I make it in eight minutes pushing my Bugatti at top speeds, the feeling exhilarating and when I pull up to the front and greet Sam at the front doors, handing him my keys, I hear Hawk’s laughter filtering from the kitchen deep in my house. Of course, he was in the kitchen, probably giving Violet a heart attack by consuming everything in sight. The boy could eat and I wasn’t sure how he kept all that junk off his body. Beneath his clothes, he wasn’t lacking in the muscles department. I was sure he worked out; I just never saw it. Apologizing to Sam who gives me a small smile, I make my way into my house and into the kitchen to find Hawk perched on the kitchen island.
Surprisingly, Vi isn’t scowling at him. Instead, the elderly Vietnamese woman is laughing as he stuffs freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in his mouth that she was in the process of putting on the cooling racks from the tray she held in one hand. Stopping in the open doorway, I raise my brows at the scene before me and Violet spots me first. She smiles warmly at me and my mouth waters at the delicious aroma of homemade chocolate chip cookies she makes with Marou Chocolate from her home country. They truly are to die for so it was no wonder Hawk was stuffing as many as he could in his mouth.
“Hey, you bottomless pit, save some cookies for me.” I push him off my island and he laughed around a mouth full of gooey, still warm cookies, two more clutched in his right hand as he slips off at my shove. I hip bump him out of the way, the lighthearted mood in the kitchen causing me to be myself as I take a cookie off the cooling racks Vi has set up on the island.
“You called me over here in the middle of the night. The least you could do is offer to give me your chef because mine sucks. He always burns the cookies he makes.” Hawk eventually says when he swallows down his mouthful and Hannah, the young nineteen-year-old girl Vi hired as a part time helper, hands Hawk a huge glass of milk which he graciously accepts with a wink. The poor girl blushes so fiercely she looks close to turning permanently red and I can’t say I blame her. Hawk’s winks always get to me, too, and I am not even interested in him like that.
“It’s only after seven in the evening on a Monday, Hawk and you are on fall break right now. What else were you doing?” I scowl, although there is no heat behind it and watch as he chugs his glass of milk and comes away with a cliché milk mustache. “Oh look! I can grow a mustache!” Of course, the idiot has to point to his upper lip as he beams around the kitchen. Hannah and Vi laugh, but I try my best to keep my face mutual and unimpressed. I think I failed though because he just smirks at me as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I’m becoming an old man, Honey. Any time after seven is late for me.” The smile suddenly disappeared from his ruggedly handsome but still boyish face and for a moment, he looks serious, before he smirks again. “Anyway, I am totally going to brag that you called me first to mend bridges and not Kass or Gabe. I for sure thought it was going to be Gabe. He is a persistent bastard.” He goes on and I roll my eyes.
“I did not call you here to mend bridges.” I point out and he frowns. Before he can butt in, I continue. “I have a favor you cannot deny. I need to have it done this week while campus is on fall break.” I say as I take another cookie from Vi. His eyebrows shoot up and he turns to put his glass in the sink, which Hannah hurries over right away to put in the dishwasher.
“I’m intrigued. What is this favor I am not allowed to refuse you?” Chewing slowly on my cookie, I think about how I want to say it. Sure, I was starting to trust these guys more, Hawk especially, but it was still a gamble if this was the right move on my part. “Vi, can you and Hannah give us a moment?” I turn to my cook and she smiles gently and nods. She takes her apron off and places it on the hook by the refrigerator and Hannah follows her out of the kitchen. Turning back to Hawk once they leave, I sigh. “Fuck, okay. Nina is the mole.” Before I can second guess myself, I curse and say bluntly. I watch Hawk closely for his reaction and he pauses, and a look of shock crosses his face which I take as him not having had a clue that Nina would have been behind it all.
“Is that so?” He sounds off, but I think it’s from the shock. I nod and rub at my temples as I lean against the island, half eaten cookie hanging from my fingertips. “How did you deduce this? Silas will flip his lid if he finds out you tortured someone for the information. You know he is into that dirty shit.” He tries to make a joke, but it mostly falls flat. I shake my head and give him a look. “I found some old emails between my parents and Lucas Castillo. I’m sure it was his email, but when I confronted Nina about it, she swore it was only her. She encouraged me to drop it.” I continue. Hawk frowns.
“Lucas Castillo? Why does that name sound familiar?” He asks, brows furrowed. “He’s Nina’s fiancé. He’s also a Biology professor at CVU.” I remind him and his eyes light up with recognition. “Nina says it was all her, but I have a feeling she and Lucas are mixed up in something. Hawk, I won't hand Nina over to the Order. They are going to expect results on the mole and I won't betray her like that but we need to give them something.” I straighten up then, stuffing the rest of my cookie in my mouth as determination washes through me. Hawk smirks at me as he crosses his arms over his broad chest.
“I am assuming that this is the favor I can’t refuse? I’m not really sure what you have in mind.” He admits and it is my turn to smirk. I was a brilliant evil genius really. “I want to frame Reemus Baker as the mole. I still haven’t gotten over that little spat in the courtyard from a few weeks ago.” I shrug as Hawk’s mouth parts and shock crosses his face. It only lasts a moment before it is gone and replaced by an equally evil and brilliant smile like my own.
“Honey, you are super evil. I love it. Let’s do it. I don’t want to see Nina hurt either and to be honest, Reemus gets on my nerves.” He rubs his hands together in glee and I laugh. “What sort of evidence can we plant on him? It has to be super incriminating for Rebecca to believe it and I’m not sure we have much.” He adds and I hold up a finger. I pull out my phone and open the cloud drive app on my phone. “I have something, but you can’t ask where I got it. Not yet. And you can’t tell the other three about this mission. This stays between us. From this moment, until I explicitly say otherwise, you are absolutely sworn to secrecy.” I add.
I turn and motion for him to follow me. He does and I take him out of the kitchen, through the foyer, and down the hall to the back where my papa’s office is. We slip inside and Hawk doesn’t say anything for a bit while I move to the printer set aside on a large oak, oval table on the far-left side of the office. It only takes a second to turn on the printer and hook up the IP address to my phone. In seconds, I am printing off multiple stacks of various documents that Des and I had scanned from the cabin. It was obvious they were copies but I am hoping when we plant them in Reemus’ office and the Order investigate when I expose him, that Rebecca will choose to overlook that tiny detail.
“Where did you-” Hawk cuts himself off when he comes over, glancing down at the documents I set on the table beside the printer as they keep pumping out. He whistles low as he looks through some of them. I peek at him out of the corner of my eye when the documents containing semi proof of his parents embezzling money from the school treasury. His jaw hardens, anger tightening his features and my heart hurts for him. Mason Rhodes had always been a piece of shit but Hawk had once genuinely loved his mother, Alison. She had been the kindest of the boy’s mothers growing up and Hawk’s fondness for her was deep rooted. The Order of Red changed her, however. Power consumed her life and this is what she had chosen to do with it instead of using that power for good. These documents obviously weren’t definitive proof. If they had been, I would be taking it to the Feds immediately, but they were missing key information that a court judge and jury would have a hard time linking to any of the Order family heads.
“Hawk, I-”
“I’m not surprised, Honey. I’m not upset about it either. My parents choose their side the night they made their thirteen-year-old son beat the shit out of his best fri
end and sister. If this is what it takes to take them down, I already promised you I would do whatever it took to right the wrongs of the past.” Hawks' voice was pure steel as he interrupted me and my mouth snapped shut. He was not as sad as I thought he was. No. Hawk was pissed. He was vibrating with barely contained fury as he set down the documents and I finished up printing.
“We will plant these in Reemus’ office then and next Monday, I will call it into Rebecca. It will happen, Hawk.” I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “They are going to pay for all their crimes. We will do it together.” It was the first time I said those words and meant it. I still had certain hang ups about a certain alpha asshole, but Hawk has been my brother in every sense of the word. So were Kass and Gabe. We were a family and my romantic feelings for Silas didn’t change that. We were the Reds, and we took care of business.
So, we piled into my Bugatti, the files tucked away into the trunk and headed to campus at a little after eight in the evening. It had been a long ass day already. Hawk remained quiet, staring out the window as I made the ten-minute drive to CVU. He remained quiet as we arrived in the staff lot and I followed after him, the box clutched in my hands with the copied documents, and he led me through the parts of campus he said there were dead zones. He didn’t say anything as he led me through the science building in the shadows and then unlocked Reemus’ door. We slipped in and I set about cracking his safe he had in his room. I wasn’t a professional by any means, but it got easier with each attempt. It took me five minutes, my ear pressed against the front of the safe that stood tall by his desk, which was a stupid place to put it in my opinion, as I listened and turned the dial. Hawk remained silent and it was giving me hives. He hadn’t said anything to me when I had claimed that we were going to do this together and I was wondering if it had affected him negatively. I wasn’t as good at reading Hawk’s emotions anymore. He was no longer a geeky thirteen-year-old boy with quick tells.
Popping the safe open a moment later, I start to neatly pile the files in the very back with gloved hands because I watch crime documentaries and there was no way I was going to have my prints lifted off these and have it slap me in the face again later. Once done, I stand and shut the safe, glancing over my shoulder at a still silent Hawk who was staring out the window behind Reemus’ desk that looked out into the back of CVU property at an expanse of the Blood Woods. I come and stand by his side and he glances over at me which lets me know he hasn’t totally spaced out. His face in the darkness of the office looks troubled and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
“Did you mean it?” He asks suddenly as he looks away from me again and back out the bay window. My brow furrows. “Uh, I said a lot of things?” I point out and I watch as the corner of his mouth quirks up in a smirk. It was a beautiful look on him.
“You said we were going to do this together. Was that just a phrase of thought, or did you mean it? Are you finally ready to let us in?” His questions catch me off guard. I pause and look away, out the window with him. He keeps looking forward and I contemplate what he asked. Deep down, I knew I had meant it. I missed my friends. I missed the companionship we all had growing up. It had gotten increasingly hard being in Locke Manor alone after I sent Finley home a few weeks ago with just myself and the staff. All four of them basically ignore me, choosing to watch me from afar, and it was starting to hurt me more than I realized. Had I really meant it when I had told Silas I wanted time and space? My loneliness was going to get me into trouble, I could tell.
“Of course, I meant it…” I whisper, feeling raw and vulnerable in that moment, standing in the dark office of a man we were basically about to send to the chopping block. An innocent man at that. The Reds and I, we weren’t good people. Part of me felt like doing something like this was no better than what the Order does on a daily basis to achieve their goals. However, it was this or I throw my oldest friend under the bus and I had a feeling that would only hurt me more than it would help if I gave her over to Rebecca. Hawk shifts beside me and I hang my head, feeling tears threatening at this very inconvenient time but I blame him for bringing out this emotion in me. “I… I think I can forgive you guys for what you felt like you had no choice in.” I admit quietly. It was like a weightlifting off my chest as I continued to speak. “Silas and I… It’s going to take time. But I am willing to work together to achieve our goals. We deserve a happily ever after.”
He turns to me then and as a few tears begin to slip down my face, he puts his fingertips under my chin and raises it until I am forced to look into his eyes. The smile I see on his face breaks my heart while also simultaneously putting it back together. He wipes a few away with the thumb on his right hand and in the next second, he wraps his arms around my shoulders and pulls me into his warmth. Hugging Hawk like this felt like I was coming home. Not in the romantic sense, but in the sense that one of my big brothers was back to kick some ass for me. To protect me and love me with his dying breath and my walls shatter in that moment. The tears come freely and it is like being liberated as the dam breaks and I find myself sobbing into Hawk’s jacket clad chest.
I don’t know how long he holds me to him while I cry. It probably wasn’t smart that we stuck around much longer in case security or something came by so I pulled away after a moment. I must look a mess with my tear-stained face and I am fairly sure I smeared some snot mixed with makeup on Hawk’s jacket, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he cups both of my wet cheeks with his palms and forces me to look at him again. His golden eyes shimmer in the moonlight shining in from the window in front of us and there was nothing but love and determination in the glimmering depths of his irises.
“You are a Red, Rosie. We protect what’s ours. Don’t ever forget that. No matter what happens in our future. We are a family. Come, let's bust this popsicle stand.” He wraps a strong arm around my shoulder and leads me out of Reemus’ office. Managing a small chuckle at his phrase, I go with it and let him lead. It has been a long, emotionally exhausting day, and I just wanted to go home, take a hot shower, and sleep for eighteen hours. I don’t even complain when he slips my keys out of my jacket pocket and ushers me into the passenger seat and drives me home. I don’t even question it when he plops down on the small decorative sofa in the corner of the room I had been using in Locke Manor after my quick shower later and I don’t question my actions when I grab him a pillow and blanket out of the linen closet in the hall.
No nightmares came to me that night with Hawk in the room.
The following Monday morning, before work, I decided to just email Rebecca with the identity of the CVU mole instead of calling her. I wasn’t sure I could keep my temper in check if I had to listen to her voice over the phone. Hawk had stayed with me on and off during the break and we had spent a lot of time just hanging out and rekindling our broken friendship. We had Harry Potter Marathons and he even watched the cheesy Twilight movies with me and we played games in the game room in the basement and it had been exactly the fall break I had needed. Gabe and Kass had even come over one night and Vi and Hannah had made us all homemade wood fired pizzas in the new woodfire oven I had installed for Vi right after I got back in Crimson Valley.
Silas kept his distance.
Sunday morning when Hawk had gone home, I had contemplated calling Silas and asking him what his deal was, but I had refrained. I only had myself to blame. Silas was bound and determined to heed my wishes and it was starting to become a problem. My stupid vagina didn’t want distance and time and I couldn’t say I one hundred percent disagreed. I wasn’t going to cave first. Maybe I should get drunk, call him again and get myself off? That seemed to drive him crazy the last time. Maybe if I drove him to near insanity, he would finally come to me like I secretly wanted him to.
I was just getting to work on Monday when they were carting Reemus Baker out of the CVU science building in handcuffs. I had only emailed Rebecca an hour ago. They definitely didn’t waste time when it came to taking care of people who meddled in th
eir business. I watch as Reemus cries and pleads with the police officers, demanding to be released and that he didn’t know how those documents got in his safe. It was convincing, that was for sure. I just hoped the documents would stop Rebecca from sniffing around the staff at CVU.
If this got the Order off Nina’s back, the guilt I felt briefly at the look of absolute terror on Reemus’ face would be worth it. There were casualties in war, right? And who's to say we can’t have him released once the Order and their army are defeated and we reign as it should be? Maybe spending some time behind bars for whatever bullshit excuse Rebecca came up with to issue a warrant to search his office and then arrest him would teach him not to talk to innocent women the way he had to me in the courtyard that day.
Petty, I know.
Meeting Hawk’s gaze across the parking lot, he shakes his head subtly and I sigh heavily. I was sure to find out by the end of the day if Rebecca King accepted Reemus as the mole. If not, it was back to the drawing board though I wasn’t sure how I would explain forged documents put into his safe as a cover up. There was literally no way I could print the same documents again and plant them on some other unsuspecting fool.
Taking a deep breath, I move towards the science building to begin the day.
I am going to die; I was sure of it. I swung harder and hit the punching bag with much more force than usual. They would have my funeral and she wouldn’t even come. Space. She was killing me with this whole space thing. Panting, I executed another perfect combo on the bag. What’s worse, is that my brothers were able to see her and spend time with her! It feels like I’ve been exiled. It’s the worst torture imaginable. I took a break and wiped the sweat from my brow and took a look around the public gym, it was eight on Monday night and there weren’t too many people in the gym.
Whiskey & Honey: Crimes of Crimson Valley: Book One Page 20