by Eden Rose
I don’t know what kind of luck he thinks he’s going to get from me. I’m not interested in being a damn chew toy. Now, flirting… That’s something I want to do.
Hawk slides closer to me so our bodies are touching even more than before. “Have you ever worked as a waitress?” He asks me casually.
I want to giggle under my breath. I worked as a waitress when I was going to college. Hell, I worked at a strip club for the longest time as a server. That’s where all of the money is at. That’s how I paid my way through school. I wouldn’t tell Hawk that, though. He might think something else is about to happen.
“Yeah. A little. Have you?”
His lips twitch as he leans over and flicks my hair out of my face. “I’ve worked a lot of places.”
His touch against my cheek has me shifting in my seat. What the hell? I was supposed to be the tease not him! I’m about to move even closer, ready to commit to my plan I just came up with when the door opens again.
This time it’s the manager.
4
Hawk
“Hawk, stop harassing my new girl!” Kaylie’s voice chimes in.
I growl at her. “I’m bein’ friendly, aren’t I, princess?” I ask Maci.
We’re sitting so close together that I can smell her scent of apples and cinnamon all over her body. Even in the middle of the night, she still smells fresh.
Her dark hair is what I want to play with the most. Every time she looks up at me, I see her hair move around her shoulders. The woman is gorgeous.
Her hazel eyes watch my every move. If I’m not mistaken, they are begging for me to make a move on her.
“Yes,” she chirps.
Maci’s going to be a lot of fun.
Kaylie rolls her eyes. “Maci, if you were smart, I would stay away from Hawk. He’s nothing but trouble and he loves to give it.”
I place my hand over my heart to fake her out. “I would never!”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a real alter boy.” Kaylie’s eyes cut to Maci. “Did you get the paperwork filled out?”
Maci’s smile is large and if I think she just purposely brushed her thigh closer against my thigh. “I did.”
Kaylie waves her fingers in the air. “All right. You’re free to work all nights? You don’t have anything that would keep you from your shifts? Dependable transportation and all that bull shit?”
Maci nods. “I’m good. Thank you.”
The other woman looks at the W-2 and grins. “All right. You can start training in five days and we’ll see how you do.”
“Thank you! I will be here. What time works for you?”
“Be here at nine. It’s right after the dinner rush and before the drunk rush later. You’ll be working on this side of the building. You get me? No dressing like a damn whore. You can wear jeans and a tee shirt. I’ll get you a tank top. What size do you think you wear?”
“I’m a small or medium. I would prefer medium if you have it.”
“No problem. See you then.”
Maci stands awkwardly and looks me over one last time. “Have a good day, Hawk.”
I want to chuckle at her politeness. Who would have thought we would get someone here with manners like hers? Shit!
My eyes follow her tight, round ass out the door. Her jeans look as if she has them painted on. My eyes are greedy and hungry while looking at her.
“Hawk!” Kaylie yells in my face. “Dude, please don’t be getting her involved with you.”
I look at the bitch carefully. “Why not?” Little does she realize we have a run to do for the next week and I won’t be here to check on my new girl.
Kaylie sits at her desk and fires up her computer. As it boots up, she leans over to open a cabinet that holds the camera DVR. “Well, while she was here, she kept asking about security about this place. She wanted to make sure the cameras were working and all of that bull shit. She also asked if cops come here.”
“Do you think she’s in trouble?” I question. Who would have thought that little firecracker was in trouble? She’s a pretty little thing with just enough attitude.
Kaylie shrugs. “I don’t know. I do know that we attract a certain type of girl who works here.”
I push her and her chair out of the way to sit in front of the monitor. I need to find out all I can about this girl. There’s something about her and I want to know everything there is about her.
With the monitor now loaded, I open up the file that holds all of the footage to check in on the girls.
“Send Capone in, would ya?” I ask Kaylie.
She scoffs. “You’re such an asshole.”
“Love you, too! Smooches!” I call back at her retreating back.
Capone struts into the office with a coffee in his hand. That’s when I remember about the coffee I was supposed to have.
“Any reason why Kaylie told me to get my bitch ass back here?
“Yeah. Let’s look at the footage.”
After about thirty minutes of scrolling through the footage the only thing I’m sure about is our girls have a big ass drug problem.
“What the fuck?” Capone mutters.
5
Maci
I have been super antsy the past couple of days. No matter what, I can’t seem to berate myself for having to be a waitress. Nothing about this situation is a humbling thing and it’s making me even more upset.
I have been lying in bed for the past couple of house trying to go back asleep. I toss and turn but nothing works. I’m too antsy. I can’t sit still.
I pull out my phone and look up a porn website. Maybe if I fuck myself, I will be able to go back to sleep. I search through the videos on the feed until I come across a man who looks like Hawk. I greedily click the thumbnail and the video pops up.
My fingers slide over my slick flesh and I watch the tall, dark and dangerous looking man fuck a woman on the screen. I watch the entire video but I still can’t come.
“Fuck!” I groan and exit out of the video.
I look at the time again and groan. It’s been another hour and I still haven’t slept.
“Fuck it,” I mumble. I’m going to Target.
My phone is ringing once I pull the beat up car into the parking lot of my new apartment. I have spent the past hour at Target in hopes of relaxing. Didn’t work. I roll my eyes when I see it is my handler.
“Hello?” I answer and rest my head against the steering wheel.
“How did it go?” Howie asks from the other side of the country.
“Look. I applied. I got the job. I don’t know what more you want of me,” I sniped back. Being in witness protection wasn’t something I volunteered to be in.
Hell, this is the last thing I’m interested in doing.
The pounding on my door is what wakes me up in the middle of the night. I reach over to grab my gun I have stashed under my nightstand for this exact thing. You can never be too prepared.
“Mom!” Riley calls out to me from her room.
I place my finger over my lips and point back to her room. One of the good things about having a pre-teen daughter is they love to be in their room. That is until you force them to stay in their room.
My twelve year-old stays where she is and doesn’t move.
It has been two nights since the trial and it has been two nights since my life was threatened. Yeah, I’m taking the threats seriously, but it never clicked until the pounding on my door wakes me up in the middle of the night.
I have the gun cocked and ready while I look through the peephole. What the fuck is Howie doing here? Howie is the man in charge of all court personnel.
I swing open the door to greet them. “You know what time it is?” I ask stupidly. Surely, he knows what time it is and are here for some other bull shit reason.
“Where is Riley?” Howie asks and looks around the living room for some reason.
“In her room. Why are you here?”
He walks around the room, checking the windows and checkin
g all of the doors around the house. I have no idea what he is looking for, but he’s scaring the shit out of me.
“You have two seconds to tell me why you’re here or I’m making a complaint,” I threaten.
“I’m making sure you’re not bugged,” he mutters. His dark blond haired head is going to work checking everything with a tool to make sure I’m not bugged.
“What is going on?” I demand, this time a little more forcefully.
“Vitali put a hit out on you. We intercepted it while he was at the jail. You’re not safe here and neither is your daughter.”
My mouth drops. “What are you talking about? He was being serious?”
My heart races in my chest, I feel like I’m getting lightheaded. I never would have expected this to happen to me or my daughter. There has to be a mistake.
“I listened to the tapes before I got called out here. It’s bad, Maci. It’s really fucking bad. He knows everything about you and Riley. You’re not safe.”
My head spins and my brain throbs. “What are you saying?” I ask stupidly.
“I’m saying you and your daughter need to get the fuck outta here before he does to you what he did to that family.”
“But he’s in jail,” I inform him dryly.
“Don’t be stupid.”
That’s when I remembered that criminals go to jail to learn how to do what they did to get caught better so they don’t get caught.
“Are you talking witness protection or whatever?”
I know Riley is going to be pissed off about missing her seventh-grade dance, but this is life and death.
“I’m calling you to make sure everything is going good with the apartment we set up for you.”
I shrug. “It’s not bad. I miss my house, though. Any news on what’s going on?”
Despite being threatened like this, I’m worried about my daughter. It takes her a long time meet new friends and I know this move just about killed her.
“Not good news, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I giggle mirthlessly. “Nothing is ever good news. What happened?”
“He made a phone call to some thugs on his payroll. He has a bunch of people looking for you to punish you for what you did to him.”
“I didn’t do anything. I tried my case. My job is to speak for the victims. And I did.”
Howie makes a weird noise. “I’m not saying you didn’t. I’m saying he’s not going to stop. I need you to lay low as much as possible. Keep using the social security numbers I gave you and all of Riley’s previous school records. The most important thing is to make sure Riley understands what is her new normal.”
“We know. I’ll call you tomorrow if you want. I start my new job.”
He chuckles. “A prosecutor working as a damn waitress. I bet that would be interesting.”
“Bye, Howie,” I sing and hang up on him.
I get out of my car and walk towards the front door of the apartment. I quickly look around to make sure no one is following me. Once I’m satisfied, I open the door and am greeted with a pissed off kid.
“You’re really going to be a waitress, mom?” Riley accuses.
She’s watching some stupid show on MTV about teens who get knocked up. I want to turn it off for her because she doesn’t need to watch that shit. Not when she is the product of a teen mom.
“I’m doing what I have to do. Did you feel safe in the apartment without me here?”
“Of course. I’m not an idiot.”
I want to hang my head. The attitude of this kid is going to kill me quicker than these thugs.
I take a look at my watch and cringe. “It’s after eleven. Did you brush your teeth and all of that?”
“Yeah,” she answers quickly.
“Did you really?” I ask.
“Why are you such a know-it-all?” She asks and jumps off the couch.
About twenty minutes later, I’m lying on my bed wearing my pajamas and only one thing is on my mind.
Hawk.
6
Hawk
We are no closer to finding out who that mother fucker is in the video than we were the other day. The worst part about it, is we have to leave for a ride.
I came back two nights later in hopes of figuring it out. I had to be at the meet to show my face and secure the pipeline. Capone and Gear came back with me as we were all not needed to get the cocaine.
We are back at the diner. I know tonight isn’t the night where Maci is supposed to start, but I’m hoping to see her like a fuckin’ pussy. Jesus.
“Who the fuck is that dude?” I demand.
What we found on the tapes is something we never thought we would find. We actually caught some guy beating the shit out of Gina, a dancer of ours.
“Where is Gina?” Capone asks the room.
If he doesn’t know where she is, how the hell am I supposed to know where she is? With us not being around for a few days, nobody knows where any of the dancers are.
We don’t require them to tell us everything, but we want to make sure there aren’t any freaks like this fucker harassing them.
Sure enough, there’s Gina getting her ass kicked by some no named piece of shit. Once I get my hands on him, I’m gonna make him wish he was dead. No one puts their hands on my girls.
With the mysterious Maci pushed out of my mind, I need to focus on this guy.
“Kaylie!” I call out to get her attention. She comes running into the office. “Where’s Gina? Is she workin’ today?”
“Lemme check. You know, you don’t have to yell my name through the whole restaurant, right?”
I shrug her off not really caring about her lecture. I’m worried about my girls more than her attitude.
Kaylie is gone for about three minutes before coming strolling back in. We’re watching the full fight on the monitor when she comes back in.
“What is going on?” Kaylie demands.
I can see the way she looks from Capone to me back to the monitor in hopes of getting answers.
“Where’s Gina?” I ask.
“She’s not here. She called in this week and left early the night before. What happened to her?”
I growl in the back of my throat. This means only one thing and the brothers are going to have a love/hate relationship with the idea. We’re going to have to camp out here to make sure the dancers and waitresses are taken care of.
“I need her address and phone number,” Capone cuts through our attention.
Thank god, he’s paying attention to what’s going on and knows how to react. My anger is reaching a full on high.
Kaylie walks past Capone, her ass brushing against his arm. I don’t miss Capone’s breathing deepening at her ass touching him. I wonder how long Capone’s been interested in Kaylie.
She hands us a little card she uses to hold all of the information for the dancers and waitresses.
“Since when do we allow our girls to live in the fuckin’ ghetto?” Capone blurts out.
Kaylie shrugs. “Some of these girls are running from something or someone. They need a space to be safe. And a lot of them didn’t have money before they came here.”
The sad truth of the matter is this area she lives in is really fuckin’ bad and known for some less than upscale citizens.
“We gotta go,” I mutter towards Capone and slap the back of his head. “We gotta check on her and then get back to the clubhouse.”
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Kaylie questions with her hip leaning against the desk. Her pussy is lined up with Capone’s knee.
My eyebrow raises and I smirk. I’m gonna give him shit about this. The man loves to give me shit about everything I have done and I can’t wait to return the favor. Fucking asshole.
“Make sure the girls don’t go in the back anymore. We’re gonna have a brother posted outside for the next couple of nights until we figure out who this asshole is,” I inform her.
She smiles. Glad to see she’s okay with th
e change. I know for a fact the other girls are going to be pissy about it.
Well, the ones that are wanting to fuck and have a good time are going to like it. A few of the dancers have been trying to get a brother to look at them twice. I hate to break it to them, but we don’t allow the brothers to date one of the girls that work in the club or the restaurant.
However, you can still fuck ‘em.
“You lead the way,” I mutter towards Capone as we walk out of the restaurant out to our bikes.
That man’s image is burned into my head and all I can think about is finding him and skinning him alive. How could he beat up Gina like that?
Gina’s no saint, but she’s one of the girls that is trying to work her way through college. She’s actually trying to be something more than some pole dancer.
I appreciate her for that.
Capone leads us to the projects in about ten minutes. We park our bikes and walk over to the building that houses Gina.
“Are you following me?” I hear from behind me.
I chuckle under my breath. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Maci.”
The woman who has been flittering through my mind over and over again is now in front of me. I fight the urge to reach out and grab her. I want to hold on to her.
Maci’s eyes widen as she looks me over and my eyes greedily look her over as well. She’s wearing some fancy looking pajama set with some fancy looking slippers. Who the fuck is she and why is she here? No girl that lives here looks like they are fresh from the spa.
“Are you following me?” She asks again, this time her voice is slightly raised.
Capone chuckles and leans against the mailboxes in the middle of the building.
7
Maci
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see Hawk and Capone in my building at eleven at night. Riley and I went for a little walk to clear our minds around the building.
I do it to make sure I know who lives here and who doesn’t. You can tell a lot about someone at night time. The cars look different, but this way I can see what is normal and what isn’t normal.
Hawk looks sexy with his five-o’clock-shadow slightly coming out and his eyes are watchful. The dirty smirk on his face has me in contradicting thoughts on whether or not to kiss him or punch him the face for following me.
