by Eden Rose
“Princess, we’re not followin’ you. However, if this is what you wear at night, maybe we should start,” Capone explains looking me up and down.
I’m such an idiot! I forgot he was even here!
Hawk’s eyes are undressing me and my thong sticks to my pussy lips. I never have been one to like the bad boys, but I’m liking them now.
Hell, I want him.
“Dream on,” I sass. “Why are you here?”
Hawk leans closer to me to kiss me on the cheek. “We’re actually here for another reason.”
“What’s that?” I breathe. The nearness of him has my heart thundering in my chest. He smells manly, a little like sweat and musk. Everything a man is supposed to smell like.
He kisses me one more time on the cheek. “Which apartment is yours?”
I point across the hall. “12 B.”
“I’ll come see you in a little bit.”
I’m about to tell him to not worry about it. To not come to my apartment. The apartment is disgusting and nothing how my last house looked. Everything about this place is the complete opposite than what I’m used to. I hate everything about it.
I hate everything about this town. About this situation.
But in this moment, as the heat of Hawk’s eyes warm me from the inside, I want to stay.
8
Hawk
“That girl of yours has an attitude,” Capone chuckles as we walk towards Gina’s apartment.
I smirk. “Yeah, she does.” The right kind of attitude that makes a man want to spank it out of a woman. The kind of attitude that makes my dick hard in my jeans from her throwing it at me.
“You look cozy.”
“I just met the girl,” I remind him.
He chuckles louder and knocks on the door of 15 B. Two doors away from Maci’s apartment.
“You layin’ claim?”
I know what he’s asking and I want to punch him in the gut for asking. How could he ask me a question like that when I don’t even know her? Plus, why would it bother me if he tried to fuck her?
It does. Him even thinking about touching her has me pissed off more than I care to admit.
I shrug.
Gina opens the door slightly with her head sticking out. “Hi?” She whispers.
I push the door open a little more to get a better look at her face. From where I’m sitting, I can see her face is covered in deep purple bruises and green bruises.
“What happened?”
Capone pushes the door open and walks inside of her little apartment. I follow behind him with Gina’s pale and slight frame behind me. She’s a little girl, with not a lot of curves but the guys love her.
Not my type.
Hell, I don’t have a set type besides curvy women who like to throw attitude at me.
“Nothing…” Gina hedges and closes her robe tighter against her body.
“Gina, don’t be fuckin’ around. We can see the bruises on your face. We saw the tape. What is goin’ on?” I demand.
If it hadn’t have been for that fucking run, we would have got this situation handled a long time ago. I’m fuckin’ pissed off that we had to wait to get confront her and get the details. I want my shit handled right away. None of this waiting bull shit.
I’m standing in front of her not giving her much space to move away from me. I want to know everything and I want to know it yesterday. Plus, I want to know how hard I’m gonna kill this asshole who fucked with one of my girls.
“I don’t want to get the club involved. I’m fine.”
I snort. “You’re not fine. Your face is bruised the fuck up!”
Capone wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. The rat bastard can seduce a rattle snake. “Tell us what happened, baby.”
“I owe a little money for some Adderall I bought to stay up and study all night. I had a couple slow nights and wasn’t able to pay him back.”
“How much do you owe?” Capone croons. He’s such a fucking savior.
“A couple grand. Not too much but enough that I can’t pay him back right now.”
It’s my turn to ask questions. “Where can we find him?”
I want to yell at Gina for getting herself involved in something like this. If she needed the money that bad, she could have asked the brothers and we would have given her the money. I would have told her to stay off the prescription bills, though. Drugs are all around and the more people want them, the more they pop up.
What I don’t like is someone taking advantage of my girls.
She starts shaking. “Uh, I don’t want to tell you. Please! I can handle it on my own!”
Capone kisses her cheek and pulls her tighter to his chest. “If you could handle it, why did you miss out on a few nights’ of pay? Baby, you need help. Let us help you.”
“He lives over on the other side of the county line. He goes by the name of Dingo.”
I want to laugh. She got in deep with some asshole named Dingo? Is that a street name or did his mama give it to him? What the fuck! Dingo.
I scoff. “Dingo?” She is buying shit from a guy named Dingo? Are you serious? “What else does he sell?” I ask.
“He sells everything you want. He sells prescription and all that other bull shit. I’m sorry, guys. I’m so fucking sorry!”
I step up in front of her and place my hands on her shoulders. “Gina, next time you need something, you need to talk to me. You got it? If you feel like you can’t talk to me, talk to Capone. This is some serious shit. He beat you really hard.”
Gina’s head bows and her tears start flowing down her face. “I know. I really fucked up.”
Capone holds her closer to him. “We will take care of it and get you on the right track. Don’t do it again. Did he say anything about coming back here?”
She shakes her head. “No, but he did say if I didn’t pay by Friday, he was going to do worse to me.”
“What kind of worse?” I question. I need to know how badly I’m going to fuck him up. I already have plans on destroying his operation. I’m gonna fuck it up so hard core.
The look in her eyes is all I need to see. I know exactly what she means. He’s going to take flesh next.
That rat bastard. If I don’t kill him, I’m gonna rob him blind. I hate assholes like this that think they own everything or able to control everyone. I’m not going to stand for it.
Neither is my club.
9
Maci
Like a fool, I’m waiting for Hawk to come by my place. I have every intention on not letting him in and walking around the building again. I don’t want him to come in because then it will speed up my want for him.
“Mom, who’s that guy?” Riley asks leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen.
“Some guy I met at the restaurant.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re already dating? We just got here!”
I’m aware of the move being hard on her. I know it must have been difficult to leave so quickly, but she doesn’t have to be this incredulous with me.
“Want to talk about the move?” I ask her and take a drink of my Diet Coke. That’s one thing I can’t live without and that’s Diet Coke. In law school, I would drink a twelve pack within a couple of days. The caffeine was just enough to keep me going. Now if I don’t drink it, I start to shake.
“No. I want to talk about when we can go back home.”
Just when I’m about to answer her, there’s a knock on the door. I smile at her in a comforting smile. At least I’m hoping it is. I don’t want to make her life harder than it already is.
“Just a second!” I call through the door and walk over to Riley. “Baby, I know the move was hard on you. I didn’t want to move, either. But we had to. You know that, right?”
She pushes me away to stomp towards her bedroom. She is lucky that Hawk is here or I would be banging down her door to get her to open it.
“I have my phone,” I call back to her.
I open
the door to see the sexy specimen from earlier.
“You changed,” he mumbles.
I giggle a little. “Uh, it’s not every day I let some random man see me in my jammies the first day I meet him.”
Hawk leans in through the door and looks around. “Are you going to invite me in?”
Let him in to my apartment? Fuck no! There is no way I’m letting him in.
I shake my head. “Nah. I actually want to walk around the building if that’s cool with you.”
He winks at me. “Yeah, sure, Maci.”
I’m wondering if he is picking up on my comfort level with him. I’m nervous as hell about being this close to him.
In the back of my mind I’m thinking how big of a mistake this is. How he could be related to one of those punks who is trying to kill me. He could, I know he could!
I shake my head to clear it a little.
With my phone in my hand, I point out to the hallway.
We walk through the door and I grab my keys to lock the door. Once it is locked, I look at the door across from mine where Capone is walking through.
The woman that lives there smiles and waves at Hawk. He smiles back at her and winks.
What the fuck?
Why am I jealous over him knowing someone else? I am jealous, though. Very jealous.
“Friend of yours?” I ask.
He shrugs and opens the door for me to get out of the building. “Yeah, I guess.”
“So, why did you want to come by?” I shrug off the question in hopes of me not seeming like a damn loser. I have never been this nervous before in my life. My stomach is full of belly bats.
He wraps his arm around my shoulder holding me closer to him. “Is it a problem? Did you have a hot date or something?”
I want to snort at a laugh. The man practically followed me back to my place and he’s now asking if I had a hot date?
“If I did, I’m pretty sure two big scary bikers would have scared them off.”
We’re walking around the park in the middle of the buildings. He points to a swing and I eagerly take it. The whole thing is incredibly romantic and something I never thought I would see from him.
Who would have thought a biker would do something so sweet like this. I wouldn’t have.
Hawk is standing behind me and he lightly pushes me on the swing.
“That’s what you think we are? A bunch of scary bikers?” His voice is low, grumbly and full of gravel. It is also utterly sexy.
I squeeze my thighs together. “I’m just saying, if I had a hot date, I wouldn’t be out here with you.”
“Tell me a little about Maci,” Hawk suggests.
I tense up. This is the part where I have to be careful. I have no idea who this man is, and I don’t want to give away too much information. If I say the wrong thing and it gets back to the Vitali family, Riley and I are dead.
“Uh, just moved here. Enjoying the town,” I answer as lamely as I possibly could. I don’t want him to know that I’m a prosecutor or that I’m running from something big. That I’m running from a man who wants to kill my daughter and I. I also don’t want him to know I have a daughter yet. That’s something I don’t want to explain.
“That’s vague. Care to explain a little more?” Hawk asks with his hands lightly touching my back to push me in the swing.
Each time his fingers touch my back, my nerve endings shiver and shake at his touch. Everything about him is hypnotizing.
“Tell me something about you and then maybe I’ll share something.”
“I love a girl that plays hard ball with me. I’m a tattoo artist. No kids, no ex-wives. I’m as single as they come.”
I snort unladylike. “Is that so? How does a man like you not get wifed up?”
He stops pushing me and holds onto the chains of the swing to pull me closer to his body. “Maybe I haven’t found the right woman, yet.”
Our lips are hovering over each other. I’m about to lean in and kiss him when my phone rings. Jesus!
10
Hawk
I was this close to sealing the deal with Maci. Her fuckin’ phone had to ring and ruin the whole entire moment of the situation. I’m fuckin’ pissed.
“I have to go,” she mutters and jumps off the swing answering the phone when she lands. “Hello?”
“Are you kidding?” I blurt.
I have never had a woman shut me down like this before. I know I didn’t read the signs wrong. I know she was as into it as I was. I know it and she can’t fuckin’ lie about it.
When Maci doesn’t turn around to come back, I take that as my cue to leave. I’m not one to chase after a girl.
Does she have a man? I asked if she had a hot date tonight. Nothing about a man. If she had a man, why the fuck was she out on the playground with me after eleven o’clock?
A less than honorable man would have slid his hands down her tight yoga pants and tested her arousal.
“You strike out?” Capone calls out to me as I near the bike. He has Gina propped against his bike and they are in a full out conversation. The man has game. I don’t where he learned it from.
I’m not lacking in that department, by any means. But he is a fuckin’ snake charmer!
“We gotta roll out,” I mumble and climb onto my bike. “You good, Gina?”
She nods. “Thank you, guys. I owe you.”
“Don’t do that shit again, you got me?” Capone threatens.
“Or what? What are you going to do?”
“Jesus,” I mutter under my breath. “We got shit to do, brother.”
“See you around,” he kisses her on the cheek and mounts his bike.
Gina is walking towards the sidewalk when Maci is coming out of the building. She looks upset but doesn’t come to me.
I don’t say anything.
“I got Gear to get some cash. He’s meetin’ us at the spot,” Capone calls out.
I nod. I’m too pissed to even think about this shit.
Did I imagine it? I couldn’t have! She wanted me, too. I know she’s new here; could it have been a man from her home town?
My mind is running a million miles a minute as our bikes eat up the pavement.
We’re at Dingo’s place in a matter of minutes and I laugh at his stupid looking house. He looks like he lives with his grandma or something. All that he’s missing is a white picket fence and then he would be set up.
We park in front of the house and dismount our bikes. I’m eager to get this shit over with so I can go back to the clubhouse. Plus, I want to do a background check on Dingo and Maci. There’s something about Maci and the way she ran from me just now that makes me want to know what’s going on.
“You ready?” I ask Capone.
He shrugs. “Yeah. Let’s get it done with.”
Gear is sitting outside of the parking lot with his gun hanging out and an envelope of money. Normally I would be pissed as fuck one of my guys would be so careless with money, but no one is going to fuck with Gear. He looks pissed off.
“’Sup, brothers?” He chants.
“Want to hear how the prez striked out?” Capone chirps in.
“Want me to kick your ass for runnin’ your damn mouth?”
“Touchy,” he jokes and leads us over to the house.
Within the first knock sequence, a younger looking man opens the door with a snarl on his lips. “Who the fuck’re you?”
“You Dingo?” I ask without trying to laugh. Seriously, out of all the names he could have chosen for himself, he had to pick that one? The man is stupid as shit.
“Yeah. Who’s askin’?” He counters back bravely.
“The Devil’s Disciples. Stay away from our club, our properties and our girls. Do I make myself clear? You fuck with my girls again, I’m gonna come take your operation over and you’ll be fucked,” I inform him.
My brothers are flanking me ready to provide backup if needed. I’m not worried about this little punk bitch at all. They should be more worried a
bout the fact that I could kill him right here.
“Are you talkin’ about that dumb whore who owes me money?” He retorts.
It seems he is a slow learner. I punch him in the stomach as hard as I can. He barrels over and groans. “Why the fuck would you think testing me right now is the thing to do?”
He shakes his head.
Gear holds out the money for the punk asshole. “Now she doesn’t owe you money. You come near her or the club again, we’ll be back.” He drops the money in front of him with a flare. The twenties float around in a dance.
I want to lean over and grab the bills back. I’m pissed at Dingo for running his mouth and that would teach him some manners.
“I don’t want to come back,” I threaten.
I spin on my heels waiting for my brothers back at my bike. I’ll let them each get a punch in and we can go about our night.
I pull my phone out and send a text to Maucho, our technological brother. He can hack anything and he can find anything you need. Just so happens, I need something right now.
ME: yo, I need a favor
MAUCHO: whatcha want prez? You know I got you
ME: I need all the info you can get on a Maci Tyler
MAUCHO: on it. Might take me a couple days.
ME: that’s cool. Just get it for me.
MAUCHO: sure thing
11
Maci
I was seriously about ready to let him kiss me. His lips were hovering above mine and I could feel his breath fan across my face. He was so close to me.
Have I mentioned how good he smells? The many smells delicious! I wanted to stick my face in his neck and smell him like a damned puppy.
But my phone had to ring.
At first, I thought it was Riley. Turns out I was wrong. I was way wrong.
I jump off the swing to answer the phone call for Howie. This is the second time he has called me in one night. Something has to be off. What the hell is going on back home?
“Hello?” I answer.
“Maci, you gotta be careful. Some shit just happened.”