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I tossed him the keys over the top of the car. “Since you don’t have a ride, you drive while I deal with a few phone calls.”
Grinning, he walked around the car and folded his huge frame behind the wheel. I was already on the phone with a client before I shut the passenger door.
“Put your seat belt on,” Hawk grumbled as he pulled out onto the highway.
Rolling my eyes at him, I did, continuing my conversation with the thankfully sympathetic man on the other end of the phone. Grandpa’s passing had reached everyone’s ears, so I didn’t have to offer too many incentives to get the extension, which would keep us from coming out in the negative in the process.
Ending the call, I dropped my phone in my lap with a relieved exhale.
“You’re pretty good at that for a newbie. Uncle Chaz taught you well.”
My heart squeezed, thinking of my grandpa, but I warmed at the compliment that the man I’d adored my entire life had prepared me well to be his successor. “Thanks. I loved every summer I spent following him around, playing his secretary. It was fun, so I didn’t consider it work, but now I see he was subtly grooming me to fill his shoes one day.”
“Just imagine, one day all of that will belong to Reid.” His brow knitted together. “Just like my kid will inherit a part of the bar.”
“Scary, isn’t it?” I asked with a small smile. “That our kids will be in charge of all this in the future.”
“I just don’t want to fuck them up before they can,” he admitted, his tone somber.
“With you and Gracie as parents?” I shook my head. “Your kid will be one of the lucky ones, Hawk.”
He took his gaze off the road to glance at me, a ghost of a smile teasing at his lips. “It’s good to have you home, Jos.”
I started to laugh, but it turned into a scream of fright when my car was bumped from behind. We swerved, crossing into oncoming traffic. Hawk cursed violently, but he somehow avoided the eighteen-wheeler going the other direction. He got control just as we hit a deep ditch on the other side of the road and came to a jarring stop.
I was shaking, my heart beating me to death with how hard it was pounding against my ribs. Beside me, Hawk was already on his phone, but I was glad he hadn’t gotten out yet even though two passing vehicles had already stopped up above us. Their hazard lights were on, and I saw the shadows of the drivers running toward us.
“Jos, are you okay?” he demanded as he waited for the person on the other end of the phone to answer. “Jos? Hey, honey, talk to me.”
Somehow, I was able to swallow my fear and finally nod. “I’m okay. Just…just really shaken up.”
“Nothing hurts?”
“No,” I said weakly.
He hit the overhead light, his eyes scanning over me. Then I heard the murmur of a deep voice from the phone. “Hawk?”
“Bash, fuck, someone rammed Jos’s car and knocked us off the road. They must have had their lights off when they came up behind us, because I didn’t see anyone tailing us before it happened.”
There was a knock on my window since it was closer to the road, and I squeaked in fright. With the glare of the overhead light, it was hard to see out, but I caught the outline of a thin man, and I cracked my window just enough to hear what he was saying.
“Hey, you guys okay in there? Anyone need medical attention?”
“Fine,” I assured him, but my voice came out weak. I cleared my throat, trying to make it stronger. “Just shaken up.”
“I called the cops. Man, that truck with the lights off scared the hell out of me. Didn’t see the driver, but I bet it was drunken teenagers doing one of those damn challenges they’re always causing trouble with.”
I wasn’t sure that was who’d hit us at all. It struck me then that someone had just tried to kill Hawk and me, a
nd I already knew who was at the top of the list of suspects. And this guy, who only wanted to help, had just called him to report the accident.
--
Bash and Jet showed up before the cops did. Not Bates, but one of his deputies. By then, Hawk and I had already gotten out to assess the damage.
The back end of my little car was smashed in, but it could have been so much worse if Hawk hadn’t acted fast and kept us from becoming a crushed tin can.
I shuddered, remembering the brightness of that eighteen-wheeler’s headlights, the sound of his horn screaming through the air as we narrowly missed impact with each other. The truck wouldn’t have even noticed the jar from it, but it would have hit me dead center. Right at that moment, Reid could have been motherless.
