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Chapter ten

Hawk

Seph woke me up bright and early Monday morning. Mika wasn’t out here yet, so I gave my back a good stretch, hoping to work out the kinks from sleeping on his couch. I’d slept in worse places, but it had been a while, and my body wasn’t used to it anymore. But if my little mouse realized I was uncomfortable, he’d try to give me his bed again, and that wasn’t happening. Like there was any way I would put him between myself and the front door.

I let the dog out to do her business before going into his kitchen and putting on a pot of coffee. I knew better than to try to think before coffee, but my brain was already focused on Mika and his situation. I’d told him I would take care of this. That he wouldn’t have to hide for the rest of his life. Problem was, I had no idea how, which was why I needed to get to Three Bears headquarters today. I’d had Kat digging up info on both Butch and the Iron Jackals, so hopefully, that would give me what I needed to come up with a plan.

I was standing in the kitchen watching the dog out the window when Mika walked in. He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. His sleep-mussed hair and barely awake expression reminded me of our previous conversation. He was wrong—adorable didn’t mean not sexy —because, in this minute, he was so adorable, and he was sexy as fuck.

“Morning, mouse. How did you sleep?”

“Okay, I guess, but only because you were here.” He looked up at me. “What am I supposed to do when you have to leave?”

“Baby boy, I’m not leaving as long as you’re in danger.”

“You say that, but we talked about this. We don’t know how long it’ll take, or if he’ll ever go away.”

“I don’t know how long it’ll take, but trust me, he will go away. Now, let’s talk about what you’re doing today. You said the house where you work is part of a gated community, correct?”

“Yes, and they have a guard at the gate who’s very thorough. You have to show ID, and if your name isn’t on the list, they contact the homeowner to confirm you should be there.”

“I bet that’s hell on delivery drivers.”

“Most of the residents let the gate know if they’ve ordered something, but I’m sure it’s still a hassle.”

“But the main thing is, it’s probably enough of a hassle to deter Butch from bothering you at work. So, here’s the plan… I’ll be here at the house when you are. I’ll stay with you until you’re gone, and I’ll be here when you get back. What time do you get home?”

“It varies. Technically, I’m supposed to work until five, but sometimes she sends me home early, depending on what she has going on.”

“Okay, then I’ll plan on being here to meet you at five-thirty. If you get off early, text me, and I’ll either leave to meet you here or have you come to Three Bears HQ.”

“I’ll need to come home at lunchtime to let Seph out and play with her. I can’t leave her cooped up in the house all day.”

“You just stay put, and I’ll come by at lunch to take care of the dog,” I assured him.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I feel like we’ve already established the fact that I don’t have to do anything.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine.”

An hour or so later, I pulled into my parking spot at Three Bears HQ and headed straight for Wolfe’s office. I wanted to get to our ops center to see what Kat had found. She was the best at digging up information on the computer, and I didn’t know what we’d do without her if she ever left us. But I needed to talk to Wolfe first. I’d called him Saturday night before I went to sleep to let him know what was up, but I knew he’d want an update. We’d also need to talk about who was going to cover my duties because if this asshole went to enough trouble to track Mika down after two years, he wasn’t going to go away easily or quickly.

I got off the elevator on the eighth floor, which was where all the action happened here at Three Bears. Wolfe, Gator, and I all had offices here, not that Gator used his much. Of the three of us, he was the one most interested in working in the field. There was a large ops center with desks, computers, and multiple monitors on one side and a large table where we could sit to plan out strategies for large-scale jobs on the other. The ops center was Kat’s baby, and for the most part, we gave her whatever she said she needed and left her to it.

Wolfe’s door was open, so I waved at Caden and went on in. I shut the door behind me and sat down in the chair across from his desk.

He eyed me up and down before saying, “You look like shit.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been a rough couple of days, and Mika’s couch wasn’t made for someone my size.”

“You’re sleeping on the couch?” he asked doubtfully.

“Of course I’m sleeping on the couch. I’m there to protect him, not fuck him.”

He put his hands up. “Okay, but you’ve been low-key obsessed with this boy for months. You can’t blame me for assuming you were taking close protection to a whole new level here.”

“And what would you have said if I told you I was sharing his bed?” We had rules against getting personally involved with clients for a reason, and I had no intention of crossing any lines with Mika, but I wondered what Wolfe would say.

“I’d tell you to watch yourself. That the most important thing right now is Mika’s safety. But you already know that, and I’m not your boss, Hawk.”

I laughed. Technically, Wolfe wasn’t our boss. That was true. But there was a reason Mika had assumed Wolfe was the one in charge. He was the business mind behind Three Bears Tactical, and while technically we were partners, he’d been our commanding officer when we were in the service. Old habits were hard to break, and neither I nor Gator wanted to disappoint him. We both deferred to him in most situations.

“You know Mika asked me what my boss would think about me refusing to charge him for protecting him. He was referring to you.”

Wolfe shook his head. “The boy is yours, so of course we’re going to help him. We take care of our own.”

“Yeah, well, the boy doesn’t quite know that yet. He will, though. I’m just glad he called me. I have a bad feeling about this guy, Jason.”

“What do you know so far?”

“Not much.” I gave him a rundown on what Mika had told me about Butch and about the Iron Jackals.

“So is he here alone, or is the gang with him?”

“No idea. I have Kat looking into them, so hopefully, she’ll have some idea.”

“And I assume you don’t know how this guy managed to find Mika after all this time?”

“No, but I plan to ask him first chance I get.”

He nodded. “Okay. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“This could just be a simple case of an abusive ex rearing his ugly head or—” I didn’t want to think about the alternative, but from everything Mika had said, this biker gang was involved in some pretty nasty business.

“Or if his whole gang is here, it could be a much bigger issue.”

“Exactly. I’m going to talk to Kat now. I’ll keep you informed.”

I left his office and made my way over to the area where Kat worked. She had her own little area in the back corner of the ops center that had glass walls surrounding it. Most of the time, she left everything wide open so she could monitor what was going on, but when she needed to do a deep dive, she liked her area dark, so with the flip of a switch, the smart glass walls turned opaque.

Apparently, whatever she was working on now required focus because her area was all closed off. I went to the open door to find her with her earbuds in, fingers flying across her multiple keyboards as she jumped from device to device.

I rapped my knuckles on the glass next to the opening to get her attention, and she looked up. She pulled out her earbuds and let out a sigh. “Your boy has got himself mixed up with some nasty shit, Hawk.”

“He isn’t my boy yet,” I pointed out. I knew I hadn’t been discreet about my interest in Mika, but I hadn’t realized it had made it as far as Kat. She tried to keep out of the office gossip for the most part. Unless—I shook my head. “They really are taking bets, aren’t they?”

“Oh yeah. Have been since before the new year. Maddox was sure you’d make your move on New Year’s Eve. He was quite disappointed in you, so you know.”

“And you?”

“I’m out of the running. I picked the second Daddy Night in February. You know, hearts and Cupid and all that shit.”

“Well, aren’t you a romantic,” I grumbled.

She scoffed. “Not at all, but you’ve been all heart eyes for that boy for months, so I thought, maybe. Now, are you ready to find out how bad this situation might be?”

“Might be?” Kat didn’t operate in mights . She was all about what she could prove, so the fact that she’d said might be told me a lot.

“For now. I’m still digging. I’ll know more when my contact in Las Cruces gets back to me.”

“Okay then, tell me what ya got so far.” For right now, I was operating in the dark, and I didn’t like that at all. I’d much rather have some information than none.

“The good news is it doesn’t look like the whole Iron Jackals club is here. The bad news is a lot of them are, and it appears it’s the worst of the worst.”

“Great.” That was just what I needed—a whole group of assholes after Mika.

“They’re involved in all kinds of illegal activity. Your boy’s ex isn’t high level in the club, but he isn’t a peon either. He’s been running with them for years and somehow always managed to avoid legal problems. The club, as a whole, operates outside the law there in New Mexico. Our guess is they have some of the local PD on their payroll.”

“Well, too bad for them that they aren’t in New Mexico now,” I growled.

“Right. But what are they doing here? I can’t imagine the club’s president would send a group of his guys here to help Butch retrieve his runaway ex. There’s no money in that, and from what I can tell, the Iron Jackals are all about the money.”

“So you think it’s a coincidence that Mika is here, and so are they?”

“I don’t know, Hawk. I don’t like coincidence, but it happens. I’m hoping to get more info that’ll tell us why they’re here. Most of the club’s money comes from running guns and drugs, but they also provide security for some really bad dudes on occasion. I just don’t know yet.”

I glanced up from the screen with all the information to see her biting her lower lip, which meant there was something more she didn’t want to tell me.

“What is it? I can’t protect Mika if I don’t know all the details.”

“Some of these security jobs have been for known human traffickers.”

“You think that’s why they’re here?” I’d heard plenty of stories about human trafficking in Austin and San Antonio, but not in Vesper.

“I don’t know yet, but what I do know is that as more and more law enforcement officers in the big cities focus on trafficking, the more the traffickers will spread out to smaller, less monitored towns and cities.”

“So maybe Butch doesn’t want Mika back. Maybe he wants to punish him by selling him.” I wouldn’t tell Mika that theory. He was scared enough as it was.

She shrugged. “Who knows? Could be Butch is obsessed and wants him back.”

“Can you get me a tracker and a panic button?”

“I can. How about a watch? Everyone’s wearing smartwatches nowadays. Does your boy have one?”

“I’ve never seen him wear one, but that would work.”

“Okay.” She walked over to a cabinet and pulled it open. She took out a small box and carried it over to her computer. “I’ll activate this one for you. It’ll be tied into our system. The good thing about this little device is it’s a tracker and a panic button in one. All he has to do to activate the alarm is to press and hold down the crown right here, and it’ll send a notice to me here, and I’ll set it up so you’ll also get the alerts on your phone.”

“Sounds good to me, Kat. I need to go to Mika’s house. I need to let the dog out, but I’m going to take a couple of the guys with me, and we’re going to install an alarm system on his house.”

“Great. Send me the details on that, and I’ll get it all taken care of on our end. By the end of the day, we should have everything all set up for you.”