The magic of the few weeks she was having with Roarke seemed to vanish as the next few days went past. The cops couldn’t find anything, but that didn’t stop them from waiting and lingering around as long as possible.
“Don’t think you’re getting off that easy,” one of the officers said to him as he stood there with his arms crossed.
“I never get off easy. I’m a tough man to please,” Roarke said with a shit-eating grin but Hanna could see the fear in his eyes that couldn’t be hidden by his own arrogance. Something had him spooked. The cops may not notice, but she narrowed her eyes in his direction.
“You’re on thin ice, Withers,” the cop said.
“Aren’t we all? Until you’ve got a warrant or a reason to cuff me, I’m perfectly safe where I’m standing,” he said. “Now I kindly ask you to leave my property.”
“We’ll be back.”
“I’m sure you will.”
He watched the cops shuffle out until the last one was gone. Rick watched the window, giving the signal when actually left the property, cars and motorcycles speeding off into the night. Hanna didn’t trust that they hadn’t bugged the place, left something behind. They made a show and knew they were likely not going to find anything, that was a textbook bugging assignment.
She set to work, running her fingers under ledges and looking for wires out of place. Roarke was watching her with a raised eyebrow.
“And you are doing…?”
“I’m willing to bet they bugged this place,” she said.
“Girl has a point,” Rick said. “That was a little too showy for no reward on their part.”
“Well then I hope whoever’s listening can go fuck themselves,” Roarke said loudly and marching away to the back office, slamming the door behind him.
That was the start of what Hanna knew was going to be an insufferable two weeks. She had deep feelings for Roarke, she cared about him, she knew the man he could be underneath. But she also knew that this was going to be the beginning of all the ugly parts of him coming back to light. He was so easily angered, so easily set on a hot boil. For whatever reason, this got under his skin and she was going to be the one suffering for it.
***
“Get off my back.”
“I’m just trying to get you to relax.”
They were in Roarke’s apartment, several days after the raid. Roarke hadn’t so much as kissed her on the cheek since then. He took to pacing constantly, checking his phone, calling people. He watched the TV blankly, not really taking in any of the news or whatever sitcom he let her put on. He didn’t complain about her staying over night after night and continued to make sure she got food and water and she caught him, once or twice, checking some pregnancy websites.
But his face was hard and his tone was harder. He was giving her tough love, of some sort. She knew it wasn’t her fault. He wasn’t punishing her for anything, but he was taking out his foul mood on the one person he knew he could. Rick would have punched him in the face by now, Amber would have told him off, but Hanna was just concerned about trying to make him calm down, feel safer, feel happier.
It was around the fourth day that she decided to give it back.
“I know the big bad cops got you spooked but you could maybe not take your petty shit out on me,” she said sharply and he stared at her.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you playing the tough guy act all over again since the cops showed up at the bar,” she said, standing up to get some height on him as he sat in the couch. “This isn’t you. You like to put on shows but not for me.”
“Maybe this is me?” he spat back.
She shook her head. She’d had that fear, for just a moment. She was afraid she’d been wrong, that she’d imagined the man who had been so kind to her over the course of the past few months. She could have easily seen what she wanted to see and it wouldn’t be too hard for him to give her the illusion of what he wanted her to see as well. In the middle of the night, she thought that could be true, that this all had been a huge mistake.
But when she watched him sleep, he was peaceful then, he’d hold her, reach for her without realizing it. She knew that was the real him, that was the one hiding and this was the facade. But she couldn’t put up with much more of his nonsense if he insisted on being cruel to her to take out his fears.
“What is it that you’re afraid of now? The cops are gone, the Caracals have been quiet. What the hell has got you acting like an ass?” she demanded.
He sighed. His glare and furrowed brow dropped and he looked at the ground. Now he was more of a scolded teenager than the hard-ass wannabe gang leader. She rubbed his neck and twisted it around until it cracked.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled like it was the hardest thing in the world for him to get out. “I know I’ve been a huge ass and I don’t mean to be, though that’s just going to be something that’s part of who I am.”
“Well, I won’t argue with that,” she said with a smirk.
He smiled back at her. It was small and a little too self-conscious but it was there and she’d take what she could get from him. She wanted it all, but this was a start. She moved to sit down next to him and squeezed his knee firmly.
“It’s way too early in all this to be fighting,” she said. “That’s exactly what Isabelle wants. She knows you, or thinks she does. She wants to try to turn you on the people who care about you.”
“I know,” he sighed, placing his hand over hers.
“There are small ways to get back at her, and that starts with not giving in to her mind games, no matter what has you spooked,” she said.
He smiled and, for the first time in days, leaned forward and placed a soft, warm kiss on her lips. It was quick, barely more than a brush, but that’s all Hanna wanted right now. She didn’t need searing passion or something hot to make her feel alive. She just needed to know that he was there, that he was present. That the person she knew he could be was waiting underneath the surface of all that show and leather.
They would be okay. She wasn’t going to let Isabelle or anyone else change that.
***
The bliss of it all didn’t last very long, however. The next day they were having a meeting in the bar and Roarke’s agitated self came back out to play and was far less willing to be nice and gentle and be forced away by some cuddles now that he was in front of the gang. Hanna wanted to smack him, just level a chair over his head, wring his neck just a little bit.
“We need to go after her,” he said, plainly.
“Why? So she can set another trap?” Hanna said. “She’s excellent at staying three steps ahead of you because you’re so damn predictable.”
“I’m prepared, I’ve got a code, and I’ve got plans, nothing wrong with that,” he said.
“Until she uses that against you, like she is now,” Hanna said. “She knows what you’re going to want to do. She’s got something waiting for you if you try to go after you, I’m sure of that. But she doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know what I’m willing to do or not do. We should use that to our advantage.”
“So suddenly you’re the key to sorting this whole mess out?”
“It’s a better fucking start than doing exactly what she wants you to do,” Hanna spat, beginning to see red. “Last time you went off on your own to do things your way Robert ended up in the hospital.”
It was a low blow and the room got quiet after she said it. She may have crossed a line but she didn’t care. She needed to get through to him and if hurting him or shocking him was going to get the job done, then so be it, she’d do what she had to. She wasn’t going to let him risk more lives and any advantages they had on his own pride and stupidity.
He stared at her, his lips a thin, tight line. She held his gaze. She wasn’t going to back down. She didn’t want to hurt him but she’d do what she needed to make sure he understood. She needed him to knock it off and it was this or scold him in front of his entire gang and she knew how well that would go over.
Before anyone could break the tension by speaking up, the door busted open. It was Mouse. He was out of breath and pushing his way into the circle of the meeting.
“We got a problem, boss,” he said, hands on his knees.
“Did you fucking run here?” Rick asked
“I had to ditch my ride a while back, I’ll get in the morning,” he huffed out. “The point is the cops are snooping around my grandma’s barn. They know the guns are there. They don’t have a warrant but it won’t take much for them to get one.”
“Oh fucking hell,” Rick said, throwing down his drink and pulling on his jacket.
“Guns?” Hanna asked.
“Smart guy over here swore it would be fine to house all the guns in one spot,” Rick said, pointing at Roarke.
“They’re unregistered,” Hanna concluded for herself.
“Yes,” Roarke said, getting up. “And we’ve invested virtually everything into them so if the cops get their hands on them we can say goodbye to the bar and the auto shop.”
With that, Roarke and Rick walked out of the bar and Hanna was powerless to stop it.