Hawk: (5 page)

Tildy didn’t know about mot
orcycles. Or the Army. Or honky-tonk bars. All she knew was that the most gorgeous man she’d ever laid eyes on was smiling at her and she agreed to go to Maria’s later tonight without hesitating. Hawk seemed pleased and Sarah appeared less so, but Tildy couldn’t figure out why.

She helped Sarah rinse and pack up the lunch spread. Hawk
then offered to take her home. Tildy was about to accept, but Sarah vetoed the idea immediately. Hawk gave up his invitation pretty easily. Too easily, Tildy thought, disappointed.

Chris had her sign the work order for the replacement of the faulty part. She wrote down her contact information and helped Sarah carry the sacks from lunch out to the car. Tildy gave the others a wave and blushed when Hawk winked at her as Sarah drove them out of the lot.
They didn’t even make it to the end of the block before the older girl said, “Listen, Tildy. You seem like a really nice girl, and Maria’s can be a rough place. There are ex-cons, one-percenters-”

“One-percenters?”

Sarah glanced at her and nodded. “99% of MC’s, motorcycle clubs, are legit. But 1% of them are criminals. Serious criminals. Guns, drugs, prostitution.”

Tildy’s eyes widened. Hawk
rode a motorcycle and apparently so did all the men at Burnout. “Hawk- I mean, they don’t-”

“No!” Sarah said quickly. “No, not at all. They just like to ride. Although Chris’ father was President of Rapid City’s one-percenter gang.”

Tildy gasped. “Seriously?”

Sarah nodded. “He was murdered in prison. Which is why Chris enlisted. He saw
an opportunity to get out of that life and he took it.”

Tildy was stunned. She’d never actually met anyone who was a criminal before. Then Sarah floored her even further.

“You know,” Sarah said, somewhat uncomfortable, “Hawk’s no angel, either. He’s been to jail a few times.”

Tildy’s heart sank.
“For what?” she asked, not really wanting to know.

“Doesn’t really matter,” Sarah replied. “My point
is, Maria’s is a rough place and the men who hang out there are rough men. Including Hawk, and, well, it’s obvious you...
like
... him. I’m just saying that it’s not a good idea.”

“Well, thanks,” Tildy said after a while. “I guess I needed to know.”

Sarah dropped Tildy off in front of her house. Thankfully, the woman didn’t say anything about the fancy neighborhood. She gave Tildy a goodbye wave as she pulled away from the curb. Tildy moped into the house, went upstairs, and collapsed onto her bed. She dug the St. Christopher medal out of her purse and turned it over and over between her fingers. “A criminal, Isa? Are you sure he’s the one?”

But Tildy didn’t really have to ask. Isa said Hawk was the man for her. That couldn’t have been more obvious when the chain broke at the exact moment he touched her. Tildy closed her eyes and tried to make sense of it all. Isa had always said forgiveness was important.
Every time Tildy’s mother pulled Tildy’s hair or pinched her or punished her in a hundred other ways, Isa always encouraged Tildy to forgive her.

“She’s sad, Tildy,” Isa had told her. “But she doesn’t want to feel sad. She’d rather feel angry and so she hurts you.”

“But I haven’t done anything!” Tildy would wail. “La odio!”

Isa would pull Tildy into her lap and smooth her hair, Isa’s touch so much gentler than Tildy’s own mother. “Shhh, mija,” Isa would say. “You don’t say things like that. Not even in Spanish so they can’t understand you. You don’t hate your mother. You must feel sorry for her. You must forgive.”

Tildy squeezed the medal in her palm. Isa would want her to forgive Hawk for whatever it was that he’d done. He wasn’t in jail now, and he had a steady job. Clearly, he had turned his life around. She pressed the medal to her lips. “Okay, Isa. I trust you.” She got up and headed downstairs in search of a tool to fix the broken link on the golden chain.

At 8:30 Tildy picked up her cell phone and dialed. A slightly confused voice answered
on the other end. “Matilda?”

Skylar Harrison had
been Tildy’s roommate at SDSU, for as much as Skylar had ever been
in
their room. Tildy had known her since elementary school, and Skylar had always been a social butterfly. It had been their parents that had suggested they room together. In the grand scheme of things, Tildy supposed that Skylar was, in fact, her ‘best’ friend

“Hey, Skylar.”

“What’s up, Matilda?” Skylar asked, sounding distracted. She was probably getting ready to go out herself.

“My car broke down,” Tildy replied.

Skylar paused. “You need a ride? Where are you? I can swing my on my way to-”

“No, I don’t need you to pick me up. I mean, I do. I need a ride somewhere.”

Skylar snorted. “On Saturday night? I don’t know, Matilda. Isn’t the library closed this late?” Skylar laughed at her own joke.

Ti
ldy sighed. “No. There’s this bar I want to go to.”

At this, Skylar perked up. “Bar. Now we’re talking! Is Tate going to be there?”

“No. I...I was supposed to go out with him tonight, but I don’t want to.”

Skylar ignored her. “So
, let’s go to this bar. And call Tate and-”

“We’re not calling Tate.”

“Matilda, what is the point of going out if-?”

“I met someone.”

Silence greeted Tildy from the other end of the phone.

“Who? Where?” Skylar demanded.

Tildy chewed her bottom lip, trying to decide how much to say. “Listen, Skylar, you know how my parents are. This isn’t-”

Skylar made an exasperated noise. “Okay, okay, I won’t breathe a word to Ozzy and Harriet. Who is this guy?”

“He helped me with my car today,” Tildy said, skirting the whole truth. “And he invited me out.”

“But he can’t pick you up?” Skylar demanded.

“Um, no.”

“Why not?”

“Well, he’s...older,” Tildy replied.

“How much older?”

“A little older. I don’t really know.” That was true. Tildy didn’t know how old Hawk was. She guessed early 30’s.

“Ooooh,” Skylar said. “Ozzy and Harriet definitely wouldn’t approve. Not unless he was a filthy rich sheik. He’s not a filthy rich sheik, is he?”

“No.”

“Damn. If he was, I’d steal him from you.”

“So, you’ll give me a ride?”

“Hell, yes! I’ll be there in 20. Let me get changed.”

“Oh, you don’t have to,” Tildy countered. “You can just drop me off.” In fact, Tildy had planned on having Skylar drop her off about a block or so from the actual bar and walking from there.

“No way,” Skylar protested. “There is no way I’m missing Matilda Fletcher going to her first bar.”

Tildy wrinkled her nose. “I’ve been to bars,” she reminded Skylar.

Skylar laughed. “Sitting in a corner with Club Soda doesn’t count. I’m on my way over. What bar is it?”

“Um,” Tildy hesitated again, not wanting to say. “I’ve never heard of it. But I know where it is.”

“What’s it called?”

“Maria’s,” Tildy replied reluctantly. Skylar was going to find out anyway if she was taking her.

“Never heard of it.”

Tildy sighed in relief. “Yeah, me neither.”

Hawk took a pull of his beer and watched Tex and Easy shooting it out on the pool table.

“Any sign of your girl, yet?” Shooter asked from across the table.

“What girl?” Doc asked. Caleb “Doc” Barnes was the only member of the group who had followed Shooter to Rapid City after the Army that didn’t work at Burnout. Instead, Caleb chose to trade in his medic kit for a badge and a gun. Normally cops didn’t hang out at Maria’s, unless they were arresting someone, but Caleb had always had a dangerous vibe about him. Though technically he was a police officer, you could never quite shake the feeling that at any moment he might forget he had a badge and start pounding on someone.

Shooter grinned. “Hawk met a girl. Brought her to the garage.”

Vegas laughed. “It must be true love, then, if you brought her home to meet the family! When can I meet her?”

Hawk smirked. “I just met her this morning. She had car trouble.”

Vegas groaned. “Yeah, that sounds familiar.”

“She’s about
your age,” Shooter told Vegas.

Vegas scoffed. “Cradle robber.”

Hawk shrugged. “Didn’t seem like anything at first,” he confided. “But then I offered her a ride on my bike and everything changed. She got real interested, real fast.”

Vegas grinned. “Yeah, some of us are suckers for big...bikes.”

Hawk scanned the bar again. The place was packed, as usual for a Saturday night. Maria’s had its nightly mix of bikers, ex-military, cowboys and roughnecks trading off between shots and beers. The dance floor was crowded too, thanks to a jukebox filled with country and 70’s classic rock.

Hawk caught sight of a leggy blonde coming in through t
he front door, cute, but not what he was looking for. However, right behind her, what he
was
looking for walked right in.

Tildy had brought a friend, so it seemed, and Hawk couldn’t blame her. It took a ballsy type of woman to come to Maria’s alone on a Saturday night. He got up from the table and began heading toward the front door.

If Tildy was surprised by the crowd at Maria’s, her friend was more so. It looked to Hawk, from the way the blonde kept eyeballing Tildy, that she was even more surprised that timid little Tildy would come here at all. The blonde herself couldn’t be all that uncomfortable, wearing a top that had her tits practically falling out and jeans that looked like they were painted on. Tildy was quite a bit more conservative in a short sleeved black silk blouse and jeans that were, unfortunately, the appropriate size.

The dance floor crowd parted for Hawk’s large frame and he came upon the two young women in just a few long strides. His gaze swept past the blonde and went straight to Tildy, who wa
s now looking at only him. She was smiling at him in the same way she had at the garage, like they were old friends or something. Hawk couldn’t help but smile back.

The blonde stopped
up short when he reached them, her jaw practically landing on the floor. Hawk reached out to Tildy and pulled her forward, tucking her underneath his arm as he put himself between her and her friend.

“You found the place,” he said.

“Yeah,” Tildy replied. “It wasn’t hard, once I saw all the bikes parked out front.”

“Hi, there,” the blonde said
, and Hawk was forced to turn to her. She stuck her chest out about as far as she could without actually pressing herself against him.

He merely nodded at her.

“I’m Skylar,” she said.

“Hawk.”

He led them across the bar and to the table with the others. “This is Tildy,” he announced to Doc and Vegas, who had not met her yet. “And her friend.”

Before anyone could say anything, the friend cried, “
Tildy?!
”

E
veryone turned to look at her.

“Tildy?” the blonde repeated.

Tildy’s face turned red. “Um.”

“What on Earth?” the blonde asked.

Tildy grimaced.

“Your name isn’t Tildy?” Doc asked, instantly suspicious.
Probably spent too long being a cop
, Hawk thought.

Tildy looked a little caught out. “I...”

“Matilda,” the blonde informed them. “Her name is Matilda. And no one
ever
calls her anything but Matilda.”

“Matilda?” Vegas asked, crinkling her nose. “Ouch.”

The blonde laughed a little too loudly. “Her parents would
die
if anyone ever called her anything else. She’s just poor little Matilda.”

No one else seemed to get the joke. Hawk decided right th
en that the blonde was trouble.

“Tildy?”

Everyone turned to Slick who had managed to get a free moment to check on the group. “I thought you weren’t going to come,” Slick said.

“Well...” Tildy said rather lamely.

Hawk narrowed his eyes at Slick. He just did not get what her problem was.

“
Tildy,
” the blonde said, “just had to come after she says Hawk invited her.” When she said his name, she put her hand on his arm.

Hawk’s jaw twitched in irritation. He
had
invited Tildy. He’d been waiting all evening hoping she’d come. Hawk may not know what the hell was up with Slick, but he for damn sure knew the blonde’s game now. She was the center of attention-always. He didn’t know exactly how Tildy had become ‘friends’ with a chick like this, but he was pretty certain that Blondie felt like she was oh-so-nice letting Tildy tag along with her to places.

“How about a drink?” the blonde asked him.

Hawk jerked his chin at Slick. “She’ll take your order.” He turned to Tildy. “You want anything to drink?”

Tildy l
ooked a bit surprised at that, like she’d forgotten for a second that she was at a bar. The blonde laughed again, that haughty fucking laugh that really got under Hawk’s skin. “Oh Matilda doesn’t drink. Well,” she said to Slick, “you can get her a Club Soda. I’ll have a beer.”

Hawk kept his attention on Tildy. “Do you want anything?” he asked her again.

“Hel
lo
,” the blonde said, starting to get a slight edge to her voice. “She doesn’t drink. She doesn’t
do
anything
.”

Hawk had known this girl less than five mi
nutes and he was already sick of her. “Well, surely she dances,” he declared. He took Tildy by the hand and led her to the dance floor while everyone watched. When they were far enough away from everyone else, he put Tildy’s hands on his own shoulders and slid his hands around her small waist. He drew her in close.

“I’m sorry,” Tildy said. “She’s-”

“I don’t care about her,” Hawk declared. He leaned closer to her. “I’m glad you came.”

Tildy blushed. Hawk thought about all the ways in which he
could keep her blushing all night long. He reached out and traced a finger down the open neck-line of her blouse. She drew in a sharp breath. He hooked the gold chain and brought out the medallion.

“You fixed it.”
He turned the medal over with his fingers. It was a small gold disk with Latin inscribed around the outside. “What’s it say?” He spoke a lot of languages, but Latin wasn’t one of them.

“
St. Christopher guide my way,” she told him.

He nodded and looked at her again. “What is he the saint of?”

“Plagues, mostly.”

Surprised by her answer, Hawk threw back his head a
nd laughed. She grinned at him. “Tildy, I’m pretty sure you’re safe from plagues.”

“Guess it’s totally working, then.”

He laughed again.

“But he’s also the patron saint of travelers,” she continued.

“It means a lot to you,” he said, remembering the look on her face when it broke.

She nodded. “When I was born, my parents hired a nanny to raise me. She was from Mexico. Her name was Isabel. She taught me Spanish in secret, and she called me ‘Tildy,’ her secret name for me. Skylar’s right, my parents would freak out if anyone called me anything but Matilda. It was my great-
grandmother’s name. I hate it, but Isabel would always make up stories about a brave little girl named Tildy. She also gave me the medal. She told me that if I kept it safe, it would keep
me
safe. If I ever got lost, she said, it would help me find my way home.”

“Where is she now?”

Tildy’s face fell. “I came home from school one day, and she was gone. She got sick and had to go home to Mexico. She died there pretty soon after. I never got to say goodbye.”

Hawk let go of the necklace and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “I’m sorry, Tildy.”

Tildy took a steadying breath. “It’s okay. She never really left. I know she’s watching over me.”

Hawk finished out the dance, fighting like hell to keep from coming on too strong.
Making a move on her so soon after remembering a lost loved one was just way too dickish. When the beat changed to a faster song, he noted with some relief that the blonde was now attempting to turn her feminine wiles on Doc.

He suppressed a laugh. No mouthy princess
was going to interest Caleb. He had a steady thing going on with a mystery woman in Sioux Falls. Though none of the guys had ever met her or even knew her name, Hawk assumed it must be fairly serious since Caleb never even so much as looked at another woman.

Hawk guided Tildy back to the table, which wasn’t large enough for
everyone so he pulled out the only remaining chair and sat down in it. He drew Tildy into his lap. She made a surprised noise, but stayed where she was, though she was more than a little stiff.

With Tildy press
ed up against him and her sandalwood scent filling his senses, Hawk was slowly but surely becoming a little stiff as well. He shifted her on his lap a little as he reached for his beer. Tildy froze, but didn’t otherwise react, though he knew she must feel his cock through his cargo pants. Her breathing came a little bit faster, and she turned her head ever so slightly to glance at him from the corner of her eye. Hawk gave her a grin.

He had one hand on his beer and
had the other lazily stroking Tildy’s thigh. In truth though, Hawk was feeling anything but lazy. He kept his hand where it was, venturing no further. Just a signal of interest, an invitation. Tildy was at least going to have to reciprocate his interest before they went any further.

“Matilda, let’s go,” the blonde finally huffed.

“But we just got here,” Tildy protested.

Hawk scowled. It wasn’t hard to figure out the problem. Blondie w
asn’t getting anywhere with Doc, Shooter and Tex were happily committed to their women, and neither Easy nor Hawk himself had any interest. Blondie wasn’t used to men who didn’t fall to their knees to worship her.

She
stood up. “Are you coming?” she demanded.

Tildy glanced over her shoulder at Hawk. As a rule, Hawk
didn’t take them to his place, though he’d make an exception tonight. He was about to make the offer, when Blondie pulled out a knife and stuck it right in Tildy’s back.

She sighed, exasperated. “Are you going to
fuck
him, Matilda?”

The collective temperature of the entire table dropped about ten degrees as the men scowled at Blondie
, and Abby sent her a death glare.

“Hey, now,” Hawk bit out.
Jesus, subtlety, look it up
, he wanted to tell her. But Hawk could tell that Blondie was a spoiled bitch, and that subtlety wasn’t one of her more endearing qualities.

Blondie’s gaze just about ske
wered Tildy where she sat perched on top of Hawk’s burgeoning erection. If she’d been curious before, she was just embarrassed and uncomfortable now. Indeed Hawk had planned to fuck Tildy later, but he wouldn’t have used that word, and he sure as shit wouldn’t have put Tildy on the spot like that in front of a bunch of people.

He decided to put an end t
o her misery and leave her with some shred of dignity. He set his beer bottle down hard and leveled his gaze at Blondie. “I think you’re right,” he declared loudly. “You should go. You obviously can’t handle your booze.”

He felt no small amount of satisfaction watching Blondie’s face turn red. Served her right, Hawk figured, after the number of times she’d embarrassed Tildy just in the half hour they’d been here.

Hawk gently moved Tildy to the side, forcing her to stand up so he could too. “Come on,” he ordered. “Tildy, you should make sure your
friend
gets home okay. I’ll walk you out.”

As he herded both women to the exit, his irritation ebbed slightly. Blondie got in the passenger side of her own car
, after he insisted that she hand over the keys. That earned him a disgruntled snort and the sharp report of the car door slamming, which is exactly what Hawk had been going for.

Now
, he and Tildy were alone, or close enough. He leaned in, not quite pinning her against the frame of the car, but close enough that her breasts grazed his chest. They were small, because Tildy was small, but he’d bet even money that, underneath her silk blouse and bra, her nipples were pert and alert.