Winter Hawk

by Rachel Grant

  Detective Brown had then said to Leah, “It’s going to take some time to reconstruct the next day as Kevin tracked down Dex and used him to access the Peacemaker servers. But I thought you’d like to know what happened to Ainsley. His version matched your previous statements. Between his writing and your account, a conviction for the murder of Ainsley Weisz is a slam dunk.”

  She had more questions but had been given the most important answers for now.

  “Where’d you go just now?” Hawk asked.

  “Did you talk to Detective Brown?”

  He nodded. “Kevin is going to be locked up for a long time. Keith talked to his friend, former Attorney General Curt Dominick. Dominick said what Kevin did to the D25DD code, programming drones to attack over three million—if current estimates on event attendance holds up—Americans, will be prosecuted as an attempted terrorist attack. Children could have died. Survivors would have been traumatized. My guess is the manifesto lays out his brilliant plan because he was so proud of it. You copied his code for the FBI. Several of us witnessed what it could have done. He murdered two people and tried to kill you. He’ll go to prison, probably for the rest of his life and then some.”

  “He’s going to claim he’s crazy. But he’s not crazy.”

  “He’s not, and that defense will fail.” He squeezed her hand again.

  “I gather he fixated on me because he thought I should be thankful for his attention. I was a desperate cougar in his eyes, and he was angry that even someone as undesirable as me ignored him.”

  “You are in no way, shape, or form undesirable.”

  She smiled. “He looked to everything but his own behavior for why he couldn’t get laid, and wanted to punish the world for it.”

  She gazed at Hawk. He’d been celibate for nearly two years but didn’t hold others responsible for that fact. The polar opposite of a man like Kevin.

  “As his supervisor, I wanted to support him. I hired him. He had a good mind for the work, and I’d hoped he’d become easier to work with as he matured. I tried to mentor him.”

  “And he probably took that to mean you wanted him, until you shut him down.”

  “I was oblivious.”

  “You were a professional, doing your job and expecting the same of the people around you.”

  There was another knock on the door.

  “I think our family has arrived,” Hawk said.

  Her heart squeezed at the notion of family, and shared, at that. She managed to say, “Come in,” but the words came out shallow and breathy. Emotional.

  The door opened wide, and her heart grew three sizes at seeing Josh with a menorah, followed by Chase, Tricia, and a few of the other operatives who’d watched the drone show. Each carried a bag of one sort or another.

  Josh waved his offering. “I managed to find us an electric menorah. Safe for hospital use.”

  Tears slipped from her eyes as emotion flooded her.

  Chase held up the bag in his hands. “We also heard neither of you would have a decent Christmas dinner, so we thought we’d bring the party to you.”

  Hawk’s hand squeezed hers, and she knew he was overcome with the same emotion. Somehow in this crazy holiday nightmare, they’d gained a big, caring, wonderful family.

  Epilogue

  Virginia

  One Week Later

  Leah snuggled against Hawk on the couch in the Shenandoah cabin and watched celebrities she’d never heard of dance on what had to be an icy-cold stage on television. “New Year’s Eve is the weirdest holiday, and, arguably, the worst.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s this weird buildup to one moment in time that literally is just one second long, then it’s over. And for that, you’re supposed to get really drunk and make promises about changing your life, when in reality, odds are your taxes just went up and the changes won’t last past the second week of January. Also, your car just depreciated.”

  Hawk laughed. “Well, it’s good that you didn’t plan a New Year’s Eve drone event, then.”

  “My NYEDD—New Year’s Eve Drone Dance—would kick ass.”

  “Agreed.”

  “It would be so much better than this. I don’t know who that singer is, but she’s clearly cold and not excited by the idea of her car depreciating. It’s messing with her moves.”

  Hawk laughed harder. “You’re right.”

  “I know I am.”

  “No, I mean about the fact that you are terrible at watching TV.” He took the remote from her hand and turned off the television.

  “But how will we know when it’s time to count down to midnight?”

  “Does it matter? It’s only one second in time.”

  “Good point. But still, I should set my cell phone to tell us ten seconds before.” She grabbed her phone from the table and set the alarm.

  “I think you secretly love that one second,” Hawk said.

  “Nah. It’s totally overrated.”

  “We should ring in the New Year by defiling Chase’s hot tub while drinking champagne.”

  “Now that’s a celebration I can believe in.”

  Minutes later, they were both naked in the tub, looking up at a canopy of stars.

  “I’ve been thinking about my New Year’s resolutions,” Hawk said.

  “Yeah?” she asked, her focus on the sky and stars. It was a beautiful, perfect night, after what had been several perfect days and nights in a winter wonderland cabin with the man of her dreams.

  “Yeah. Like, I resolve to spend more time with you than I did in the previous three hundred and sixty-five days.”

  “Well, we’ve only known each other for the last ten of them.”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a lot of making up to do for that.”

  She laughed. “Okay, I resolve to spend more time with you too.” She turned and faced him, knowing where this conversation was going. He deserved her full attention. “Ten days ago, I’d planned to make a New Year’s resolution about finding work/life balance. I’d promised myself that I would work less and live more. That I’d spend time with people, not computers. That I’d give relationships a chance. Will you help me keep that resolution?”

  “Hell yeah.” He kissed her neck, as always being careful of the fading bruises on her throat. “I talked to Keith a few days ago about changing jobs. I don’t want to live in the compound. I also need work/life balance, and after eight years of living at the office, I need separation. Keith agreed, and I’m also getting a long-overdue raise. I told him about my frustrations, and he acknowledged he was unconsciously skipping over me with assignments. He’s correcting that.”

  “Hawk, that’s wonderful!”

  He smiled. “It doesn’t hurt that Raptor got great press for our work at Nationals Park.”

  She ran a hand over his beard. “You deserve every bit of the attention and praise. But why didn’t you mention this before?”

  “Because I wanted to surprise you on New Year’s Eve when I ask you to move in with me.”

  “Yes!” She kissed him. It was so fast to be taking this step, but it felt so right. She couldn’t imagine not living with him. “I should warn you, except for the year my mom lived with me, I’ve lived alone since I was twenty-two. I might be a terrible roommate.”

  “I can tell it won’t be easy by the way you watch TV. I mean, we’re all irritated by insurance commercials, but you take it to the next level when you howl like a coyote to block them out.”

  “Nobody cares about car insurance that much. Nobody.”

  He laughed. “That’s what the Mute button is for. But even knowing how bad you are at watching TV, I can’t wait to come home to you every night.” He kissed her deeply, then added, “Maybe we’ll take up playing board games. Or tennis.”

  She straddled him. “Or just have sex.” She reached between their bodies and stroked his thick shaft.

  “We need condoms, which, we’ve established, don’t work great in the tub.”

  “I have a New Y
ear’s gift for you. When I was in the hospital on Christmas, I asked the doctor to give me the three-month birth control shot. Guess how many days it takes to be effective?”

  “Please say seven.”

  “Yes! Seven.” They’d had the STD talk the day after they first had sex. Birth control was the only reason they’d continued to use condoms.

  An alarm sounded through the open door. “Oh! Ten seconds to midnight!” She stroked his erection as they counted down. At the midnight stroke, she slid down on his shaft taking him deep inside her.

  He made a sound in the back of his throat and thrust upward. “I don’t care what anyone says, that second was totally worth the buildup.”

  She laughed.

  He kissed her neck and said, “Happy New Year, beautiful.”

  She clenched around him, reveling in the exquisite pleasure of being joined with him. “Happy New Year, Hawk.” She kissed him deeply then said, “This might be my new favorite holiday.”

  Thank you for reading Winter Hawk. I hope you enjoyed this holiday story! Be sure to read on for the author’s note with the story’s inspiration.

  The Raptor series will continue, but the world begins in the Evidence series. The Evidence books can be read in any order, and a great place to start is Incriminating Evidence, where Nate Sifuentes first appears on scene.

  Archaeologist Isabel Dawson finds an unconscious man deep in the Alaskan wilderness, only to discover he’s Alec Ravissant, the wealthy CEO and senate candidate she blames for her brother’s murder. Now she and the former Army Ranger must work together to find out the truth about his abduction and her brother’s death.

  One-click INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE Now

  or

  Turn the Page for an Excerpt

  If you like steamy military thrillers, check out my Flashpoint Series. In Tinderbox, Dr. Morgan Adler has made the archaeological find of a lifetime, which puts her in the crosshairs of a warlord eager to claim Morgan and the fossils. Green Beret Pax Blanchard is assigned to protect the scientist in the scorching desert heat, but can he keep his hands off her when the sun goes down?

  Winner of the HOLT Medallion award and named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books.

  One-click TINDERBOX now

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  Visit my website for an excerpt & audio sample

  Author’s Note

  In April of 2019, I attended Barbara Vey’s Reader Appreciation Weekend and roomed with the brilliant, talented, and wonderful Toni Anderson. After arriving in Milwaukee, Toni needed helium to fill her shark—as one does—and I offered to accompany her to the store. Instead of calling a taxi for us, the hotel gave us the phone number for a car service (I don’t have apps on my phone!). En route to the helium store, we asked the driver if he could wait while we bought our shark gas and give us a ride back to the hotel. He told us he couldn’t, because he was already booked. Then he added, “These are the worst jobs. My boss always gives me these jobs. A person has been fired and will be escorted from the building by security. My job is to give them a ride home.”

  Well, you now see what my author brain did with that.

  Thank you to the kind driver who gave me the plot bunny, and my sympathies to the person who was fired on that April day in Milwaukee.

  If you’d like to know when my next book is available, you can sign up for my mailing list or visit my website. If you follow me on Goodreads you can see what I’m currently reading (usually research material for my next book).

  For a little added fun, visit RATinformant.com, a website companion to my Evidence Series (but you’ll find my other books there too).

  Reviews help like-minded readers find books. Please consider leaving a review for Winter Hawk at your favorite online retailer.

  Incriminating Evidence Excerpt

  Chapter One

  Tanana Valley State Forest, Alaska

  September

  It was a show tunes kind of afternoon, which was unusual for Isabel, but the words to the old songs came to her effortlessly as she walked downslope, deep in the Tanana Valley State Forest. Loud, full-voiced singing was necessary to warn bears she was working in this remote Alaskan wilderness and was intended to scare the creatures away. Given her off-key voice, singing pretty much guaranteed humans would stay away as well. A decided bonus.

  Although, now that she was on day four of the timber sale survey, she was ready to be done. She’d had enough solitude this week and wouldn’t mind meeting up with Nicole for a beer at the Tamarack Roadhouse. It was getting late, already after five p.m., and she was still a two-hour hike from her truck, but her extra-long lunch excursion put her behind schedule and she had one more parcel to inspect before she’d be done with the archaeological survey. It was worth the long day to avoid hiking all the way back here tomorrow.

  Most of this week’s survey soundtrack had been sad songs, but yesterday had been Vincent’s birthday, so her melancholy was understandable. Then suddenly, this afternoon Rodgers and Hammerstein popped into her head. She’d started with Oklahoma!, continued with The Sound of Music, and now she’d moved on to Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, specifically, “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General.”

  She’d feel ridiculous singing at the top of her lungs, except after months of working in Alaska, she’d grown used to the need to make noise while conducting pedestrian survey. She’d found straight-up talking to herself disconcerting, so she’d taken to singing. Now it was second nature. She barely even heard her own voice as she studied the ground for telltale signs of prehistoric human activity.

  She paused, taking a deep breath, preparing for the next rapid verse, when she heard a branch crack, followed by a grunt.

  Not the grunt of an animal, but one of a human. In pain?

  She stopped. With her head cocked toward the wind, she listened. Again she heard a sound. Faint. Human. Definitely not happy.

  She scanned the woods. The underbrush was thick and mosquitoes vicious. Whenever she stopped walking, they swarmed. She fought the urge to wave her arms to shoo them away so she could listen.

  But all she heard was wind. Birds. Buzzing mosquitoes as the bloodsucking females feasted on her cheeks and arms. Normal forest sounds.

  She slapped away the biters. Maybe she’d heard a wolverine. Their grunts could easily be mistaken for human. Shaking off the foolish notion she’d cross paths with another person out here on the edge of the bush, she resumed walking and singing, but the happy beat was lost. Now she sang solely to ward off bears. She scanned the ground as she walked, looking for signs of prehistoric occupation or use. Her job was to find archaeological sites that would be destroyed by the coming timber harvest. That was what she was here for. She needed to focus on what paid the bills.

  The ground sloped at a grade above fifteen percent. Poor conditions for finding a site, because the ground was too steep for occupation. If there were a site in the vicinity, she’d find it at the base of the slope. She continued in that direction, determined to do a good job for her employer, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

  Branches snapped below her, to the right.

  She stopped signing midword.

  Any number of fauna could have triggered it. She hadn’t seen any scat, at least nothing fresh and therefore worrisome, for the last half mile. But still, she dropped a hand to the grip of her pistol while the other grabbed the bear spray. Of the two, the pistol was the least effective, but the noises had her on edge. While a pistol wasn’t good defense against a bear, it was excellent for dealing with humans.

  These woods, remote, abundant with resources, yet marginally accessible due to logging roads, could be a gateway to the bush for people on the run. Maybe she’d been foolish to brush off the noise as a wolverine.

  Another sound carried on the breeze, and she ducked behind a tree to listen and wait. In her gut, she knew she wasn’t about to face down a bear. She held the gun in front of her, pointed upward, clasped between both hands like a prayer. Her hear
t pounded, but she had no real understanding why. This just didn’t feel right.

  She couldn’t stay behind a tree gripping a gun forever and eased out from her feeble hiding spot. Slowly, silently, she crept down the hillside toward whatever—or whoever—had made the sounds.

  She spotted him immediately. Sunlight filtered between the leaves, highlighting the red splatter of blood that covered the man’s face. He lay still. Unconscious or dead?

  She’d heard of archaeologists finding bodies on survey before, but the accounts always had the earmark of urban myths—two people removed from the teller of the tale. She’d never met anyone who’d actually encountered a corpse themselves. She supposed she’d considered how scary such a find would be, but hadn’t really thought beyond that, because really, it just didn’t happen.

  It was like planning for a head-on collision. She’d been certain that sort of thing would never happen to her. Car accidents, kidnappings, tornados, and random bodies in the woods were all on the list of things that happened to other people.

  And yet here she was. Adrenaline flooded, frozen with shock, and facing a body in the deep, bear-infested woods.

  Her past speculation had been wrong. It wasn’t scary; it was utterly terrifying. Worse than facing down a bear, a pair of rattlesnakes, and a brown recluse all at the same time. Nature, she could handle. This wasn’t nature.

  This was murder.

  She glanced left and right. She would never hear anyone approaching over the roar of her racing pulse. She stepped toward the man, slowly. Gun out. Pointed at the body.

  As she neared, she caught the slightest rise of his chest. He was alive.

  Not murder, then. Attempted murder? Assault?