Page 14 of Snagged By Hook

“You have a girlfriend,” she blurted out. Of all the valid and rational reasons to not move in with someone she barely knew, that was the one she went with. The man disconcerted her.

If she thought she was flustered before, the twinkle that entered his gorgeous army green eyes—yeah, that’s the color she settled on—elevated that agitation to epic levels.

He widened his stance and rounded his shoulders, looking her right in the eye, placing his tattooed hands on her hips. She felt the warmth of his touch through her well-worn Overkill T-shirt.

“Hear me, Nova, and hear me good. I. Do. Not. Have. A. Girlfriend.” Then he winked. Fucking winked. Again. It annoyed her to no end. Not because he seemed to do it a lot, but because she thought it was absolutely adorable. And that pissed her off even more.

Before she could step back, he dropped his hands and gazed lovingly at her daughter. “Unless you count Little Miss Flower here.”

HOOK

“June, dear, are you coming? I have cookies in the oven and need to take them out before they burn,” the older lady next door called from her porch.

“Be right there, Mrs. Griffith,” Nova answered before turning back to Hook. One look into those dark chocolate eyes of hers, and he was half-hard. Fuck if she wasn’t gorgeous. He should’ve known the second he saw the little girl whose kid she was. She was the spitting image of her mom.

He’d be damned if that little girl or her fine-ass mom would spend one more night in a house without electricity. Hook didn’t know how long it had been out and he didn’t give a shit. Once minute was too long.

“Go take care of your cookies, Mrs. Griffith,” Hook called to the lady. “They won’t be staying here for the foreseeable future.” He saw the questioning look on the woman’s face. It warmed his heart to know that they had someone looking out for their safety.

Hook tapped June—nah, he liked Flower better—on the nose. “Go help your mom, sweetheart, while I talk to Mrs. Griffith.”

Nova let her daughter drag her into the house. He’d stunned her silent with his pronouncement. Hell, he’d stunned himself. The last thing he needed was a woman and a kid, but it wouldn’tbe like that. He was just helping her out of a bad situation, that was all.

Besides, Croon and Dale couldn’t say enough about her as an employee, so he was helping out his club too. That’s why he had a smile on his face. At least that’s what he told himself as he approached Mrs. Griffith’s.

Mrs. Griffith was no longer alone. A man who looked to have one foot in the grave leaned heavily on the lady.

“Mr. Griffith, I presume?” Hook extended a hand, which the old man took without hesitation. That was rare. The facial tats and the rest of his ink tended to put people off. Usually, he didn’t give a shit, but he didn’t want to cause Nova to lose what he assumed was their only support system. Other than the club now.

“Carl, and this is my ol’ lady, Linda.” When his shirtsleeve rode up, Hook understood why there was zero hesitation on Carl’s part to shake Hook’s hand. He was an old-school biker. A faded tattoo from a club that had been around since before bell bottoms was partially revealed.

“Hook.” He lifted his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a card for Outlaw Towing and Salvage. Before passing it to Carl, he jotted down the address to his apartment.

“That’s my contact information, along with the address where they’ll be staying until we can get them into a permanent situation.”

Carl took it, then looked from the card to his rig, then back to him. Unlike The Metal Shop, everyone and their brother knew that Outlaw belonged to the Bastards. Kind of hard to have your clubhouse there and keep that info on the down low.

“Linda, I think your cookies are burning, love.” What happened next blew his fucking mind.

The woman who looked and dressed the part of the perfect television grandma stepped down to the next-to-last step, so shestood just an inch taller than him and cupped his cheeks in her wrinkled hands.

After dropping a kiss on his forehead, she whispered with so much venom, “You find that piece of shit and you make him pay for leaving them like that.” Then she smiled that congenial grandma smile and went to check on her cookies.

Carl turned and waited for his wife to disappear from sight before speaking. “Nova’s not community property, you understand me? And that little girl doesn’t belong in a clubhouse. Hell, neither of them do.” Hook was dumbfounded. It sounded like an order.

“Not my intention. I’m just helping them out of a bad situation. They’ll be protected. She works for us at the bar, that’s it.”

Carl nodded. “Your prez know how they ended up like that?” He indicated the dark house.

Hook shook his head. “Didn’t even know she had a kid ’til today. Came to repo a grocery hauler and recognized her from the Shop. Just started working there recently.”

His answer seemed to satisfy Carl, who shakily sat back into a cheap plastic chair and indicated the other one. “Sit down, son. I’m too far gone to stand around gabbing.” Hook took the three steps onto the small porch and sat.

“Husband was a real piece of work. Had women and men in and out all hours while Nova was working two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. Up to no good, and I don’t just mean not keeping his dick out of snatch it didn’t belong in.” Hook damn near choked on his tongue at the old man’s words. Not that he didn’t say worse, but coming out of Moses’s mouth was disturbing at best. However, he tried to keep his reactions to a minimum because he wanted to hear the story.

“Speaking of dicks.” Carl pivoted so quickly that Hook almost got whiplash. “What’s your personal intentions toward her? Besides helping.”

Carl looked every inch a club president, even if he was old as dirt. Hook was almost positive that’s what the old man must’ve been. Hook was under no obligation to answer him, but he wanted to, so he was as honest as he could be.

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