“Just leave it for Lach.”
“Nope. No can do. I want to look things over myself.”
Jessie shrugged and pulled on the small latch that popped the hood. She accepted his help getting out of the car, and couldn’t help but roll her eyes as Hawk’s hand landed in the small of her back. He helped her into his truck, buckled her in, and gently closed the door once she was all settled inside.
For all her time working at Lachlan’s garage, Jessie truly had no idea what Hawk could be looking at, or what he’d even be looking for. But the second he laid on the ground and started taking pictures with his cell phone, she knew something was wrong.
Hawk got up, bringing the phone to his ear while he paced up and down the road. His face was scary neutral, but she could hear the muffled tone he was speaking in, and it was all business. As soon as he tucked his phone away and got into the cab with her, Jessie had to know.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Your break lines. They were cut.”
Oh.
Twenty-Eight
“We can leave at any point,” Jessie chewed on her finger nail while her leg bounced in the passenger seat of Hawk’s truck.
His hand landed on her thigh, squeezing gently.
“Why are you so nervous?”
“What happened the last time we were together with my family? I’d rather be spending time with our friends.”
Hawk sighed. “It’s just your brothers. And Lachlan asked us to come because they have the same concerns about your safety that I do. Something isn’t adding up here, Jess. And the more people that I have to trust your safety with, the better. Otherwise, you’re going to get really sick of me following you around to make sure you and the baby are okay.”
“It seems excessive,” she muttered.
Hawk flipped the turn signal on and pulled into Davney’s.
“It’s not. What happened with your car is fucking terrifying. But there was someone in your room at the ranch. There was that car out front of the shop that scared you. Maybe even the same car that tried to run us down in the parking lot.”
“Oh god,” she groaned. “Don’t remind me. I think that was just my mom-instincts going wonky.”
His hand moved off her thigh, up to her belly. She was a sucker for that move. There would be a day, probably very soon at the rate Bee was making her stomach balloon, where he wouldn’t be able to wrap his hand all the way across. But for now, the majority of her belly still fit so perfectly in his palm, and it made her heart flutter wildly in her chest. “Jess, the most important skill I learned in all my years of training in and out of the Navy was to always, and I really meanalways, trust my gut. I never want you to doubt yours.”
“What if my gut is telling me to run from tonight?”
Hawk winced. “Is it your gut, or is it that pesky voice inside your head that tells you our baby is something you need to apologize to your family for?”
“Ouch, Chief. Direct hit,” she joked as she pressed her hand over her heart.
“Want me to kiss it and make it feel better?”
“I fear if you do that, I’ll lose all sense of myself and we’ll never make it inside.”
“Being responsible really stinks sometimes.”
Jessie threw her head back and laughed. “Don’t worry. I think I know how to make it up to you if I survive tonight.”
Twenty minutes later, Jess knew she didn’t have to worry about making anything up to Hawk, because she wasn’t going to survive this night with her brothers. Colt and Lachlan were being normal, thank God for that, but Beau and Hayes could have frozen Hell over with how icy their interactions with Hawk had been.
“Hey, sorry I’m late.” Dakota twisted his baseball cap so the brim was in the back and smiled at Jess. “This seat taken?” he asked as he pointed to the open chair next to her.
“Nope. It’s all yours.”
He chuckled as he sank into the seat next to her. “Damn, Blue Jay, you sure know how to make your brothers turn into pillars of ice. I swear it dropped forty degrees when I walked in this place, and not because of the air conditioning.”
