“Tie her up.” The driver spoke in heavily accented English this time. “Cover her eyes.”
I scooted backward, fear making my stomach heave as I tried to get away from the man who had kicked me. I barely got a foot away when he was punching me again. I saw stars for half a second before the darkness swallowed me whole.
Chapter Seven
Felicity
“…she’s fine.”
I was only half listening as Jet spoke to Ciro. We were standing in Willa and Spider’s kitchen while he spoke to my cousin, but I couldn’t seem to pay attention to much of what Jet was saying. My head was turned upside-down after the last twenty-four hours.
Just the day before, things had been crazy, but I’d been where I knew I was needed. Wanted. Today there was a new craziness fucking with my life, but I wasn’t needed, and after the welcome Hawk had given me I knew I wasn’t wanted there. I didn’t know what Jet was thinking bringing me back, but all I wanted was to be back on that stupid bus I’d called home all summer with Jagger and Mia and the rest of my newfound family.
“See you then.”
I lifted my head as Jet snapped one of his burner phones shut and turned to face me. “He’s coming himself?” I asked more to break the silence than the need to know. Of course Ciro was coming himself. Not only because I was family and this now affected me, but because the Santino family needed dealing with, and Ciro was good at dealing with this kind of shit.
Jet nodded his head once. “Should be here by tonight.”
“Good.” I wrapped my arms around myself and looked out the kitchen window again so I didn’t have to meet his gaze.
“Flick, if you’re having second thoughts about me going back to the Club, tell me now.”
At that my head snapped back around. His green eyes were dark with an emotion it had been too long for me to decipher in this man. Had I ever really been able to? I didn’t honestly know.
I didn’t know why he thought his being in the Club or not made a difference to me. It had never been the Club that had bothered me. It had been the other women and then his trying to make me into the one thing I’d always promised myself I would never be. My mother.
I’d fallen in love with all of Jet Hannigan. That included the big, badass, biker club president. I’d liked how alpha he was. How possessive he’d been of me once upon a time.
Back then I’d been in no doubt of how much he had wanted me. But eventually even that had been an issue for us, because wanting me wasn’t loving me, and all I had ever truly wanted was his love. Sadly enough, I knew that if he had given me just that little bit of himself I would have put up with anything.
“I like you better in the Club,” I assured him after a small pause and then turned my head back to look out the window once more.
Behind me, I heard him blow out a long breath, but he didn’t speak. His phone started making noise—a different burner from the one he’d used just a few minutes ago. “Yeah?”
His sudden tension filled the kitchen. I didn’t need to hear the hoarseness of his voice to know something had happened. “Is he alive?”
My heart stopped at those three words and I was beside him in the next instant. His face was set in stone but his eyes were wilder than I’d ever seen them. I grasped his free arm and he lowered his eyes, locking gazes with me and I knew—I knew—it was bad.
Whoever was on the other end was speaking and I could make out just enough to know that it was a male. His words were jumbled together in his rush to speak but Jet seemed to follow him well enough given the way his shoulders suddenly sagged in relief. “You did good, Jenkins. We’re on it.”
He closed the phone without another word to the man and scrubbed his now free hand over his face. “Hawk’s been shot.”
Everything inside of me froze. No. It was a lie. It had to be. Nothing could touch Hawk. He was too stubborn, too ornery. Too much a fucking Hannigan. His cool reception of me being home, the way he’d bounced barb after barb off me the night before and that morning didn’t matter at that moment. I’d always loved the hardheaded idiot like a brother and he’d been the only one I could turn to right after I’d lost my baby.
“Is he alive?”
“Two to the back. He’s lost a lot of blood but nothing important was hit. Jenkins said he’s in surgery right now. I have to tell the boys and get Raven over there.” His arms wrapped around my waist so suddenly that it surprised me. He buried his face in my neck for only a second, but it felt like he was trying to draw strength from me. I willingly gave it. “Stay with Willa and the kids. Don’t leave this house. I’ll send someone back to watch the house.”
“Wait!” I held on tighter when he started to pull away. “What about Jenkins? Is he okay? Is Gracie?”
Jet’s face tightened. “They took Gracie.”
Oh shit.
“The senator?”
“Fuck, babe. At this point I don’t know what the fuck is going on or why.” He brushed his lips over my forehead, making me want to hold on even harder for just a moment because it felt so much like the old days. After only a few seconds he pulled away, his face set in the hard lines that told me he was in Club mode. The look in his eyes was deadly and I shivered with a mixture of fear and a shot of white-hot lust. “Watch yourself until I get back. Willa has the numbers if you need me.”