Page 36 of Hawk
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Maci
My head has barely hit the pillow when there is a pounding at my door. I’m not meant to work nights anymore and I give waitresses a big thank you for doing everything they do. My hips hurt!
Leaning over, I grab my gun out of the bedside table and wait to see if the pounding at my door continues. With Riley being gone at school, I don’t worry about her showing up and seeing me yielding my gun.
We’re from Chicago and in Chicago, there’s a bunch of laws and regulations about having a gun in your house. Living where we do now, on the other side of the country, no one gives two shits what you have. I love it.
I’m tiptoeing to the door when the door shakes again from someone pounding on it.
“Who is it?” I yell with my gun cocked and ready to go.
“It’s Hawk! Answer the door!”
After looking through the peephole, I see that it is really Hawk and I crack open the door. After the weirdness from the last couple of weeks, I’m nervous being around him. I’m not afraid of him, but I’m afraid of how I feel about him so early on.
He puts his foot in between the door and wedges himself through it. His big frame barely fits in through the door but here he is. He looks me over and his eyes close in on the Rueger I have in my hands.
“Why do’ya have a gun, baby?” He asks and holds his hand out for me to place the gun in his hand.
I shake my head. “I have the gun to protect myself and everyone I love. You’re not taking my gun. Why are you at my place?”
He looks around a little more intently before he walks over to the couch. His hand pats the cushion right next to where he is seated. “We gotta talk about a couple’a things.”
“I don’t think we need to talk about shit,” I hiss holding my ground.
“Please, baby?”
The fact that he saidpleasemelts me. I take a seat right to him and he smiles at me before turning his face into stone.
“We gotta talk about why you’re here.”
I feel like spinning my head. “Why does it matter where I am?”
He sits farther back on the couch with his arm along the backside of the couch. I want to cuddle into his pocket he has for me, but I don’t. I stand my ground. Fuck, I want to know what kind of game he’s playing at. And the kind of games I’m volunteering for.
I’ve been teasing him just as much as he has been teasing me.
“It matters because I’m makin’ a decision. You work in my diner, you’re workin’ around my girls. My brothers go there… And for some reason, I can’t stay away from you. For that reason, it matters to me.”
“Why can’t you stay away from me?” I whisper. His words are clicking into my head. Does this mean he likes me? I’m so confused.
“Baby, you gotta feel this, too. You gotta feel what I’m feelin’ and know I’m not fuckin’ around here. I like you and you like me. That’s it.”
I nod, not ready to say the words but ready to give him something. He needs something.
“I got a call from the sheriff’s office and turns out someone has been peeping out your new social. Care to explain that?” He asks already knowing the answer.
“What?” My anxiety raises and I feel bile shoot through my throat.
“For some reason, Maci Taylor is a brand new woman. A brand new woman with a new identity and no one knows where she came from. Who is Maci Taylor?”
“I am.”
His arm shoots out and he grabs me close to his body. I feel his body heat against my side and I take a deep breath. I never knew how comforting a man’s scent would be until this moment.
And for the first time since all of this shit has happened, I cry. I cry for having to leave my home I worked for and I cry for having to leave my job I was good at.
