Page 3 of Hawk

She stopped directly in one spotlight so there was no mistaking her appearance and physical state.“That your blood?”Private property or not, need for secrecy and privacy or not, I absolutely would not deny a woman help who’d lost that much blood.

“What?”She had a confused look on her face, then looked down at herself.“Oh!That.Nah, not my blood.I’m good.”She gave me a bright smile and a big thumbs up.“But I’m kind of in a bit of a bind?”She actually looked like she was genuinely sorry to take up our time.Like she wasn’t covered in blood looking like something out of a horror movie.

I glanced over at Chains.His fists were clenched at his side, his eyes wide.Guy was superstitious as fuck, but I’d never seen him like this.Looking back to the woman, I started to answer when a light flashed over her blood-splattered face and I had to fight off a shudder.Never show weakness.It was a mantra that had served me well.Yet, here I was about to piss myself because of one tiny woman with a little blood on her.OK, so a lot of blood, but how did I know it was even blood?Might be fake blood.Might be animal blood, which was disturbing in itself.Maybe it was mud after all, and the lighting and mist were distorting the colors.

“Yeah, small bind.”She winced and held her thumb and finger an inch apart.“Very small.Almost nonexistent, except it’s not.”Her expression fell slightly.“Um, anyway.I gave the guys every chance to walk away.I swear.”Her eyes were almost comically wide.Like she was a kid trying to talk her parents out of a punishment for something she’d done.

“Gave who a chance to walk away?”The question tumbled from my lips without my consent.I didn’t need to know.Didn’twantto know.The less I knew the better.Ex-con and all.I saw Chains out of the corner of my eye.He gave me a sharp look, but didn’t say anything, either unwilling to show division or to stop the carnage he knew would follow.Yeah.We were sick bastards like that.

“Oh, the guys I stabbed.”She gave a slight, nervous laugh.“I wouldn’t have hurt either of them if one of them hadn’t pulled the knife after I broke the other guy’s leg.And I wouldn’t have broken his leg if he hadn’t tried to hit me.”

“Tried to hit you.”Could I sound any more stupid?

“Yeah.They were trying to rob me, and I took exception.”This time her voice was prim and proper, but she still looked nervous as shit.Which, I guess I understood.No, Goddamnit, I didn’t understand!Why was I freaking out like this?Why was shenotfreaking out?

“What the fuck?”Knuckles and Gunnar approached.Fuckers had either snuck up on me or I was officially a pussy because this girl was seriously freaking me out.I was going with losing my edge.I was getting older, after all.Because no way I was that big a pussy.I wasn’t even sure which one of them spoke.

“Uh, hi.”Creepy Girl gave us all a little wave.“Can we… I mean, I’d like to get out of the light, if you don’t mind?Makes me kind of nervous.”

“Yeah,” Chains muttered.“I bet.”

Knuckles made himself front and center while Gunnar stood at his left shoulder.I like that the pup had the boss’s back.He was an excellent addition to the club as far as I was concerned.“What’s your name, girl?”

“Carrie.”

“No way, man.”Chains took a step backward, shaking his head.“No fuckin’ way.”

“Shit.”I thought that was Gunnar.A quick glance and the man was scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck.“That’s just fuckin’ creepy.”

“Strange,” she muttered.“I didn’t expect this reaction.”Then she spat, making a face, disgust evident.“Gross.”

“You do this kind of thing often?”Why wouldn’t my mouth stay shut?I wanted to bang my head against a wall, but I was making a big enough an ass of myself as it was.

“What?”She spat again, wiping at her mouth with her fingers and the back of her hand.

“Show up at a gated compound full of strangers, covered in the blood of your enemies.”Nope.Still couldn’t shut up.

Then the damnedest thing happened.Little Carrie smiled.Like I’d said the funniest thing ever.And I knew I was doomed.Because my cock hardened so fast I was certain every ounce of blood went straight to my groin.I groaned and had to fight to stay on my feet.For a man who never showed weakness, I was showing an awful lot of weaknesses.

“That’s a cool description.”Her smile was beautiful.Except for the fact it kind of looked deranged.I wasn’t altogether certain shewasn’tderanged.Which would make this attraction I had to her complicated.

“Where’s the bodies?”Knuckles took another step forward, putting the attention squarely on himself.

“Um, back that way?Between the buildings.”She pointed in the direction she came from.“If you’ve got some sulfuric acid or something, I could fix it.I’m pretty sure there are several abandoned buildings I could use to store them for a couple days until they dissolve.”

“I’m outta here,” Chains muttered, turning and jogging back to the clubhouse.He had to go through a couple of the guys who’d wandered out here when Knuckles and Gunnar joined us.

“Sweet baby Jesus in the manger.”I winced as Torpedo, our current president and his VP, Bohannon pushed their way through the gathering crowd.“No one’s dissolving a body.”

“Oh, I know.”Carrie said brightly.“There’s two.”There was something hanging from her lip and I took my finger, mimicking wiping the corner of my lip.She gave me a confused look, so I did it again.She lifted her hand to her face and came away with whatever gore was around her mouth.She immediately gagged once, shaking her hand to sling the… I cringed to think of what exactly was clinging to her finger, but she tried to shake it off.

She stopped and turned her gaze back to Torpedo.The big man gave her a death stare for several seconds.Most men I knew might have thought twice about crossing Torpedo when he got that particular expression on his face.To my surprise, Torpedo looked away first.“Christ, I’m too fuckin’ old for this shit.Bohannon.”

“Don’t look at me, prez.I’m just as old as you are.”Bohannon actually chuckled, though he looked as shell-shocked as I felt.

To be clear, it wasn’t the situation had us all spooked.Violence was a way of life for me in and out of prison.It was the whole surrealness of the moment.If this was one of my brothers at the gate, I’d have already gotten the materials he needed, and we’d be out there taking care of business.But this woman was five foot nothing and maybe a hundred pounds.If she ate a sandwich.

And she was still spitting blood.

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