by Leah Wilde
“At least let me walk you up there.” His eyes sparkled with a plan as he caught up to me and stepped in front of me quickly.
“That’s the Hawk I know,” I said, smiling. “You’ve got a plan, don’t you?”
“Baby, I’ve always got a plan. How do think I made it this far?” He winked and twisted my arm behind my back.
“Okay, now it’s getting a little kinky,” I joked.
“You just keep thinking that,” he said. “But walk.” He pushed me up through the crowd of his men.
Every single one of them had a gun drawn and ready to go. It would have been interesting to watch these two organizations battle it out in the middle of the highway. They were both ruthless and fearless. One had even named themselves from how ruthless and depraved they were. The other had remained nameless for years.
“Oh good, you chose to comply,” Kleo said as we walked up.
“Where’s the diamond?” Hawk barked at her.
“That wasn’t the deal, now was it? The deal was that you would bring her to me, and I wouldn’t kill your men. Am I right?”
The automatic rifle in Kleo’s hands dwarfed her body. I assumed that was the rifle that had unleashed the gunshots we heard earlier. Though she stood in front of the headlights of the purring motorcycles behind me, she was still silhouetted against the headlights of her cars.
“Now, send over what’s mine, and I will let yours live,” she continued in a commanding tone.
Hawk had stepped up beside me, holding my hand behind my back. He interlaced his fingers with mine at that point and gave me a curious look as he considered what he was about to say to her.
“I can’t let you have her,” he said to Kleo. “She’s not yours anymore.”
“Fine. You want her? Have her.”
She raised her gun and shot at one of the guys standing to the side. I watched in horror as he crumbled to the ground. I watched in horror as no one did anything. That was unacceptable. These men behind me often called each other brothers. I had heard Hawk refer to them as his brothers on several occasions. But brothers didn’t stand by and watch while one of their own bled out due to a gunshot wound.
I pulled away from Hawk’s grip on my hand and ran toward the fallen biker. I heard Kleo laughing as I ran. I knelt down next to him on the ground and picked him up in my lap.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Evan,” he said in a weak, raspy voice. He squeezed my hand when I grabbed it.
“Alright, Evan, you’re going to make it through this, okay?” I didn’t know what compelled me to help this complete stranger, but I couldn’t just ignore him. Maybe it was because no one else was doing anything. Maybe it was because Evan, as a member of The Forsaken Ones, was an extension of Hawk, and Hawk had just dropped a bomb on me.
He had put himself into a unique position in my life. He was just supposed to be another fucking mark, and here he was trying to make himself more than that. And, dammit, I wanted him to be. Evan, bleeding out through his black t-shirt, offered the promise of a distraction from all of that.
“What the hell are you doing?” Hawk snapped behind me.
“I’m taking care of one of your men while everyone else stands around staring at Kleo like she’s some goddess,” I yelled back.
“Why, thank you, Felicity. I didn’t think anyone had noticed,” Kleo said. “You can learn a lot from her, Hawk,” she said, turning her attention back to him.
“Alright, what’s the game here, Kleo?” he asked. I watched him take a step towards her.
“What do you mean?” Her tone said she knew exactly what he meant, that she was just playing stupid to get him to say it.
“I mean, your top thief comes flying away from your mansion like a bat out of hell with a wound on the side of her head where you smacked her with the diamond, and now you’re standing here trying to get me to give her up. What gives, Kleo? You really don’t want her back, do you?”
“You’re right, Hawk,” she admitted. “I don’t want her back. Well, not to keep anyway.”
“Then what the fuck are you getting at?” His voice became forceful.
I turned so I could watch them better. He hadn’t even drawn his piece yet. He was still standing in front of her with bare hands while she held an automatic assault rifle in her hands, with her men standing around them, also holding automatic weapons. Yet, Hawk was approaching her without any way of defending himself.
“You still with me?” I asked Evan, looking down at the man in my arms.
“I am,” he groaned. “I’m trying to listen.”
“You should probably watch your language when you address me, Mr. Renner,” Kleo said in a threatening tone. “Remember, I’ve already put down one of your men, and I’ve got more firepower on you right now than all of your men combined back there. So I think you should treat me with respect.”
“Kleo,” he sighed, exasperated, “it will be a cold day in hell before I treat you with respect.”
“That’s fine, Hawk. In the meantime, I’m going to start shooting your men myself.”
She nodded at one of her men and looked over at another member of the MC. A large bald man in a suit shouldered his rifle and walked over to grab the guy she pointed out.
“Get your hands off of me,” he said, backing away from Kleo’s goon.
“No, you’re coming with me,” the bald suit insisted.
“That’s enough, Kleo,” Hawk said.
“Do something, brother,” said one of the men standing next to Hawk.
“You know what? I’m going to do something for you,” said another. He took a step towards Kleo.
“Gentleman,” she said suddenly, “I’d like you to refrain from doing anything hasty.”
She waved one of her dainty hands over her head and signaled to a few of her men to surround the guys standing in front of her with Hawk. They all had their guns drawn.
“This must be embarrassing,” she said, and I could see the smug smile spreading across her face while she talked. “These men trust you with their lives, Hawk. Actually, I think that must be more embarrassing than what you’re facing right now, you know? They’re being forced to realize they put their trust in an incompetent fool who can’t even win against a little girl.”
“If you’re going to do something, Kleo, fucking do it,” Hawk snarled at her.
“I need to get up,” Evan said, pulling on my arm as he tried to climb up to my shoulder. “I need to help.”
“No,” I said, “you need to relax. Let everyone else handle this.” I wasn’t even trying to comfort him anymore. I was too enrapt in what was going on in front of me to pay him much attention.
“Alright, I’ll do something,” Kleo continued, gesturing to the man pulling one of Hawk’s men with him.
He walked the man up and pushed him down on his knees in front of her. Everyone’s attention was turned to the man kneeling before her, but I was watching Hawk. He had a hand behind his back, reaching under his vest.
“I’m going to execute each one of your men this way until you surrender your little girlfriend to me,” Kleo said.
“Please don’t,” the biker begged on his knees. I thought I would never hear one of Hawk’s men beg like that, not after what I’d heard about them.
The Forsaken Ones were supposed to be the toughest of the tough, the baddest of the bad. They weren’t supposed to feel fear or regret, or anything else weak like that. His men composed nightmares with the way they tortured their victims. Yet, there was one of them, right in front of me, on his knees, reduced to a blubbering idiot. And no one looked like they were going to do anything.
Meanwhile, another one of the MC’s members was bleeding out on me in the middle of the road. I looked around us. I couldn’t believe we hadn’t been interrupted by traffic yet. Of course, if I had seen anything like the scene all around me, I would have turned around and left. I definitely wouldn’t have tried to pass through. No detour would have been too far ou
t of the way to avoid driving through this confrontation.
Hawk and his men stood in front of Kleo with guns drawn on them by men who surrounded them. All of the men standing around them in suits, however, had their attention squarely on the man on his knees in front of them. They weren’t watching as Hawk’s men reached behind their backs, presumably grabbing their guns.
As I watched, time seemed to freeze around them. Kleo stared down at the man sitting with his face at the end of her rifle. All of her men seemed to relax while they watched and waited for her to pull the trigger. Their guns lowered just a little while they waited. Hawk’s men seemed to be the only ones moving as they pulled their guns out from behind their backs.
“Not today, Kleo,” Hawk announced, and I saw that they all had their guns drawn. They turned and pointed them at the men standing behind them. Each one had a gun in someone’s face.
“You can’t stop me,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hawk
Kleo had already shot one of my men, and she had another on his knees in front of her, his face only a couple of inches from the end of her automatic assault rifle. I knew if she pulled that trigger, she could obliterate him before he could even touch the ground.
She had surrounded the five of us with her men. They stood with their guns drawn on us, but my guys had turned the tables on them already, turning and drawing their weapons to hold them at bay. I had my gun trained on Kleo. If she tried anything else, I was going to have to put her down.
“I have a better idea, Kleo,” I told her, taking her attention off the man in front of her again.
“I’m listening,” she said.
I lowered my gun like I was taking it off of her, but I was just aiming at her hands instead. If she insisted on trying to shoot my brother on his knees in front of her, I was going to shoot the gun away from her. Or I was going to try to, at least. It all came down to which one of us could pull the trigger first.
In the meantime, I also wanted to convince her not to kill anyone and to pack her men up and leave.
“You keep the diamond, pack up your people, and get the fuck out of here,” I told her. “If you do that, we won’t kill every single one of your men.” We had the upper hand again, no matter how many people she wanted to pretend she could execute.
“That’s kind of the idea, Hawk. I’m keeping the Golden Diamond. You’re going to hand Felicity over to me, and I’ll pack my men up to leave. Then, if you’re really lucky, I won’t blow your girlfriend’s fucking brains out right here in front of you,” she threatened.
“If all you’re going to do is kill her, I’d rather take her with me, if it’s all the same to you.” She liked to play, too, just like Felicity, but she wasn’t nearly as fun.
“Get up,” she said to the member kneeling in front of her.
I watched as he looked at her, then at me, to see if it was okay or if it was some kind of trap.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Go on, get up. I’m not going to shoot you. Go on back over there and stand in line with everyone else.”
He ran off to take his place in front. I glanced over and saw that everyone had their guns drawn. Kleo’s men stood in between the cars and SUVs she’d driven out there. Some of them even lay on top of the cars, pointing guns at my men. I looked over to see that all of The Forsaken Ones present stood with their guns drawn and aimed at Kleo and her men.
“I’m glad you’ve come to your senses,” I told her. “No one has to die. You go on about your business, and we’ll do the same.”
“No way,” Rex called out. “Hawk, we’re getting that diamond back,” he said.
“No, we’re not,” I told Rex. “You just hold your guy right there. Let me handle this.” I spoke out of the side of my mouth, keeping an eye on Kleo the whole time.
“So, tell me something, Hawk,” Kleo said. “Was she good?”
“What?” I asked, caught off guard by her bold question.
“Was Felicity any good in bed?” she asked again.
“I don’t think that’s relevant right now, do you?” I asked.
“Well, you want to defend her for a reason, don’t you? So, I think it’s very relevant. Besides, you have quite a reputation in the bedroom, Hawk. I know you guys spent a lot of time together, so you had to be sleeping with her,” she persisted.
“Kleo, what the hell are you doing?” Felicity hissed from where she sat with the MC member her former boss had shot.
“Oh, can it, Felicity. It’s common knowledge. I’m sure all his men know he was sleeping with the woman who stole the Golden Diamond from him. Actually,” she said, turning to face me again, “Hawk, how does it feel to know that the woman you were sleeping with was only using sex to get her hands on the diamond? I mean, that’s got to be a pretty shitty feeling to know that you let getting your dick wet get in the way of guarding a very valuable jewel.”
“You know, Kleo, I learned something in this situation,” I replied.
“What’s that? Please enlighten me.”
“I learned that there is more to life than just work,” I told her. “There’s so much more to life than constantly trying to advance in this little game we’ve been playing. Your little thief over there taught me that I’ve been neglecting real relationships with people for this. This right here. You, your people, the MC, all of us standing here with guns drawn. I’ve been sacrificing real connections with people so that I can continue to expand an organization that does this.”
“I’m sorry, Hawk, is there a point to what you’re saying?”
“There is, Kleo.” I took a deep breath because I was about to drop the bomb on everyone. And I knew I was probably going to take a lot of shit for the words that were about to come out of my mouth, but I didn’t care.
“I didn’t come here for the diamond,” I told her.
“That’s good, because you’re not getting it,” she retorted.
“I came here to get Felicity back. We were going to storm your mansion and kill anyone we had to. I mean, you know how we do things,” I explained.
“I do,” she said with a smile. “It’s a shame you and I haven’t been able to work together, because the stories I’ve heard, Hawk. They are delicious.”
“Well, anyone who got in our way was going to be murdered,” I continued. “Then, when it was all said and done, I was going to ask your number one girl to come with me. I’m not trying to take her from you as an employee, Kleo. I’m just trying to take her as my own.”
“That’s a beautiful sentiment,” she said after a thoughtful moment. “But she’s coming back with me. I’m going to have to let her go, Hawk, but I’m not letting her go with you. She’s brought you with her because of the way she manipulated you. Now that she’s made herself a target, she has to go. You understand, I’m sure.”
“No, I don’t.” I shook my head. “Those are small-time, street thug tactics, and you’re supposedly better than that. So, no, I’m not letting her go with you.”
“That’s fine.” She raised her gun and pointed it at Felicity. “I’ll just shoot her here,” she said.
In my head, I saw her squeezing the trigger and taking Felicity out right then and there. In reality, however, my fingers were faster, and I squeezed the trigger first. I let off one quick shot to her hand, and I watched as her automatic rifle fell to the asphalt at our feet and she grabbed her shooting hand with the other.
I was aware of the chaos I had caused while gunshots rang out around us. I ducked instinctively as bullets whizzed by overhead. Kleo hissed and ducked back between the cars, into the darkness behind the headlights. I tried to pursue her but someone quickly jumped down from atop the cars.
“Where are you going, little man?” the tower in front of me asked.
“It looks like I’m going through you,” I said with a smile. I tried to plant a fist in his chest, but that didn’t work. I just came away with a sore hand.
I brought my pistol back out and planted a couple
of bullets in him instead. He fell down beside me as I stepped around him to follow Kleo.
“Hawk,” I heard Felicity calling, sending chills through my spine.
I backed up and turned around to see her sitting on the ground with the lifeless body of one of my members in her arms. Another of our members knelt down in front of her to help with the man Kleo had shot the first time.
I approached slowly while I watched one of my brothers help pull the body off of her. Surely, I thought, Felicity had dealt with death before. It struck me as odd that in our business she could have gotten away from having to handle a dead body until now, but there she was, freaking out that someone had died in her arms.