Page 105 of Little Bird
It’s the first time I’ve felt like I have a father in years, and I’m not going to take that from him.
Besides, he gave me my assignment: Protect Taryn.
While he takes care of the bigger picture.
But as the men from New York start to twitch, their fingers still on their triggers, I wonder if it’s going to be enough. Their eyes are flashing from us to my dad and back, calculating, and I realize they’re still trying to figure out whether they can take Taryn away from us. I shift, pushing her further behind me, and wish I’d remembered a fucking gun. I was in such a hurry to get to Taryn that I didn’t even consider it, and now that seems incredibly stupid.
What the fuck do they want with the girl, and why is it so important? How did they even get up here in the first place? The roads should have been too icy for anyone but a local to drive.
I know one thing for certain: If they take her, we’ll never get her back. We can’t let her off the property. We can’t even let those men get near her.
I just found my soulmate again. I’m not going to lose her now.
My father’s voice increases in volume, and now I can hear what he’s saying. He’s telling Helen exactly why we’re not giving Taryn up and what he thinks of her even asking. Pointing out that we have more men than she does, and that our men are on home turf. They know these woods and this land, and if it comes to hunting down every one of Helen’s men—and Helen herself—we’ll have the upper hand.
“Get out,” he says sharply. “Before we decide we’re out of patience. I’ll send a courier to pick up Taryn’s things.”
Helen looks at him like she doesn’t recognize him, and I can’t blame her for that. I’ve never heard my father speak like that to anyone, and I’ve certainly never seen him defend anyone the way he’s defending Taryn right now.
Then again, I’ve never seen him smile like he smiles at her. The Gunner Hawke we have today is one that’s never existed before.
Helen and her husband are silent for a long, intense moment after my father finishes speaking, and I can practically hear the tension cracking through the air. Fingers are tense on triggers and men are staring each other down, waiting for the signal to shoot. I grow tense as well, moving my arms to keep Taryn behind me.
Of course, she has other plans.
She steps around me so quickly I don’t see it coming, and a moment later she’s standing in front of her mom. “Gunner is right,” she says loudly. “I don’t care what you do. I’m not leaving this place, and I’m not leaving these men. As for whatever you have planned, I’ll stop you. I’ll fight you. You won’t get what you want from me because I’ve already blocked you. You’re finished here, Mom. You lost. Go home.”
Helen sneers. “Whatever you have, I can and will take, little girl.”
Taryn actually grins at her, and it’s so out of place that I question my own sanity for a moment.
“You won’t. The papers giving me independence from you were filed today. And a judge approved them two hours ago. Legally, you’re no longer my mother. And that means the terms of the will have changed.”
I don’t know what any of that means, but it does something to Helen. She grows furious and looks like she’s about to tell her men to start shooting, but my father presses the nose of his gun right to her forehead, stopping her.
“You die first, Helen,” he says. “This isn’t going to end the way you think it will.”
She stares at him for a long, heavy moment… and then turns abruptly and heads for one of the black SUVs they came in, calling out that they’re finished here and it’s time to go home.
And just like that, it’s all over. The men are getting in their cars, our own men are saying they’re ready to go home, and everyone is melting away, leaving me and my father staring at Taryn, who looks both elated… and terrified.
Taryn
I watch my mother and Johnny get back into their cars with their goons from the city, my heart frozen and my lungs incapable of taking in breath.
I can’t believe that worked. I can’t believe they’re actually leaving, and that they’re doing it without any bloodshed.
I mean, as long as I’m going through things I can’t believe, I also can’t believe Hawke’s Wood evidently has its own army on call, here to come to Gunner’s aid whenever he calls them. I never knew there was an MC in this town, and though I met Bear in town, I didn’t realize that he and Gunner’s were on speaking terms—or that he was sheriff.
And they all came for Gunner when he called. Came to protect Gabe against the invaders from the city.
But at the end of the day, underneath all of that, is the fact that they came for me. Gunner saw that I was in trouble and called in reinforcements to try to save me. Gabe came running out only half clothed when he heard me scream. And they stood shoulder to shoulder out here, telling my mother and Johnny that they were going to keep me.
They chose me.
The thought should make me feel happier than I’ve ever felt. I should feel safe and secure and so loved at the thought that both of my men came for me when I needed them.
So why do I feel more terrified than I’ve ever felt before? Why do I feel like I just made myself more vulnerable than ever, and that everything might go sideways on me at any moment?
