The Hawks_A Novel

by SD Hendrickson

  “And Ms. Atwood, I wanted to say: excellent party.”

  I looked back at Elmore, smiling at the rare compliment from the man. My heart swelled just a little bit. “Thank you.”

  The butler gave me a curt nod before following the men down the hallway. Voices came from behind me. Their words echoed with despise. Mrs. Hawthorn and Javier were arguing again.

  “You will apologize to her.”

  “I will do no such thing. Apologies suggest a wrongdoing. And I have done nothing of the sort.”

  “Enough!” his voice boomed.

  “You’ll not speak to me this way in my own house. And if you wish to continue being accepted as part of this family, I expect you to act—”

  “Grandmother, for once, shut up!”

  Her jeweled hand slapped Javier across the cheek.

  Oh, shit.

  A figure came through the door. The bartender with the slicked-back hair. Matt, I think. He must have forgotten something. But as the man came closer, my chest lurched and a cold, clammy panic went over my skin.

  “Cole!” I hissed. “What are you doing here? Why are you dressed like that in the bartender’s clothes?”

  “I need to talk to you. Now.” His eyes held a wild gleam. “I tried to get in, but your butler blocked me. So I paid one of the bartenders to give me his clothes when he left.”

  “What? Why would you do something—never mind. You can’t be here.” I couldn’t think fast enough. I needed to get him out of this room before anyone else realized he was not one of the bartenders. “Come on.”

  I grabbed Cole under the elbow to pull him out the door, but he shrugged out of my hold. “Stop. We need to talk.”

  “There he is.” Elmore came back into the room, pointing a finger in our direction. He wheezed as he spoke. I assumed the man had chased after Cole down the hallway. “I told you to leave. Come on.”

  “I’m not leaving,” he yelled. “I just need to talk to her.”

  “What’s going on, Ms. Atwood?” my boss asked. Her voice just made everything feel ten times more intense. I wanted to yell at her to shut up too.

  “I’ll handle it,” I snapped. “He’s just one of the bartenders wanting to get paid.”

  Mrs. Hawthorn tilted her chin up with an arrogant slant as she eyed Cole. “You’ll get a check with the others. Now leave.”

  “I need to talk to you, Sarina. Then I’ll leave. I promise.” His gray eyes pleaded with me. “It will only take a minute. Please.”

  “Elmore,” she commanded. “Call Detective Marks and tell him that we have another situation at the house.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  But Elmore never made that phone call to the police. And I never got a chance to speak with the man dressed as the bartender.

  Instead, the night changed in the blink of an eye. Chaos took control. The world tilted sideways as someone far more dangerous than Delsey or Cole came into the ballroom.

  They captured us. They shoved us to the ground. They tied our hands. They touched us. They hurt us. They made us angry as we watched helplessly from the sidelines, wondering how we all got here.

  And even though this story may have started the day I first met the Hawthorns, they were not the ones to blame for the terrible events that transpired that night. No, much to my disbelief, the ending came from a place much closer to home.

  Present Day

  I LAID ON THE FLOOR of the library. My captor released his hold on my wrists. We stared at each other. A sickness started to build in my stomach. I couldn’t breathe. And a tear fell absently down my cheek. The shock too much for my brain to process. I closed my eyes and reopened them to see if the picture had changed. If he had changed into someone else. This wasn’t real. But looking into his familiar eyes, I knew the truth.

  The ugly, stone-cold truth.

  “Ty,” I whispered. “I-I don’t understand.”

  His mouth twisted into a frown as he moved to sit next to me on the floor. A dark-red stain spread on the neck of his white shirt from where I’d cut my brother with the letter opener.

  Sitting up next to him, I struggled to breathe normally. Everything felt out of control.

  Unhinged.

  One minute I was fighting for my life and then the next, staring into the eyes of someone I’d shared a room with, someone I’d comforted when nightmares tormented his sleep.

  I touched the gray mask, feeling the fabric beneath my fingers. I pulled it off. His brown hair laid plastered to his head in a sweaty mess. His eyes were bloodshot from stress or tears or something else. I wasn’t sure at this point. Tyson turned away to avoid my probing gaze.

  How had I missed it? But I never could have imagined my brother doing something this evil. Maybe my brain had just refused to connect the familiar pieces. The sound of his voice. But this guy had never spoken much back in the ballroom. I’d been distracted by Hollow Eyes. That must have been the reason. And the fact that I never could have pictured him like . . . like . . . this.

  I touched his chin, forcing Ty to face me. “Say something.”

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered.

  “That’s it? That’s all you can say to me?”

  Ty flinched. He still seemed like a little boy trapped in this man’s body. Yet at the same time, a total stranger right now.

  “I don’t know what to say, Sarina.” He shrugged. “Tonight wasn’t supposed to go down like this. It was just going to be a simple robbery.”

  “What!” Anger flashed hot inside my chest. “You were going to just . . . rob us? Like that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

  “No. But it would have been different. No one would’ve ever seen us. You would’ve never known. In and out while y’all partied. That’s what Van said.”

  “Who the hell is Van?” I snapped.

  “Shhh! You need to be quiet.” His eyes flickered to the closed library door.

  “Tell me who the hell these people are.” I kept my voice just above a whisper despite that I wanted to do nothing more than scream in his face.

  “Fine. I um . . . I work with Van. He spotted me some cash, and I’ve been making payments.”

  I glared at him. “You lied to me.”

  “I know,” he muttered. “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry? You promised. No more lies. But geez . . .” I let out an exasperated breath. “I guess that’s nothing after what’s happened tonight. Not after you and this Van decided to hold us hostage.”

  “I know, Sarina. But please listen to me. I didn’t plan for this to happen. But we got here and Van got all antsy. Decided to change it up. But he promised no one would get hurt.”

  “But you were okay with robbing us. You were okay with destroying my life. Your own sister. After everything I’ve done for you!” My hands shook as they balled into fists.

  “Sarina—”

  “Fuck you!” I spat. “I don’t care about your plan. You let those men tie us up. They hurt Elmore. Smashed up my face. And you stood there and let that . . . that . . . jackass touch me. You just stood there!”

  “No,” he protested. “I stopped him.”

  “Stopped what? That lunatic had already groped me in front of everyone when you stepped in. That’s beside the point. Why are you here? I just don’t understand. How could you do this?”

  He turned away from me again. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks. The pain came from deep on the inside. Much deeper than all the bruises forming on the outside of my body.

  “Who are you right now? ’Cause you’re sure as hell not my brother. Five minutes ago, you had a fucking gun pointed at me. You did that, Ty.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “I-I wouldn’t have hurt you.”

  “You wouldn’t have hurt me?” My mouth fell open. “Are you high? ’Cause that’s the only thing that makes sense right now. Is it meth? Crack. Coke. Hell, I don’t know. You sniffing paint?”

  “I don’t do fuckin’ drugs.”
He glared at me. “And I don’t have some explanation that’s going to make you feel better. I fucked up, okay? I. Fucked. Up.” Tyson grabbed his mask from the floor and jumped to his feet. He fidgeted around as his eyes grew wild.

  This was a nightmare. My head hurt as I tried to sort out this twisted night. We’d been close our entire lives. Part of it by our family circumstances. Part of it because we actually loved each other. I knew Ty. I still knew him even if he no longer knew himself. He wasn’t a bad person. He wasn’t this person. He couldn’t be.

  Taking the skirt of my dress, I wiped my eyes and my nose. Bloody snot soaked into the yellow fabric. We couldn’t stay in here much longer. Someone would come looking for us.

  I stood up ruggedly. Anger and sadness waged a war inside my chest, but I had to think clearly. I had to fix this. I needed him to tell me the truth in order to help everyone get out of here.

  I faced my brother, putting a hand on each arm to keep him from moving around. “Talk to me. Tell me about those men. Who are they? Do I know any of them?”

  He shook his head. “No one you’ve met. Van Langley and Bo Fisher. I work with them. The other one is David Delray, but he goes by Deuce. He’s Van’s cousin.”

  “Is Deuce the one who touched me?” I whispered.

  His nostrils flared. “Yeah. I told Van I didn’t want him coming tonight, but he brought the asshole anyway. Said he was more motivated than the rest of us. He hates Hawk’s Landing. He got laid off from one of their rigs over his temper or some shit. I don’t really know. He was really excited about this job.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, absorbing his words. The blood spot on his shirt had spread over to his shoulder. He probably needed stitches from the cut. I pushed that thought away. “So why do you owe Van money?”

  Tyson moved out of my grasp. “Just don’t.”

  “I need to understand everything.”

  “I don’t know if you can.”

  “Please, Ty.”

  His eyes tilted up to the ceiling as he breathed heavily. “I . . . I’m not good at stuff. Not like you. Or even Cole. And I sort of just fell into all of this.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means that I’m a loser. Okay? Nothin’ works out for me. Not like you. Hell . . . you live in a mansion now. You’re probably going to run off to Colombia with your boyfriend. And Cole just got a fuckin’ house given to him. But me? I don’t got shit. I don’t even have a fuckin’ high school diploma.”

  His words hurt. The guilt burned. “You’re not a loser, Ty.”

  “Really? ’Cause everything I touch turns to shit. Even the little stuff. I tried the poker tables one night at the casino. And I was good at it. And it felt good. For once, everything just felt right in my life. All that shit inside of me didn’t feel so heavy. So I kept playing. I didn’t have the cash. Van spotted me. I won some. But then I lost big. And I still owed him. And one thing led to another. And I did a few jobs with him. You know. To pay back my debt. And now I’m here. That’s the big secret you wanted to know. Happy now?”

  I didn’t know what to say to him. His problems were so much bigger than I could have ever dreamed. “I’m sorry you felt that way. But I wish you would have just talked to me. Told me. Instead of getting mixed up with Van.”

  “When was I supposed to do that? Huh? When, Sarina? You weren’t around until after this shit had already blown up.”

  “You can’t put this on me,” I hissed. “I helped you. I got you a job here. And you turned around and told your new friends about the money in this place. You helped them. You did that, Ty.”

  “No, it wasn’t like that. I told Van I’d have my debt paid off soon. I never expected this to happen. He started talking. Got all wrapped up in the idea. The family was so rich. They’d never know. In and out. Grab some cash while the party was going on. I didn’t want to be a part of it. Not with you here. But I knew Van was going to pull this job tonight whether I came with the guys or not. I thought it was better if I was here. Maybe I could at least control what happened.”

  “Did you not think about calling the police or just telling me?” I glared at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I don’t know, Sarina. I told you. Everything I touch turns to shit.” His voice cracked with emotion. For a moment, I thought he might break down in tears. “If I had warned you, then I would have been forced to tell you about all this fucked-up shit in my life. And if I’d called the police, it might have traced back to me. The other stuff I’d done. And I really didn’t want to go to jail.”

  My stomach hurt. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to shake him. Hug him. I wanted to run out the door and never look back. I wanted my granddaddy. I wanted to call the police. I wanted about a hundred different things all at once as the options spun through my head.

  But this person was still my brother. And I didn’t want to see him hurt any more than those people tied up against the wall in the ballroom. Maybe I could end all of this insanity tonight without the situation getting worse.

  “Let’s just talk this through.” I swallowed hard as I tried to be positive. “You haven’t done anything bad yet. Not really. You could just walk out of here. Put the mask back on. Take me back in the room. Leave us tied up. It will take awhile before we could get free. You would have time to disappear. No police. And no one gets hurt.”

  “I can’t do that without the money. Van won’t go for it. You’ll have to open the safe.”

  “Shit.” I shook my head. “There’s not a safe in here. There’s no money. It’s all pledges. I’ve got to invoice everyone next week. None of those people paid tonight. I don’t know what the hell you guys were thinking. People don’t show up to parties holding envelopes filled with thousands in cash.”

  He stared at me. “But she bet your life on it and sent you in here.”

  “You know she’s crazy!” I hissed. “Mrs. Hawthorn sent me in here to get that letter opener. To fight. Or at least give me a chance to get away and call the police.”

  “So, there’s no money?” His eyes grew wide and he seemed genuinely shocked as he started to almost babble. “But what about the poker tables? Didn’t the people pay to play? You were bragging to me the other day about how crazy it was to have thousand-dollar chips at the party. You told me it was your idea. You said this place was going to be flowing in thousand-dollar bets.”

  I felt my own words coming back to haunt me. I guess in the middle of all the laughter while we worked in the ballroom together, my brother had gathered little tidbits of information like a damn spy. “I guess you should have paid closer attention to what I said. The people pledged money for the chips. No cash.”

  “This is not good. Shit.” Ty looked up at the ceiling. The mask hung limply in his hand.

  I tried to focus on facts and not get sidetracked by my anger again. “It can still be okay. Just get them to leave. Do something. Anything to get them out of this house.”

  “Like what? They think there’s some jackpot in this place. They took a room of people hostage for it. You think I can just casually ask them to leave?”

  “Make them want something else even more.”

  “Uh . . . like what? They were planning to score big tonight.” He spun around, looking at the walls and the bookcases like maybe I’d lied to him. “No. Van won’t leave without his money. Neither will Deuce.”

  The door handle turned and Ty had his mask back on before Hollow Eyes, or rather Deuce, came into the room. “What’s taking so long?”

  “There’s no safe.” Ty slipped his arm around my waist. I felt his heart beating rapid against my back.

  “There’s no fuckin’ safe?” The darkness grew colder in his eyes. “Then why is she still standing? You were supposed to shoot her if the old bitch lied.”

  “Shut up,” he growled, holding me tighter to his side. “You know it was just a threat. We’re not actually shooting people. Let’s go back in there and talk. This house has all kinds of expensive
shit. We can still make this good.”

  The man’s emotionless eyes stayed on me before slipping to Ty. “Why is there blood on you?”

  “Bitch got feisty.”

  “Hmm.” His lips pursed together. “Hand her over. She may not be getting a bullet, but I’ll make sure the princess cooperates.”

  “Nah.” His right arm tightened around my waist as he slipped the other around my throat. “She won’t try that shit again. Learned her lesson.”

  With the number of bruises and blood from earlier, there wasn’t much to doubt in his statement. My body gave off the impression that Ty had worked me over pretty good.

  The other man laughed. “Maybe you’re cut out for this after all. Come on. Let’s go talk to the others. See what they think.”

  Ty half dragged me across the floor as I struggled to walk while he held me captive. Out in the hallway, he leaned in close to my ear. I barely made out the words. “They don’t know about you and me.”

  I swallowed, feeling the imprint of his wrist pressed into my esophagus. I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing. For whatever reason, my brother had never told his buddies that I was his sister.

  Present Day

  THEY SEEMED HELPLESS AGAINST THE wall hunkered down on the floor like little children, waiting to be punished. Elmore leaned on the shoulder of the frail Virginia. Scarlett cried silently.

  I made eye contact with Javier. Red dripped from a cut on his chin, creating bright spots on the white tuxedo shirt. I assumed the mark resulted from the fake fight with Cole earlier when I’d tried to escape. Any other day, I would have been petrified at the thought of the two men in my life attacking each other, but tonight it didn’t matter. They were not the enemy.

  No. That title went to Ty and his coworkers.

  Javier smiled faintly in my direction as relief flashed in his gaze. I wanted to mouth I’m sorry. I wanted to say something to the man who had shown me nothing but kindness, who had encouraged me and cared for me. Javier didn’t deserve to be hurt. Not that any of these people deserved to be treated this way.