by Naomi West
She felt the orgasm build and gripped his hair in her hands as she came. She cried out loudly, not thinking of Damian asleep in the next room until after her head had stopped spinning.
He came back to her, a wide grin on his face. “I guess you liked it.”
“Mmm,” she murmured, barely able to form a sentence.
He kissed along her neck and down her chest to suck on her nipples while she took a moment to recover.
He moved his hand to rub her in slow circles. He pressed the tip of his dick against her, rubbing it around and spreading her wetness. Then he pushed in. She moaned and held a pillow over her face so that she wouldn’t wake the baby. He pounded her fast, bringing one of her legs up and sliding it over his shoulder. He leaned down to bend her knee more and he was able to push even deeper. She kept her face buried as she continued to cry out in pleasure.
“You feel so good,” he said.
He moved in a few slow circles, letting her calm just enough for the momentum to grow. She felt another orgasm building. She rocked up her hips to meet him. He slammed in harder and faster again, and she was coming in a few thrusts.
He cried out a moment later, then held in deep. She could feel his heartbeat in his cock as it rested inside her. She breathed hard, her mind reeling from the sensation. When he finally pulled out, he did so slowly. She felt entirely empty when he slipped all the way out. She wished he’d stayed in longer so she could feel that deep connection to him, that intimate coupling.
He curled around her and brought her to him, her back to his hot chest. The heat poured off him. His strong arms around her made her feel safe. She stopped worrying about the man who’d been in the house, or the warning written on the mirror. Hawk would protect her, and for the first time in her life, she thought that if something did happen, she would let him rather than trying to be the hero or feeling the need to protect herself. It was nice to have someone to be there, who she knew wouldn’t let her down.
She drifted off to sleep with the thought in her mind that she was falling for him, and that maybe she was okay with that.
Chapter 16
In the morning, after a long hour of cuddling, Alexa pulled away from him.
“Where are you going?” he asked, reaching for her.
“I have a ton of laundry to do. And dishes. My place is a mess. Maybe I’ll see you later?”
It was his day off. Though repos could be done almost any time, it was easier to take off when places like banks would be closed. They never sent new orders over the weekend anyway. He could do the ones that had piled up, and the cops would still be around if need be, but it was nothing that couldn’t wait until Monday, and he needed a day off.
He would see Alexa later, and in the meantime, he let himself wonder about the ominous threat on the mirror. He let himself wonder if it meant Alexa - it wouldn’t surprise him if she had some admirer that she’d never mentioned, or possibly that she didn’t even know about. But more likely it had something to do with the Charger or that Rucker guy. He’d been digging around in Hugh’s case.
His fingers twitched. If only he could get his hands on a gun. He’d shoot the guy himself and be done with it. Let the cops call Rucker’s murder a gang incident, too. Why not? If Rucker had gotten away with it, why shouldn’t he?
Except he had already done time for killing someone, and that would make him look even worse. He wondered what Alexa would do if she found out. If she knew she’d slept with someone, came to the house of someone, and lived so close to someone who had served years for killing his own father. Didn’t matter if he’d done it or not. The jury said he did, and that was all that had counted when it came to law. And Alexa belonged to that world.
He shook his head. Between Alex and Damian and Hugh life had become a maze. Before he knew it, he’d end up some kind of family man with a wife and a bunch of kids, a minivan and a to-do list on the weekends. He pictured that for a moment, then shook his head again.
Hawk pulled himself out of bed. Damian should be waking up soon. He got up and put on some clothes, then poked his head in the nursery. The baby was still sleeping soundly. Downstairs he headed to the computer, prepared to do some paperwork, when there was a knock on the door. Maybe Alexa had come back over. He got up and went to the door, not bothering to look out the window to see who it might be.
But it wasn’t Alexa. She had dark hair, long and dirty looking. She looked one step away from being on the streets. Her clothes were dirty and she needed makeup, and there was a tiredness about her.
“Can I help you?” he asked. He crossed his arms and took on a defensive stance.
She sniffed and wiped her nose. “I’m Jessica. I believe you have my son.”
Hawk’s stomach instantly tightened, and he was on his highest alert. “What son?”
“Damian? You have my baby.”
“No, I don’t.” He started to close the door, but she stuck out her hand.
“I’m his mother. He’s my baby, and I want to see him.”
“His mother is dead. Get out of here before I call the cops,” he snarled.
“No, please. I know what Hugh told you, but it’s not true. He said I was dead to him because of what I did. Please let me come in and explain.”
Hawk inspected the woman for a moment. He’d only met Damian’s mother once. It was not a bright room, and he hadn’t gotten the best look at her. When he’d gone over to Hugh’s, it was always late, and she was always upstairs passed out or asleep. She and Hugh had only been together a short time before she got pregnant.
Hugh and Jessica had lived together, sure. But she did little to take care of the baby or to help around the house. Their place was usually a dump, unless Hugh had cleaned up. She did the drugs he was trying to sell, and she got drugs from other sources. Hugh had guessed she was out sleeping around or selling herself, though she wouldn’t admit it. And because of that, he rarely slept with her. But all the same, Hawk tried to find recognition in this pitiful woman standing on his steps.
It could be possible. But it wouldn’t matter. He had legal custody of Damian. All the same he opened the door so she could enter. He gestured to the dining room table and told her to sit.
She stood by the table, hesitating, looking from him to the door and around the house. “I want to see my baby. Where is he?”
“No.” Hawk pulled out a chair and pointed. “First, you sit and explain. I was told his mother is dead. You’re going to have to convince me she’s not.”
The woman took a deep breath and sat, but almost missed the chair. Hawk raised an eyebrow.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “I just… I guess I’m so upset that I haven’t seen my baby in so long.”
“And why haven’t you?” He crossed his again, not liking the way the woman seemed to be fidgeting non-stop. She kept looking around, too.
“I was away. I needed some help. But I’m here now and I’m ready to be his mother. I’m a good mother. Hugh didn’t see that. He said I was dead to him, and he kicked me out. He wouldn’t let me see my baby. But now he’s gone, and Damian needs his mother.”
“Away where? Why would Hugh tell everyone you were dead if you weren’t?”
“He was mad at me. He didn’t want me doing drugs, and that’s where I was. I went to get help. I got help, and now I’m better. I’m clean and I’ve got a place. The only thing missing is my son.”
“He was mad, so he told everyone you were dead?” Hawk narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t buying it.
Her face softened. “Hawk. You know your brother’s temper. I wouldn’t do what he wanted for so long and he got sick of it. We had a huge fight and he said awful things to me. About how I wasn’t a good mother and I would never be if I was high all the time. Well, he was right. But I’m better now. I want to see my baby. Please, can I see him?”
She stood and held onto the table as she inched around it. Hawk stood, too, and got in her path. She was probably high now. Too flighty, too u
nstable, too fidgety to be straight. If she was his mother, she hadn’t cleaned up her act at all.
“I don’t believe you. Something isn’t right, here. What you’re saying about Hugh isn’t true at all. He didn’t have a temper. In fact, I thought he should have kicked out Damian’s mother long before he did. She was good for nothing.”
She thought for a moment, then said, “Did you go to the funeral?”
Hawk thought about lying. He hadn’t gone to the funeral. Neither had Hugh or Damian. She didn’t have much of one. Her mother showed up and her sister from what he’d heard. She’d screwed over everyone by the end of her short life. No one wanted to say goodbye. Hugh preferred to remember her how she was when he first met her. Healthy and vibrant.
“Yes,” Hawk said.
She smirked. “No, you didn’t. You don’t have to lie to me. It’s sweet, though.” She smiled and blinked her lashes at him. “I’m glad you’ve been taking such good care of my baby. You want to protect him. You make a great father.” She reached out and put her hand on his chest. “With you as a father and me as a mother, Damian could have a great life.”
She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. It took him a moment to realize what was going on and he pushed her back forcefully.
“What the hell?” It was a woman’s voice, angry and stunned.
Hawk’s head snapped to the left, to where Alexa stood in the hall, watching them.
“I’m gone for a few hours, and you hook up with someone else?” Alexa said, almost shrieking. Her lower lip shook.
Hawk’s heart lurched. “What? No!” He pushed the woman back and took off after Alexa, who was storming toward the door.
He almost ran outside after her, then thought better of it. There was no way he could leave this strange woman alone with the baby. He stomped back over to “Jessica” and grabbed her by the arm.
“Ouch!” she said as he pulled her toward the door. “You’re hurting me! Let go!”
“Get out of my house. Who do you think you are, coming here with some tall tale, trying to take my baby? Don’t ever come back here again.”
He opened the door and forcibly shoved her outside. She pounded on the closed door, begging.
“Please! Let me see my baby! He’s mine! I’m his mother!”
Hawk put his mouth close to the door. “I am calling the police right now. I suggest you leave immediately.”
“Hawk! No! I just want to see my baby. Please? Just for a minute? Then I’ll leave.”
He said loudly, “Hello, police?”
She banged her hand on the door one last time. “Just you wait, asshole. I’ll get my baby. And you’ll pay for this.”
The sudden angry turn in her voice made him peek out the window to see what she was doing. He wouldn’t put it past her to break a window. He watched her walk down the driveway and get in a beat up old Cavalier. The thing looked as messed up as she was. After she drove off and he was sure she wasn’t coming back he went into the nursery and picked up Damian.
He rushed over to Alexa’s and banged on the door. “Alexa! Please, let me explain.”
It occurred to him that he and Jessica had changed places, and now he was trying to convince someone of the truth.
“Please! It’s not what you think, I swear.”
Damian woke up with the noise and Hawk’s yelling. He started crying and Hawk tried to comfort him by rocking him.
She yanked open the door, hard. “Why did you bring him over here like this?”
She took the baby from him and let him in, then shut the door. She cooed at Damian, and he settled after a minute.
“You better explain,” she said. “And without yelling.”
Chapter 17
“She was a mad woman,” Hawk said as he finished explaining Jessica’s story, “she wanted to see the baby.”
Alexa’s eyes grew wide. A fear rose in her gut as she listened to the rest.
“I asked her questions, but she seemed so shady,” he said. “I wasn’t about to let her see Damian. She didn’t like me saying no, so she tried to use the one thing that probably usually works for her.” He looked disgusted.
“But his mother is dead, you said.”
“That’s what Hugh told me.”
“You don’t know for sure?”
He shook his head slowly. “I guess I don’t. The thing is, I didn’t see her much. Once or twice and she looked a lot different in the beginning, Hugh said. It might have been her, I don’t know. Hugh isn’t usually the type to say someone is dead if they aren’t, or do that whole ‘dead to me’ crap. I don’t buy that part at all. But I don’t know. Having a baby makes you do strange things. It changes you.”
He grew quiet for a moment, thinking.
“I get that. But can’t you look it up or something?” She tried to recall what information she had on Hugh’s ex. The name Jessica registered, but she couldn’t remember anything else. She hadn’t been around by the time Hugh died, so she wasn’t part of the investigation.
“I’m not even sure what her last name is. They didn’t have a good relationship.”
“Hmm. There might be something in the system. Some way they were connected, and some way we could get info on her. What are you going to do?”
“I’m not doing anything without a court order. He’s legally mine. The courts would have known if his mother was alive, wouldn’t they? They’d have his birth certificate or something, right?”
“You don’t have a copy?”
He pulled his lip into his mouth. “I don’t. I guess I need to get one.”
“If you’re his legal guardian, then yes, you need to have that. And yes, they would have tried to locate the biological parents first.”
“So, she has to be lying. It’s just not like Hugh to make up a story about her being dead. To lie and say he wasn’t going to the funeral and all that. He would have told me the truth. Even if he was lying about her death, he would have told me the truth.”
Alexa nodded. “Then let’s assume that woman wasn’t his mother. Who could she be, and what was she after?”
“I guess the baby. She’s connected to Hugh’s murder somehow and trying to get back at me. Maybe she’s with the guy who broke in and wrote on the mirror.”
“I’m worried about all this. I don’t like it at all.”
“Me either, the only things I know for certain are that I need to keep Damian away from her,” he winked, “and that I like you.”
He leaned forward and kissed her passionately. It was enough to make her heart race, and she had to remind herself she was holding the baby so she didn’t reach up and run her fingers through his hair.
“I like you, too,” she breathed when the kiss ended.
Her feelings for Hawk were growing. No denying that, especially after the sudden jealousy she felt seeing Damian’s so-called mother enter his house and kiss him. She was certain of Hawk’s loyalty, and of his innocence. At least as far as Hugh was concerned. That’s not the only charge on his record – there’s still the matter of his father, she thought.
Both of them were living a lie.
When the true of came out about who she was, would Hawk be able to handle it? How could she tell him that Hugh had been her informant? Or that she knew Rucker was a big time drug lord, that he’d been a top suspect, and that Hugh had been helping her find dirt on him? If he knew that, he might blame her for his death, and the idea he might never forgive her tore a her.
The way Hawk was looking at her, like he meant every word when he told her how important she was to him, made her quiver inside. She couldn’t hold onto this guilt of lying to him anymore. She hugged Damian close and took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to start.
His phone rang and he pulled his eyebrows together. “I’m sorry, I have to take this.”
He walked across the room and into the kitchen. Alexa talked to Damian and stood him up on her legs. She looked at his little face and a pang of pain shot through her. What if sh
e lost him and Hawk forever? The longer she waited, the worse it would be. She had to tell him now, and that was it.
“Can’t it wait? I have kind of a situation here.” Hawk’s voice lilted in from the other room, charged with anger. “Don’t make that threat to me. After all I’ve done for this MC?”
He was getting loud now. He sounded upset.
“Hawk,” she mouthed silently.
