Page 34 of Emily's Essence

Hawk held out a hand. “Come here, babe. Striker wants to talk to you, and then we’re going to bed.”

“Here?” Emily asked.

“No, we’re going to my room.”

“Oh.” She stood and hugged the girls, walked to Hawk, and took his hand. “What’s he want to talk about?”

“He has some questions.”

She could feel the tension in the room when Hawk pulled her in. The only people in the room were each group’s prez and vice prez.

Hawk brought her over to a chair, sat, and pulled her into his lap.

“I want you to go over everything that happened last night,” Striker said.

“Oh, okay. I left Hawk’s place and was headed back home. I heard a sound behind me, turned, and immediately got smacked with the branch.”

“You didn’t see anything about the person?” Feral asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Can you guess how tall they were?” Hawk asked.

She thought about it for a moment. “The branch came at me sideways and not down, so I would guess it was a shorter person.”

“I’d agree,” Striker said. “Tell us about the voice.”

“The person was definitely distorting their voice, making it deep and gruff.”

Hawk rubbed her back. “That helps, babe. We now know the person was shorter than the average guy here. We also know he’s one of us if he tried to disguise his voice, so you wouldn’t know who it was.”

“So it’s someone in one of our clubs,” Striker said. “Can you think of anyone that hates you or acts differently around you?”

Emily had to think about it and then shook her head. “No.”

The room seemed to get tenser as the guys looked at Hawk. She turned to look up at him. “What’s going on?”

Hawk pulled her tighter against his chest. “Baby, when I found you, your jeans were down around your knees.

It took her a moment to understand. “You think I might have been raped?” She couldn’t help the hysteria that changed the tone of her voice. The only thoughts were that someone might have intimately touched her, and she didn’t know about it.

“We can’t be one hundred percent sure unless you have a doctor’s visit.”

She flew from his arms so fast he was unable to grab her. She held her hands out in front of her when Hawk stood and took a step toward her. “No. Don’t. Stay back.”

“Babe, no blood or fluid was on your panties, and we found you fairly quickly. We don’t think he had a chance to touch you. Alicia asked if you were sore, and you said just your head was. Is that still true?”

She couldn’t grasp a single thought because her emotions were in chaos.

“Answer me,” Hawk said and took another step toward her.

“No, wait!” she yelled. She pressed her hands against her face and burst into gut-wrenching sobs.

“Fuck that.” Hawk picked her up and turned to Striker. “I’m taking her home.”

“I think that would be best,” Striker said. “We’ll talk in the morning.”

“Can someone grab some of her things from her room?”

---