Page 29 of Wife Number One

That’s how much Hawk Robinson hated me.

But I raised a cocky eyebrow. “Really? Here? We’re on the main fucking road in town, and you know Carli over there already called the cops. You in the habit of killing people in cold blood in front of a couple of scared teenagers?”

I jerked my head toward the young woman, shaking in the corner, her trembling fingers clutched around her arms like she was trying to hold herself together. She truly was terrified, her cheeks streaked with tears as an older lady who’d stayed behind helped her hold napkins to her probably broken nose.

Toro stood with two of the other Slayers who had stepped in and helped. I recognized Aloha now. He’d been a member of the Slayers since I was a kid. The younger guy went by Ice, but I didn’t know much about him, other than he’d been a prospect back when I’d been held in their basement after they’d picked me up from the side of the road, too injured to fight back.

Hawk didn’t falter. Didn’t stop to glance over at Toro or Carli. “I wouldn’t normally, but I can make an exception for you.” He shook his head slowly. “Sinners piece of shit,” he taunted. “I should have fucking killed you years ago.”

I laughed slowly, and found it felt good, so I did it some more. And then more, until I was laughing nearly fucking hysterically in Hawk’s face. Honestly. Just fuck this day. And fuck Hawk. He had a nice pair of rose-colored glasses on. “Five years ago you were too busy lying on the floor crying because I shot you in the leg to do anything. You remember that?”

Hawk’s face went red, and he shifted his weight from his right leg to his left, like he was remembering that one had once had a bullet hole with my name on it. Was it his right? Or the left? I couldn’t remember.

Only that I didn’t regret doing it.

I might have been a Sinners piece of shit once upon a time, but he was the one still in the club life. I might have been the leader of a gang that rivalled his. At least I’d grown up and gotten out.

He clearly couldn’t say the same.

Red and blue lights flashed around the diner through the grubby windows, and we both looked over at the cop cars screeching in.

“Shit,” Aloha swore under his breath. “That’s our sign to get going.”

“Our bikes are out there,” Hawk bit out. “Can’t go anywhere now unless you plan on leaving your bike to get impounded and running away on foot.”

Ice shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not in the mood to go to jail tonight, Hawk. Can you at least put the fucking gun away before the cops get in here? Jesus.”

Hawk rolled his eyes, and with a grimace, withdrew the gun and tucked it into the back of his jeans. “Fine.”

The cops stormed through the front door right as Simon appeared from somewhere behind the counter. “Officers! Thank God you’re here,” he called, like he hadn’t just been hiding, sacrificing the rest of us.

The officer took his hat off and surveyed the mess. His gaze came to land on Hawk, Aloha, and Ice, and he mumbled something into the communication device on his shoulder before addressing Simon. “We had reports of a fight? Why doesn’t it surprise me to get here and find a handful of the Slayers are involved?”

The officer was an older guy. One I remembered well from my days in the Sinners gang. He clearly knew who Hawk and the other guys were, but I was kind of hoping I might have flown under the radar.

The officer’s gaze narrowed with recognition.

Damn.

“You’re Chaos Whitling, aren’t you?” he asked.

I sighed heavily. No point lying. “I was. Just go by Hayden now.”

Two more officers entered the diner, and a third cop car stopped in the parking lot, blocking off the doors.

They were quietly surrounding us. Like we might be getting ideas about running.

The officer stroked his short beard and watched me with squinty eyes. “Leader of the Sinners, right?”

This was getting so fucking old. How many years did I have to wait until my past would stop following me? Ten? Twenty? Would I be eighty and still get stopped by police who remembered the dumb shit I’d done in my twenties? “Again. I was. Haven’t been for a long time.”

I knew my mistake as soon as I said it. The Providence cops had a God complex, especially when it came to those of us from Saint View. They took any opportunity to remind us that we were just the scum on the sole of their expensive leather boots.

The cop sneered in my direction. “He says he’s out, and yet here he is, causing a disturbance with the Slayers. I’m getting déjà vu. Pretty sure we’ve all seen this before.”

The cops slowly surrounding the restaurant clearly made the man brave. “And you know what I remember about the Sinners and the Slayers from back in the day when you were Chaos? I remember how much the two gangs hated each other. How much blood was spilled on these streets over drugs and guns and territory.”

I frowned at his memory. He acted like we’d left Saint View littered with bodies. “That’s a bit dramatic.”

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