Page 66 of Phantom Riders MC: Hawk

Twenty minutes later I was down in the meeting room, Rock sitting next to me as we made a conference call to Covacks.

Covacks didn’t waste any time. “You have news for me?”

“Dane Winthrop killed your son.” I didn’t waste time either.

I wondered how he would take the news that his partner had done it. After a brief pause he asked, “You’re sure about this?” I’d never heard his tone so cold and deadly before. Guess that answered my question about how he would take it. Winthrop was already dead.

“There was an eye witness.”

“Who? Someone you trust?”

I wasn’t about to admit that I didn’t trust anyone, yet my gut told me that Audra was telling the truth. Rock chuckled to himself because he knew how I felt. “His girlfriend at the time. She was there when it went down. She didn’t know who Winthrop killed, but she picked Dominick’s picture out as the man he’d shot.”

Again there was a significant pause. “So that’s why she ran away from him?”

“Yeah, that and he beat her to keep her quiet.”

“I see.” Silence came over the line. He was thinking again. “I’m curious as to how she came to be in your company, Hawk.”

I could hear the suspicion in his tone. I couldn’t say that I blamed him, either. I’d had my own doubts about Audra in the beginning. I didn’t owe him an explanation, but we had an alliance and it would benefit the club to stay on Covacks’ good side. “Last Hope is a small place. Picked her up at a service station on the way out of town. She was running and scared.”

“So you’re saying it was a coincidence?”

“You don’t believe in coincidences?” I shot back, not giving a fuck if he did or not. I didn’t like the way this was going. “I’d think you’d be more interested in getting the man who killed your only son, not in how his girlfriend came to be in my club. He made a move on her this morning−”

“He was there in Maine?” Covacks sounded surprised.

Looked like we were back on track. “Yeah, flew his private plane in on a private air strip on some farm, but he’s on his way back to Vegas now.”

“So he’s alive,” Covacks murmured, as if to himself.

“That was the condition, wasn’t it?” Rock snickered at my not so subtle attempt to remind Covacks about the reward he’d offered up.

A deep, long breath came across the line. “The money will be wired into your account tomorrow. Have someone call in the morning with the information.” He hung up.

“Well, that was just rude,” Rock joked, sitting back in his chair.

“Can you blame him, brother? His son is dead, and now he’s told that his fucking partner killed him. Not a good day for Covacks.”

“Not a good day for Winthrop.” Rock crossed his arms. “So, looks like your woman was fucking trouble after all, but in a good way. Made the club a shit load of money.” I couldn’t argue with him. “What are you gonna do with her now?”

I gave him a crooked grin, thinking about all the ways that I was going to claim Audra. “I’m claiming her.”

His brows arched. “You don’t say. I didn’t see that coming.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled, grinning.

“Hey, look, I think it’s about time you moved on with your life. You’ve let Sonya ruin yours long enough, brother.” I gave him a hard look for bringing her name up. He shrugged. “Fuck, Hawk. You let her have more control over you in death than you ever did when she was alive.”

If he were anyone else I would have flown over the table and slammed my fist into his face. Rock knew how I felt, knew how fast rage over Sonya’s fucking betrayal could surface. Some of what he said was true. As much as Sonya had destroyed me, had almost destroyed the club, the situation with her had also left me more guarded, stronger to do what I needed to do, and able to put my brothers needs over my own. She’d destroyed my trust in women, but not my ability to protect the club.

Her betrayal had taught me to look beyond tits and pussy, to analyze carefully what was coming my way when a woman got too close. Club girls were predictable and relatively harmless. Sexy little civilians like Audra were aphrodisiacs and poison combined in one tasty swallow.

Best to avoid their kind all together.

Until you couldn’t.

I’d reached that point with Audra. I fucking wanted her. There was no sense in denying it anymore. I don’t think she understood what it meant to belong to me, but she would soon enough. I knew that she was curious about what had happened in my past, that she thought she could tame the beast and make everything all right. Fuck, maybe she could. I’d tell her about Sonya eventually, but when I was ready, and not until then.

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