“Only one?” Ricky asked, his voice thick.
“Yes, that would be best.”
He smiled up at her, but the smile was crooked and shaky. “After the boss leaves town, how about I take you to dinner?”
Janet’s eyes widened; she was obviously amused. “Wouldn’t that be lovely.”
“Lovely,” Ricky repeated, and then he closed his eyes.
“We have a name and an address,” Janet told Benedict as she turned away from the Englishman.
As soon as Benedict had driven a few blocks away from the scene of the shooting, he’d called one of his associates with Hawk’s license plate number. He’d expected that he might have to wait a few hours for an answer. This speedy response was an unexpected bonus; they could leave tonight.
“Wonderful.”
“Hawk Donovan,” Janet said, keeping her voice low. Ricky didn’t seem to be listening; he was lost in his own world, savoring the sensation of the drug entering his system and the relief it provided, contemplating a lovely dinner that would never take place. “He lives on a ranch near Greenlaurel, Texas. His sister Cassandra lives at the same address, according to her driver’s license.”
There was little true excitement in Benedict’s life these days. Little true joy. But this… He was so close to his goal, the possibilities gave him an unexpected thrill that touched him to the core. Every fiber in his body tingled.
He’d have to give Janet a proper lovers’ goodbye this evening, before they parted ways.
“How will I find you when I’m finished here?” Ricky asked, lifting his head slowly and with obvious difficulty. He licked his lips as if the drug coursing through his veins tasted good. He was interested in what was going on in this organization but not overly concerned.
When he ran out of the drug and couldn’t contact Dr. Sheridan or Benedict, then he’d be concerned.
“I’ll call you on your cell phone once we’re situated,” Benedict said.
The answer was enough for Ricky, who nodded less frantically than before and then settled back in to enjoy the rush in his blood.
Benedict turned his attention to Janet. He smiled at her and brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “Bring her to me, darling,” he said softly. “She’s everything we’ve worked so hard for.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly. “You’re not coming with me?”
“Of course not. I have preparations to see to, as you can well imagine.” She should know better than to expect that he’d get his hands dirty with something so common as kidnapping.
Of course, collecting Cassandra wasn’t kidnapping, but rather the recovery of something that belonged to him and him alone. The retrieval of something he had lost a long time ago.
Cassandra was his to do with as he pleased. As were all his children.
Chapter 14
Hawk grabbed a broom from the hallway closet where Sheryl stored the cleaning supplies and began to sweep the trashed lobby, primarily because he could not bear to sit still a moment longer. Sheryl might not know it yet, but her clinic was going to be closed for a few weeks. Someone had done a lot of serious damage to her place.
Someone, hell. The man who had done this to Sheryl’s clinic was surely the same someone who had pretended to be a building inspector, stolen the file from her kitchen and shot Baby. He should call the police, but the man who’d shot Baby was long gone. Besides, Hawk wanted to catch the man himself.
When he stood very still, closed his eyes and concentrated, he knew Baby would be fine. The injection Sheryl had given the dog had her out like a light, but her heart remained steady and the injuries were relatively minor.
Minor compared to what they might’ve been.
Hawk swept harder, pushing unfamiliar emotions deep. He was a complete idiot to get so freakin’ sentimental over a dog. There were other mutts out there, lots of them. Many of them needed good homes, and if something went wrong and Baby didn’t make it, then he’d just get another dog. Right?
So why were there tears in his eyes? Why did he keep imagining the worst when logic and his gut and the connection he shared with Baby told him everything would be fine? Dammit! He had to get this bizarre struggle with his emotions taken care of before Sheryl was finished with the surgery. He didn’t want her to see him this way. What a lousy way to end a pretty decent relationship. Him crying like a baby and her saving the day.
He was almost grateful when his cell phone rang. The home number popped up on the caller ID.
“Hi,” he said, pushing his distress down so his sister couldn’t hear or see it.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Cassie asked frantically. “How’s Baby?”
“She’s in surgery, but she’ll be fine.” Fine, fine, fine. He continued to tell himself that. “The bastard shot her.”
“I know,” she whispered.
He didn’t ask Cassie how she knew. The timing of her earlier phone call told him all he needed to know. It hadn’t been a dream that warned her, but one of those flashes she’d started having. He should’ve taken that call instead of tossing the phone to Sheryl. Everything would be okay if he’d handled that one moment differently. If he’d known of the danger, he would have told Baby to stay and chased the man on his own.
There was no going back, though. He had to live with that decision, just as he had to live with so many others. He had to live with putting Baby in the path of a bullet, dragging Sheryl into his sordid little excursion into the past and letting himself get much more involved than he’d ever intended.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Great,” Cassie said, a touch of false cheer in her voice. “I’m making the herbal tea now, and I’ll have a cup after supper.”
“I hope it works.” Otherwise this—Sheryl, Baby, all of it—had been for nothing. “Listen, I’m going to be held up here for a few days while Baby recuperates.”
“No problem. The horses miss you, but everything is running smoothly.”
“Good.”
“I miss you, too,” Cassie added almost reluctantly.
“I’ll be home soon.”
There was no rush to get back to the ranch. He almost wished there was, because then he’d have an excuse to run away from Wyatt. And Sheryl.
Baby was sleeping. Hawk was still fuming. And Sheryl felt as if her bones were about to turn to butter. Hawk had a way of doing that to her, with a look or a touch, but this was different.
She was furious, she was confused, she was hurt. About Baby, yes, but also about the destruction of her clinic. Who would do this? It would cost a small fortune to make the necessary repairs, and she didn’t have a fortune handy, small or otherwise. Insurance would cover most of it, but in order to save on premiums she had a huge deductible on her policy. She’d never imagined that something like this could happen.
Sheryl sat in the chair next to Hawk and rested her very tired head on his arm. She really should try to find him something to wear! She’d thrown away his blood-soaked shirt, and even if she did have an old T-shirt around the place, it certainly wouldn’t fit him. At least he’d cleaned the dried blood off his skin, while she’d had Baby in surgery.
“Baby’s going to be fine,” she said, trying to reassure him.
“Thanks.” He put his arm around her. “Thanks is not enough, but at the moment it’s all I have.”
She nodded.
After everything that had happened, she couldn’t deny that what he’d told her was true. Dr. Dolittle. Psychic sister. A mother who had apparently been psychic, as well, at least to some extent.
“You said there was something else,” she said tiredly. “Before we were interrupted, you said there was something about yesterday, in the farmhouse, that I should know.”
With his legs thrust out and his bare arm draped around her, he seemed even longer than usual. Bigger. Sometimes when she was next to him she felt so small. Fragile. No one made her feel fragile, not anymore. But this was different. She knew Hawk would never hurt her. N
ot only that, he would do everything he could to protect her from those who would.
Why did she think that way when she knew he was temporary?
“It doesn’t matter,” he grumbled.
A shiver crawled up her spine. “I think maybe it does.”
He didn’t answer for a moment, and then he pulled her a little bit closer. “After I discovered what I could do that night at the rodeo, I ran. Joined the Army and got as far away from ranches and rodeos as I could. But of course it wasn’t quite that easy. There are animals everywhere, and the genie was out of the bottle. No way to put it back. I learned to control my abilities, but I couldn’t turn them off. Not permanently, anyway. There are animals everywhere. Birds. Pets. Wild animals. They are a part of the earth, just like we are, and I couldn’t run away from them. Or from myself.”
He paused a moment, as if to clear his head, order his thoughts. “There was a girl…”
“You were nineteen!” Sheryl protested with a small laugh.
“Yeah, I was young, but it felt like the real thing at the time.”
Love. He didn’t say it; neither did she. “While I was in the Army, Sara and I wrote letters for a while. But I couldn’t tell her what was happening to me, and she didn’t understand why I had pulled away from her.”
“You do that. When things go wrong you shut down.” She wished with all her heart that he would fight instead of turning away, and she knew there were things he would fight for. She just wasn’t one of them.
“I know.” He shifted his weight slightly, as if the observation made him physically uncomfortable. “Sara’s letters got shorter and less frequent, and so did mine. Finally they just stopped.”
“She didn’t wait,” Sheryl whispered.
“No, and I can’t blame her. I can see into a dog’s heart, a horse’s mind, through a bird’s eye, but when I touched a person there was nothing. No connection. No insight. I felt…blinded. It was like my senses were dead where people were concerned.”
Sheryl laid her hand on his bare chest. Yeah, he was tough as nails, hard and harsh. But he was not uncaring; he never had been.
“Yesterday, when I was inside you, something changed.”
She shivered again. A few words and she was back there in that shabby farmhouse with Hawk inside her and the world spinning out of control.
“I touched your mind and your heart,” he said. “For an instant, maybe two, I experienced a connection that’s so hard to explain. I experienced it with you.”
Sheryl turned and lifted her head and kissed Hawk’s stubbly jaw. “Love’ll do that to you, or so I hear.”
He didn’t say anything, but the tension in his body certainly increased. All of a sudden he was tight as a drum.
Finally he gently set her aside and stood. “I’m going to sit with Baby.”
“She won’t even know you’re there,” Sheryl protested.
“Yes, she will,” he said softly.
Hawk glanced over his shoulder as he left the waiting room. She’d be angry with him for brushing her off, if she didn’t see the pain in his eyes so clearly.
Hawk was alone with Baby for at least half an hour, sitting in a chair at the dog’s side, before Sheryl joined them. She checked on her patient first, then, satisfied with what she found there, she perched on his knee.
He didn’t mind.
“I made a few phone calls,” she said, calmer than she’d been earlier. “Doc Murdock is going to reopen his practice until I can get this place fixed.” She sighed. “If I can get it fixed,” she added softly. “Maybe I should just—”
“I’ll handle everything,” Hawk said. He hated the way she sounded, dejected and without hope. “This is all my fault, and I won’t leave you hurting because of me.”
She looked him in the eyes, and he knew what she was thinking. Too late. He didn’t know what she was thinking because he had been genetically altered before birth. He wasn’t reading her mind. He knew it because he knew her in a way he had never known anyone else. Or ever would.
“This is not your fault,” she said.
“Yes, it is. I brought trouble with me when I came.”
She sighed and placed her hand on his cheek. That was when he knew she was putting on a show for him. Her fingers trembled, very slightly. “Trust me, trouble was already here.”
Sheryl kissed him on the temple. It was an odd place for a kiss, not sexual, not sensual. But intimate, just the same. Then she slid back in his lap and rested her head against his. She didn’t say anything; she didn’t try to pump him for information about what he could do; she didn’t chatter. She just sat in his lap and held on, and he liked it. It felt right, and in an odd way he was as connected to her as he’d been yesterday, when he’d been deep inside her and their hearts had pumped as one.
“You’re not the only one who has a past, you know,” she said.
He didn’t answer but threaded his fingers through her mussed ponytail.
“There was this guy, a few years back. I was actually going to marry him.”
Michael, the one Debbie had been afraid had come back. Sheryl had never mentioned him; Hawk hadn’t asked. “What did he do to you?”
For a minute she didn’t answer. He wouldn’t force her if she decided not to go further. Sharing secrets was never easy. Not for him, anyway, and apparently not for Sheryl, either.
“I thought I loved him,” she said softly. “Actually, I fell in love with the man he pretended to be. When he hit me, I saw the real man. It was so…startling, like the face I loved had been a Halloween mask and he finally decided to rip it off.”
Hawk couldn’t get past a very small portion of that confession. The same kind of blind anger that had rushed through him when he’d turned and seen Baby lying in the street rushed through him now. When he hit me. He touched his hand to Sheryl’s face and brushed his fingers across her cheekbone. He sucked up her body heat and at the same time offered his own.
She laid her hand over his. “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“This is where he hit me. The bastard slammed me in the face with his fist.”
Hawk experienced that rush of anger all over again. “Tell me where to find him, and I’ll make him pay.”
“No.” Sheryl rested her head on his shoulder and relaxed.
“Then give this Michael a last name and I’ll find him myself.”
“No,” she said again. Her fingers played with the hair at his nape. “That’s not necessary anymore. He’s not important. He’s not worth the time and trouble it would take to find him.”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” Hawk said gruffly.
Sheryl kissed his neck. “You don’t get it. A couple of weeks ago I was still hiding from one insignificant little man. And that’s what he is, Hawk. Little and insignificant. I’m not going to let one mistake ruin my life.” She raised her head and rested her forehead against his. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes, you did. You helped me to put Michael in the past, where he belongs. You helped me to realize that I don’t need to be afraid anymore. He’s not that important.”
Hawk didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing. He held her. Maybe that was enough.
After a while she raked her fingers through his hair. “Let’s take Baby home.”
For two days, while Baby healed, Hawk slept with Sheryl. Technically, at least. He didn’t touch her; he didn’t offer explanations for the past or muse about what might come next. He didn’t talk about much of anything. The silence was almost complete, as if he’d drawn into himself and had nothing to say to anyone. Not even her.
She didn’t mention Michael; he didn’t mention his uncanny ability with animals. And with her.
As soon as Baby was able, he’d be heading back to Texas. End of story. Nice knowing you. So long.
But it was good to sleep with him at night. While Hawk slept, Sheryl curled up against his back. She too
k comfort from the fact that he was with her, at least for a while.
Finding repairmen to fix her clinic was a challenge. There was a handyman in Wyatt, but he was always booked and, to be honest, he wasn’t very good. Sheryl made phone calls to her insurance company and to contractors in nearby towns. It wasn’t as if the animals of Wyatt were suffering; Doc Murdock had gladly reopened his practice, and there was always Micky Darman, who was perfectly willing to see a few domestic pets along with the farm animals he usually treated.
Late Tuesday afternoon, while Sheryl was going through her pockets and getting ready to do a load of laundry, she ran across the piece of paper where she’d scribbled Dr. Faith Winston’s name and phone numbers. The woman had seemed nice enough. She hadn’t pushed, and she hadn’t gotten angry when Sheryl had told her there were no files.
Hawk was sitting in the living room with Baby and the other animals. They were all drawn to him, especially now when he needed comfort. Even Bruce had been well behaved this week. Why did Hawk allow them to comfort him but not her? She was actually jealous of her own pets, because they touched Hawk in a way she never could.
Sheryl went to the kitchen phone and dialed the first number she’d written down. After two rings, a frantic woman answered with a breathless, “Faith Winston.”
Sheryl immediately began to have doubts about making this call.
“Hello?” Dr. Winston said when Sheryl remained silent.
“Did I call at a bad time?” Sheryl asked quickly.
“No.” She laughed, sounding sincerely friendly. “It’s always hectic around here. Is this…Dr. Eldanis?”
Caller ID or a great memory for voices? It didn’t matter. “Sheryl.”
“Sheryl, hang on one minute, please.”
She listened to the distant sounds of a quick conversation, where Dr. Winston handed the care of what sounded like a dozen children over to her husband. She must’ve moved into another room, because the commotion faded and when she spoke again her voice was clear and without interference.
“Have you found something I might be interested in?” Dr. Winston asked.
A Touch of the Beast Page 18
