Page 44 of Hawk

“Still you,” she laughed. “Come on. I’ve never painted before.”

“Never? How is that possible?”

“Nope. Never had a reason to paint anything other than my nails and my lips.”

My gaze went right to her lips, pink and pouty and wet. What I wanted to do to her couldn’t be done with nearly two dozen sets of underage eyes on us.

“Mr. Hawk has a girlfriend,” Landon teased.

“Yeah,” I replied with a smile, my gaze on Laura’s mouth as it tipped up into a smile. “I do.”

“Lucky man,” she teased, and picked up a paintbrush.

“Damn lucky,” I agreed, and picked up my own brush.

The adults took care of the primer layer while the kids played the way kids were meant to, and after a quick break for cookies and juice, we were on our way to covering up the shitty graffiti.

In the distance were the sounds of the city. Car horns, police sirens, all types of music blasting from cars and homes alike. But one type of music, some kind of rap music, became more prominent, the lyrics started to sound like something more than nonsense.

My arms and hands tingled with anticipation, and when it zipped up my spine, I knew something wasn’t right.

I looked up and saw an olive-green car rolling slowly down the street, the rap music blaring in a foreign language, but not Spanish as I’d initially thought. It wasn’t a language I knew, and I damn sure didn’t know the guys in the car. The driver was a black guy with close cropped hair and his passenger was a white dude with cornrows and a neck tattoo. Before I could catalog the assholes in the back, shots rang out.

“Down,” I shouted, and shoved Laura to the ground, along with anyone else within my reach. “Get down and stay down!”

I crouched and kept my gaze on the green car as I pulled out my own weapon and aimed at the car, firing off three shots before they sped away.

“Is everybody okay?”

“No, Mr. Hawk. I’m hurt!”

I looked around until I found Landon on the ground clutching his arm as blood spilled between his fingers. “Shit, Landon, buddy. Let me see.”

“Ow,” he cried out when I pried his fingers from the wound.

“You’re fine, buddy, a real tough guy, remember?” My gaze locked with Laura. “My girlfriend helps people with injuries, think she can take a look at yours?”

Tears streamed down his face, and he nodded. “O-o-okay. Be careful, though.” He squeezed his eyes shut and looked away.

Laura hid a smile, but her eyes were filled with worry. “I will. Promise.” She took her time, being gentle but efficient with him. “The good news is you’re gonna live.”

Landon opened one eye and looked at Laura. “What’s the bad news?”

“You’ll probably need a few stitches.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” she replied with a sad expression.

“Cool!”

She rolled her eyes. “Boys.” She looked around until she found Justin. “You should call his parents. He needs to go to the hospital.”

“My dad is at work, and he can’t leave. That’s why I come here.”

I knew what it was like to be the kid of a working single parent. “Come on, kid. We’ll get you to the hospital and they can figure out what to do about that arm.”

“I’m getting stitches,” he shouted excitedly. “Ow. It hurts bad.”

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