by Naomi West
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.
HAWK’S BABY: Kings of Chaos MC copyright 2017 by Naomi West. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.
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Hawk’s Baby: Kings of Chaos MC
By Naomi West
He may be a killer, but I can’t say no to his touch.
Hawk Millard is not a good man. He’s a felon, a biker – and maybe even his brother’s killer.
But in the wake of Hugh Millard’s murder, Hawk is the only one who can care for Hugh’s infant son.
As a private investigator, I’m determined to get to the truth, by any means necessary.
Even if I have to sacrifice my body to Hawk to get there.
Hugh Millard’s death still haunts me.
I was the detective assigned to his case, but the official answers never seemed to hold water.
So I quit the police force and struck out on my own.
I have to know what happened.
And Hugh’s brother seems like a damn good place to start asking questions.
But he’s not a man who takes kindly to strangers.
I move in next door, hoping to sneak my way into his life.
If only I’d known how that would end up.
Before I know it, I’m helping Hawk care for his baby nephew by day.
By night, I’m stifling my moans in dark hallways while Hawk’s hands and mouth roam across my body.
It’s wrong, I know.
But he just does something to me.
Awakens something I can’t control.
Uncages something that refuses to go back inside.
It’s not all fun and games, though.
I’m in too deep, mired in a world where I have no business mucking around.
There are killers out there, and people eager to come after what’s left of the Millard family and fortune.
They’re the kind of people who see someone like me as little more than a roadblock… an obstacle to be disposed of.
The only safety I can find is in Hawk’s arms.
But as I learn more about Hawk and his past, I realize that that might be the most dangerous place of all.
Chapter 1
Hawk Millard stuffed diapers into the diaper bag. He hated the pink, flowered bag, but he hadn’t had a chance to get anything that better suited him. It was all he could do to make sure Damian had diapers, clothes, something to eat, and a safe place to sleep. This baby thing had turned out to be much more complicated than he first expected.
He searched through the bag, thinking. An extra outfit, several diapers, his favorite binky, a clean bottle. What else would Damian need today for daycare? Hawk wasn’t sure how long he’d be tonight. He had a long list of cars to repossess and judging by the make and model of the cars, this might not be the easiest day on the job. The more someone paid—or in this case hadn’t paid—for a car, the more attached they tended to be and the more problems usually arose.
There was a time when he worked mostly at night, making repos much more peaceful. But having Damian to care for made that impossible. It was hard enough to find daycare that would work with his crazy schedule. The woman who watched Damian now ran a small daycare out of her home with just a few children, and she was flexible enough to be able to keep him overnight should the need arise. But she charged handsomely for it, and he hated to do that to Damian anyway.
Hawk zipped up the diaper bag and picked Damian up from his baby seat to get him loaded into the car carrier.
Many times in the last few months since he’d taken custody of Damian, Hawk had considered getting a more stable job with better hours. But he’d been a repo man for so long, it was really all he was good at. Most companies frowned upon felonies on a prospective employee’s record, but it just so happened that stealing cars was the one thing that might have made him one of the top repo men around. It paid well, too, but the hours could be difficult.
Falling into the repo business had been something of a miracle. He’d never been the type of kid who would be able to get good grades and go to college to do something “real” with his life, as his mother had wanted him to. Instead, Hawk struggled through school, got mixed up with the sort of people his mother had always warned him about. When she died, leaving him and his brother Hugh to fend for themselves while trying to live with their aunt and uncle and collection of cousins, Hawk dropped out of school. He became a full time criminal because that’s where the money was, and when he turned 18 he got a tiny apartment for him and Hugh to live in alone. Hugh finished high school, but joined Hawk on the streets soon after, stealing cars to pay the bills.
They’d been at it for years and hadn’t gotten into any major trouble. It only took a single day to change everything. One wrong move had changed every aspect of his life. Hawk had had his eye on a certain Ferrari. They were notoriously hard to steal, but Hawk had been at it so long, he hadn’t met a car he couldn’t break into. Except this particular Ferrari happened to belong to a repo man. Not only was the car alarmed, which Hawk had been able to override, but the garage it was kept in had been alarmed and booby trapped. When he started the car and tried to back out, the garage door shut and before long Hawk was eye-to-eye with a pissed off Butch.
After talking to him and admitting to being impressed with his talent, Butch had offered him a way to use his skill in a slightly more legal manner. He’d taught him everything he knew about being a repo man and brought him and Hugh on as employees. This simple change—going from stealing cars to legally removing them from their owners—took their lives off the streets. They made real money that could be proved and legally claimed. And that meant a nicer place to live. A nicer place meant less crime, better women, better everything.
Hawk had no desire to enter a new line of work, nor did he think for a second he’d get the same sort of break he had with Butch all those years ago. It’d been pure luck and Hawk had been grateful ever since. Working for Butch had opened up other options and now Hawk’s list of clients ranged from car dealerships to banks to the police. He’d find a way to deal with the hours and make it work for Damian’s sake. He needed a good paying job now more than ever. He would do whatever it took to make sure that his nephew had a good life. A life like he and Hugh should have had from the start.
Hawk bent down to Damian and made a silly face at him,
then tickled his belly. Damian let out a little squeal. Hawk picked up the baby carrier and locked up the house. He opened the car door and connected Damian’s seat to its base. As he closed the door, he looked up at the house next door.
A large truck sat out front with a moving company logo painted in bright green on its side. Men walked in and out of the house and truck with boxes and furniture and other items. The house had been empty for some time now. The elderly woman who’d lived there had died and it had taken a while for her kids to go through the place and clean it out to get it ready for sale.
A woman stood just inside the garage. She caught his eye and waved. He held up his hand to wave back. That must be her, then. Good looking woman. He liked her short, dark hair and her small nose. No ring on her finger and no man around. Could she really be single and moving in next to him? He looked down the street, as if expecting another car to show up and for some guy to jump out and take her in his arms.
Hawk’s house and this house sat at the end of a long road. There weren’t any houses across the street since it was all woods. The closest house on his other side was several hundred feet away. He’d had this little section of the street all to himself for a long time. Whoever she was he hoped they wouldn’t mind hearing a baby cry.
Hawk glanced up at his own house before climbing into his car. Nothing too fancy. One story, three bedrooms, plenty of space. It was a decent house, just outside of the city and in a good neighborhood. The house his new neighbor was moving into was similar. Moderately priced and sized, but nowhere near the cheaper parts of the city.
He caught a glimpse of his motorcycle through the garage window. Hopefully this woman and whoever else moved in there wouldn’t mind the sound of a loud Harley, either. He rode with his MC every chance he got. That time had been limited since he got Damian, but he was a member of the Kings of Chaos motorcycle club, and there were plenty of old ladies around to help out and watch the baby so he could ride along with the boys.
He looked back in his rearview mirror at Damian, then the house next store.
Chapter 2
Alexa Reynolds looked up when the moving man called her name. “Oh, just take that to the bedroom.”
He nodded and walked into the house with a tall floor lamp. She looked back toward the truck and saw movement next door. A man carried a baby in a carrier to his car. That had to be Hawk Milliard. And was that Hugh’s baby? Must be. She’d heard that Hawk might be taking custody of his nephew after his brother’s murder.
Hawk was the reason she’d bought this house in the first place. A stroke of luck, really. He didn’t live in town where there were many houses nearby to choose from, and on this secluded section of the street the only house available had been this one. When she’d seen that it was about to go on the market, she’d hopped out and stopped the realtor as she was getting in her car.
“I need this house,” Alexa told her. She’d flashed her badge and the woman had given her a confused look. “I’m willing to pay asking price if you don’t put it on the market, but sell it to me right now and get me in there as quickly as possible.”
Hugh’s death had been police business, but more specifically it had been her business. Back in the days when she was a detective, she’d been assigned to Hugh’s case. She’d searched through the evidence and followed every lead. She’d never had a case like Hugh’s. All the others had either been clear cut with solid evidence, or had so little evidence that the case went cold. Hugh’s had enough evidence, but nothing to point to a suspect. New evidence would turn up just as another suspect was ruled out. It kept going and changing and nothing seemed to make sense.
They’d never found the killer and the murder had been deemed a gang incident. Alexa had never been happy with that as the official story, and she’d spoken out against it when she was still on the force. When she was told in no uncertain terms that she was to give up on the case, she’d left. For a case like that, one where she couldn’t stop thinking of everyone involved, couldn’t stop seeing the victim in her sleep, she couldn’t let it go. She had to find the real answer.
So, Alexa had become a private investigator. She could still do what she loved this way, still work with the police when it helped her, but she wouldn’t have a chief standing over her, telling her how to investigate. It was up to her how much time she spent on a case and when it was time to quit.
She had other clients, of course. The bills had to be paid and since her investigation into Hugh’s death was unofficial, she wouldn’t exactly be collecting a fee for it. And the brother, Hawk, had to have more information. She even suspected he might have something to do with the murder, or he might have even been the one to kill Hugh. With a past like Hawk’s, it would come as no surprise. Grand theft auto, breaking and entering, assault. The list of his charges went on and on. If he hadn’t been directly responsible, Hawk might have gotten his brother killed indirectly, just through the people he dealt with.
During the investigation, her assistant had been the one to interview Hawk. She remembered watching the video and thinking even then that he might be holding back information. But she had no way to prove it and hadn’t gotten the chance to interview him herself before the case was closed. Now she would do things differently. She would move in, get to know him slowly, and get him to trust her enough to give out the information she needed. Being close would just make it easier to do that. It gave her a way to make continuous contact with him that wouldn’t seem suspicious.
When he looked up at her, she waved. He held up a hand to wave back, unsmiling. His face was neutral. He was likely sizing her up, checking her out, scoping things out. That’s what criminals generally did with new people, especially people living so close by.
He didn’t come over, though, which was good. She hadn’t decided yet what the best way to introduce herself was. This had to be done just right. Nice and slow. Ease him into it and make it seem like it was on his terms, not hers. She also needed to decide on a fake name. If he searched for her, in due course he’d find out that she had been the lead detective on Hugh’s case. And that might make him clam up forever.
She’d been so excited at finding this house close to Hawk’s and being able to be so close to him that it hadn’t hit her until a week before moving that she’d be living right next door to someone who might have killed his own brother. But it was too late. She’d have to rely on her police training, her guns and pepper spray, and hope she managed to do this right.
When she had solved the case once and for all, she could sell the place and move. Once the case had been really solved and not just had an easy solution thrown at it. Hugh’s face had haunted her every day since she first saw it. And his whole case had quickly begun haunting her, too. It affected her sleep and her work. And once the case was closed, the haunting feeling grew even worse because then she also felt guilt. She hadn’t found his killer in time, and now, thanks to her slow work, he was walking free while another gang was blamed. Hugh deserved more than that, and she wasn’t going to stop until things had been set right.
Chapter 3
After dropping Damian off at daycare, Hawk headed to the address of his first repo of the day. This one was a brand-new Toyota Prius.
The house was huge. Nearly a mansion on this suburb street. There wasn’t a gate, though, which was good. The rare gated community was always a challenge. Sometimes you could get the cops or the people who ran the place to let you in, but other times you had to sit and wait for the car to move, for the owner to be at work. Or you took the chance and climbed the fence.
But the guy who owned this house and this car couldn’t afford the gate. Apparently, he couldn’t afford the car, either. Hawk wondered how behind on house payments he was. The house looked impeccable, the lawn like it had been trimmed by hand, bushes and flowers so immaculate they could been cut out of a magazine. The bank would have no problem reselling the property as a foreclosure.
The car was sitting just out front in the drivewa
y. He wondered why it wasn’t in the garage. Maybe another car was in there? As long as the guy didn’t come out and throw a fit, this would be easy.
Hawk parked a block down from the house. Some guys used a tow truck to come up and get the car. There was a time or two when he’d thought it would be easier, but he preferred the hands-on approach. It was more of a challenge, but in a lot of ways it was also easier. A tow truck got a lot of attention. They were big and loud, and most of all expensive. But going up to a car and breaking in could be subtle and quiet. They wouldn’t even know the car was gone until it was too late.
He had already called the police and given them his list for the day. That way, if someone saw him breaking into the car, or when the owner found it missing and called to report it stolen, the police would know what the deal was. It kept him from getting arrested, and it also let the cops be the ones to tell the owner his car was gone for non-payment. He hated doing that part.
Life had been hard for him many times, and paying the bills hadn’t always been easy. He felt a pinch of sympathy for his customers as well, and he hated being the one to rub salt in their wounds. Another reason for avoiding the tow truck. Less attention from the neighbors meant it was less embarrassing for the person watching their car being taken away.