Page 48 of Out for Blood

“What?”

“I gotta tell you something,” he said. My heart rate picked up. I never liked it when Hawk was serious. “She made me promise never to tell you, but it’s been long enough, and the old man is dead.”

“If you so much as tell me she hooked up with my dad, I’m gonna be really fucking pissed off.”

“No,” Hawk said immediately. “She would never do that, and you know it.”

“Then fucking tell me before I launch you through that window, Casey.”

“Jesus,” he said, holding his hands up. “He tried okay? You weren’t there one night, and he came onto her. She pushed him away but he threatened her that in his clubhouse, he hadwhatever he wanted. I came in and rescued her from him when I saw what he was doing and copped a hell of a beating for it, but it was worth it. She was safe.”

“Those bruises you wouldn’t tell me about,” I said, realising the time he was talking about. “That’s why she stopped coming.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Donald was a prick and he knew how much you wanted her. She was your weakness, he knew that too. ”

I sat back in my chair, hating everything about this. Why hadn’t she told me? “How can she possibly look at me and think I’d be the perfect man for her when my old man did that to her?”

Hawk sat forward. “Because she knows you aren’t him. Sheridan has always fucking loved you. Always, Cooper. You know that. Nothing fucking happened, that’s why she didn’t want you to know.”

“I wish he were alive,” I grit out. “So I could kill him myself.”

“That would make you someone else. You wouldn’t be the man you are if you did that, Cooper. You know that. Sheridan loves you for being the man you are.”

I nodded, knowing he was right. He was always fucking right.

Needing to change the subject before I lost my mind, I turned on him. “When are you going to settle down, Case?”

“Oh come on, man,” Hawk laughed. “You know that life ain’t for me.”

“One day, mark my words, there’s gonna be a woman who comes in and completely fucks your shit up for good. I can’t wait to see it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “You always say it but if it didn’t happen with Shae, it ain’t gonna happen with me.”

Shae had been great for him, but even she didn’t want to settle down and eventually broke his fucking heart. She’d been a bunny for a long time with us, and damn if she hadn’t had Hawk wrapped around her little finger. Just when I thought he was going to make it official, she fucked off and we never heard fromher again. I wondered what he had done to scare her off. It didn’t take long before he was back to his whoring ways again, never with one woman, always with a handful every night.

“Have you heard from her?”

He shook his head. “No, and I don’t want to, truth be told.”

I heard the pain in his voice, and was surprised by how much it hurt me to hear it. He was the closest thing I had to a brother, and knowing that I hadn’t taken his heartache seriously really annoyed the shit out of me.

“She wasn’t the one, then, brother.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t want just one, Ace.”

I rolled my eyes, realizing he was back to being the Hawk we all knew and loved. That was his armour. Casey was the one who could love and be hurt. Hawk was the one everyone knew and loved. If only he let a woman in, I was sure he’d be as happy as I was.

The door opened, and Viper leaned in. “You’re not going to like this.”

I groaned, getting up. Could we catch any fucking break here?

Hawk pushed out before me and stopped in the pathway. I shoved him to the side and looked over at Sheridan standing in the clubhouse, her smile lighting the entire room, until I realised she should be on her way to Galway by now.

I moved over to her, pulling her into my arms. “What the fuck happened?”

“Nothing,” Chains said, coming up behind her. “She wouldn’t go with them.”

“What?”

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