He left the bedroom in two strides. Jessie’s arms tightened around Bee, who thankfully was still sound asleep despite the commotion.
“Are you okay?” he whispered as he marched down the stairs.
“Yes. God.” Her voice was shaking, and Hawk pressed her closer to his chest. “Are you?”
He nodded once in response. Truthfully, he wouldn’t be okay until they were out of the house and in the truck. A loud thump sounded from above their heads as Hawk swiped his keys off the table next to the door. Jessie groaned as he jostled them through the door.
“My belly,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, sweet?—”
A gunshot rang out into the silence of the night. Hawk didn’t stop moving. He curled his body around Jessie and the baby as best he could to shield them from whoever might have pulled the trigger, and he moved with a speed that was silent and deadly. Because he would kill whoever tried to come for his family, without a second thought.
Hawk unlocked the SUV, depositing Jessie and the baby into the back seat. “Get buckled.”
Her hand grabbed his arm. “Don’t you dare go back into that house.”
“I have no plans to. I’m going to get in the driver's seat andbring you up to your parents’ house. But we need to go. Now.”
She nodded, adjusting her hold on Bee. He hated not having the car seat for their son, but they needed to get out of there.
He stepped back, his eyes drifting towards the house. The front door was wide open. No movement from inside that he could see.
“Hawk.”
His name whispered in the wind had him spinning around, puffing his body up to take up as much space as he could in Jessie’s doorway.
“Colt.”
“What’s going on? Gunner called and said you signaled an SOS. Told me to get my ass over here.”
“I thought you were walking down the property tonight?” His voice deepened, the anger at knowing how close his family was to being taken from him boiling beneath his skin.
“I was. It’s a big fucking property, and Dakota could have come from anywhere. Is that what this is? He was here?”
Two trucks came barreling up the driveway, their headlights blinding him.
Hayes and Beau jumped out of their respective trucks, and jogged towards them.
“We’re here. What the fuck is going on? Is Jessie okay? The baby?” Hayes’s worried eyes tried to peer past Hawk, but he wasn’t budging. In fact, he was itching to get Jessie and the baby out of there, and the longer it took to explain things, the more likely something bad was going to happen.
“This needs to be fast. Dakota and Adrienne are upstairs. I don’t know how the fuck they got in the house, but one of them bashed me over the head in the kitchen and I was out for a few minutes. When I came to, they were arguing upstairs and I fucking rushed into the room and grabbed Jessie and thebaby. A gunshot went off when we were coming out here. I have no fucking idea where anyone is or if anyone got hurt or even who has a fucking weapon, but I am getting in my car and bringing Jessie up to the main house.”
He didn’t wait for the brothers to acknowledge him. Hawk slammed the door shut next to Jessie and jogged around to the driver’s side. Her sniffles filled the space between them.
“We can’t leave my brothers,” she gasped as he put the vehicle in reverse and slowly crept down the dirt driveway.
“Colt is a deputy, Jess. He’ll assess the situation and figure out the best way to handle it. What he decides is on him. Not us. The only thing we’re responsible for is staying out of his way.”
His eyes met hers in the rear view mirror before sidelights illuminated the space behind him. Shit. Hawk pressed on the breaks, turning the wheel over as he threw the SUV into drive.
“What’s wrong?” Jessie hissed as he drove off the driveway and into the grass. It was going to be a fucking bumpy ride, but Hawk knew whoever was in that vehicle creeping up the driveway, they were up to no good.
“Someone’s behind us. I need you to get low and just hold on to Bee, okay?”
“O-okay.”
“Call Reaper,” Hawk commanded the SUVs voice control system. The phone rang once before Gunner picked up.
