A minute later, he was driving down the long ass driveway, his hand resting on Jessie’s thigh.
“How did everything go with Lachlan? I never heard an update.” He watched her shoulders tense out of the corner of his eye.
“It was really weird. I said I’d call the bank to help straighten things out, but he snapped at me and told me he had it handled. He admitted he’s been smoking again, too. I thought he’d kicked the habit years ago.”
“That’s rough.”
“Yeah. I guess Dakota’s going to buy into the business, but…” Jessie’s voice faded into the background as a black car sped up behind him. Hawk checked the road. A broken line on their side. Perfect. He let off the gas pedal and the truck slowed. But the car didn’t get the hint to pass. Instead, it got dangerously close to Hawk’s bumper. He swore under his breath.
“What’s going on?” Jessie asked, her head whipping to look behind them.
“Sit up in your seat and make sure your seat belt is low across your hips,” he ordered. Jessie fussed for a minute before her hand went up to grab the handle above her head. Hawk pressed down on the gas, the truck accelerating smoothly at his command.
Weirdly, that seemed to calm whoever was behind them.
“What the hell is that guy's problem?” Jessie asked. Her voice shook, and he finally felt safe to take his eyes off the road and look over at her.
Fuck. The color had drained from her face. Her hand was settled on her belly. She was protecting the baby without even thinking about it. A surge of anger at the asshole behind them nearly knocked the wind right out of him.
“I can’t even see in his car, fucking tinted windows.”
Jessie’s hand reached over and settled on Hawk’s arm. “He might have just been distracted. He slowed down. It’s?—”
Before Jessie could finish her sentence, the car picked up speed again. Except this time, they didn’t stop. Hawk’s eyes were bouncing between the rear view mirror and the road out in front of them, the car getting closer no matter how much he accelerated. In about two seconds, he’d be at the top speed he was comfortable driving the truck with Jessie in it. He was going to have to bail off the road before the driver did something reckless and caused a crash.
The car veered across the center line, speeding until their back bumper was in line with Hawk’s front. Something inside his gut was screaming to break. He listened, just in time for the truck to miss being swiped as the car pulled back into the lane in front of them.
Jessie’s hands hit the dash and Hawk swore again as the car slammed on their breaks, forcing him to do the same. He let the truck come to a complete stop. No one else was on the road behind him, but Hawk flipped on the hazards as a precaution.
“What’s he doing?” Jessie whispered as they both watched the car in front of them. Hawk tried to find anything that could help identify who was driving, but the windows were all tinted beyond anything that could be legal, and the vehicle was missing a license plate. Who the fuck was this person?
They waited, Hawk’s fingers drumming on the steering wheel. His eyes flicked to the ditch on either side of the road. It would be a close call, but if he needed a quick exit, he should be able to swing the truck around and not jostle Jessie too much in the maneuver.
Just as he made the decision to throw the truck into reverse, the car’s break lights disappeared, and it sped off. What theactual fuck?
Hawk looked over at Jessie just in time to watch her eyesflutter closed as she groaned, her fingers reaching for something towards her hip. He heard the click of the seat belt detaching from the receiver and reached to hold her arm, but she was out the door before Hawk could stop her. And as soon as her feet hit the ground, Hawk knew exactly why she’d been so quick to get out of his truck.
“Whoa, you guys okay?” Mae asked as soon as Hawk and Jessie walked into Montgomery Defense. Hawk was wound so tightly he was shaking, and Jessie wasn’t faring much better. He’d noticed the color hadn’t come back into her face. Fuck. All he wanted to do was get her upstairs into bed to rest, but he needed the team to find whoever the hell tried to run them off the road.
“No,” Hawk barked. “Where’s Tracker?”
“He’s at The Trident today. Remember? He took your training so you could have the day off.” She finished looking at him like he’d completely lost his mind and moved her attention to Jessie. “Hey, Jess. You want to sit down? Looks like a slight breeze could knock you over.”
“I’m okay. We just… someone got upset with how Hawk was driving and brake checked us. It was scary.”
“They didn’t just break check us,” he grumbled. “They fucking tried to run us off the road.”
“You get the plate?” Gunner asked as he stepped out of the kitchen.
“Didn’t have one for me to get,” Hawk admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. They didn’t have a plate. Black sedan. Probably made within the last ten years. That’s all I’ve got to go on.”
“We don’t need to do anything.” Jessie was still trying tocalm him down. But seeing her so sick right after everything happened… no, he wasn’t about to let that go.
“They fucking tried to drive us off the road, Jess!” Hawk’s voice thundered through the space.
