William’s heart dropped. “What about her?”
He looked at his father. “She’s been abducted. My assistant said the police just called. They want to meet us at the house.”
“Alan, take me home,” William said to his driver and his driver, now behind the steering wheel, sped away.
But William was more than anxious. He was angry. He opened the side box that contained the car phone, pressed the screen’s various icons, and made a call.
But the call went to Voice Mail. Which angered William even more.
But he left a message. “If you have anything to do with this shit, and I mean anything, you’d better tell me now!” Then he tried to calm back down. But he couldn’t. “Call me back, dammit!” he said loudly, and ended the call.
His heart was hammering. They abducted Reecie? They took hiswife? It couldn’t be. They wouldn’t be that crazy. They couldn’t be that crazy!
“Go faster, man!” he yelled at his driver.
And his driver, who knew the wrath of William Webster better than most, flew.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“The Hawk has landed.”
“That’s what they say about the eagle, not the hawk.”
“He’s both. Eagle Records. And his name is Hawk.”
“His name is Hawthorne, to be precise, and that phrase still refers to an eagle, not a hawk. I don’t care what name he slapped on that record company of his. Why do you insist on being wrong all the time?”
The younger bodyguard couldn’t say. Because it didn’t matter to him either way. They were hired to meet the private plane of the record company founder and escort him to his various functions in Brackenridge. That was what Eagle Records hired them to do. The fact that he was William Webster’s son elevated their assignment too. And he didn’t want any hiccups. That was all that mattered to him.
But when those airstairs dropped down from that private jet, and the younger guard saw that man responsible for the careers of some of his favorite artists, he couldn’t help but feel as if he’d arrived himself. “Wow. That’s The Hawk,” he said when he saw him. “The Hawk has landed,” he said again to the dismay of his older counterpart.
Although some in town insisted he named the record company he founded as a counterplay on his own nickname, others believed he named that record company as a slap in the face to his father. Because he left town and soared like an eagle. Almost becoming as big as his father. Almost becoming his father’s equal.
But Hawk didn’t care what any of those people in Brackenridge thought as he descended his own plane, in his own hometown, decked down in his white-and-red Versace tracksuit, his fifteen-thousand-dollar Stefano Ricci sneakers, and his Prada shades.
The younger bodyguard grinned. “That’s what I call style right there,” he said.
The older, old-school bodyguard shook his head. “Arrogance. That’s all I see. Just like his old man.”
The younger guard looked at his colleague aghast. “Like William Webster? Get out of here! You better start saying no to drugs because The Hawk ain’t nothing like his old man. Nothing!”
“You say.”
“Damn right I say. He’s nothing like him.”
But the older bodyguard, who’d been to that rodeo more times than he’d ever admit, wasn’t at all convinced. Both men were filthy rich. Both men were so arrogant it wasn’t even funny. Both men didn’t seem to care about anybody but themselves. The only difference between them was that Hawk had a black mama and looked like a black man, while his father was all-white. And they were only nineteen years apart. But other than that? They both were just the same as far as that bodyguard was concerned.
Yet as soon as Hawk made it up to the waiting limousine, that same bodyguard smiled a grand smile and opened the back passenger door as if he was addressing royalty. “Good afternoon, Mr. Webster. So good to see you again, sir. I hope you had an enjoyable flight.”
Hawk didn’t respond. He knew the enemy when he sensed it.
“They’re waiting for you at the rehearsal hall, sir.”
The rehearsal hall, Hawk thought. The family home was now called the rehearsal hall? “They’ll just have to wait,” Hawk said as he ducked down and got into the limo.
“Yes sir,” the older bodyguard said with that same exaggerated smile on his face as he closed the door and got in on the passenger side. All the while thinkingarrogant prickas he got inside.
The younger bodyguard, who knew to keep his mouth shut, couldn’t stop glancing at the music mogul as he drove him to his family home.
