Page 163 of Dirty Salvation

She shuffled her feet back so as not to step in his blood. “Rest… in... pieces...sweet love.” wet gurgles almost made his last words inaudible.

Hades said no more after that. It was a little difficult what with being dead and all.

Holy. Shitting. Shit.

What. How. What...

“How did you… where did… I..” it was about as much sense as she could force out of her brain.

Hawk had killed a man without remorse right there, didn’t think about it.For me.Now as she stared up at him, the tall lean stature of a wild animal in his cage untameable, blank behind his pale eyes, she wasn't scared, wasn't nervous of this man who had murdered so easily without blinking, she'd never seen such quick skilled violence like that before, accounting for all that she was eternally grateful.

Unsure how to proceed, murder in broad daylight, thank god it was still reasonably early for the towns people to be out, her feet were rooted to the floor, staring at Hawk for answers, whose eyes remained downcast at the bleeding man slumped in his grave.

It was no place to die but nothing Hades didn't have coming.Rot in hell.

Zara was never a woman to feel hate for anyone.

Consumed with it for that man, for all those men. It had lived like a darkness in her every waking moment. And now it was just...gone, died with Hades. The chain had been broken.

"That yellow thing your car? You need to get in, get to the club as quick as you can, don't fucking stop for anything, nothing, you hear? You see a deer in the road you slice right through it. A cop car flags you down you keep fucking going. Rider will be at the other end." His sandpaper-rough voice brought her out of her thoughts with a hazy blink.

Oh, fuck. Hades was dead.

Jesus Christ. Gone. It was real.

Shudders racked her body until Hawk grabbed her hands in both of his. "Girl! Fucking listen to me, you get back to the club now. You were never here. I need to go deal with the CCTV inside and then I'm behind you."

"Right. Okay.Okay." She didn't move. Her eyes wild.

“Fucks sake," Hawk growled and proceeded to guide/drag her out of the long narrow alleyway, his hand fisted in her cotton shirt, the other wrapped around her back, across an empty parking lot,oh there was his bike, she thought, parked nearby her car, but she hadn’t heard him drive up…demanding her car key fingers shook digging in her pocket, her head turned, glancing at the body she was sure would jump up any second and attack. She’d seen horror movies, the dead always got back up.

"You don’t need to look at that, girl. Get in."

Zara's inhales quickened, choppy breaths rendering her dizzy.

Had that all just happened? Her hand shook brushing hair from her eyes. Bile rose in her sore throat directly from her belly and she had to swallow fast. Hawk shoved her into her car, even leaned himself in and started the engine, clipped on her belt, she was frozen, her hands shaking horribly.

"You killed him."Stating the obvious. She needed to say it. To know it was true, that Hades was gone.

"Yes. I killed him. Fucking drive already, girl."

He wasdead. She shouldn’t be this relieved at another person’s death, it was ungodly, but the feeling was there in her chest. Euphoric adrenaline almost had her laughing nervously.

God. If she craned her head around the massive bulk of Hawk straightening up to his full height she could still see the lifeless figure, blood oozing out of the many holes Hawk had plugged into him.

Oh god.Oh god. She was going to go to jail. Hawk would go to jail.

He already hated her guts.

Why did he ... she blinked, making her eyes focus, breeze chopping hair around her face as the engine idled. "Why did you---why did you do that…for me? You hate me," emotion came thick, fast, right on the back of her panic.

He had blood on his hands,literalblood covering his long-tapered fingers. Strange to notice he had nice hands now, despite his dishevelled appearance Hawk had round nails, clipped short and clean…save for the blood staining his skin.

It was in the darkest of moments that the light shone through. Or so her mother would ramble. Zara couldn't see any light past the hard noise her heart was making inside her chest. She was definitely going to jail. She couldn’t handle prison; she’d become someone’s bitch for sure. Her panic swelled.

Rider.

Rider.