Chapter 37
Hawk
“She’s just weak, she’s gonna be okay,” Ma said. “But we gotta get her somewhere– now.”
The clubhouse was too far. Plus, this wasn’t one of the members, it was Kat. She had to go to the hospital. Seriously, where the fuck were Jackal and Shiv when you needed them?
“Let’s go.” I picked her up.
Petrov walked with me. “Hawk, they’re going to call the police. You can’t take her.”
“The fuck you say? I’m not leaving her.” Looking down at Jeannie as we walked out, I fought the urge to kick her. One, she was a woman. Two, she was lifeless already. But I definitely had plans for that trash. “Someone toss her in the truck with my bike.”
Ma was right behind us as I stepped outside. “He’s right, son. I can take her. I’ll just say I escaped with her. Someone find the keys to that SUV right there.”
“I’m going with her!” I shouted as I pulled Kat closer. “This is my woman, and you’d all do the same, and I wouldn’t fucking stop you. Now, who the fuck is gonna drive me?”
Petrov sighed. “We can take my car. But I’m going to have to make a call. I need you to trust me.”
My brows furrowed. “Whatever. We gotta go.”
Eagle opened the door to the car and I slid into the backseat with her. “Sweep as best you can and get Keys to cut the last bit of the recording. And take this.” I passed him my Desert Eagle.
Keys came over, reaching inside. “The necklace. They’ll take it off. Give it to me.”
I yanked it off and handed it to him. He said it wasn’t worth anything and the thin leather strap popped easily. “You cut that feed down. You can do that right?”
“I’ll head back now and seriously, man, I got it,” Keys said as he headed the other direction.
“Ma! Get in the fucking car!” I yelled out before I closed the door.
She got in on the other side and Petrov was in front with the driver.
“Hawk,” a small voice said. Looking down, it was my Kitty Kat.
I swept my thumb over her pale cheek, fighting back the wave of emotions roaring through me. “Hey, we’re going to the hospital. I gotta keep pressure on this. Just try to breathe and keep your eyes open if you can.”
“The women,” she whispered, wincing.
“Hey. Wait,” I said as I rolled down the window.
Petrov turned, “I said to trust me. Your men need to go to the clubhouse now. The women will be found.”
Goddammit. “Hey, all of you get the fuck out of here now.”
“You should probably leave Jeannie here,” Petrov said.
“No. Now, go! We need to get her to the hospital now.”
Petrov went back to his phone, but didn’t argue with me. There was no fucking way Jeannie was getting out of this.
I glanced behind me as we pulled down the bumpy driveway, my guys rushing around. They’d get out soon. They knew the drill.
Turning back, I kept one hand under her shoulder and pressed the other over her chest, trying to slow the bleeding. If this had been one of the guys, I’d be rational– calm. I’d know they’d be alright because of where the shot was. But it wasn’t. It was my woman.
I’d fucked around, not wanting to put out the vote for her. In the back of my mind, I thought if I didn’t claim her, maybe I wouldn’t get attached. Maybe I wouldn’t worry. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like the world was crumbling around me while she bled in my arms.
But none of that mattered. I had no chance since the moment I met her. I’d just been fooling myself. She’s been my woman since I met her.
“This is my fault,” I said, looking down as she dozed off again, but breathing.
“Don’t do that,” Ma said. “She’s gonna be just fine, anyway. But this ain’t your fault, and playing martyr only serves your ego, nothing else.”
“If I’d just–”
“Just what son? Patching her wouldn’t change the fact that Jeannie’s a psycho.”
“Maybe. But maybe if I had, she wouldn’t have gone. Why the fuck didn’t you stop her?” I asked. Keys gave me a short briefing about the beginning of the feed, and Klara admitted to Keys they snuck out to go confront Jeannie. She got worried when her watch showed an increased heart rate.
Ma scoffed. “Just because I said don’t blame yourself doesn’t mean you get to blame me. Would you rather she’d gone alone? Because I got news for you, she would have found a way, with or without me.”
Looking down, I knew she was right. Kat was definitely stubborn. While she didn’t have a short fuse, once it was lit, it made a big bang.
“How do you do it, Ma?” I asked, still holding pressure on her wound.
“What’s that, son?”
Looking up I said, “Carry on without Pops.”
Her face softened and her mouth fell open slightly. She drew in a deep breath. After a drawn out exhale, she answered, “One day at a time.”
It was quiet for a few minutes and I saw the hospital sign on the highway. “We’re getting close, Kitty Kat. Just hang in there.”
“Hawk,” Ma said. She hardly ever called me by my name so my eyes quickly flicked up in her direction.
“It was still worth it.”
My jaw clenched. I was trying to think of something to say, but Niko announced, “We’re here.”
The hospital was small, and only half of the parking lot was full. There wasn’t even a parking deck. “Is this a hospital or a medical park?” I asked.
As we pulled closer, the sign said hospital.
Ma said, “It’s a hospital. They probably don’t do trauma, but her shot ain’t that bad.”
My heart sped up as we got closer. She’d lost a lot of blood before we even got into the SUV, and the ride had been close to twenty minutes.
Ma reached over, patting my hand that was still holding pressure down. “They’ll take care of her, son.”
The driver pulled up to the emergency drop-off lane and parked.
Niko got out and opened the door, then ran inside to flag someone down.
By the time I made it to the door, a woman in blue scrubs with her hair up in a ponytail was coming with a wheelchair.
But then she stopped and turned around, shouting something.
Within seconds, a gurney was in front of me. A man, also wearing blue scrubs, was putting a drape over his front. His hands were gloved as he came over to take her from me. I kissed her cheek as I swallowed down a lump in my throat.
“Sir, let us do our job,” the man said.
I handed her over gently and he put her down, then things moved fast.
They started to wheel her away. I stepped in that direction, but the man stopped me. “Sir, you can’t go back there. But can you tell me what happened?”
“She was shot.”
“Hunting accident?” he asked with furrowed brows.
“Stop fucking around with me and go fix my wife!” I shouted pointing down the hall.
Niko stepped between us. “That’s his wife and my sister. Just please do what you can.”
The nurse nodded and said, “Go to that desk and get her checked in. They’ll tell you where the waiting room is.” He jogged down the hall.
Niko walked with me and was calm and composed, albeit a little more stone-faced than normal. He spoke to the woman at check in as I paced. After a few minutes, he passed a clipboard back to her and then said, “Down this way.”
We turned the corner down a hall and found the waiting room. Ma was there with the driver. The rest was empty. She was standing and rushed over when she saw me. “How you holding up?”
I blew out a heavy sigh and took two long strides to her and wrapped her up.
“Oof. Hey, she’s gonna be alright.” She hugged me tightly, rubbing up and down my back.
“I’m sorry, Ma.”
“Hey, we’re good, son. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
Reaching one hand up to pinch at my eyes, I wiped the small amount of wetness that tried to escape. “Thanks for being with her. And with me.”
She pulled away. “Hey, look at me. I’m always with you, son. I’m always on your side. You understand me? I know you have the weight of the world on you. We’re good. I love you, son. Okay?”
Nodding, I pulled her closer again. I was still worried about Kat, but the hug from Ma was melting some of the unnecessary tension that had been built up.
Even though I had trust issues with everyone else, I never doubted Ma.
“I still shouldn’t have been such a dick.
But I worry about you, Ma. I lost Pops. I’m not ready to lose you, too. ”
“Well, I don’t plan on going anywhere. But we can’t stop living out of fear.”
Finally releasing her, still gripping her shoulders, I nodded. “I know. We’ll revisit things once this is all behind us.”
Her brows raised as she looked over my shoulder. Glancing back, two officers stood at the door. They slowly walked over.
The one with an Earnhardt stache and brown hair asked, “Are you Hawk Jones?”
“He is,” Niko said. “But we won’t be speaking to you.”
The clean shaven man with silver hair put a hand up. “Now son, let’s not make this difficult.” He had a heavy southern accent.
“This ain’t Mayberry,” I shot out.
Niko gave me a look, so I let him speak.
“An agent should be here shortly,” Niko said. “I was instructed not to speak to anyone but that agent.”
They both crossed their arms. Stache said, “Well, we were gonna just ask a few questions here, but I think we need to take a ride.”
“I can’t leave my wife,” I said matter of factly.
Niko pulled out his phone and texted someone. One of the cops tried to reach over for his phone so he stepped back, pulling his phone away. “I’m sorry. Did you just try to accost me?”
“Alright, let’s go,” the silver haired office said.
Ma said, “I’ll be here with her. It’s okay.”
Niko nodded so I grimaced but walked to the door. “If I’m not back by the time she’s awake–”
“I’ll tell her,” Ma said.
Outside, they cuffed us and pulled everything from our pockets. We both climbed into the back seat of the patrol car, and the officers got in and we took off. The drive to the station was quick.
As we walked in, they took us straight to the interrogation rooms.
“Not following procedure?” Niko asked.
“Nobody’s charged with anything. Just asking some questions. Your friend will be over here.”
“Don’t say a word, Hawk,” Niko said calmly.
I stepped inside the room and took a seat. Niko obviously had something up his sleeve, so I just had to wait.
The silver-haired man came inside. “I’m Officer Sanderson.” He took a seat. “That’s a lot of blood. Sure hope she’s okay.”
I didn’t answer him.
“You know, the hospital has to call in any accidents. You clearly care about her. You took her to get fixed up. So why don’t you just tell me what happened and we can get you back over there before she’s out of surgery.”
I stared across, but didn’t move a muscle.
“Not talking only makes you look guilty, son.”
If he called me son one more time I may have broken my silence. But after a few more minutes of reframing his questions with no response from me, he finally tapped on the table. “Alright. Well, you just hang out in here for a while. We’ll talk to her in a bit.”
I hoped whatever Niko was doing happened soon. Stories needed to be cohesive. She probably wouldn’t talk either, but I didn’t want these dipshits harassing her when she needed to be resting.
After about half an hour, the door opened, and my silver-haired friend was back. “Stand up.”
I stood, and he finally took the cuffs off. He turned around, revealing another man with him. He had on a basic black suit and red paisley tie. His light brown hair was styled much like mine and he was clean shaven. Late forties, give or take a few.
“Mr. Jones, I’m Special Agent Hicks from the Atlanta field office. Special Agent Antonov from our Newark field office asked me to man this case until he can arrive.”
Fuck. Fucking Petrov. The Feds. Great.
“We’ll take it from here, officer. Did you have their belongings?”
After just a few minutes, we were in the back of an unmarked sedan and headed back to the hospital, with the contents of our pockets.
“We can check in to see if your wife is still in surgery,” he said as he pulled into a parking space.”
My brows pinched and I looked at Niko. He swept his hand across the air, so I stayed quiet. Were we being held, or what?
After heading back inside, Ma was still in the waiting room. She looked as surprised as I was. “No word yet.”
Agent Hicks held his hand out to the driver, then to Ma. “Special Agent Hicks, ma’am. May I ask you a few questions?”
She looked at me and I looked at Petrov. He smiled and said, “Cindy, he knows you were kidnapped. It’s alright.”
He pulled out a small pad and pen. “Please have a seat. Can you state your name?”
“Cindy Jones.”
“Must have been scary, Cindy. I won’t take up much of your time. Just need to know if you were familiar with the alleged perpetrator.”
Ma sat and I took a seat next to her, holding her hand.
“It was pretty scary. And I’m familiar with one of them. I didn’t know the rest. Jeannie.”
“Jeannie?” he asked. “Last name?”
She squeezed my hand so I squeezed back.
“Jeannie Thomas, I think. But that may not be her real name.”
“That’s fine. We’ll figure it out. Can you describe her? That’s a common name.”
Ma was very vague, but answered his questions enough to satisfy him.
After he wrote his final notes, he tapped his pen on the pad. “Right. We’ll get on this. Please don’t go far. Special Agent Antonov will be here in a few hours. I’ll be just outside, but here’s my card. You can text me if you think of anything else. And please let me know when your wife wakes up.”
Once the agent left, I stood up. “What the fuck were you thinking, Niko?”
“Not to worry,” he said, unbuttoning his blazer. “Antonov is a close personal friend. His parents dine at our restaurant regularly. His father is retired FBI.”
“So they’ll sweep this under the rug? What about this guy?”
“I told him he’ll get two big busts– well, if he can figure out how Josephine is federal and not state.”
Shaking my head, I wiped my hand down my face. Looking down, I realized it was still stained with Kat’s blood.
“Did they save the women?” I asked.
“I think he’s in the air already, but we’ll get more info from Antonov soon. I’m not familiar with this agent so I don’t want to press our luck.”
Blowing out a heavy sigh, I crossed my arms. “Never thought I’d be making a deal with the Feds. Pops would be rolling over in his grave if he wasn’t cremated.”
Niko shrugged. “We’ve arranged favors before. It’s nothing more than business. Don’t be so serious.”
Ma stood and came over. “Look, there was no way to clear all of that, get her here, and save those women. I hate to admit it, but Niko found your get-out-of-jail card. These local boys would love to stick it to an operation like ours. They’d make an example of you.”
“Plus, you didn’t make a deal,” Niko said as he stood and came over. “I did. But I will need that recording from Keys.”
Nodding, I said, “I’ll text him.”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t on your hands. But I solved a problem. And now my sister won’t be alone.”
“I’ll hand over that recording, but I have a condition. I need them to right a wrong.”