CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“She’s your pain in the ass now. Good luck, brother.” - Rider
“Grabbed you a beer, hermano.”
Taking the cold bottle from Capone, Hawk took a slow pull, rested his arms on the deck railing looking out into Rider’s sizeable back yard where the cookout was in full swing. Jed was in his element at the helm of the grill throwing out orders to the prospects. Old lady’s and a slew of the boys from the club milling around, eating, knocking back the liquor and generally having a good time in the first of the approaching summer weather.
According to Rider, his old lady liked to have the club boys over, and it appeared that entertaining a rowdy crowd suited the girl when she flittered from group to group passing the baby off into asshole biker hands who turned into cooing clowns when it was their turn.
Preacher and his girl Ruby were here. Same for Grinder and Luxe. She was a jack of all trades in the thieving world and Hawk approved of her skill.
The kid, Seb, had bound up to Hawk when they’d arrived, full of stories of getting his own tool box for Christmas.
He didn’t take in much of anything else other than Gia. She was a social butterfly, a smile wide showing off the pup she insisted couldn’t stay at home alone because she’d cry, he suspected Gia meant herself and not the dog.
“I heard what happened with Tag.” Capone said mirroring Hawk’s resting stance. He turned his head, but otherwise said nothing. “So, I thought it was best I tell you. Me and Gia…”
Caution made Hawk’s brow arch.
Here we fucking go again, he thought. Ready to ditch his beer bottle and give the Hispanic brother the same damn warning he’d given to Tag.
He was saved when Capone went on with a smirk. “Her and I are friends. No funny shit. We talk now and then. Thought you should know, so you don’t put a bullet in me if the way you watch her is anything to go by.”
Hawk didn’t chime in and Capone carried on, pulling on his beer first, he looked out into the yard, his voice went a shivery tone of low. “She helps me, hermano. About my family. We talk, and it helps me. You have a good girl there.” Then he looked at Hawk. “Think you can hold off on killing me for being near her if I talk to her again?”
Cracking a smirk, and in a show or rare tactility, Hawk placed his hand of support on his brother’s shoulder. “It’s all good, Cap.” He told the man who got his name because of the scar on the right side of his face. “You know how many hunting knives I own anyway…” Capone threw his dark head back and laughed causing several faces to look their way.
One of them being his little bit of a thing who grinned at him.
She cuddled the pup like it didn’t have legs to use and she looked so damn happy doing it as she cooed and kissed the gray head snaring his eyes every few seconds when she flirtily looked over at him.
Irrational jealousy hit his belly. Fuck, jealous of an animal, what next, dickhead?
He’d had a hand in that, he realized. Making her happy, he’d done that. Warmth kicked around his chest, his eyes happy to go on fucking her from across the yard.
And right as he was gonna throw his own suggestive look for her to meet him inside the house where he could slide a hand down into her snug shorts and find out how happy she was down there when his phone vibrated.
Fishing it out of his pocket seeing the number had bile in his throat in seconds.
Bathroom fuckery with his Gia forgotten as an anxious gut-wrenching pain tugged at his insides.
The past refused to let him live.
******
Rider took a swig of beer, scraped back his long hair out of his face and let go of an exhale, only slightly worse for wear with a small buzz streaking through his brain to relax him, not so much that he couldn’t be on Harper duty tonight and let his old lady sleep for more than two hours at a time. Letting his loose hands dangle between his spread legs he leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, the bottle held in two fingers, the air cooler tonight, most of his boys left already.
Only he and Hawk remained.
Not that Hawk was ever much for chatting if he could help it, Rider noticed he was extra pensive. His VP had strolled over more than forty minutes ago, took a seat and not said a word since. Any other day not far in the past his quietness would have meant his VP needed an outlet to his brooding moods and would have taken off for a while.
Only now Rider knew the truth and wasn’t it still a kick to his temple.
All this fucking time he’d had no idea, not a fucking clue what had been going on between them.
Hold up, I’m trying to be acceptin’ about it.
Yeah, it might take a little more than Icy banging his brains out each time he growled about Hawk dating Gia and how he was gonna rip out his VP’s spleen through his nose.
Not that he’d stop Zara in her efforts, he wasn’t an idiot.
Across his well-kept yard with the custom-built grill over in the far corner, the remnants of the fire pit were still burning its embers into the sky and beyond that was his sister and his Icy-girl sitting talking and laughing together like the best friends they’d become. The sight of her in something yellow and floaty around her thighs never ceased to stop his heart and then restarted it with a charge directly to his dick. He loved his woman something fierce.
It was because of the influence of his heart outside of his body laughing her sweet laugh he was trying to be the reasonable friend and brother to two people he gave a fuck about.
It wasn’t easy.
It’s none of your business, biker-man, they’re adults capable of falling in love with each other if they want to, you don’t get to decide who makes who happy even if you do have a bossy God complex, now take off your pants. His Zara told him right before his boys were due over at the house.
He loved her fucking methods to drag his efforts off killing Hawk.
Casting a side look towards the man in question. Hawk staring straight ahead.
No fucking guesses at who.
Seriously, of all fucking women it had to be his baby-sister. It didn’t matter her age, or she was a career woman in her own right, she was always his baby sister. Rider’s back teeth ached. He was gonna need Zara to distract him again soon.
Breaking the silence, he let the bottle thunk to the ground. “You good?” He asked in a rough tenor.
Hawk turned his head reluctantly as if his eyes had a hard time pulling themselves away from the sight in front of him. A frown marred his forehead. “Why wouldn’t I be?” He added a second later, smirking now. “Because you still wanna yank my liver out?”
Rider snorted slouching in his chair, legs spread, fingers tapping his jean covered thigh.
His VP had been at his side for more than ten years now as VP but longer still as buddies. Shit, it was going on more than twenty years now that he thought about it, long fucking time. Hawk got Rider’s way of thinking and since they understood each other so well they could still sit side by side with the simmering discord between them this week.
Up until now Rider thought he’d known Hawk.
The Gia secret was … something else.
His second in command and his baby sister, it was unnatural, it went against all laws of decency and still his sister looked happier than he’d ever seen her and Hawk … that crazy fucker was … changed, like he’d been waiting all this time barely holding himself together until the day Gia came along.
Now he’d had a week to get used to it. He still wasn’t, but from the way his sister was enjoying herself in the yard with the pup, he could clearly see she was happy.
“I’m chill tonight, you get to live.”
“Good for me then.” Hawk returned to staring at the two women laughing. Legs outstretched before him, hands resting on his belly, to anyone else Hawk would look like a normal, relaxed guy. Only his pale eyes gave him away to his true self.
Shrewd. Shady. Alarming. And those eyes directed solely on Rider’s sister. He supposed he should worry with such intensity. But somehow… Rider wasn’t.
Every few minutes Gia would look over. And though Hawk didn’t smile back, didn’t move at all, she blushed and dipped her head.
It was like being witness to a weird as fuck mating dance in their own secret language.
He’d never had a clue all these years Hawk had wanted Gia. Maybe if he’d known? Nah, it’ll still be weird. He was about to stride across the yard and yank Zara into his body and distract himself for an hour, so he didn’t have to think about what kind of shit the VP did with his sibling.
The silence bounced between them.
He could discuss the Russian’s still clinging to his city like genital warts. They’d picked off six of Grigori’s generals already. Grigori as expected, called yelling up a shitstorm last night, accusing Rider and his club of the disappearances. Prove it, he’d told the underboss and hung up on him.
Rider might be in limbo with this new relationship status of Hawk’s, but he trusted his VP’s meticulous skill and detailing of how to make someone disappear. He had no complaints about his work with Lawless.
Squeals from his baby daughter cradled in her mom’s arms made Rider’s lip curl at the edges.
“So, how’s life?”
Hawk chuffed air, the look he sent Rider was short-lived. “Really?”
Two friends for years, divided in their opinion.
Rider fucking shrugged. This shit had to stop feeling perverse sometime. He’d prefer sooner rather than later.
“Sure,” Have a conversation with him his Icy told him. “Why not?”
Hawk switched his gaze back to Gia as she smiled back at him in that open affectionate way of hers.
The longing waves coming off Hawk were no longer disguised. Because Rider recognized that stare as visual fucking he pretended he was blind.
Then Hawk answered in that thunder voice of his.
“My life? She’s good.”
Air stung with recognition filled Rider’s chest so fast. Motherfuck.
He’d always known Hawk was different. He operated on a level of dispassionate detachment. Rider had been in his own fucking teen ego when he met Hawk and helped the kid out. Despite their obvious differences they formed a brotherhood and then added the rest of the boys around them. They shared a history of being less than in their parent’s eyes.
But to call Hawk normal was a stretch and that’s what he’d struggled with this week. Having seen Hawk’s proclivities how he’d used women in the past, it was something he didn’t want for his sister. But seeing how the pair looked at each other like no fucker else existed it was more than obvious to Rider that however Hawk was in the past, it was just that; the past. He looked at Gia like she was the world.
It was how Rider felt for his own old lady.
Some closed off bastards could change their spots it seemed.
Maybe he wouldn’t kill him.
Hawk was loyal. And he’d go to war for those he cared for.
What better man could he ask for to protect Gia, especially in these sensitive times. No one was getting through Hawk if he were the one to stand in front of Gia. He accepted that realization and a thump of relief had Rider relaxing.
Zara interrupted the silence, Rider’s dirty eyes ate her up as she swayed hips across the yard, her smile only for him. He was already leaning forward when she dipped down to kiss him and to kiss their sleeping daughter. “I’m gonna put this noise maker to bed and hope she stays there until morning. You boys having fun?” Rider hummed making her laugh. She kissed him again. “I love you, biker-man.”
“Love you too.”
When she’d disappeared inside, Rider laced his fingers together, relaxation seeping into his tired frame. “Zara’s pregnant again.”
He laughed at his friend’s stupefied look.
“Then why the hell you smiling?”
“Meant it to happen. We tried often enough.”
“Isn’t the first one still a new-born?”
“Four months now.”
“Shit, Rider, you sure you’re not the one with a screw loose?”
Rider grinned slightly. He was fucking deliriously happy about their new pregnancy. He might be sleep deprived but they both wanted a big family and if Icy was happy he’d keep putting babies in her. As many as she wanted. Maybe she’d finally agree to marry him too.
“You remember the day I brought the girl back to you, and you wanted to do all the sappy gratitude.” Rider’s blue eyes narrowed at the switch in conversation. Of fucking course, he remembered the day he almost lost Zara. When Hawk arrived just before Hades could drag Zara away, he’d stabbed Hades and brought Zara back to him. Rider’s brows dropped, his eyes flat, lips thinned. Hawk went on. “And you told me There will be a day I can repay it, you name it, it’s yours. I mean it.”
A long pause.
But Rider didn’t need silence to know what was coming next.
That sneaky dipshit.
He almost grinned.
Using his ace in the hole at the right time. He’d meant it then and he meant it now, even if it was handing over the pain in the ass sister he adored. From what he’d seen of them together, though they didn’t touch much, Hawk was completely under Gia’s thumb. So, he waited for Hawk to finish.
“This is it that day. I want Gia. And I want you to stop giving her a hard time about it.”
“I’m the big brother, it’s in my job description to give her a hard time.” They both watched the woman in question cuddling with her dog. Rider smiled. His sister had grown up into a lovely woman without him realizing. Maybe he should feel sorry for Hawk trying to manage her exuberance. “You know she’s a handful.”
Hawk snorted. “I had to drag her drunk ass out of a bar in Texas.”
“What?” Gia? Drunk? This he had to hear.
“Dancing on the fucking bar, skirt up to there, assholes watching her.” Before Rider could chime in with a laugh Hawk added. “Had to stab a shithead so I could get her out of there over my shoulder.”
“You stabbed someone?”
“Just in his hand. He got off lightly.”
Twisting his neck, he eyeballed his best friend. “You know I’ll kill you if you’re not serious about this. If you hurt her.”
Maybe the threat of death relaxed Hawk, but that bastard smiled and rubbed a hand over his head, his outstretched legs mirrored Rider’s. “I’m awake, Ri. I’m not walking through sludge anymore, for the first time I’m awake and I’m fucking terrified about it, but it’s all her. Only her. Always been her. So, you know then I’d cut out my own lungs if I hurt her.”
“Your ink. I never heard you call her little bit until recently. You got the ink for her years ago?”
Hawk only grunted with a nod.
Some of it wouldn’t ever make sense to him, but he was starting to get it. Rider was no better than Hawk. Both cut from the same cloth. He couldn’t deny Hawk’s happiness while he himself was a pig in shit happy with his old lady and daughter.
“She’s my goddamn breath, Ri. You got no idea what I’d do for her. She’s my only concern, my one priority.”
“Good,” he nodded and clapped a hand to his VP’s shoulder. Some shit this was. Twenty some years ago, he met this man, the one he trusted above all others, and here he was giving his sister to him for safe keeping. More than that, for Hawk to love her.
Fuck. Maybe he’d keep that shit out of his brain and consider him a moody bastard bodyguard. “Go get your girl, and your mutt, brother. Let’s head in for a drink.”
“You still own that house over on Brunswick?”
Grabbing up empty bottles and food platters, Rider arched his brow. “Yeah, got tenants in it now.” Properties were easy, legal money.
“How long is their lease?”
“Another six month, why?”
“I want to buy it.”
“You’ve never wanted your own place.” He saw where this was going and wanted to know Hawk’s intentions.
“It’s for Gia,” he informed.
“And you? You’re gonna live there too?”
Hawk rolled a shoulder, did his own grabbing of debris shit around the yard, filling his arms before they headed up onto the deck and into the house, he caught his VP’s eyes. “If she wants me there, yeah. I want her to have a place of her own. So, make sure you kick them out in six months.”
Shit. His mouth jerked at the corner. In his hard world stranger things have happened, he supposed than his sister falling for the worst kinda biker, who would kill anyone who looked at her wrong.