Page 13 of Living Without

“Yep,” I replied curtly. The street the compound was on bustled with vehicles. Someone was havin’ a party. When the gates came into view, our brothers pulled back to let us through first. The yard around the compound held a shitload of people, which explained who was havin’ the party.

They were about to get a nice surprise.

Stoke revved the engine before he laid his foot down on the pedal. We hit the curb and crashed through the gates. They burst free and people scattered everywhere. Men stayed and pulled their weapons free, though they didn’t fire. Stoke stopped the car inches from Blackie, who was still seated in his chair around the fire pit, I stepped out as our brothers pulled up behind us and climbed off their rides.

Stoke met me at the front of the car, and we walked the few steps to Blackie. He raised a brow, but leaned back in his seat, making himself more comfortable.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of your sudden visit?”

“Call all your boys in. We want a word with every one of them,” Stoke ordered.

Blackie’s eyes looked to my side. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Talon and Dodge step up. He asked, “Talon, you let your brother speak for you now?”

“I do when it concerns his daughter being taken.”

Blackie’s jaw clenched and finally he stood. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “First we’ve heard of it, so you gotta know we have nothin’ to do with it.”

I took a step forward. “Don’t matter. We want a word with all your members. Someone in here is a rat to Baxter. We find out who, we find Nary, and peace between us all will be set once again.”

Blackie scanned me from head to toe. He snorted. “Who in the fuck are you to talk, kid?”

“He’s her man,” was called from behind me. Fuckin’ Fang stepped up and even if I wanted to take him to the ground, I didn’t. It was just goddamn lucky he’d said I was Nary’s man.

Blackie raised a brow to his member and asked, “Funny, I thought you were.”

Wanting to know the answer myself, I looked to Fang next to me. His eyes held pain, a pain I knew well. “I was. I failed to take care of what was mine, so I lost the chance I had with her. Vicious wouldn’t have made a stupid move like I had.” Regret. His voice was full of it. Though he was right, even if Nary yelled at me to leave her alone, I wouldn’t have listened. Not when there was a threat to everyone in Hawks. We travelled together. No one was alone so Baxter couldn’t knock us down when we were unprotected.

“I don’t give two flying fucks who she belongs to. What I do care about is you fuckers crashing our party to bring this bullshit toourdoorstep when I’d gottenmybrothers out of it in the first place.”

Through a clenched jaw, I bit out, “Not all of us are pussies and dodge the drama from Baxter. You either fuckin’ help us now, or we start doing a body count.” Behind me, guns were cocked and pointed. Slowly, I took out my own, but kept it lowered and at my side.

Blackie scoffed. “You think you can just come in here and start shootin’ shit up? What kinda prez would I be if I let you?”

“A smart one,” Talon said. “Think about it, Blackie. What would you do if it was one of your kids taken and you knew someone from our club had information on their whereabouts?”

Blackie stiffened. “You threatenin’ my kids?”

“Fuck no. I’m saying, put your goddamn feet in our shoes. All we ask is for some time with your men. You give this to us, we owe you one,” Talon offered. Hawks owing another club was somethin’ huge.

Blackie looked to the sky and then back again, a smirk playin’ on his lips. “And if I don’t go with this?”

“A blood bath,” Dodge said.

“Not all my members would be hit, you do get this? We’d take some of yours down with us.”

“It’s a risk we take,” Stoke replied.

“She must be important to you all.”

“She’s our princess,” Dodge said. A princess in the club meant everything. She was precious and no one should touch her.

“Fuck,” Blackie clipped and then sighed. “All my members are here tonight.” He turned to his brothers and yelled, “I want a show of who’s on board with speakin’ to the Hawks.” Most offered a chin lift or a raised hand; about ten didn’t. With a nod, he looked back to us and said, “Take the ones who didn’t agree. That’s all I’m offering.”

“Spread out,” Stoke yelled. Hawks members flew into action grabbin’ the ones who weren’t down with a few questions before they could take flight. Some fights broke out, but soon enough, we had them down to the ground.

“Good play,” Talon said beside me to Blackie.

He snorted and replied, “You didn’t leave me much of a choice. Maybe next time instead of gate crashing, we could sit down with a nice cup of tea.”

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