Page 4 of Single Mom's Biker Brigade
Hawk looked me over, the ring on his right hand glinting when he took a step closer. “We’re not here to take anything from you. The garage is under our protection. Always has been.” His head tipped to the side, the slight graying at his temples contrasting the darker strands. “Let me see your hands.”
I hid one behind my back. The other stayed on Cody’s head, comforting him the only way I knew how.
His sobs continued in a slow, agonizing sound.
He sniffled once and buried himself in his black hoodie, pulling his hands into the sleeves and chewing on the string as he drew the hood closed around his face.
My shoulders stiffened and my jaw set hard enough to make it ache.
There were no exits out here, nothing but endless stretches of road and woods.
I had no escape from them, and they knew it. “You don’t get to touch me. Or him.” I didn’t have to move to let him know who I meant.
Hawk’s gaze dropped from me to Cody. His eyes narrowed into thin, hard slits. “You have burns on your hands. If you don’t let one of us treat them, you’re risking infection.”
Ihatedwhen he did that. Why did he have to make so much sense while also making me feel like a heel? “I can take care of myself.” Current situation aside, I’d been doing it well enough for the last twenty some years.
“Perimeter secure. Police and fire department en route.” Colt jogged over to Hawk to relay the information.
Cody peeked at him from his hood and stopped chewing the string.
The arm he’d locked around my leg tightened to the point of cutting off circulation. “Mama, who are they?” He whispered it, but the sudden silence left by Colt’s comment carried his question across the parking lot.
The fire crackled behind me, occasional blasts of heat sending waves of scorched air over my skin and blowing fine bits of my hair into my face. “They’re the Iron Vultures.”
Colt moved away from Hawk, closing the distance too fast for Hawk to stop him a second time.
He dropped to a knee in front of Cody and crossed his wrists on his thigh.
Two feet separated them.
Anything less and I’d have pulled Cody into my arms.
“Hey, man. We’re not going to hurt you or your…mom.” He almost sounded like he choked on the word.
Wait. Had he not realized Cody was mine already?
Huh.
Maybe the club didn’t know everything about me and what happened after I left.
My skin prickled.
Colt’s face tightened, his expression going carefully neutral. “Are you okay?”
Cody shimmied out of his hood, pushing it down to pool around his neck. “We almost burned alive, but Mama kicked down a door and we escaped.”
Hazel eyes flashed emerald when Colt’s head snapped up. “You were trapped?”
“The door to the storage room stuck. The fire must have warped it.” My throat burned with the reminder, and I rubbed it, wincing as the burned skin on my palms peeled away. Maybe I should do something about them instead of resisting out of stubbornness.
Hawk and Diesel closed in behind Colt. Hawk had removed his jacket, revealing the matching black bands tattooed around his forearms.
The reminder of his status as the leader of the Vultures did nothing to calm my nerves.
He looked from me to Cody, then back to me. “Whose kid is he?”
There it was, the question I’d been dreading and avoiding all this time.
