Audrey finally pried herself off the dumpster and joined me on the ground. I gathered her body in my arms, my fingers running through her hair. “You can't say that was a moment of weakness this time.”
Audrey shook her head. “I love you, Hawke. I'm all yours.”
“I love you too, Audrey.” We kissed and the throbbing in my pants returned. But I needed a break.
Audrey looked down at her red dress that was all stained. “I really need to take a shower.”
“You can do that at my place,” I said.
Audrey smiled at me. Everything was going back to they way it used to be. But what was I supposed to do about Mr. Spencer and Mayor Peterson? If I didn't follow his orders, the mayor would send me right back to prison. I couldn't let that happen. I'd never leave Audrey again.
Chapter Seven
Audrey
The chirping birds outside woke me from my blissful sleep. I rolled over to find Hawke, naked and inked, sleeping next to me with the covers kicked off. The memory of last night rushed back to me—Hawke taking me in the alley, going back to his place and fucking in the shower. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep with a towel still wrapped around me.
I lay there and admired his shredded body and watched him rest. Hawke deserved it after all the hell he'd been through. Was everything he said really true about my father? I couldn't fathom that he would send the man I loved to prison just to keep him away from me. My father was everything to me. I had to get to the bottom of it. Maybe he had a good reason? I knew I was fooling myself but the only way to find out was to straight out ask my dad.
I didn't want to wake Hawke so I got dressed quietly and left him a note by the bed that I was out doing errands. I walked through Hawke's one-story house and it was exactly how I remembered it—sparse furniture, stained carpets, and broken drywall. Nothing had changed because Hawke had been imprisoned.
I went to the kitchen and took the keys to his Ford truck that he only used to haul stuff. His Harley was parked next to it and was tempting to ride. Hawke had never let me drive it before and he'd freak if he found out I took his bike without asking. The truck would do fine to get me to my apartment.
My phone rang as I started the truck. The screen read Sam.
“I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to call you last night,” I blurted out.
“What the hell happened last night?” Sam replied.
“There's too much to talk about over the phone. I went home safe and sound with Hawke.”
“Want me to come over and we can talk?”
I desperately wanted to spill my guts to Sam but my father took priority. “I have a couple things to do but I promise we can talk soon.”
“You sound different, Audrey. Is everything all right?”
I didn't even know how to answer that question. Hawke and I were back together but my father was probably the reason he was in jail for all those years. “I'm fine, Sam. Just have a lot of things on my mind. I'll talk to you later.”
I hung up the phone and raced over to my apartment to change. I tossed the red dress into the laundry hamper and put on jeans and a black blouse. I needed to look respectable if I was going to my father's building to interrogate him.
–
Spencer Enterprises took up almost an entire city block and was the pride of Saint Marks. My father provided jobs to more than seventy percent of the town's population. Over the years I'd only visited him a handful of times at his office. My dad was a busy man and I normally needed to make an appointment.
But today was different. He was going to speak to me no matter what.
I pulled up to the security booth and showed the guard my driver's license. “I'm Mr. Spencer's daughter.”
He took off his sunglasses and looked at me and then my license. “Good to have you back here again, Ms. Spencer. I'll ring up and let them know you're coming.”