“Water’s fine but don’t go to any trouble.”
“Let me worry about that, you go change and use the restroom if you need to.”
Delilah nodded, held the bundle of clothes against her chest, and ducked into the restroom.
Chapter Nine
Hawkeye stared at theladies’ room door for several seconds after it swung closed behind the girl.He wasn’t sure she was legal, even if she said so.She seemed way too shy for twenty, but maybe he was used to faster women.
Shaking his head, he turned away from the door before someone thought he was stalking or abusing her.She’d said water.He would get her water, and maybe some kind of candy bar.He wandered away from the short hallway that housed the restroom to find her water.
A few minutes later, wondering what was taking so long, he was headed back toward the restroom when he heard a squeak of what sounded like the girl’s voice.He hurried around the corner and found that a large trucker, one almost as tall as Hawkeye but with an extra fifty or sixty pounds hanging over his belt, had her pressed against the wall.
“Hey!”Hawkeye was still closing the distance between them when she opened her eyes, relief at seeing him clear.He also registered that the fuckwad who had her cornered seemed to be enjoying that he was scaring her.He didn’t think about what he was doing, Hawkeye swung his right fist, still clenched around the bottle of water he’d been carrying at the fucker’s head while snagging the sleeve of her hoodie with his left and pulling her out of the middle of the confrontation.
Once he had her behind him and out of the way, he pulled back and hit the trucker again.
“What is wrong with you?”Hawkeye demanded through clenched teeth.“Do you get off on scaring little girls?You messed with the wrong one this time.She’s mine.”He punctuated each sentence with another blow to the man’s head.
“What’s going on here?”Raven’s voice penetrated the red haze that had descended over Hawkeye’s vision.
“I’m sorry.It’s my fault,” his little dove said.
Hawkeye growled hearing that.
“No, it fucking wasn’t.This fucker had her cornered.He enjoyed scaring her.”Hawkeye pushed himself away from the man who was having a hard time standing without the support of the wall behind him.Hawkeye took a better look at his little dove, making sure she wasn’t hurt and he’d missed it, then he turned to his president.“I’m sorry.I went to get her a couple of things while she changed.I was coming back for her when I found her cornered by this asshat.”He motioned to the trucker without looking at him.He didn’t say more as Raven’s gaze went from him to the girl, then back to him before going to the truck driver.After a moment he nodded once.
“Get whatever shit you’re getting and go out to the bikes.Tell Shotgun and Diesel I’ll be right out, then we can hit the road.”
Hawkeye stared at Raven for a second then gave him a nod and turned to the girl.“Come on.Let’s get another water and get out of here.”He put one hand on her upper arm to guide her through the store, but he handled her as gently as possible.He didn’t want to scare her the way that fucking trucker had.
By the time he paid for their items and they made it back out to the bikes, she seemed to relax again, or at least as much as she had been before going inside.
“Still don’t want to give me a name?”he asked when they reached his bike.
She shook her head, but didn’t say anything.
