Serving the Bad Boy: War Hawks MC

by Carmen Faye

  “Thank you,” I replied absently only half hearing him.

  The doors were closing and the men who had abducted me stepped into the hall. They were counting their money and the two who had harassed and beaten me were complaining about having their pay cut for having a little fun on the job.

  “Are you alright?” Graham asked.

  “Yeah, I imagine I could be worse,” I said.

  I felt like that was what I was supposed to say. I had survived. I was alive.

  Really, I felt like a victim watching the judge let the bad guy off with a fine and volunteer work. I had been raped of my idea of safety. My trust had been stolen. I had been attacked, assaulted, suffered emotional duress and other damages.

  “Well, if you aren’t you will be. You are safe now,” he replied, wrapping his arms around me.

  He hugged me tightly and gave me his jacket. He was that sort of guy. He wore suits.

  He rolled up his shirtsleeves, and donned a reassuring smile. He was a little overweight, but he wore it well overall. His face was red, round, and happy, framed with strawberry blonde hair almost the same color as my own.

  He petted on me now as if his feelings were resurfacing or that they had possibly never left.

  Instead of reflecting this admiration and concern, I found myself thinking about Tarek. I knew that even though we had known each other far less time, he would know that I was saying what I thought I should. He would somehow be able to relate or tell me how this made me stronger, not that I would be okay.

  I wondered what had happened to him. He was the one they were after. I was only a possible link to him. If I was handled this poorly, there was no telling what condition Tarek might be in. One of his abductors could take the opportunity to settle a grudge.

  I wondered if he were already dead. I wondered if that was Perry Hamilton’s plan when he was finished with him. I wondered if Tarek’s danger was my fault.

  ***

  Tarek

  “Aargh,” I groaned, loudly as I woke in the back of an SUV.

  My head was a throbbing, pulsing, swollen mess. Everything about me hurt more than I could have ever imagined in a way that I could never adequately put into words. My hands and ankles had been wound and bound with what felt like duct tape. My mouth had a foul smelling cloth wedged in and taped over it, keeping the cloth in place.

  I can only imagine my waking groan and movements had been heard because there was a knocking from the backseat.

  “Pipe down back there!” one of them yelled.

  I gave all I had to one hard thrust to kick back against the seat in retaliation. My captors replied with another thump and comment but didn’t seem to be slowing to pull over and do anything.

  I had no idea how long I had been out. I didn’t have room to move, and I couldn’t crane my neck to try to see the tops of any buildings out the window.

  One of the men toward the front of the vehicle was singing along with the radio as if he was out for an afternoon drive. The others were just yacking back and forth about nothing in particular. They all seemed happy. I began to understand why as the song ended.

  The man who had been singing said, “I can’t believe we caught Mr. Uncatchable.”

  “I can’t believe we didn’t get to kill him on the spot,” a gruffer voice sitting closer to me said. “He deserves it for what he did to JB.”

  Another man’s voice that was closer to me whimpered a little. JB must have been the one I hammered on so hard. There was more whimpering, and the light mood shifted, growing slightly tense.

  I felt a shift in the seat ahead of me. It was followed by a sudden blow to my ribcage. They all burst out laughing. One by one they picked up singing along with the radio as another song began to play.

  It drowned out the sounds of JB’s whining.

  When the song ended, they turned the radio up but grew silent again. The car slowed and eventually stopped. Without a word, one by one the men exited the car. I heard someone at the back hatch.

  “When I open this, you better not try anything,” one of the men called. “Give me one problem, and I don’t care about money or consequence – I will end you. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than watching more of your blood spilling.”

  I would have scoffed, but the gag and tape made it a challenge. Still, I knew the odds were not in my favor at the time. I nodded and hoped they were looking into the window to see I was being compliant.

  After a moment, the door opened, and I felt hands on my feet and a gun at my temple. The gun remained pressed firmly as the tape at my feet was cut apart. Aside from the two retrieving me from the back of the vehicle, I could somewhat make out the injured man being held upright by the fourth man.

  “Sit up and get out,” said the man at my feet.

  He stepped away to give me room to swing my legs and avoid any attempt I might make to harm him and escape. The man with the gun stepped back slowly as well, but he continued to keep the gun aimed at me, specifically my face.

  Once I was upright, I slowly climbed down from the vehicle and began to rise up and down on my heels and pace a little. I felt sore. I felt stiff. I was buying time.

  I wanted to look around before they shoved me into this building. I needed to learn the path in so I could know my way out. It was clearly an office building, though somewhat rundown and dated for one of Hamilton’s properties. We were clearly in the back, but for a man of his stature and business accolade, that was no excuse.

  “Move your ass,” the man with the gun called, waving it back and forth, motioning for me to go through the door.

  “I’m going. What’s the rush? Your opportunity to push me around is about to come to an end. Don’t you want to take advantage of your last few minutes of opportunity to drive me crazy?” I taunted.

  “I’m content knowing you’ll be in Perry Hamilton’s hands. Nothing I could ever do to you could possibly be worse than what you have got coming,” he replied, shrugging without a care.

  “You think so,” I continued.

  He laughed. The others followed his lead but looked more interested in taking the invitation to beat on me more.

  “I know so,” he said, with a certainty that silenced his companions. “Dead or alive, he will get what he wants from you. By the time he does, though, you will hope to be dead.”

  His men all stared at him, stunned to silence. The injured man appeared to be holding on to consciousness by a thread. I tried my best to look unshaken by his words. I raised my head and walked toward the door they wanted me to enter.

  “Let’s find out,” I replied.

  The man with the gun nodded and held the door for me to pass through. He entered after the other men and me followed him. He had a snarky smile as I passed, knowing his point had been made.

  Once inside, he kept pace with me as we walked so he could better direct me through the building. We passed through a mailroom. No one thought much of our disturbance. From there, we made our down a couple of halls until just before we entered the main lobby of the building. We stopped in the middle of a group of four elevators, but one was out of order.

  The man who had unbound my feet pressed the up button. He resumed his place with us, making me the center of the out of place pack that we were.

  The first elevator came down. None of them seemed to move, so I remained still as well. I peered and craned my neck trying to see anything about the lobby, but then the second elevator arrived.

  Again, no one moved, but this time a handful of people stepped out. They were dressed in both business wear and lab coats. We could hear their voices before the door opened, but once they saw us, they silently continued on their way.

  There was no panic, only an understanding that they had not seen anything. They had not seen me, my injuries, or my captors. They didn’t even look back.

  My captors also didn’t enter the elevator.

  The third elevator was on the way, but the one that was marked out of service suddenly dinged.
At its sound, the men I was with began moving toward it. They stood along the back and sides to place me front and center as I had been coming into the building. I followed their lead and was inside just in time for the doors to begin closing again.

  Inside, there were only two buttons. The nearest man pressed the topmost button, and the elevator began its climb. None of them said a word as it ascended. I said even less. It was quiet enough to hear every change in the gears and cables as we were carried higher.

  When the elevator stopped, I hesitated before going in.

  “Too late to turn back now, buddy,” one of the men snickered in my ear.

  “I’m looking forward to this,” I replied.

  The doors were fully open, and we stood before a long hallway leading to a single door. It was already open, swung wide and leading into a conference room. It appeared to be completely empty with the exception of one man sitting at the head of the table, watching us from a distance.

  I quickly recognized him from the photos with Graham Stevens. He had the slimy, manipulative look of someone who should be working for the government or lying his way into the presidency.

  As I walked, my abductors followed, keeping a decent pace between us. When we reached the office, they paused as if awaiting permission to enter, but I kept my stride until I was standing by the man who had requested my capture.

  “Your envelopes are on the table there,” Hamilton said to the men with a motion of his hand. “Take them and go. I want to deal with this one alone.”

  The men nodded, grabbed their money, and thanked their way out of the room. I kept my attention on Hamilton, but I could imagine the disappointment they felt at not getting to see any of the torturous acts they expected were in store for me. My new holder only nodded to his flunkies and waved them our dismissively. He had what he wanted.

  He had access to Ali Poole. He had me.

  Chapter 14

  Annie

  “I’m fine, Graham,” I said, patting his shoulder. “Everything is fine. Thank you.”

  He had hugged me for several floors, but now he accepted my hint and put a little space between us. Even though one of my eyes was swollen, I could see his disappointment.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling the need to soothe him. “I’m just sore. Everything hurts.”

  He brightened and then looked sympathetic.

  “Say the word. If you need or want anything I can arrange it for you,” he said, seeking the next way to pour his attention into me. “Would you like to get something to eat? Have you been eating? We’ll go to my place, and I’ll make you something amazing. In fact, stay with me a few days. I’ll pamper you and have you feeling better in no time. We can make all of this a distant memory.”

  “That sounds wonderful, but I really am okay,” I said. “I will be. I’m not that hungry. I have been fed and taken care of. I just miss my bed. I want to sleep in my bed.”

  “I can understand that,” he replied. “Perhaps I can put a few things together for you at your place, that way you don’t have to do anything when you wake up. Plus, I can keep an eye on things in case Mr. Hamilton or the Tarek guy want to try anything.”

  “That’s sweet of you,” I said, unsure of another way to turn him down.

  The elevator finally reached the ground floor, and the doors opened. Graham stepped out and made his way through the main lobby, holding my hand and leading me behind him.

  The woman at the front desk looked up at us momentarily but didn’t say a word. She yawned and stretched her neck from one shoulder to the other, then resumed typing.

  Stepping over the threshold and into the fresh air with less of a threat looming over me almost knocked the breath out of me with how relieved I felt. Hamilton’s interest in me weight at the back of my mind, but I was likely still not valuable enough to linger in his thoughts for long.

  Still, the thought of Tarek weighed on me. Would Ali fight for him as Graham had for me? I really wasn’t sure if there was anyone to save him if he couldn’t somehow save himself.

  “Why do you look so down? I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly thought you would be happier than this,” Graham said, putting an arm over my shoulder.

  I pulled his jacket around me more.

  “Well, it’s just that I’m worried about Tarek,” I replied. “I feel guilty for telling them where he was. Mr. Hamilton is intimidating and powerful. What do you think he will do to him?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. You shouldn’t think about it either,” he said, stopping to face me. “We are done with Perry Hamilton. You never need to see or think about him again. He helped me make a name for myself in this city, but I think my food speaks for itself. I can sever ties with him. Either way, there is no more Perry Hamilton, do you understand?”

  He looked serious, a little wide-eyed and panicked.

  “I do, but,” I paused, uncertain how to bring up my concerns delicately in consideration of his feelings.

  “But what?” he asked, raising his voice some. “You could have been killed. You have been put through God knows what these last several days. You have had to deal with all manner of people. What possible but could there be?”

  “I just can’t let him hurt Tarek. In all that happened, he never let anything happen to me, and I gave him up at the first real opportunity to save my own skin,” I said, admitting my guilty mindset. “Maybe I put myself in danger going with him, but the worst things happened when you sent those goons to pick me up.”

  “That wasn’t my plan. Hamilton had already received a description of you from a man who said you knocked him out when he had Poole at bay in the kitchen.

  “Poole? I never helped Ali Poole,” I said, correcting him. “Tarek was being attacked in the kitchen at the gala. I saved him and then we escaped the event on his motorcycle.”

  He scrunched his face and looked at me perplexed. He stepped back from me more, looking even more confused.

  “You have no idea who he is, do you?” he asked.

  “He who?” I replied.

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he just rounded another corner, leading us to the road behind the building where I had been brought in earlier. Hearing voices, I looked down the path to see Tarek, bound and gagged being pulled from the trunk of an SUV.

  “Oh, my!” I gasped.

  As I opened my mouth to call Tarek’s name, Graham grabbed me and swung me up and over onto his left shoulder and hastily walked us out of the area. I beat my hands on his back, kicking the entire time.

  “Let me go! Turn around!” I called. “We have to help Tarek. What if they kill him?”

  “There is nothing we can do. Trust me, he can get whatever help he needs. All he’d have to do is ask,” Graham said coldly as he kept walking.

  I stopped fighting him after a certain distance, but he carried me a little way further until we reached his car. He placed me on my feet and pressed a button unlocking the vehicle. Then he opened the passenger door for me.

  “I’m not getting in until you tell me what you know,” I said.

  “Analise,” he replied in a somewhat whiny tone. “Please, just get in the car. We can talk at your house.”

  “No, I can’t just leave him this way,” I said, shaking my head. “If you expect me to, you should be able to give me a good reason. You act like you know him.”

  “I do!” I Graham snapped. “I know enough.”

  He lowered his voice again and looked as if he felt guilty for shouting at me. He made his way around to the driver’s side door and opened it, but before he got in, he sighed heavily.

  “Fine, I will tell you what I know, but first tell me why it’s so important?” he asked.

  “It’s important because it’s a man’s life. It’s important because clearly there is something bad going on here somehow, and it’s serious,” I said. “Because whatever is going on was enough for people to think it was worth it to put his life and mine in jeopardy, including you. I appreci
ate you coming to my rescue, but when I called, you chose to inform Hamilton. Now that I know you think he is such a bad guy, I feel like you should have known there would be risks letting him orchestrate my rescue.”

  “I had no choice. He all but runs this city. If I keep him happy, I can all but run this city too. It’s certainly done wonders for the business,” he said, pacing beside the car and moving his hands for emphasis.

  “Is everyone in the world under someone else’s thumb? Success only seems to come at the cost of favors and danger,” I cried out, beginning to pace myself.

  “I did what I had to do to make a life for myself. Wouldn’t you rather be with a man who is a success than a no-name chef from a series of failed business ventures?” he argued.