Cajun Protection
to the group of people talking.
    “Why didn’t you call the fire
department?”
    “Why would we? Let the damn place burn. If it
gets the hippo out of our town, then good riddance.”
    “Are ya crazy? Ya gotta be kidding me, good
riddance, maybe she is too good for this Podunk town. Y’all are the
ones messed up, she’s the victim. Ya know what, fuck it, we got
her, and you tell Andrew we are coming for him, and if anyone gets
in our way, we’ll take them out too.” I glare at the people in the
crowd before I turn and find Hawk holding her steady as the
paramedic looks her over. It kills him when shit like this happens
to good people. She didn’t deserve this shit, any of it. Ignoring
the rest of the comments, I hear the paramedics say she is okay.
Hawk holds onto her tight before nodding to me. I understand what
it means.
    “This your car?” I ask, pointing to the weird
bubble contraption that doesn’t seem to fit into rest of the town.
Her silent nod is all I need. I toss my keys to Hawk to follow us,
while I place her into the passenger side seat. Finding her keys
still in the ignition, I try to sit, but the seat is too far up. It
takes me a second to find the seat adjuster, but I slide it all the
way back before I can even climb inside. The car starts, even
though it sounds like shit, and we make our way to Zoey’s house.
She had yet to say anything to me, which is good. I don’t know what
to say to her. But it shouldn’t shock me when Hawk flies by us and
makes it to her small apartment making sure everything is okay when
we get there. But what I don’t expect is when Hawk stops us at the
door.
    “Can’t let her in.” Shit, it is broken into.
Andrew is a fucking dead man.
    “This is my place—wait—what? He did it again,
didn’t he?” Damn, when did she get out of the car?
    “Zoey, get in the car,” I snap, but the damn
woman doesn’t listen.
    “Don’t think so, I can’t live like this.”
Tears well in her eyes but don’t fall as we make it inside. From
the look of it, everything is destroyed. I should have known
something like this would happen. It’s escalating and now the town
is behind him.
    “You’re coming with us,” I manage to say. It
is easy to see her start to argue, but wisely, she didn’t. “Hawk,
get what you can.” Hawk disappears into her room while I go back
down to her car. The more I look at it, the more I realize it won’t
make the drive.
    “Your car stays here.” She keeps shaking her
head, but I am set on this one. Picking her up once again, she
yells as I throw her ass in the middle seat of my truck. It is only
about two minutes before Hawk throws a bag of stuff in the back and
climbs in next to her.
    I have this need to protect her, sure I would
love nothing more than to fuck her senseless, but its more than
that. Since the first day we went to her apartment for information,
this woman has haunted my every thought. It’s as if she needs me,
both of us. This damn town would eat her alive and no one would
find her body in the end. She deserves better. It could be that I
also got my mom’s heart at looking after things that were less
fortunate than myself. She look Hawk in without a second glance,
loved him, and cared for him when no one else would. I want to do
that for Zoey. The damn thought scares and excites me at the same
time. It’s times like this I wish mom was alive to help me figure
all this mess out.
    Taking the driver’s seat, I drive off, hoping
that we just made the right choice. Either Andrew will back off and
let us catch him, or he will escalate more and come after her. In
which we will be able grab him, either way, Andrew is going to go
down.
     

Chapter Five

     
Zoey
     
     
    I can’t stop my body from shaking, and I’m
cold. I can handle so much, but now everything is gone. My
apartment is ransacked; I can deal with that, it’s Gran’s house I
have issues with. Why? Why do that? The name-calling is normal and
after the first few

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