The Secret's Out (Hawks MC: Caroline Springs Charter, #1) (21 page)

Hell, never had I thought I’d...
love
a guy like I did him. It was fuckin’ strange, but totally worth it. When I got to see Eli tease Josie about something or when he’d get her to laugh, it was a fun sight to watch.

I couldn’t wait to get into our own place. We’d even started packing over the last week. It wasn’t long before we moved. Nerves were present and hope, both in thought of keeping it goin’ perfect like it was already. I knew there’d be times when things would seem shit after an argument or something, but the makin’-up part would be worth it.

A knock on the front door got me out of bed and stalking my way to it in boxers. Josie had a late night and I wanted her to sleep in before her shift later at the diner.

Opening the door, my jaw clenched when I spotted Lan standing there with a sour look upon his face. “Fuck,” I growled.

“That about sums it up, man.” He lifted his chin. “Can I come in?”

Stepping back, I nodded. “Take a seat, I’ll just grab some pants.” I stomped off to the room and slipped on some jeans, fuck the tee, I knew what Lan had to say wasn’t gonna be good, better get it over and done with.

I’d just made it back in the living room when we heard a door down the hall open. Lan and I turned in that direction as a smiling Josie walked out wearing a silk robe that clung to her sexy curves and Eli was following her in a pair of jeans like me.

Josie saw me first, her eyes not moving from my face until she walked up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. She pulled back and said, “Morning.”

“Hey, precious.”

“So it’s all true...the both of you and Josie?”

Josie stiffened in my arms. I was fucking pleased she saw nothing and no one but me when her eyes had landed on me first. And it was cute when her cheeks tinted once finding out we had a guest. I wanted to take her back to the room and fuck her hard, but that’d have to be waylaid until Lan had finished shittin’ in our hands with the bad news he had to deliver.

“Lan, I-I didn’t see you there.”

He smirked. “Obviously.”

“Shit,” Eli barked.

“What’s going on?” Josie asked.

“Baby, you wanna go get dressed and we’ll—”

“No.” She glared. Her hands went to her hips. I saw Lan turn to hide his smile. “If it has anything to do with that...pompous arse, then I want to know.”

“Right,” I said and then smiled, bringing her in close. Even though she tried to fight it, I kissed her pissed attitude away. Pulling back, I said, “Sit down then.”

Her eyes went wide for a second and then she uttered, “Well, okay then.”

“Lucky bastards,” Lan muttered as he sat in the chair leaving the couch for me, Eli and Josie in the middle.

“Don’t we know it.” Eli grinned and curled his arm around Josie, who was once again blushing.

“Um...Lan, how are you liking Melbourne?”

“Yeah, been all right. Way bigger than Ballarat.”

“You talked to Memphis yet?” I asked.

“Yeah, man. In tight, better when you two come aboard soon. We’ll need the help. Got some”—he glanced at Josie and then back to me—“people in the department I don’t trust.”

“We’ll be in soon, hopefully, depends on what you have to tell us,” I said.

“We right to talk?” he gestured to Josie with his chin. I nodded. “Okay then, we went to Mr Peterson’s house yesterday afternoon. Of course, we didn’t have a warrant so all we could do was ask him some questions.” He ran a hand over his face. “At the time, I wasn’t sure your mum was even there, Pick. But...shit. We had to leave, man, and it wasn’t until late last night a neighbour called and complained about shouting. They thought they heard a gunshot. I drove over there with some blues. The front door was open.” He paused.

“Just spit it out, brother,” I growled.

He nodded. “We went in. Found Mr Peterson in his library, gunshot wound to the head. He’s dead.” I felt Josie stiffen beside me. “We searched the house. Found your mum downstairs in the basement...She’s dead also, man.”

Fuck.

I waited for the sting of her death to hit me, only it didn’t come.

“What about Cameron?” Eli asked.

“The son?” Lan questioned.

“Yeah.” Eli nodded.

“You guys got a beef with him as well?”

“You could say that. He hassled Josie for a while. Wanted her for himself, wasn’t gonna happen,” Eli explained. “You could say he even tried to have his dad get her for him.”

“That explains his...” he started saying to himself, looking at the floor, and then he looked to me and asked, “Your mum?” Lan asked.

“Yeah,” I spat.

“Sorry about your loss, brother,” Lan offered.

I snorted and just about jumped when I felt Josie’s hand touch my back. “No loss really. She was never a good mother.”

“Right, well, there’s something else you guys need to know.”

Shit. Lan actually bit his bottom lip, as if he wished he didn’t have to say what was comin’ next.

“What?” Eli growled.

“Ah.” His gaze roamed over Josie for a second. “We searched the rest of the house. Sorry, Josie, but that Cameron kid, he’s kinda into you.”

“We know this,” I barked.

Lan shook his head. “No, brother. I mean he’s really into your woman. So much so his bedroom walls are lined with pictures of her.”

Josie gasped. Her hand flew over her mouth.

The detective ran a hand across the back of his neck. “Did you guys go to the drive-in recently?”

Our first date. The little fucker was there photographing us.

“And Eli, you and Josie went to a carnival.”

“Motherfucker,” Eli spat.

“You need to know we’re searching for Cameron. Not only for his obsession with Josie, but we believe it was him who shot his dad and your mum. Cameron’s mum is outta town on some trip at the moment.”

Motherfucking Cameron.

The little cocksucker took away my chance for retribution and took away the chance to show my mum I was finally fuckin’ clean and had beauty on my arm.
And
he wanted our woman in a sick-as-fuck way.

“We’ll let you know if we spot him.” I smiled. Lan searched my face, looked to the floor, and shook his head, but I was sure we all saw the smile he was fighting.

Lan was a good guy. Even though he was a detective, he still had our backs. I knew if I pushed the matter, he wouldn’t bother looking for Cameron. Hell, either way, if Lan found him or we did, both ways Cameron would wish his life had ended with his dad’s.

“I really gotta find another job.” Lan sighed.

“No need, brother, you stay clean always,” I said.

“You do good in the system and from what you said, you’ll need our help soon enough.” Eli grinned.

“Yeah, I reckon so. What’s the plan then?”

“Stay vigilant. He’d still want Josie. He’s too fuckin’ fascinated by her in all the wrong ways. So we’ll keep her safe.”

“I’ll look on my end, but if you, any of you, need anything...”

“Really ’preciate it, man.”

As soon as the door closed behind Lan, Josie was straddling my hips. “Are you okay?” she asked with concern in her eyes.

My hand went to her neck. “Yeah, baby, I’m good.”

She cocked her head to the side. Cute. “You sure?”

I smiled. “’Course, but maybe you should worry about your freedom. You know you won’t be gettin’ any alone time. Not until that dick’s outta the way.”

“I’m okay with that, as long as I have both of you by my side.”

“Always be at your side, woman.”

She grinned. “Good. Now, are you sure you’re okay? I mean, sucks you don’t get to take that...schmuck out for what he did to you, but...your mum.”

“Precious, I promise you I’m good. Unless you wanna make me feel even better?” I raised my brows at her and smirked.

She giggled. “I could do that.”

And she did.

J
osie

Caden moving in
bed registered before the sound of ringing from his phone. “Hello,” he answered, his voice sleepy. In the next second, he sat up. “Yeah, we’re on our way.” He threw the sheet from his body and got out of bed.

“Caden?” I questioned, sitting up. My hands gripped the sheets because from the way his body tensed, I knew something was wrong.

“Eli,” Caden yelled and then turned to me after donning a tee and jeans. “Get up, precious, we gotta get going.”

I rose to my knees on the bed. “What’s going on, Caden?”

“Please, baby. Please just get up and get dressed.” His tone was gentle, but his jaw was clenched tightly.

God, no. It was something bad.

“Eli,” Caden yelled again.

The bedroom door banged open and Eli stumbled in from sleeping in Parker’s room wearing only boxers. “What’s all the yelling about?”

“Get dressed, wake Simone and get her ready. She’s coming with us. We gotta get back to Ballarat,
now
.” Caden faced me. “Precious, move. Get dressed, something warm. We’re ridin’ out in five.”

“Pick?” Eli queried.

Caden shook his head and barked, “Now!” Eli disappeared from the doorway. I heard him open Simone’s door with a bang, next her scream of surprise and then Eli ordering her up and dressed.

“Josie. Get up, woman.”

“It’s something bad, isn’t it?”

“Baby, come on. I need you focused for the ride. Please just trust me.” He reached out his hand toward me. I looked from his face to it. He needed me to stay focused for the ride. He didn’t want me a mess on the bike in case it caused an accident. Which meant it was heartbreaking news.

Oh, God. Who’s hurt?

Be strong.

Get there and stay strong.

For now.

“Right,” I uttered and placed my hand in Caden’s. He pulled me from the bed and helped me get dressed in jeans, a tee, then a thermal long-sleeved top as well as a hooded jumper. Looking to the clock it said two in the morning, no wonder he was dressing me warm. But if I didn’t get outside soon, I would pass out with the amount of clothing I had on.

We walked from the bedroom, with Caden behind me leading me with his hand on my lower back, down the hall to the living room where Simone was already waiting with a panicked look upon her face. Her hands restlessly played with her hair and she gnawed on her bottom lip.

“Josie?” she asked.

Shaking my head, I said, “I don’t know, honey. Something’s happened in our hometown.” I felt Caden’s heat from his hand on my back disappear. He walked back down the hall to, no doubt Parker’s room, where Eli was, to fill him in on what was going on.

Stepping up closer to Simone, I whispered, “Whatever it is, it’s bad, Simmy.”

Before my eyes, Simone took a deep breath. Her hands went to my shoulders and her eyes hardened. She was preparing herself for whatever it was because she knew she’d have to be there for me. It was why Caden chose to wake her to come with us and also the fact that Cameron was still out there somewhere. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal, yeah?”

“Let’s move,” Eli ordered as he strolled into the living room dressed in jeans, his biker boots and a leather jacket zipped all the way up. He didn’t need to turn for me to know the back of his jacket held the logo to the Hawks MC.

“Where’s Caden?” I asked.

“He’s coming, sweetheart. Just had to make a call.” As he passed Simone and myself, he bent and lightly touched his lips to mine. “We’ll meet him outside.”

“Okay,” I mumbled and started for the door after him.

Simone got close and whispered, “Have I told you lately that you’re so goddamn lucky?” I tried for a smile over my shoulder, but it deflated. Simone took my hand in hers and squeezed it as we descended the stairs.

Outside, Eli helped, first Simone, with her helmet and then me. Just as we were getting our gloves on as well, Caden appeared wearing similar clothes to Eli. Without a word, he straddled his bike, placed on his helmet and gestured with his head for me to climb on the back.

“Looks like I get to have my arms around you, handsome,” Simone said to Eli.

I couldn’t help myself from saying, “Just this once.”

Eli chuckled, ran his hand down my arm and went to his bike. I watched him climb on and then Simone slipped on behind him before I got on Caden’s bike. As soon as my arms were wrapped around him, Caden kicked his Harley to life and we roared off into the early hours of the morning.

The ride, what would usually take an hour and a half only took us an hour. I was grateful there were no police on the roads with the speed Caden and Eli had been doing. I presumed we would be heading to a family member’s house, or even the compound. However, when we pulled up out the front of the local hospital, my heart dipped to my stomach.

Simone and Eli were already at our side before I even unstuck myself and found enough courage to slip off the bike. Eli came right up to me and helped me remove the helmet and gloves. I stood still and stared up at the entrance of the hospital.

“Why here?” Simone uttered the question that was on my mind.

Before anyone answered, my eyes brimmed with tears when I spotted a familiar face striding toward us. “No,” was whispered past my dry lips.

Zara, my sister with her baby bump belly, came out the front doors and then ran to us. Her eyes red, her face blotchy from crying hard. “Josie,” she sniffed before flinging herself at me. Her arms circled my waist, but shock weighed down my reaction to embrace her back. Instead, I stared over her shoulder to see her husband Talon walking our way.

Zara pulled back, her hands going to my face. My eyes sought out her face as her eyes filled with tears.

“No,” I uttered.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “It’s Dad. H-he...” She took a deep breath just as Talon stopped behind his wife. He leaned around her to kiss my cheek briefly and then stood tall, his arms winding around Zara’s middle.

“I-I,
what
?” was all I could manage.

Zara, unable to speak as she started sobbing, wrapped me into her arms again. Talon’s hands went to her sides, at her waist. He met my watery gaze and said, “Richard had a heart attack, Josie. They’re not sure he’ll live through the night.”

Richard.

Dad.

Heart attack.

Dying.