Free Hawke by R.J. Lewis Page B

wearing a black leather jacket and faded jeans. His beard was still unnecessarily long, and his hair was loose down his back. Still, I could see the prominent facial features hair couldn’t hide. Like his long straight nose, and his high cheekbones poking out behind the scruff. His eyes were dark – darker than Hector’s – and almond shaped. His skin was bronze, and I could see the top part of his chest tattoos peeking out from the collar of the black shirt he wore beneath the jacket.
    He was exquisite, to be honest. Not handsome in the classical way. He was scarred, he was tatted, and he had the eyes of a caged animal looking to break loose. He carried himself well, concealed every emotion expertly, and the product was a brooding biker any girl would happily lust after from a distance. Maybe, after everything, I sought to find beauty in him; a beauty that was rough around the edges, and you only ever saw it in the right light when his face softened, or when he smiled.
    God, when he smiled…
    It had the same effect on me since I was thirteen.
    My heart thundered in my chest, and every part of me felt more alive than moments ago. I straightened my spine, suddenly conscious of what I was wearing. The shirt sucked, goddammit. It’d been over eleven months since he last saw me, and he had to find me looking like a hobo in tiny pink shorts, a baggy shirt, and my tits probably visible through the white fabric.
    “You showed up fast,” Yuri remarked on a smile as he neared.
    Hawke didn’t look at me once as he slid into the stool next to Yuri and faced him. “It took a lot for me to come out like this,” he replied coolly. “This better be serious, Yuri.”
    “It is.”
    Hector and Jesse stopped alongside Hawke, and Jesse whispered something in his ear. Hawke’s face remained clear of emotion as he told him quietly, “Clear the room, Jesse.”
    Jesse immediately moved and began clearing out the room; all the while Hawke stared at Yuri, his lips pressed tight in a line. It took about five minutes for Jesse to kick the women out. The workers disappeared in the back and half the members of the club, drunk and useless, meandered to the second floor of the clubhouse, leaving behind a few others, including Gus who was now on the other side of the bar facing us. He watched Yuri warily, an unimpressed look in his eye. Hector and Jesse moved swiftly to the entrance doors, feet behind Yuri’s men still seated at the end of the bar, and I knew that was a deliberate move.
    Feeling dramatically out of place, I began to slide off my stool when Yuri snapped, “You’re staying, baby. This concerns you too.”
    I froze and looked confusedly at the side of his disgusting face before I glanced at Hawke. He didn’t look back at me. His eyes remained on Yuri, unperturbed in the slightest that I was being ordered to stay like a piece of property.
    The bar, moments ago alive and buzzing with noise, was dead quiet now. As the silence continued to build, Hawke idly licked his top lip and said, “Let’s get to the point. You refused the deal and asked for me to be here. What’s going on, Yuri?”
    “Abram wants a change in our supply and he wants the discussion to be made with you,” Yuri explained, bopping his knee up and down anxiously or…because he needed another hit. “He wants to triple our demand. Shipment made every month now instead of every two. Problem is he wants a better price.”
    “It’s going to mean getting paid upfront before the shipments are organized.”
    “How about half before and the rest after?”
    “No deal. For a shipment that size I need to make sure I’ve got the money. I can’t be making deals without covering my ass. You’ve dropped this on us at the very last minute.”
    “ Abram did,” Yuri corrected sharply. “Not me.”
    Hawke just stared at him for a beat. “Alright, Abram did. It doesn’t make a difference. We’ll need the payment beforehand.”
    Yuri let out a long irritated sigh.