Page 139 of Filthy Love

Tensions between the clubs ever since had been rough, butDiablo’swere the tiny fish in RS’s big pond and wouldn’t dare step the fuck on Rider’s toes.

“What did the windbag want this time?”

“Two more of his guys got pulled in over the weekend for blow.”

“My heart bleeds,” sarcasm dripped from Hawk’s mouth.

The ruthless morning sun nearly blinded when they turned a corner and headed into Rider’s office. Hawk shuffled across to the window and pulled the blind down until his retinas returned to normal. “If he’s got a fox in his hen house that’s on him for being a shit prez. But I’m getting what you’re not saying, Ri. You think we gotta keep a closer eye on what we do.”

The bunkers up in the mountains was a thriving business for the downright shady. For a price anything could be hidden down there. It would take one police raid and they’d all do time in the big house.

Rider hmmed and plonked himself in a chair. “We’ll sort this Russian invasion out first, then we’ll see what’s happenin’ with the ATP. Grinder’s contacts in the police have nothing so far, no one is looking at us more than they usually are. Not really bothered about them taking theDiablo’sdown, but if they sing like sopranos it just means they’ll be looking at us.”

After a minute went by Hawk chose his moment. “Look. I know it’s shit timing, with Rex and thebratva, but I wanted to talk to you about something. Tell you something, really.”

Rider cocked his head back. Astute, always had been even when they were more than just boys with no chest hair.

Hawk remembered clearly the night he met Rider, how he’d taken Hawk, who’d been living rough for two years at that point, to get some fast food and offered him a bed and then weeks later an opportunity to prospect for the club. Seemed a life time ago and yet only yesterday. Rider was the one Hawk trusted first so it seemed like a kick in the fucking guts to feel like he was betraying that friendship.

“The way you’re stalling makes me fuckin’ edgy, man. Out with it so I can go grab breakfast with my girls.”

Hawk shifted on his thick, buckled boots and fisted his hands down into the front pockets of his jeans. Rider hadn’t questioned why suddenly Hawk was sporting a new tidier beard and hair, or why he disappeared all hours of the day and night or why he wasn’t sticking around for the parties. They weren’t the kinda friends who talked vanity or even gossiped. When they spoke, it was about shit that mattered, usually about the club so it probably never occurred to his friend a woman was involved.

“I’m seeing Gia.” He said. Eyes never wavering from Rider’s blues.

After a beat. “Okay?” Rider answered slowly, not getting it. Maybe he assumed as his shrink. Wouldn’t that be a barrel of laughs.

Hawk rounded his shoulders and inhaled hard enough to suck up crumbs from the floor. “I’m seeing her, Rider. I suppose she’d call it dating—”

He got no further. Rider jumped to his feet like he’d been fired up the ass with a ten-foot pole. His face no longer blank, he resembled thunder chewing on a wasp. “Is this a fuckin’ joke, Hawk? You better be fuckin’ pullin’ my goddamn third leg right the fuck now.”

“Nope. Not a joke. And before you think about putting me through the wall, which I’d stop you doing, by the way,” Rider growled at him. “Let me just put it all out there and be fucking honest with you, right?”

“Honest? Fuckin’ honest! What the fuck is this shit, Hawk? You’re seeing my sister? Since the fuck when?”

Hawk rolled a hand over the back of his neck. Did he tell the real truth and say he’d been seeing her for ten years, only no one knew then or theotherreal truth and admit it had been a few weeks already?

He went all in, giving the condensed version of wanting her when she was more than a baby, but they’d only gotten together these past weeks. Might as well be slaughtered for a sheep as a fucking psycho.

Hawk had never said so many fucking words all at once before. His tongue was in shock.

Twenty years he’d known the man in front of him. The same man rounding the wide oak desk with eyes raging fire at him, hissing from clenched teeth Hawk felt he didn’t know Rider at all. Yet had wholly expected the reaction.

Who the fuck would be happy he was dating their sibling?

He’d tried to tell Gia this was a bad idea, hadn’t he? He was bad news for everyone.

It was almost comical to pin point Rider’s reaction down to the last inch. And because the men were so in sync with each other’s idiosyncrasies he could presume Rider was counting down in his head to stop from reaching out and knocking Hawk’s face off.

“She wants me, who the fuck knows why. I tried to stop it. I tried for ten fucking years, Ri. A whole fucking decade, I tried not to want her for many fucking fucked up reasons that doesn’t stand now. She won’t let me push her away and I don’t want to anymore.”

With his arms folded Rider approached putting the two men on the same height level. Hawk wasn’t fooled into assuming he was relaxed. He might be a dumb fuck, but he recognized anger.

“All the chicks with more than willing pussies we get through those fucking doors and you latch onto my sister…” Rider said, teeth clenched. “You’re fuckin’ my sister and only just telling me this shit now? I had you watching her to keep her safe!”

Hawk felt his belly get hot. He didn’t like the way he was talking about Gia that way. “If that’s the way you wanna put it.”

Rider burst with anger. “What fuckin’ other way is there to put it, you dick! My goddamn sister. You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding. This shit, whatever fuckin’ fantasy you got goin’ on stops now, you fuckin’ hearin’ me? It stops now.”

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