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

by Lila Rose

  There was just something about the woman in the living room that bloody touched us all.

  Shaking my thoughts away, I walked out of the kitchen down the hall, past the bedrooms and bathroom and into the living room to find Willow still sitting on the couch. Her eyes were on the hallway, waiting, watching for someone to come back. I couldn’t help but see her shoulders sag in…relief, maybe, when she saw it was me.

  Christ.

  Her soulful eyes did something to me, to my heart, making it beat faster, making it want to take a chance.

  Fuck, you can’t, dickhead. Look at what happened last time.

  My hand went to the back of my neck and I rubbed it, trying to erase the sudden thoughts from my head.

  “You, ah, need a hand to the bathroom?” I asked Willow, distracting myself. She nodded and gave me a small smile that somehow sent a message to my dick to harden.

  Fuck.

  Walking up to her without words, I slid one hand under her legs as the other went to her back. I picked her small body up with ease and made my way down the hall while my cock thought it was party time and grew even harder.

  Control your fuckin’ self.

  The bathroom door in the hall was already open and I could hear water running. I took a step in to see Josie leaning in, fixing the water pressure on the shower.

  She glanced over her shoulder and smiled before saying, “Thanks, Dodge. Please set Willow on the toilet and I’ll help her from here.”

  I paused for a moment, because I liked the thought of me being the one to help her naked body in the shower, to wash away her troubles, but then my dick jerked under my jeans. I quickly placed her on the toilet. She looked up at me and uttered, “Thank you…for everything.”

  “Uh-huh,” was my awesome reply. Stupid idiot.

  Turning, I found Dive leaning against the doorframe. “If you ladies need any help in here, I’m totally up for it.” He smiled but then the grin faded a little when he saw my glare. I started for him, and he quickly backed out and yelled, “Or not! Nope, I’m not helping at all, so don’t ask.”

  Before leaving, I spun around and eyed Willow, who was already looking at me. “I need a favour,” I said.

  “Yes, anything.”

  “I want your cousin’s address.”

  Her eyes widened, and her hand went to her throat. “But…”

  “Little bird, don’t protect that scum. Give it to me.”

  “No,”—she shook her head—“I would never protect him, not after…but you could get hurt.” She nervously looked to the floor. My eyes glanced over at Josie to see her smiling then looked back at Willow.

  Her words shocked the fuck outta me. She was worried I’d be hurt.

  “Willow,” Josie began. “Dodge will be fine. He’ll have brothers at his back. He won’t go in it alone. It’s not how they work.” She reassured the worried Willow, who still looked unsure as she bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brow.

  “Promise things will go smoothly,” I offered.

  She looked up at me and nodded, then rattled off the address. My blood pumped hard in my body, causing my heart to tick faster; I was excited to hurt the fucking cousin, and hoped it would lead me to the cunt who wanted to buy her.

  With a chin lift, I said, “You’ll be safe here. Billy and Dive are staying.”

  “Pick’s going with you?” Josie asked.

  “Yeah, and he’s ringin’ in Dallas.” She gave me a nod and I walked out of the room, listening to the door close behind me.

  We stopped our Harleys a block away, just in case the dick did have friends with him. We wanted to go in quiet to see what we’d be in for—before I blew his brains out. Dallas went left, Pick went right, and I went head-on. There was a car in the drive, but other than that, there was nothing else. It was hard to tell if anyone was home; all the blinds were shut tight.

  It crossed my mind it was a trap, but I wasn’t backing away. I knew Pick and Dallas would be close by, so I went for the front door and knocked.

  Nothing.

  I knocked again and then I heard footsteps.

  The door opened and in the doorway stood a skinny black fucker. His eyes widened and he took in my club vest. “Fuck,” he hissed.

  “You got that right.” I smiled and shoved him backward. I walked in, closed the door, and turned on the light to see Pick and Dallas already standing in the living room. Her cousin turned, spotted them and screamed like a bitch.

  “Look, I don’t know where the bitch got to!” he yelled. “I’m looking for her as fast as I can, but you fuckers keep turning up and wasting my time.”

  So there were more hounding him.

  We watched him study us. “Wait…fuck, fuck, fuck. You got nothing to do with the deal, do youse?”

  “No, but we want to know who you are dealing with.”

  He backed up into the wall. “No, no. I can’t say or they’ll kill me.” I got close and drew out my knife from my belt at the back of my pants.

  “And you think we won’t?” I snarled.

  He shook his head. “No.” The dick actually smiled. His eyes flicked to my patch and then back to my face. “I’ve heard about the Hawks MC. Youse don’t deal in trouble.”

  “Wrong.” It was my turn to smile before I forced my blade into his wrist against the wall. His scream was blocked off by Dallas’s hand over his mouth. “Most of the members don’t feel the need to deal in trouble because they have us to do it for them. You heard of the enforcers for the club?”

  He shook his head. Tears fell down his cheeks and dripped onto Dallas’s hand. “No?” I asked. “A pity, because that’s who we are.” I gave a chin lift to Dallas. He removed his hand and supported the guy’s weight against the wall with an arm across his chest. I held the knife in place while blood pooled on the floor and dripped from his wrist.

  “W-why are you gettin’ involved?” the dick asked, sweat coating his forehead.

  “We don’t like cunts selling women.”

  “I needed the money!” he yelled. “She fucking deserved it. She had to pay me back for taking her in in some way.”

  “So you sold her?” I boomed.

  “Dodge,” Pick warned.

  Taking a deep breath, I moved the knife up slowly, cutting through muscle, skin and tendons. The guy whimpered in agony. “Stop, stop. I’ll tell you.” His eyes closed, his breath came hard, but then he opened his eyes. “Wait, you know where she is.”

  “Tell us who bought her,” I demanded through clenched teeth.

  Pain laced his words, but he was still cocky. “You do, you have her,” he said.

  Removing the knife, I quickly placed it back in, only in his shoulder, causing him to scream once again.

  “Tell me,” I hissed.

  “The Venom MC, someone from there.”

  Fuck, we’d guessed they’d been involved already.

  “His name?” Pick asked.

  “I don’t know. He wouldn’t give it. I was happy I paid off my debts. I didn’t care about anything else.”

  “See,” I started then shook my head before stepping back, removing my knife and pulling my gun with added silencer from my jeans. “That’s where you should have cared. No one ought to sell a member of their fuckin’ family out, no matter what,” I said calmly before aiming and shooting him right between the eyes.

  “Fuck,” Dallas growled. “Next time, give me notice before you shoot a fucker.” He turned to face me and I quickly hid my smirk. He was covered in brains and blood. “I’ll get out of the goddamn way.”

  “Sorry, brother,” I offered.

  “Sorry, my arse. You’ll pay for that, dickhead,” Dallas grumbled as he picked up the bottom of his tee and wiped his face with it. “How we gonna find the guy from Venom?”

  “We’ll figure something out. We always do. We’ll need to update Saxon and Lan with what’s gone down. Don’t want blowback for that shit,” Pick said, jutting his chin out towards the dead fucker slumped on the groun
d. “For now, let’s get outta here and back to the women.”

  “Gotta meet this bird if it’s causing Dodge to act like a crazy man.”

  “What the fuck you talking about? I’m always crazy.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, true that. Lucky you like violence as much as me or I’d have to wonder about you.” He started for the back door. “I’m going home for a shower. Meet at your house, brother. Gather the others.”

  “Done,” I said.

  Yeah, violence was what I enjoyed, especially if it kept the trouble from touching my brothers and family.

  So what was Willow?

  Fuck if I knew.

  Chapter Seven

  Willow

  When Josie helped me into the shower, embarrassment heated my cheeks. I hated feeling so vulnerable, but I also knew better than to refuse help when I needed it the most. My reality was I was unable to handle washing away my own blood. My feet were raw, so I ended up sitting in the bottom of the shower and let the water run over my sore body. Josie, the beautiful, sweet woman I’d just met, hopped in the shower and took care of my feet. Dirt, rocks and glass clanged to the bottom of the shower floor as I grimaced, whimpered and cried when the pain got too much. Still, I knew I had to get them clean to heal.

  While she took care of me, she talked, offering me comfort and distraction. She told me about her horrid story in life, and all I could think of was my sad excuse of a story in comparison. Hers was gut-wrenching and devastating. Yet, I was complaining about mine. I wasn’t abused or beaten. I was simply forgotten. I wanted to cry for her, and had the urge to get up and get out of their lives because they’d suffered enough. Yet there I was, bringing more crap onto their doorstep just when it had changed dramatically, and in a very good way.

  When her two men took hold of her, the love she had for them was written on her face, smiling dreamily when she spoke of them both. She didn’t even deviate to one or the other… No, she loved them both with everything she had.

  I wanted that.

  I’d wished for it many times, but it never happened. Nor had I ever felt the urge to open my heart to anyone.

  Even with that, though, my mind kept one name present: Dodge. I could see myself falling for him; it would be easy to. He’d helped me and he was willing to keep me safe. Not only that, but he was as hot as hell.

  But, I couldn’t trust it, not after my own family taught me trust was a fantasy.

  Trust would leave me damaged.

  And I knew Dodge could hurt me in a way I would stay broken forever.

  After the shower, she wrapped my feet in bandages and placed a towel around me. Then she called to Billy to carry me from the room to a bedroom where he placed me on the bed.

  “Dive, get her a drink, something strong. She needs sleep,” Billy ordered. I looked around him to see Dive standing in the doorway. He gave a chin lift to Billy and disappeared from sight.

  When Dive returned, I drank greedily, enjoying the burn down my throat and the warmth in my belly while Josie found me boxers and a tee to wear. After finishing my drink, I dressed and then curled up in the bed with the blanket over me, closing my eyes.

  Only, I couldn’t sleep.

  I faked it. I relaxed my body so Josie, who sat next to me on the bed, would think I was asleep. Eventually, she did.

  “Sweetheart?” Billy’s voice said to the room.

  God. God, I liked that, the softness in his voice when he spoke to his woman.

  “Coming,” Josie whispered. The bed shifted and a moment later, the door shut. I opened my eyes and stared at the cracks in the blinds, thinking I wanted to be out there, in the sun, soaking up the rays.

  Warmth to my chilled body sounded good. Even though it was a hot day, even though the house was set to a nice temperature, I was chilled to the bone.

  Why? I regretted hiding in the garage of Dodge’s work. I regretted him finding me, and more than anything, I regretted bringing trouble to them.

  I wished I had the courage to sneak out of the house, had the courage to run and take the world on with my own hands.

  The courage to fight back.

  The whole fucked-up, unrealistic situation was vile and it made me feel sick to my stomach.

  A sob caught in my throat. I planted my face into the pillow so no one would hear my anguish at how pathetic I had become. My inability to take control, to have the life I thought I deserved all rolled into that. Pathetic. And I despised myself for feeling it.

  If it wasn’t my family wrecking my life… I paused with that thought, even more frustrated. It was what I was doing to others, to the people trying to help me.

  It wasn’t fair, none of it, yet there I was, too scared to do anything about it.

  I was weak.

  Nothing.

  Not sure how long I cried for, I just kept going. Eventually, too exhausted to do anything, I fell into a deep sleep. I knew when I woke, I had to do something to fix what’d I’d done, to take their new crap—my crap—out of their lives.

  Dodge

  As soon as I walked through my front door, my eyes sought out Willow. She wasn’t in the living room where Billy, Josie, and Dive were sitting. Josie’s wide eyes were on my hands that were covered in blood.

  “Dodge?” she questioned.

  “S’okay, not mine.”

  The tough woman nodded. When her eyes landed on her other man behind me, she was off the couch in seconds and in his arms. “She’s in the spare room, sleeping,” Josie offered the answer to the question on my mind.

  Moving away from the entrance, I made my way down the hall and into the bathroom. I should have thought. I should have fuckin’ thought before coming into the house with blood still on my hands. If Willow had been out there, it would have freaked her the fuck out.

  Once clean, I walked back into the living room, fighting with my mind the whole damned time not to go searchin’ for Low.

  As soon as I entered, Pick said, “Called in Saxon, Memphis and Lan. They’ll be here soon.”

  “Good,” I said with a chin lift.

  “Brother,” Dive caught my attention and offered a bottle of beer.

  “‘Preciate it,” I said then walked to the couch, planting my arse on it before taking a long swig of the cool beer.

  “Done?” Billy was the first to ask.

  “Yep. Call Cracker, can you? He needs to get a team together and to that address, clean-up is needed.”

  Josie cleared her throat. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that shit with her in the room, but from the look on her face, she wasn’t fazed I’d just taken a fucker out. Instead, she looked worried about something.

  “I think…I’m not sure, but I think I stuffed up with Willow.”

  Sitting up, I rested my elbows on my knees and asked, “How?”

  “Um…” she started, still standing in Pick’s arms just inside the door.

  Billy butted in, seeing his woman lookin’ uncomfortable. “She told Willow about her past and she reckons Willow took it in the wrong way.”

  “She did,” Josie said. “I saw it in her eyes, the guilt. She probably thinks her stuff isn’t as bad as what I went through, and I think now…I think she’s regretting showing up at the garage.” Her arms wound around Pick’s waist. “She’ll try to leave so her situation doesn’t touch us for long.”

  “Babe,” Billy started.

  “No. I know, Eli. I saw it in her eyes, she feels guilty for throwing this on all of us, but she doesn’t get that we’d want to help her regardless of our pasts.” Her eyes came to me. “You’ll need to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t run and get caught by them.”

  With a stiff nod, I said, “I will.”

  A phone rang. Pick pulled it out of his back pocket and touched a button before putting it to his ear. “Yo.” His eyes went wide for a second before narrowing. “Be there.” He hissed and shut the phone down. “Dive and I’ll stay here with the women. But brothers, you got a situation at the compound. Before Memphis a
nd Sax could leave, a fucker from Venom turned up. He’s trying to get some business from us.”

  “Stupid fuck,” Billy growled.

  “Let’s get gone,” I barked. “Pick, call Dallas and redirect him to the compound.”

  “Done.”

  Thank fuck the compound wasn’t far. As soon as we pulled in on our rides, we saw the stand-off out front. Memphis, with Sax, Handle, Beast and Pride, all stood in front of the garage looking tense and pissed while they faced Blackie, an older member of Venom. He had some of his brothers with him. What in the hell was goin’ on?

  We climbed off our bikes and walked over, standing at the side of the situation. “What’s down?” I asked.

  Blackie smirked at Memphis then turned his eyes to me. “You call in your enforcer on us, old man? Can’t take care of your own business?”

  “I’ve already said no a million fuckin’ times over. You ain’t listenin’ with your ears, you little shit,” Memphis snarled.

  Billy made a noise beside me. I chanced a quick glance and saw his eyes were on one of Blackie’s brothers, but he quickly moved them away.

  “What do you want, dickie?”

  “Blackie,” he bit out.

  “Sorry, forgot.” I smirked.

  “Youse are the only good mechanics here. We just want someone lookin’ and fixin’ our bikes.” Like fuck he did. Total bullshit.

  “Get stuffed, dickhead,” Billy said with a chuckle. “This is our turf. The rules fuckin’ state you don’t come this side of town unless you want war. Now why in the fuck are you really here?”

  Blackie laughed. “Okay, you got me. I wouldn’t want any of you bitches working on my girl.” He gave a chin lift in Memphis’s direction, but his eyes were on me. “Heard you were in a friend’s business earlier today. He asked me to deliver a message. Keep out of it or things will get ugly.”

  My body froze solid.

  Willow.

  I got a step at him before Saxon stepped in front of me. I warned, “You better fuckin’ not be involved in that sick shit, Blackie, or your life will be mine to take out.”

  “Oh, I’m not.” He smiled. “However, someone I know and respect is, and he ain’t happy you ruined his plans for the black bitch.”