Down & Dirty_Hawk

by Jeanne St. James

  Then she heard him louder and more clearly. “Sorry, baby. Got nothin’ to cover you up with ‘cept my shirt. Gotta hang on.”

  Jazz was alive at least. Which wasn’t much to go on because Kiki didn’t know just how bad she was.

  She couldn’t see much, she couldn’t roll over, she couldn’t sit up. She couldn’t even clear her throat enough to ask. But she tried anyway.

  “Jazz?” she whispered. But Diesel must not have heard her.

  Another loud bike rolled up, easier to hear this time through the broken front door. The air around her swirled with Diesel’s movement as he rushed to the the front of the house.

  “Z,” he shouted.

  Someone else rushed inside. “Heads up, Hawk’s comin’.”

  “Fuck.”

  There was a pause, then she recognized Zak’s raised voice. “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me? Fuckin’ motherfuckers!”

  “Hawk can’t see this shit,” Diesel grumbled.

  “Fuckers are gonna die. That’s for fuckin’ sure.”

  “Shouldn’t’ve given Hawk the location.”

  “D... Nothin’ would stop you, either.”

  “Right,” he grunted.

  “5-0 en route?”

  “Pained me to do it, but called your pop direct.”

  “Fuck,” Zak muttered.

  “Yeah. Ain’t callin’ 911. An’ we need an ambulance to transport. This shit ain’t gonna be fixed with a fuckin’ beer an’ a Band-Aid.”

  “They’re both breathin’ though, right?” Zak asked, his voice sounding pained.

  “Yeah. Thank fuck.”

  Kiki hated the fact that she could hear them talking like she wasn’t even there. She called out, “Hawk,” as loudly as she could.

  The conversation halted and before she knew it, Zak was kneeling by her side. “On his way, babe.”

  “Don’t... want him... to see... me like... this.”

  “Fuck. Me neither. Don’t got a choice, babe.”

  Diesel’s voice came from above Zak. “He’s gonna fuckin’ blow.”

  “Ain’t the half of it,” Zak agreed.

  “Fuck, I hear ‘im,” Diesel mumbled.

  “Gotta go out an’ tell him to brace.”

  “You ain’t gonna be able to hold ‘im back, Z. Call Ace, get ‘im to meet us at the hospital. I’ll go out an’ warn my brother.”

  “Got it.”

  “Don’t want him... to see me... like this.”

  A hand skimmed lightly over her forehead. “Babe, just gonna hafta deal. Gonna be like a bull in a china closet. Ain’t your fault.”

  “Call Grizz, too,” Diesel shouted from the doorway before disappearing.

  Kiki struggled to take a long, but shallow breath. She was afraid things were about to get worse instead of better.

  The back tire on his bike kicked out as Hawk went from what seemed like a hundred miles an hour to a dead stop. He got it under control and shut her down, kicking the stand down and scrambling off his bike.

  His brother was trotting down the steps of a falling down porch. The house didn’t have a front door. Most of the windows were broken or missing. What paint was left on the wood siding was slowly peeling away with time and the weather.

  It was a fuckin’ dump. And so off the beaten path that if those dumb fuckers had known better, they would have tossed Kiki’s cell somewhere, left it in his driveway or at least at what was left of the Vette.

  Thank fuck they hadn’t.

  “Talk to me,” Hawk barked as he met his brother halfway.

  “Gotta brace, brother.”

  Hawk felt his chest cave as all of the oxygen fled his lungs. He went to push past D but his brother stepped in his way, holding up his hands.

  “Brother,” Hawk warned.

  “Gotta brace, Hawk,” D said again, more firmly this time.

  “She breathin’?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She gonna live?”

  “’Spect so.”

  Hawk tried to round his brother but Diesel grabbed his shoulders and held fast. Hawk narrowed his eyes and tightened his jaw. “Don’t make me go through you.”

  “Hawk. Ain’t good. Just tellin’ you now. Ain’t good. Jazz is worse. This is the kinda shit neither of ‘em may get over. Just sayin’.”

  His heart stopped, squeezed tight and then began to thud in his chest. He closed his eyes, sucked in a deep breath. He opened his eyes and held his brother’s concerned gaze. “Gotta go in, D. Gotta. Now, lemme go.”

  Diesel removed his hands from Hawk and held his palms out in a show that he would no longer try to stop him from going in. “Gonna be hard to tell, but she’s conscious. She’ll hear anythin’ you’re sayin’.”

  Hawk gave him a sharp nod, pushed past him and felt his brother right on his heels as he ran up the steps and through the door, which was splintered into pieces. He stepped over shards of wood and his eyes immediately landed on a figure sprawled on the floor.

  Totally unrecognizable. But even from where his feet had frozen in place at the horrific sight he knew who it was.

  Grizz’s granddaughter.

  Holy motherfuck.

  Jazz.

  Hawk swallowed hard, trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing. Her face was not only beyond recognition, both of her arms were twisted in an unnatural way. Her legs were spread wide, a pool of blood between them. She was mostly covered by a T-shirt, probably Diesel’s, since he had come out of the house not wearing anything above his waist.

  A movement caught his eye and he looked up to see Z on a cell phone at the opening to another room. The club’s former president lifted a hand and pointed somewhere deeper into the same room Jazz was in.

  And like Diesel warned him, he fucking braced.

  On legs he couldn’t feel, he shuffled forward, his breath coming quickly as he stepped through the doorway of the room. He forced his eyes to land on the other woman sprawled over the filthy floor.

  The other woman.

  His woman.

  Fuckin’ Kiki.

  D said Jazz was worse. Yeah, she was. But not by much.

  Her long dark hair was caked with dried blood, her face was swollen and purple, her eyelids puffed out so badly you couldn’t even see her eyes. Blood still trickled slowly from a wound above her forehead.

  The remnants of her clothes were peeled away from her, like they were sliced open where she laid.

  The only thing covering her battered and bruised body was D’s cut. But it wasn’t enough. He could still see the deep purples, reds, and blues on both sides of her rib cage. Her breath wheezed from between her lips.

  He was frozen. Completely frozen solid inside and out as he stared at what remained of the vibrant woman who had shared his bed and who had wormed her way into his heart.

  His eyes closed, he sucked in a breath and then dropped to his knees. With both hands holding onto his scalp, he threw back his head and howled.

  “Jesus,” D muttered from behind him, planting a hand on his shoulder.

  He shoved it off. He wasn’t the one who needed help.

  It wasn’t him at all.

  It was his woman before him, laying there in a broken heap, that needed all the help they could give her.

  As he reached out, Diesel muttered, “Don’t touch her, brother. Ambulance’s on the way. Hear the sirens comin’.”

  Hawk jerked his cut off his shoulders and ripped his shirt over his head, gently placing the tee over Kiki’s battered body and D’s cut.

  He leaned close to her ear. “Help’s comin’, babe. Gonna take care of you, promise. They’re comin’. I hear ‘em.” He swallowed hard. “You hear me, babe? Gonna take care of you. Hear me? Gonna take care of you. Promise. Gonna...”

  D’s hand landed on his shoulder again. “Gonna go out to meet the ambulance.”

  “Yeah.”

  D turned but stopped when Hawk called out, “D...” Hawk glanced over his shoulder at his brother. “Gotta get ‘em.”
>
  “Got my crew on their tail.”

  Hawk nodded. “Keep ‘em breathin’.”

  After a slight hesitation, his brother softly said, “Hear ya, brother.” Then with a chin lift he headed out to meet the emergency responders.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Muted voices. Incessant beeping. The smell of disinfectant and some other indescribable scents assaulted her nostrils.

  Something tight was wrapped around her middle. She took a careful breath, testing for pain. She was pretty numb, her head still fuzzy.

  She was probably on some powerful meds since the pain had faded to almost nothing. She blinked her eyes open, which surprisingly could now be opened wider than back at the abandoned house.

  She blinked at the bright fluorescent lights above her. Then turned her head carefully to the right and stared at her hand. A needle was stuck into one of her veins and was connected to a tube. They were pumping her full of fluids. And, more importantly, good drugs.

  She rolled her head to the left and her gaze landed on Hawk. He was hunched over in a chair, his back curved, his elbows on his knees, his head braced in his hands as he stared between his parted thighs.

  She opened her mouth. Nothing but a squeak escaped. When she attempted to clear her throat, his head jerked up, his hands dropped and he jumped from his seat, coming to her side.

  He looked like shit.

  She was sure she looked much worse. Especially since something was wrapped around her head. She could guess it was gauze and bandaging and not a pretty scarf.

  Her throat felt scratchy when she said, “Didn’t want you to see me like this.”

  He couldn’t hide his wince at her words. “Babe,” he breathed. “Don’t matter.”

  “Does to me.”

  He shook his head. “No, babe. Only matters you’re gonna be okay.”

  She inhaled a breath and whispered, “Am I?”

  Something flashed behind his eyes. Pain? Regret? Anger? Whatever it was, she couldn’t worry about that now. She wanted to know about Jazz.

  She whispered her name.

  Hawk’s eyes darkened and he shook his head. “Down the hall.” He twisted enough to grab the chair and drag it closer to the bed. He sat on the edge of the seat, grabbing her hand that didn’t have the IV and raising it to his lips. His mouth skimmed across her skin but she could hardly feel it. She must be on some really, really good stuff.

  “Morphine?”

  His eyes raised to hers. “Yeah.”

  “She okay?”

  Kiki watched his Adam’s apple lift then fall as he swallowed hard. That was telling.

  “Gonna be. Might take a while.”

  “Hawk...” She closed her eyes to fight against the picture that played in her mind of Jazz laying on the dirty floor with the Warriors over her...

  “Don’t fuckin’ say it,” he growled. “’Cause if I hear it, I’m gonna freak the fuck out an’ I need to be by your side right now. Not chasin’ those motherfuckers down. They’ll get their due.”

  “Let the cops handle it.”

  His lips flattened and his jaw got tight. Fear crept through her at his determined look. He was going to dole out the club’s form of justice and he might end up back in jail. Not County, either. State prison this time. Which meant he might never get out.

  And, Jesus, as she looked at the man sitting by her side, she realized she could not lose him. She couldn’t.

  “I wasn’t raped,” she whispered.

  His nostrils flared and his fingers constricted around hers. His body was like a tightly wound spring. “Know it.”

  “Jazz—”

  “Babe. Know it,” he said forcefully. Meaning, don’t say it out loud.

  “I want to see her.”

  His eyes raised to the bag of fluid that hung above the bed, then flicked to the monitors that were attached to her. “Ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

  “I have to see her...” She swallowed hard, her mouth dry like cotton. “I tried, Hawk. I tried to stop them.”

  His eyes squeezed shut. “Babe,” he said on a rough breath. His eyes popped open as he aggressively scrubbed a hand over his mohawk. “Both got your share of shit, babe.”

  “Is she awake?”

  “Dunno. Been in here. Haven’t left you.”

  The beeping from the monitor became quicker as her heart beat faster at his words.

  He rubbed his hand over his jaw, which now displayed a dark five-o’clock shadow. “My fault. Shouldn’t have dragged you into my life.”

  “You didn’t drag me. I came willingly.” And she did. Yes, he was pushy and domineering, but Kiki would never do something she didn’t want to. She had been intrigued by Hawk the minute she walked into that room at County and saw his body just about busting from the seams of those orange coveralls, tattoos on his scalp, and seeping attitude. She immediately saw a challenge and the second he opened his mouth, she had no doubt he was one, too.

  He continued as if she hadn’t said a word. “Shouldn’t have sent you back to the house by yourself.”

  He was going to second guess every move he made that night. “You couldn’t have known.”

  “Got Warriors fuckin’ with us, should’ve known. Fucked up, babe.”

  Blaming himself for something he had no control over wasn’t going to do either of them any good. “It isn’t your fault.”

  He tried to extract his hand from hers. She held on as tightly as she could, but he was a million times stronger than her, especially right now.

  “The fuck it isn’t,” he exploded. “Bastards got a beef with DAMC. Been goin’ on a long time. Should’ve expected more shit to go down after Dogs an’ Hogs. Let my guard down. All of us did.”

  “But I’m not DAMC.”

  He blew out a loud, forceful breath. “Yeah, babe. You are. Minute you climbed into my bed you were marked DAMC. Them findin’ you in my driveway proved it to ‘em.”

  “They just wanted my car.”

  “Our women, our money, a sled, a car. Our town. Always tryin’ to grab our shit.”

  “Brother,” came from a deep voice at the door to her hospital room.

  Diesel’s bulk filled the doorway, his face tight and unhappy. His eyes landed on Kiki. “You good?”

  “Did you get your cut back?” Kiki asked, seeing that he had a different T-shirt over his broad chest but was still missing his usual leather vest. The one he draped over her.

  “Got it.”

  It had to be covered in her blood. “I’ll get it cleaned for you.”

  Diesel’s eyes widened for a second then quickly narrowed as he stepped into the room. “Ain’t gonna do that.”

  “It’s the least I can do.”

  “Babe,” Hawk said simply. Which clearly meant to let it go.

  Her gaze swung to him then back to Diesel as the larger man approached the bed. “Thank you.”

  Diesel’s chest lurched as he took in all the medical devices attached to Kiki. “Club’s enforcer, babe. Gotta protect everything that belongs to the club.”

  Now, not only Hawk, but it was Diesel implying that she was considered a part of the club. Or more like club “property.” She wasn’t sure if she liked that.

  “Failed,” Diesel grunted.

  “No,” Kiki said immediately. “You found us. You saved us. You didn’t fail,” she assured him.

  His mouth became an angry slash, reminding her exactly of Hawk’s earlier. “Failed you. Failed my brother. This shit’s gonna end.”

  “I want to see Jazz. Hawk won’t take me, will you?”

  Diesel’s eyes slid to his brother. Kiki didn’t miss Hawk’s frown and slight shake of his head. “Doctor probably won’t like you movin’,” Diesel finally said.

  “Get a nurse with a wheelchair. I need to see her.”

  Diesel stared at her for a moment, looked one more time at his brother, then, with a jerk of his chin, strode from the room.

  “Babe.”

  “I need to see her, Hawk.”


  He inhaled a deep breath, then said, “Yeah. Got you.”

  Diesel came back in the room not even a minute later, pushing a wheelchair with an orderly following closely on his heels, squawking at him.

  “You can’t just help yourself to a wheelchair, sir!”

  Diesel just grunted and rolled it closer to the bed.

  “You can’t move her! I’m going to get a nurse.”

  “Do that,” he grumbled.

  The female orderly huffed and rushed from the room. Kiki wanted to laugh but couldn’t with her broken and bound ribs, so she shot him a smile instead, even though that was painful, too, with what felt like a split bottom lip.

  She didn’t want to look in a mirror any time soon since she could imagine what a mess her face was. But, what she went through was nothing compared to Jazz’s nightmare.

  Hawk unhooked the bag from the IV pole and hooked it onto the one attached to the wheelchair. Then he pushed her hospital gown down from around her neck enough that he could peel off the pads to the heart monitor that were stuck to her chest and when the beeping went wild, he yanked the machine’s plug. “Know your heart’s beatin’. Don’t need that shit, anyway.”

  Kiki tried to smirk but winced instead. She agreed. Her heart was beating and it was doing it for him, so it was beating just fine. Her eyes followed him as he reached under her to lift her. Diesel pushed him aside.

  “Lemme,” he grumbled to his brother.

  Hawk stepped back, said “Careful,” and let Diesel gently lift Kiki up and place her into the chair.

  She was proud of herself when she didn’t even let out a whimper as he did it.

  “Got it from here, brother,” Hawk said, shouldering Diesel away from the chair’s handles.

  D lifted his hands in surrender and stepped out of the way, then marched out the door leading the way to Jazz’s room.

  As Hawk pushed her into the hall, Kiki was surprised how packed the corridor was. And surprised the hospital staff hadn’t herded all of the bikers and their family into a nearby waiting room. They lined both sides of the hallway from her room and beyond, all the way to Jazz’s room, the direction Diesel headed, demanding people make room for Hawk and her to get past.

  Jesus. It hit her then how much of a family this club truly was. Somber faces lifted a little as they saw her and Hawk heading down the narrow path.