Hammer's Pride by E.C. Land (brene brown rising strong TXT) 📕

my heel, I run out of the house, straight to my car, climb in, and lock the door behind me. My heart racing in my chest, I can feel the blood pulsing in my veins at the horrifying sight of my house being destroyed.

A knock on my window causes me to jump and let out a small scream of terror.

With wide eyes, I stare at the man who’d consumed my dreams from the night before. The one who looks like a Viking and is now glowering at me through the window separating the two of us.

Chapter Four

Hammer

Anger courses through my veins as I sit on the porch of Gunner’s house. Out of all of us, he’s the only one who’d had a house big enough for all of us to fit in. Normally this shit wouldn’t leave church, but with not knowing who the rat is at the clubhouse, we came here.

I’d just finished up our meeting where I brought my brothers up to date on what Gunner and Cy informed me of yesterday. We need to find out who this person is and what their agenda is. Our charter hasn’t had any major drama that didn’t include us carrying our asses to another charter to help out in a while. This doesn’t sit well with me, and I don’t like the unknown. I’m a ruthless asshole, and this shit happening in my own fuckin’ club is pissing me the fuck off.

I want to know who the hell this gang is that’s trying to pull shit in our territory. When I find out, I’ll be sure to fuckin’ make them feel the error of their ways.

Holding the beer in my hand, my gaze is drawn by the headlights coming down the road. I follow the lights until they turn into the driveway across the street from Gunner’s. I’d forgotten he’d gotten a new neighbor a while back.

“That’s Avery’s house,” Gunner grunts drawing my attention back to the conversation. They’d been discussing something about Simone and how she’s been at the clubhouse coping with her new surroundings. Other than a prospect, she’s the only person at the clubhouse. Axe left her there under the watchful eye of Knuckles. He’d been with our club the longest, and after a talk with him, I figured Knuckles could be trusted for what we needed him to do and babysit a distraught woman.

The past two nights, the damn woman has screamed in her sleep, keeping all of us awake, which irritates the fuck out of me. A man needs his sleep, and then to top it off, the woman who crashed into me keeps popping into my head for some goddamn reason.

Tilting my head in Gunner’s direction, I raise a brow in question, wondering if my brother has got a thing for his neighbor. Yeah, he knows who lives around him, but that’s because he’s not stupid to think you can trust everyone.

“She owns the coffee shop we met at,” Cy states, his gaze focused across the street.

“Told her ass she needed motion lights and to bring her car to the garage,” Gunner grumbles with a shake of his head.

“I still don’t see why the fuck you’d tell her that shit,” Malice grunts. I’d stormed out of there after hearing Avery’s voice. The lightness in her tone went straight to my cock, and that’s something that never fuckin’ happens. I’d gone to the clubhouse, got Cheeks and Bunny, and took them to my room, had them go at it with each other. Took a minute for my cock to get with the program, but it did, and when I’d been about to come into the condom, Avery’s face staring up at me popped into my head.

This pissed me off even more.

“I told her to get some lights because the woman leaves her house when it’s pitch dark out and doesn’t come home until this time of night. And as for her car, I’m tired of hearing that shit trying to crank when she needs to just junk it and get a damn new one,” Gunner says, and I wonder if he’s got a thing for his neighbor.

“So fuck it, she’s not one of ours. No reason to worry about a bitch who wants to work her life away,” Malice sneers.

“VP, no disrespect, brother, but that woman, if you knew, you’d change your tone. She works her ass off, makes damn fuckin’ good coffee, and lives for her shop because she’s hiding,” Cy rasps.

“What do you mean she’s hiding?” I demand. My attention is now caught.

“Don’t know all the information, but from what I’ve found along with Gunner when he searched her place after she moved in, she’s a hermit keeping low to the ground, so she’s not found. The woman’s a runner and doesn’t want her family to find her,” Cy mutters, clearing his throat.

As he gets ready to say something else, movement across the street catches my eye, and all of us stare as Avery rushes from her porch and back to her car.

What the fuck?

Without realizing it, I storm off the porch and jog across the street. My brothers’ feet hitting the pavement let me know they’re right behind me.

In her driveway, I slow down and edge up next to her car door. I might not want a bitch of my own or want to deal with drama, but I also do not like seeing one rush out of her house like the devil’s on her heels.

At the driver’s window, I knock on the glass as I take in how her chest is rising rapidly. Almost as if she was having a panic attack.

She screams and jumps, her head jerking to the side. Avery’s gaze meets mine, and I take note of the fear in her gaze along with the tears.

“Open the door, Avery,” I command, something in my gut twists inside me. I don’t know what the fuck it is, but I don’t like seeing her this