Page 12 of Hawk

“You don’t know my father,” I whispered.“When I left, he let me.That in itself surprised me, but he also said if I left, I couldn’t come back.I thought that meant he’d leave me alone.I don’t think he thought I could make it by myself and the shit of it is, he was right.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“No, Hawk.”I took in another deep breath, my chest tightening with anxiety.“You don’t understand.”

There was a knock at the door.The knob rattled as someone tried to enter.They knocked again.“Hawk?You in there?”

“Christ.”Hawk scrubbed a hand over his face as he stood.He stomped to the door and jerked it open.“What.”The word was bitten out with anger and annoyance.I’d heard the tone many times throughout my life.

The man at the door glanced in my direction before turning his attention back to Hawk.“We’ve got a situation.Knuckles and Torpedo want her in Church.There’s been a development.”

“Church?”I squeaked out the word before I could stop myself.This wasn’t the time to draw attention to myself.I guess my dad was right.I was a complete failure.I couldn’t even keep my mouth shut when it could mean life or death.Because, as I’d already told myself multiple times, I didn’t know these guys.

“Club meeting,” Hawk explained tersely, then turned back to the man at the door.“What kind of development?”

“Car pulled up, then disappeared.Knight says whoever it was knew exactly where our cameras were.Also managed to take a route that avoided other cameras away from the area like we caught the guy who killed her third attacker.We’ve got nothing except a glimpse of a dark sedan and the fact that there are no plates.”

Hawk turned to me, his expression grim.“Looks like we’re headed to Church.Can you walk, or do you need me to carry you?”

I stood quickly, swaying slightly as my head rushed from the sudden movement.I thought I hid it, but the look Hawk gave me said otherwise.Yeah.Complete failure.“I can walk.”

Hawk nodded his head crispy and took my hand.“Stay close to me.”

“What’s Church?”I whispered to Hawk as we briskly walked from the room down the hall.

“Club meeting room.Usually just for members, but this is an exception.”His voice was low.“Nothing for you to worry about.They have questions and will want answers.I’ll be with you the whole time, but if there are any surprises, you might want to let me know now.”

“Surprises.”My chuckle sounded as bitter as I felt.“That pretty much describes my entire family, Hawk.Mylife.”

We descended two flights of stairs and went through a series of hallways before going down one last set.There was a man at the door.He glanced from Hawk to me, then nodded back at Hawk and opened the door.

Sounds of men talking filtered through the room as we walked in.Hawk still had my hand firmly in his as he took me to a seat at one of the tables in the room.Other than big, solid steel folding chairs and several folding tables, there was nothing else in the enormous room.We sat in silence.Several of the men glanced in our direction but said nothing.A group of men were off to themselves looking at a tablet one of them had, murmuring softly.

Finally, they all moved toward one long table at the front of the group and sat.“Carrie?Do you remember me from the gate?”

“You’re Knuckles,” I answered.“Hannah is your, er, old lady?”

“That’s right.”The corner of his lips lifted in a slight smile.“Good.Hannah told me not to give you my growly face and scare you off, so I’ve instructed Hawk to be your advocate since you seem comfortable with him.I tend to look at the overall picture instead of how my decisions might affect everyone and not just the club.”

“I don’t want to cause problems for you.”I looked around at the men in the room.“Anyof you.”

Knuckles gave me a nod of acknowledgment.“We’ll get to the issues facing us in a bit.Right now, let me do some brief introductions.”He indicated the men sitting at the table with him.“This is Gunnar.”This man wasn’t as big as Knuckles or Hawk, but was every bit as intimidating.All these guys had the same hard look about them.It was kind of like my dad and brothers but more… feral?They didn’t seem at home in this setting for some reason, like they were uncomfortable with the windowless walls around them, even though the space was brightly lit.“He’s Hannah’s brother and my closest friend.Torpedo and Bohannon” -- he indicated two men on his other side -- “are our president and vice president respectively.”

Torpedo picked up when Knuckles stopped.“Knuckles is in charge of the situation as it stands.”He addressed everyone, looking around the room.“Any questions, problems, solutions… anything regarding this matter, Knuckles will address.”Obviously, there was more going on than I was aware of, but I knew enough to realize the less I knew the better.

My insides twisted with nerves.These men were likely getting ready to discuss my fate and I was at their mercy.I was grateful they were at least letting me sit in to listen.Hawk still hadn’t let go of my hand and he squeezed harder under the table.Encouragement or a warning to keep quiet?I looked up at him and, though his expression didn’t change, he winked at me.I nodded at him, deciding my best course of action was to take my cues from him.

“Knight, our intelligence officer, has some questions for you.”Knuckles gestured to a younger man with a tablet sitting next to Gunnar at the head honcho table, as I thought of it.

“Carrie, I need to know about your brother Victor.”His voice was smooth and pleasant.It belied his full beard and shaggy hair, to say nothing of all the tattoos.His face was covered in them as was most of the skin on his arms I could see.Even the whites of his eyes looked like they’d been tattooed or colored in somehow.He looked eerie as hell.

“What about him?”My voice was barely a thread of sound.

“Did you know he was following you?”

I glanced at Hawk, who gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.“I… I don’t know for sure that he was.I didn’t know he was there until you showed me that picture.”

“But you’re not surprised,” Knight said flatly.It wasn’t a question.

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