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38

HAWK

Kayce called Matteo with coordinates to the island as soon as they set foot on land. I sent everything to the club, and then me, Matteo, and a couple of his cousins—including Enzo—hopped into a helicopter and took off. I kept my laptop open and sighed loudly when I saw the red blip light up on the screen. Sadie made it damn near impossible for anyone to crack this fucking code.

It has to be you.

Thank God I’m familiar with her way of doing things and was able to follow all her little breadcrumbs to activate it.

“Looks like she’s in the compound and on the move,” I shout to everyone. “Has Tate found Shea?”

“No. She’s not on the island,” Enzo answers. My head pops in his direction, confused as to why he would know this information.

“You have your tech guys and we have ours,” Matteo replies, smiling. “Enzo has many talents. Killing is just his favorite.”

“And fucking,” Enzo says nonchalantly. “Our team found a woman who fits Shea’s description, along with several others, in a warehouse on the docks. They are being heavily guarded by men in leather vests and a patch that says Devil’s Order. We’ve sent some friends in to help.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Enzo just smirked.

“The pilot will drop you, Enzo, and Nazario off on the island, then circle back to take me to the docks. Vincenzo has already sent our men there, and I believe your brothers are on their way as well, Hawk,” Matteo informs us.

I nod, not having time to process through how all this fell into place. If I’m honest, I don’t fucking care so long as we get to Sadie in time. I have no doubt my brothers will get to Shea and get her to safety, but Sadie will throw herself into the fucking fire if she thinks it’ll save someone else. The thought causes an icy shiver to run up my spine.

A bad omen.

No. I will not think that way. Sadie needs to know she can trust me, and if saving her ass before I spank the ever-loving shit out of it is the way I have to go about it, then so fucking be it.

The helicopter lands on the outer edge of the island. As soon as the cousins and I get off, the chopper takes off again toward the harbor.

“You go find your girl. We’ve got this,” Nazario demands. “Enzo, go hunting.” Enzo smiles widely and takes off into the trees. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the fucker was excited about all of this.

“Will he be all right on his own?” I ask “Because he seems like he needs a handler. Someone to rein him in. I mean, does he know the difference between Kayce’s men and Cusenza’s?”

Nazario shrugs and smiles. “If they don’t want to die, they’ll get out of his way. Otherwise, he’ll decide on contact who lives and who doesn’t.”

“Great. That’s helpful,” I say as we move through the trees. “Just remind him I’m on his team so he doesn’t decide to add my ass to the pile of dead people he leaves in his wake.”

“Grab your girl and you’ll be safe. Without her, I can’t promise he won’t target you.” Nazario laughs. Twisted fucker.

“ Fucking hell .”

It’s not long before we make it into the compound. I’m assuming by the dead bodies littered about, either Kayce or Enzo have already breeched it. Nazario hand signals for me to go left while he takes the right. I don’t want to separate, knowing my chances of survival should I run into Enzo are higher if Nazario is at my side.

The place is littered with bullets and dead bodies. Cusenza is nowhere to be found, the bastard, but he’s not my primary concern. I pull up the tracking program on my phone. I linked it to my laptop. I follow the hallways leading to the red blip. She’s stopped wherever she’s at.

I’m only a few minutes behind her when the blip disappears.

“Fuck.” I don’t stop, just keep pushing forward. When I come up to the door where the blip was last shown, I find Tate in the control room, giving instructions to someone on his comm link while tracking movement over the security cameras.

“Dallas, there’s a room to your left, three people. Two women. One male with a gun,” Tate announces. I watch as Dallas nods on-screen, motions to another man behind him, then enters the room and fires off a shot while the other man swoops in and grabs the women and escorts them to a third person waiting down the hall.

“Where’s Sadie?” Tate turns. His gun aimed at me with a little red light centered on my chest. I know the fucker saw me coming. I can see where I was on the cameras. He just wants to play fuck-around-and-find-out.

“She’s here.” He points to a door that’s currently shut.

“Where’s the camera to that room? Pull it up so I can see what she’s doing?” I order.

“There’s no camera in there. Only this one. I’ve been watching it. She hasn’t been in there long.” He says it like it’s no big deal. “I don’t have time to babysit your girl, man. I’ve got my own brothers out there doing their thing. You want her. Go get her.”

Fucking asshole. I’ll be back for his ass.

I don’t waste any time heading for the room. The halls down here on this side are quiet except for the yelling of what sounds like a woman’s voice. I lean up against the door and turn the knob, opening it in time to see Sadie on the floor wrestling with another woman whose face I can’t see. A gunshot goes off and the older woman falls still with Sadie still under her.

I’m quick to move in and toss the woman off Sadie, inspecting her for injuries. When her eyes meet mine, it’s as if she’s in another place and time. She doesn’t move, doesn’t blink, but her eyes fill with tears.

I reach for her face and kiss her forehead. “Hey, Sapphire. Look at me. Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” She’s covered in blood and I’m close to fucking panicking because I can’t tell if it’s hers or not.

I scramble to remove her shirt, to look for any lacerations or gunshot wounds, when something hard hits me from behind. I drop the shirt before I can get it off her and fall to the floor.

“What the fuck?”

“No! Nora! No!” Sadie shouts at the small girl holding a wrought iron lamp above her head. She has a set of half-opened handcuffs wrapped around one wrist. Her eyes are full of fear and rage. Her breathing is fast, too fast.

“He’s my friend,” Sadie says, reaching for the lamp. “He’s here to take us home. He won’t hurt you. You have my word. No one will hurt you anymore. We’re going home,” Sadie says, softly but firmly to the child.

“Hawk,” she calls to me. “Come here and tell Nora you’re taking us home.” I sit up, my head fucking throbbing, but do as Sadie asked and reassure the little girl she’s safe.

Nora looks at the other woman’s body on the floor beside us and trembles. “She’s going into shock, baby. We have to move quickly. Matteo has a chopper waiting to take off the island. Are you hurt?” I ask again. Sadie shakes her head, not taking her eyes off the little girl.

I stand up and approach Nora slowly. “I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here. It’ll be faster that way. What I need you to do is tuck your head into my chest and keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them. Can you do that, Nora?” She looks to Sadie, who gives her the nod of permission. Nora looks back at me and silently nods. I don’t waste time scooping the kid up and moving for the exit.

“Sadie,” I call, turning to make sure she’s behind me. She’s stopped to take in the dead body I now recognize as Eleanor West. “Sadie. We have to go, baby. Now .” She looks up but doesn’t move. So, I try another tactic. “Sadie Jay, if you don’t move your ass right the fuck now, I’m going to drag you out of here by your fucking hair!”

Nora whimpers in my arms, catching Sadie’s attention. Sadie’s eyes narrow and her nostrils flare. She’s pissed, but I’ll take it if it’ll get her moving.

“Don’t make threats in front of her, asshole, or you’ll be the next person I shoot. Don’t fucking try me, Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel.

It’s her subtle way of telling me she’s with me and not really as pissed as she’s putting on. I know my woman. She’s going to hold her shit together because it’s what Nora needs her to do. She walks past me, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

We book it out of the building. I keep Nora’s head pinned into my chest while Sadie continues to speak reassuringly to her. Reminding her to keep her eyes closed and telling her we’re almost there.

Once we reach the outside, Nazario and Enzo join us.

“Who’s this?” Enzo asks, tilting his head toward Nora. “Your lady, I know. But who’s the kid?”

Nora whimpers and it’s Sadie who answers, and not so kindly. “Her name is Nora. Now mind your fucking business and get us home. She needs medical attention and I’m fucking over this place. I want to go home.” She looks at me when she says the last part. I nod, knowing exactly what she means because I want to get back to Oakridge among my brothers and put all this shit behind us.

Enzo leads us to the chopper and gently—more gently than I’ve seen him do anything—buckles Nora into her seat, placing a headset over her ears. He puts his on and tells her, “If you get scared, you squeeze my hand as hard as you need to. It’s a short flight. Then when we get on the ground, we’ll help you find your family.”

Who knew the scary fucker with a taste for blood could be so … sweet ?

Sadie climbs in next to me and takes Enzo’s advice, squeezing the hell out of my hand. I drape my arm over her shoulders, cradling her to my chest. We don’t speak. There’s no need to say anything now. I’m sure when we get somewhere away from all the chaos, she’s going to crash. Maybe lose her shit a little. Sadie’s never killed anyone before, and from the looks of all the blood, Eleanor may not have been the only person Sadie encountered in her escape.

We’ve halfway to the harbor when a loud rumble and the sounds of multiple explosions sound in the distance. The sky fills with smoke and flames. We don’t bother to look back. We all know what happened and who hit the detonator. What I don’t know is who died on that island and who made it out. I’m going to need confirmation that Cusenza is fucking dead, and so will Sadie so she can sleep at night.

Sadie leans up, nudging me. “We didn’t find Shea,” she says, her eyes full of tears and disappointment. Maybe even guilt.

“It’s okay, baby. She’s safe. Matteo and the brothers found her on the docks. They’re going to meet us when we land.”

She nods, then lays her head back down on my chest.

I don’t know what the next few days will bring, but I do know Sadie won’t be moving too far from this spot in my arms for a long fucking time.