Page 10 of Hawk

“That isn’t what I meant, and you know it,” I grumbled. “Mika is a sweetheart, and there’s nothing sweet about this asshole.” I motioned at Gator, and he just shrugged in awhat can you dokind of gesture, and I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t worry, nobody here’s going to try to steal your boy. Weare, however, taking bets on when you’ll get your head out of your ass and make a move.”

“You’re all a bunch of assholes, you know that?”

“Yeah,” Axel said. “But you love us anyway.”

Chapter four

Mika

“Oh, look at that one!” I pointed at the afghan made of hundreds of little crocheted flowers. “I wonder if Mary Ellen could show me how to make those.”

“I don’t know,” Andy said. “But between her and Hazel, I bet one of them could show us. They’d work great for me because if I had to stop because we got a call, I could stop and not worry about losing count.”

Andy and Jesse lived right across the street from Jesse’s grandmother, Hazel, and she’d been teaching him how to crochet just like Mary Ellen had been teaching me. I was better at it than he was, but I didn’t have a hunky Daddy at home to distract me.

“The only thing is it would takesooomany flowers. I think I’ll stick with my granny squares for now. Well, those and scarves. Let’s see what else we find.”

We’d come to the local Farmers Market, which was actually more of a bazaar than a traditional farmers market. Now that I had a place that was all mine and didn’t have any roommates, I was getting more into decorating, and we’d come here to find a lamp to go on the table by my couch.

The market was really crowded today, partially because they had live music playing, but also because the weather was starting to get nice enough for people to enjoy being outside. It was still a little early in the year for much produce, but there were people selling asparagus, strawberries, and a variety of herbs.

“Oh, look at those.” I pointed to a booth selling mixed bouquets of wildflowers. “I love cut flowers.”

“Do you?” Andy asked. “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, I just love flowers in general, but I love to have them in my house.”

“What’s your favorite?”

“Peonies,” I said without hesitation. “But I also like roses. Not the long-stemmed ones, although they’re nice, but I like the ones that grow in clusters on bushes. They’re so pretty. My grandmother has a bunch of those in front of her porch. Every year, as soon as they start to bloom, she cuts off a bunch and puts them in a short vase on this old table that sits in her entryway.”

“You should plant some.”

I shrugged. “I’m just renting the place. I don’t really want to invest a bunch of time and money in the yard just to leave when my lease is up.”

“I get that. I saw someone over near the stage who was selling plants. You could get one of the mini rose bushes, though, and keep it in a pot for now. I bet they have some.”

“I’d like to have one if they have them. Let’s go take a look.”

There was quite a crowd gathered in front of the stage listening to the band, so we had to push our way through to get to the lady with the plants. I made it through first and turned back to check on Andy—and that was when it happened.

I caught a glimpse of a tall guy wearing a biker vest, with a braid of dark hair streaked with gray, moving in the opposite direction.

My heart lurched. It couldn’t be, could it?

I strained my eyes for a better look, but his face was turned away. My palms broke out in a sweat. I was torn between waiting for him to turn so I could see if it was him and hiding just in case it was. The crowd shifted, though, and between one blink and the next, he was gone.

I stood there for a minute, trying to spot him again, but he was nowhere to be seen. It had to be my imagination. There was no way Butch was in Vesper. We were hundreds of miles from Las Cruces. It was probably just some other biker. A lot of them wore vests like that.

“Mika, what’s wrong? You’re pale as a ghost,” Andy asked when he caught up to me.

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking one more quick scan of the crowd.

“Nothing. I’m sure it was just my overactive imagination playing tricks on me.”

He followed my gaze, looking for anything that might’ve alarmed me.

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