“You weren’t movin’, Gwen.”
“They’d stun gunned me,” I told him.
“I didn’t know that,” he told me. “All I knew was that 911 had received a call from one of your neighbors, shots fired at your house and you were carried out not moving. That’s all I knew.”
“They’d stun gunned me, Hawk,” I repeated.
“I didn’t know that, Gwen,” he repeated back and continued. “I was in the car when the call came in that Brett was down, three to the chest. I knew the players. I could see the play. They took your body as proof of death, the beginning, you first, then your stepmom or your Dad. They’d go through all of you and Ginger would need to step up to stop that happening.”
“It didn’t happen that way,” I informed him of what he already knew.
“Yeah, but for two hours, I didn’t know the state of you. Lee got a lock on your location, we went in and I had no idea what I’d face when I walked into that room.”
“I was fine,” I lied.
“You were bound and gagged, Gwen.”
“Yes,” I returned, “but otherwise fine.”
He kept going. “Days earlier you were caught in a drive-by. Your car at the curb, your purse on the couch and you were gone. For f**kin’ hours, babe. The only thing I had to hold onto, seein’ as another woman of mine had been caught in a drive-by, was that no blood was at the scene and my boys saw Tack drag you out. Camera angles weren’t good so we couldn’t see for sure you’d not been hit but at least you were standing.”
Shit, that hadn’t occurred to me. Why hadn’t that occurred to me?
“I was fine then too,” I reminded him.
He pressed in deeper. “Yeah, Gwen, but I… didn’t… know that.”
All right. I had to give him that.
Still.
“You’re telling me all this because…?” I prompted.
His hand left my hip and went to cup the other side of my jaw as he said, “Jesus, Gwen, I’m tellin’ you this so you’ll know where my head was at.”
“Okay, now I know. Thanks for story time, Hawk, now are you going to go?”
His hands tightened and he whispered, “Don’t do that, babe.”
“Do what? Be an unfeeling bitch in the face of your pain? Sorry, is that not okay? Because, see, the day I was kidnapped and a man was shot protecting me, after a week of dealing with a bunch of really bad shit at the same time you came at me and got me to trust you, you ripped me to shreds Hawk. Firm and unwavering. You tore right through me, leaving me in tatters and you didn’t even f**king blink.”
“And now you know where my head was at and why I did that shit.”
“No, now I know that you saw Tack playing with your f**k toy and you don’t feel like sharing.”
His body froze and his fingers flexed. I could feel his fury but I didn’t care. I wasn’t done. The hurt he inflicted went too deep and I had to protect myself at all costs.
“That’s okay, baby,” I whispered. “There’s plenty of me to go around. But, rules are, you come, you make me come and then you go.”
He didn’t move and I felt his anger beating against me as he held me pinned against the wall. Then suddenly his body relaxed, the anger vanished and his thumbs swept my jaws.
“I cut you,” he murmured.
“Nothing a little cookie dough can’t cure,” I returned.
“Bullshit, Sweet Pea.”
It was then my body went still.