Page 28 of Phantom Riders MC: Hawk

“Three beers, two white wines, and a whiskey,” he said to Joanne. Then he turned to me and smiled. “Hi.”

He looked harmless enough. “Hi.”

“You all alone here?” His smiling gaze moved over me quickly before settling on my eyes again.

There was nothing lewd about his inspection, so I didn’t take offense. “For the time being.”

“Why don’t you join our table?” he asked, nodding toward an area where three tables had been moved together to accommodate the large group he was in. “You’ll have a lot more fun,” he promised. The occupants were all around the same age, and dressed to party.

“Thank you, but—” Just as I was about to turn him down I thought about my dilemma. A glance at Joanne showed she was busy filling his order. “You wouldn’t happen to have a phone I could borrow, would you?”

“Sure.” He immediately dug it out of his back pocket, and then handed it to me. Just as I reached for it he yanked it out of my reach with a playful smile. “You’ll join me and my friends?”

I glanced back at his friends. They looked harmless enough, college-aged kids just out for a good time. Why not? After the few days I’d had I could use a little interaction with normal people. I smiled. “Sure, for a little while.”

I dialed Carol’s number, praying that she would answer. I didn’t want to leave her a voice mail because I didn’t have a phone she could call me back on. I tugged on my bottom lip at the fourth ring. Pick up! Pick up! I chanted to myself. Finally her voice came over the line.

“Hello?”

“Carol, it’s me!” I said in a rushed tone, turning my back away from the bar.

“Audra, oh, my God, I’ve been worried to death about you! You started to tell me something about Dane the other day. And who can’t know? Know what? What’s going on, honey?”

I couldn’t blame her for all the questions, considering that I’d cut our conversation off so abruptly the other day. “I’m so sorry. It’s better if you don’t know what’s going on.” I had so much to tell her but didn’t know where to begin. It was too much to say over the phone. How did I tell her that the man I thought loved me was a monster, a killer, and that he’d beat me? “Carol, please don’t ask me why, but I’m in trouble.” I blurted it out, hating the tears that filled my eyes. “You’re the only one I can trust.”

“What do you need?”

God bless her. She hadn’t even hesitated. “I’ve run away from Dane and I’m kind of in hiding. I can’t go into the details right now, but, he’s not the man I thought he was. I don’t think he remembers you, but if he contacts you please don’t tell him that you’ve heard from me. He’s dangerous, Carol.” She at least needed to know what. “He’s sent some people after me, people who—”I hesitated, unable to put into words that he’d sent people to find me and bring me back to him. That he might possibly want me dead.

“God, Audra, you’re scaring me.” I could hear the panic in her voice. “Where are you? I’ll come and get you.”

“No!” I couldn’t let that happen. “I’ll come to you and tell you everything when I get there—” I cut myself off abruptly, suddenly realizing that I couldn’t go to Carol. If Dane’s men tracked me down there they wouldn’t leave any witnesses.

Oh, God, why hadn’t I thought of this before? I was such a fool! I couldn’t live with myself if I caused anything to happen to the only friend I had. I was so eager to have that one connection, that one friend that I could count on, that I hadn’t thought things through. I suddenly felt sick. As the enormity of my plight crashed down around me I wanted to scream. I really did have no one. Thanks to my stupidity and Dane’s overbearing control I had no one I could turn to. Fuck. I was alone. Why hadn’t I seen how controlling he’d been? Was I so blinded by the lavish lifestyle he’d given me that I’d ignored what was right there in my face?

Apparently I had.

“Audra? Audra? Are you still there?”

Carol’s frantic tone finally got through to me. The breath I took turned into a sob. “Carol, I—” I turned back to the man whose phone I was using. My gaze moved past him to where Hawk had just come storming into the room. Our gazes met, and the look of his locked jaw and flaring nostrils told me that he was really pissed off about something, and because he was coming straight toward me it was a good guess that I was the object of his wrath.

“I’ll call you back,” I whispered into the phone, hanging up before Carol could say anything else. I held the phone out to the smiling man, who’d yet to notice Hawk. “Thank you.”

“I ordered you a white wine,” he said, taking up the tray Joanne had placed on the bar.

“She won’t be joining you.” Hawk swooped in like his namesake, wrapping a powerful hand around my upper arm and pulling me with him back toward the door he’d entered through.

“But—” the man started to say.

I glanced back at him mouthing silently, “I’m sorry.”

The second Hawk and I were on the other side of the door and out of sight he pushed me against the wall and released me. “Who were you talking to?” he snarled down into my face.

“The same friend that I was talking to back at the rest stop bathroom, Carol” I said, rubbing my arm where he’d grabbed me. “I was going to ask her to send me some money—”

With a sound of impatience Hawk grabbed me again and dragged me down the hallway. I barely had time to notice the MC logo etched on the door before he pushed it open and pulled me into the room, slamming the door behind us and blocking it with his huge bulk. He crossed his arms. “What do you know about Covacks?” His tone resembled a bear’s growl.

Covacks?I shook my head slowly, trying to recall where I’d heard that name before, and then it hit me. “The first time I heard that name was on the road on the way here.” I couldn’t bring myself to talk about the horrific circumstances surrounding it.

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