Steele Resolve: A Hawke Family Story

by Gwyn McNamee

His coal-black eyes burn as he assesses me. “Why is it so strange for someone to want to marry the person they love?” He raises a dark eyebrow at me.

  My skin heats, even as goosebumps spread over my arms. I still can't believe it. Luca Abello—in love with me. All mine. And without any guilt. Everything I believed could never happen is a reality, and now, he's offering me something I honestly thought impossible.

  “Are you being serious?”

  He releases a deep sigh and turns his head to look at everyone gathered on the patio and around the pool. Gabe and Skye relax on lounge chairs in the sun while Dani splashes in the shallow end of the pool with Kennedy. Savage has his phone raised, snapping pictures like the proud father and husband he truly is. Stone sits under the overhang in the shade, looking on while Nora holds a sleeping Isaac. Saint and Caroline huddle together in the corner near the door to the house, and he leans down and whispers something in her ear that has her blushing ten shades of red.

  “Look around you, Byron. Everyone here is blissfully happy. Even after everything they've been through, they've managed to find their way to the person they were meant to be with. Their other half. It took me almost losing you to understand what my priorities were.” He turns back to me. “I won't make that mistake again.”

  “And you think getting married is going to somehow prevent you from losing me? I'm not going anywhere.” I shrug.

  He chuckles that deep low rumble that has my cock hardening despite the very inappropriate time and place. “I know you're not. And neither am I. But I want the confidence that the world knows you’re mine and I’m yours.”

  There’s the honest answer. Luca wants the world to know he owns me.

  Before Luca, that would have pissed me the fuck off. Having someone stake a claim. Yet with him, I'm okay with it. His possessive and demanding nature is one of the things I love about him. Even though it drives me nuts sometimes, even though we argue and fight about stupid shit because neither of us wants to give an inch. At the end of the day, he's the one I come home to. He's the one whose strong arms wrap around me in the middle of the night and hold me when I have nightmares or a flashback of the shooting. He's the one whispering in my ear that he loves me.

  Ever since the night of the shooting when he told me he was giving up the business, I've always known it was him. Forever. That everything was going to somehow work out. That he was my happily ever after.

  “Wow.” I take a sip of my beer as I try to wrap my head around his words. “You really are serious.”

  He grins at me, and my cock finally makes it to full mast. “I'm deadly serious. I want you to have all of me and what’s mine. If anything were ever to happen to me, I want to make sure you get it all.”

  A chill I haven’t felt in a long time slithers up my spine and cools my libido. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  His smile falters. “You don't know that.”

  He's right. I don't. None of us do.

  He may be out of the business, but men like Castillo will always see him as a threat as long as he's alive and here in New Orleans, and he still has his deal with his old Jersey crew that requires he send a certain amount to them. An amount he now needs to make solely off the legitimate businesses here. All we can hope is that people continue to leave us alone to live our lives as long as we don't step on any toes.

  “So…” He raises a brow at me. “What do you say?”

  “What? Are you proposing?”

  This isn’t exactly the most romantic setting for this.

  He shakes his head and takes a swig of his beer. “I guess I kind of am.”

  I glance around at everyone surrounding us. “Is this really the place to do this?”

  A sly grin spreads across his lips, and another pull from the bottle. “What better place could there be than with family?”

  For better or for worse, the Hawkes are family. Despite all the history between us, all the vile things that happened due to the Abello family and what I caused to happen to Byron, the Hawkes have slowly returned to me.

  I had two goals when I returned to New Orleans: to control the city and to get my friends back. I abandoned one for love, but the other has offered me more than I ever thought possible. Giving up my criminal life opened the door to the Hawkes finally accepting me back. It’s taken a long time and some frank conversations to get where we are today. But we’re in a really fucking great place.

  If only Byron would just say yes, I’d have everything I could ever need.

  Savage approaches while I wait for a response from the man who holds my heart. “Mom says the food’s ready. Let's head in.”

  Byron and I exchange a look. He hasn't answered.

  Savage narrows his eyes. “What's going on with you two?”

  I shake my head and plaster on a smile. “Nothing. Just talking about how great it is to be with family on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.”

  The eldest Hawke gives me a strange look but heads into the house with us trailing behind him. Everyone files out of the pool and makes their way inside and around the massive table. These are the family dinners I always remembered from my childhood, with Antonia Hawke at the head of the table and a delicious food spread out in front of me.

  My eyes burn with unshed tears, and I rub them before anyone notices. I didn’t think I’d get so emotional being here again. When Savage invited us for dinner and said he wanted “the entire family” there, it was the final olive branch Byron and I needed, and we grabbed it with both hands and held on tightly.

  It finally feels like being home.

  Antonia appears from the kitchen, carrying a massive bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. “Everyone sit.”

  I pull out my chair and slide in with Byron next to me. My hand finds his thigh under the table, and I gently squeeze it before I lean into him and brush my lips against his ear. “You didn't answer me.”

  He turns his head toward me, so our lips are a mere hairsbreadth away. “I know.”

  Smartass.

  I press my lips to his without even thinking about the audience.

  “Oooh! Luca and Byron sitting in the tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” Angelina’s playful observation has the room bursting out into laughter.

  Storm nudges her. “Stop that. It's not nice to make fun of people.”

  Angelina frowns. “I'm not making fun of them, just having some fun.”

  Her mother considers it for a moment, then turns her smile on me. My heart stutters.

  Of all the Hawkes, she has, by far, suffered the worst because of the man who gave me my name, and it's taken her the longest to come around to the fact that I'm no longer a threat to them. Savage and Gabe and I are going to be business partners very soon, and the one sticking point has been that Storm didn’t trust me yet. But that smile tells me it'll happen eventually. It may take time. It may take years, but some day, I'll have them all back fully.

  I nod in her direction, and Landon leans and whispers something to her that has her chuckling and swatting his shoulder.

  Antonia Hawke stands at the head of the table. “Shhh, everyone. I have something to say.”

  “Oh, here we go…” Skye jokes from the other side of the table.

  Her mother scowls at her. “Can you keep that sass in check for five minutes?”

  Gabe barks out a laugh. “We all know that’s not happening.” He leans in and presses a kiss to Skye’s temple, and she playfully shoves him away.

  Antonia smiles. “I know, but a mother can dream.”

  Everyone laughs as the matriarch of the family looks around at each person at the table and finally stops on me. Now that the entire family knows the truth about everything that happened with Dom, I’m confident whatever she's going to say will be meaningful.

  She sighs. “If you had asked me a few years ago if I'd be sitting here with all of you, with three of my grandchildren, and with everyone happy and healthy, I would've said no way. When we lost Sam and I was left with you kids, alone, I thought my
world had ended. I got some help.” She doesn't have to say from whom. We all know she's referring to Dom, but she doesn't say the name. No one has for a long time, and I think that's for the best.

  The only good things the man ever did were introduce me to the Hawkes and teach me the value of loyalty. Something that he himself couldn't abide by. He betrayed them more than once for his own benefit, but I will never make that mistake. I know what I have in these people, and it’s something no money can buy.

  Antonia sucks in a deep breath, sniffles, and waves her hand in the air. “I promised myself I wasn't gonna cry. Anyway, I just wanted to say that seeing all of you here, having Luca back under our roof and everyone getting along for once, it just makes me so happy, I can't even express it.”

  Gabe stands, walks over to her, and tugs her into a hug.

  She clings to him as tears stream down her cheeks, then pulls away and swipes at them. “Okay, enough blabbering. Let's eat.”

  Byron rises to his feet beside me. “Actually, there’s something I want to say.”

  What the hell is he doing?

  Everyone freezes and turns their attention to him. He glances down at me and squeezes my shoulder. “I know things were tense for a while between all of us. And rightfully so. It was my fault, but the fact that you all have been willing to not only forgive everything that's happened but also to embrace Luca as part of the family means more to me than you could ever know. And while we continue to work on plans for The Steele Hawke Cage and all of our other business endeavors, there's one other thing we can celebrate.”

  Oh, my God…

  Goosebumps break out across my skin.

  He wouldn’t.

  Byron looks down, and his dark eyes hold my gaze. The love and trust shimmering there is something I’ve never experienced and couldn’t ever imagine seeing from someone else. “Luca and I are getting married.”

  “What?” The chorus of surprised gasps breaks out around the room, and Antonia races around the table and throws her arms around me. She pulls me up from the chair and kisses my cheek. “Oh, my God, I'm so happy for you.”

  I grin at the woman was who was like a second mother to me growing up. “Me too.”

  She embraces me, and I meet Byron’s gaze over her shoulder. He gives me a knowing smirk.

  I mouth to him. “You couldn't have told me in private?”

  He shrugs and turns to accept congratulations from Stone and Nora to his left while everyone else chatters excitedly about our upcoming nuptials. Antonia finally releases me with a smile so bright, it lights up the entire room, and I reach out and pull Byron to me.

  I press my mouth to his, this time not caring that everyone in the room is watching, and whisper against his lips, “Are you ready to become Mr. Abello?”

  He chuckles and shakes his head. “Are you ready to become Mr. Harris?”

  I pull back and grin at him. “We’ll hyphenate it.”

  I hope you enjoyed Steele Resolve, the final book in The Hawke Family Series. If you haven’t already done so, check out the other books in the series and stay tuned for more from the Hawke world.

  * * *

  Savage Collision

  Books2read.com/SavageCollision

  * * *

  Tortured Skye

  books2read.com/Tortured-Skye

  * * *

  Stone Sober

  books2read.com/StoneSober

  * * *

  Building Storm

  books2read.com/BuildingStorm

  * * *

  Tainted Saint

  books2read.com/TaintedSaint

  * * *

  Steele Resolve

  books2read.com/SteeleResolve

  * * *

  Sign up for Gwyn’s newsletter to stay up to date on releases: www.gwynmcnamee.com/newsletter

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at Squall Line, the first book in The Inland Seas Series, available now!

  * * *

  WAR

  Out on the water, I’m in control.

  I don’t make mistakes.

  But the fiery redhead destroyed my plans and

  left me no choice.

  I had to take her.

  Now I’m fighting for my life while battling my growing attraction for my hostage.

  Grace may have started my downfall, but she could also be my salvation.

  * * *

  GRACE

  The moment he stepped foot on my ship, I knew he was trouble.

  He took me, and now, my life is in his hands.

  But things aren’t what they seem, and Warwick isn’t

  who he appears.

  The man who holds me hostage is slowly working his way into my heart even as greater dangers loom on the horizon.

  * * *

  War and Grace.

  Dark and light.

  Love and hate.

  This storm may destroy them both...

  * * *

  AVAILABLE NOW AT ALL RETAILERS:

  books2read.com/SquallLine

  SNEAK PEEK AT SQUALL LINE

  CHAPTER ONE

  WAR

  The barrel of the shotgun wavers slightly but remains pointed squarely at my chest.

  Blood surges through my veins and roars in my ears. My hands squeeze around the grip of my .45.

  Pull a fucking gun on me? This won’t end well for you…

  Staring down the business end of a damn shotgun was not on my to-do list today…or any day, for that matter. But in this profession, it was inevitable.

  I can’t do this type of work and expect everything to go smoothly all the time. After five years on the waters, hijacking ships and stealing cargo, it was bound to happen. Someone was going to fight back with more than a few lamely thrown punches eventually.

  Beating someone into submission is just part of the job. Using steel is too.

  But this—she—is unexpected.

  Cargo ships don’t usually have firearms on them, which makes hijacking them a fuck of a lot easier.

  This time should have been the same…yet the reality is right in front of me.

  My stomach churns slightly at having to point my gun at my would-be assailant. But the tiny, redheaded pixie, who looks as pure and innocent as a fresh Wisconsin snowfall, seems rather fucking intent on blowing a hole in my chest.

  What’s a woman like her doing on a cargo ship in the middle of Lake Michigan?

  The shotgun dips slightly. She struggles to regain control and re-center the barrel. That thing must weigh seven or eight pounds—a lot for a small thing like her to handle—and she’s been holding her aim for almost three minutes.

  This standoff won’t last much longer. Rion will notice my radio silence and come looking for me. Either the pixie will give up, or she’s in for a big surprise when he makes an appearance.

  The warm breeze drifting through the open door to the bridge whips her wavy hair around her pale face in crimson swirls. Her green eyes narrow, and she flicks the tip of her tongue around her cupid’s bow lips.

  Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

  Under any other circumstances, I might take her against the wall of the bridge and screw her until the sun goes down. Too bad she’s a giant pain in the ass and the one thing standing between me and what I need.

  She squares her shoulders and raises the gun slightly. “I said, drop your fucking gun.”

  Despite the shaking in her body, her command is strong and unwavering.

  Too bad it’s all a fucking act. She’s scared shitless. And she should be.

  I smirk, and a red flush creeps up her throat and across her lightly freckled cheeks. Yet, she stands her ground.

  She has balls. I’ll give her that. But the blush of her pale skin proves she isn’t immune to my charms. That should make this easier.

  Scare her or seduce her. Either way, I’m getting what I came for.

  A single step brings me closer to her, and the damn gun. At this range, I’d be fucking toast.

  “Sweetheart, you and
I both know, there is no way in hell I am going to lower my weapon.”

  Her giving me orders might be adorable if we weren’t in such a time crunch. We’ll have hell to pay if the Marconis don’t get their shipment tonight, and the incoming storm front is already threatening the job. Choppy waters and swells will make the trip to Chicago a real bitch once we get what we came for. The last thing we need is some princess wanna-be Annie Oakley trying to stop us.

  She presses her lips together and clenches her jaw so hard, the muscle at the side tics.

  Red has some attitude, that’s for sure.

  The shotgun repositions, and she makes sure it’s aimed directly at my face this time.

  Trying to intimidate me, little girl?

  Another step forward and I’m close enough to catch a faint whiff of something floral—lilacs, maybe—and I shift my shoulders back and puff out my chest to provide the maximum effect.

  If my gun isn’t enough to intimidate her, maybe my size and proximity will.

  She stumbles back a step, shaking her head and sending her red locks floating around her face. “Don’t you fucking move, asshole.”

  Another command? Cute.

  But she also just showed I’m a hundred percent right. It’s all an act.

  False bravado.

  I stop my advance, but my smirk widens to a full-blown smile despite my best efforts against it.

  A crack in my armor is never good, which is why smiles don’t come often for me. In this profession, it’s essential to assert dominance, to let people know you are in charge and won’t back down, that you are unbreakable. Smiling shows you are human, and being human means weakness.