Page 121 of Hawk
Without another word, she got into the front seat and backed out into the street. No less than ten bikes followed her down the road, and I knew Matthew and Anna would be protected until I could return.
I just prayed I could find Stella before it was too late. I closed my eyes momentarily and let all the good memories rush in, feeling her love for me and the kids. When I opened my eyes, the killer from my past, the person I’d never wanted to be again, was present and ready for war. Gunner watched me intently, and when I turned my hardened eyes to him, he knew I had reverted to the person I was when I stumbled into Portstill ten years ago.
“There you are. Now, let’s go find your woman,” Gunner said, slapping me on the back.
As we were walking back to the house, the girl who babysat the kids ran out of her house and yelled my name. “Mr. Hawkins?”
I turned to her, and she was crying as she stepped over the small flowerbed separating our yards. “I saw who took Ms. Stella,” she started, and I grabbed her by the shoulders, causing her to cry more.
Releasing her, I felt someone behind me as I tried to calm down. “Tell me what you saw, please.”
“It . . . it was Araneta, or at least I think it was. She looked strung-out on something, but I saw her use one of those stun gun things on Ms. Stella. She dragged her down the stairs and pushed her into a rundown car.”
“Which direction did they go?” Skid asked as I turned and clenched my fists.
The teenager didn’t need to be the focus of my wrath, so I let Skid gather the information. James pulled up as Skid was speaking with the kids’ babysitter and he jogged across the yard to us.
“Thank you. I’ll let you know if we need anything else,” Skid said, and I heard her sniffle as she walked away.
“Thank you, and I’m sorry,” I said to her retreating form, and she turned to face me.
“I hope you find Ms. Stella.”
I wanted to scream and punch someone, but that wouldn’t do any good. What we needed to do was find that cunt of an ex-wife of mine, so I could show her what real pain was. I wasn’t one to ever lay a finger on a woman, but in this instance, I was going to stomp her ass until she stopped breathing.
“Black car, late model with a spare on the back passenger side,” Skid said to James as they walked into the house with laptops in their hands.
Lucian stepped in front of me, and as much as I wanted to square off with him, I needed his connections to find her. He looked at me before asking, “Do you love her?”
“More than life itself,” I responded and felt my eyes stinging with unshed tears.
“Then let’s get your woman and my sister back home. You and I can figure out the rest later.”
Together, Lucian the lunatic and I walked inside my house. Death Hounds were everywhere, waiting for instructions on where to go as James and Skid worked furiously on their computers.
“Here,” Skid said, and Lucian and I ran to see what he was pointing to. “She drove right past the compound less than ten minutes before we rode out. She’s in the Flats.”
“Fucking bitch,” I yelled and turned to punch a hole in the wall, only for Lucian to stop me.
I spun on him, and he had a sadistic smile on his face. “I’m calling in reinforcements.”
“The Death Hounds—” Gunner started to say, and I held my hand up, asking him to stop speaking.
The disrespect to him could cost me my cut, but I would willingly give it to him if it meant I had Stella back. “Whatever help is offered, we’ll take. How long until you have your people in place?”
“They’re at a training facility about twenty minutes south of here. I need Skid to tell me where to send them,” Lucian remarked, and I turned to look at Skid and James.
“We can ride in from the north and east, so if Lucian’s men can take the south, Devlin’s men can cover the west. Then, we box her in and take Stella away from whatever bullshit Araneta’s got herself into,” James reasoned.
“I’ve got Grace on standby to help with Stella when we find her,” Skid said, then added, “just in case.”
I closed my eyes, trying to not let the what-if’s run amok. Araneta was crazy, so there’s no telling who or what she’d gotten herself involved in. Lifting my eyes to my President, I respectfully asked, “Can you send someone to check on Doris?”
If Araneta was insane enough to snatch Stella from my front porch, I worried she may have hurt her own mother. Apparently, she had no boundaries since she left me and the kids, and when I got my hands on her, I was going to strangle her until she was dead.
“Claw, take three brothers and find Doris. Take her back to the compound and keep her safe,” Gunner instructed. Claw, along with three of my brothers, jogged out the front door and, a moment later, the sounds of their bikes cranking up filled the house.
Turning my attention to James and Skid, I said, “I know he’s with his wife, but the madman needs to know what’s going on. I don’t want to listen to his mouth if he’s not in the loop.”
