Jesse drops his voice to a whisper, as if there were someone else in the truck to overhear them. “Josh’s going to give Hawk part of the business, part of The Shop.”
Melissa’s smile spreads wide, as her eyes blink in shock. She’d known that Hawk was saving up to buy a share of the body shop that he loved so much, but she’d had no idea that Josh was ready to just give it away. It wasn’t hard to figure out why Josh would do that with something that he had invested his entire adult life in. Hawk was like a son to him, the son that he never had, and Hawk looked up to him. It made perfect sense that Josh would want Hawk to have part of his business.
“Hawk might have a hard time accepting it as a gift.” Melissa smiles wryly, just imagining the good-natured argument that would break out between them; Hawk telling Josh that he wants to earn what he gets, and Josh telling him that he’s more stubborn than a mule.
“That’s between them. They’re both as bad as each other.” Jesse chuckles, clearly picturing the same scene. As they pull into the lot in front of the shop, Jesse turns serious. “You won’t say anything, will you?”
Melissa smiles reassuringly at the nervous man next to her. “I won’t say a word, Jesse.” She watches as his shoulders relax, wondering how many more secrets she was going to have to keep; she was starting to lose track.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The tension in The Shop is clear as soon as Melissa walks through the door. It’s as if the air itself is charged with all the things that aren’t being said. Her gaze flicks to Hawk, who is crouched over the hood of a car and doing his best to ignore Wes—who seems to be doing his best to ingratiate himself to Hawk. Josh, standing at a distance, looks on at the two of them, and the expression on his face tells her that Hawk isn’t the only one who seems to want to do some permanent damage to Wes.
“And man, she was so fine; you should’ve seen her.” Wes is practically bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, trying to engage Hawk in a story that he clearly has no interest in. Wes had never been particularly good at reading body language, and time didn’t seem to have changed that.
Hawk grunts something noncommittal, but it’s enough encouragement for Wes to carry on. “The girl was stacked, you know, man, curves in all the right places, and she was nasty, really nasty.” He smiles lasciviously, and Melissa feels her stomach roll. He keeps rubbing his nose, as if there’s an itch that he can’t get rid of, and his eyes can’t seem to concentrate on just one thing. “So I turned her round and she was all like, ‘No, Wes, no’ but I knew that she wanted it. You know what I’m saying? So I pushed her over the chair and—”
“Melissa!” Josh’s voice rings out loudly from across the shop. Hawk stands up abruptly, banging the back of his head on the bonnet of the car and cursing loudly, rubbing at the sensitive spot, as he moves from glaring at Wes to smiling broadly at her. Melissa watches as Wes’s gaze swings towards her, panic in his eyes before he smoothes his features into something more neutral. “Good to see you, doll.” Josh is by her side in the matter of a few seconds, guiding her away from the two men and towards the office, closing the door behind her.
“Am I in trouble?” Melissa looks around the office, the space where she’s used to seeing Josh agonizing over accounts. In all the times that she’s been to The Shop, she’s never seen the door closed. This was a first.
“No, but I will be if I don’t do something about that boy in there.” Josh jerks his head outside, and it’s clear who he’s talking about. “It makes me sick that he’s still working here, shooting the shit as if nothing has happened. But I can’t just fire him; he’ll know something’s up. He might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he’s not an idiot!”
“We’re working on it, Josh. It’s just going to take a little time to get Wes out of here.” Melissa makes a calming gesture with her hands, something she’s been doing almost as much as she’s been keeping secrets recently.
“We don’t have time, Melissa.” Josh gives her a meaningful stare before looking away.
Melissa’s internal alarm system goes from orange to red. “What do you mean?”
Josh sighs deeply, clearly about to tell her something that he doesn’t relish in the least. “There’s a deal that’s going down soon. I don’t know exactly when, but it’s going to be soon.”
Melissa’s eyes widen, understanding the significance immediately. If a drug deal happens and Wes is there to witness it, then they’re just giving him more fodder for his article—and not only that, it’ll be cold, hard evidence of illegal activity. It’ll be all that he needs to bury the Kings.
“You have to tell them that they can’t do it now. They’ll have to wait until we’ve figured something out with Wes.” Melissa does her best to be practical, but Josh is already shaking his head and her voice trails off.
“I can’t, Melissa. It’s not as easy as that.” Josh rubs his graying temples, looking more tired than Melissa has ever seen him. “All I know is that the deal is either happening here or at the bar, because that’s all I need to know. That’s why things have worked so well for the Kings for so long; everyone only knows their part in all of this. If no one knows the whole plan, then no one person can rat out the club.”
Melissa nods in understanding. It’s an elegant system and makes perfect sense for the club to have a self-preservation tactic.
“So what’s your part in all this?” Melissa realizes that she probably doesn’t really want to know how deep Josh is in with the less kosher aspects of the club, but the time for skirting around things has long since passed.
“I just have to be ready to take the delivery when it arrives, if it arrives.” Josh shrugs, telling Melissa that’s all he’s willing to tell her, probably partly for her own safety. As Hawk had repeatedly told her, the less she knows the better. But is that how she can live, she wonders, never knowing what dangerous mission Hawk is on, always worrying about him, speaking in code, and never being able to ask, ‘How was your day, honey?’ and get an honest answer.
“Melissa.” Josh interrupts her thoughts that are stretching too far into the future.
“I’ll talk to Wes.” The words are out of her mouth before she realizes that she’s actually made that decision. Josh raises an eyebrow, clearly thinking about exactly what Hawk would have to say about that. Melissa waves away his worry. “Hawk and I have talked about it; he told me that I could help.” She chooses not to explain exactly what that ‘talk’ had consisted of. “We need to find out how much Wes knows about the club, about its secrets. Until we do that, we won’t know how to deal with him, or how to get him out of The Shop and out of your hair.”
Josh considers her words, rubbing his temples again, weighing up the truth that she’s speaking alongside the anger that he knows he’ll have to deal with from Hawk. Reading his thoughts, Melissa settles a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Let me deal with Hawk. I’m not going to throw myself at Wes. Just have a little talk.”
Josh nods abruptly, as if he doesn’t want any more time to change his mind. As Melissa moves to the door, his voice stops her. “He cares about you, you know. He might be crappy at showing it sometimes, but that’s just the way we’re built, doll.” Josh shrugs helplessly. “We ride hard, and we love harder.”
Melissa feels herself blush, the twinkle in Josh’s eyes telling her that he’s witnessed her embarrassment. She nods, quickly scampering out of the office, not trusting her voice enough to speak, and not knowing what she would say even if she did. The ‘L’ word. It definitely deserves a capital. It was way too soon to use it for her and Hawk, wasn’t it? They’d only known each other for a couple of weeks, and they hadn’t exactly been the standard getting-to-know-you weeks that most relationships go through. They’d been thrown right into the deep end, all high intensity and passion. It wasn’t a standard start to a relationship, so why should she feel like any other part of it should be standard?
“Hey.” The object of her thoughts interrupts them, as she walks back onto t
he shop floor. Hawk stands in front of her, throwing a wrench back and forth between his hands.
“Hey.” Melissa stands awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of where their conversation the night before had left them.
“What was all that about?” He nods behind her towards the office where Josh had led her so unceremoniously.
Melissa’s eyes flick behind Hawk to see Wes standing close by, trying his best to look casual and failing miserably. She shakes her head very slightly at Hawk to signal that it isn’t something she can talk about now. “Nothing special, just about my car.” She shrugs, exuding a nonchalance that she hopes is at least a little more convincing than Wes.
She and Hawk stand there, a little awkwardly, neither sure of what to say or even what they can say when Wes is looking over their shoulders, a presence that neither of them can ignore.
“I wanted to talk to you.” Hawk gives her a meaningful look, as if to say that what he has to tell her can’t wait.
But Melissa still has his words from the night before burned into her brain. It’s bad enough being so close to him, knowing that he won’t touch her. But it’s worse knowing that she’s the one who has done this to herself, and now she is too damn stubborn to backtrack.
“Later?” She smiles at him to take the sting out of her brush-off, but it doesn’t seem to do the trick. She watches as Hawk’s features turn stony. “I actually wanted to have a chat with Wes.”
Hawk’s expression changes from stony to downright hostile, and Melissa is suddenly glad that his back is towards Wes so his anger at her words can’t be seen. Melissa stands her ground, looking straight back at him as if nothing were amiss. The last thing they need is for Wes to think that something is going on. She had come to speak to him to find out what he knows, what secrets he’s witnessed, not to tip him off that his cover has been blown. That would just send him running back to The Tribune even faster with everything that he knows, and it could only spell disaster for the Kings.
Hawk makes a noncommittal sound and turns back to the car that he was working on when Melissa arrived, signaling an end to the conversation. Melissa has to resist the urge to reach out and touch him, to share what Josh had told her, and to ask him why he hadn’t told her anything about the fact that he was about to get patched. But now isn’t the time for that; now is the time for doing whatever she can to save the Kings.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Melissa tries to shake off the cold shoulder that Hawk has just given her and walks purposefully towards Wes—who is still trying to pretend that he hasn’t been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation while fiddling needlessly with tools in the toolbox. Wes throws her a slightly panicked look, as she approaches him, probably wondering if she’s about to call his bluff.
“Easy, Wes. I just want to talk.” Melissa keeps her voice low and her expression as calming as she can make it. She wants to put him at ease, not get his back up even more than it already is.
“What about?” His voice is barely above a whisper, and his gaze skirts around her to focus on Hawk, checking that he’s not paying attention to their little tête à tête.
“I just thought I’d see how you were holding up.” Melissa shrugs casually, leaning against the worktop next to Wes, invading his space.
He looks at her differently, as she edges towards him, as if he’s not trusting what it is that he’s seeing. “The other night at the bar, you didn’t seem to much care about how I was doing. What’s changed? What’s the catch?” He frowns at her, making sure he keeps his voice low so as not to attract unwanted attention.
Melissa shrugs, struggling to remain the look of indifference that she’s working and not grab Wes by his grease-stained overalls to shake some damn sense into him. “No catch. I just had some time to think about what you’d said. And I realized that you were right.” The words taste bitter in her mouth, but she knows they’re a necessity to gain his trust. Melissa leans even further towards him, just enough so that her loose hair falls between them, brushing against his arm. It’s pure manipulation, but Melissa has no intention of feeling bad about it. “I want to help you.” She hopes that her blue eyes don’t show the lie that she’s telling,
Wes gives her a long look, like he’s sizing her up or at least weighing up whether he should believe her or not. Melissa keeps her eyes trained on his, raising a teasing eyebrow. She has to swallow hard, as the expression on his face changes from suspicious to lascivious in one fell swoop.
“Nothing like a little trouble in paradise to make you question your life choices.” Wes gives a meaningful look behind her to where Hawk is buried under the hood of the car.
Melissa doesn’t bother to correct him. If he wants to believe that she and Hawk are on the outs and that’s the reason she wants to get back at the club, then let him. It’s as good a reason as any that she could come up with. But she can’t say that she doesn’t want to slap the self-satisfied smirk off of his face.
She smiles, hoping that it will go some way to cover the bitterness of the taste in her mouth. “I thought that we could compare notes. I’m sure I have a few things that might be…interesting to you.” She arches an eyebrow at him suggestively and is rewarded by Wes puffing his chest out like a proud peacock, before his expression turns guarded again.
“How do I know you wouldn’t just steal my notes and try to write your own article with all my hard work?” Wes crosses his arms over his chest and assesses her, as if he could tell just by looking at her.
Melissa struggles not to roll her eyes at Wes’s sense of completely overinflated sense of self-importance. Of course, he would think that she would try to profit from his work. It was exactly the kind of thing that he would do, never mind that Melissa would never dream of behaving like that.
“I don’t know, Wes. I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” She flutters her eyelashes at him, something that under any other circumstances would give her the heebie jeebies.
His grin spreads across his face, before he remembers where he is and looks around to check that there’s no one within hearing distance. “Alright, I’ll see you at the bar tomorrow night.”
Melissa gulps, remembering Josh’s words. She had to keep Wes away from the shop and away from the bar as best she could. At least in the body shop, Hawk and Josh were around to head off any potential problems at the pass, but the bar was open season. The rest of the Kings didn’t know that there was a reporter they had to worry about, which made everything far more complicated.
“I was thinking somewhere a little more private. How about my place?” Melissa bites her lip, trying not to dwell on how she would explain this to Hawk.
Wes shuffles a little closer to her, his eyes heated, and Melissa has to stop herself from stepping away from him. “That sounds good, Melissa, really good.” He smiles in a way that makes her toes curl. “But I think we should meet at the bar.” He reads the disappointment in her face as disappointment that there won’t be an opportunity for them to re-live old times. “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for some fun after.” He winks at her, and Melissa swallows hard, knowing exactly what Wes’s idea of fun comprises.
“After what?” She pouts prettily, figuring that flirting with him and playing to his ego is the best way to get the information she needs.
Wes leans in again, even closer to her this time, and his look turns serious. “I’ve heard there’s a deal going down. Drugs.”
Melissa licks her lips, wishing that she’d paid more attention in drama class. “Oh? Do you know when?”
She just manages to stop herself from breathing a sigh of relief, as he shakes his head. “All I know is that it’s happening soon. And when it does, I intend to be ready.”
“You have a source?” Melissa tries to come off casual, as if it were just a throwaway question, but she needn’t have bothered; Wes is already too busy enjoying the fact that he’s back in the position he loves, imparting his intelligence to the less fortunate.<
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“No. None of the Kings will turn on their club. You know that, Melissa.” He shakes his head at her as if she were an idiot. She bites down on the retort that’s on the tip of her tongue. “But I’ve overheard a few things here and there. It’s nothing concrete, but it’s enough to go on, and then when I have photographic proof of the deal, I won’t need any sources.”
Melissa blinks at him in shock. “You’re planning to take pictures? How are you going to get away with that? Don’t you think someone will notice?”
Wes shrugs, as if that were merely a minor hiccup in the plan. “If someone does, then I’ll deal with it.”
Melissa doesn’t bother to point out that Wes is about as capable of dealing with an angry group of Caged Kings as he is of wrestling a crocodile. Besides, she has seen that determined expression on his face before, when he’d told her that he was going to show his family that he didn’t need them and could make something of himself on his own. There was no way that he was going to back out of this, even if it meant hurting everyone around him and potentially even himself.
HAWK: The Caged Kings MC Page 19
