“With all the excitement that had gone on from the fight, the fucker got away before Spider could get over there and deal with him,” Bash told me, his face set in hard lines. “So it took a while before we realized who it was. We had to go through all the videos from the cameras that we have around the place.”
“Spit it out, Bash.”
“It was Samson. He was the one that assaulted Kelli.”
Everything inside of me went instantly cold. I turned away from my friend and club president. My fists clenched at my sides as I fought back the images of Gracie lying on the damn pool table with Samson and some other dirty sonofabitch standing over her, getting ready to hurt and humiliate her in a way no woman should ever have to experience.
After letting me have a moment, Bash went on. “After a little digging, Spider found out that Samson knew that Paradise City was under club protection. After talking to some of the fuckers that were with him that night, we learned that he went in there supposedly looking for a fight. He was the one who instigated it, and then he snuck off to hurt Kelli.”
I raked a hand through my hair, and then realized that I’d been doing that a lot all day and quickly dropped my hand before I started tearing my hair out. Turning back around, I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to remember what Kelli looked like. I’d only been over to the strip club a few times in my younger years. Why would I want to go over there and pay for some gash to take her clothes off when I had club sheep begging me for free at the clubhouse any time I wanted it?
“She’s new,” Bash supplied when I just gave him a blank look. “Not the normal type we hire over there but Topaz felt sorry for her or some shit. Kelli is still a kid, not even nineteen yet. Attends the community college and apparently takes care of her family. I don’t know her. Only met her twice since I’ve been back. Raven says she’s talked to the girl a few times when she’s been over there doing the books. Kelli isn’t her real name, of course, and I didn’t bother to ask what it actually is.” He thrust his hands into his front pockets and shook his dark head. “The point is that Kelli has some physical features that are similar to Gracie’s. Dark red hair, skin tone, height and build.”
Bile churned in my gut. “So he knew that his raping her would get back to us. To me.”
“Yeah,” Bash confirmed with a grim nod of his head. “He was making a statement.”
My hands balled into fists, but I didn’t so much as blink in reaction. I couldn’t keep going off the deep end when that fucker could be watching and looking for any sign that he was getting to me. “What about the threats Spider’s been looking into? On the bar and the clubhouse?” There had been a few other places that had been on the list that Samson and his friends were talking about hitting since we had torched their frat house. The most likely places that they were going to hit were the clubhouse or the bar.
No one was going to be happy if they targeted the clubhouse, but it would be pure mayhem if they got the bar. It was where we held church on Friday nights, but it was also where so many called home for a few hours every damn night. The bar was part of my legacy and I would gut anyone who tried to take that away from me.
“No more news in that area. Spider has picked up some whispers here and there about the clubhouse and even about Uncle Jack’s garage. Nothing more about the bar, but we aren’t ruling that out. I don’t want Raven or Willa here alone, ever.”
“Agreed,” I assured him. No way was I going to put my sister or Willa in danger, even if it was just a bunch of hot hair being tossed at us by that poor little rich boy with mommy issues.
By the time Bash and I were finished talking, Colt and Raider were locking up. Bash and I went home, but my brothers had other plans for the rest of the night. Like getting their dicks wet in one of the sheep over at our clubhouse. When I entered the house Bash was already heading up the stairs, but I wasn’t ready to face Gracie yet. I needed to get myself under control or I was going to go straight up to my room and wake her up the way I’d been dreaming of for months now. By licking that sweet, innocent little pussy of hers until she was screaming for more.
I drank a beer and watched TV for an hour, trying to turn my stormy thoughts of the day’s events off so that I might get some sleep tonight. Toby slept at my feet, snoring louder than one of my brothers after a night of hardcore drinking. I glared down at the dog, thinking of his master and wanting to wrap my hands around her neck.
Damn Flick. If you asked me, she was being seriously selfish. Taking off without a word or so much as a hint of where she was going. Making us all worry for weeks on end and burning up favor after favor as we tried to find her. Then calling on a fucking burner phone to ask for her own favor that could have kept Jet in jail for the rest of his damn life.
I’d grown up thinking of Flick as another sister—okay, so maybe not just a sister. One look at that female and no one would consider her a sister unless they were actually related to her. But I’d never been tempted to take her to bed. It had been beat into me that she was just as precious as Raven and should always be protected. When she’d called me and asked me to get a message to Jet, I’d only done it because I thought I had owed her something.
Lucky for her, Jet hadn’t been caught doing her little favor and would be home in a few more weeks. If things had been different, if my brother would have had to spend the rest of his life in prison because of her fucking favor, I would have hunted Flick down and…
Shit, I wasn’t sure what I would have done once I’d found her. I’d never mistreated a female in my life. Sure, I’d done plenty of bad things that would land me in the deepest part of hell for eternity, but hurting a female hadn’t been one of them. Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about that since it was all over now.
My head was starting to pound and my eyes were feeling heavy so I finally went up to my room. When I opened the door I found the bathroom light still on with the door cracked. It cast a soft glow over my bed, and the female tangl
ed in my sheets. Like it always did, my dick instantly reacted to the sight of Gracie sleeping in my bed and I took a moment to savor it.
Her long, thick red hair was spread over her pillow. She was lying on her side, with one hand tucked under her chest, the other resting over her stomach. The covers were tucked under her arm, but I still saw that she was wearing that damn adorable pajama top with the little butterflies all over it. Her legs were bent and tucked toward her stomach, making her ass pop back. If I had been beside her, that ass would have fit perfectly against my crotch, almost like a puzzle piece snapping into place.
If I didn’t do something soon I wouldn’t be able to come home to this every night. I wouldn’t get to climb into bed with that little sweet, innocent goddess every night and hold her and sleep peacefully. If she were gone I would be lost, and I wasn’t sure if I could handle going back to being lost.
Chapter 5
Gracie
I felt the bed dip as Hawk climbed into bed beside me. I lifted my eyes long enough to check the time on the clock beside the bed through my lashes. Four thirty. I bit my lip and shut my eyes tight. He was late coming home again.
Inhaling, I was surprised to find that he didn’t smell of perfume. Normally when he was late getting home he smelled like sickly sweet, cheap perfume. Like he had the night before. That he didn’t tonight confused me.
When I felt Hawk shift closer behind me I clenched my hands and tried to will myself back to sleep. A minute passed. I knew that because I was trying to count sheep, and I had just barely gotten to sixty when I felt him shifting again. His chest pressed against my back and his hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer against him.
The scruff from his day-old beard scraped over my neck, making me shiver. “I know you aren’t asleep, baby.”
When he called me ‘baby’, I couldn’t help but melt into him. He rarely called me that. It was always ‘sweetheart’ or ‘angel’. I was a stupid, weak idiot when he used that one little word. I let my eyes flutter open and focused on the wall across the room. “Everything okay at the bar?”