A few seconds later, Hawk reaches his own peak, thrusting into her one last time before his whole body tenses and his head rears back, the muscles in his arms and chest tight. He groans deeply, a vibration that she feels inside of her where they’re joined, and falls against her, his head against her chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Melissa wraps her arms around him, holding him in place, listening as their breathing slowly returns to normal. Hawk pulls away slightly so that he can look at her appreciatively. “I wanted to have you on top of this car from the second you walked in here.” His voice is husky, as if he’s just woken up, and that’s exactly how Melissa feels, like in the days that they had been apart she had been sleeping and only now was she fully awake again.
She smiles sexily at him, running her fingers along his stubbly jaw and just admiring the gorgeousness of him, and then her face turns serious. “I never meant to hurt you, Hawk. The thing with the article—that started before I’d even met you. And then when I got to know you, it was like everything else seemed less important. I didn’t tell you about being a reporter because I didn’t want you to look at me differently, for you to feel differently about me.” She looks down, suddenly nervous despite the intimacy that they’d just shared. “I don’t know how to make it right.”
Hawk hooks his finger underneath her chin and lifts it up so that she meets his eyes. “Promise me that you won’t lie to me again. Ever.”
Melissa swallows hard, knowing that she’s promising something huge. But it’s something that Hawk desperately needs. He’s been let down so many times and has had so few people in his life that he could trust. She wants to be one of those few people again. “I promise.”
A slow smile spreads across his lips. “Then we’re good.” He says the three words so simply that an outside observer could have been fooled into thinking that they weren’t significant. The truth was that there was a whole world in that phrase.
Unable to stop herself, Melissa throws her arms around Hawk’s neck and kisses him deeply, transmitting with her mouth all the things that she wants to say. “You don’t know how good it is to hear you say that.”
“I think I do.” He smiles broadly at her, and then his face turns serious. “What about you? Can you forgive me for the way I treated you? I was being an asshole, a hurt, jealous asshole.” Hawk shakes his head, reflecting on how he acted.
“I think I could see my way clear to give you a free pass.” Melissa looks up at the ceiling, as if she’s thinking something over. “But you may have to work a little harder with Ali; she was ready to hang, draw, and quarter you last night.”
“She’ll have to get in line behind Felicia.” He rolls his eyes dramatically and laughs lightly, his eyes soft. “But I’ll try to work my magic on Ali.” He shifts slightly between her legs. “Now, much as this was fun, I think I’d like to do it again in a bed, where there’s less chance of someone walking in.”
Melissa blinks as if she’s suddenly realized where they were and the fact that anyone could have turned up when they were in the middle of it. She flushes at the thought, but she can’t deny that it’s a turn on. That’s when she remembers that it wasn’t just Josh that could have walked in on them. Wes could have as well and that would be worse in so many ways, bringing her to the reason that she came there in the first place.
“There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about Wes.” Melissa feels Hawk’s body stiffen at her words, and she can read his expression perfectly. “Nothing like that.” She waves away the thought that she knows was the first to occur to him. “It’s worse.”
Hawk looks at her, his eyes hardening. “Tell me.”
“The exposé that The Tribune wanted me to write about the Kings…well, it turns out my editor didn’t just send me to infiltrate the club.” Melissa gives Hawk a meaningful look and watches as he connects the dots.
“Wes.” He says the name as if the other man were a sworn enemy, which at this point probably wasn’t completely incorrect.
Melissa nods slowly, gauging Hawk’s reaction and setting a calming hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know how much information he has, but he’s persistent.” She bites her lip, still feeling like she’s part of the problem for the Kings, and she wishes yet again that she had never agreed to write the article. But if she’d done that, then she would never have met Hawk. And that wasn’t even worth thinking about. “What do we do?”
Wes’s expression is one of determination as he pulls away from her slowly and starts dressing. “We call a meeting.”
Melissa follows suit, grabbing her bra and shirt, wishing that Hawk pulling away from her hadn’t made her feel so bereft. “Of the Kings?” Her voice comes out more like a squeak. “If you do that, you know what’ll happen to him, what they’ll do to him.” She plants her hands on her hips, looking at him in shock.
Hawk gives her a look, as if to say that he couldn’t care less what the motorcycle club decides to do with Wes, but he just shakes his head. “We can’t go to the club with this, not yet, not until I know I can keep you out of it.” Melissa swallows hard, as she realizes that although she’s come clean with Hawk and Josh, the club would have more than a few choice words to say to her if they knew she had been planning to write an article on them. She was still very much involved in all of this. Hawk pulls his cell out of his pocket, turning away from her and speaking low into the phone. Just as abruptly, he shoves the iPhone back into his pocket and reaches out to take her hand.
“What’s happening? Who was that?” Melissa takes his hand and lets him lead her towards the front door.
“Josh. We’re meeting him somewhere safe.” Hawk gives her a meaningful look.
“Here isn’t safe?” She can’t help but look around, as if she expects someone to jump out at her.
Hawk lowers his voice and pulls her towards him, speaking in her ear. “Not if the person we’re talking about has a key. We don’t know what he’s planted in here so, for now, we don’t say anything in The Shop that we don’t expect someone else to hear.” He pulls back and looks at her to make sure that she’s understood.
Melissa nods slowly, poised to tell him that Wes wouldn’t bug the body shop, that he wouldn’t know how to, and that apart from that it was unethical and Wes wouldn’t do something so underhand. But if her conversation with her ex from the night before had taught her anything, it was that she clearly didn’t know him anywhere near as well as she thought she did.
“Good. Let’s go.” Hawk locks up behind them and leads her towards his bike, all without letting go of her hand at any point. “And for the record, whatever Wes has planned for the club, it can’t be any worse than me thinking he would do something to you.”
Hawk doesn’t give Melissa a chance to respond, handing her the helmet, which she takes wordlessly. It’s only when they’re riding through the streets that she realizes the significance of what Hawk has just said to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
It seemed a little like overkill, driving to a remote location by the lake to meet with Josh and Felicia. But Melissa knew enough about the Kings to know that they weren’t exactly the extra-precautious type. If Hawk and Josh thought that all this cloak and dagger stuff was necessary, then there was a good reason for it.
As Melissa and Hawk walk up to the picnic bench where Josh and Felicia are waiting, Felicia gives them an appraising look, peering at them through the gloom.
“Well, at least one good thing has come out of all of this.” She takes in Melissa’s crumpled shirt with the buttons missing and raises an eyebrow, making her blush.
“Glad to see you didn’t run screaming for the hills, Melissa, after Hawk’s little performance last night.” Josh claps a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she leans into his comforting touch.
“He’s pretty hard to run away from.” Melissa shrugs shyly, looking up at Hawk and seeing the corner of his mouth quirk up into a pleased smile before his expression changes back to business.
&
nbsp; “Thanks for getting here so quickly.” Hawk looks between Josh and Felicia, taking charge of the meeting.
Josh just shrugs, as if there was no need for thanks. “You said it was important.”
“It is.” Hawk nods, looking down at Melissa. “Do you want to tell them?”
They’d spoken about this when Hawk had parked the bike. Melissa nods, gathering herself together. “Wes, the new mechanic, he’s not who you think he is.” She looks between Felicia and Josh, their faces expressionless. “He’s a reporter for The Tribune.”
“Goddammit, I knew there was something that wasn’t right about him!” Josh’s voice is more of a bark, and he looks up at the sky, trying to gather himself together. When he’s recovered, he motions for Melissa to continue.
She tells them about the conversation she had with Wes the night before, about how ambitious he is and how much he craves the validation and the fame that an article on the Kings would no doubt bring. They listen to her, cursing occasionally, but hanging on her every word.
“I needed to be sure before I came to see you. I didn’t want to rat him out to you if he was just bluffing.” She looks between the three of them, shivering in the cold despite Hawk’s leather jacket that he’s draped around her shoulders. “But I checked with the editor’s secretary…she’s an old friend of my mom’s. She told me that Wes had been assigned to the article about the same time as I had. Seems like my editor didn’t really believe that I could get the job done.” She shakes her head to get rid of the self-pity that knowledge seems to inspire. “She told me Wes is scheduled to deliver a first draft the middle of next week. She doesn’t much like Wes, so she didn’t have any qualms about handing over the information.” Melissa shrugs, as Josh gives her an impressed look.
“And I’m guessing we’re all still in agreement that we don’t mention this to the rest of the club?” Felicia looks between the two men who nod solemnly. They all know what kind of a reaction the bikers would have if they knew that Melissa had been sent by the enemy. It was something she had been actively trying not to think about.
“You did good, kid.” Josh gives her an approving nod.
Melissa smiles weakly under his praise. She’s secretly pleased that she’s made Josh proud, but she also knows that what she’s doing is something that she can never go back from. Telling them about the article and Wes’s intention is crossing a line that she can never uncross. She has aligned herself with the Caged Kings, with an outlaw motorcycle gang, with criminals. What did that mean for her life, for her future? She couldn’t dwell on those questions right now though; there were more pressing matters to deal with. There would be plenty of time to figure out her place in this new world—once the Wes issue has been resolved.
“We still don’t know how much Wes knows about the Kings, how much proof he’ll have.” Melissa looks between them. “The Tribune won’t let him print something unless he has either hard evidence or word from more than one source.”
“None of the Kings would agree to speak to a reporter.” Hawk almost spits the last word out.
“Agreed. But if he’s spent any time at all around Durangos, he’ll have seen plenty. He could try to blackmail one of the guys into being a source for him in exchange for not mentioning his name in an article.” Felicia shrugs, as if it were a no-brainer and Melissa is struck again by how sharp she is. When she’d first met Felicia, she’d judged her as a bimbo; she was anything but.
“How can you say that, Felicia?” Hawk looks at her as if she’s committed sacrilege. “The guys would die for the club. You know that.”
Josh makes a calming gesture with his hands. “She’s not wrong, Hawk.”
Hawk looks at him as if he’d gone mad. “What are you saying?” His voice is cold and hard as steel.
“I’m saying that not all the Kings are necessarily as dedicated as you.” Josh shrugs his shoulders, his voice and body language deceptively casual, and Melissa wonders if this little act is just to keep Hawk from going all ‘black cloud’ on them. “There are a couple that we’ve been keeping an eye on. If Wes has figured out how to separate the sheep from the lions, then we could have a problem.”
Hawk shakes his head, like he can’t believe what Josh is telling him. He drops Melissa’s hand, raking his fingers through his hair. Melissa settles a hand on his arm, longing to comfort him, knowing that she’s never seen him look so lost. The Kings were his family—to find out that perhaps they weren’t the perfect brotherhood that he had thought they were—was clearly a blow.
“If that article goes to print, the Feds will have probable cause, enough for a warrant. It won’t take them long to go through the books, credit check the bar, The Shop, the other businesses the Kings are running.” Josh doesn’t need to finish his thought. They all know where this is headed. Anything that Wes printed would be devastating for the motorcycle club; it could mean the end of it altogether. It made Melissa even madder at the man that she’d thought she could count on as a friend.
“So what are we waiting for?” Hawk plants his hands on his hips, determination radiating out of him. “We go get Wes, and we make him disappear.”
He says the words so simply that it takes Melissa’s breath away. She knew that Hawk wasn’t a boy scout, but she hadn’t been prepared for the fact that he could talk so naturally about killing someone.
“You can’t be serious!” She stares at him, open-mouthed.
“Calm down, Hawk. We can’t just go in there all guns blazing.” Josh’s voice is calm, but he shows no hint of being surprised at Hawk’s reaction.
“Why the hell not? He’s the one who started all of this. He should be the one to face the consequences.” Hawk zeroes in his attention on Josh, as if he’s forgotten that Melissa is even there.
“By facing the consequences, you mean that he deserves to die?” Melissa fights to keep the panic out of her voice.
“If he wants to destroy the club, then he has to go. That’s how this works, Melissa. You’re not naïve enough to think that I carry a gun to shoot deer.” He gives her a look that cuts her down to her core, but she refuses to show how hurt she is. She knows that Hawk is talking out of anger and hurt; they would talk about his angry words to her later.
“No, I’m not naïve enough to believe that. But I’d also like to think that I know you well enough to know that you won’t just shoot someone for doing their job!” Melissa meets his fury with her own, refusing to back down.
“Their job? Is that how you see this? He’s going to destroy the club, Melissa. For fun. Don’t you get that?” He looks at her in confusion, as if she’s completely missing the point.
Melissa takes a deep breath, calming herself, knowing that the two of them shouting at each other isn’t exactly conducive to finding a workable solution. “I do get it, Hawk. Why would I have come to you with this information if I didn’t?” She touches him gently on the shoulder, and his eyes soften slightly at the contact. “But I can’t let you hurt him. No matter what he’s planning on doing, I can’t let you do that.”
Hawk gives her a shocked look. “Let me?”
“First, Hawk in karate, you think you can take me?” Melissa raises an eyebrow at him, only half-joking. She had been trying to break the tension, but her lame tease doesn’t seem to have done anything helpful.
“Why do you care about what happens to him?” Hawk’s question tells her that he’s only really listened to part of what she’s said.
Melissa sighs deeply, wondering how she ended up in the middle of the woods, in the dark, explaining to an angry biker why it was wrong to kill people just because you don’t like them.
“Because he may not be my favorite person in the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with something terrible and permanent happening to him.” Melissa crosses her arms over her chest, staring Hawk down. “If anything happened to him because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself. That’s just how I’m wired.” Melissa sighs deeply, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Even i
f I didn’t have scruples, Wes’s family is basically made of money. His family is all over the society pages; they’re Portland royalty. If anything were to happen to him, nothing would stop the police, the Feds, and God knows who else from crashing down on the club with the full force of the law. Besides, even if Wes was…out of the picture,” Melissa winces at the euphemism and the fact that she was even talking about it, “DeVry would just send someone else to cover the story.”
“So now that the smashing heads option is off of the table, what are we left with?” Felicia smoothly takes the floor, putting a stop to the angry back and forth between Melissa and Hawk that doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.
“I didn’t think we had agreed that it wasn’t an option.” Hawk plants his feet firmly in the dirt, looking at them with a challenge burning in his eyes.
“Well, unless you want me to turn around and walk away right now, then I suggest you think of something else.” Melissa mutters the words under her breath, but the way that Hawk clenches and unclenches his fists tells her that he’s heard.
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