Page 69 of Hawk

He stood when my gaze landed on him and smiled. “Headed there now.”

Diesel and Rocky appeared wearing matching frowns, arms crossed and looking ready to kick some ass. Rebel was right beside them, a sure sign he’d told them what was happening. “Where we at?”

Slate cleared his throat. “Eric Owens is a detective with the OC division of the county police. Steady career with an upward trajectory and a few big busts sprinkled throughout the past five years. He has a house here in Steel City, but he also rents a shitty one bedroom in Vegas.”

“He’d definitely take her to the apartment because I’m guessing few people know about it.” And it was probably how he was able to cheat on Laura so effectively.

“I agree,” Diesel said. “We need to split up just to cover all bases.”

“Agreed. I’ll go to his main residence,” Rocky offered. “See if we can find anything to incriminate this asshole.”

“You will,” I assured him, and relayed Kristy’s info to the group. “If he manufactured that evidence, then he did it at home. Whatever else he’s into is probably there too.”

Diesel nodded. “Yeah, and if you find anything drop the dime to Cross. The sheriff will be grateful.”

“Let’s go, then. Laura needs us.” She was probably scared and pissed off, both of which could trigger Eric to do something fucking stupid.

“I got the layout of the apartment building. It’s a ground floor unit on the corner. Two rear facing windows and one to the west plus the front door.” Slate rattled off more information that we all took in as we prepared to rescue my woman.

And possibly kill a cop.

***

It took no time at all for us to get armed and ready and to hit the road, rolling up to the rundown apartment building in groups of two to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. In a neighborhood like this, there were bound to be plenty of unemployed or shift workers who might see us and report back.

“You sure this is the plan you want to go with?” Diesel stood beside me, a supportive hand on my shoulder as we stared at the dark green door that stood between me and Laura.

I nodded. “Yeah, I think this is the best way to go. He’ll think I’ve gone off half-cocked and it’ll lower his guard. He won’t think twice about killing me and concocting some self-defense story.”

“And if he shoots you?”

I shrugged. “I’m wearing a Kevlar vest. As long as the fucker doesn’t take a headshot, I’m good. It’ll give you more time to get Laura far away from him. Don’t worry, brother, I’ll put up a good fight to buy you some time.”

Diesel laughed and rolled his eyes. “All right, hero. Let’s do this.”

I waited two full minutes for my brothers to get in place and out of sight before I put my game face on and stormed to Eric the prick’s front door and raised my fist. I let out a deep breath and began pounding on the door like a madman. “Open the fucking door, Eric. I know you’re in there!” When he didn’t answer right away, I turned my back to the door and kicked it with enough force to rattle the walls.

“What. The. Fuck.” Eric opened the door, red-faced and filled with shock. “You. What the fuck do you want?”

I smiled and took half a step back to prepare for whatever this fucker did next. “I think you know exactly what I want. Laura.”

He laughed. “She finally wised up and left your ass, huh? Good.”

“Nope, she didn’t leave me. You kidnapped her.”

“That’s one hell of an accusation to level at an officer of the law.” His smug smile only pissed me off even more and my hands itched to knock him on his scrawny ass.

“Not an accusation. Almost all of my neighbors have cameras that clearly show you with a gun aimed at her. Bring her out and we’ll go back to being regular adversaries.”

“Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Hawk, but I suggest you get the fuck out of here before I put a few bullets in your chest.”

“You’ll have to get to your gun before I do,” I said, and pulled out the piece I kept holstered at my hip and pointed it at him. “Oops, bang bang, you’re dead, motherfucker,”

He barked out a laugh. “You’re not gonna shoot me. Everyone knows what happens to cop killers. What did you think was gonna happen here, Hawk? You’d come and ask, and I would just, what, hand her over?”

“Something like that. But I hoped you wouldn’t make it too easy.” In fact, I hoped he made me kick his ass a little. It was just what I needed.

“Oh, I won’t. I’ll kick your ass and then put two bullets in your head before I kill Laura with your gun. Everything will be wrapped up in a neat little bow. Sweet nurse, got involved with an outlaw biker and he killed her before I could save her.”

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