“No,” he returned. “You know a bunch of cops with shit for brains and nothin’ better to do with their time called you that. And somethin’ else, babe, that shit is totally made up. It’s complete bullshit. Gayle calls herself Thursday because she’s got another man who doesn’t do it for her and he goes out and gets shitfaced on Thursdays and doesn’t come home until the bars close so I feel like her, I visit her. I don’t have a schedule. The only woman I’ve investigated with any thoroughness and the only one I watch is you.”
“But you said when you make a woman yours, you do your –”
“No, Gwen, forget about what you thought you read into what I said. I’m tellin’ you now, straight out, how it is. And I’m not gonna feed you shit about there not bein’ others, there are others. And I think you get that I’m not a man inclined to waste my time doin’ precisely what I’m doin’ right f**kin’ now, explaining myself.”
Oh shit. Now I was getting mad.
“I see,” I stated quietly. “We’re right back where we started.”
“No, if we were back where we started, somewhere in the last couple of days I’d have had a piece of your sweet ass.”
My mouth dropped open.
He could not be believed!
“I don’t believe you!” I yelled.
“It’s not true?” he asked.
“No, see, the last couple of days my sister’s shit has leaked into my life. Did I do anything wrong? No! I don’t live in your world. I knew Dog. I knew he was good for Ginger. I figured he’d sort her out. I didn’t know what would happen when I went to Ride! How the hell would I know? I didn’t open the door to the guy who broke in! I didn’t guide the firebombers to my parents’ house and hurl a flaming bottle through the window! I went home today, that’s it. I just went home and got caught in a hail of gunfire! But after that was over, I just did what I was told. I’d never been shot at before. Tack seemed to know what he was doing so I figured it would be good to be with someone who knew what they were doing. I didn’t know he was going to lock me in his Compound and start a war! I’ve just been doing the best I can do in a seriously bad situation. No! In multiple seriously bad situations!”
“Gwen –”
“And I don’t need you to be a jerk on top of it.”
“Gwen –”
I threw my hands out to the sides. “My living room was shot up today. With me in it!” I screeched.
His hands came to my jaws. “Baby, calm down.”
“You calm down! You can walk through walls and silently down bikers. I don’t have those abilities, Hawk. I was in another situation where I needed a crowbar! That sucks! And after that, I need cookie dough. Or at the very least really good Chinese food, from Twin Dragon or, better yet, Imperial.”
His thumbs swept my jaws and he said quietly, “All right, baby, I’ll get you Imperial.”
I shook my head but unfortunately didn’t shake his hands free. “No, the other night, I liked you. Tonight, I don’t,” I announced. “I mean, thank you for saving me from biker prison but now I want to go home…” It was then I realized I didn’t have a home, my parents’ didn’t have a home and therefore I was f**ked so I finished lamely, “Or… wherever.”
“You are where you’re gonna be until whatever the f**k is happening is over, babe,” Hawk declared.
“Hello?” I called. “Let me remind you that you live in Badass World and I do not. You can’t tell me where to be.”
“I sure as f**k can, Gwen,” he replied.
“No, you can’t,” I returned, his hands slid to my neck and his fingers curled deep.
“Listen to me, Gwendolyn,” he growled and I missed that somewhere he got un-pissed but I wasn’t missing that he was now re-pissed and him saying my full name only underlined it. “As far as intel we got goes, Ginger was nowhere in the vicinity today when you had your drive-by. So that means one of two things. Those shots were meant to take out Tack or they were meant to take you out.”
“No one wants me dead,” I returned.
“No, but they want Ginger to suffer and she’s your sister and they might not know you’re not tight and, last, they’re gettin’ desperate so, like I said, they could have been meant to take you out.”
Holy f**king shit!
I closed my eyes and muttered, “Why does this keep getting worse?”
I opened my eyes when Hawk answered, “Because your sister is a piece of trash.” I was going to let him have that this time but I didn’t get the chance to tell him that because he went on. “Now, we don’t know but we need to assume you’re a target, which means your parents may be targets which means protection. You’re safe here so you’re gonna stay here. I’ll do what I can for them. And I’ll do what I can to bring peace with Tack because I need him as an ally with this shit and I don’t need more to deal with and that includes you giving me lip.”
“You’re going to do what you can for my parents?” I asked and he stared down at me, his fingers flexing into my neck.