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Chapter twenty-three

Mika

By the time a few days had passed, I was starting to think that maybe Butch had left town. I’d gone shopping, been to my house, even spent one day over at Mary Ellen’s place. And as good as it was to see her, it would’ve been better if Butch had followed me there.

Not that I wanted to see him—I didn’t. But I did want this to be over with.

I was in the kitchen cooking breakfast when a pair of strong arms wrapped around me. I was startled before I registered the familiar weight and scent of Hawk.

“How are you doing, baby boy?” he murmured against my ear.

“Okay,” I said, though I wasn’t sure it was true. “Just ready for this to be over. How long do you think we should wait?"

“A few more days, I imagine. At that point, we’ll have to assume the gang has moved on.”

I let myself relax back into him, just for a second. “Part of me hopes that’s the case so I won’t have to see him again, but the rest of me wants him to pay for the things he’s done.”

“That’s a perfectly normal reaction.” He kissed the side of my head. “Now, since you insist on cooking, what can I do to help?”

“Nothing really. It’s about done. You can set the table, though.”

I dished up our food and joined him. He said he liked eating breakfast every day, but he was so sweet I didn’t know if he’d tell me otherwise, even if he was just humoring me.

“So, what’s your plan for today?”

“I’m thinking I might go to the park for a walk and then maybe hit Yarnivores for some new yarn.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just buy a whole bag of yarn a couple days ago?” We both knew I did—he’d been tracking my every move for the past three days.

“Hey, don’t judge my yarn habit. It’ll all get used… someday… maybe.”

He put up his hands. “Hey, no judgment. I’m just trying to decide how big a shelf unit I need to build for you. Or maybe a shelf unit’s not the answer. Maybe we turn the third bedroom into a yarn-o-topia.”

“That. I choose that,” I said, grinning.

Later on, I was walking through the park, looking at all the people who were there in the middle of the day. There was one yoga class going on and various groups of what looked like college students sitting around. All of them just going about their lives like normal, with no idea there could be a human trafficking ring in this area, ready to just snatch them up and make them disappear.

I took a deep breath. That wasn’t going to happen, though, because we were going to catch them. Now that I saw how busy the park was, I decided not to stay long. The last thing I wanted was for someone else to get dragged into my mess.

“So, it’s pretty busy here today,” I said aloud to the empty car once I was safely back inside, doors locked. I knew Hawk and his team were listening. “I think I should go somewhere else.”

“What are you thinking?” Hawk’s voice crackled softly in my ear.

“I think I’ll head to the shopping center on South Seventh. Grab some tacos, maybe look around.” My voice wavered just a little. “I’ll drive by Mary Ellen’s house on the way, just in case someone’s watching.”

“Sounds good. We got you.”

I drove from the park to the neighborhood across town where she lived with the radio off. Not because I wanted to, but because I was a car singer. Like I didn’t just sing along—I performed—and the last thing I wanted was to let Hawk and his buddies hear me. I was hoping to keep the man, not scare him away.

I cut across town and rolled past my house first, then Mary Ellen’s.

“I’m not stopping, but I’m going through the gate,” I said to whoever might be listening.

“Copy that,” came Gator’s voice.

At the gate, I exchanged a brief word with the guard, then drove the winding driveway like I belonged there. I turned onto the little road leading to the pool house and made a U-turn, pausing just long enough to suggest a real visit. “Okay, I’m back on the road.”

I was about halfway to the shopping center when Hawk’s voice came through, quieter this time. Measured.

“Mika, I need you to listen to me and stay calm, okay?”

My stomach dropped. Nothing good ever started with stay calm . I inhaled sharply, bracing for whatever came next.

“Okay. That sounds ominous. What’s up?”

“You’ve picked up a tail. We think it’s one of the Jackals, but they’re not wearing colors.”

My heart stuttered, and I immediately checked the rearview mirror. All I saw was a pickup truck and a sedan—nothing out of place. But Hawk wouldn’t say it if he wasn’t sure.

“So… it could just be a guy out for a bike ride, then?” I asked, clinging to the slimmest thread of hope because as much as I wanted this to be over with, the idea of a confrontation with any of the Iron Jackals was terrifying.

“It could be. But I don’t think so.”

A cold sweat started to bead under my shirt. My throat tightened.

“Okay. Then what should I do?” My hands clenched the steering wheel, and I checked the mirror again. Still nothing that stood out, but that made it worse. They were out there. Hidden.

“Keep heading to the shopping center. When you get there, pull in and park off to the left-hand side of the building, then go straight inside.”

“On the left-hand side? That’s pretty far away from the door,” I squeaked.

“I know it is. And I know that’s pretty much the opposite of what I would normally tell you to do, but Kat’s on surveillance, and Chance is on the way. You won’t be alone, baby boy. You hear me?”

“I hear you,” I said, trying to sound much calmer than I felt.

I forced myself to drive normally until I reached the shopping center.

“I’m here,” I said, pulling to the side of the parking lot like he’d said. My car was going to be the only one there, and while that was terrifying, I could understand why he wanted me to park there. Just like the way Snake had stayed hidden in the alley the last time, they’d be more likely to take the bait if I was off on my own.

“Okay, Chance is already in the parking lot, and we’ll be pulling in soon. Go ahead into the store and stay there until I tell you to come out.”

I knew Hawk expected me to go into the yarn store, but the lady who ran it was a retired schoolteacher who’d opened the store more as a hobby than anything else. I couldn’t bring this kind of trouble to her door.

Not that I wanted to bring trouble to anyone, but I knew the guy who owned the record store. He was a firefighter who worked at the same station Andy did, and I figured he’d be better able to protect himself if need be.

“I’m heading for Phoenix Records.”

“Sounds good,” Hawk replied.

I got out of the car and hurried down the walk—just in time because as the door closed behind me, I heard the roar of motorcycle engines coming closer.

I’d come in with a plan. I figured if Cody was working, I would go in and tell him what was going on. But what I hadn’t expected was for there to be multiple teenagers in the store shopping. Crap . This was a bad choice.

I pulled out my phone and held it so it would look like I was on a call—not just talking to myself—and moved as far away from everyone as possible.

“Hawk?” I said softly. “There’s a bunch of teenagers in here shopping.”

“It’s okay. We have a group of bikers here now. They’re all down by your vehicle. Kat has identified one of them as Snake. They’re talking to someone in a van that’s parked next to your car. We’re about to take them down.”

“Okay.”

“You just stay in the back of the store, out of sight, until I give the all-clear.”

I looked up to see a girl of about seventeen looking at me. I forced a smile, and she smiled back before going back to flipping through albums. There was a sign on the very back wall that said Restroom with an arrow. I figured that was about as out of sight as I could get, so I headed in that direction.

I was about to go in when the back door opened—and the very last person I wanted to see stepped in. He didn’t say a word. Instead, he lifted one finger to his lips while he used the other hand to pull back his vest, showing me the gun tucked into his waistband.

He gave me a hard look, then shifted his gaze to the young girl I’d shared a smile with a minute ago—then back to me. The message was clear: keep my mouth shut, or she gets hurt.

He pushed open the back door and motioned for me to go out.

Hawk

“I don’t like this one bit,” I grumbled. I sat in the car, watching as the bikers chatted with some people in a cargo van that had parked right next to Mika’s car. A big boxy white van that was perfect for both kidnapping and transporting innocents, and we had no way of knowing if anyone was in there or not.

“I know, but this isn’t our operation, Hawk,” Gator said in an attempt to calm me. “We only got to be involved at all because Chance knew there was no way you would allow Mika to do this without you.”

“Damn right I wouldn’t have.” I’d wanted to take down the bikers the second they rolled in and parked between Mika and his car, but Chance had wanted to wait. Now we had no idea who was in the van. That was why I told Mika to stay out of sight. I didn’t trust my soft-hearted boy not to put himself in danger to save someone else if there were hostages in the van.

“Axel, Maddox, and Knox are here, and we could have easily handled them when it was just the bikers,” I pointed out, like Gator didn’t know that.

“Yep, we could have, but it wasn’t our call. The good news is Chance has men everywhere.”

Gator was right. Chance was a good agent. He’d sent one guy to block the alley to make sure none of the Iron Jackals got away in that direction, and then just to be safe, he had three more blocking the entrance to the highway just up the road. The feds had let them escape their clutches in New Mexico, but Chance had no intentions of letting that happen on his watch.

“I know. But I don’t like Mika being anywhere near this.”

Finally, after what had only been a few minutes but had felt like an eternity, Chance’s voice came over our earpieces. “Move in, move in.”

Gator and I were out in a flash, guns drawn, headed their way, as were my guys and Chance and his agents.

“Federal agents, don’t move,” someone yelled.

I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks studying pictures we had of the Iron Jackals, and I looked at each of the faces that stood before us and saw most of the members of the gang. But none of them were the one I was looking for. My first thought was that maybe he was hiding in the van, but then an alarm sounded on my phone, just as Kat’s voice yelled into my earpiece. “That’s Mika’s panic button! He's no longer in the store.”

I had no idea how she knew that, but I didn’t question her. If Kat said he wasn’t in the record store, he wasn’t there. I grabbed the Jackal closest to me and pushed him against the van, my arm against his throat.

“Where is Butch?” I growled.

He made a choking noise, but he darted his eyes towards the back of the building. I glanced at Chance, and he shook his head. “Collins isn’t answering.”

“Fuck!” I threw the biker to the ground. “We’re going this way. You go around,” I yelled out to Chance and Gator, and I took off toward the back of the building.