AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I bite my bottom lip while I try to think of what will appease Mel for now. “Just tell her something has come up with my mom and I’ve gone home, and I’ll reach out to her when I can.”
Nodding, she gives me a final hug. “Alright, I’ll be in touch soon.” Opening the door, she slides out. Except at the last second, she turns around. “By the way, Hawk and Wilder have no idea you’re coming.”
“Wha—” The car door slams shut. “Hadley!”
The bitch ignores me, sharing a few words with Kai before disappearing into the other car.
Pulling open the car door, Kai ducks his head in. “Come on.” He gestures for me to get out while he grabs our bags. Frowning, I slide across the backseat and follow him. I step into the narrow alley, trying to figure out what the hell we are doing now. Walking down the alley until we reach a garage door, Kai inputs a code into a keypad, and it automatically opens.
I follow him over to a dark blue sedan and climb into the front passenger seat as he throws our bags in the back and gets in behind the wheel. We make our way across town to wherever Hawk and Wilder live in silence, as I try—and fail—to prepare myself for seeing them for the first time in over four years. While Hadley has been careful never to bring them up in conversation, I have seen photos of them when they’ve all been away on holiday together or simply out for a night. Every time I look at those photos, a pang of regret hits me steadily in the chest. I always end up wondering what would have happened if I’d stayed. If I’d taken a gap year with them, then if all of us had gone to Ridgeway College together. At the time, Wilder had wanted more. He’d even planned a whole summer vacation for us together—one that was perfectly tailored to me and gave away just how much he’d been paying attention when I hadn’t realized he was even looking.
Nevertheless, everyone knows long distance doesn’t work, and I was terrified of ruining our friendship. Of course, I should have seen that it was already ruined. The second we slept together, it went up in flames.
Although, if I’m really being honest with myself, I was scared. It wasn’t really about preserving my friendships with them. I caught feelings I hadn’t been expecting, and the sheer intensity of them scared me. It threatened to destroy everything I’d worked for; everything I had planned for myself. Pacific Prep and then Halston had been the plan ever since I was old enough to understand the sacrifices my mom made for me. She was a single parent. A nurse who worked herself to the bone to provide for me. Even at that, she still had to scrimp and save to make a living for us. She raised me to want more for myself. From a young age, she ingrained a strong work ethic in me, fostered my love of reading and learning, and encouraged me to be independent.
I never knew my dad, and I don’t care to know him. When my mom was twenty-one, she was getting her nursing degree and she fell in love with one of the doctors she was working with. From what I gather, it was a whirlwind affair. One that resulted in her getting knocked up. When my father found out, he held his hands up and claimed no responsibility. He broke her heart, dumped her, and shunned her until she was forced to move to a different hospital.
The fear of something similar happening to me has followed me my entire life, influencing my decisions and becoming deeply rooted in my psyche. My mom never really put the pieces of her broken heart back together. It was like she gave up after everything that happened with my dad. She’s been an excellent mom and provider, but she definitely closed herself off. She never dates or puts herself out there. Literally, she lives for work and me.
Maybe it’s because I grew up in that environment, where work comes first, that I have put so much emphasis on putting my own career above all else. My career is the culmination of years of hard work, and it scared me that two men could possibly interfere with that. I could easily have lost myself in Hawk and Wilder. I could already feel it happening, and I didn’t trust myself to not develop blinders and fall head over heels for them until they became all I saw, all I cared about.That’swhy I ran.
I’m jolted out of my thoughts as we pull up to the curb, and I stare up at the wide stone steps leading to a three-story brownstone. I can’t see any lights on inside, making it appear dark and intimidating, and I swallow nervously as I rub my palms, slick with sweat, against my jeans.
“You’re here to protect me?” I question, unable to tear my gaze away from the foreboding townhouse.
Kai shifts to face me, even though I still don’t look at him. “I’ll do everything within my power to keep you safe.”
I finally find it within me to tear my gaze from the looming building and turn to stare at him, my expression flat as I say, “Even against Hawk? He’s your boss.”
His lips pull down in a frown, confusion causing lines to form along his forehead. “Youare my number one priority. Although, I don’t believe Hawk will do anything to hurt you.”
Unsure if he knows about my tumultuous past with Hawk and Wilder, I simply murmur, “I guess we’ll find out,” and push the door open before I can chicken out and beg him to take me somewhere else.
Following me out of the car, we head up the steps, and I wait while Kai unlocks the front door. Ushering me into a small lobby, he reaches around me to open the inner door, calling out Hawk’s name as we step inside. The place is decorated in dark wood and soft lighting, making it appear warm and cozy. It’s at complete odds to the racing of my heart, which accelerates to dangerous levels when I hear Hawk’s gravelly voice call out in response. “Kitchen.”God, did he always sound that sexy?Every nerve in my body responds to that one word, firing to life and making me feel more alive than I have in years.
Anxiously, I follow Kai across the hall and into a kitchen that’s situated at the back of the house. Given the late hour, most of the lights are off, with just the under-cabinet lighting providing a low glow. I’m sure the rest of the kitchen is gorgeously furnished with top-of-the-line finishes, yet the shirtless man in the kitchen is all I can see.
Hawk has his back to us, wearing only a pair of sweatpants that hang low on his hips. I get an eyeful of the finely sculpted muscles of his back as they flex and tighten with his movements.I never knew someone’s back could be so erotic.
“Hadley mentioned you’d be stopping by,” he says before turning to face us. “Is everything…” He tapers off as his cold gray eyes clash with mine. His entire body tenses as he stares at me standing in his kitchen, probably looking like a haggard mess. I really should have taken a second to look in a mirror before getting out of the car, and I have to fight against the instinctual reaction to lift my hand and flatten my hair.
“Em?”
My mouth dries as my eyes fall to his exposed chest. God, if I thought his back looked good, it’s nothing compared to the six-pack abs and hard pecs I’m struggling not to drool over. My gaze lingers on a tattoo on his left pec that he didn’t have the last time I saw him. It’s an image of a phoenix rising from the ashes, similar to the one Hadley has, and despite the fact that I’m on the verge of a heart attack at being this close to him after so many years, my heart swells at the love for his sister.
Once upon a time, the two of them were at each other’s throats, ready to kill the other. The tattoo is a symbol of how far they’ve come. I’m honestly a little envious of their close relationship. What would it be like to know you have someone who will always have your back? Not that Hadley doesn’t deserve everything she’s got. She had to go to hell and back to achieve it all, and there’s no one who deserves happiness more than her.
Hawk’s gaze snaps to Kai, the initial smile on his face now replaced with an angry scowl that I’m more than familiar with and definitely haven’t missed seeing in the last four years. “What is she doing here?” he bites out. It takes everything in me not to flinch at his arctic tone. There was once a time when I was practically immune to his brusque attitude, but it seems, with time and distance, that immunity has worn off.
“Maybe you should put on a pot of coffee,” Kai suggests with a sigh. “We need to talk.”
Chapter3
HAWK
Ican’t stop staring at her. Even while she’s hugging her mug of coffee like it’s a lifeline, with her shoulders hunched as her eyes dart around the kitchen, landing anywhere and everywhere but on me.
She doesn’t look dissimilar to the last time I saw her, and at the same time, she seems completely different. Her raven hair is longer, styled differently than it was in high school, and her curves have filled in more. The surge of want that I used to experience in her presence flares to life, and the image of grabbing onto those hips while I rail her from behind flashes across my mind, making my sweats tent, and I’m thankful the kitchen island blocks me from view.
