Page 50 of Phantom Riders MC: Hawk

Hawk locked eyes on Big John. “Take care of the fucking clean-up. I’m taking Audra to my house and will meet you back at the club later.” Big John acknowledged him with a nod, and holstered his gun.

He turned and began walking my way. I got the impression that Hawk was looking me over carefully and deciding for himself how I was holding up. I thought I wasn’t doing half bad, considering I wanted to throw up.

“So, they, ah, didn’t mean to kill me?”

He didn’t even try to sugarcoat it. “Baby, they might have been paid to bring you back alive, but the way they were going about it, you would have been lucky to leave this road alive.” He mounted his bike easily and within seconds it was rumbling beneath us.

“Do you know who the mutual friend is?” I wrapped my arms around him.

He turned his head slightly so I could hear him. “I have an idea.”

“The man—”

“We’ll talk when we get to my house.” With that Hawk took off, leaving behind the madness.

I didn’t want to know what ‘clean-up’ meant, although I had a pretty good idea. They couldn’t afford to leave the SUV and those men behind for just anyone to find. An investigation could lead right back to them. That was obvious. I wondered how much money Dane was offering for me. The fact that people were putting their own lives at risk told me that it was probably a lot.

I wasn’t sure why I felt tears fill my eyes. Maybe because I’d thought that my future was all mapped out, that Dane and I would have married some day and had children. I’d felt secure in our relationship, but it was clear as more time went on that love, true love, had not been a part of it. We’d grown too familiar with one another, too comfortable. When people got comfortable in their lives the last thing they wanted was change. If Dane had truly loved me he wouldn’t have reacted to my seeing him kill someone like he had. He might have been less physical and tried to persuade me with patience.

Hawk brought a whole new element to my life. He wasn’t the kind of man I would have ever thought I’d get involved with. Dark, moody, extremely dangerous and so filled with anger that my heart went out to him. I knew that was going to be my downfall, because Hawk didn’t express emotion. He liked action, without thinking, without feeling. Even when we fucked he held something back, much more than kissing.

The intense passion between us had come fast, almost in the instant that we’d looked into each other’s eyes. I shouldn’t have given in to it so soon, but nothing could have stopped me. Physical attraction and submission wasn’t always about what you felt in your heart. You could love someone and still want another. Giving myself to Hawk would never be a mistake.

He made me feel alive.

Protected.

I didn’t know where his home was, didn’t even know he had one, but we’d long ago left the paved road for a dirt one, and a one-way at that. Not until we reached a fairly small cabin did I realize that we’d really been on his driveway. The log home was built within a cluster of tall pine trees, next to a rocky stream, small and intimate, and the epitome of peace and isolation. The air even seemed crisper and cleaner there. Once Hawk turned off his bike we were surrounded by the sounds of nature.

“This is your home?” I dismounted with his help.

“Yep.” I followed him up the porch steps. “It’s not much, but it’s enough for me.”

“I love it,” I said softly, taking in the interior as I walked through the doorway. It suited Hawk. Manly, open floor plan, furnished with just the necessities, nothing on the rough log walls. “You don’t spend much time here.” It was a little dusty.

“No reason to,” he said, walking to a window at the back wall and pulling the heavy drapes open. “You’ll be safe here.” He turned back to me.

“You’re going to leave me here?”

“It’s for the best, baby. You won’t be alone. One of the prospects will be here at all times.”

“Why are you doing this? I’m nothing to you but trouble. I should just leave so you can get back to whatever it is that you and your club do.”

Hawk actually grinned at that. “Our club protects those who need it, especially women and children. The second you put your ass on my bike you became my business.”

“I’m putting your club in danger,” I insisted. He shrugged. “But you don’t even like me, Hawk.”

He stepped forward. “Baby, I want you, I don’t have to like you.” God, they shouldn’t have, but his words made me weak in the knees. Hawk’s kind of want was hot and all-consuming. “You saw your ex off someone. The knowledge of who he killed will give us leverage.”

Yeah, but how did he expect to find out who Dane had killed when I didn’t even know myself? “So, who do you think is the mutual friend that told Dane where to find me?”

His expression hardened. “Covacks, the man who freaked you out at the clubhouse. The way he was looking at you warned me that he thought he recognized you from somewhere. He must have figured out where after he left, and called Dane.” He palmed my cheek. “He and your ex are partners.”

“But you do business with him, too.”

“He pays us for protection. Not the same kind of partnership,” he smirked. “I don’t think Covacks called your fucking ex with the intention of telling him where you are, that’s not his style.”

“Then why?”

---