76. Hawk
“I’m gonna need you to back this story all the way up for me,” Alex said, leaning back on the couch and lacing his fingers behind his head as he stared at me in disbelief. We were in my living room, the guys all having come over nearly the minute I touched back down in California. “Because I gotta admit, I’m not following.”
Exhaling heavily, I shook my head.
“It’s exactly what I said. After that night in Minneapolis fifteen years ago, Bird tried to reach out. Not just with letters, but phone calls and emails. They all ended up going to Castor Records and some suck-up crony of Tori’s must have forwarded them on to her.”
“Okay. Got that much,” Alex stated, looking to Gavin for confirmation, who only nodded. “Go on.”
“Once Tori found out about it, she headed right to Minnesota, tracked Wren down, and threatened her with a bunch of bogus legal documents saying that if she ever told anyone about the baby or her connection to me, Castor Records would sue the shit outta her, making her life miserable for all eternity.” I ground my teeth just thinking about Wren being that vulnerable. It made my stomach churn thinking about my girls being discarded like that, frightened and then hidden from me for fifteen years.
Tori had a fuck of a lot to answer for.
“Have you seen those documents?” Gavin asked, always the logical thinker.
“I haven’t laid eyes on them myself, but Cooper said that she’d seen them a few years ago, so I can ask.”
At least I could when Wren started answering my fuckin’ calls again.
I’d texted her to tell her that I’d landed in L.A., and then again to ask how they were doing, but it was starting to look like she’d left me on read.
The minute the private plane had lifted off from Duluth airport, I knew I’d fucked up. I was just so used to putting music first that I guessed I had done so by force of habit alone.
Mick called, and I answered. He said we needed to be in L.A. and I went. It was what I’d always done, and in the heat of the moment, I’d reverted to my old behaviors.
But my life was different now than it had been two weeks ago, and while the old me barely even thought about anything outside my immediate Black Kite circle, the new me was realizing that was there more to life than I’d ever dreamed.
And I was gonna make damn sure that Wren and Cooper knew where they stood.
Which was right beside me.
“So far, the press hasn’t figured out who she is, or that Cooper is your kid,” Mick said, raising one eyebrow at me. “I mean, she is your kid, right?”
“Fuck off, Mick,” I growled, shooting him a glare that would scare anyone else.
“I’m just being practical,” Mick said, not at all put off by my anger. “I’m happy you like the girl, and I’m sure the kid is cute, but is no one but me going to bother asking for a paternity test or anything? I mean, you guys haven’t exactly been choir boys all these years. There could be dozens of little Black Kite babies running around out there.”
“No way,” Alex said, his face full of horror. “I always wrapped it, Mick. You know that. Hell, you were the one who arranged for the busses and greenrooms to be stocked with rubbers.”
I frowned, Alex’s words catching me off guard.
I may have been drunk off my ass and more than a little high, but I knew that Wren and I had used a condom, if only for the fact that it was still hanging off the end of my dick when I’d woken up the next morning. My mind had been a mess, and I couldn’t remember most of the night before, but a condom dangling from your pecker? That shit stuck with you.
But if that was true, then how the hell had Cooper come to pass? I wasn’t a complete idiot. I knew that condoms weren’t a guarantee, but still, it made me wonder.
“She’s mine,” I assured the guys. “Cooper and Wren are mine and I won’t hear shit about it again, alright?”
“Fine,” Mick said, though I could tell he was still unhappy with the situation. “If you want to claim them both, then do it. But I’m telling you right now that I’m having legal draw up documents regarding child support and visitation. I’m not going to see all your hard work go down the drain when this relationship ends like your last one did.”
“Wren is nothing like Victoria,” I snarled, but Mick merely shrugged.
“I’m not saying she is. I’m simply saying that it’s my job to protect you. That’s what I’ve always done. The fact that you up and married Victoria out of the blue was a fucking nightmare situation for all of us.” Mick looked at Gavin and Alex before pinning me with a knowing stare. “At least let me get you better prepared this time.”
“Listen,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck as guilt crept up my throat. “There’s actually something I should tell you guys.” All three of their heads spun to me, their expressions ranging from anticipation to trepidation. “About my marriage to Tori, I mean.”
“Oh, fuck,” Alex gasped, throwing his arms out dramatically. “You’re not still into her, are you?”
“What? No!” I shuddered at the thought. “Fuck, no.”
“Thank Christ, man, because if you had said yes, I was gonna need to have you committed.”
“I’m still wondering why he said yes in the first place,” Gavin muttered, his eyes narrowed on me. Of all the guys, Gavin had been the most suspicious when I’d married Tori nearly as soon as we’d come back from that tour. He’d never actually said anything, but I would catch him watching me, watching her and I together, and I knew he never quite bought it the way everyone else had.
He was too fuckin’ smart for that.
“I said yes,” I told them, locking eyes with Gavin to let him know that I knew and understood. “Because I was given no fuckin’ choice in the matter.” When no one spoke—not even Alex, which actually surprised me—I went on. “Cornelius blackmailed me into marrying his daughter. Blackmailed us, really, as it was the band he threatened.”
“That son of a bitch!” The raw anger in Gavin’s voice shocked me. He’d always been the quiet, level-headed one, so to see him like that was more than a little surprising. “That vile, disgusting, self-aggrandizing son of a bitch!”
“Tell us how you really feel,” Alex said, but his words lacked his typical jovial tone.
“I knew there had to be more to it.” Gavin rose from his spot on the couch, making his way to the floor to ceiling windows and staring out over the canyon behind my house. “You hated that bitch, Hawk. Not just a little, either. You couldn’t stand for her to even be on the bus with us.” Gavin turned to look at me, his face full of sympathy.
“I did. I still do. Tori is probably my least favorite person on the planet, and that includes Lewis.” The guy may have been a dick, but in the end, he was just as much of a victim of Tori’s manipulation as the rest of us.
“How did she do it?” Mick asked, arms crossed as he frowned at me. “What did she tell you that could be bad enough that you’d agree to marry her?”
Thinking back to the day Cornelius called me into his office and threatened me, I felt my guts roil with disgust. The idea that they would use something as horrific as assault of a minor to threaten me into compliance still had me seeing red just thinking about it.
When I told the guys, they were no different. Alex stared at me, dumbfounded, as he took in my words. Gavin turned back to the window, but the stiff set of his shoulders told me he was quietly seething.
Mick shook his head, blowing out a huge breath before throwing down the pen he’d been holding and staring at me, his normally uptight demeanor softened.
“Hawk,” he breathed, frowning. “Why didn’t you say something? We all know you would never have done something like that. Why did you allow yourself to face this alone? Nine years, man. Nine years you spent trapped in that marriage, and we would have done anything to help you get out of it.” Running a hand down his face, Mick looked exhausted as he considered all the information I’d just handed him.
“That’s a good question, actually,” Gavin said, not looking at me. “How did you get out of it? If Castor worked that hard to trap you into a marriage to his harpy of a daughter, there’s no way he’d let something as mundane as Tori’s infidelity set you free.”
Thinking back on that day—the day I was finally able to break free of my prison sentence of a marriage—I cracked the first smile I’d been able to muster since I’d walked out Wren’s door in Grand Rapids.
Getting one over on Cornelius Castor would do that to a guy.