Hawk

9 - Getting away from it all

Brooke

“Are you sure this is okay?”

“Stop worrying,” Hawk places my hand on his thigh as he drives us towards his grandparent’s house. “They love you.”

I know this, they told me the last time I saw them. I’m just worried they’ll be angry about what happened, how I left Hawk, and what my father said to him.

I must admit that it’s churning me up inside what Hank said to Hawk all those months ago. I should not think about that anymore, but it will not leave my head.

How could he be so cruel?

How could I have just stood there and listened to it?

I was a coward, but I wanted to protect the man I love. I fully believed Hank would shoot Hawk, and I could not have borne that.

Many people used to bully me in school. Me and my sister because of the way our father was. People expected us both to be as racist as our brothers and parents. Yes, our brothers, all five of them, were beyond racist and vile in the things they said and did. However, Marnie and I just aren’t.

Okay, I’ll be honest. When I was a little girl, I believed what my daddy would say about people of color; anyone who wasn’t like him was just as he said. However, Marnie is a rare breed. She never believed any of it, and she made me understand why people were different and that everyone had the right to be who they truly were — colored, gay, other religions, non-religious, from a completely different culture. None of us are different; we just believe different things.

She made me promise when I was a little girl that I would never, ever take Hank’s views into my heart. She made me promise that I would never look at another person and think I was better than them. It wouldn’t matter if I had all the money in the world. It wouldn’t make me any better than the beggar on the street. It might buy me things, but it will never mean my soul is purer than the next person.

I miss Marnie so much; she taught me everything I know about loving and giving love to another person. I wish she were here with me.

When I look at the man beside me, the beautifully tanned, quarter-black man with light brown eyes who stole my heart the moment I met him, I can’t believe it could ever be wrong to love him, to have him touch me. I look at the baby we made safe and sound in his new car seat in the middle of the backseat, and I can’t imagine my life without him, without either of them.

I will never deny the man I love again. I will proudly stand by his side for as long as I live. I will tell anyone who listens that this is the man I love. The man who gave me the most precious gift any man could give a woman, the man who saved me.

His grandparents live twenty minutes outside of Bardsville. They moved a few years ago because the town of Smithville is small and peaceful. A retirement town of sorts. Both of them were in their seventies, so they felt it was best for them.

We pull up outside their beautiful home. It’s cold out, but I can see where the flowers are planted in their garden in the summertime. The garden is gorgeous, even in the winter. Large and perfectly manicured. The house is on one level, small, but homey. The outside is painted pale cream and looks like it hasn’t long been built. I’m guessing the house was a new build when they bought it. Oddly, I’ve never asked Hawk that.

I take a deep breath and let it out while unbuckling my seatbelt. Hawk takes my arm, stopping me from reaching for the door handle. I turn to look at him and smile.

“Stop worryin’. My grandparents hold nothing against you, Brooke.”

“I wouldn’t blame them if they did.”

Hawk’s hand comes to my cheek, his thumb stroking gently, making me smile. He’s so tender with me; after everything I put him through, he’s still here loving me. I really am the luckiest girl in the world.

“No one blames you for anything. They’ll be happy to see you. Trust me.”

I nod with a smile. If Hawk says everything will be okay, then everything will be alright.

I watch him take Gabriel’s seat out of the car; our baby boy is still asleep inside it. He looks so peaceful and tiny. He’s wrapped up warm, so I don’t have to worry about him getting cold or catching one. I take Hawk’s hand when he offers it to me with a wink. God, I love him.

“We’re here!” He yells to the empty hallway as we walk in.

The whole house smells of freshly baked cookies and an open fire. It’s also warm in here. It’s the kind of warmth that has you hugging yourself like a little kid at Christmas.

“Is that my favorite grandson?” His grandmother’s face is alight with happiness as she embraces Hawk and kisses his cheek before taking Gabriel’s car seat from his hands.

“Thought I was your favorite grandson?”

“That would be me. I am the eldest grandson.” Roman snaps playfully at the young man to his left.

I’ve never met Dominic in the flesh before. He was away at college when Hawk and I got together, but we have spoken on the phone before. I saw him on a video call once, but we didn’t say much more than Hello. I had not seen him at the clubhouse since being back because Dominic was not around. I didn’t ask where he was because I had other things on my mind.

I can tell they’re brothers; they look so much alike. However, Dominic could pass for a full white man like his father. He doesn’t have much color to his skin, although he does have a tan. He’s handsome, too. If he’s anything like Roman, he knows it.

Roman, I’ve met before, of course. He’s Taylor’s older sister’s son, her only son. His father, like Hawk and Dominic’s, is white. Roman’s skin tone is like Hawk’s, beautifully tanned like light mocha. But where Hawk’s hair is wavy, Roman’s is straight, like Dominic's. Although, Dominic seems to be the only one with short hair out of the three of them. I have seen pictures of Dominic before, and Hawk has told me all about him. Not to mention, Taylor couldn’t stop talking about her little boy. But it’s not the same as meeting him in person.

From what Hawk told me, Roman, Hawk, and Dominic are the only grandsons. Roman has a younger sister but no brothers. Leroy and Emelda, their grandparents, have four children, two sons and two daughters. Both sons have only daughters, quite a few. So, of course, Roman, Hawk, and Dominic have been spoiled a lot. It seems it’s now Gabriel’s turn, as he is the only great-grandson.

He isn’t their only great-grandchild, however. They have fifteen of those all together now, all girls apart from my baby boy.

How crazy is that?

“I was actually talking about this little man.” Emelda coos at Gabriel, even though he’s still fast asleep.

She walks away from us just as Roman kisses my cheek. I hear Leroy in the kitchen, his Jamaican accent, as he booms about how beautiful his great-grandson is. It makes me smile.

“Not gonna introduce me, Hawk?”

I try to suppress a grin. Dominic is looking at me in a way he shouldn't be, not that I believe he means it seriously, and I can feel the anger rolling off my man.

Should it make me smile inside that he's jealous?

Hawk wraps a protective around my waist in a possessive manner. “This is Brooke. As you well know, I’ve told you about her plenty, and you’ve spoken before. Brooke, this is my jerk baby brother, Wrench.”

Wrench?

Why would he have a road name?

He’s not a biker.

“The idio.t decided to ditch his degree and become a biker, after all. He’s a Prospect with the club.”

“I’ll be patched in before you know it.” Dominic winks at me.

I like him already; he’s charming. He’s also built like an Adonis. He’s not as big as Hawk, but it’s undeniable that Wrench works out a lot. I can also tell he’s a ladies’ man. I bet he’s with a different woman every night, even two, some nights.

I wonder why they call him Wrench?

I know how Hawk got his name. Hawk told me once how fantastic he was with archery. He even showed me once how good he was. He never missed a target. He told me how Roman used to call him Hawk-boy when he was a kid.

Stryker told me how Hawk always said if he could do one thing, it would be to fly like a Hawk in the sky so free. However, he grew out of that as he got a little older.

BlackJack then explained over dinner one night how Dante became Hawk when he was seventeen. He has a keen eye, keeps both open when he fires his arrows, shoots to kill, and never misses. He swoops in like a hawk and ends his prey, and like a hawk, he pulls them apart piece by piece.

I was so shocked my whole body went cold, and I had to leave the room to get some air. Okay, back then, I hadn’t realized just how bad bikers were. I always thought my father was just saying that stuff to scare me.

Hawk talked to me and made me see that he’s never killed an innocent person, and he hasn’t killed hundreds of people, even though that’s how his father made it seem to me. He’d actually, at that point, only killed a handful of people. A handful too many, in my opinion.

However, Hawk, like his biker family, kills only to protect their family or the innocent around them. Women, children, the elderly, etcetera.

Hawk didn’t lie when I asked him questions. He told me about the protection rackets they run, but he couldn’t tell me anything else other than they don’t push drugs or prostitution, and they despise pedophiles. They own strip clubs. The girls aren’t forced to work there but are forced to abide by the rules, no se.x with customers, no drugs, or they lose their jobs.

In all honesty, it made things a little easier to take. I should have been afraid of it all, but I wasn’t. I’d seen terrible things living with my father and brothers.

Surely the MC couldn't be all that bad?

Hawk held me close to him when I told him nothing in this world would make me leave him. Nothing but my father, but I didn’t say that to him, he was worried enough that I wanted to end things now I knew what he was capable of.

After the greetings are over and Hawk and I are settled into the room we’ll be staying in for the next few days, his grandmother calls us down for dinner, and I’m feeling a little off. I’m feeling a little feverish.

However, I push it aside and eat as much of the roast lamb his grandmother lovingly made while listening to Roman, Wrench, and Hawk telling stories of when they were younger.

Roman is twelve years older than Hawk, fifteen years older than Wrench, and at the age of thirty-seven, he is a God among men. He’s more like a big brother to Hawk and Wrench, and he loves my little boy, I saw it in his eyes when he held Gabriel. I really do like him.

“Remember when this one stole BlackJack’s bike?”

My ears prick up.

Hawk laughs while nodding in Roman’s direction. “He was only fourteen.”

“Hey, I only took it for a little spin. Wanted to get a feel for it; that way, I’d know what it would feel like when I got my own bike.”

I laugh at Wrench. He’s so witty, funny, and charming. He’s going to be a good friend, a wonderful uncle.

“Your mother almost killed you.”

“Would’a been his own fault if my little girl beat him down for what he did.”

“Lucky for him, Pops, Aunt Taylor never laid a hand on him in his life.”

“Hey, I’m the baby of the family.”

“What’s that got to do with anythin’?” Hawk laughs.

“Mom wouldn’t beat on her baby.”

“No, but we would.” I can’t help the laughter that escapes me as Roman wraps his big arm around Wrench’s head and pulls him from his seat, yelling how he’s going to beat his tail.

Hawk joins in the playful fighting, and their grandparents sit laughing to themselves. Leroy rolls his eyes like he’s seen it all before, and I need to use the bathroom.

I smile to myself the whole time. This break is going to be just what I need to relax and try to forget all about Hank Webster.

For now, at least.