Page 74 of Hawk

I had no idea how she knew that, but I didn’t question her. If Kat said he wasn’t in the record store, he wasn’t there. I grabbed the Jackal closest to me and pushed him against the van, my arm against his throat.

“Where is Butch?” I growled.

He made a choking noise, but he darted his eyes towards the back of the building. I glanced at Chance, and he shook his head. “Collins isn’t answering.”

“Fuck!” I threw the biker to the ground. “We’re going this way. You go around,” I yelled out to Chance and Gator, and I took off toward the back of the building.

Chapter twenty-four

Mika

As soon as I stepped out the back door, Butch grabbed me and spun me around, pressing my back against the wall. He leaned down to say something into my ear, but he froze. Then one of his hands flew up, grabbing me by the throat. With the other hand, he plucked the earpiece out of my ear, dropped it to the ground, and stomped on it.

“You set me up, you little bitch. I should’ve listened to Snake and hunted you down and killed you when you took my money and ran. I just wrote it off as compensation for all the time you spent on your knees for me.”

I clawed at his hand, trying to get enough slack to draw in a breath. “You don’t want to do this,” I croaked.

“You don’t know shit about what I want.”

Lucky for me, we’d practiced that move in self-defense class, and I’d even tried it out on Snake, and it had worked. I swung my arm up, hitting him in that perfect spot right between his wrist and his thumb. I caught him off guard, and it worked… for a second. But unlike Snake, he didn’t give me a groin shot. I just spun to the side and started to scramble away, but before I even got three steps away, I heard the all too familiar sound of him spinning the cylinder of his gun, and I froze.

I was immediately transported back to the first time I’d really been scared of Butch.

Things had been rough for a while. Butch and this guy named Jack had been fighting a lot. Jack ran things, and Butch didn’t like him very much, but because he was the one in charge, Butch had to grin and bear it way too much of the time. That led to bad moods and lots of alcohol.

He’d been drinking for who knows how long that night when I’d made the mistake of trying to reason with him. Up to this point, I’d believed that I was safe with him. I mean, sure, the gang was a little rough, and he was involved in some things I didn’t approve of, but he was good to me.

“Jack’s your boss, right? I’ve had crappy bosses before, and it never really helps to argue with them. They always think they’re right because they’re the boss.”

“You don’t know shit about how things work around here, so now would be a good time for you to shut the fuck up.”

I’d been shocked. He’d never talked to me that way before, and I hadn’t known what to do.

“I know you’re angry, but…”

He pulled out his gun and popped open the cylinder before dumping all the bullets out into his hand. He put one shell back in the gun, closed the cylinder, and spun it.

“I told you to shut the fuck up.” He pointed it at me and pulled back the hammer. “This gun holds six bullets. I only put in one, so the odds are in your favor. Do you want to try your luck?”

I shook my head no.

“That’s what I thought, so I suggest you do what you’re told.”

He’d seen how much it had scared me, and he’d used that threat to intimidate me more times than I could count.

I guess some things never changed. I slowly turned back around to find him standing there looking at me with a hateful smirk on his face.

“Good try, Mika. You’ve learned a few things, but nothing that will save you from me. Now get back over here.”

We’d learned a lot in class, but nothing that would protect me from a bullet. I hesitantly took a step toward him, and he grabbed me, spinning me around so that I was in front of him. He wrapped one arm around my chest and tugged me back against him, pointing the gun at my head with the other hand.

“I’m not playing around today, so you know. This gun is fully loaded, so if I pull the trigger, you’re done for. Are we clear?”

“Yeah, we’re clear.”

Hawk

Gator and I rounded the corner, and both came to a screeching halt. I’d been prepared for a chase or a fight, but nothing could’ve prepared me to see Butch holding a gun to my boy’s head as he pushed him toward his bike.

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