Hawk

by Tiya Rayne

I roll my eyes at the back of his head. Walker unfastens his seatbelt, then mine. He leans across the console and turns me toward him, placing a kiss on my lips.

  “You know I love you, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you have to know that I won’t let anything happen to you as long as I’m alive. Do you understand?” I nod. “I need to hear you say it.”

  I grin. “Yes.”

  “Good, when I tell you to, I want you to shoot.”

  “To what?” I shout. “Do you remember what happened the last time I shot at someone? I closed my eyes.” I remind him in case he didn’t remember.

  He smiles. “You can do it. I’ll be right here helping you. You will back up Zel. I know you can do this.”

  “Why can’t you do it?”

  He drops a quick kiss on my lips and smiles. “Because I know you can do it.”

  Okay, I’m convinced, his Church superpower is his good looks. This man has me believing that I will be useful in a fucking shoot out. And even though my head is telling me this is stupid, and you can’t do it, looking at the confidence he has in his eyes has me reaching for the gun.

  Walker gives me a quick rundown on how to shoot the gun.

  “Here we go,” Zel announces.

  I have only a second to prepare before glass starts to fly from the back window. Bullets rain down on the outside of the SUV like a thunderstorm. I don’t panic.

  I take a calming breath as I think about my sister. She did everything she could to make sure that I was taken care of and could find her killers. I owe her this moment.

  I turn to the back window and start shooting—with my eyes open of course. My first few bullets only hit the hood of the car. I shoot a few rounds, before Zel yells, “incoming.” Walker yanks me down into the seat. At that moment the window beside my head shatters.

  I look to him with wide eyes and he winks. The Navigator that Steven was so proud to show us earlier, roars to life as he does his best to get us out of here. Zel is still shooting, but it feels like for every one shot he fires four are returned.

  “Focus on your target and shoot,” Walker says before releasing me and allowing me to get back to shooting.

  The black SUV is still behind us. This time instead of shooting at anything like a crazy person, I take my time finding the perfect opening. I shoot and the bullet flies through the window, hitting the man in the passenger seat. He drops his gun and slumps over.

  “Oh fuck,” I cheer. “I did it, Walker. I shot someone.” He smiles proudly back at me.

  “Great,” Zel says from the front seat, he fires once more and takes out the driver. The SUV swerves off the road and hits the curb before coming to a stop. “You got one to my four.”

  I roll my eyes at him. I don’t argue. I’m glad to have even survived this situation. At that moment, more bullets ping against our Navigator.

  “What the hell?” I shout ducking as Walker covers me with his body.

  “Another SUV just pulled up. Four this time,” Zel shouts and starts back shooting. I lift and get back into position in time to spot the SUV gaining on us. I take aim and shoot again.

  “Steven, I need you to drive this car,” Walker calls out over the noise.

  “I’m trying, Mr. Walker. Traffic is bad.”

  “He’s never going to get us out of this by outrunning them,” Zel declares in between shooting. “We need to switch it up. Have you ever played chicken?” he directs his question to Steven.

  Both Steven and I reply. “What?” That seems like the opposite of what we should be doing.

  “He’s right, find a spot to turn around.”

  “I want it to go on record that I don’t think this is a good idea,” I say while firing at the SUV behind us, hitting the front taillight.

  “Noted,” Zel calls back to me.

  We make a sudden U-turn, causing me to tumble over to Walker’s side. The gunshots stop pinging against the car.

  “Go, Steven, go,” Zel yells.

  The Navigator is slow to get moving, but when it does, it jars me a little almost knocking me back. Walker grabs me, holding me up.

  “Get ready,” he says in my ear.

  The guns go off again.

  “Turn,” Zel shouts.

  The car makes a sharp turn, nearly knocking me back into Walker. I push up and aim my gun out the side of the window and fire. I look down and spot Zel hanging out the passenger side.

  He’s turned upside down, his back pressed to the outside of the car door. He’s hanging on by the back of his knees. He aims the gun at the trailing vehicle. Looking at the way his body is twisted and hanging out the car window like a candy cane on a tree, I realize what his superpower is.

  “He’s a contortionist,” I smile proudly.

  “Which is why his code name is Pretzel.”

  I’m guessing they ran out of cool code names.

  “I got a shot,” Zel says over the noise.

  “Take it,” Walker demands.

  I try to figure out what shot he has, but then his gun goes off and the bullet hits the gas tank of the vehicle chasing us. I realize his intention at the exact moment the SUV goes up in a deafening explosion.

  “Oh shit,” Steven swears like he’s singing a song.

  Walker yanks me back into the Navigator so hard I fall down onto the floor.

  “Keep going,” Walker yells. Zel climbs back into the car and Steven speeds off.

  “Come on, baby, get up.” Walker reaches down to the floorboard to help me off the floor.

  I get to my seat and reach over to immediately wrap my hands around his neck, tucking my face in. We did it. We kicked ass and we survived. I like to think my sister is smiling down from heaven at me. She would be proud.

  “You all right?” he asks, pulling away from me to look down into my face.

  My face aches from the big ass grin I have on it. “I shot someone in a car chase.”

  Walker laughs. “I’m proud of you, baby. Now put your seatbelt back on.” We both reach around us to fasten our seatbelts.

  I know that this isn’t over. As long as I’m with Walker and the Church is after me, this will never be over.

  “Did you see that?” Steven asks excitedly. “That was incredible.”

  “That was a pretty common day in my world,” Zel adds, sounding not the least bit worked up.

  “Are you guys like spies or something?”

  “Or something,” Zel teases.

  “Hey,” Walker draws my attention away from the two in the front seat. I turn to him and look up into those beautiful eyes. “I love you.”

  He’s said this before and each time he says it my heart melts more and more for this man. Even though we’re going through this hell, I don’t think I’d rather be with anyone else.

  “I love you t—”

  I don’t know what comes first, the screaming, the screeching of metal, or the sudden jerk that flips the Navigator over like a pancake.

  I think I blackout, but when I come to there’s excruciating pain on the side of my head. I place a tentative hand to the throbbing at my left temple and it comes away bloody.

  “Walker,” I call out his name but get no reply.

  The SUV is turned upside down. I’m finding it hard to get my bearings. I fumble with my seatbelt, noticing the soreness in my limbs and chest.

  Finally unclasping the belt, I tumble to the roof of the car, landing awkwardly on my neck and shoulder. Pain shoots through my achy body. My hand scrapes against broken glass. I look up and find Walker hanging from the seatbelt the same way I was.

  “Walker,” I cry out. “Walker, baby.”

  A sob rips from my lips. I close my eyes to fight the gruesome sight before me. His body hangs lifelessly. He’s bleeding from somewhere. Blood drips down from his face beneath his long hair.

  It has fallen free of the low ponytail and falls like a curtain around his face. His body is so still. I have never felt so much pain.

  I was deva
stated when my sister died. I felt hollow like it wasn’t real, but this feels so different. A pain so sharp it steals my breath, causes me to grasp my stomach.

  I finally found the one, he checked all the boxes on my list. Even with that horrible joke, he was perfect. And now he’s gone.

  My heart races. “Walker,” I sob, wanting to touch him but afraid. “Please answer me.” Still, only silence greets me. The crunching of glass precedes the door behind me opening.

  Someone grabs me, but I fight. I don’t want to be helped. I want Walker. I want him to lift his head and tilt it to the side the way he always does before giving me a smile.

  I’m tugged out of the vehicle. People are starting to congregate around the wreck. They all have that look on their face, the one where you’re looking at something that’s hard to see, but you can’t turn away.

  It looks like our SUV wasn’t the only one affected by the wreck. The red truck is completely destroyed. The entire front end is smashed in, pieces of it broken across the street.

  I spot Steven, still behind the wheel of the car. He too isn’t moving. My chest aches for him. Poor guy was only involved because he was doing his job.

  As I’m dragged away from the wreck, I look past Steven’s body to my left and lying in the street about a foot away from the car is Zel. Blood surrounds his head and the way his body lays lifelessly makes me believe he too is dead. I only met him a few hours ago, but he felt like family.

  In the distance, I can hear the sounds of an ambulance, but instead of taking me toward the sound, the person is pulling me away. I finally turn to see who my rescuer is. I don’t recognize him, but from the blood on his forehead and the anger in his eyes, I know that his intentions with me are not good.

  I start to fight more. I don’t know where he’s taking me, but I imagine it’s nowhere I want to go. I yell for Walker, still praying and hoping beyond all hope that he will answer me. That he will climb out of that SUV and come for me.

  People are staring, but no one seems to be helping. A car comes to a screeching halt beside me. Dark tinted windows block my view of anyone inside. The back passenger door is opened and I’m shoved in so hard I bite my tongue. The door is shut, and I’m sped away from the body of the man I love.

  “That was fucking crazy,” someone from the front seat says.

  “Those fucking psychos needed to be taken down.” It’s that voice. That’s the one that has me pushing my bloodied hair out of my face and sitting up. “How you doing again, Brooklyn?”

  Detective Long looks back over the front seat at me. This time when my canvas pops up in my head, my paintbrush moves across it quickly creating fat lines. It paints a vision of Detective Long the first time I saw him at the hospital. The way he kept looking at me as we headed to the elevator.

  “It’s eerie. You look exactly like her.”

  I took his words to be harmless the first time I heard them, but as my brush recreates the picture, I can see the glimmer of recognition in his eyes. He wasn’t making that assumption from a body he had seen, no there was a deeper connection.

  The canvas changes and now my painting is of us in the security room. That long strand of straight hair on his shirt wasn’t a random strand. It was the same red as the wig I picked up in my sister’s apartment. It was a little lighter than mine and completely straight.

  The bandage under his eye that day—like maybe he was in a fight. Even that smell, the one I identified as cigarette smoke, but not regular cigarettes. It’s the same smell that was in the apartment. Walker picked it up too but didn’t know what it was. I was too distracted by everything else and the other scents that I couldn’t recognize it.

  The next canvas pops up and it’s the scene in the police station. The bandaged hand. It brings to mind the shattered picture on the wall. The picture I noted looked like a fist had gone through it.

  When my eyes pop open, it all makes sense to me. Detective Long killed my sister and he knew she had evidence that could link it back to who hired him. That’s why he was so concerned about what she sent me.

  I lose my shit. I fly over the front seat of the car and straight for his face. I claw and swing at the man as best I can. The guy in the backseat that dragged me to the car tries to get me off of him, but I’m clinging on like an angry cat.

  Detective Long howls in pain when I dig my nails in his eyes. A sharp prick to my shoulder has me feeling woozy. My body goes limp and the guy in the backseat pulls me back down.

  “Fucking Bitch,” Detective Long shouts. “She’s bat-shit crazy. She put up more fight than her fucking sister.”

  “Dude, you’re bleeding pretty bad,” the other guy in the front seat states.

  “Shut the fuck up, I think that bitch ripped my fucking ear off.” I didn’t, but I damn sure tried.

  My body becomes weaker and weaker, soon it’s hard to even keep my eyes open.

  “If she wakes up before we get her back to the house, you give her another shot.”

  Those are the last words I hear before sleep claims me.

  Chapter 24

  Head Pain

  Hawk

  Pain. That’s all I feel. Pain and the gnawing urge to touch Brooklyn. I try to recognize my surroundings. It’s difficult when all of my attention goes to the excruciating throbbing in my head. It feels like someone is trying to drill their way out of my skull.

  “Brooklyn,” I groan. I will worry about the pain later. I need her. I need to touch her and know she’s okay.

  “Oh my god, I think he’s alive,” a female voice says.

  “Quick, help me get this door open.” This time it’s a male voice.

  “Where is she, where’s my wife?” The joy of saying that out loud doesn’t feel as good in this moment.

  “I think he’s asking about the woman.” It’s the female voice again.

  I wait, hoping they will answer my question, but they don’t. More sound starts to slowly register. An ambulance is close. Water is rushing somewhere in the distance.

  Someone nearby is crying. Is it Brooklyn? Is she hurt?

  “Brooklyn, baby, answer me,” I call out again.

  “Dude, she’s gone.” The woman again. “They took her.”

  Overpowering fear takes me. So much so, I no longer feel my injuries. She’s gone.

  I think I knew it the moment I woke up. I need to get out of here and find her. I made a vow. I’m not going to go back on it. As long as I’m breathing, I will protect her.

  “Hey, watch it,” another male voice calls out.

  “I will blow your fucking brains out all over this damn street, you fucktard. That’s my brother in there,” Seth’s voice catches me off guard.

  “Twin?”

  “Yeah, Hawk, I’m here,” Seth replies then grunts out a curse.

  “Fuck, this door is not opening. Fucktard, come give me a hand with this.” Fucktard hesitates, earning the cocking of Seth’s gun, bringing a gasp from the crowd.

  “Do I need to ask you twice?” This gets the guy moving. The groaning of metal as the vehicle door is forced open, rings out before Seth’s grips my face with his hands turning it to him. I’m upside down in the SUV.

  “Damn, you look bad, brother.”

  “Get me out of here. I need to find her.”

  “I got you.”

  He let’s go of my face and reaches around me to release the seatbelt. I tumble forward, but he’s there to catch me. Seth places his hands under my arms and pulls me out of the car.

  “Where’s Zel?” I ask. He was with us in the car, but I have yet to hear his voice.

  “A crew is coming for him and your driver. They’re both hurt pretty bad.”

  My heart aches for my brother. I hope he pulls through. Zel is one of the decent ones. He wasn’t joking when he told Brook that she qualified more than him. If not for his contortionism, he wouldn’t have been in the Church.

  “I need to get you to my car. Come on, Fucktard, grab his legs.”

  “My
name is Jason.”

  “Do I look like I fucking care? Grab his feet.”

  Seth lifts me under my back, wrapping his arms around my chest. My aching head rolls to the side.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for the ambulance?” Jason asks a valid question as he grabs my feet.

  “I’m trying my best not to kill you. Don’t make it harder for me.”

  Jason realizes the threat in Seth’s voice and silently carries me to Seth’s car.

  “Open the door,” Seth demands of another bystander.

  The door opens and I’m gently placed in the backseat of Seth’s truck.

  “Did you see what happened?”

  “Yeah, I was standing right at the crosswalk,” Jason says. “Your friend’s car had the green light and right as it was under the light a red pick-up slammed into the side of it. It never even slowed down. It’s like it was aiming for it. Their car flipped, taking out three others and then this huge guy climbed out of the truck and took the girl out of the car. A few people have the entire thing on video.”

  I don’t worry about that last statement, by nightfall Lucien will have deleted it from everyone’s phone.

  “All right thanks. If anyone asks, you didn’t see where this guy went.” My door is shut and soon Seth climbs in the driver’s seat.

  “We’re going to get you patched up, and then we’re getting your girl back.”

  With those words, he speeds off and I fall into a painful sleep.

  Chapter 25

  Superpower

  Hawk

  “Fuck that hurts,” I say, gritting my teeth as Doc stitches up the gash in my forehead.

  Other than this wound, a few pieces of glass in my face and neck, and some soreness, I faired pretty well from the wreck. Seth hands me a glass of water and then three pills that I pop into my mouth.

  “That should knock the edge off.”

  We’re at my downtown loft. Not the one I took Brooklyn to, but the larger one that I spend most of my time at. This home is more set up to accommodate me.

  Had I brought her here, she would have quickly guessed my superpower. I smile to myself at the thought of her calling our quirks superpowers.