Page 71 of Phantom Riders MC: Hawk

As an arm come around my waist I opened my mouth to scream while at the same time a hand covered my nose and mouth. I didn’t know what was on the cloth, I only had time to acknowledge that it smelled sweet, unique, nothing like I’d ever smelled before, and then I was sinking into a black abyss where nothing else mattered.

Hawk

I pulled my bike into the garage, cut the engine, and sat there. I didn’t want to think about Sonya, but Rock was right. The bitch still had her claws in me, even ten years later. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying not to think about the ton of shit that had gone down. She’d been pure evil, wrapped up in a seductress’ body and a beautiful face. If I’d looked beyond the package I would have seen the cold darkness in her eyes. She’d had no soul.

From the beginning she’d played me.

Her killer looks had won me over and made me blind to what she really was. I’d ignored my brother’s warnings that she was no good, too high and cocky over the thought that an older woman wanted me, and for more than just sex. I’d just been patched into the club, so I hadn’t been naive to club life, just to women and how their devious minds worked. Before Sonya, my experience had been limited to sweetbutts. There’d been no reason to go looking for civilian pussy with whores around giving it up freely.

Sonya had set her sights on me, and I’d been a sucker. Once she’d got her hooks in me, nothing else had mattered. I’d loved her blindly. She’d wormed her way into the club until she was in so deep that she knew the running of it, knew shit she shouldn’t have, because I’d been reckless. Trusting her, I’d believed that she’d loved me, when all along she’d been a fucking mole, planted there by the Russian mob. All those sweet nothings she’d whispered in my ear had been exactly that, sweet fucking nothings.

It hadn’t become clear just how devious and evil Sonya was until she aborted my baby. She’d thrown that little bit of news in my face while I was being tortured. It had also revealed how loyal she was to the Russians. Until then they hadn’t been able to break me, but looking up into her twisted face as she screamed the words in my face, the truth was in her eyes. She enjoyed hurting me. I’d never forget the sick pleasure transforming her features when she realized just how much. I swore then that I’d never let another woman get to me.

That was the day I died inside, the day my heart turned to fucking stone. And even as love and hate had fought for control deep inside me, I knew in the end, if I survived what they had planned for me, that I’d kill her. Their plan to destroy the club had been the Russian mob’s main goal, payback for a hit gone wrong and the bombing of their meth lab, a huge plant in Brooklyn. Apparently the bedroom talk between me and Sonya hadn’t yielded the information they’d been looking for. So on the pretext of a midnight ride to our secret spot in the mountains, Sonya had lured me into a fucking ambush.

They’d wanted to know who’d arranged the hit on their leader, Ivan Orlov, the vicious attempt that had left him in a vegetative state. They’d known the club was involved, but they hadn’t known to what degree. Yeah, we’d fucking known who put out the hit, but none of us would divulge his name, and I’d known I’d go to my grave with the secret. They’d threatened to do a lot of damage to my body, fuck, they’d done a lot of damage. It had taken me months to come back from the burns, stab wounds, and broken bones. The psychological destruction had been worse.

I’d wanted to take my own life because of the trouble I’d brought to the club.

In the end, my brothers had saved me, but at a high cost. The president of our club then, Crazy, along with nine other brothers, had gone down, leaving the club crippled.

And Sonya had been killed. A single bullet to her brain had snuffed out the evil light in her eyes.

I gave my head a shake, bringing myself out of the dark thoughts that were numbing me. It was all in the past. Audra was my future, if I let her in. I’d already given her more than any other woman. I’d felt drawn to her from the start. Maybe she was my fucking salvation.

I left the garage and walked to the front of the house, wondering why Audra hadn’t turned the lights on. I got my answer when I turned the doorknob to find that it was still locked. My gut sent out a warning to my brain and I swung around, withdrawing my gun, squinting into the darkness, holding my breath while listening.

The dark silence surrounding me explained everything.

Someone had taken my woman.

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