Page 42 of Jake's Angel
Hawk hands everyone their comms devices, making sure we can all hear one another.
“Hawk,” Gabe calls out. “Don’t fuck with Sadie, you hear me? I don’t want you setting her off before we get a chance to find out what exactly her involvement is in all of this. You can piss her off after I’m done with her. We clear?”
“Yeah, I got you, Pres.” Hawk climbs in the truck with Pop while the rest of us mount our bikes. I notice the way he cracks his neck a few times before closing the door.
Me too, brother. I feel your pain.
These women are turning out to be more trouble than they’re worth.
It only takes us fifteen minutes to get from the clubhouse to Bella Noche.
We kill the motors to our bikes and coast up just as we turn the corner of Sadie’s Street. Pop parks the truck a little further back down the road. Blake and Austin climb out from behind the tree line across from her front window. Austin snubs out his cigarette, offering a chin lift in greeting.
“There’s been some movement in the kitchen this morning. They were up late last night, but no one came in or out after Sadie came home. The only other vehicle was the pizza delivery guy about thirty minutes ago.” Blake smiles widely. I lift my chin in question to his smugness.
“Pizza for breakfast?” Caleb chuckles.
“More like brunch,” Austin says. I turn to look at him, and he shrugs. “It’s after breakfast before lunch,” he supplies in way of explanation.
Blake smirks. “Sadie wasn’t too happy to see me at her door instead of the pizza guy.” He shrugs. “She knew she was being tailed yesterday. Drug Colt’s ass all over creation. I just wanted to make sure she knew she didn’t shake anyone off her. We’re still here.”
“Are they both awake?” Declan comes into the conversation, leaning against the front of the truck. I turn to find Hawk sitting with one leg hanging out of the passenger’s side and his laptop open on the console.
“What are you doing?”
“When we had the house fixed up for her, one of Mack’s stipulations to Sadie living here was having a Garrison Security system installed on the place. I’m just shutting it down without her knowing I’m in the system. If I can connect it with my phone, I can watch the live feed, in case they try to run. I can also leave the indicator lights on without tripping the alarm, so it looks like the system is still armed, but it’s not.” He closes his laptop, steps out of the truck, then latches the door quietly.
“Let’s get your Pops and get this party started.” He smiles his same shit-eating grin out in full form. It’s how we know when he’s fucking with someone. It’s all a big fucking game to him. Especially where Sadie’s involved.
Pop signals everyone to gather around. Caleb, Declan, and Jameson are sent to cover the backdoor.
Pop, Hawk, and I all head for the front. Austin and Blake hang back to keep watch over the road.
When we get to our assigned places, Pop whispers over the comms to stand down while Hawk takes out his cell phone and taps into the living room camera. When he sees someone standing by the door, he turns the mic up so we can all hear.
“Going somewhere?” Sadie’s voice asks. I hear her before I see her standing at the end of the hallway with her arms crossed over her chest.
“I was just going for a walk outside. Get some fresh air.” Avery’s voice quavers. I can’t see her face, only the side of her ponytail and shoulders from this angle, but even I can tell she’s lying.
“With your backpack and duffle bag?” Sadie takes a few steps toward Avery, stopping near the counter. Hawk switches camera views. “You were going to leave and not tell me where you were going? Without saying goodbye?” Sadie glances over her shoulder at something on the computer desk for a split second, then back to Avery. Her lips curl slightly.
What’s she up to now?
“I left a note.”
Sadie approaches Avery, placing her hands on her shoulders. “You can’t leave me just yet. I promised you we would figure this out, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. I can’t do that if you don’t trust me.” She takes the duffle from a defeated Avery and sets in on the floor. Avery drops the backpack beside it. They both walk back into the kitchen while Hawk changes camera views again. Sadie plates two pieces of pizza, passing one to Avery.
They’re silently eating, staring each other down.Ding!Sadie turns toward her computer and smirks, looking straight at the camera lens. She finally breaks the silence between them when she says, “You can’t leave when the calvary just got here.”
Hawk’s phone screen turns black and flashes with the words “About fucking time” just as we hear the door lock click open.
Pop turns the handle and walks in. We follow behind, completely confused.
“What the fuck, Sadie?” Hawk is wildly searching through the settings of the alarm system on his cellphone. She’sapparently blocked him out of everything. From his own system. “What the hell did you do?”
“Hacked into your system, made some upgrades,” she answers, completely unconcerned about his reaction.
“Upgrades hell! You cut me out of the system completely,” he’s shouting loud enough for the neighbors to hear, if she had any. Caleb, Declan, and Jameson come strolling through the back door, but Hawk’s too pissed to notice anything else but the dark-haired thorn in his ass.