by Naomi West
“I would have expected a cop to know what was happening. Maybe not a civilian. When I thought you were just a woman with no training, I didn’t hold you accountable at all. But you have training. You’ve supposed to prevent crime and stop criminals. But you just sat there and let her stroll right in and take my baby. So much for police protection. Even having the cops in my house watching my kid didn’t keep him safe. And you want me to trust the police? Nope. Screwed over again.”
“Hawk, it’s not like that, and I am not a cop. It’s not like I was on active duty with my gun on my belt. I was sitting here, playing with a baby. I checked the window before I opened the door. I wasn’t going to let her in. But she came in anyway. She picked the lock, she hit me on the head—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Your wonderful police training kept you from getting assaulted and from letting a break in occur. Come on, Alexa. If I was allowed to have a gun, I would have shot the bitch. I would have protected Damian. You’re allowed to have a gun. But you didn’t bother to use it.”
“I don’t generally keep my loaded gun while I’m playing with babies.”
“Well, when that baby is at risk of being kidnapped from a crazy woman, maybe you should.”
“I’m sorry. Do you think I don’t feel terrible about what happened? Do you think I don’t already blame myself and probably will for the rest of my life?”
“Well, your guilt doesn’t bring him back now, does it?”
“No, but I’m doing everything I can to get him back.”
He made a disgusted face and stopped talking.
Chapter 22
Alexa tried to sleep that night, but couldn’t. She was exhausted, but couldn’t stop seeing Damian’s face when she closed her eyes followed by Hawk’s horrible expressions. He acted like he hated her now and wanted nothing to do with her. She’d cried for a little while from the stress and worry and guilt and loss of it all. She’d even taken a sleeping pill, but it wasn’t helping.
She sat in her living room in the dark, sipping warm tea and staring over at Hawk’s house. His TV was on and the light in his kitchen. He was probably doing the same thing she was doing - trying to forget what a mess they were in. She wished she could go over there, cuddle up with him, and at least hold each other if they could do nothing else.
She missed him. As disappointing as her love life had been in the past, her experiences with him had all been amazing. She could use that sort of release right now. He probably could, too. She wondered what would happen if she put on something sexy and showed up at his door half naked. He’d probably just shut it in her face. She went up to bed and read a book until she finally managed to drift off and get a few hours of sleep. She woke to the sound of her phone ringing.
“I think we have something,” Joe said.
“I’m listening.”
“Now look, I’m telling you this as insider information. Top secret. Got it?”
“Of course.”
“We think we know where he is. Now, here’s the tricky part. We’re having a hard time getting a warrant because we don’t have much to go on. Hawk never filed a missing person report, so we shouldn’t even know it happened. You, on the other hand, don’t need a warrant since you’re not going in to arrest him. Makes it kind of convenient. However, I will issue this warning. I do expect you to keep my crime scene clean. If you disturb something that messes up this investigation, I won’t be sharing any more info with you.”
“Believe me, Joe, no one wants to get this guy more than me.”
“I’m counting on that and your cop skills to know what to do. Be careful. We assume he’s armed and dangerous.”
“Of course. Send me the address.”
She hung up and went into action. She dressed quickly and got together her gear - guns, a knife, pepper spray, bulletproof vest. She wasn’t going to mess around. She rushed over to Hawk’s and pounded on the door.
He yanked it open, looking startled and disheveled. “Christ, you even knock like police. What?”
“I think I know where Damian and Rucker are.”
“Where?” His demeanor instantly changed. He went from disturbed and annoyed to ready for action and focused.
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“What the fuck?!”
“I wasn’t finished.” She narrowed her eyes at him and stood up tall. “I’m not going to tell you until we have everything in place. I know you want to go over there right now-”
“Damn straight.”
“And that would be very stupid and dangerous. Joe has given me insider information, and we have to do this right, or we’ll mess up the investigation.”
“I don’t give two shits about your little investigation.”
“You will if it means you’d be responsible for making sure Rucker goes free and never pays for Hugh’s death or for kidnapping Damian. Is that what you want?”
His eye twitched and his jaw tightened. “What do we have to do?”
“The first thing we need is help. I was hoping your MC members might be up for a little fun? We need manpower. Literally.”
He took a step back and let her in, then closed the door behind her.
“They’ll do whatever I need. Just tell me what to say.”
“Okay. Here’s the basic plan. We get as many guys as we can. We go over there and they create a distraction so we can get in and get Damian. That will give the police enough evidence to search his place, which will hopefully uncover more evidence for them to pin the murder on him.”
“Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to follow my lead and do exactly as I say. Ae you going to be able to do that? To follow instructions from a former cop?”
Their gazes met for a long, intense moment. Then he said quietly, “Yes. If it means I get Damian back safe.”
“You will.”
Her hopes for forgiveness once she proved herself returned and a small piece of her dread broke off and faded away. There was at least a small glimmer of hope now.
“Alright then. Let’s make some calls,” she said.
It didn’t take long for the Kings of Chaos to start arriving. Within ten minutes the sound of bikes roaring down the road could be heard. In less than twenty minutes, a total of eleven guys were on site.
“Thanks for coming,” Alexa said, addressing the motley crew as they stood around Hawk’s living room. Hawk stood at her side, his arms crossed, nodding along as she spoke so they would know that he was in agreement with what she said. He had told her how uncustomary this was and that he’d take flak for letting her take the lead. But he’d also said that Damian was the most important thing and if he had to admit to them that he’d fallen for a cop, then that’s what he’d do.
“We know where Damian is, but the guy who has him is dangerous,” she said.
Several of the guys laughed or grunted.
“I know, I know,” she continued. “But the thing is, it’s not just us in danger. There’s a baby involved, and he can’t fight back or defend himself. This guy killed Hugh and I wouldn’t put it past him to kill Damian, too.”
That seemed to quiet them up. Most of them probably didn’t know they were going after Hugh’s killer or that he’d been found. According to the news and the police, it was still listed as a gang killing and no specific person or gang was ever held responsible for his death.
“We need to get Damian back, but we also need time to search the place so we can find evidence to make sure he pays for Hugh’s murder. We’re not going to let him get away with it. So, that’s why we need you. We can’t just go in there and in kill the guy, much as we’d like to.”
Not to mention the fact that Hawk couldn’t legally own a gun while on probation, and if he was caught doing something like killing this guy, no matter the reason, he’d go away for life because of his prior convictions.
“We need you to cause a distraction.”
“What sort of distraction?” Blade, the president of c
lub, stood and walked closer.
“I was hoping you’d have some ideas about that,” she said. “We need to keep Rucker busy, but we also need to be able to get the baby safely. That’s the primary goal, obviously. Whatever time we can get inside the house after that, we get. The more the better, of course, but I don’t know what it’s like in there, or how much time we’ll need.”
Blade nodded. “So maybe we all pull up and rev our motors. That might be enough to bring him to the door and the other people in the house to see what’s going on.”
“Okay. And if it isn’t?”
“Well, we can go up to the door with guns drawn. If that doesn’t work, we’ll just break in.”
Alexa thought through every angle of this. “That might make him do something rash.”
“We’ll surround the house first,” Blade said. “We’ll scope the place out, see who’s where and go from there. We just need to get into the room where the baby is to get him.”
“Right.”
“Once we have him out, then we can all go in there, guns drawn, and keep him busy while you do what you need to do.”
“That’ll work as long as we have Damian out first,” she said.
“We will. We won’t go in there until we do, unless we have to.”
“He might have a bunch of guys, too,” she warned.
“I’m sure he does. But he doesn’t have an MC.” Blade winked at her.
This seemed like a tight-knit group, and that made her happy. They’d look out for each other and make sure no one got hurt. Most of all, they all seemed genuinely concerned about Damian and Hawk, and that meant they’d be more likely to do as she asked - even if she was a woman and former cop - and they would keep everyone safe.
“Thank you guys for doing this.” She looked over at Hawk. “I know I don’t have to tell you what this means to us.”
Hawk’s eye twitched again and he refused to look at her.
“I know this isn’t how we’re used to running a mission,” Hawk said, “but she does know what she’d doing. She has insider information and it’ll help us out. She knows this guy, Rucker Marshall, and she has police connections.”
She got a few wary looks at that but she guessed it was better they knew now than to be surprised later if it came up.
“I used to be a cop,” she confessed. “But there’s a reason I’m not anymore. I don’t like the way the force is run all the time, so I went out on my own. I’m a PI now, but I still have friends on the force. They’re helping us because in the end, we’re helping them nail this guy. I’ll see to it that no one gets a charge from this mission.”
Hopefully that would make them warm to her. If they didn’t think she was on the cop’s side, they might not hold it against her.
“Are we ready?” Hawk asked, looking around at everyone, and finally at Alexa. “Let’s get on with it. We can’t afford to waste any more time on pretty speeches.”
“Let’s roll,” she said.
She followed Hawk out to his car. He’d have to forgo his bike today, for the sake of having a safe place to put Damian once he was retrieved. They got in, waited a moment for the rest of the Kings to get their bikes started, and drove off toward Rucker’s with the motorcycle gang following behind.
Alexa called Joe when they were on the road. “We’re headed to the location now. Are you nearby?”
“I’m in the vicinity. Have a backup car waiting. When will you get there?”
“In about fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll be ready to roll out as soon as you got something.”
“And I’ll let you know the second we do.”
Hawk turned to her a moment later. “You fully trust this guy?”
“Well, he was the one who gave us the info we needed, and he didn’t have to do that. He’s working with us, and we’re helping him. I’d say, yes. I fully trust him. He was my partner for years. He always had my back.”
“And there’s no chance you could get in trouble for any of this? Going above the police or some crap?”
“Not when the police can’t get a warrant and don’t have enough to nail the guy. Joe is grateful to have me, who doesn’t have to be as careful of the laws. It would be like a civilian arrest.”
“I don’t really get it, but okay,” he said.
“Do you fully trust me?”
“I don’t know anymore. You’ve given me plenty of reason to doubt you.”
“I know I have. I hope you can forgive me.”
“I can’t think about that now. I just need to get Damian back. Then get Rucker for killing my brother.”
“Hawk,” Alexa reached over and took his hand. “Just don’t do anything that might get you in trouble. I know you’re pissed at this guy, and you have every reason, but with your record, and being on probation…”
“I’m well aware of the dangers.” He pulled his hand away. “I’m not concerned about me. I only care about Damian.”
She put her hand back in her lap. “If you really are, then you should be concerned about yourself. You’re all that kid has left. You don’t want him to end up in the foster system.”
Chapter 23
They pulled up near the location and parked a few blocks away. The Kings surrounded them, all waiting on their bikes. Alexa pointed to the house. The house where Rucker was hiding out was in a residential suburban area. The houses next door had plenty of trees and bushes and places to hide. Hawk and Alexa inched closer, hiding behind some bushes next door.
From here, they could see the backdoor of the house. The Kings were out front, gathering in the driveway. Blade held up his hand and when he dropped it, they all started loudly revving their engines. The noise was almost deafening. Had to be enough to get their attention. Sure enough a few minutes later Alexa saw someone come out the front door. She didn’t have a full view, but it looked like a man.
“Let’s move in closer,” she said.
She ran across the open yard with Hawk right on her tail. They put their backs to the exterior wall and moved slowly toward the back of the house. They came to a window that looked into a living room. She peeked in from beside the house. The angle wasn’t right to see in the room fully, but putting herself in position to see that well would also mean she could be seen if someone looked out the window.
She ducked under and went to the other side, but motioned for Hawk to stay there. She saw more of the room from over here.
“Do you see anyone?” she whispered.
He shook his head.
She reached out and tugged on the window ledge. It was locked, as she suspected. She motioned for Hawk to come past the window and they made their way to the back. They surrounded the back door like they had the living room window.
The door was wood and the top half was all window. She couldn’t see anyone inside and neither did Hawk. She reached out, hopeful, but the door was locked. She ducked under the window carefully, but Hawk joined her.
“What are you doing? I have to break in,” she hissed.
“I got this.” He pulled out his lock pick tool and worked on the knob. She watched in awe. Of course, she knew he broke into cars for a living, but she hadn’t thought of it as being a skill that would come in handy for this.
After a minute of working, she heard the lock click open. Hawk turned the knob and pulled open the door slowly.
Alexa pulled out her gun first, then stepped inside, holding it ready. She put her back to the wall just beside the door. Hawk entered and did the same thing beside her, minus the gun. He’d wanted one and she’d considered giving him one of hers, but he would be too tempted to shoot Rucker and he needed to be able to grab Damian. Plus, if anything happened with the cops showing up while they were still there, she didn’t want to take the chance that he might get in trouble for possession.
He had a screwdriver, and he’d promised her that his hands and feet were weapons, too. No doubt, judging by what she’d seen of his muscles when they’d had sex. For a brief moment,
her mind wandered. She thought back to when he was undressed, sweaty and leaning over her, how he felt inside her. She grew warm and shook her head to focus. This was not the time to be thinking of things like that.
They moved through the house, listening. The bikes still revved outside and she could hear shouting, though she couldn’t make out what was being said. They moved to the edge of the living room so they could get a glance at the entryway. There was Rucker Marshall, yelling at the top of his lungs at the bikers in his driveway. A woman stood beside him.
And in her arms was Damian, crying. There was no way to get any closer without the couple seeing them, and Alexa wasn’t taking any chances that Rucker was unarmed. She stepped down an adjacent hallway which led to several bedrooms. In the first room was a messy bed and some clothing on the floor. She couldn’t tell who it belonged to.
