by S. K. Hardy
Shaking her head wildly, Raven glanced behind her and saw Hawk a few feet away. “I just want to go home,” she said, her voice full of desperation.
“No problem. I’ll take you,” Kruz answered in a soothing tone. “It’s okay.”
“Raven, we need to talk.” Hawk reached for her but Kruz scooted her out of the way and slipped her behind his tall, muscular frame.
A deadly stillness came over Hawk as he stared at Kruz. “You need to move.”
CHAPTER 10
Kruz reached in his pocket and took out a claim ticket. “Here. Take this,” he said, giving it to Raven. “Have the valet bring my car around, then we can go.”
“Raven.” Hawk called her name harsher than he intended. Blowing in frustration, he softened his voice. “Rae, just give me a few minutes.”
Kruz deliberately ignored Hawk and said to Raven, “I’ll meet you outside in a second.”
Raven took the claim ticket but hesitated. When Kruz gave her a little nudge on her arm, she glanced at Hawk one last time before hurrying towards the exit.
“Raven!” Hawk tried to follow her but Kruz blocked his path. Glaring at him in warning, Hawk walked up close to Kruz until only a few inches separated their bodies. “Move tha’ fuck outta my way.”
“Look, bruh, I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but–”
“You right, you don’t know what’s goin’ on!” Hawk’s frustration turned into an anger that he gladly redirected to Kruz. “You don’t want this smoke with me, K. Trust.”
“All I’m sayin’ is that maybe you should give her some time to calm down. Come on, man. She’s upset. I think it’s best if you leave her alone for now.”
“Shit,” Lorenzo muttered under his breath. “Here we go.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Hawk’s expression turned dangerously fierce. The fact that Kruz was protecting Raven as if she belonged to him pushed a button inside Hawk that put him right on the edge of whippin’ Kruz’s ass. “Let me tell you somethin’, don’t worry about Raven. I’ll take care of her. Who you need to be worryin’ about right now is yourself.”
As if on cue Lucas and Lorenzo stepped between them to break things up before they went any further.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Lucas said. “Let’s remember where we are, alright?”
Kruz was now just as angry as Hawk. “Hey, if he wanna do this, I’m ‘bout it. Your brother steppin’ to the wrong one, bruh.”
“Muthafucka, if you got somethin’ to say to me, I’m right here! You ain’t gotta talk to him, talk to me!” Hawk pushed past Lorenzo and Lucas before they could stop him and shoved Kruz in the chest hard enough to make him stumble back.
Lucas grabbed Hawk and pulled him back. “Stop it!” He hissed. “Calm. Down."
When Kruz started towards Hawk, Lorenzo stepped in front of him and shook his head. “Let it go, K. You got your organization to think about. This is not a good look. Walk away.”
Fists balled tight, Kruz glared at Hawk for several seconds more before glancing around. Seeing the attention they were attracting he took a step back and straightened his jacket. Locking eyes with Hawk, he nodded slowly, letting Hawk know they’d see each other again before reluctantly turning to leave.
When Lucas’ lips parted, Hawk gave him a glare full of warning before he could speak the words Hawk knew were coming “I don’t wanna hear it, Luke. Not right now.”
But Lucas wouldn’t be silenced. “Did you have to do this here? Tonight?” He growled, glancing around at the spectators watching with interest. When he saw that they were still the center of attention, he skillfully rearranged his face back to a blank canvas but his tone remained the same. “This charity is to honor our mother, to honor the causes that were dear to her, but that’s not what will end up in the newspapers tomorrow. Now the talk of the town is going to be the little show you just put on for everybody to witness.”
The admonishment sobered Hawk and gutted him to the core. The only reason he showed up tonight was because of his mother. The last thing he wanted to do was defile her memory in any way.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” Lucas continued. “When are you going to grow up and learn to control your temper?”
“You know what?” Hawk scowled. He took a step towards Lucas then stopped. Fuck it. “Never mind. I’m outta here.”
Hawk started to walk off but felt someone grab his arm. He turned around expecting to see his brother, but instead it was Lorenzo.
“Don’t get into no shit tonight, all right?” Lo told him. “You already showed your ass in front of half of Manhattan. If something pops off later I’mma let you spend the night in jail this time.”
Hawk snorted, bumping Lorenzo’s shoulder with his and pushing past him. Lorenzo called his name as he walked off but Hawk was through with the conversation. He had to find Raven. Ignoring the covert glances and hushed whispers around him, he pulled out his phone and called Danny. When he answered, Hawk was brief and to the point.
“Get here. Now.”
CHAPTER 11
Danny had been in the vicinity of the museum so he more or less pulled up a few minutes after Hawk called. Anticipating Hawk’s needs so that his life rolled as smoothly as possible was one of Danny’s jobs and he did it extremely well. Hawk appreciated that and paid him his worth.
He now sat in the back of the Denali staring broodingly out the window. Traffic was a bitch in New York, even at night. Settling back in the seat, his mood darkened as he recalled the fiasco back at the gala. Not many things shocked him, but Raven being there tonight shocked the hell out of him.
It was crazy that he’d planned to fly to Angel’s Cove tomorrow to get her back. As fate would have it the only thing that stopped him from doing so was seeing her tonight at the museum. For that, he was eternally grateful. However, seeing her with another man was something he had not been prepared for.
The last time he talked to her on the phone, she taunted him about having sex with someone else. At the time, Hawk dismissed it as a ploy to antagonize him, hurt him the way he hurt her. The surge of anger that invaded Hawk’s body at the possibility of her actually involved with Kruz scared him. Raven was his, had been from that first moment he met her in Angel’s office. Even now, Hawk remembered that day vividly. He knew who she was then, of course. The moment Jeffery Mills won the election the Pattels made it a point to find out everything they could about him and his ADA’s, to discover their weaknesses.
Everyone had them. Weaknesses, that is. Mills’ was his daughter, CeeCee. Gwynn’s, her financial responsibility to her family. Everyone seemed to be vulnerable in some area except for Raven. They’d checked into every single aspect of her life. She was financially secure, so there was no need to attempt to bribe her. She was independent and self-sufficient, so there was nothing anyone could buy her that she couldn’t get herself. She didn’t have a significant other who might be her Achilles heel. There was nothing. No skeletons. Raven appeared pit bull focused on her job. There was nothing they could find to use against her. That intrigued Hawk.
She’d been furious that day she walked into Angel’s office and saw him and his family sitting there. A hint of a smile broke through the storm clouds gathering on Hawk’s face. Raven Randolph had fascinated him even more that very moment. After arrogantly telling Angel she didn’t need an introduction to the Pattels, she proceeded to go down the line and greet them one by one while giving a brief, but less than flattering, dossier on each of them. Even his father, Hawk grinned. She was bold as shit. He decided right then and there that he wanted her. Nothing was going to stand in the way of him making that happen.
The smile on his face slowly faded as his thoughts went back to Kruz. The two of them had known each other for a long time, but he swore to God, he could’ve killed him with his bare hands tonight. The muthafucka actually stepped to him and told him to leave Raven alone.
Tha’ fuck?
Who did he think he was to warn him away from hi
s own woman? An even better question was why he thought he had the right to do so? Who was he to Raven? Hawk hadn’t gotten a straight answer out of her in the bathroom and had quickly become distracted. But he sure as hell would get one as soon as he saw her.
“We’re here, Mr. Pattel.”
Hawk saw they’d arrived at the building Raven lived in. “Wait here.”
He got out of the truck and was immediately greeted by Bill, Raven’s doorman. “Mr. Pattel. Good to see you again, sir. It’s great to have Ms. Randolph back, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. I saw her a little while ago, actually. I assume she’s made it back by now?” Hawk asked, heading towards the entrance.
“No, sir, not yet.”
Hawk stopped and turned to look at Bill. “She’s not here?”
“No, sir.”
Great. Where the hell was she? With a sharp frown creasing his forehead he walked through the door Bill opened and went inside. He nodded to the concierge when he greeted Hawk by name before continuing on to the elevator and stepping inside the cab once the doors parted.
Although the staff became familiar with him once he and Raven started seeing each other, they knew him for another reason now. He owned the building. A few weeks before she left, Raven mentioned that she heard the building was being sold. Hawk hadn’t thought twice about it then but after she left town he tried to come to her apartment. He needed some way to be close to her, but Raven left strict instructions that he was in no way to have access to her place. Apparently the fact that she worked for the DA’s office trumped his charm and then later, the threats he leveled. So he bought the damn building.
Stepping off the elevator, Hawk pulled out his keys once he got to her front door and unlocked it. Since she left town, he lost count of the number of times he’d been there. Sometimes it made him feel close to her while other times it mocked the distance between them, making things worse. After a while he just stopped coming altogether.
Closing the door behind him, he took a deep, chest-expanding breath. The apartment smelled like the perfume she wore tonight. Walking further inside, he glanced around and saw little things that would’ve told him she was back even if he hadn’t seen her for himself tonight. The blanket she liked to snuggle up under was lying on the couch with the remote control beside it. A pair of slippers lay on the floor. Looking towards the kitchen Hawk saw an empty wine glass on the counter. None of those items had been there before.
He went to her bedroom and turned the light on. Raven’s suitcase sat on the floor by the closet. A couple of dresses lay out as if she’d been trying to decide which one to wear tonight. Hawk’s eyes lingered on the bed. Memories of her fingers clawing at the sheets when they made love played out in his head. He could still hear the sexy noises she made when she climaxed. She’d be embarrassed afterwards, sure the neighbors had heard.
The corner of Hawk’s mouth lifted into a half-smile. They probably had heard her, but he didn’t give a damn. And by the time he started in on her again, neither did she.
Wondering what was taking her so long, Hawk glanced down at his watch. She should’ve been home by now. Deciding she probably would be soon, he sat down on the couch and waited. However, without intending to, he dozed off, and would’ve still been asleep if his cell phone hadn’t buzzed.
Sitting up with a start, he glanced around and listened. It was still quiet in the apartment. Raven must not be home yet. Plus, he had no doubt she would’ve raised holy hell if she got there and found him sitting on her couch. Stifling a yawn, Hawk looked at the time on his phone before answering it. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. Had he really been asleep for an hour? Damn. He must be more tired than he realized. However, his next thought brought a frown to his face: Where in the hell was Raven?
He brought the phone up to his ear and answered in a brusque tone. “Yeah.”
“Mr. Pattel, it’s Danny. I just saw Ms. Randolph.”
Hawk stood up, scowling fiercely. “You just saw her where?”
“She was in a cream colored Mercedes with a man I’m not familiar with. When she saw me, they took off.”
That meant she knew Hawk was at her apartment. The grimace that rearranged Hawk’s face was dark and dangerous. “Was he Latina? Light brown complexion with braids?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck! I’m on my way down.”
Hawk disconnected the call and started towards the door. He had just passed the kitchen when papers stacked on one of the barstools caught his eye. Hawk frowned. He hadn’t seen them earlier when he came in. Going over to pick them up, he quickly skimmed over the first page then flipped to the next one. His eyes narrowed when he realized what the papers were.
“Son of a bitch.”
Raven had been offered a job with a law firm in D.C. He was holding what looked to be the contract. Hawk turned to the last page. She had signed and dated it and was scheduled to start in two weeks. The papers bunched up in his fist. Raven really planned on leaving New York for good. Leaving him.
“Son of a bitch!” His mind raced as he stared at the contract for several seconds more before tossing it on the counter.
Shaking his head slowly, he tried to calm his anger. If he had not seen those papers, he would’ve been none the wiser about her new job. Without him knowing, she would’ve just packed up and disappeared–again– because Hawk was positive she had no intention of telling him about it. That was for damn sure.
Stalking to the door with renewed intent he jerked it open and slammed it behind him. After locking it, he headed towards the elevator, mulling over what he just found out. The two of them had a lot of shit to talk about. First, she was going to tell him what the hell was going on between her and Kruz. Then, they would discuss how she planned on telling the law firm in D.C. that she wouldn’t be taking the job. But before any of that happened...
He had to fucking find her first.
CHAPTER 12
Hawk sat in the backseat of the SUV. His anger simmered like a slow burning fuse that had just been lit. Fury rested right below the surface. For the last hour, he’d ordered Danny to drive around to several of the surrounding hotels in the area, thinking that Raven more than likely decided to go to one of them for the night rather than confront him at her apartment. However, none of them had a record of her checking in so that theory was blown straight to hell. The only other explanation he could think of was the one he couldn’t ignore any longer: She went home with Kruz.
The possibility of that being the case was like fuel poured on a potentially deadly fire. Flames crackled fiercely from his eyes. Hawk’s hand tightened around his cell phone as images of Raven, naked and in bed with Kruz, played out in his head like a 3-D movie.
“Where to now, Mr. Pattel?” Danny asked from the front seat.
Eyes blinking as if coming out of a daze, Hawk stared straight ahead. His square jaw rooted and tense, he forced himself to calm down so that he could think clearly. Finally, he relaxed his crushing grip on the phone and scrolled through his list of contacts until he came to the name he was looking for.
He hadn’t been to Kruz’s crib in a long time. As Kruz said earlier, they were both busy men with schedules that kept them endlessly in action. That hadn’t stopped them from being cool with each other whenever their paths crossed. Hell, there was a lot of history between them, a lot of good memories.
He would hate for that to change...
But once he got to Kruz’s apartment, if Raven was there as he suspected she was–God help him. And if He, in all his wisdom and glory, didn’t provide some type of divine intervention? Kruz was a dead man.
****
Danny had barely come to a stop in front of the projects where Kruz lived when Hawk jumped out of the SUV. Danny got out and started to follow him.
“Stay here.” Hawk didn’t turn around or break his stride while issuing the order.
He knew why Danny wanted to go with him, but Hawk didn’t need backup. At one time, these projects had
been his second home. Throughout the years before life got crazy, it was nothing for Hawk to get out of a meeting, change from a two thousand dollar suit into some basketball gear and shoot hoops down the block. He knew the area like the back of his hand and while it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be, a person still had to stay alert–the average person, that is. The streets respected him. They respected each other, so there was no beef. But that wasn’t true for those who the neighborhood was not familiar with.
Which was another reason for Hawk to kick K.’s ass if it turned out he brought Raven there. No one would fuck with her because of Kruz, but that wasn’t the point. Raven didn’t belong in a place like this. A stray bullet didn’t have nobody’s name on it. Anything could happen. For K.’s sake he better hope it didn’t.
A few neighborhood regulars were hanging outside the entrance to Kruz’s building passin’ around a forty and smokin’ a blunt. The sweet, earthy smell was strong and lingered in the air as Hawk walked up to the group.
“Wassup, Junie.” He greeted one of the old heads who sat around talkin’ shit with the others.
Junie turned around with a look of surprise on his worn, creased face. When he recognized Hawk, he gave him a toothy grin and stood up to shake his hand. “Wassup, man! Damn, Hawk, it’s been a long time! What you been up to?”
“Workin’ hard and mindin’ my fuckin’ business, that’s what,” he said with a half-grin. Leaning in, they gripped each other’s hand and bumped shoulders in greeting. He did the same to the other men who came up to speak. “Wassup, fellas.”
Junie offered Hawk a hit of the joint he was smoking, but Hawk declined with a shake of his head. Shrugging, Junie took a couple of puffs and passed it to the dude beside him while eyeing Hawk with a keen expression. “Ere’thang alright? What you need?”