It seemed a little like overkill, driving to a remote location by the lake to meet with Josh and Felicia. But Melissa knew enough about the Kings to know that they weren’t exactly the extra-precautious type. If Hawk and Josh thought that all this cloak and dagger stuff was necessary, then there was a good reason for it.
As Melissa and Hawk walk up to the picnic bench where Josh and Felicia are waiting, Felicia gives them an appraising look, peering at them through the gloom.
“Well, at least one good thing has come out of all of this.” She takes in Melissa’s crumpled shirt with the buttons missing and raises an eyebrow, making her blush.
“Glad to see you didn’t run screaming for the hills, Melissa, after Hawk’s little performance last night.” Josh claps a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she leans into his comforting touch.
“He’s pretty hard to run away from.” Melissa shrugs shyly, looking up at Hawk and seeing the corner of his mouth quirk up into a pleased smile before his expression changes back to business.
“Thanks for getting here so quickly.” Hawk looks between Josh and Felicia, taking charge of the meeting.
Josh just shrugs, as if there was no need for thanks. “You said it was important.”
“It is.” Hawk nods, looking down at Melissa. “Do you want to tell them?”
They’d spoken about this when Hawk had parked the bike. Melissa nods, gathering herself together. “Wes, the new mechanic, he’s not who you think he is.” She looks between Felicia and Josh, their faces expressionless. “He’s a reporter for The Tribune.”
“Goddammit, I knew there was something that wasn’t right about him!” Josh’s voice is more of a bark, and he looks up at the sky, trying to gather himself together. When he’s recovered, he motions for Melissa to continue.
She tells them about the conversation she had with Wes the night before, about how ambitious he is and how much he craves the validation and the fame that an article on the Kings would no doubt bring. They listen to her, cursing occasionally, but hanging on her every word.
“I needed to be sure before I came to see you. I didn’t want to rat him out to you if he was just bluffing.” She looks between the three of them, shivering in the cold despite Hawk’s leather jacket that he’s draped around her shoulders. “But I checked with the editor’s secretary…she’s an old friend of my mom’s. She told me that Wes had been assigned to the article about the same time as I had. Seems like my editor didn’t really believe that I could get the job done.” She shakes her head to get rid of the self-pity that knowledge seems to inspire. “She told me Wes is scheduled to deliver a first draft the middle of next week. She doesn’t much like Wes, so she didn’t have any qualms about handing over the information.” Melissa shrugs, as Josh gives her an impressed look.
“And I’m guessing we’re all still in agreement that we don’t mention this to the rest of the club?” Felicia looks between the two men who nod solemnly. They all know what kind of a reaction the bikers would have if they knew that Melissa had been sent by the enemy. It was something she had been actively trying not to think about.
“You did good, kid.” Josh gives her an approving nod.
Melissa smiles weakly under his praise. She’s secretly pleased that she’s made Josh proud, but she also knows that what she’s doing is something that she can never go back from. Telling them about the article and Wes’s intention is crossing a line that she can never uncross. She has aligned herself with the Caged Kings, with an outlaw motorcycle gang, with criminals. What did that mean for her life, for her future? She couldn’t dwell on those questions right now though; there were more pressing matters to deal with. There would be plenty of time to figure out her place in this new world—once the Wes issue has been resolved.
“We still don’t know how much Wes knows about the Kings, how much proof he’ll have.” Melissa looks between them. “The Tribune won’t let him print something unless he has either hard evidence or word from more than one source.”
“None of the Kings would agree to speak to a reporter.” Hawk almost spits the last word out.
“Agreed. But if he’s spent any time at all around Durangos, he’ll have seen plenty. He could try to blackmail one of the guys into being a source for him in exchange for not mentioning his name in an article.” Felicia shrugs, as if it were a no-brainer and Melissa is struck again by how sharp she is. When she’d first met Felicia, she’d judged her as a bimbo; she was anything but.
“How can you say that, Felicia?” Hawk looks at her as if she’s committed sacrilege. “The guys would die for the club. You know that.”
Josh makes a calming gesture with his hands. “She’s not wrong, Hawk.”
Hawk looks at him as if he’d gone mad. “What are you saying?” His voice is cold and hard as steel.
“I’m saying that not all the Kings are necessarily as dedicated as you.” Josh shrugs his shoulders, his voice and body language deceptively casual, and Melissa wonders if this little act is just to keep Hawk from going all ‘black cloud’ on them. “There are a couple that we’ve been keeping an eye on. If Wes has figured out how to separate the sheep from the lions, then we could have a problem.”
Hawk shakes his head, like he can’t believe what Josh is telling him. He drops Melissa’s hand, raking his fingers through his hair. Melissa settles a hand on his arm, longing to comfort him, knowing that she’s never seen him look so lost. The Kings were his family—to find out that perhaps they weren’t the perfect brotherhood that he had thought they were—was clearly a blow.
“If that article goes to print, the Feds will have probable cause, enough for a warrant. It won’t take them long to go through the books, credit check the bar, The Shop, the other businesses the Kings are running.” Josh doesn’t need to finish his thought. They all know where this is headed. Anything that Wes printed would be devastating for the motorcycle club; it could mean the end of it altogether. It made Melissa even madder at the man that she’d thought she could count on as a friend.
“So what are we waiting for?” Hawk plants his hands on his hips, determination radiating out of him. “We go get Wes, and we make him disappear.”
He says the words so simply that it takes Melissa’s breath away. She knew that Hawk wasn’t a boy scout, but she hadn’t been prepared for the fact that he could talk so naturally about killing someone.
“You can’t be serious!” She stares at him, open-mouthed.
“Calm down, Hawk. We can’t just go in there all guns blazing.” Josh’s voice is calm, but he shows no hint of being surprised at Hawk’s reaction.
“Why the hell not? He’s the one who started all of this. He should be the one to face the consequences.” Hawk zeroes in his attention on Josh, as if he’s forgotten that Melissa is even there.
“By facing the consequences, you mean that he deserves to die?” Melissa fights to keep the panic out of her voice.
“If he wants to destroy the club, then he has to go. That’s how this works, Melissa. You’re not naïve enough to think that I carry a gun to shoot deer.” He gives her a look that cuts her down to her core, but she refuses to show how hurt she is. She knows that Hawk is talking out of anger and hurt; they would talk about his angry words to her later.
“No, I’m not naïve enough to believe that. But I’d also like to think that I know you well enough to know that you won’t just shoot someone for doing their job!” Melissa meets his fury with her own, refusing to back down.
“Their job? Is that how you see this? He’s going to destroy the club, Melissa. For fun. Don’t you get that?” He looks at her in confusion, as if she’s completely missing the point.
Melissa takes a deep breath, calming herself, knowing that the two of them shouting at each other isn’t exactly conducive to finding a workable solution. “I do get it, Hawk. Why would I have come to you with this information if I didn’t?” She touches him gently on the shoulder, and his eyes soften slightly at the contact. “But I can’t let you hurt him. No matter what he’s planning on doing, I can’t let you do that.”
Hawk gives her a shocked look. “Let me?”
“First, Hawk in karate, you think you can take me?” Melissa raises an eyebrow at him, only half-joking. She had been trying to break the tension, but her lame tease doesn’t seem to have done anything helpful.
“Why do you care about what happens to him?” Hawk’s question tells her that he’s only really listened to part of what she’s said.
Melissa sighs deeply, wondering how she ended up in the middle of the woods, in the dark, explaining to an angry biker why it was wrong to kill people just because you don’t like them.
“Because he may not be my favorite person in the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with something terrible and permanent happening to him.” Melissa crosses her arms over her chest, staring Hawk down. “If anything happened to him because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself. That’s just how I’m wired.” Melissa sighs deeply, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Even if I didn’t have scruples, Wes’s family is basically made of money. His family is all over the society pages; they’re Portland royalty. If anything were to happen to him, nothing would stop the police, the Feds, and God knows who else from crashing down on the club with the full force of the law. Besides, even if Wes was…out of the picture,” Melissa winces at the euphemism and the fact that she was even talking about it, “DeVry would just send someone else to cover the story.”
“So now that the smashing heads option is off of the table, what are we left with?” Felicia smoothly takes the floor, putting a stop to the angry back and forth between Melissa and Hawk that doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.
“I didn’t think we had agreed that it wasn’t an option.” Hawk plants his feet firmly in the dirt, looking at them with a challenge burning in his eyes.
“Well, unless you want me to turn around and walk away right now, then I suggest you think of something else.” Melissa mutters the words under her breath, but the way that Hawk clenches and unclenches his fists tells her that he’s heard.