Hawk (Sex and Bullets 2)

“So you’ll do it?” Detective Lopez tries to hide his grin but fails.

“Yeah. I’ll be your goddamn bait,” I grunt and knock back the scotch I’m having for breakfast, letting it burn a path down my throat to my chest.

“Excellent. You are making a huge difference, Mr. Fleming.” Lopez is beaming at me approvingly, and I couldn’t care less. “The world thanks you.”

Fuck the world.

I swallow back the words, because that’s not it. I know I’m doing the right thing, but everything today is upside down.

Because of Layla. And what she told me.

Yeah, I’m taking responsibility for my parents’ actions, working to take down the monstrous presence of the Organization. Trying to be what my grandfather wanted me to be.

But what about Layla and the baby? What if I don’t come back this time?

Sighing, blocking out Lopez’s excited babbling, I lean back on the sofa, lacing my hands behind my head. Even dressed in Storm’s borrowed clothes, the pants slightly too short on me, I feel more human than I have in days. There’s something to wearing normal pants in contrast to sweats that makes me feel more… normal.

Even after everything that’s gone down.

Now that I’ve calmed down, I need to talk to Layla. I know I do. My brain is still out of focus. I don’t know what to feel.

Shock. I am in fucking shock and still I can’t shake it. There’s a strange flutter in my chest whenever I think of her, furious and in my face, when I think of the little white stick with the twin blue lines that mean…

….they mean she’s having my baby. My baby.

A stupid grin pulls at my lips, and I shake my head, push my hair out of my face.

Raylin is standing at the door of the living room where I’m sitting with the guys, sending me such a glare my pants almost catch on fire. She’s been waiting to talk to me from the moment I entered the room. To chew me out about Layla, I bet.

She’s right. I kinda lost it there.

Hey, I fucked up, but going from comforting your girl about not being able to have kids to a positive pregnancy test within the hour can really twist your mind.

My girl.

I believe her. I believe she didn’t know this might happen. That she didn’t sleep with anyone else. I’d have known. There was never a second thought when I asked her if she was free to meet me. Never a shadow of a doubt in her eyes.

Even when we were just fuckbuddies. Even when we didn’t speak of the future and we had fun with each other with the understanding that there would be nothing more.

And even then I wanted her like no other girl. I just didn’t know I’d fall for her so fucking deeply.

“We should move fast,” Detective Lopez is saying. “You will drive back with me. I’ll let the HQ know we can go ahead, and as soon as we hide the listening device on you, you can go in.”

“And then what?” Rook says and shoots me a sharp look. “Are you even paying attention, Hawk? Christ.”

“Calm your tits, dude.” I wave a hand back and forth, my mind still on Layla, and what I should tell her. How I should apologize. “I’m listening. I’ll go with the detective and get a listening device up my ass, then I’ll be delivered with a bow back to Sandivar.” I hide a shiver and grin widely to cover it up. “Then what, Mr. Lopez? How are you hoping to get my fine ass back out of there alive?”

His smile falters for a second as if wondering if I’m taking any of this seriously. “You will go to your office, which we are sure they are watching. They’ll have to come and get you. We will follow them.”

“Simple as that, huh?”

He shrugs. “Sometimes the simpler the better.”

Storm looks ready to lay into the guy about the plan, his face reddening, and Rook is tapping his fingers on the armrest, his gaze cold.

I push to my feet. “Now we’ve settled this, if you’ll all excuse me, there’s something I need to take care of before we leave.”

“You okay?” Storm asks after me before I make it out of the room.