Page 37 of Hawk

“Right behind you,” Maverick answered, a smile in his voice.

***

Fifth Street was only a few miles from the clubhouse, which meant we made it there before the Ochos could get gone.

Gio stood on the porch wearing an intimidating scowl to keep them off the property. “Step on the property again and I’ll get to shoot you.”

“Fucking Gio,” Maverick mumbled under his breath.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I shouted, and everyone stopped moving and a half a dozen gazes swung in my direction.

A guy in a blue suit lifted his hands. “I’m just trying to get to my appointment with Lola.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re one of Lola’s regulars? She’ll be glad you’re on time. She hates when her men are late.”

The man smiled and nodded, walking beside me as I led him up the stairs and into the house. “Thanks.”

“Have fun.” I turned back to where the Ochos were calling out to an older guy who sat frozen in his car. “Cesar, I thought we had a fucking deal, man?”

The young shit starter turned with a grin. “Yeah, so did I.” He shook his head and moved away from the old man’s car. “But I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

My brows dipped in confusion. I didn’t have a fucking clue what he was talking about. “You’ve been following my woman and you tried to run her over, seems like you boys are looking for trouble.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, white boy. We left your woman alone.” He grinned. “Why do you think we’re here?”

“You’re not making any fucking sense,” Maverick growled, surprising Cesar, who’d been so focused on me he didn’t see Maverick coming. “Make some. Quickly.”

Cesar stood taller, but he was still five inches shorter than Maverick. “Let me make this real simple for you assholes, you stole our drugs and we’re here to repay the favor. If you’d rather us go after your girl, I’m sure we could have a lot of fun with her.” He laughed and rubbed his hands together as if he was thinking about touching my—touching Laura.

“We didn’t steal shit.” I jogged down the steps until I was in Cesar’s face. “If we did, you’d know it.”

“No one else would be stupid enough to come after us.” He put his hands on my chest, giving me a giant shove. “No one but the fucking Steel Demons.”

“That’s the plan, if it needs to be. Does it need to be the plan, Cesar?”

“You tell me. Give us our shit back and we’ll stop fucking with your whorehouses.”

“And my woman.”

“Oh, we ain’t started to mess with that fine thing yet.”

I laughed, looking left at his crew and then right, where Maverick and Gio stood. And then I pulled my arm back and landed a jab front and center. “Wrong answer.”

Cesar responded by shoving his shoulder into my gut and plowing forward in an attempt to take me down. “Bad move, motherfucker.”

We fought, trading blow for blow for a few minutes. Behind me I heard the crunch of fists that told me Maverick and Gio had gotten in on the ass kicking fun as well.

As I fell backwards, I raised both of my arms with my hands clasped into one giant fist and brought it down against his back. Cesar cried out in pain, and when he tumbled back, I rewarded him with a kick to the face. “Leave her alone.”

“Give us our drugs back or your bitch is next.” He spat out blood and winced at the sight of it. “And we can go back to our deal.”

I lunged forward and Cesar turned at the last minute, elbowing me in my stomach. I ate it and reached my arm around him before I settled my forearm under his chin. “Threatening my woman is a surefire way to piss me off.”

“Fine,” he shouted, struggling to break free of my hold.

I let him struggle for a few minutes before I released him and shoved him away from me. “We don’t have your drugs. If you want to know who took them, look for some gang flushed with subpar coke.”

“Our shit is good,” he insisted. “Eighty percent pure.”

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