I venture an inch out of Hawk’s hold. “Is he okay?” I don’t know why it matters, but I don’t want anyone blamed for Darren’s death but me.
Smokey glances out the door, then smiles. “Let’s just say he’s learned you only point a gun at a war veteran if you plan to kill him.”
Another man steps into the doorway. He’s not as big as Hawk and the other but what he lacks in height, he makes up for in hard, lean muscle. “He’s alive. But after we’re done with him, he won’t be bothering you ever again.”
I take in a deep breath, my first since Darren showed up outside the restaurant, and I turn to Hawk.
He doesn’t say a word. He just scoops me up in his arms like I’m a feather from one of his tattoo birds and he carries me out of the apartment. I don’t know where we are going, but as long as I’m with Hawk, it doesn’t matter. As long as I’m with him, I know I’m safe.
Hawk
I almost lost her. But I didn’t. Lo is safe and cradled into my chest. Her eyes are closed and her hands are strung around my neck. She’s holding on for dear life.
“I’m taking her home,” I shoot over my shoulder. “You guys got this?”
Smokey nods first. “Don’t worry. The cops are already on their way.”
Scout is standing over Darren’s passed out body. There is a trail of blood coming from Darren’s temple, so I can only assume Scout gave him the hilt end of his own weapon.
Normally, the club doesn’t involve the police in our matters, but tonight has been different. I’m taking no chances with this sicko. His days of tormenting women are over.
“I need to check on my mom,” Lo says as she lifts her head off my shoulder.
I smile down at her. “As soon as I get you home. We can even leave first thing in the morning if you want to check on her in person.”
“You’d do that for me?” she asks and my heart about bursts through my chest.
“I’d do anything for you.”
Lo rests her head back on my shoulder and her eyes close again. “You know. For a second there, I wasn’t sure we both were going to make it out of there alive.”
My chest tightens at the thought. I want to ball my fists to release some of the pressure building up inside me, but I can’t without disturbing Lo.
“I thought the same,” I say instead. “And it about killed me.”
Lo rests her hand on my chest and I melt. “You’d be okay without me,” she says.
I stop walking and wait for her to look up at me. “If anything had happened to you, I wouldn't want to keep on living.”
She reaches the hand resting on my chest up to cup my cheek. Her eyes are soft in the darkness, and I can’t tell if the tears in her eyes are emotion driven or exhaustion. “I love you, Hawk,” she says.
She pushes herself up and I meet her halfway until our mouths are locked together again. She’s kissing me as if she hasn't been touched in ages and I’m her only salvation. It’s not until she’s had her fill and she pulls away that I can tell her what’s been burning in my chest since the day she walked into my restaurant.
“Lo, I love you too.”
Epilogue
Lotus
It’s been three months since Darren found me. Once he was put into police custody and charged with kidnapping and two counts of attempted murder, I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about him again. Plus, Hawk and his club members passed along a threat of their own.
If Darren shows his face again anywhere near me, his body parts will be spread out so far it’d take years for the authorities to find them all.
I’ve moved in with Hawk. Camila and Jonus are still rooming together, and the new girl took over my room. She’s also splitting some of my shifts at the restaurant while I attend night classes to become a nurse. I’ve always liked helping people and seeing the need for more mental health services has driven me to want to serve.
It used to be that when I wasn’t at work, I was hiding out in my apartment. Now I barely have time to be alone. When I’m not working or going to school, I’m with Hawk. We spend most of our time together alone, laying around in bed, making love, or telling each other stories from our childhoods.
He’s opening up to me more each day. I finally learned what the tattoos are for. He has one for each brother or sister he lost while in the foster care system, and for each member of his squadron who didn’t make it home. There are close to two dozen of them all together. I can’t imagine the grief of losing that many people, but Hawk is letting me in and I believe it is helping him heal.
As for me, I’m also dealing with my past demons. I’ve started talking with my mother again, at Hawk’s urging, and I’m learning she’s going through her own mental hell. When my father died, she stopped living, and that’s why she struggles so much now.
Tonight, I’m at the clubhouse with Hawk. Tomorrow we’re leaving on a road trip to meet my mother and search out a community where she’d be better looked after. It’s all Hawk’s idea.
I haven’t had much time with him tonight. He’s popular around the club. I’ve spent most of the night sitting at a table with the patched members’ ol’ladies as they grill me on how I finally cracked the guy who wouldn’t open up to anyone.
“It wasn’t hard,” I tell them, before taking up my beer bottle and drowning my throat in beer. Hard is an understatement, but that’s a conversation for Hawk and me in private.
“Well, I don’t know how you did it, but I’m glad you did,” Everly says. She’s Gunner’s daughter and married to one of the patched members. Hawk told me gaining her approval was the equivalent of earning a patch for the guys. “Though some of the member’s aren’t too happy about it.”
My ears perk up and I drop my bottle to the table. “Why?” I ask in all my innocent arrogance.
Bree is sitting beside me. She belongs to the president, Bear. “It’s not a bad thing if you ask me. Men with nothing to fight for are far more volatile, and Hawk as a loose cannon isn’t something most of us care to experience again.”
“Was he that bad?” I almost wish I could take the question back as soon as I ask it.
Everly answers. “Bad...is relative. But I do have to agree. The new Hawk is so much better than the old one.”
I don’t say it, but I agree as well. When I think back to all those times we watched each other from opposite sides of the restaurant when we could have been together, it reminds me how stubborn we both are and how we almost let each other slip away.
I won’t take him for granted again. Hawk is watching me from across the club bar again tonight. He’s at a table with the rest of the club’s officers, but his attention is on me. I can’t stop thinking about tonight, like every other night since I moved in. He’ll have those large, rough hands all over me. His mouth will cover every inch of my body. And when we’re in the heat of passion, he’ll pull me up to him and he’ll whisper in my ear that he loves me.
This huge motorcycle club alpha male loves me, and it makes my world complete.