“Let me go! Let me go, you…you jackoff!” That’s her shout alright. There’s a loud scuffle at the door before my girl finally appears in the doorway.
“Hawk!”
I throw off my helmet and stride up the wide steps to my Maggie. Two men hold onto her arms, keeping her from running to me. I growl.
“Let her go.” My voice is low, but it echoes over the excited voices coming from inside the house.
“Or what?” one of the suited goons asks.
As if on cue, I hear the click of several guns behind me. I know my guys have pulled out their artillery and I can’t help but feel satisfaction course through me.
“Or that,” I growl.
My Maggie is quickly released, and she runs into my arms.
I hold her, feeling her sweet curves against me and the smelling the familiar vanilla smell of my sweetheart. I bury my face in her red curls for a second.
“Don’t leave me again, Maggie. Don’t you dare do that again.”
“I won’t, I won’t, I swear.” She buries her head into my chest. “I’m never leaving you again.”
“Well, isn’t this sweet?” a dry voice says. My head shoots up to look at the crowded doorway.
There stands her father, Francis John Malone. Head of Malone Inc. and an officer in the Sterling Southern Mafia. I know everything about this man by now. He stands there with a sneer on his pasty face and greying, thinning hair. He looks nothing like my beautiful Maggie.
“You want to let my daughter go now? If we want to fight weapon for weapon, I’ve got my own.” His eyes cut upward, and I can see a sniper on the roof from here.
Instead of obeying, I tug her closer. “Nope,” I reply succinctly.
He tenses.This is a man who is used to being obeyed.
“How dare you?” He stalks closer, pointing his finger at me. “How dare you come into my home, interrupt my daughter’s engagement party, and threaten me in front of my guests?”
I merely raise an eyebrow and glance down at Maggie. “Engagement party?”
She pulls away and looks up at me with a tear-streaked face. “Not by choice,” she says and shudders.
I kiss her forehead. “It’s okay, baby. You never have to do anything you don’t want to again.”
“The hell she doesn’t! Just who the hell do you think you are?” Frank Malone’s voice roars and he fists his hands by his side.
I feel the guys behind me tense. They’re ready. They know what to do.
I hold up a hand to ward them off. “I’ve got this, guys.”
And I do. This man deserves everything that’s coming to him.
Chapter Twenty-One
Maggie
I love my man even more for making my dad squirm like a little kid. -Maggie
“What’s the meaning of this, Magnolia? I know you can’t possibly know these…these ruffians?” My father’s face is so red that I have this sudden image of his head exploding like a large tomato. He’s mad as hell.
He stalks closer to me, and I tighten my hold on Hawk. “You probably do know them, though, don’t you, Magnolia? You…you whore!” He reaches for me, and I cower further.
Hawk puts a staying hand on my father’s chest. His face is hard and his blue eyes glitter with fury. “Don’t ever say anything like that again to Maggie or you will die, old man. The only reason you’re still alive is because you’re Maggie’s father.”