Hawke: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance (With bonus book Sons of Flame MC) (18 page)

Chapter Seven

Eli

Eli stood and watched Tess drive away, stood until her car had disappeared around the corner, and then he cursed himself under his breath.

Goddamn idiot. She just wanted to help, and you treat her like that.

He’d wanted to tell her everything. To tell her about Tex and the Sons of Flame, about the threats, about how they wouldn’t let him just move on and put everything behind him. But he couldn’t. She said that she wanted to help, but if she went back to her job and reported what he said, Eli knew that Tex would somehow find out. Would find out, and would make good on his threat to Eli’s grandmother.

No, if Eli wanted to deal with this problem, he’d just have to do it on his own.

Even so, he could’ve just made up an excuse for Tess, not just been downright rude to her. She was the first decent woman who had treated him with respect in…well, ever.

Eli cursed himself again, and trudged towards his bike. He was late back to the workshop, not that Mike would realize. The old bastard was probably still sleeping exactly where he had been when Eli had left.

He climbed onto the bike, and was adjusting his helmet straps when he saw a shadow fall at his feet. Heart sinking, Eli looked up.

Tex. Alone this time, but no less mean for it.

“Eli, old pal. Just finished your lunch, have you?”

“What’s it to you, Tex? What, you gonna beat up my granny because I had lunch without your permission?”

The gang leader stepped closer to Eli, a wicked snarl twisting his features.

“Don’t get smart with me, idiot. You think I’m fucking stupid? I saw you with that probation officer. Pretty lady, if you ask me. Too pretty for a down-and-outer like you.”

Tex paused to leer at Eli.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame if something were to happen to such a sweet, innocent lady like that, Eli? You wouldn’t want anything like that on your conscience, would you?”

Eli bristled at the threat.

“Don’t even waste your breath, Tex. I didn’t say anything to her, and I won’t.”

Eli turned the key in his bike and the engine roared to life. He shouted to be heard above the throaty rumble.

“Now, is there anything else you wanted to bother me with today, Tex? Or are we done here?”

Tex stepped even closer, his breath sour and hot in Eli’s face, enough to make him wince.

“Don’t forget, not for a moment, what I said to you, boy. I’ll be back to see you again, soon, so we can discuss what you can do for me. Keep your mouth shut, and we can make this easy.”

With that, Tex turned around and sloped away. Eli watched him for a moment, wishing he had the guts to tell the Sons of Flame leader where to stick it, but he didn’t see how he had a choice. First his grandmother, and now Tess, Tex knew how to maintain his control over Eli, and he wouldn’t relinquish that power for anything.

A knot of worry churning in his stomach, Eli drove back to the workshop. When he arrived he peeked into the office to find, unsurprisingly, Mike still snoozing peacefully. At least Tex and the Sons hadn’t been by here while he’d been gone.

He spent the rest of the afternoon working slowly on the single job they had in, but Eli’s mind was a million miles away from his work. Tess, his grandmother, Tex, they all swirled around in this thoughts as he struggled to think of a way he could extricate himself from the situation without anyone getting hurt. Try as he might, he just kept drawing a blank. Tex knew everything that happened in this town, and Eli knew his threats weren’t just idle talk. When Tex wanted something, he was willing to do almost anything to make it happen.

Mike had already gone home by the time Eli had finished up – the sun was setting, lighting up the sky in a beautiful soft orange glow. Eli drove home slowly, savoring the peace that riding gave him, the freedom – just him and the low rumble of the engine, the wind in his hair and the last of the day’s sun softly bathing his skin.

When he arrived home, his heart lurched in his chest. The screen door was thrown open and the front door behind it was slightly ajar. Eli’s blood was pumping through his veins as he rushed into the house.

“Grandma? Are you here? Is everything OK?”

He could hear the fear in his own voice, high and warbled.

No response, just the background babble of the TV. Panicking, Eli rushed into the den where Grace could always be found. There she was in her chair, leaning back with her eyes closed.

Eli approached her slowly, his mouth dry and his eyes wide. He knelt next to her and took her tiny frail hand into his. Still warm.

“Grandma?” he said softly.

Relief washed through him as her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first. She smiled as she realized who it was.

“Eli? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Eli took a moment to compose himself, to let the last remnants of the fear and panic wash away. When he’d seen the door open, then found her lying there like that…

“Nothing Grandma,” he eventually said. “Just wanted to say hi.”

He stood and began straightening out the room. Magazines were strewn over the floor, along with a plate discarded after Grace had eaten her lunch, presumably.

She cackled good-naturedly as she watched him tidy up after her.

“Did you think I’d gone and died, here in my chair?”

“No, Grandma. Don’t talk like that. I just wanted to say hi, like I said.”

She laughed again.

“Don’t you worry, Eli. I’m not quite ready to pop off just yet. You’ll be cleaning up after me for a while to come, you can be sure of that.”

Eli leaned down to kiss her softly on the cheek.

“Good.”

He dumped the magazines on the table and quickly rinsed the plate before putting it away.

“I’m gonna take a shower, then I’ll make us something to eat.”

Just as he was about to enter the bathroom, he remembered the front door.

“Oh, and Grandma, you left the door open. Anyone could’ve come in here while I was gone.”

“Damn, it must have been that man who did that,” came her reply, and Eli’s blood ran cold. He rushed back into the den.

“What man, Grandma? Who was here?”

She looked up at him, confused by his concern.

“Shank he said his name was. He told me you were expecting him. Scruffy-looking man, if you ask me. Smelt bad too. He was friendly enough though, even if he did have a funny name and forgot to close the door on his way out.”

Eli felt light-headed and breathless. He sat next to his grandmother and tried not to let his concern show.

“What did he say to you?”

Grace frowned again.

“Just that you were working on a job for him, and that he didn’t want you to forget about it. Is his car over at Mike’s place?”

Eli was trembling with anger, but he did his best to force a placid look onto his face and calmness into his voice.

“Oh yeah, that’s it. I’m running a little late on fixing his truck. I guess he must’ve come by the workshop while I was out to lunch or something, and decided to look for me here.”

Grace seemed satisfied with his answer.

“Well, when you see him next, tell him not to leave doors open like that, will you Eli?”

“Sure thing Grandma.”

As Eli stood in the shower and washed away the sweat and grime of another hot desert day, he trembled with impotent anger. Who the
fuck
did Tex think he was, sending Shank over to threaten a harmless old lady? Thank God Grace hadn’t known what the real meaning of his visit was. She was alone for most of the day, and the last thing Eli wanted was for her to be living in fear. Thankfully she seemed oblivious.

Eli toweled himself dry, got dressed, and spent the rest of the evening with Grace. He cooked for the both of them, and then they watched TV together for the rest of the evening. Eli did his best to maintain a conversation with his grandmother, but his mind was elsewhere.

When he eventually went to bed, he couldn’t sleep. He ran every possible scenario through his mind, trying to find some way that he could deal with Tex and the Sons without breaking the law again and risking getting sent back to jail, but every line of thought was a dead end.

He was stuck, and he couldn’t think of a way out. Not without everyone he loved and cared about getting hurt, which was no way out at all.

*****

Chapter Eight

Tess

Over two weeks had passed since Tess had had lunch with Eli, and she still found herself thinking about him every day. Professionally, and personally. Meanwhile, her life continued in the pattern that she’d become accustomed to.

She worked long hours, filling out paperwork, meeting with parolees, performing workplace inspections, and the myriad other small tasks that came with the job. The hours were long, and it never seemed to get any easier.

Every time she thought that she finally had a grasp on everything, that she had finally got on top of it all, a new case would come in, or a complication; everything meant more paperwork, more stress, less time.

Most days she didn’t get home until it was dark, and she was so exhausted that she’d given up any pretense of having a normal social life; or, really, any social life at all. And as for dating? Well…the less said about that the better, as far as Tess was concerned. The closest thing she had to a romantic relationship was Eli Flint, an ex-con, one of her parolees, and the closest thing to a date had been when he’d taken her out to lunch probably just out of friendliness.

Tess had to laugh at the situation, or she’d probably end up crying.

Her weekends were spent catching up on all those little things that she didn’t have time for during the week, and every Monday morning it felt like she’d barely had a rest at all.

But Tess persevered. She knew she was strong enough and capable enough to handle anything that was thrown at her, and this job wasn’t going to be the thing that brought her down.

In moments of stress she’d find a quiet place, maybe the bathroom or an unused interview room, lean back, close her eyes, and imagine herself out in the desert. Nothing for as far as the eye could see. No insolent parolees, no cajoling boss, no computers, no paperwork. Just the wind, and the sun and the sand. In those moments she came to understand some of what kept Eli in Joshuaville, despite his past, the lack of opportunities and the crime. There was a sense of freedom and peace out there that you just couldn’t get in the big city, with its traffic, people, chaos and noise.

Tess would spend a few minutes daydreaming like this, and every time it would refresh her and recharge her batteries just enough to get her through the day.

Not that she needed to do that on this particular day, though. Today she’d get to go out there and see the desert for herself. Eli Flint was scheduled for a random workplace inspection – normally a boring job that Tess hated doing. This time though, she found herself looking forward to it, to the drive through the desert, to seeing Eli again.

She was even whistling as she made her way out to her car.

If she knew what was going to happen when she got there, though, she never would have left.

*****

Chapter Nine

Tess

Tess walked into the workshop with a smile on her face. Despite knowing she should look and act more professionally, she was looking forward to seeing Eli again. The dim, cool space was as quiet as ever - a couple of old rust buckets that had definitely seen better days in various states of deconstruction, tools scattered around, a filthy workbench piled high with old parts and forgotten detritus.

The one thing missing, however, was what she had come to find. Eli Flint was nowhere to be found. Tess called his name as she stepped warily into the room, treading gingerly to avoid staining her clothing.

"Eli, are you here? It's Tess Bailey."

Silence. It didn't look like he was there. Tess frowned and checked her watch. It was before 11am so he shouldn't have gone to lunch yet, and the schedule he'd submitted as part of his parole conditions said that he should have been there at this time of day. While it wasn't a serious offence for him not to be, it didn't look good on his record for him to miss a workplace inspection.

After checking the entire workshop, and satisfied that Eli wasn't there, Tess stood and thought for a few moments. The front office had been dark and locked up when she'd walked past it on the way in, so he wouldn't be in there.

If she was going by the book, and if this was any of her other cases, Tess would have written the parolee up as a no-show, climbed back into her car, and driven away. For Eli, though, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and wait for a little while. It was a long drive back, and it would be a shame to have come all the way out there for nothing.

Tess paced around the silent workshop for a while, looking at the tools and rusted vehicles with not much interest. She'd never really had a knack for anything technical when it came to vehicles. Whenever she had a problem she just took it to a place like this and trusted whatever they said.

Having said that, she had a great deal of respect for the people who could fix a broken down car, or build something with their hands. It was also a little bit of a turn-on for her, in a weird kinda way. Give her a man who earned his living with his hands over an office worker any day. She'd dated a landscape gardener once, who would come home from work smelling of musky sweat and cut grass, and there was something so raw and manly about his scent that would always drive her wild.

Tess checked her watch again. She'd been waiting 15 minutes now, and she reluctantly decided that that was long enough. Eli wasn't going to show, and she was going to be forced to enter that into his record, which wouldn't look good upon his next review. She didn't want to, but he'd left her no choice. Perhaps he'd just had an emergency or an unexpected situation come up, or perhaps he wasn't the man that she'd thought, and hoped, he was.

Tess searched in her purse until she found her little notepad. She flicked to a blank page and scribbled a little note for Eli on it.

You were due for a surprise inspection today, but you weren't here. I waited longer than I should have, but I'm going to have to write it up.

Tess

She briefly debated adding 'sorry' to the end of the note, but decided against it. She was just doing her job, after all, and didn't think she needed to apologize for that. Looking around for a suitable place to leave the note, Tess decided on the little workbench holding Eli's tools, where he'd be sure to find it. She placed it there, looked around one last time, and strode toward the door, back out into the dazzling, scorching sun.

Except that she never made it out into the sun, because just as she reached the doorway a loud sound, or rather series of sounds, startled her and stopped her in her tracks. The source of the noise was four huge motorcycles, sputtering and roaring as they squealed into the parking lot in front of her. Tess held a hand over her eyes to shade them, peering out and trying to see who the new arrivals were.

They were dressed pretty uniformly, in denim and leather. Bikers. And then Tess saw the face of their leader, the one who rode in front, and her breath caught in her throat. She recognized him immediately, from Eli's case file.

That was Tex, the leader of Eli's old gang, the Sons of Flame, she was sure of it. The others looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn't recall their names. And there, bringing up the rear, was Eli Flint.

Tess panicked. She had no idea what to do. They hadn’t noticed her yet, but they would as soon as she tried to go out. If she'd been thinking straight Tess would have tried to slip out the back and called the police. She knew that Tex was a wanted man, but she also knew he was a dangerous one too. The adrenaline coursing through her body had put her in a fight or flight state of panic, so Tess just acted on impulse. Before she could be seen, she scurried back into the comforting darkness of the workshop and looked for somewhere to hide. Her panic was mounting as the seconds passed, and she eventually settled on crouching behind a rusted old sedan near the back that didn't look like it had been moved in decades. Tess sat back on her haunches and tried to stay as motionless and quiet as possible, which was easier said than done considering she was damn near hyperventilating. Tess didn't even want to consider what would happen if she was caught. She'd read the reports, she knew what Tex and the Sons were capable of. And Eli...she'd gotten him all wrong. He'd gone back to them as soon as he'd gotten out of jail. He wasn't the man she thought he was, hoped he was...he was just like all the others; a liar, a cheat, a criminal. Never again would Tess give anyone the benefit of the doubt. It just got thrown back in her face, time after time.

Her train of thought was interrupted by rough voices laughing and joking as the bikers approached the workshop. Tess shrank even further down behind the car, trying to make herself as small as possible. Her heart was thumping so loud that she thought the sound of that alone might give her away. She tried her best to regulate her breathing – instead of gasping in panic, as she felt like doing, she closed her eyes and tried to take slow, soft, deep breaths.

In and out, don’t panic, and they won’t find you.

They had entered the workshop now in a group, their voices low. From the sounds of it there were five or six of them, all men. Tess couldn’t pick out Eli’s voice now, but she knew he must be with them. The ones talking all had rough, gravelly voices; the sort of voices that she imagined hard men would have, who’d spent their entire lives living out here in the desert.

She pressed herself lower to the ground as the voices got closer and the men filled the workshop. She could hear the crunch of their boots as they walked across the discarded trash that littered the workshop floor. Tess decided to take a risk, despite her fear. If the Sons of Flame were here, she knew they were up to no good. If she could get a clear view of what it was they were doing, she could report it to the police later. It was a risk, but it could end up being what finally put an end to them.

She felt a twinge of sadness as she realized that Eli would also be incriminated by whatever she saw, but she hardened her heart. He had chosen this, so it wasn’t her fault. He was the one who had decided to go back to them, and he would have to live with the consequences of his actions, for better or worse.

Tess scooted to the edge of the car and, taking one last breath and willing her hands to stop shaking, she peered around the corner.

There was Tex, and what she guessed were other members of the Sons huddled around him. One man stood at the entrance, looking out, making sure there were no witnesses to whatever it was they had or were doing.

Tex was holding a black leather suitcase, closed for now, and was talking in a low whisper to the henchmen surrounding him. Eli stood awkwardly, like he didn’t know what to do with himself, and Tess was surprised to see a look of utter sadness and….almost helplessness on his face. It was so profound, that, despite everything, she was almost tempted to feel sorry for him.

“Eli.”

Tex’s voice was suddenly loud and clear; he’d made a decision. Eli look up, his eyes and voice filled with loathing and contempt.

“What.”

Tex sneered at him.

“Where are we going to keep this? It has to sit tight for a few days until we get the deal arranged.”

Eli sagged visibly, running a hand over his day-old stubble. He looked around the workshop, resembling for all the world a man condemned. Finally his eyes fixed on a car, and Tess had to stop herself from recoiling in panic.

“That one there. It’s been here years, nobody ever touches it.”

He pointed over to the car that Tess was crouched behind, and she ducked away out of sight as she heard the men advance toward her hiding place. Tess looked around her in a panic. There was nowhere else for her to go, nowhere to hide. If they came to open the trunk, they’d see her for sure. At the last second, her heart thumping furiously in her throat, Tess took the last option available to her. She rolled under the car, and clamped her hands over her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping.

She watched at the booted feet came closer and closer, and wished, harder than she’d ever wished before, that nobody would look underneath.

The feet gathered in a group at the end of the car, and Tess listened as Tex cursed, trying to get the ancient old door open. Eventually he succeeded, the rusted metal squealing in protest as he levered it open.

There was a muffled thump as the suitcase was unceremoniously dumped inside, then a crunch as the door was slammed shut once again. The feet stood still for a moment, and there was silence.

Tex was the first to speak.

“Now, Eli. You’ve done your part now, just like I asked you. Make sure nobody comes near this old heap of junk until I come back next, and you’ll have upheld your end of the bargain.”

There was no response from Eli, and Tess saw one pair of boots shuffle impatiently.

“You got that, shit for brains? Nobody goes near this car. Nobody.”

Silence again, but Eli must have responded in some way, because the boots began moving away until they were at the entrance to the workshop.

“You did good, Eli. Just like old days, huh?”

Tex laughed, a wheezing rasp devoid of all humor.

“See you soon, then.”

And with that they were gone, trooping back out into the baking sun, returning to their waiting bikes.

Tess watched them go. There was only one pair of legs remaining now, that she assumed must have belonged to Eli. He stood, still and silent, for a long time – long enough for Tess to mourn, once more, what could have been. Why was he throwing everything away like this? His chance for a new life, a fresh start, for some money and respect from the scum of the earth.

Tess willed Eli to leave. The smell of gasoline and oil filled her nostrils, making her feel queasy and slightly faint. Finally, just as she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he stepped out of the workshop. Tess quickly rolled out from under the car and brushed herself off. She was still dressed in her office clothes, only now they were ruined completely, covered in oil and filth and dust. She went to the corner of the car again, peering around the edge.

Only, she had forgotten to take one thing into account. She caught one final glimpse of Eli Flint as he reached up and swung closed the big heavy door, until it reached the ground with a screeching crash. The workshop was thrown into utter and complete darkness.

Tess swallowed her mounting panic and felt her way forward, cursing quietly as she hit her shin on some discarded piece of machinery. Eventually she found the door, placing her palms flat upon it and trying to heave it upwards with all her might.

Nothing. It was locked, and without the key, there was no way she was getting it open. No way at all.

Tess was trapped, and she knew it.

*****