur-lined jackets.

The strine, however, she had a little trouble with.  Perfect strangers were suddenly calling her "love" and "mate."  It seemed just a tad too friendly to this reserved and skittish twenty-five year old.  Things were a little chillier in more than one aspect in the North.

Thank goodness, they had American television here, or she would have really suffered from culture shock.  Aunt Marie tried to follow through on her vow to feed her back to health, but Katherine was naturally slim and it proved to be a lost cause.

When she woke up one fine sunny morning and realized that her first thoughts were not of her mother, she wept tears of recovery.  She then found a job working in a library and made friends with her colleagues.

Katherine was intimidated at first by how pretty--no gorgeous--some of the young Australian women were.  Blond hair, bronzed smooth skin and those unique quirky accents were hard to contend with.

Herself, she was 5' 8 and had short curly chocolate brown tresses.  She considered her looks ordinary.  She was shy around the attractive young men her girl friends hung around with and introduced her to.

She only had two boyfriends in her entire life, and her experience with the opposite sex was minimal.  Yes, she had done "the deed" after a drunken college party just to get it done and over with.  The burden of virginity she had just wanted to shed like a pair of dirty underwear.

The clumsy groping, the frantic disrobing and then the excruciating pain that no one had warned her about ended her initiation.  What was the fuss all about?  Just a 'tempest in a teapot' she had thought at the time as she later looked at her blood dispassionately which stained the sheets.

It definitely had seemed much more enjoyable for Don.  He had asked her if she had come.  Not wanting to say that she had never had an orgasm before so how would she know, she briefly had nodded her head and smiled at him.  That seemed to be enough to convince him that he had done his manly and sensitive duty all at the same time.  They hadn't lasted long as a couple after that.

But now, she was in a new country, on a different continent even, and she knew it was time to re-think her initial impressions of the male species and the consummation act that merged them.

Katherine dated a few guys--blokes--but they didn't seem all that more evolved than their northern counterparts.  She listened to her friends describe their encounters in blunt and highly erotic terms.  She was missing out on the big secret that everyone else seemed to know but her.

"Kathy," they would say to her.  "You've got to loosen up.  Arse about a little.  Bloody hell!  One good root from prime Aussie cock will cure all your ills.  You'll forget all about those wankers back home.  Get your arse in gear, woman!"

She brooded about this for the hundredth time as she locked the library door.  She was so deep in reverie about the lack of intense ardor in her life that she found herself walking further and further away from familiar surroundings.

"I don't want to go home," she muttered.

Katherine was a good hiker, and soon miles went by unnoticed.  The sun had set, and darkness swooped swiftly down on her.  The neighborhood she was in was not as middle-class as her own.  Trodding along on the sidewalk, she found evidence of a much more deprived neck of the woods.

Empty vials littered the pavement.  Used condoms shone out at her from under the dim street lamps.  Was that a syringe?  She felt the first stirrings of goose bumps break out on her skin.  Where was she?  Why were there no people or cars?

Her heart leapt into her throat as she heard the sudden pounding of feet coming towards her.  Katherine froze in mid-step as she saw three men race up the curved hill.  She watched as if in slow motion as they looked behind them expecting someone to be in hot pursuit.  Their voices were loud and intrusive.

"We've lost the stupid buggers."

"Where did the other fuckers come from?  We were told there'd be only five."

"Well, obviously someone gave us the wrong oil."

The voices became shouts.

"I can't fucking believe this.  Hando will have our heads."

"More like our balls."

Her feet finally became unentrenched, and she dashed across the road to hide behind a dumpster.

"What the fuck was that?"

"It wasn't a bloody gook.  I can tell you that."

Katherine held her breath as it got very quiet.  The voices had died.  She heard no steps.  Grasping around behind her, she fumbled for some kind of weapon to use.  Her hands closed around something sharp and pointed.  It was what was left of a sign post.

She cried out in pain as a splinter jammed into her palm and let it drop.

"What do we have here?  Lookee, Lookee."

"Aren't you a nice bit of baggage to come across."

"Hey darlin', what's a fine piece of fluff doing sitting in this stinking shit hole?"

Scrambling backwards on her hands and legs like a crab, three faces stared her down.  Her eyebrows jumped two feet as she stared at the owners of the voices.

Oh shit, they were freaks!  Their heads were shaved and looked oddly misshapen.  It only added to their menacing appearance.  Dressed in denim from top to toe, they seemed identical to her in the dim light that escaped from the dull street lamp.  She saw mouths moving and heard words but they didn't register.

"What are you, deaf and dumb?"

"She's got to be a dim bulb to be in these parts."

One of them grabbed her arm.  Katherine yanked it back as if contaminated.  She hauled herself up but hunched over in a position of defense in case they attacked.

"What's your problem, bitch?  Too snooty for the likes of us?"

They must be drug dealers she concluded.  Only low lifes would look like they did.  Her eyes darted back and forth between them.

"We don't have time for this Sonny.  Hando's waitin'."

Sonny, the chubby one, was particularly evil looking and had been the one who grabbed her.

"There's always time for prospectin', Brett."  Sonny smiled coldly at her.

Katherine spoke in a hoarse undertone.  "I have friends expecting me.  They'll be coming to find me."

"Do we have a Yank among us?" Sonny exclaimed immediately after hearing her.  He smiled even more widely.  "I like American girls," he emphasized the nationality.  He pressed forward but Brett held him back.

"Forget it.  We've got to report back."

"He's right, Sonny.  Hando will be spewing."  The third one piped in.

Sonny shook off Cackles' arm.  "You two act like some faggoty old arse bandits.  No one's gonna know shit.  Besides, Tracy is away with her mum.  I need a sheila."

Brett had already started walking rapidly away from the dumpster. 

Cackles finally shrugged and ran to catch up with him.

Sonny turned back to Katherine, reached into his jacket and brought out a knife.

She ran in the opposite direction but stumbled over some scattered debris on the ground.

He was on her in two seconds.  He jabbed the knife in the direction of her face and pricked her cheek lightly without breaking the skin.

Katherine screamed.

He covered her mouth with his hand.  "One more word and I'll split your fucking throat wide open.  You want to bleed like a stuck pig, Yank?"

Sonny waited until her saw her eyes lower.  Digging the knife into the small of her back, he yanked her up.  "Now we got to get a wiggle on.  You be a good girl and maybe I'll let you keep your tits."

He continued to jerk her along making tracks to get even with his mates.  When she protested or said anything, she felt the knife in her back.

"For the last time, shut the fuck up!"

Soon they approached what looked like a gray industrial warehouse.  Brett hammered on the door.  It was opened by a shorter version of the three dope fiends.  Katherine saw as she was being dragged through that the guard was a young kid.

"What took you so long?  Hando's going apeshit.  What's with the girl?"

"Never mind, Baby Bubs," Sonny clipped the kid's head.

Bubs tried to punch him back but Sonny easily evaded him cackling loudly at his frustration.

Katherine heard more footsteps, and when they turned a corner, several more men joined them.  More shaven heads and grim faces swam before her.

One man in the middle who wore a red T-shirt and white jeans with suspenders came forward alone and addressed the trio looking them over one by one.

"Did something go wrong?  It should only have taken an hour."

Brett sighed and answered for his party.  "They knew we were coming.  They had reinforcements."

The man who obviously had a leadership role kept walking towards them.  "How did they find out?  We just heard about the takeover ten minutes after the deal was done."

Katherine was surprised by the deep timbre of his voice and his restrained calm.

Brett put his hands up in placation.  "I don't know, Hando.  When we got there, they'd already taken over the pool hall.  There were about ten of them.  They saw us come through the shipping entrance, and we barely made it out."

The one named Hando scowled fiercely and punched out furiously at the wall beside him.

The sudden violent move made Katherine jump in fright.

"Fuck!  That's the third time in two weeks," Hando bellowed.  "Those bloody coolies are swallowing up our turf like a piece of piss.  They must have a snitch down in the district.  That's the only way they could have sniffed us out."

A tall thin man walked up to Hando and whispered something in his ear.

"War conference in five minutes," Hando announced.  He then seemed to notice the girl.  "Who's she and why is she here?"

Cackles and Brett stepped away from Sonny to disassociate from him.

Katherine saw her chance and broke away from Sonny.  "He kidnapped me," she said in a tiny voice that she didn't recognize.  "I don't want any trouble.  I just want to go home."

Hando tilted his head at Sonny waiting for an explanation.

"I didn't think it would matter.  Bitches are always here.  Either they come on their own or they're brought.  What's one more?"

The man in charge raised his eyes as if reflecting on the reply and then glowered down at Sonny from under heavily hooded eyelids.  "You're not here to think.  We're in the middle of a war.  What's more, I sent you on a mission, one that you failed.  You're a hopeless sack of shit."

This was said coolly in an even tone.

When Sonny sheepishly smiled, Hando's arm went for his throat.  "You can dick and whore around on your own time." 

He squeezed harder and Sonny started to choke.  He got in close to his victim's face.  "But on my time," he yelled enraged, "it's strictly business and you do what I tell ya.  Do....you....understand?"

Sonny gasped out a breath and bounced his head up and down.

Hando gave him one more seething look and then released him as disgust took over his features.

Sonny collapsed and rubbed at his throat but was smart enough to hide any resentment.  No one went to his aid.

Katherine's eyes swept from Sonny back to Hando.  She had never seen anger erupt so quickly or seen such controlled fury.  It was like a curtain had come down over the man at the last second to forestall his rage as he threw her abductor away.

"You can go," Hando said quietly to her.  Dismissing her, he immediately started talking softly to the tall man beside him.

Katherine was free but lost.  "I don't know how to get home from here.  Can you tell me where I can find a taxi or train station?" she asked timidly.

Hando turned again to face her impatiently.  "Where do you live?"

"Sedgewick Park," she answered.

Hando shared a glance with Davy.  This bird was a long ways from her nest.  She was out of her element here.  The address she gave was in a rather posh area.

"Taxis don't come here," Hando declared.  "Train station's about two clicks away but you're askin' for trouble at this time of night."

Katherine was scared of this man, but he was talking to her so reasonably and in a non-threatening manner.

Hando tapped his foot restlessly and studied the floor.  He obviously was a man who had an agenda to fulfill thought Katherine.

Finally, he glanced again at her.  "I can't spare any men to get you home."  Then he saw young Bubs walk by.

He called out, "Bubs."

The young boy eagerly loped over to Hando.

"I want you to take this girl..."

"Katherine, my name's Katherine," she informed him not knowing why it was important that he knew her name.

"Take this girl," Hando continued ignoring her interruption, "to Sedgewick.  Make sure she gets back safely."

At Bubs' look of protest, Hando's lips formed a rigid line.  "Do it."  

"But Hando, I'm gonna miss the action.  You need me here," the boy whined.

"Bubs."  Hando only had to say his name again in a firm but deadly tone to make the boy obey.

He kicked at the ground in anger but brushed past the girl pushing her aside roughly.  "Come on then."

She took one more peek at the leader surreptitiously but he had already moved away with his friend.  She hurried to catch up with her young guide.

Once out of the warehouse, Bubs make his wrath at her known loud and clear in a stream of verbal abuse.  "If it wasn't for you, I'd be getting ready for the blue.  You're a dumb bitch not to know how to get home on your own."

When she caught him in a moment of silence, she questioned, "Who are you fighting?  Another gang?"

He gaped at her as if she was a brainless twit.  "The gooks," he hollered.

When she still looked blank, he snorted, "Stupid cunt.  The gooks have taken over all our property.  We're gonna show them who's boss.  They're gonna be sorry bastards when Hando gets through with 'em."

Katherine dared to ask one more question.  "Who are gooks?"

Bubs gave her another look of astonishment but didn't elaborate.  He walked fast and she followed. 

In spite of everything she had undergone, she was curious and wanted to know more about this supposed war which was soon to be waged.  If she was truly honest with herself, she would have admitted that it was the leader of this mob of unruly thugs that peaked her interest the most.

Bubs had shut up and just wanted to get his babysitting duty over with as fast as possible.  He dumped her when they came to old Cabot Road.  "You can piss off now.  You should know the way from here."

Luckily she did as he did an abrupt about face and started to sprint across the road, and then he vanished taking a short cut through a deserted power station.

Katherine was relieved to be back and in one piece.  Her legs were still wobbly, and when she got to her aunt's street, she sat down heavily on the corner curb to calm down.  She would have to be completely unruffled in front of her aunt as she was a sharp old lady who didn't miss much.

His face kept coming to the forefront of her mind.  Hando's face.  His eyes had captivated her.  They were so expressive and had flashed out every emotion he was feeling:  frustration, fury, and deliberation.  He had heavy eyelids under which he cast out looks meant to cow.

A wicked tattoo covered one of his arms and looked like it continued on under his shirt and high up on his neck.  He was tall but not the tallest.  Yet he seemed to tower over everyone else.  Commanding presence was what he had.

She admired how he had dealt with Sonny though it had terrified her at the time.  She really thought he might have killed him.  He had restrained his dark side so effectively.  He had spared her from harm though he could have just looked the other way.

In spite of the shorn scalp, the biker-like impression and the company he kept, she found him fascinating.  She tried to recall every little physical detail.  His arms were well-muscled and his legs were long.  He wore heavy boots like the others did, but no one could ever mistake him for anyone but who he was.  He was not meant to be a subordinate.  Even his name was unusual but it suited him.

"Hando," she tested it out loud and then said it again and smiled. 

The very next day Katherine began her very personal research.  She dropped casually into conversation with friends questions about gangs and turf wars that she supposedly had read about in newspapers.  She discovered that 'gook' was a racial slur for a person of Vietnamese origin.

She didn't know how she felt about that as she had been raised to be accepting of all races and religions.  Whatever bothered her, she forced out of her head.  She was too infatuated.

The girls knew as soon as she spoke about shaved heads that she was referring to 'skinheads'.  Katherine had never heard the term before.

"You want to put them on the avoid list flat out."  She had been warned.

Later, she confided to Natalie that she had met one of them, a gang leader whose name was Hando.

Natalie's grew wide as saucers.  "You've met Hando!"

Katherine quickly ascertained that Hando had a famous yet unsavory reputation among would-be rebels and riffraff even here in an affluent and peaceful vicinity.  Many young people had heard of the neo-Nazi but few had actually met him in person.

Martin, Natalie's cousin, who had a serious case of hero worship with Hando though claimed to have been to one of the places where he and his gang hung out.  Katherine had found that rather hard to swallow as he was an awkward young man still looking like a teen with his oily skin and his face pitted with old acne scars.  He would stand out like a sore thumb in any venue that tough guys like Hando haunted.

However, in case he did really know of Hando's hideouts, she then developed a sudden attack of interest in him.  She pumped him for information mercilessly.  One Thursday evening she met him after work and badgered him to take her to Wally's, one of the pubs where Hando frequented.

At first, he refused and said she was daft.  Then after pleading with him and making all kinds of promises of nocturnal activities to follow if he came through for her, he finally caved.  He would bring her there tomorrow night.

Katherine beamed and as soon as she got home started burrowing into her closet for the appropriate outfit.  Nothing she had seemed right.  If she wanted to get Hando's attention, she had to stand out and make an impression.  She would have to purge the old conservative Katherine.

She tore off a few buttons on her tightest white silk blouse.  Her skirts were not deemed short enough which was a shame as she had long shapely legs.  Jeans would have to do.  At least she had a good pair of spiked heel leather boots.

Not once while she fretted over her clothing did she consider the danger she could be letting herself in for.  Hando was a strange and unknown entity, but she didn't want to be cautious.  Here at last was a man who excited her!  She wanted him and that lust drove her to things she would normally never do.

She lied to Aunt Marie and said she would be sleeping over at Natalie's as she had to go in to work very early on Saturday to receive a new shipment of books.  She spent the little money she had saved on a vast assortment of makeup and cheap costume jewellery.

Natalie was sworn to secrecy, but she had freaked when she had first heard of the plan and where they were going.

"That pub's in the back of beyond.  The cops are scared to go in.  What happens if they go berko on ya?  You could scream blue murder and nobody will lend a hand.  You'll be fucked."

Katherine dug in her heels though, and not only did Nat back down but she helped her with the makeup and hair.  Gazing into the mirror, she let loose a small smile of approval.  She didn't look like Katherine at all.  As a tingling sensation swept through her, she realized she didn't feel like her either.

When Martin picked her up, he gawked at the change in her.  She had gone from 'girl next door' to 'town bike' all in one go.  Of course, he didn't tell her that or that he didn't like the overall effect.

He frowned at her but Katherine didn't care.  She would ditch the loser as soon as she made contact with her target.

They drove in silence to the shady side of Footscray.  She felt her heartbeat quicken, and Katherine became aroused at the thought of seeing the skinhead king again.  Down there, she was warm, moist and ready.

She crossed her legs as if to stem the wetness from leaking through her panties.  Wondering if Martin could smell the animal heat radiating from her, she slid further away from him on the front seat.

Martin slowed down and turned down a lane way where few street lamps were.  The ones that were standing either weren't working at full power or the glass had been broken long ago by objects hurled at them.

He turned off the ignition and looked over at Katherine.  "Are you sure you want to do this?  He might not even show."

She was already out the door and gazing up at the pub sign.  Some of the neon lights were burnt out so it spelled out --A--LY'--.  A large cardboard menu was taped up on the window blocking a complete view of the occupants.

Martin caught up to her.  "Let me go in first."  Katherine let him take the lead as they entered. 

It was dark and instantly her ears were assaulted by blaring heavy metal/punk music.  Martin had grabbed her hand and was leading her to an empty table.

"No," Katherine insisted.  "I want to sit at the bar."  This was no time to be shy but bold.

Finding an empty stool, she jauntily perched on it.  There was no other vacant one so Martin just stood behind her uneasily.  He ordered a beer and she had rum and coke.

Katherine observed the interior of the room.  It was pretty crowded, but she didn't see any sign of skinheads.  She shimmied out of her leather jacket.  A couple of men had given her the fish eye when she came in.  She downed her first drink in a hurry just to keep her eyes and hands busy.  Martin was protectively hovering over her shoulder.

"When did you say they normally come?" she enquired again.

He patiently replied again, "I don't know; maybe 11:30 or twelve."

Katherine tilted her watch to the light.  It was quarter after eleven.  Ordering another drink, she tapped her foot restlessly.

In spite of the loud noise, her ears caught the entrance door whip open and voices clamoring for priority were yelling and howling.  A large lot had gathered just inside.

"You're such a lying shithead, Champs," shouted someone.

"Yeah, you're full of it.  We're supposed to believe that Horny Hannah had the hots for you so bad that she let you fuck her up the arse right in front of her old man."

Whoever was Champs rapidly tried to defend himself.  "Piss off!  I never said hubby was in the house but I saw him perving in at the window while we were doing it.  He was getting off."

Whatever came next was drowned out by a chorus of jeering voices and shrieks of laughter.

The rowdy mob emerged into the middle of the room.  Skinheads!

All at once two groups of people around the two centre tables got up and cleared out.  It was a foregone conclusion that the gang had precedence in the pub.  As soon as they spilled into the chairs, two waitresses hopped to their service.

Katherine didn't see him among those present.  Gosh, they were an ugly brood she contemplated as she studied them closely.  There were even female skins as well dressed like goths.  One was tall and had partly shaved her head on the sides and had long braids.

The door opened again and Davy and Hando joined the rest.

Hando was bored.  He was also slightly intoxicated.  He cased the joint.  Same old dreck was here:  the drunks, the addicts, the sluts.

He was in the mood for a little nookey but the pickings looked slim.  There was Cheryl waving her hand frantically at him trying to get his attention.  He disregarded it.  She was too easy and thick as a brick.  The only thing in her favor was that she had big tits that were real.

He reconsidered.  Cheryl had dough at least which meant she could lend him a few quid till dole day.

Hando decided she was as good as any.  He raised his hand and beckoned.  Cheryl practically creamed right there in her haste to get to him.  Immediately Hando dragged her off to a dark corner.

Katherine saw Hando as soon as he strode into the room.  He was with his tall lean friend.

She licked her lips nervously.  Martin needlessly was pointing to him.  She tuned him out.   Watching Hando scope the place, she was momentarily discouraged when he gestured over a skinny little blond with huge breasts.

She followed them with her eyes as they disappeared into a hideaway.  Swallowing the rest of the alcohol for courage, she knew what she had to do.

Martin was still bugging her about how late it was getting and didn't they have better things to do at this time of night.

"In your dreams, buddy," she muttered under her breath.

"I have to go the loo," Katherine announced and walked away from him.

Her keen eyes had spotted them.  When she got to where Hando and his lady friend were, she leaned back against the wall and shamelessly spied on them.  She relied on the darkness to envelop her.

Hando's hands were under the girl's t-shirt roaming and squeezing the copious flesh.  They were devouring each other's mouths and tongues.  The girl hitched her leg up around Hando's thigh as he leaned back against the wall.  One large hand supported it while the other explored what was under her skirt.  The hussy tossed her head back and let out an audible moan.

Katherine was titillated by the provocative scene that was playing in front of her.  She forgot where she was as she pretended that she was the woman whom he was getting down and nasty with.

Fully preoccupied, she missed seeing but heard the delivery of a smart slap.  She rocketed back to her surroundings.  Hando had just smacked the woman across her full buttocks.  She must have done something to displease him.  The girl pouted prettily but did as she was obviously instructed to do and left.

Katherine soon found out why.  To her simultaneous exhilaration and dismay, Hando was staring right at her.  Her lips parted as he crossed over rather unsteadily to her.

"Getting your jollies by being a peeping tom?" he admonished the tall brunette.  "If I'm going to be someone's entertainment, you should really kick in the admission fare."

She was startled again by how deep and resonant his voice was.  All that Katherine had intended to say and do when faced with the object of her desire went completely out of her head.

His eyes were cold and hard like flint.

"I don't like being watched.  It invades my privacy.  I feel disrespected.  If you want to make eyes at me, have the decency and the guts to do it in the open.  If I get a throb in the knob, I'll let you know.  Otherwise, you'll end up copping it if I feel you're getting your kicks at my expense."

Katherine's throat was clogged.  She had to avert her eyes from his which remained locked on her as the silly smile she wore on her face dwindled away.  She managed to eke(?) out, "You don't remember me.  I'm the one who was brought to the warehouse and I was lost.  You sent Bubs to take me home."

Hando examined her face closely, this time in recognition.  Fuck, she had tarted herself up good since then.  Was it all for his benefit?

She was tall and thin, and her gams seemed to go on forever in those tight black jeans which hugged her thighs.  Her white shimmery blouse fit snugly across firm small breasts.

His attention shifted finally back to her face which was oval-shaped.  She had wide-set eyes which were bright green flecked with brown.  She had too much makeup caked on her.  It didn't suit her.  Her collar length hair had been teased and sprayed so her natural curls were frizzy.  He bet that if he tried to put a hand through it, it would get caught in a mass of sticky goo.

Katherine got chills as his eyes raked her up and down.

"You're a long way from home.  Slumming are we?  Why is that?"  This time, Hando allowed her a small smile as he leaned in close to her putting one hand against the wall above her head.

She swallowed several gulps of air.  It was dreadfully warm in this place.  She knew he wouldn't like her to lie to him.  What was the point?  He had already guessed her interest.

"I wanted to see you again," she bravely admitted.

Hando cocked his eyebrow at her.  "You're hardly the downtown type.  Dreaming about taking a walk on the wild side and actually workin' it are two different things.  Now either you're a good girl who wants to play bad for the night and get a few cheap thrills, which if that's the case, don't waste my time.  Or you're a besotted misguided little fool thinking I'll give you the time of day.  Which is it?"  He pressed in closer to her.

She hadn't counted on this cocky side of him.  Where was the man who had protected her and been her savior?  Did she want to be with this whole different person?  She could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Katherine decided to risk everything.  "I want to know you.  When I met you the other night, I had the feeling we could be friends."

"Friends?" Hando scoffed and made the word sound obscene.  He lifted his right hand and traced a finger down the side of her cheek.

"Okay, maybe more than friends.  I just like you.  I really like you."  There, all of it was said, not so terribly eloquently but there it was.  She waited for him to mock her.

His finger reached her lips.  Hando was sizing up her potential.  He usually stayed away from newborn babes who could never fathom what his life was like or tough it out on the streets for one day let alone a lifetime.  Still a one-time gig would relieve his boredom, and then he could send her packing back to her white bread, sheltered little world.

"All right, Love.  Let's get out of here then."  He gave her a disarming smile as his eyes slid down her body again, undressing her in his mind, before once more meeting her gaze straight on.

She blushed and her own eyes shifted down to her feet.

Hando grasped her hand and started steering her to the door.

"Wait," Katherine pulled back.  "I left my jacket at the bar.  I'll be back in a sec."

When she took off, Hando whistled to Davy who came over to him.

"Not your typical chick," Davy stated the apparent in greeting.

Hando grinned.  "She's all rigged out in fine feather, just ripe for plucking.  She wants a little excitement."  He winked at Davy.  "I can provide that."

He slapped Davy on the shoulder.  "Hold the fort for me, mate."

Davy nodded and raised his beer to his lips.  Hando always managed to find an eager and willing sheila wherever they went in a matter of minutes.  It drove him mental some times.

They were best mates and Davy was true blue to his friends.  Yet, he often found that he was jealous of Hando.  Hando attracted people of both sexes and of all ages like a magnet.  Whatever he flaunted, the sheilas ate it up like lollies.

As a leader, he had no equal.  He always knew what to do and when.  Indecision was not in his nature.  Sometimes he needed to be tempered though as he took rash chances in the fights he had with their enemies.  Hando was a man driven by his inner demons.  Davy knew him so well.  The smoldering fire in Hando never went out.

Davy was the only one to whom Hando would listen if things got out of hand, and even then, it was an intense sacrifice for him to relinquish even a smidgeon of control of any situation.

Draining his beer, Davy went to chat up Megan who with Sonny's girl, Tracy, often partied with them.

Katherine looked all over before finally finding her jacket with some strung out girl sitting on it.  She was so zonked out on whatever that Katherine had to say "Excuse me" three times before she gave her a blank look like an empty canvas.  In desperation, she shoved the girl's ass off the stool.  Fortunately, she was too stoned to retaliate.

Putting it on in a hurry, she started weaving through the hordes of people towards the door.

"Kathy, where have you been?  I've been looking for you everywhere."

Fuck, she had forgotten about Martin.

"We've got to split now.  It's late and my dad needs the car back."

She stopped and swung around.  "You can leave.  I've met up with Hando and we're going somewhere."

Martin's mouth fell open.  "I can't leave you with him.  Kathy, he's dangerous.  You're playing with fire."

To her vast embarrassment, they had reached the entrance and Hando was looking over at them and had probably heard every word.  He had a smirk on his face.

Katherine snatched her hand out of his grip and hissed, "Then if I get burned, it's my fault and my problem not yours."

"She's got a point, mate."  Hando had come up beside Martin.

Martin immediately seemed to shrivel up right in front of her face.  God, what a coward, Katherine thought.

He managed to stammer out, "She doesn't have a car.  She needs a ride home and I...."

Hando intervened, "I'll see that she get home.  I can't promise when though.  I wouldn't wait up, if you know what I mean, Mate, eh?"  He punched Martin lightly on the arm sharing a conspirator's glance.

Martin began edging backwards.  "Well, I guess that's okay."

Hando gave him the brisk one-armed salute to send him on his way.

His pupils dilating, his face reddened and his lips pursing together like a fish out of water, Martin turned and ran out the door.

"What a flaming ponce.  Where'd you come up with a no hoper like him?"

Katherine felt a little bit of guilt creep into her conscience.  Martin had done her a favor, and now his idol was making fun of him.

"He's a good guy," she said in his defense.

Hando bored humored her and said, "Whatever."  He grabbed her hand again.  "Let's go."

She found herself being yanked out of the pub, through the parking lot and down a back alley.  Katherine had long legs but still couldn't keep up with Hando's pace.  Breathlessly, she asked where they were going.

"Back to the squat."

"Where's that?"

"Home," he simply answered.

Was it the warehouse where she had met him, Katherine wondered.  That decrepit old building which was sprayed with filthy graffiti?  Surely not.  How could that be anyone's home?

"I thought we could go somewhere for a drink," she hesitantly suggested.

"Plenty there."

Katherine urgently needed to clarify what they were going to his home to do.  "Can we talk there?  Will it be private?"

Hando looked at her from under his long eyelashes and gave her a sidelong grin.  "Talk?  I have a better idea for those lips of yours.  As for private, they'll probably be some blokes around but they won't bother us."

Her chest began to tighten.  What was she letting herself in for?  Obviously he expected to have sex.  She argued mutely.  Isn't that what you came for?  You want the same thing.  Yes, she did but now she doubted whether she could satisfy this very virile and powerful man.

Her fears and doubts Hando could easily read on her face like a book.  He liked making her squirm.  Too bad, he didn't give a shit.  Girls who dressed to tease and who pretended to be bold as brass--whether they were or not--often were taught a lesson about giving off wrong signals if they weren't going to deliver the goods.  Believe it; this woman was going to put out.

Katherine almost sighed in relief when she saw the warehouse.  At least she could get out of her boots which were killing her feet.

Hando rapped three times on the door.

This time it was patrolled by a skinhead who wasn't the kid and who she hadn't seen before.

"Luke," Hando addressed the doorkeeper.  "Been quiet?"

Luke nodded.  "Haven't heard anything new about Nguyen."

Hando's lips curled into a brutal sneer.  "I don't like it.  He's been moving around trying to dodge us.  He's got to have permanent new digs to operate out of.  We need to find his power base and eliminate it."

He didn't wait for Luke's response but kept walking briskly through the large drafty room.

Katherine had kicked off her boots and began hobbling after him.  "Who were you just talking about there?" she asked, her natural curiosity coming to the forefront again.

"Regular little sticky beak aren't ya?" Hando observed, not too pleased by her inquisitiveness.

"Was that the name of your rival?" she persisted not being deterred by his sullen manner.

Hando snorted, "A rival is a worthy opponent.  Nguyen is a scumbag parasite, and he'll be stomped out like one before he infects any more of the neighborhood."  He smashed his foot on the floor for emphasis as if squashing a bug underfoot.

By the frosty look on his face, she knew not to pursue her line of questioning.

Walking through the squat, she noted the dingy walls which were spattered with dried water spots from leakage.  The overhead lights were cheap fluorescent ones that flickered and buzzed.

Other skinheads congregated in small groups, and all acknowledged Hando as he passed.  No one thought it unusual that he should have a strange girl by his side.  They still gave her the once over.  Katherine looked away from them, uncomfortable by their steady and somber gaze.

Hando turned right and bolted up a flight of stairs.  She hurried after not wanting to be left behind with his companions.

He opened a door and closed it firmly after she entered.  The room was pitch black.  She couldn't see a thing.  She nearly yelped as Hando's hand touched her arm.

He waited for her eyes to adjust to the complete and perfect darkness.

Slowly, Katherine saw images of objects.  There was a mattress on the floor but no bed.  That's all her eyes could make of the shadows.

He flicked a switch and in that first flash of illumination, she caught a glimpse of another world.

Hando's eyes trailed hers as she took in his room.  He wanted to judge her reaction.

Yes, she was right.  It was a mattress on the floor, a very dirty and stained one which should only have been fit for the garbage heap.  The walls though were decorated starkly with swastikas, a German flag and other Nazi posters and paraphernalia.

Katherine shivered inexplicably.  Her fascination had been so all-consuming that she really hadn't given much thought to his beliefs and ideology.  Now it surrounded her.  To suddenly be thrust into contact with evidence of such overt racism and hatred shocked her to her core.

Hando saw how taken aback she was.  Now would she be honest about it?  He lit up a cigarette and waited.

Her eyes finished their 360 degree rotation and drifted to his face.  Katherine's voice was a whisper.  "Why do you hate them so?"

It wasn't a rebuke or a put-down, just a simple request for explanation to help her understand.  He was satisfied.

He pointed to the large map on one wall and explained how the Vietnamese had taken over large parts of the city with their cheap labor, cutting locals out of jobs and a proper wage.  He described how these immigrants didn't bother to learn the language of their host country or adapt to their customs and traditions.  They wanted to keep their own.   Meanwhile, native white Australians were being made to feel like blow-ins.

Katherine assimilated all that he told her.  The white Aryan race was pure and had to be guarded and maintained at all costs.  He showed her his copy of Mein Kampf.  She confessed that she was ignorant of the actual good that Adolph Hitler accomplished.

Katherine didn't how she felt about all she had learned.  In all honesty, at that particular moment, she didn't care much.  She just wanted Hando to go on trusting her and speaking with enthusiasm.  She loved the sound of his voice.

Hando opened a small fridge and took out two beers.  He handed one to her and then dropped to recline on the mattress.  He patted it in invitation.

She gingerly sat down and bit her lip.  She couldn't keep her anxiety in check.  What if she disappointed him?  Sucking back her beer, she turned to face him.

He gave her a sly smile sensing her disquiet and took another long drag on his ciggie.  They both watched the stream of smoke he expelled into the air.

"How badly do you want me?"

His directness and utter confidence stunned her.  She blurted out, "Enough to be here.  I've never done something like this before."

Katherine felt the dip in his eyes as they wandered down to her lips.

She had a wide and sensual mouth.  She was prattling on about the few dags she had dated back home. 

In mid-sentence he silenced her by forcing her back onto the mattress.  He fell on top of her.  His mouth engulfed hers and his tongue invaded.

Katherine followed his lead and molded her lips to his.  She opened wide and tentatively her tongue danced with his.  As his lips insistently sought to capture hers, she instinctively took his lower one between her teeth and caressed it with the tip of her tongue.  When his mouth grazed her neck, she felt a liquid heat race through her.

With one more savage kiss, Hando abruptly released her. 

"Get your clothes off," he ordered.

She did as she was told trembling while unbuttoning her blouse.  When she was down to her underwear, she stopped and waited for his next move.

"I meant all of it," he rasped out.

Katherine undid the clasp and slid her bra down.  She then stood up and hiked down her panties.  He was still fully clothed.  Her body flushed as he took all of her in.  When he flicked back to her face, the blush warmed her cheeks intensely.

She was attractive physically but Hando found her innocence and lack of airs much more of a turn-on.

Her nipples stood out hard and pink against the soft whiteness of her breasts.  He bent down swiftly, caught her shoulders and shoved her on her back again.  She briefly struggled underneath his full body weight but he easily subdued her.  His young hard body was pressed against hers from breasts to thighs.

Pushing a finger inside of her, he found she was wet.  Her lips latched onto it.  While his mouth kept hers occupied, he continued to penetrate further and rub her clit.

She moaned with pleasure.  Far from withdrawing from his touch, she propelled her pelvis and groin hard against his fingers.

Katherine reached to undo his jeans.

He forced back her hand and lifted himself off.  Expertly, he shucked his jeans and shirt and covered her once more.

Aching to stroke every part of him, her fingers explored his broad chest and well-defined arms.

He played with her breasts, tweaking hard at the nipples. 

She let out a small whimper of pain.

Swallowing the tip of one, he sucked and lapped at the tender skin.

Katherine tickled his earlobe with her tongue and was pleased to hear him exhale deeply.

Hando felt her warm sweet breath cascade over him.  Her mouth remained pliant and giving.

Straining underneath him, she moved her hands up and down his back, digging her nails into his flesh.  Katherine felt the heat low in her body and led his hand back against her lower lips.  Driven by her hunger for him, she then plunged both of her hands into his briefs and freed his hard cock so that she could hold him and feel how he was fully erect.

His frustration level had now become unbearable.  Shoving her legs apart, he pushed the head of his penis into her.

Katherine gasped as its thickness and length filled her and stretched her.  Her body tensed with rigidity but she was melting inside.

Then with one quick ramming motion, he entered her fully.

She recoiled from the initial pain, but seconds later, she reacted to his rhythmic thrusts.  Her hips moved in unison with his as they swept each other higher.  Katherine moaned louder with each push.

Hando's breathing was ragged and uneven.

A tidal wave was cresting inside Katherine, but she held back, frightened by the power and fervor of their fucking.  Her legs went numb as he waged on probing deeper and faster.

A deluge of fluid flooded into her as Hando came hard. 

His semen trickled down the inside of her leg when he eventually rolled off her.

Her heart stopped pulsing frenetically.

Hando's drinking and the sex had caught up to him.  He yawned and mumbled, "Need some zees."  Within a few minutes, he was dead to the world.

Katherine wondered if she was supposed to leave.  Noises and music were coming through from downstairs.  It seemed a party was going down below her.  She definitely did not want to have to depart through a sea of people.  Maybe she would stay for just a while.  After all, Hando had told Martin that he would give her a ride home.

She laid her head down on the bare mattress.  Hando had confiscated the one pillow.  She tried to relax her mind and body.  The sex had been amazing, and she had come so close to peaking.  She intuitively knew that.  Had it been all right for him?

As Katherine rolled over on her side, she felt Hando's arm creep across her arms and chest so that she was trapped by it.  He had done this in his sleep.  It was like he already had claimed her for good.  She gave a little purr of contentment as she closed her eyes.

Katherine woke up with a start.  Her eyes snapped open.  Morning sun light was creeping in from underneath the newspapered windows.  She recalled instantly where she was.

Hando was gone.  What time was it?  Squinting at her watch, she saw it was 9:25.  She winced as she sat up.  All her muscles and joints seemed to ache at once.

She desperately had to use the john.  Where was it?  She dressed hurriedly and dragged a brush through her tangled hair.  Her mind was dizzy with indecision.

Katherine made up her mind and crossed over the room's threshold.  She encountered no one as she tiptoed down the stairs.

Hando's tall friend was suddenly in front of her.

"Hi," she said a bit too brightly.  "I need to use the washroom."

Davy pointed out its location silently and she rushed off. 

When she came back, he was still standing there.

"Is Hando around?" she asked.

Davy nodded.  "He's in a meeting."

"Oh," Katherine paused.  "I was just going to go home but I need a ride."

"He'll be with you when he's done.  He has to fill in the rest of the gits who seemed to have lost the plot," he explained further.

She didn't know what he was talking about.

"Business." Davy elaborated.

Katherine found herself a little out of sorts.  She hadn't slept well and had been plagued by nightmares.  She tapped her foot impatiently.  "Will he be long?  I sort to have to get home soon."

Davy shrugged.  "Buggered if I know.  If he has to split some skulls to make his point, it'll take more time."

He had said that so calmly.  Unbelievable.  Katherine bit her lip.  "Can you interrupt and tell him I really have to go."

This one clearly had lost her marbles Davy thought.  "No one interrupts Hando.  That's the first rule around here."

She gave this some consideration.  "Okay.  I guess I'm walking then."

Davy stretched out an arm to halt her.  "He wants you to stay.  He has to talk to ya."

Katherine felt the restraint of his arm and it infuriated her.  Did he intend to stop her from leaving?

He looked into her eyes and then away again as if his guard duty was unpleasant and something he didn't relish.

She felt a surge of anger.  She was actually being held here against her will.  The warm glow from last night rapidly diminished.   Katherine found a chair and toppled into it.  Might as well be comfortable while she was being held prisoner.

An hour later, she heard voices and saw Hando and some of the others approaching.  She looked quizzically up at him.  He ignored her and continued talking shop with his boys.

Katherine was fed up.  Enough is enough.  She stood up and cut in, "I'm leaving now whether you like it or not.  I don't appreciate having to wait all this time and then find I'm being ignored.  It's rude."

The skinheads around her gaped and shut up.  Their eyes leapt to Hando to see how he was going to punish this act of rebellion.

Hando's lip curved into a snarl and then into a brutal facsimile of a smile.  To everyone's utter bewilderment, he laughed.

He dismissed the boys and then dragged an arm around Katherine's shoulder and tightly drew her near.  Only Davy was permitted to stay.

His arms were like steel.  He was hurting her.

"I'm going to cut you some slack this one time 'cause you're new and you haven't yet learned who's in charge."  Hando's voice was a deep rumble, and then it turned menacing.  His eyes were icy.

"You only get one 'get out of jail free' card though.  If you ever try to cut me off or shame me in front of my men again, you'll pay for it and, darlin', you won't like the price.  Guaranteed."

Hando slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand.

Katherine jumped.  Her stomach started to churn.

"What you did just now was a 'fuck you' of the first order, and it will not be tolerated."  He let go of her and grabbed her chin forcefully tilting up her face to meet his eyes.  "Are we clear on this, Love?"

Still in his grasp, she managed painfully to shake her head up and down.

"I can't hear you."

"Yes.  I'm sorry," she panted out as his fingers continued to pinch.

He released her.  "My life isn't for the fainthearted.  Don't ever fuck with me, blow me off or cross the line, and we'll get along apples."

Katherine was confused.  Did that mean he wanted to see her again?  More importantly, did she want to be with this violent man who was erratically unpredictable?

"Now if you've completely trashed those rose-colored shades you've been wearing, you can see the lay of the land and decide for yourself.  I don't plan on changing or accommodating someone else's agenda for me.  So here's the deal.  I'd like to see you again.  You know where to find me when you've made up your mind."  He started to walk away and then threw a comment over his shoulder.  "Luke will drive you home."

Katherine still in shock looked at Davy.  He gazed back at her with sympathy.

That was how it all had begun.  Katherine crunched up her legs to her chest as a tear dribbled down her cheek.  Banging her head lightly against the garage, her mind took her back along the path to heaven before the volcano had erupted and took her to the depths of hell.

Katherine hadn't deliberated for too long before she freely chose to become involved with Hando.  It really wasn't a choice.  She felt compelled to be with him.  He was her obsession.  She wrestled against her desires for maybe all of five seconds.

Common sense told her to stay far away after being physically threatened.  It was overridden by an intense yearning to be sexually awakened.  Hando's potent allure dazzled and drew her to him.

The nefarious and volatile side of him made him ten times more thrilling than any other person around.  He was unsafe and precarious, but this very same instability both intimidated her and drove her wild at the same time.

The sensation of being in his power with no clue as to what might happen next was ecstasy.  She never knew what to expect when she crossed over into his world.  Nothing could be taken for granted.

Hando could see all of this in her eyes when she met up with him again at Wally's.  There was a certain sparkle there and a gentle tease in her smile.  There was something all too familiar in the look she gave him.  He recognized it for what it was--the fire of determination.

No words had been necessary.  They became lovers and more.

Being spellbound by him, however, did not blind her to the new challenges she was faced with.  Business always came first.  Often she would find him in "war" councils with his band of warriors, hands on his hips, drilling them.

"Fuck, what's this 'two hour's' crap.  When I give you a job to do, I don't care how long it bloody takes.  You stay there until it's done.  Are you committed or are you playing games?"

Katherine observed that Hando was very heavy-handed when his orders weren't properly carried out and to the letter.  She would overt her gaze as he would cuff or in some other way quell disobedience and infractions.  Katherine learned not to see what she didn't want to.

Change came to her as he wouldn't.  Aunt Marie found a new toughness spring up in her niece.  She came and went as she pleased refusing to say more than monosyllabic answers about where she was going and who she was with.  Her fashion sense had cheapened to a lot of short skirts and sleazy tops.

Yes, she still worked at the library but never did overtime or went out with the friends she had made there.  Katherine sacrificed them.

Even loyal Natalie had said to her, "It's not flaming easy to be around you.  You always have your back up, ready to lace into anyone who dares to ask what you're doing.  Every night, you're off like a bride's nightie, all dolled up, to be with that man.  Every day, you come back looking less like yourself, a shell of what you used to be.  The bottom line, mate, is I don't know who you are any more or even want to."

The words had stung but she tried to shrug off the inflicted wounds.  In the end, she buried them deep inside.

"Shit!  Who needs them?  I have new friends."  Katherine would keep reminding herself.

Megan and Tracy at first had been unreceptive, but gradually, they begrudgingly accepted her as one of them.  They had thought she wouldn't last a week with Hando.  They had been wrong.  Not only did Katherine stay, but she threw herself into becoming indispensable to the gang.  She cooked; she shopped; did errands and played the role of sister, nurse and surrogate mother.  Bubs had been completely won over.

Katherine paid particular attention to befriending Davy because he was Hando's best friend and confidant.  It didn't hurt to work all angles to ensure Hando's respect and continued regard.

Initially, her awe and caution with Hando had softened the sharp edges that were developing.

When she first saw fully all of his tattoos that she hadn't noticed in the dark, Katherine had been repulsed.  Why had he mutilated and degraded his body?  It was one thing to shroud his room with hate but quite another to wear it stamped and etched permanently on his skin.  Her disgust had been relatively short-lived, as all negative impressions of him were, since his body was also an instrument of passion and pleasure.

Every time she gazed upon his naked body, Katherine drank in his beauty.  Her thirst was quenched when they fell together and became one in her mind.

To Hando, screwing Katherine or Kat as he called her now, was a release from the pressure of governing his boys and engineering the fall of his nemesis, Nguyen.  It was enjoyable but flat.

She was holding back.  It would be up to him to teach her the difference between that and totally letting go, giving all that she had up to him.  In that same moment, she would free herself to experience euphoria and rapturous carnal delights.

One night in bed, he tested her.  Hando watched the full red lips part with excitement and impatience for his kiss.

Katherine stretched voluptuously on the mattress, writhing as one hand grasped him.  Moving her fingers rapidly up and down his shaft, her lips curled up into a smug smile as he hardened immediately.  She then took the crown of his cock between her lips and moved her mouth downwards, sliding it up expertly again and continuing a slow and languorous crawl along the length of it.

Flipping her over onto her stomach, Hando pulled her up to her knees.  He penetrated her quickly and smoothly from behind, fastening his hands to her waist.  He began to fuck her soundly, plunging inside her to the hilt sending her reeling forward to almost smack the mattress.

She pushed back against him, returning each thrust as firmly as it was given.  Katherine's knees felt ready to buckle.  Tensing up as the speed and force of his drives were causing her to leak, she worried that she would urinate on him.  It felt like her bladder would burst.

Katherine didn't know any better that she was on the brink of orgasm.  She was ignorant that she was on the verge of squirting as her g-spot, that obscure point of no return, was rampaged.  In her innocence, she did what she always did and stiffened, hoping he would come soon.  The pressure was too much to bear.

Hando felt her resistance again.  It annoyed him.  Selfish though, he thrust into her one last time to obtain his own satisfaction.  She looked relieved when he withdrew.

Turning over to lay on her back, Katherine missed the naked aggression in his eyes.

His voice deepened; and there was a sly hint of sneer in it.  "You had a good orgasm, right Love?"

Her eyes lit up.  "I always do with you, babe."  Katherine's lips curled into a smile.

"Un-fucking-believable," Hando agreed with a wolfish leer. 

Then it faded.

Right away, Katherine regretted her false words.  Her mouth quivered involuntarily as his eyes turned steely and the features of his face froze.

He slapped her hard enough to snap her head back.  A broad hand-shaped red mark emerged on her cheek.

"I know you didn't come, you silly cow, and so do you," Hando yelled and then grasping a hunk of her hair yanked her up to his face.

"Don't ever lie to me.  You think I don't know the difference?  Fuck, when I make you come, they'll hear you go postal clear round the block."

Stupefied and frightened, Katherine quickly squealed, "I'm sorry."

Giving her hair one more painful twist, he flung her away.  His voice evened out.  "You've never come before in your life, have ya?"

She shook her head.

"Why did you lie?" he demanded to know.

Katherine, her cheek smarting, was not going to risk another slap by not being truthful.  She heard her voice crack and tried to blink back her tears.  "I don't know if I can have one.  I didn't want to displease you by admitting that I'm inadequate in that area."

Hando rolled his eyes.  'Cause you thought I was too dense to catch on.  You may have fooled the silly buggers back home but that shit won't cut it with me."

He could tell she was embarrassed and bothered by what she felt was a serious shortcoming on her behalf.

"You hold back.  I can feel your body tense whenever you come close.  You need to relax and let it happen.  Don't think about it.  Do you ever play with yourself?"

Katherine, her face red as a beet, nodded.

"You don't do it enough. That's your first mistake.  You have to know your own body.  You've got to know what turns your crank.  Well, we can rectify that right now."

To her chagrin and utter mortification, Hando made her masturbate in front of him.  Watching his eyes follow her technique, she felt her own juices dry up.

Hando wasn't embarrassed in the least.  "Here, let me show you."

He then proceeded to massage her clit and insert his fingers into her pussy.  In a few minutes, she was aroused again.  He continued to finger fuck her, pushing in and out, modifying his pace.

Her eyes began to glaze over and she started moaning.

Speeding up, Hando penetrated her with three fingers.  Not taking his eyes off her, he made a beckoning motion with them.

Katherine's legs started numbing out again.  Once more, she felt like she had to pee.  She wanted him to stop but was too scared to ask him to.

"How do you feel?"  His voice was a velvety whisper.

"Like I have to go to the washroom."  A soon as she said it, she realized how incredibly naive she sounded.

Hando smiled at her with detached amusement.  "Looks like we have a squirter in our midst."

She threw him a confused look, and then seconds later, she felt a sudden potent gush sweep through her lower body.  Man, it was like a head rush!   Katherine flushed and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.  Her moans had reached a crescendo.

Katherine peaked and -voila- had her first orgasm.

Not satisfied with a job unfinished, Hando did a hasty hand job on himself.  As soon as he was hard again, he lay on his back and instructed her to get on top.

Mounting him, Katherine slid down tentatively on his erect member.  He filled her completely even more so than usual.

Hando let her take the lead and manipulate the speed and intensity of their ride.

Arching her back, when Katherine came again, they both felt it and were gratified.

From then on, their sex life became awesome for both.

Life at the squat was a constant education for Katherine.  Parties raged on all the time at all hours.  The smell of unwashed flesh and sweat combined with the heat of the Australian summer made the place stifling.

She saw sights better left unseen.  Sonny and Tracy didn't care who noticed as they groped and had sex right in front of anyone and everyone often in sync with the loud barrage of music.  They weren't the only couple to do it either.

Katherine was observant enough to note that Davy seldom had a girl with him.  He would drink and party hearty with the others, but he was a shy loner in many ways.  Sometimes she would find him staring at her.  He would always look away first as if he were guilty of doing something wrong.

She was also aware of how much Hando needed and loved Davy.  He took care of him as he did Bubs.  There was a gently roughhousing with both of them that Hando did as if he was almost an indulging parent.  It never ceased to amaze her, just like he never ceased to amaze her.

Sometimes at night, instead of making out, Hando would simply talk to her about all different things.  He had a wonderful analytical mind.

They discovered early that they had a few things in common that bonded them.  Both of their mothers were dead, and their fathers had been deadbeat arseholes.

Hando's mother died when he was five.  His father had long flown the coop when things had got rough.  Poverty had surrounded the young boy.  He refused to become a victim of it.  The streets became his playground.

What a life he had led.  Katherine wondered if he had been raised in a different environment with two loving parents, would he have made the same choices for himself.  It was pointless to consider.  Hando was the man he was and made no excuses.

He would tell her, "You've got to depend on no one but you, Kat.  You control your life.  Trust nobody."

Katherine had teasingly asked, "Not even you?"

Looking at her intently with deep blue-green eyes, he answered, "Especially not me.  Live by your instincts."

She had been so disturbed by the way he had voiced this.  He was deadly serious.

One thing she would never ever grow accustomed to was Hando's preoccupation and utter fixation with gooks in his territory.  She hated that term but once planted in her brain, it never went away.  He was a zealot in his pathological hatred towards them.

"They're sucking the life out of this country," he would complain bitterly.

The "business" ran his life.  His standard pose when lecturing and motivating his 'army' was remaining erect and tall, his thick arms folded across his chest.

Tersely, he'd say, "You can't lose sight of the goal, or you'll lose."

Often after fights, when he and his gang came back bruised and battered, he would send them out again exhorting, "You never end on failure.  The morgue's full of people who became complacent and eased off exactly when they should have put the acid on."

The women were never allowed to accompany the men when they waged battles, but Katherine had her vision intact.

Before a fight, there was an unnatural gleam always in Hando's eyes.  It seemed like insanity to Katherine.  When they came home, the men's bodies would be bristling with tension and unused energy.  Depending on how well they fought and what they accomplished, the gang could be quite dizzy from the adrenaline rush that did strange things to their heads.

Katherine never liked to be around Hando just after a scrap.  Either he would be enraged if they were beaten or giddy with elation by victory.  It was too extreme for her to know how to handle.

As soon as she stepped in the door of the squat today, Katherine could tell that something was cooking.

Hando was laying into Champs.  "All you do is lie around all day like a rug collecting dust.  Maybe we should take you outside and beat you like one then."  He kicked out at Champs' boots who then straightened up and slinked out of Hando's view.

Sonny and Cackles were arsing around with a stray cat that had wandered in off the alley way.

"What kind of cat is that?" Cackles asked.  "It's got no tail."

Sonny immediately came back with, "I'm not up on my cats, just my pussies."

They howled hysterically at their own wit until they caught Hando's glare.

Davy approached.  "We just got word that Nguyen's gonna make a hit on Washington."

Washington was a fellow skinhead chief who had the turf adjacent to Hando's to the south.  He was an established leader with solid command aptitude but who lacked the manpower that Hando's tribe had.

Katherine watched with trepidation as the two conferred.  She could tell without being close enough that Hando's jaw was twitching.  The men were gathered, and instructions were dealt.  Each had a task to be performed.

They were getting close to Nguyen now, and this knowledge kept a fire burning under each skinhead's arse.  Combat gear was donned, and their arsenal of weapons raided.

With Megan and Tracy, she stood behind the sidelines as they left. 

Suddenly on an impulse, Katherine said, "Why don't we tail them?  See the action close up."

Tracy was too stunned by the idea to speak. 

Megan, however, didn't mince words.  "It's ugly.  If you get caught in a fray, they'll beat you, and if Hando catches you, you might as well be dead."

Oddly those blunt facts didn't deter her.

"I'm going."

They didn't try to stop her.

Pulling on a spare pair of jeans and tucking her hair underneath a baseball cap to hopefully look like a guy, Katherine hurried out the door.

She had overheard the name of the area where things were going down.  Familiar now with certain streets, she figured out the best way to get there.  They had a twenty minute head start on her plus they drove while she was hoofing it.

There was no rhyme nor reason why she had this particular need to be a front row spectator.  Restlessness and feeling at loose ends to find she was left alone again had propelled her more than anything.

Forty minutes later, the shouts of men and the clang of tire irons alerted her that she was close to the hive of activity.

Quickly, she assessed the situation.  Twenty-five to thirty gooks were brandishing knives, sticks, chains and the like at two groups of skinheads.  In the thick of it, in the very midst was Hando.  She knew by the tell-tale flash of his long dark coat.

Katherine was far enough away not to be seen but not near enough to observe first hand combat.  She crept closer hiding behind chain-link fences.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh impacted her ears.  Loud, strange guttural noises were coming out of the Viets' mouths.

The more she advanced, the clearer the images, sounds and the horror became.

People were fighting one on one and in small groups.  Sharp shivs were jabbing at eyes and throats.  Groans and cries of pain spilled out of the wounded.

Things were banging; chains were swinging, and human beings were being battered.

Katherine couldn't look away, and she desperately wanted to for her own salvation.

A familiar voice shouted out Hando's name.  Davy alerted him just in time to avoid being hit in the back with a two by four.

In an instant, Hando was on his attacker pummeling his head and shoulders with a flurry of flying fists.  His face was contorted with rage.

His victim was on the ground now, and Hando was trying to gauge out his eyeballs with his thumbs.  He felt the thrum of adrenaline run through him.  His veins bulged out on either side of his head.

She wasn't beside him, but Katherine could sense the savage scowl.

A body came out of nowhere and launched itself at her.  It hurled into the gate she had been hiding behind.  The force of its impact sent her sprawling.

When she recovered, she saw the gate had been knocked down.  The bloody corpse that was lying on it was gaping at her with startled open eyes.  A knife was sticking out of its chest.

Lowering her head, Katherine watched spots of light dance on the ground in front of her as her stomach revolted.  Her lunch spewed out of her in large undigested chunks.

Retching until there was nothing with streams of sweat rolling down her face, she felt too weak to move.

Fuck, there was a dead body not two feet away from her!  The nightmare of it would never leave her.

The danger of being sucked into the vortex of the battle was real.  The fence had been her defense and shelter, and now it was gone.  She sensed movement all around her.

"Got to get up."

Her survival instinct was too strong.  Getting to her knees, Katherine crawled to a new hiding spot, a large sewer grate.

She heard him before she saw him.  His voice was so near and loud that she cast a furtive glance over her shoulder.  No one.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?  You've messed with the wrong bloke, Monkey.  This is the last day of your sorry life.  You--are--fucked!"

Katherine twisted around and up.  She saw a young man with beads of sweat covering his forehead and staining his shirt.  His face was racked with agony.  He was shouting out a cry for mercy.

The other man leaning over him was Hando.  His hands were clenched into tight fists.  Slowly, one by one, he uncoiled his fingers.  Even from a distance, she could see giant sore blisters had welled up on his knuckles.

The Vietnamese man's blood on his face was mixing with mucous that poured out of his nose.  His left arm dangled limply by his side where it had been broken.  His right leg was bent like a pretzel.

Hando remained alert and alive.   With spittle flying out of his mouth, he still threatened even though the man was completely helpless.

Her lover's cold dark eyes pierced her as he relentlessly castigated his captive.

"Might as well hack these off now.  They'll not be of any use to ya."

Davy at these words grabbed the man's fingers and cracked them backwards. 

His shriek of torment deafened Katherine's ears.

Everywhere she looked, she saw rage personified, monsters' faces, and features savagely distorted.

Overcome with thirst, she thrust her hands into the small stream that trickled through the bars of the grate.

Bile rose in her throat again at the water's brackish taste and foul stench.  Waves of nausea rocked her and sapped her strength.

No more.  She could take no more.

Even then, after everything she had seen, it hadn't ended.  The last straw that ruined everything was still to come.

Katherine didn't know how she stumbled back to the squat but somehow she did.  She managed to avoid Tracy and Megan as she slowly shuffled up the stairs to Hando's room.

Opening his door, her eyes drifted to all the signs of hostility and enmity that she had become immune to.  She had stuck her head in the sand.  The chasm that had been growing between them was widening inch by inch.

Collapsing on the mattress, she tried to hide from the vivid flashbacks of the battle.  She couldn't block out his face, all twisted and warped.

He probably had killed that man or tortured him until the possibility of death would seem like a blessing.  How could this same man then lie with her and use that same power and fire, make her soar to the heavens and believe that his passion was true, worthy and everything that should be between a man and a woman?

Did Hando ever once think of the contrast between what the walls of his room spouted and the intimacy and desire that arose every time they shared the same bed?  Hate and love together.  Evil versus good.

Katherine shuddered as the sounds below indicated that they were back.  She hastily wiped her eyes as if she could sponge off the disillusionment and doubt.

To her ears, it sounded like revelry downstairs.  They must have won a victory.  In a few minutes, she heard pounding on the stairs.  The door was shoved open.

Raising her eyes, she attempted a smile but it faltered.

Hando threw off his coat.  "Those sorry bastards were taught a lesson today they'll not be soon forgetting," he exclaimed.

"Nguyen's animals were let out of their cages and they bought it almost down to the last ape."  He smiled, a cold sinister snigger.  "Too bad, the head guerrilla wasn't there to see it unfold."

Katherine didn't say a word.

Hando wasn't paying attention.  He was too wired.  He leaped up to grasp the overhead exercise bar.  Swinging his legs up, he did some sit-ups to unbottle residue energy.

"I reckon he'll be jabbering away giving his men a good ear bashing.  Bloody hell those buggers were stupid.  They walked right into an ambush underestimating their enemy.  That's what they get for being above themselves.  That's what Nguyen gets for being a shitty zoo keeper."

He stopped as he realized she wasn't attending.

"What's with you?  You look like a flaming face ache."  Hando lowered himself to the floor.

"You've got blood on your shirt," Katherine commented.

His eyes flicked to the dark stain then back to her face.  Her eyes looked red-rimmed as if she'd been crying.

"Did something happen here?"

She looked away.

Hando's patience was running thin.  Lately, Kat was being a real drag, never smiling and always wanting them to be alone.  It was important to celebrate triumphs with the gang.  She obviously didn't see that or appreciate his position as leader.

"I asked you a question," he snapped out.

Katherine lifted her head.  "Nothing happened."

"They why the fuck are you stashed up here being a bloody bludger?  Go home if you can't chirp up.  You're no use to me if you're going to act like a worthless twat."

Katherine leaped up from the mattress.  "Fine, I'll leave.  Heaven forbid that I shouldn't be at your beck and call every five minutes like everyone else is."

Hando slammed her against the wall.  The saucy little wench was developing quite an attitude.

"I wouldn't be so quick to give lip.  You're only here because I allow it, and I only allow it because it's to my advantage.  Don't forget your place, or you'll be out on your little arse so fast that your head'll spin."

In spite of her will, angry tears welled up in her eyes.  She hated to show weakness in front of him.

"What's it gonna be?" Hando snarled.

Cursing herself, Katherine backed down.  Taking a submissive stance and tone, she whispered, "Please don't make me go.  I want to stay."

He gave her a cold look but released her.  "Lose the attitude," he warned as he stalked out of the room.

She behaved the rest of the night which meant she acted subservient and tried to join in with the others as they all were in a festive mood.

Hando shunned her which she recognized for what it was, a punishment.

Realizing she should have left, Katherine's heart couldn't reconcile with her mind.  She loved him with all his faults and flaws.

By the end of the evening, after watching him imbibe several bottles of beer, she knew she would be required to service him.  Katherine wasn't naive enough to suppose that Hando loved her back or that the sex to him meant any more than simple rutting.

In the midst of his deliberately brutal assault, she still felt the heat that he raised in her, spontaneous and irresistible.  Again, she felt herself responding to the raw animal lust that had never failed to excite her.

The rough, prickly feel of his light beard raged against her tender skin as he marked and branded her everywhere.  Why did her body betray her time after time?

When his thumb came to rest on the pulse at her throat, her body was quivering with need.

His smug smile of dominance was cruel.  She wished she could slap it off his face.  Even if she were strong enough to physically confront him, she knew she wouldn't.  She really was a slave to him and her desires.

So Katherine stayed.  Her free will had been taken from her.

Nightmares continued to plague her of the fight she had witnessed. She was haunted by the Vietnamese man's face as his arms and legs were torn off and hurled in her direction.  She woke up screaming as the bloody limbs landed on top of her.

Often, she was at home, and her aunt would come running in to rouse her.  Her aunt would hold her close as she sobbed uncontrollably.  She couldn't reply to her demands for answers.  She just shut down.

She went through work like an automaton, doing her various tasks by rote with little spirit or enthusiasm.

Katherine gave Hando little cause for grief as she continued to act her role and play it supremely well.  One day dawned though that ushered in the end of her dreams and how forever she would look at him.

It began as usual.  The men were in the middle of another war council plotting Nguyen's demise.  Half of the men went out responding to Hando's orders.  He stayed behind with Davy.

Katherine read a book.

A couple of hours passed peacefully by.

A phone call had shattered the silence.  Hando and Davy became suddenly tense.

Watching the two of them, Katherine felt a jolt of ice run through her veins.  Something big was going down.

Pacing back and forth, Hando kept cracking his knuckles.  Every now and then, he would bang his fist against the wall.  Even the calming presence of his first lieutenant wasn't helping.

Loud kicks at the door and the two of them took off like lightning.

She stood up to see what was going on.

The boys had come back and seemed to enter in a huddle.  All of them were bunched together as if they were glued to one another.  Deafening noise erupted as they all were clamoring to be heard.

Katherine approached, and soon she saw that the skinheads were actually surrounding someone.  She couldn't see the person, but she could tell by the language that whomever was Vietnamese.  They had captured some poor sod!

Hando split the group and dragged the unfortunate prisoner free of the men.

Her heart nearly stopped.  It was a young woman.

"Where is he?" Hando hollered at the girl.

The girl shook her head vehemently and cried out in her own language.

"Don't play dumb with me.  I know you can understand.  Where is he?"  Hando's arm tightened like a vise around her thin wrist.  His voice was forceful and edgy as if he were walking a thin tightrope.

Katherine recognized the signals.  She pushed her way through.

"What are you doing?  Who is this?  Why is she here?"

Her request for information went unheard.

The girl kept on protesting that she didn't comprehend what he was saying.

Hando didn't buy it for one second.  "You're Nguyen's trashy little slut, and you've been hiding him."

At the mention of her lover's name, she seemed to freeze up.

A gleam of triumph lit up Hando's eyes.  "You see I knew sooner or later, you'd see the light.  Now this can be done the hard way where there'll be little left of ya for your pimp to paw at, or you can cough up where he is and maybe I'll take it easy on ya."

No doubt about it, the woman now saw the writing on the wall.  He could smell the fear and could see it in the whites of her eyes.

Katherine now saw the gist of their plan.  They would abuse this girl until she forked over Nguyen or use her as bait to smoke him out.  Either way, the young woman was screwed.

Eyeing the poor captive, Katherine could tell she was barely out of her teens.  She was a baby, and she was being thrown to the wolves.  She already had been worked over on her way here.

The woman began talking rapidly mixing up Vietnamese with broken English.  "He not here.  I know not where he is."

"Cut the cackle," Hando spat in her face.

She shut up, deathly afraid of this particular skinhead of whom she had been forewarned.

"I don't have time to listen to your lying bullshit.  I will ask you one more time.  Where...is...Nguyen?!"

The girl pursed her lips and remained quiet.

Shaking his head in disgust and contempt, Hando in a low voice pronounced, "You've just signed your death warrant you moronic little bitch."

She may not have understood much but the word 'death' registered.  The girl started screaming.

Hando snapped his fingers and Sonny, Hudson and Buddy grabbed hold of her.

"Take her to my room," were Hando's orders.

Loudly crying and dragging her feet, they half-carried her out of sight.

Katherine lit into Hando like a whirling tornado.  "What are you going to do to her?  You can't hurt her Hando.  She's not your enemy.  You want Nguyen but this is dirty and low.  Fight fair.  She's innocent."

She scanned his face for any sign of pity or human compassion and saw none.

Hando said through clenched teeth, "She's a pawn of war.  You'd know that if you'd fucking get a clue.  Have you learned nothing in all this time?"

"Hando," Katherine began again.  She had to reach him.  "She's not to blame for Nguyen's actions anymore than I am for what you've done.  What if it was me in Nguyen's clutches?  Wouldn't you want him to show mercy?"

He digested her words and then shrugged non-commit tally.  "It's a moot point.  He wouldn't.  But there'd be consequences, and any sacrifices would be avenged."

Her voice trembled.  "Is that all that I've come down to now, an acceptable sacrifice?"

Hando had wasted enough time trying to reason with her.  "You know the name of the game Kat.  You've always known."  He pushed her roughly aside and briskly walked towards the back of the squat.

"Hando, you can't do it!" she shrieked out in a final plea.

Sensing she was going to be a problem, Hando ordered crisply, "Get her out of here.  Lock her in the john."

Davy yanked her arms behind her and said, "Kat, don't make it worse on ya."

She let herself be led to her cage, and as it was bolted from the outside, the fire that she had been playing with all along finally burned her.

Katherine made her decision.  Hando's hatred and rage would not consume her soul as it already had inflamed and indelibly marked his.

Hando marched up the stairs, his face a grim mask.  He dismissed the guards.

The girl, whose name was Lam, frantically searched her prison for a way to escape.  The window was too high to jump from but if need be, she would use it.  She looked for a tool to break the glass.

Flexing his fingers, Hando stood outside the door and listened.  He could hear her rummaging around.  Drawing his leg back, he kicked the door open.

Lam dropped to the floor and scrambled backwards until she reached a dead end wall.  Crying out again in her own language, she cowered in the corner.

He slowly walked over to her.  "It's payback time," Hando announced in a venomous whisper and then smiled viciously.

Squatting down in front of her, he grasped her arms, and she winced with the sudden ache.  She tried to twist away but was helpless in his grip.

He stood and forced her to stand with him circling her neck with his arm.

Shock and terror turned her scream into a croak as the arm tightened around her throat.  With one swift movement, he tripped her onto the floor.

Hando flung himself on top of her.  He caught her flailing wrists and forced them up and over her head.  With his other hand, he fumbled with the zipper of her jeans.

Once they were open and thrust down, his knees pushed her thighs apart.

Abruptly, Lam found herself impaled upon his hard flesh.

He arched his back and slammed into her twice, three times and then withdrew.

Her shouts dwindled away, almost as if she was in shock.

As he stood and did up his pants, he asked her grinning, "Was it good for ya, Love?"

The grin disappeared as he drew a dagger from his pocket.  "Now, we're going to get down to the nitty gritty."

Katherine had heard the shouts, screams and cries of fright from her jail cell playing out above her head.

On the floor of the washroom, she rocked back and forth, hugging herself tightly.  Tiny moans emerged from her lips.

After four hours, Davy let her out.

She was free to go as she pleased.  As if it was her last mile, Katherine climbed the stairs.  Hando's door was open.

Katherine saw the girl lying on the floor.  Her shirt had been ripped open, and her tiny breasts were exposed.  She was whimpering, and her large brown eyes were unfocused.  Her jeans were around her knees.

Sickened beyond belief, Katherine sank to her knees beside the young victim.  So, he had raped her first.  Strangely, that fact didn't surprise her.  It was a final 'fuck you' to Nguyen to humiliate him and take what was his.  Hando was so lost in his enmity that he did a deed she knew beyond a doubt that he would normally find utterly contemptible.  He was known for his absolute restraint and controlled impulses.  His rage this one time had leapt all sane boundaries even those he self-imposed.

The girl had given up the information.  The gang had been promptly dispatched to Nguyen's lair.  Katherine didn't know if he had been apprehended or killed.

She tried to comfort the girl but after a horror like this, what little could she do?  Seeing it as fitting, Katherine walked over to the mattress and picked up Hando's coat.  Draping it over his casualty to cover her shame, Katherine took a final look at the room and exited.

Hando met her at the foot of the stairs.

They exchanged looks but no words.

His silence said volumes though.

Katherine picked up her purse and jacket.

He didn't prevent her departure.

She had fled the city.  Too much grief and heartache remained in Melbourne.  Katherine had moved to Sydney and found work in the office of an accounting firm.  It was only when Aunt Marie had become sick that she had come back.

Now she was here at the garage where she had been told that he worked.

Raising herself off the ground, she gazed in the window once more.  Even after two years and all they had been through, she was tempted to give in to the moment, to taste him, to feel the passion and the frenzy of loving him just one more time.

Lifting her hand, she pressed it flat against the glass.

They say that men leave women for other women.  Women leave men for another way of life.

Katherine walked away and never looked back.