Hiding Out (Hawks MC: Caroline Springs Charter, #2) (23 page)

"You don't understand—"

"Jerimiah," Switch growled, and the kid stiffened. The vicious glare he sent Switch was filled with so much hatred. "We leave," Switch ordered. With a flick of his wrist, he walked towards the door. I moved outta the way to let them pass.

Shutting the door, I turned to Pick and Billy. "What was up with that Jerimiah kid and Nary?"

"Don't know, but I'll get our woman onto it," Pick said.

"We need to find Nary, see why she walked in here in the first place."

"I'll do it," Billy offered. No woman interrupted a brothers’ sit-down, and it was strange as fuck Nary did it. She'd know the rule from Stoke. Christ, she'd have to be punished for it, depending on her answer for why she'd barged in.

"That went well," Pick said as he sat in the seat Switch had been in.

I told him about the call from Blackie then added, "It was just a bit of fun. I wanted to see the fucker squirm. He'd been a pain in the arse too long for me to not do anything to him."

"Dallas in with his wife now?"

I smirked. "Sure is. The fucker will no doubt be going to jail with all the evidence we got from followin' him."

"Now we just got Baxter to deal with."

"He's a slippery fuck. But we'll find him and take him outta play."

"Got a call just before Switch turned up," Pick started. "Parker's outta Venom now. Seemed Blackie also informed him of the changes."

"Right. Do you trust Parker as much as Lan?" I asked.

Pick shrugged. "Not sure, brother."

The door opened and Billy came back in with hard eyes and a clenched jaw. "Vicious, the little shit, for some reason told Nary to come into the office. That you wanted to ask her something."

"What the fuck? Where is he?" I growled.

"Comin'. I texted him to meet us in here." No sooner had he said it, the door opened and a scowling Vicious walked in, shutting the door behind him.

"She had to know," he stated, leaning against the door and folding his arms over his chest.

"Know what, brother? And it'd better be fuckin' brilliant for sending a woman into a sit-down. We had our fuckin' guns drawn, you dickhead. What would that have done to Nary if she'd seen it after all the shit she's gone through with that goddamn scar?"

"Fuck," he snarled.

"Yeah,
fuck
. What in the hell were you thinking?" Pick demanded.

"The prick that came in with Switch."

"The younger one?" Billy asked.

"Yeah. He's Switch's son." His upper lip rose, his body tense. "He and Nary have been gettin' to know one another. Don't know how they met. Don't know if it was set up. But I've been keepin' an eye on them, and I knew she didn't know he was
Venom
scum," he bit out.

Jesus. The jealous fuck could have done more damage than what had happened.

Running a hand over my face, I asked him, "Did you, at any fuckin' time, think of just tellin' Nary who that guy belonged to?" He said nothing, which told me everything. "No, because you and your weird-arse crush want nothing to do with her, yet here you are wanting to warn her she was in bed with a member of an opposing club." I ground my teeth together. "Goddamn it, Vicious. Get your head outta your arse and either fuckin' claim her or leave her the fuck alone!" I stood. "Nothin' you do is helpin' her in any way. Christ, sending her into a room when you knew dangerous shit could have gone down was fucked-up. Are you trying to hurt her more than what you already are?"

"I'm not—"

"Don't," Billy growled.

"Man the fuck up, brother. You are hurting her," Pick said. "Get your shit together and go after the one woman who obviously consumes your mind."

"I can't!" he yelled.

"Why the fuck not?" I bellowed back.

His eyes dropped to the floor, but he didn't say anything.

Sighing, I said, "No club whores for a month. No pussy. You're on bar duty for that month, also. And you'll clean the bloody toilets in the garage."

His clenched jaw told me how pissed he was. Still, he said nothing. Vicious nodded and walked outta the room.

"Fuck me drunk," I groaned and sat back down. "What is up with that guy?"

"I reckon it stems from his dad or some shit. What Vicious did was fucked-up. He deserved more than what you gave him, Prez," Billy said.

Nodding, I told them, "Agreed, but I think he's putting himself through his own hell enough by denying what he wants more than his next breath." Taking a deep breath, I said, "Change of subject here, but you guys notice the difference with Handle?"

Handle, before he backed his brother wrongly against us, had been one who'd smile and laugh. Now he was...dead, on the inside and out.

"The brothers are steering clear of him. They haven't welcomed him back as yet, which is understandable," Pick said, knowing exactly how it was since he'd done the shittiest thing to our prez in Ballarat and his woman. Still, we all got over it once he proved himself he was Hawks through and through.

"Yeah, it is, but still. Fuck, that guy is like a robot these days."

"He lost his woman to Baxter because of his blood brother. That'd fuck any guy up. He's looking for revenge, though, and if he's anything like us, he'd be hunting it down in his own time."

"Have Beast and Muff watch him," I ordered.

"Done," Pick said with a chin lift.

My phone buzzed. Looking down at it, a message from a private number popped up. I opened the message then froze from the words I read:
Do you know where your woman and kids are?

The door was flung open and in it stood a heavy-breathing Muff. When I noticed his wild eyes, I stood, as did my brothers. "What?" I barked.

"Low, the shop, robbery," he said between pants.

"Fuck, what?" I roared.

"Dive...rang. He took Low to the supermarket to see Lucia after getting the kids." He breathed. "He waited in the car. She walked into a robbery taking place."

"Where are they now?" Panic seized my heart. It ran cold like the blood drumming hard in my veins. There was no way some cockhead motherfucker was gonna ruin what I had. No goddamn way.

"Fuck, brother. They're
still
in there."

Fuck. No.

Fuck!

I rounded the desk and barked at Pick, "Call Lan. We need a cover because I'm goin' in there to get my woman and kids, and no one's gonna fuckin' stop me." I showed them my phone.

"Motherfucker," Billy snarled.

His guess was like mine. Baxter had finally made a move.

W
illow

It had been a blissful month with Trey and the kids. We'd had our hiccups, but nothing that couldn't be smoothed over.

Last night had been amazing. I loved—like a huge girl crush—the muffkateers from Ballart. It was awesome to have spent time with them. Ivy—a giggle escaped me—definitely made her club name proud with the name Chatter. Damn, that woman loved to talk. Anything could come from her, both appropriate and inappropriate things. Still, her man Killer was hooked into her 100 percent.

Clary was a sweet, sassy and gorgeous woman. I couldn't believe she'd been blind. Blue, her man, found it hard, like mine, to leave her side. He was very protective. Heck, they all were. All Hawks men showed their love openly—which was amazing to see. They cherished their women and would do anything for them. I pinched myself knowing I was a part of that crew. I was a muffkateer, and I couldn't be prouder.

Hell Mouth had declared Lucia was also an honouree muffkateer, even if she didn't have a bad-arse biker at her side. Lucia was a bad-arse woman enough to be a part of the crew. Griz looked on at his woman, Deanna, also known as Hell Mouth, with amusement and annoyance at times through the night. I could tell he found her taxing. Still, every time she got close, he would tag her in some way and show he'd claimed her just as she was.

Malinda was Nary's mum. She was the coolest mum I had ever met, and I ended up asking her if I could ring her for advice as Tex and Rommy grew. I wanted to do my best with those children. She'd said yes, on one condition. She asked me,
me
, to watch out for Nary while she lived and went to uni in Melbourne. Stoke, who stood beside her, grunted and mentioned he'd prefer to move them all to Melbourne so he could keep an eye on his girl, which Malinda squashed quickly. She told me later that the reason was because, like all Hawks men, they were possessive. So much so she knew Nary wouldn't be able to experience life without Stoke breathing down her neck.

Yes, the men of Hawks were very possessive. I knew it already from my own Hawks man. As Zara had explained, it could drive us crazy, but we knew they only had our heart in hand when it came to their women.

The best part of the night had been after the party, when Trey took me home and showed me how much he appreciated me. I didn't think threatening some hookers would turn him on, but it had, and I'd enjoyed the reward I got for it.

Trey had organised, with Dive, for me to pick up the kids from their schools the next day. I knew he had a lot on, especially the meeting with the Venom prez, plus I enjoyed picking up the kids anyway. Usually, we'd go get some ice cream or go shopping, even when Dive and Tex hated it. Rommy, however, loved it. I also took them, with whoever was our guard for the day, to the basketball court because I knew Tex loved to play. That day, though, I decided I wanted to cook something special, so I asked Dive to drive us to the supermarket. I couldn't go to any other market than the one where Lucia worked. It also gave me the chance to have a gab with her.

Dive stopped right out the front sliding doors. The area wasn't busy, as usual. I hopped out of the car with the kids following. They knew if they helped me shop, they'd get a treat at the end.

However, if I had known what lay ahead, I would have left them in the car.

But I didn't.

I walked, with the kids, straight into a trap.

As we stepped in and saw Lucia's tear-stained face, I knew something was wrong. The doors swished closed behind us and then I heard them being locked. Grabbing a hand of each child, I turned and pulled them behind me.

Two men, with ski masks covering their faces, stood at the doors with guns raised and pointed right at me.

"Girl," Lucia cried softly, her anguish showing on her face.

"Kids, go stand with Lucia," I ordered and started shoving them over to my girl, who I knew would keep them safe if anything happened to me.

"No!" one barked, the one with blue eyes. The other, I noticed, had brown. "They stay with you."

"Okay," I said, holding up my hands in front of me. Rommy gripped my side tightly, while Tex stood behind me but to my side, his fingers hooked in the back of my jeans. "You want the money? I'm sure Lucia will give it up."

"It ain't about the money," the blue-eyed one said.

"Then what is it?"

"Girl." Lucia sighed. Looking over my shoulder, I locked eyes with her. She was as pissed off as she was terrified. "Jerry's knocked out in the back," she said. "They made me come up here and pretend like nothing was happening. They—"

"Enough. Erik, go check on the guy in the back." So that was the blue-eyed one’s name.

"You go,
Garry
." Erik obviously didn't like to be bossed around.

They were both obvious idiots for sharing their names...unless they knew we wouldn’t be coming out of it alive.

Fear gripped my throat. I fought to swallow it down. It wasn’t the time to freak the hell out like I wanted to. I had to be strong for the children.

"Fuck, you're dumb. Don't do shit until I get back. I'll check on the others, as well."

Others? They had more men around.

God.

"All this for money?" I whispered, more to myself than anyone.

Erik laughed. "Stupid bitch. It ain't got anything to do with the money. We were ordered to come here because we were told you would be coming."

"There's a bug in your car. They heard you tell Dive to come here. They're going to kill us when Dodge gets here," Lucia said quickly, and Erik fired off a warning shot at the counter. She jumped away, screaming. We all did.

My eyes widened, and I wrapped my arms around the kids. They looked up at me with fright in their eyes. I couldn't let that happen, couldn’t let the children lose their uncle. Was I fighting a losing battle, though? Because I knew Dodge would turn up as soon as he found out what was happening to us. Whatever it was, I had to fight. I had to do something.

"You, shut the fuck up!" Erik yelled.

Garry came running back into the room. "What the fuck?" he asked, looking at the counter in front of Lucia, which now had a hole in it.

Erik flicked his gun towards Lucia and said, "She told her the plan."

"Fuck," Garry snapped and ran a frustrated hand through his grey hair. "If you hadn't told
her
in the goddamn first place—"

"If you'd have just let me shoot her in the fuckin' first place."

"Shut the hell up. God, go sit with your bitch and keep you trap shut," Garry snarled at me and the kids. We quickly ran around the counter and huddled together while Garry and Erik fought back and forth, over and over. All we could do was stand there, watching on, and wait.

I knew what we were waiting for. My man.

Once he was there, all hell would break out.

"Beside the fridge," I heard Lucia whisper.

"What?" I asked, my eyes still on the men.

I felt her eyes bore into me. "Beside. The. Back. Fridge." 

Of course. Oh, God. My heart raced in my chest as the plan formed in my head. At least, if anything happened, the children would be safe.

I pretended to rest on the counter, my elbows on top and my head in my hands. Garry and Erik watched me, but kept talking.

Slowly, I slid a hand down to the pens and paper we always kept handy under the counter to throw notes at each other. I hoped to God they would understand my quick writing, but I had to be fast so the men, who looked across at us every now and then, wouldn't notice I was doing something. Tex, the smart boy, leaned over my shoulder, his arms curling around my arm under the counter, so it looked like he was just hugging me while hiding my arm.