Reclaimed (11 page)

My heart contracted at that, but stumbled over the word ‘loved’. As in, she didn’t anymore? Had I really killed it all? I knew it wasn’t anything I didn’t deserve after the way I’d treated her in the past, but damn it all to hell if it didn’t sting like a motherfucker.

“I want you to be a part of the Club again, Jet.”

I shook my head. “And I want you to be mine. When I get what I want, maybe you’ll get what you want.” My tone came out harsher than I wanted it to, but I was still hurting over the ‘loved’ part.

She stomped her foot—actually stomped it—her lips pouting out in the way I remembered so well from when she was a little girl. Was it sick that it turned me on? I didn’t know and right then I didn’t give a damn. My dick was throbbing as I looked down at her. “You have to. I need you to call Ciro.”

My brows lifted. “Like I said, babe, I’ll give you what you want when I get what I want.” I was sure I’d already proved to her that I wasn’t above using emotional blackmail to get what I wanted. I would do anything to get Flick back. Anything.

She stomped her foot again and crossed her arms over her chest. My gaze instantly dropped to her tits. Ah, shit. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Fuck. Me.

“Jet!” she snapped at me and I forced my gaze back to her eyes. “Please, just do this for me.”

“Sure,” I promised with a nod, “as soon as I get what I want.”

“What exactly do you want, then?” she gritted out.

“You. Plain and simple. I want you back. In in my life, in my arms, in my bed.” For half a second I saw her eyes blaze with a fiery need that matched my own before she lowered her lashes and locked me out. She clenched her jaw and I saw her swallow hard several times before she nodded. My heart stopped. “Is that a yes?”

She blew a long, hard sigh out of her nose, causing her nostrils to flare in a sexy-as-hell way that made my dick ache that much more. “Yes,” she muttered.

I couldn’t keep my hands to myself for another second. I grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against my throbbing body. “Flick,” I growled as I lowered my head and brushed my lips over her.

As desperate as I was, I kept the kiss soft and quick, knowing that now wasn’t the time. If I deepened the kiss right then, I knew I’d end up throwing Flick over my shoulder and finding the first bed to fuck her until she couldn’t stand. Lifting my head, I looked down at her through my lashes. Her lips were damp from our kiss and her eyes were closed, but there was a look of contentment on her face despite how unenthusiastic she’d been about agreeing to be mine again.

“I got things to do, then, I guess.” I dropped one more quick kiss on her lips before releasing her and fishing my phone out of my front pocket.

Chapter Six

Gracie

I
COULD BARELY SEE THE
road through my tears. Sob after sob shook my entire body. I was swerving all over the place, but I didn’t dare stop until I got to work or I knew I wouldn’t make it to the office that day.

Things had been so great with Hawk. I fell more and more in love with him every day. It wasn’t until the night before, when Jet had brought Flick home, that I’d seen a new change in him that had made looking at him a little harder. I had no idea why he was so hostile against the other woman, but from the time he’d set eyes on the beauty his brother had brought home¸ I’d had a bad case of jealousy. Even when he’d been sharpening his tongue on Flick I’d gotten some kind of odd vibes off of him that had made me green with jealousy for the first time since Hawk had become mine.

All thoughts of my jealousy had been long gone once we’d gone to bed and he’d spent most of the night making me weep with the pleasure my body had become addicted to. Of course I’d overslept and was running on fumes as I’d rushed out the door that morning.

I’d gotten into the old Chevelle that Hawk had pretty much given me. When I’d mentioned buying one of my own he’d gotten all kinds of pouty so I hadn’t mentioned it again and continued to drive his old car. I’d barely started it up when I’d seen the package by his hog. Wanting one more kiss—and yeah, maybe to kiss him in front of Flick again because the jealousy was back with a vengeance—I’d gotten out and taken the package inside. It was fairly light and addressed to him and I’d smiled to myself as I’d opened the kitchen door.

Hawk had been glaring so hard at Flick that he hadn’t noticed me as I’d stood in the doorway with the package. “Yes, Gracie works for Jenkins. She’s his protégée. He’s her mentor. When she passes the bar she’s going to take over his practice.”

“So who’s paying for that?” Flick had asked in a voice that was calm despite the coldness of the look Hawk Hannigan was shooting at her. “You forget that I know Jenkins, Hawk. He doesn’t have a generous bone in his body. So who’s paying for it? You or the Club?”

I’d stiffened at her reasoning and my own anger had started to rise. How dare she come in here and make assumptions like that. Jenkins was a great lawyer and I was learning a heck of a lot more with him as my mentor than I would have with law school alone. I was already advanced well beyond all my other second-year classmates and even a few of my professors weren’t as up to date on criminal law as I was. Flick had been gone way too long if she didn’t think that Jenkins wouldn’t want to help me—

“Me.”

That one word had cut through my angry thoughts and kept slicing until it reached to my heart. No. No. No. It was a lie. It had to be.

The look on Hawk’s face as that word still rang in the air told me it wasn’t. Flick had been right to wonder. She obviously knew my man better than I did if she could come into this house and dissect him within a few minutes.

I wasn’t sure what hurt more: That Flick knew Hawk so well and could see through his bullshit better than I could, or that he’d gone behind my back—made a damn fool of me. He’d lied to me and had been lying from the very beginning of our relationship.

With a pain-filled gasp that I was helpless to contain, Hawk finally lifted his head and had looked at me. Before my eyes his face paled and if I’d been holding out hope that he was just trying to score points off Flick, it evaporated right then and there.

I’d licked my suddenly dry lips and tried to find my voice. “I-I found this out by the bikes. It’s addressed to you, Hawk… I thought it was something important and didn’t want you to miss it.” My hands had been shaking so badly that I had taken extra care setting the package down before turning around and running back to the car.

“Gracie!” I thought I’d heard Hawk call after me but couldn’t be sure.

Now, as I pulled into my usual parking spot outside Jenkins’ office, I took a few seconds to decide what I should do. Hurt and betrayal mixed together with an anger that was starting to dry my tear-flooded eyes was burning through me. I wanted to hit something. Preferably the two men who had made me feel like the fool I obviously was.

I heard the rumble of a powerful bike in the distance and grabbed my briefcase before jumping out of the car and hurrying into the office. Samantha stood at her desk with a phone to her ear. She started to smile when she saw me, but the smile quickly turned to concern at the sight of my tear-streaked face.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded, putting the phone down in what looked like mid-conversation.

“Is Jenkins in yet?” I asked, walking past her without an explanation.

Samantha nodded. “In his office.”

“Good,” I muttered as I hurried on down the hall to my boss’s office.

Before I could reach the closed door, I heard the slight buzz from the front of the office that alerted us that the door had been opened. I didn’t bother to knock on Jacob Jenkins’ door before slamming it behind me just as I heard Samantha demanding what was going on from the newcomer who I could only assume was Hawk.

Jenkins’ head snapped up as the door slammed behind me. His brows were quick to follow when he saw my face. “Gracie, what’s wrong?” The concern that darkened his eyes made me second guess what Flick had said for just a second. Was it all a lie? Had the bond I’d developed with this man who had been the first real father figure I’d ever truly had and wanted been just a ploy to keep me happy? Was all the affection he’d shown me just because Hawk was paying him to do it? I didn’t know and that hurt just as badly as Hawk’s betrayal.

I tossed my briefcase into one of the two chairs in front of the desk as I glared down at him. “Is it true? Is Hawk paying for my tuition? Is he paying for me to work for you?”

His concern was replaced with a look I’d come to know well from this man. It was his business face. It meant he was going into lawyer mode and my heart—that had felt like it was breaking all the way to work—suddenly shattered. “Who told you something like that?”

“So it is true,” I muttered more to myself than to him as I turned away to glare out his window that overlooked the back parking lot, not wanting him to see how crushed I was.

“Gracie—”

The door opened and Hawk stormed into the room. I glanced at him for only a second, saw his wild eyes and tense shoulders, and quickly turned my gaze back to the parking lot. “Don’t you ever fucking drive like that again,” he roared at me.

I felt his heat seconds later as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me around to face him. “I nearly lost my mind watching you, Gracie. You came within inches of sideswiping a damn garbage truck.”

Had I? I couldn’t remember. The drive had been a blur at best and I had no memory of a garbage truck.

His touch scalded me, making my traitorous body long for more than that small touch. Just hours before, I’d been lost in this man, just as lost as he’d been in me. I jerked my arm out of his hold and crossed my arms over my chest, hoping that if I held myself tight enough I wouldn’t lose any more of myself. That was the problem with hope, though. It was misleading, offering you something precious and then taking it all away with just a few slashes of a sharp tongue.

“What the hell is going on, Hawk?” Jenkins demanded, still seated behind his desk.

“Just a misunderstanding,” Hawk assured Jenkins and I snorted in disbelief. “Can you give us a few minutes to sort this out?”

The fact that the lawyer didn’t say a word about us using his office when I had my own spoke volumes to me. Hadn’t I learned first-hand that the Club was a big deal in this town? It hadn’t just been because of their reputation or the trouble I’d helped Jenkins talk some of the members out of during the last year. It had been the reaction to the entire town when the Hannigans’ bar had burned down. Even those citizens who normally crossed the street to avoid the members of the MC had offered their condolences at the loss of their father’s legacy. Even though the bar had been a kind of forbidden territory to some of the people in Creswell Springs, they respected them enough to want to offer a few words of compassion.

I turned around to face the window once more. My brain barely had time to notice and wonder about the beat-up old van that was by the dumpsters before Hawk was turning me around to look at him again. This time he was gentle, his touch tender as he lifted my chin with his thumb and forefinger.

Some of the wildness had faded from his green gaze and I swallowed hard as a new wave of pain had my heart clenching. How could I have been so blind? Had I not wanted to see that my life this past year had been built on a lie? Was I that gullible? I felt like a fool and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how my mother had felt when she’d realized just what kind of man she had married.

Everything had been perfect, or as good as in my eyes. I had a man who seemed to worship me to come home to every night and his family had become my own. The kind of family I’d always ached to have for myself. One that would move heaven and earth to protect those they loved. I’d felt safe and loved. Lately, I’d even thought that Hawk was ready to take things one step further. He’d been dropping hints here and there about the future that had made me daydream about him asking me to marry him.

Now I didn’t even know if we had a future together.

As that thought raced through my head, I closed my eyes as my heart actually virtually stopped. I loved this man so damn much. He owned my very soul. How could I live without him?

“Yell at me, Gracie. Yell at me and get it out of your system. Don’t let it fester.”

At those murmured words my eyes snapped open again. The look on his face was one of pure torture and I thought I saw fear in his eyes. “Yelling won’t accomplish anything.” I of all people should know that. Yelling at each other hadn’t worked for my parents. It had been part of the problem. Yelling would always lead to the beatings and then eventually to my mother’s death.

As if he could read my mind, Hawk’s eyes darkened. “I’d never raise a hand to you, baby.”

Hell, I knew that. I’d never had to worry about that from this big alpha biker. He might scare the bodily fluids out of some grown men, but he didn’t scare me. He dropped his hand from my chin and gently clasped both of my hands in his own, pulling them against his chest. With my hand pressed against his chest like that I could feel his heart racing and forced myself to take a harder look at him.

Was he scared? The fear in his eyes looked real enough…

No, that couldn’t be it. Nothing scared Hawk.

“Please, Gracie. Talk to me. I feel like you’re locking me out and that terrifies me.” My eyes widened at his confession. I didn’t think anything could scare this man. He was so strong, so untouchable at times. “I can’t lose you, baby. I can’t. I love you. Fuck, you own me.”

I pulled away from him as my anger rose. “Obviously you own me too. In more ways than one.” He’d known how much it meant to me to find my own way. That I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone. It was something that my mother had done and I refused to go down any similar roads that she might have taken. I would not end up like the victim she had become where my father was concerned.

“I don’t own you. That money was just going to sit in a bank account somewhere getting dusty.” He thrust his hands into his jeans pockets and shrugged his massive shoulders. “And it wasn’t like that money wasn’t yours, baby. The second you became my ol’ lady that money became yours too.”