by Beth Rhodes
“Shit,” she hissed. “He got away, didn’t he?”
“Hey.” Jamie came close and put a hand on her shoulder. She groaned. “Did he take my gun?” She had to get up. “I have to check my things.” She rose on wobbly legs. “All Hawk’s files. He could have—”
“Whoa. I think you can sit back for a minute.”
No. She had to do something. Had to fix it before Hawk came back, before he found out. Lying around the weak and helpless damsel—not going to happen. “Did you call—?”
Her phone rang then, and crazy as it sounded, she knew—by the tone, by the urgency in the ring. It was Hawk.
“Uh, yeah,” Jamie answered her unfinished query. “I texted him a few minutes ago.”
She answered hesitantly. “Hello.”
“Thank God.” He broke off. “Are you okay?”
Biting her lip against another rush of tears, she cleared her throat. The panic rose against her breastbone. “I’m okay. I haven’t gone through our things. I don’t know if he took anything. I almost had him, Nathan,” she said, unexpectedly slipping into the use of his first name. “I froze. God. He was so young.”
“I don’t care how well you did.” Hawk blew out a breath. “Did he hurt you, Stacy?”
She was shaking her head as she answered, because she heard that panic in his voice. “No. Well, some bruises.”
“I’ll be on the next plane out. There’s a flight that leaves at noon.”
“Oh, honey, no.” Stacy sat up straight. “Did you get the team taken care of? Have you met with Julio? Please…” she faded out, not sure what to say. He wanted to come back to her, and she what? Was arguing with him otherwise? “I’m okay, really.”
“It’s already done.” He would be there for her, as he’d always been. Ready to protect. “I’m meeting with Barba in a couple of hours. One of the guys will drive me to the airport afterwards. Their flight isn’t until later today.”
He needed her as much as she needed him. It didn’t always seem that way. Yet his fear was almost tangible.
“I love you, Hawk.”
“I know.” His grin came through the line, loud and clear. “See ya soon, babe.”
Jamie had called the police and Stacy spoke with them, pulled out her paperwork for her firearm, and handed over a copy. Now there was an extra gun on the streets. And if the frown on the captain’s face was any indication, the police were not happy.
She worked around the crew, who was fingerprinting and looking for trace, carefully going through her own things. When she reached the bathroom, her heart fell. “Oh no.”
She opened the drawers under the sink, one by one, moving stuff around and hoping to find her jewelry box. It wasn’t huge. Just a small wooden token she’d started carrying with her when she traveled. A place to drop her jewelry. She had a couple of inexpensive beaded bracelets in there, too. She rubbed at her empty finger. Had she left her ring in the kitchen? She was always leaving it around, slipping it off to do dishes…
Maybe she’d moved it.
She slammed the last drawer closed, wincing when the noise hit her poor, battered head. She rose to her full height and stared at herself in the mirror.
“What the fuck?” she said. “Are you going to take this?”
“Uh, Stacy?” Jamie peeked around the door. “You okay?”
She ignored the little flutter of fear that started in her stomach. “How long have we been coming to Belize, to Punta Gorda, Jamie?”
“Uh, years. Lots. Since day one. Since Hawk and I first met you.” He ended with a smile.
“Exactly. And have we ever, in twenty years, come up against so much?” She started pacing as she considered all the crap that had happened in the last week. “The snafu in Colombia. The next one in Manila. The little motor bike almost taking us out on the road. Thomas—” That one hurt. She took a breath. “Now this?”
Jamie frowned. “I see what you mean.”
“And the worst thing about all of this? Hawk is holding back.” Anger nudged at the worry. “So what that I want to get back into a more active role? Is he so against it that he would, he would pull away from his partner in the business? His wife in the bedroom?”
Wide eyes stared back at her, open mouth gaping. “Uh—”
“Forget I said that,” she waved off his shock. She blushed. “Sorry…still, we’ve been friends long enough, Jamie. And you’re one of the only guys on the team—except Tan—who Hawk can really talk to. Can you talk to him, please?”
“Oh, Stacy.” He grimaced.
Her heart pounded. “I know. It’s too much to ask. Please.”
Jamie took her by the shoulders and led her out of her bedroom. “You’ve been through a lot tonight. And I think you need to sit back and get some rest. Put some ice on your head. Schedule a massage for tomorrow, because you know what?”
Stacy shook her head.
“You’re going to be sore tomorrow after your little tussle with this guy.”
“Kid.” She kept seeing those eyes. That shadowed face. “He was just a kid.”
“And you’re just my friend.”
She swallowed the knot in her throat, letting Jamie wrap a blanket around her shoulders, and help her to sit on the couch in the living area where she could see through the sliding glass doors to the water.
“I’m not going anywhere. Okay? Hawk will be here before you know it, and all the stuff you said to me, you need to say to him.” He crouched in front of her. “Your concerns and gut-feelings are just as important and valid as his. No matter what is going on between you too, right now, he knows that. Everyone on the team knows, Stacy.”
“What?” Her heart about stopped, uncertainty filling her chest and cutting off her air. They knew what? That she and Hawk were having problems?
“You’re the only one who can lay down the law with Hawk. He’ll listen to you before anyone else on the team.”
She frowned and rubbed a hand across her forehead. That wasn’t right. The thinking was starting to make her brain hurt. “I’m just going to close my eyes for a while.”
“A little while,” Jamie corrected. “I’ll wake you in an hour to check on you.”
She nodded, her thoughts already drifting.
Hawk Elite might be having trouble across the board lately, but she had a feeling whatever was culminating was going to happen here.
And her gut was saying this wasn’t just business; it was personal.
***
Hawk ran through his checklist, giving Min one last call before asking his team leader to make a stop in the north before the flight later today. They’d worked to close the holes in the client’s security. A third world war notwithstanding, Min’s boundaries should stand up against anyone looking to make trouble. Hawk scheduled to have a training team return in two months. By then, Min would have his own team ready to go.
Taking one last look around his room, Hawk picked up his bag and left the hotel. He was anxious to get to Stacy. No. More than anxious. He was desperate. He hated that he’d had to come down here. Because of his secret, no one else could have met with Julio Barba for him.
Julio was his eyes and ears in this region, and as long as Miguel Cortez was rumored to be out there, Hawk needed all the eyes and ears he could get.
A shiver ran up Hawk’s spine, and he glanced over his shoulder. Had he gotten too lax? It had been months, almost a year, since he’d checked with his contacts or done any digging in regards to Cortez. No photos had surfaced. Not even a little peep from anyone.
Hawk hurried down Roxas Boulevard, where a cab stopped for him, took him into the heart of Makati and dropped him in front of a guarded mansion. The large estate was completely surrounded by a wall topped with shards of glass. Reminiscent of a late forties stucco Californian home, the old house needed a face lift, yet inside it was pristine and armed to the teeth with all the latest in security and technology. After being let in through the front gate, Hawk took the stairs two at a time. A door opened as
he reached the veranda. “Señor Hawkins.”
The butler quickly showed him to an office where he sat in a big leather chair until the door opened behind him.
“So, you have finally returned, my friend.”
“Unexpectedly, yes.” Hawk stood and shook Julio's hand. He respected a man who could face down a giant. And Julio had done that. “You hear about Cortez?”
Julio's eyes hardened. “There are rumors more troubling than those in the past.”
“I had issues with this last security check at Lepanto Mining for Mr. Min.” He couldn't afford to tangle with the likes of Cortez. Not now, when everything in his life, including his business, was up the air. Could he keep going? Would his team stick around after they knew?
The noose of vulnerability tightened around his neck.
“If you have trouble on these islands, blame Cortez.” Julio tapped a pen on his desk as he sat and leaned back into the swivel chair. “He has killed everyone connected to his wife and daughter’s deaths. Except you. You’re the last.”
“Me and my team.”
“Word is, Cortez won’t bother with your team. He wants you.”
Hawk turned away, rubbed a hand over the ache in his neck. He had two choices, fight or flight. Either way, he needed someone to be his eyes, which meant he could no longer keep his secret. “I’m having more trouble than just in the Philippines right now. I’m on my way back to Belize. Stacy was attacked yesterday. A young man who works for Jamie down there was found dead.”
Removing himself from the network in the Philippines would be clue enough to his men that something was wrong. He'd hoped to wait, to find out if there was something he could do to stop the scar tissue from making him blind. Turning, he faced his friend. “I think this is time to close up the ranks, batten down the hatches, or whatever you want to call it. I’ll pull everyone back in until we know what we’re up against.”
“This is not like you to leave loose ends and give up .” Julio studied him. “Your Cortez will not cool off, either. Don’t hesitate, my friend.”
Hawk suspected that much and it pained him to think of his next move as hiding, running from the enemy. “I’m going blind, Julio.”
“Jesus.” Shock set Julio back. He stilled and leaned against his desk. “Damn, what a thing. Is there no hope? Did you get a second opinion?”
“A second, a third. There is the possibility I might save some of my vision with surgery. For right now, I have to wait until the New Year for the surgery.”
“How is Stacy taking it?”
Hawk cringed. “I haven’t told her everything…yet.”
“Brave man.”
He nodded. “Or just stupid.”
Barba laughed. “Hey, don’t worry, Hawk. If I hear anything about Cortez, I'll let you know. I owe you for my daughter’s life. If you need anything else, you know where to find me.” Julio understood without a long, drawn-out explanation. “Your foothold in Manila, in the Philippines, is strong. You have my backing. Cortez is small change now.”
“Thanks.” In the back of his mind, Hawk wondered if he’d ever see his friend again. “Thanks…for everything.”
“Vaya con Dios, Hawk.”
They gripped hands; an understanding passed between them. First a client then a friend, because they both got it—loyalty, duty, honor. They came from the same cloth.
Family came first.
Chapter Ten
Her last morning alone dawned clear and cool for a change. Stacy quietly set about the kitchen, making coffee and putting a piece of bread in the toaster. She’d been happy to have space that wasn’t filled with tension and uncertainty.
But after yesterday, she just wanted Hawk back, tension or not.
A light breeze swept through the window and cut the humidity rising from the bay. She’d slept like a rock. With the windows over the ocean wide open, she’d fallen asleep to the sound of water lapping on the shore.
“You want to talk?” Jamie came into the kitchen, his floral Bermuda shorts and bright yellow the perfect match to his laidback, sunbathing ways. He’d slept on the couch. Aside from knowing that in her head, he looked exactly the same. And alert, like he’d been up all night.
Stacy wrapped her hands around the coffee mug. She didn’t know what to say and shrugged. “It’s been a weird, dark summer, Jamie.”
He cocked his head, his eyes a tad disbelieving. “Are you going to run again today?”
“Maybe.” She finished off the coffee and set the cup in the sink. “Hawk gets in tonight.”
And he’d told her not to come pick him up. He was going to rent a car to drive down the coast. She’d wanted to argue. He’d be too tired, and what about the headaches. He insisted and agreed if he wasn’t feeling well, he’d take a shuttle.
Her husband didn’t usually give in. She swallowed against the tightening in her throat. What would make him give up his independence?
“We could run together.”
“No. I’m not going to live scared.” Besides, she had things to do today.
“Scared and careful are too different things.”
“Then I won’t run at all!” She blew out a breath, annoyed by his reasoning and by the knot of anger lodged in her throat.
“Fine.”
“Fine!” The silence pressed in against her. “I need to go.”
“I’ll take you.”
She frowned. “Jamie, I don’t need a bodyguard.”
He came close and touched the bruising on her temple. “Hawk would kill me if anything else happened to you right now.”
“So what?” she asked harshly, without thinking.
“Well, I kind of like my life.”
“Fine.” Her frown deepened.
“Fine.” He was so calm and so sure, it made all the turmoil inside of her boil up and want to come exploding out of her.
She left him and went to change into a set of workout clothes. “I’m going to the gym,” she announced. Only she hated the sterile setting of the gym. The mirrors, the gray carpets, the droning television in the corner. Though she closed her eyes, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Watched by Jamie, who was as loyal to Hawk as the Pope was to God.
Her stride broke, and she lifted herself off the treadmill to the running boards on the side.
“Good morning, Stacy.”
Stacy sucked in a breath, her gaze flying to the doorway and the voice. “Michael, you scared me—”
“It is what you Americans call…jumpy?”
“Yes, definitely.” The pounding in her chest slowed.
Michael’s gaze sharpened on her face as he came closer. When he lifted a hand to her, she drew away.
“What happened?” he said with a frown.
“There was an intruder,” she explained for what seemed the gazillionth time. “It’s okay. Almost doesn’t even hurt anymore,” she lied. “How was your scuba diving excursion yesterday?” she asked, steering the conversation back to him.
He shrugged. “The sea lacked one thing, a beautiful woman to share it with.”
Flattered, Stacy smiled genuinely for the first time since yesterday. “You're too much.”
“You think I tease.” He shook his head. “You are a vibrant young woman who shouldn't be left alone. You should be more careful.”
“You’ll be happy to know; today, I have a guard.” There was a ring of resentment in her voice. She couldn’t seem to help it. It wasn’t Jamie she resented. No. She had to dig deep to see it. If she wanted back in on the business side of things, her main hurdle would be convincing Hawk she was ready.
It was obvious, she was not. He would see this as a failure.
He laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Still, we are like friends now. I hate that something happened to you.”
And as innocent as it was, Stacy shook her head. “Look, Michael—”
“Have lunch with me at the café.” He cut her off, a look of resignation in his eyes. “Lunch. That’s all.
Public place. Two friends.” He leaned in. “After all these years, I know the sound of rejection, my dear. Let me buy you lunch before that happens.”
She laughed at herself, both relieved and saddened. He was such a nice man, and when she’d worried he wanted more from her than she could give—
He been honorable, instead.
“I’d love to.”
He cocked his head, studying her for a moment. “Good.”
Even though she’d hardly done what she came to do—workout, she left the gym and found Jamie drinking a coffee in the lobby. “Hey,” she began.
“Mrs. Hawkins. How are you?” Roberto came toward her with outstretched arms. “Oh, you look worse today.”
She laughed, too long friends to be offended. “Yes, well, they say that’s expected of the bruising. I’m feeling much better, though.”
“Bueno.” He kissed her cheek and gave Jamie a pointed look.
“Come on, bodyguard,” she said. “I think that was your cue.”
She walked with Jamie back to the suite, and at the door, she held up her hand. “That’s enough. I’m going to get changed and do a little cleaning for when Hawk gets back.”
Jamie opened his mouth, most likely to object. She wouldn’t have it.
“Please, just let me be for a while, Jamie, and I’ll call you when I’m going to lunch.”
“Stacy—”
She was putting him in a bad spot; she knew it. No one liked to disobey Hawk.
“I’ll be all right. I swear.”
“I won’t go far.”
A compromise. “Okay.”
She went straight through to the enclosed patio out back, undressed and stepped under the shower nozzle. The water pounded along her spine as she bent to touch her toes, stretching her hamstrings and lower back. Her short twenty-minute workout had been piddly, but the stretch of aching muscles felt good anyway. The combination of sunshine and the refreshing shower made her want to give up bathing indoors at all. Reluctantly, she shut off the water.
Back in her bedroom, she pulled out one of her afternoon skirts, a comfortable, knee-length rayon. Moira called it her swishy dress. It was black with large, swooping red flowers. Her black tank top was a good match, and she slipped into her black sandals as well.
