Hawk: Jagged Edge Series #3

by A. L Long

  It was only after I ended up in the ER that she finally said, “No More,” only it was too late. It was the final blow to her head that landed her in that care facility. She could have had so much, but she chose pain over happiness.

  Wandering down the hall, I came upon the room that Drew and I shared. The only things left were the faded stains on the wallpaper where our posters and his awards used to hang. Shining the light on the closet door, I gripped the knob and swung the door open. Pointing the light to the ceiling, I saw the entrance to the attic. Spotting a milk crate in the corner of the room, I grabbed it and placed it on the floor in the closet. Stepping on it, I pushed the small cover in the ceiling up and over, giving me the room I needed. I reached inside the hole, feeling for the one thing I knew would still be there. Pulling out the tattered backpack covered in dust, I slung it over my shoulder and got the hell out of that house.

  When I got to the hotel, I placed the pack on the bed and headed to the bathroom for a much needed shower. After being in that house, I still could smell the scent of rotten blood on my clothing. Removing my pants and then my boxers, I took a good look at myself in the mirror. Even though my facial features hadn’t changed that much since I was a teen, my body had. I was not longer that skinny, shy kid who always managed to get the crap beat out of him.

  Turning on the faucet, I splashed cold water on my face and then ran my fingers through my hair, thinking about how fucked up my life was, at least part of it. Stepping away from the sink, I reached into the shower and turned on the water. While I waited for the water to warm, I pulled off my t-shirt. The scar, even though covered with a tattoo, still reminded me every day of the sacrifice I made for my mom. Hidden away beneath it were the words I now and will always live by.

  Wrapping a towel around my waist, I sat on the bed next to the backpack I threw on the bed. Staring at it, I contemplated on whether I really wanted to go back to the day I placed the items in it. It held the truth about what really happened to my father so many years ago. Once and for all, I needed to put this shit to rest and move on with my life, but not tonight. Standing, I took the pack and placed it on the small table in the corner. Removing my towel, I slide into bed and turned off the light.

  ~****~

  Dealing with my brother was one thing I couldn’t handle today, that and the fact that the sleep I got was next to nil. That damn backpack staring back at me all night long, daring me to pull out the contents, had my mind whirling; that was, until I took hold of it and walked out to my car and threw the damn thing in the trunk. I’m sure the old lady at the office enjoyed my bare ass when I passed her looking at me through the blinds.

  As we headed into the attorney’s office, I kept thinking, “Why the hell would an attorney need to be involved in the affairs of my mom? It wasn’t like she had a lot to deal with. She didn’t have a lot, and what little she did have was taken by the state to provide for her.”

  Taking our seats in the large boardroom, Drew took his place across from where I sat. Looking over to him, I asked, “So what the hell is going on, Drew? Why would we need to involve an attorney? Mom didn’t have a whole lot of anything.”

  “Yeah, well, there is another reason I needed you to come to Stillwater,” Drew began. “I haven’t been exactly honest with you.”

  “Spill? What the fuck is going on, Drew?” I asked, getting a little annoyed at his comment.

  “A gentleman named Nolan Parks approached me a couple of weeks go. He wants to purchase the land that Mom owned. She left the property to us when we were little. Anyway, they want to build a big fancy mall and office building.”

  “Really, Drew? Are you that gullible? They’d be lucky to build a single shop on that land, let alone a shopping mall and office building,” I advised.

  “I’m not talking about the house. That’s already gone. I’m talking about the piece of land that was left to her when her parents passed away. I’m talking twenty acres of land, just outside of Stillwater,” Drew clarified.

  “Are you telling me Mom owned land and she never told us?”

  “I don’t think she told anyone about it. I don’t even think she told Dad about it.”

  Just as I was about to say something else about it, the attorney we were supposed to be meeting with walked into the room. He took his place at the head of the table. Before he sat, he addressed us. “Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Everett Lawson. I am the attorney for Nolan Parks and Parks Investments.” He held out his hand to Drew and then me. “To make things simple, I will address you both by first name. Shall we get started?”

  There was something about this man that I just didn’t trust. Then again, there wasn’t a lawyer that I did trust. In my opinion they were all shifty bastards who took everything they could get, no matter who it hurt. I may have been a little rude, but there was no way I was going to shake this guy’s hand. So instead, I said. “Let’s cut the shit, and get on with this.”

  Looking at me with a surprised look on his face, he replied with a blank look, “Okay, let’s.” Straightening his already too-perfect tie, he continued as he took his seat. “As you may know, the piece of the land you both own is a prime place for development. Your property is the only piece of land left that hasn’t been secured by Parks Investments. We are willing to offer a sizable amount of money for the property.”

  Looking back over to Drew, I could see that he was getting anxious to find out what the lawyer was about to offer. Taking the lead, I asked. “What is Parks willing to offer?”

  “Well, considering the location and the fact that it has been in Parks Investments sights for a long time, I think that twenty million is a fair offer for the property.”

  I just about lost it. If anything, the property was at most worth thirty thousand. There had to be something else going on with this land that was of such interest to Parks Investments. Unable to swallow the offer, I asked, “Why is our property such an interest to Nolan Parks?”

  “Mr Parks has a high stake in the development of that part of Stillwater. The only piece left is the land that you now own,” the lawyer replied.

  Looking over to Drew, I said, “Come on, bro, we are out of here. If he can’t give us a straight answer, then screw him.”

  “Wait, Jayce, that is a lot of money,” Drew said, taking hold of my arm.

  “Okay,” I said, having an offer of my own. “Here's the deal. We will accept your twenty million dollar offer, but we also want twenty percent interest in the development of the property. Ten for me and ten for my brother. Take it or leave it.”

  The look on the attorney’s face was a story in itself. I wasn’t sure if he thought I was crazy for making such an outrageous offer or if he was actually considering it. Pulling his cell from his pocket, he said, “Excuse me one moment, gentlemen,” before he left the room.

  As Drew and I sat there, I could see the disbelief in his eyes. He was looking at me like I was fucking crazy for even coming up with such an offer, but when the attorney returned that all changed.

  “We will need a little time to draw up the paperwork. Mr. Parks has agreed to your terms. I hope you boys know how wealthy this little transaction is going to make you,” he confessed, snapping shut his fancy leather briefcase. “I should have everything ready for you to sign in a couple of days.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Paige

  Somehow I thought that Hawk would be different. He turned out to be like every other guy. The only reason he was acting like a complete gentleman was so he could get in my pants. Just like when I was younger, I gave in to that guy too. You would think that I would have learned by now that the sole purpose for a man to be so nice to a woman was to bury his cock inside her. Pushing from my bed, I knew that I couldn’t spend the day wallowing in my regrets. I needed to put my bad choice behind me and get ready for work. I promised Merrill that I would come in a little bit earlier to cover the afternoon crowd. The other bartender wasn’t going to be able to come in. Something he had to take
care of. Working the extra hours was good for me. Not only did it allow me to make a little extra money, but I also wouldn’t be sitting in the small apartment feeling stupid for what happened last night.

  Turning on the spray in the shower, I began undressing. It didn’t take long before I was under the spray washing away the remaining memories from the night before. Even though the hot water felt good against my skin, I knew that I needed to get going if I was going to make it to the bar on time. Even though Merrill wasn’t a stickler for being on time, this was only my third day on the job and I wanted to let him know that he could count on me to be there.

  When I arrived at Hell’s Gate, there were only a handful of people in the bar, all of which were men. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the bar, there was a familiar face sitting at the end of the bar. It was Hawk. The last person that I expected to see. I could have easily walked up to him and slapped him across the face for what he did last night, but I didn’t. Instead, I pretended that last night was no more than a one night stand and I didn’t give a crap about the way he left so suddenly.

  Placing my purse behind the bar, I grabbed one of the black aprons and wrapped it around my waist. Pretending that it didn’t matter that he was sitting at the end of the bar watching every move that I made, I made him realize what a mistake he made by leaving the way he did, by flirting with the cute guy sitting a few seats down from him, I knew his eyes were on me the whole time as I leaned over the bar, revealing a little bit of my cleavage as I poured the cute guy another shot of Jack. Even though the guy was cute, the grin he gave me wasn’t charming as he took hold of my hand that was holding the bottle of Jack Daniels.

  Forcing me to lean in, he pulled on my arm hard enough that I could feel the bruising already taking hold. As I tried to pull away from him, his grip got even tighter as he forced his lips to make contact with mine. Before I knew what happened, he was out of his chair and on the floor. The only thing I could see was Hawk standing over him. He was laying into the guy like he was going to kill him. I must have been yelling at the top of my lungs, because a few moments later, Bucky was on Hawk, pulling him off the poor guy.

  “Are you frickin’ crazy? You could have killed him,” I yelled, standing within inches of his face.

  “He shouldn’t have forced himself on you the way he did,” Hawk replied, trying to pull away from Bucky.

  “I could have taken care of myself,” I spat back.

  “Yeah, I could see that.”

  He was so infuriating, If I had been a guy, I would have knocked him on his ass. Stepping away, I watched Bucky escort Hawk out of the bar. It was a good thing that Merrill wasn’t around, he would have kicked him to the curb and 86’d him. Turning my focus on the cute guy, who was now trying to stand, I walked over to him, hoping he would allow me to help him up.

  “You shouldn’t have kissed me like that,” I said, helping him stand to his feet and to the barstool.

  “Yeah, I probably shouldn't have had that last shot either. Sorry about doing that,” he apologized, showing how cute he really was even with a split lip.

  “Let me get something for your lip. It looks pretty bad.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll be fine. I need to get going anyway. My name is Seth, by the way,” he said, turning on the barstool and rising to his feet.

  “You take care, Seth,” I responded as I watched him slowly make his way to the door.

  Once Seth was gone, I went behind the bar and continued with my bar duties. The rest of the night ended up being less exciting. I was surprised, considering the day of the week it was. Hell’s Gate had always been busy on Wednesday nights, I’d been told. Just like every other bar, Wednesday was always Ladies Night, and given the number of women that were here, you would think the place would be packed with men just waiting to get lucky. It just didn’t make sense that there were two women for every man. Usually it was the other way around, at least according to Bucky.

  By the time last call rolled around, I was ready to get out of here and hit the sack. While I was wiping down the bar, Bucky was escorting the last of the drunk customers out the door. When 2:00 a.m. came, everyone was out, all the cleanup was done, and I was out the door. Bucky and I left together, so he offered to make sure I got upstairs to my apartment safely. For being such a big guy, he was a real sweetheart.

  ~****~

  The loud pounding on my door just about sent me through the roof. Rolling over, I took a look at my alarm clock to see that it was only six in the morning. “What the effin hell?” I cursed as I pushed from the bed. Fixing my lopsided messy bun, I headed to the door. There was one bad thing about the apartment, the door had no peep-hole that I could look through to see who was on the other side of the door, only a dark curtain covered the window that had eight individual panes. Staring at the door, instead of pulling back the curtain, I yelled, “Whoever is on the other side, this better be important.”

  “Don’t get your lacy panties in a wad, doll. It’s just me, Hawk,” he replied from the other side.

  Opening the door, there he stood in front of me looking like a model for Starbucks as he held up a crate with two coffees and a brown paper bag with who knew what inside. Taking a coffee from the cardboard crate and the bag filled with goodies, I turned and headed for the small kitchen and took at seat at the small table. I didn’t even acknowledge Hawk when he sat right beside me. As much as I was enjoying the vanilla latte and the blueberry muffin, I was still angry at him for not only waking me up so early on my day off, but also because of the way he reacted last night. He had no right to go ballistic the way he did on that poor guy.

  “Are you going to talk to me or ignore me while you eat your muffin?” he asked.

  “I don’t have anything to say to you,” I replied, knowing I had plenty to say to him, but preferred to keep my thoughts to myself.

  “Well, I have something to say to you,” he began. “I shouldn’t have attacked that guy the way I did.”

  “Got that right.”

  “Who was that guy, anyway? He didn’t look like he was your boyfriend or anything.”

  “He was just a guy who had a little too much to drink. Can we not talk about him? What’s done is done.”

  I had a funny feeling that Hawk wanted to know about the guy rather than talk about something else. Leaving my chair, I picked up my half-eaten muffin and threw it in the garbage. No sooner had I turned around, Hawk was standing right in front of me. All 6’2” of him. The way his body was towering over me made my body tingle all over. And the way his jaw clenched, oh my God, it was the sexiest thing I had ever seen.

  I could feel his eyes on me. Even though I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, I could feel his eyes burning through the thin material. When I looked down, I could see that not only was my body tingling, but my nipples were at full attention, giving Hawk a perfect view of just how much his presence was turning me on. He moved closer to me. Every step he took caused my heart to beat faster and faster. It didn’t even matter that I was mad at him for the way he acted last night. The only thing I could concentrate on was how gorgeous he was and how much I wanted him. I knew, however, that I couldn’t give in to him so easily, so for every step he took towards me, I took a step back. I knew I had run out of room the minute my butt hit the handle on the stove.

  I could feel the rough yet tender touch of his hand as he placed it on my cheek. There was something different about his touch. Looking up at him. I tried to speak, but nothing would come out. When he lowered his lips to mine, it didn’t matter because no words could convey what I felt at that moment. The kiss was tender and the way he pulled me closer made my body pulse with desire. The way I was feeling, you would have thought I was a sex deprived woman. Unable to hold back, I wrapped my arms around him, needing to have his body closer to mine. We were pressed so close together that I could feel the hard peaks of my nipples pressed against the tight muscles of his abs.

  His hands slowly moved beneath my t-shirt, sending a wav
e of electricity to my core. With nothing underneath my shirt, it took him no time at all to find my hard nipples as he gently caressed the tips between his fingers. The touch of his hands on my body left me totally at his mercy. As our kiss deepened, I could feel myself being further possessed by the trance he had over me. It was like my thoughts were not my own as he continued to touch my body the way that he did.

  He lifted the thin material of my t-shirt over my head, allowing the cool air of the conditioner to hit the taut peaks of my nipples, making them even harder. His head dipped slightly until his lips touched the curve of my neck, sending even more heat between my legs. The feel of his lips on my body was all I could think about as the pressure between my legs began to build. Unable to stand any longer, he lifted me from the floor, causing my legs to wrap around his muscular waist.