Page 132 of Hawk
I hadn’t noticed Zeus until he pushed through the group of people welcoming me home. I placed Matthew on his feet and kneeled in front of my dog. Scratching his head, I hugged his neck as I praised him.
“You are such a good boy. You protected the kids, and I’m so proud of you.”
He wagged his tail and licked me before moving to Matthew and resting his head on his shoulder. I looked down and asked Matthew, “Did he do what he was supposed to?”
“He pulled Anna from the house and stood guard until Daddy came to get us. He was a good boy,” Matthew responded, and I felt tears push into my eyes.
This whole time, I never shed a tear, but seeing my family, all safe and together, was almost too much to take. Colton walked up next to me with Carla’s hand in his, and I wrapped my arm around his back as I looked at Hailey, Matthew, and Anna.
“Kids, this is Carla, and she’s going to be staying with us. Carla, these are my kids, Hailey, Matthew, and Anna.”
“Welcome to the family,” Hailey said as she handed Anna to Jacob. Slowly, she approached Carla and kneeled in front of the tiny teenager. “I’ve got an extra bedroom at my cabin that you’re welcome to stay in.”
“I don’t want to be a bother,” Carla remarked softly, and Hailey glanced up at me.
I could see the wheels in her head spinning, and when she brought her eyes back to Carla, she said softly, “I’ve been where you are, and I promise, you’re safe here. No one will hurt you ever again.”
If we said it enough times, maybe she would believe us, but for now, we needed to figure out who she was and who allowed her to be hurt.
Wrapping my arm around Colton’s back, I felt a gun tucked into his waistband as I held onto him. Every minute of so, he would kiss the side of my head, almost like he was afraid I was going to disappear. I needed to shower and get the dried blood out of my hair, but Doc said it would be a few days until the stitches came out, so it would have to wait.
“I want to see her,” a voice sounded from behind the wall of Death Hounds, and I felt Colton tense under my touch.
Delvin cast a worried look in my direction, and I turned back to the group to see someone pushing their way to the front. When he made himself visible to me, instinct kicked in and I grabbed the gun from Colton’s waistband and lifted it into the air, pointing it directly at my oldest brother, Lucian.
He looked so much like our father, it was scary. He stopped in his tracks and cast a sad look at me.
“Hailey, take Matthew, Anna, and Carla out of here, please,” I requested, and she took Anna from Jacob before offering her hand to Carla.
The girl looked from it to me before taking the offered hand, and then she did the sweetest thing. She offered Matthew her hand, and my son took it, following his sisters out the back of the clubhouse. When I knew they were outside, I turned to Lucian with the gun still pointed at his head.
He looked wounded, and his eyes were glassy as he spoke. “I’ve been looking for you for so long. How . . . how are you?”
No one made a move to stop me as I took two steps closer to him. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I came to help find you,” he tried to explain, but I shook my head, silencing him. “What have I done that was so wrong that my own sister doesn’t want to see me? I think I deserve at least that much.”
“What you deserve and what you’re going to get are two completely different things.” I stepped closer and felt a hand on my back, letting me know Colton was right behind me. He wasn’t trying to take the gun from me, but he wasn’t going anywhere, either.
“I don’t understand,” Lucian remarked, and I closed the gap between us.
“Do you think I don’t know what kind of man you are? That I didn’t see what happened all those years ago?” He brought his wounded blue eyes to me, and I continued. “I saw you, but you didn’t even know I was there.”
“Where? What did you see?” he asked.
“I saw you the night you took the throne from Papa. I saw what you did to that young girl. I saw the aftermath of your cruelty. I don’t want or need that kind of person around me or my family,” I spat at him.
“Stella, you don’t understand. Please, let me explain,” Lucian started, but I reached up and chambered a round into the gun.
He took one step back as I began to speak. “What can you tell me that I don’t already know? What could you possibly say to me to justify raping a teenage girl in front of at least fifty people? But I do have one question.”
“Anything,” he replied as he kept his eyes locked with mine.
“Did taking the throne from the man I eventually killed make you feel like a king?”
“You . . . you were the one who killed Papa?” Devlin asked, and I glanced over my shoulder at him.
“I slit his throat before he could tell anyone about Hailey. He was using everything he knew to get out of trouble, and I would be damned if I let him speak about her,” I explained as I swung my gaze back to Lucian.
