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“No.” I shake my head. What he’s suggesting can’t be true.
“Your brother was working with me. We were gonna run this town through Cooper and Alteo. They'd built up a crew, we just had to take out the Souls first.”
What he’s telling me has to be lies. Danny would have told me and asked me to destroy the files if it were true.
“It was gonna be so easy. Those stupid bikers even landed us with our own little rat,” he turns to look over his shoulder at Abby, who still hasn’t moved. “They dumped that little bitch right onto our laps and asked Danny to take care of her. The best friend of the President’s daughter, she would have been the perfect way into the club… But your pathetic little brother ended up falling for her.”
“You’re lying. Danny was a good person.” I refuse to believe a word that this man is saying. Danny would never have used Abby like that. He would never have got mixed up with a man like Hawker. He had morals; he’d wanted to be a cop since he was a kid.
“Wrong, your brother was a spoilt little Daddy’s boy, who craved power, and was prepared to crush anyone to get to the top. You really think he’d have accepted a job in this lousy little town unless he had a benefit?” Hawker's grip on me intensifies, and he throws me to the floor.
I land on my hands and knees and try to rebuild my strength. I need to get Abby help, I can’t let Hawker's lies distract me.
“But he lost his confidence and wanted out. He told me it was because of your father. But he was lying. What Danny really wanted was to run into the sunset with Little Miss Smack Whore here.”
“I see how hard you’ve worked to get here,” I speak slowly, showing understanding is my only way out of this. “But your plan isn’t going to work. You’ve been missing for months, that’s gonna raise suspicion. You can’t hide the things you’ve done. Any hope of you keeping your badge ended when you killed Danny,” I explain.
“Maybe you're right,” he half-smiles at me. “But I’m gonna kill you anyway.” He wraps his fingers into my hair, yanking my head back.
“Take your fuckin’ hands off her.” I hear a gun click and recognize the voice as soon as I hear it. I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes until I open them and see Squealer standing in front of us, his gun directed at Hawker's head.
“You okay, darlin’?” He kisses his lips at me in that usual cocky style of his.
“Now, which one are you again?” Hawker says fearlessly. “Was it your girl’s snatch I broke in? It's hard to keep track.” I see the frustration in Squealer's eyes turn to concern and scream in fear when I feel Hawker's gun press into my nape. I squeeze my eyes shut again, waiting to hear it go off. My heart thumping out a countdown in my ears.
“Alex, open your eyes and look at me,” Squealer’s voice commands me. But I can’t, I’m too scared. “Alex, open your eyes and look at me,” he orders again, his voice so stern that I quickly do as he says, flicking them open and focusing on him.
“This man ain’t gonna shoot you, sweet pea,” he promises me, and it would be so convincing, if there wasn’t so much fear in his eyes. I’ve never seen it there before, and it makes me even more afraid.
The arm he has stretched out holding the gun is steady as a rock as he starts slowly stepping toward me.
“And how can you be so sure of that?” Hawker asks him, keeping the gun pressed against me.
“Because if you blow the brains out of her, you know you’re never gonna make it out of this room alive. And you like yourself far too much for that, Hawker.”
“Maybe I like her less.” Hawker presses the gun deeper into my skull, and I choke on the bile in my throat. I look up at Squealer, begging him not to let this man end my life.
Abby needs medical attention, she’s gonna need to recover from this. I have to be here to help get her through it. There’s no way she’s going cold turkey in some creepy basement again. And as I watch my pathetic tears drop onto the concrete floor in front of me, I wonder how it came to this. Am I really gonna let Hawker take my life?
The answer is no. If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna go out fighting.
Taking a deep, steady breath, I think back to my rookie days and the hours of self-defense classes I took just to ensure I was the best candidate.
I move swiftly, forcing my elbow back into his stomach and swinging my leg around to take Hawker off his feet. He drops to the ground, and I manage to grab the gun from his hand and turn it on him. My hands tremble from adrenaline as I point the barrel of the gun at his head, and the fucker laughs at me from the floor.
“Stand up, you piece of shit.” I shout at him, flicking my eyes between him and Abby.
“Alex.” Squealer steps up beside me.
“You killed my brother, you took advantage of your position, and then you make up that lie about him,” I speak through my tears as he slowly shifts onto his feet. “The Souls are right, you don’t deserve the luxury of prison. You deserve hell.”
“Alex… Alex, think about this,” Squealer warns me, sounding serious. The gun in his hand pointing in the same direction as mine. But my eyes are too focused on the man in front of me, the man who I’ve been trying to track down for so long so he’d have to stand trial and explain to everyone why he killed Danny.
“This is what you all want right, Squealer?” I turn my head to ask him, noticing how weak I sound. I can’t get out of my head what he’s said. Danny can’t have been working with him; he wasn’t like that.
“Yeah, but not like this. Taking life’s a big fucking deal, Alex. You’ll have to live with pulling that trigger for the rest of yours.” He tries talking me down, but my arms hold the gun firm.
“Let me take him in. You can watch everything Troj does to him if that's what you want, just don’t put the guilt of taking this scumbag’s life on yourself.” Squealer's free hand steadies mine as he wraps it around the gun I’m holding, and I let him lower my arms and eventually take it from me, wrapping my arms around his waist and letting myself sob into his chest.
