by Jill Shalvis
“Don’t even think about ditching me.”
“Maybe I was just asking.” He did his best to put on his Sunday church face. The one that said he was an American hero, a man who’d never lie.
“My parents sold their house a few years back and retired to Florida,” she said. “My sister moved there, too, with her kids.”
“Sounds cozy.”
“And too far for you to take me to.”
He sighed, and dropped the innocent expression. “I just want you safe.”
“If you’re going to my condo, then so am I.”
“If anyone’s watching—”
“Then we move to Plan B.”
This time the sound of the “we” didn’t thrill Hawk. He couldn’t stand the thought of how he’d dragged her into this entire disastrous mess.
She’d called Tibbs, briefly, letting him know she was alive and would be calling back with concrete evidence that would point to someone other than Hawk.
Where to take her?
“Stop trying to think of a place to dump me,” she told him.
“Abby—”
“Look, don’t make me use those handcuffs again.”
He slanted her a look. “I might like that. Later.”
She shook her head. “Men.”
“Yeah. We’re something.”
“Something all right. What about your family?”
He glanced at her. “You going to ditch me now?”
A ghost of a smile crossed her mouth. “Maybe I’m just curious.”
“My parents are gone.”
“So you don’t have family to be close with either.”
“I have Logan.” His heart squeezed just a little at the thought of what Logan was going through right about now. He’d called when they first hit the road, and Callen had promised she had him good and protected. Until he could get there, which would be right after he got the laptop, it would have to be good enough.
“Turn left here,” Abby told him.
Her neighborhood was very suburban. Clean, cozy, sort of white picket fence meets the upscale set, complete with tennis court, pool, rec center…He wondered if she fit in here, and what she did on her time off. Did she wear a little white skirt and play tennis? Or slip into a bathing suit and swim laps?
“Up until last year, I never took any personal time for myself,” she said as if she’d read his mind. “I was all work, work, work.”
“And now?”
“Things have changed. I live my life. When I was on leave, I took tennis lessons. I could kick your ass all over that tennis court.”
“Now that I’d like to see.”
“Any time.”
Her smug smile was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. “I’m going to ask you to prove that one,” he said.
“You play?”
“Well, it’s been a while. In high school—”
She laughed. “I could take you.”
“What do you wear when you play tennis?”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“Well, if it’s a little tiny skirt, then I might have some trouble concentrating. I’ll need a handicap.”
She blinked, then smiled and shook her head, as if baffled.
“What?”
“You have this way of making me feel more like a woman in my grubbiest moments than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”
“Yeah, well, you have a way about you, too, Ab.” Reaching for her hand, Hawk brought it up to his mouth. “Last night, I thought my life was over. Several times. You came through for me. I didn’t realize it would be more than that, or that I’d get so much more than I bargained for. But I have.”
“I’m more than you bargained for?”
“Hell, yeah. Aren’t I for you? Isn’t this?”
She stared at him, then let out a low laugh. “Wasn’t even in the ballpark,” she admitted. “But I can still take you on the court.”
He laughed, suddenly feeling lighter than he could have imagined, given all they had in front of them. “You’re on. You’re so on.”
If they lived.
“Take another left,” she said. “Don’t go to the gate.”
They passed the front entrance, going around the block. “Back way in.” Abby pointed. “They’re doing construction here, adding another park. The fence is down. If we walk in from there, there’ll be no record of us entering.”
Hawk liked how she thought. He liked how she did just about everything, including the way she stared at him, as if maybe he was worth a second, even a third look.
And he especially liked how she clutched him when he was buried so deep inside her he didn’t know where he ended and she began.
Yeah, he liked that a lot.
“Park here,” she said, jerking his thoughts out of bed, pointing to a handful of trucks. Construction trucks, by the looks of them, toolboxes and equipment in the back of each. “We’ll fit right in.”
“How about just me fitting in?”
“You want me to wait here?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Well, glad that’s settled.” They got out, and just as she’d said, no one stopped them. They walked over the downed fence, through the tall grass and trees that were being turned into a greenbelt area behind the condos, and right past the pool and tennis courts, directly into the courtyard along the back of the condo units.
“You shouldn’t stay here during construction,” he said. “It’s not safe.”
“A fact for which we’re grateful, remember?”
No one paid them any attention as they walked the length of the courtyard. Abby gestured to the second to last unit. “Home sweet home.”
He stopped her at her back slider door and took her key. “Let me go in alone.”
“For what, you to do the caveman thing and check the house?”
“Damn it. We’re not going to fight about this, are we?”
She sighed. “We left the rifle in the car.”
“Yes.” He slid his hand up to her ponytail, lightly tugging her head back so he could cover her mouth with his for a short but effectively hot kiss.
“What was that for?” she asked, just a little breathless.
“You tend to stop arguing with me when I kiss you.”
“It’s because you’re destroying my brain cells.”
He ran his thumb over her lower lip.
She looked at the condo. “Hawk—”
“Look, what if I promise to argue with you later, your choice, will that work?”
Abby sighed again. “My laptop is on the little table by my bed, upstairs.”
He let out a breath. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay. And Hawk?”
He turned back. Her eyes met his, those full, irresistible orbs, and in them he saw something that made him swallow hard. Oh, God. Don’t say it, he thought. Don’t bring in the L-word, because I’m not going there. So far he’d managed to keep his heart intact.
But this time, with her, he wasn’t sure he could keep it that way.
She smiled, and that organ he’d been protecting rolled over and exposed its belly. Huh. Maybe…maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have someone love him, truly love him, the way few had ever done. Because looking into this woman’s eyes, he could see a future, could almost admit he was ready for it. “Yeah?”
She patted his arm. “Watch the second step. It creaks.”
GAINES THREW HIS CELL PHONE across his office, and all three men standing in the doorway ducked.
It hit his crystal clock and shattered. “I’ve got three loose ends,” he said calmly, and looked down at his computer screen, from which all of Tibbs’s communications transcripts blinked back at him.
Tapping into Tibbs’s computer had been nothing short of genius, if he said so himself, as it allowed him to keep track of all the players and the events. Win. “We need to take care of them, or I’ll take care of you.”
“Sir, yes, sir. But Log
an wasn’t supposed to get transferred to the hospital,” Benny said in their defense. Benny had worked beneath Watkins.
Had.
Watkins had become dispensable the moment he’d balked at taking care of Abby. He’d had no problem betraying Hawk, but when it came to a pretty woman, he hadn’t had what it took.
Gaines, however, did.
“Logan should never have been transferred,” Benny said again. “But Watkins—”
“Is dead.” Gaines looked at each of them. “As you will be if you don’t fix this.” He turned back to the computer screen. Abby had called for her voice mail, from somewhere near the city limits. Somehow he just knew Hawk was with her. The knowledge that they’d taken seven hours to get into Cheyenne instead of the usual four told him that they’d stopped.
Probably slept.
Together?
No. No, deep down she had a thing for him, he was certain of it. He’d cultivated the hero worship in her, had carefully honed it. No, his Abby hadn’t slept with Hawk. She was too cautious—as he knew all too well. How many months had he put into trying to get into her pants? He’d wined and dined the hell out of her, managing only a whole lot of restless nights.
Until the raid. Of course he’d been behind it. Mostly because she’d come damn close to exposing him, more by accident than design, but still. She was a smart cookie, and with a little more time she’d have figured it out.
He’d had to throw her off, at any cost. So he’d finagled a way to scare her and indebt her to him at the same time. Ingenious, if he said so himself. And yet he’d played the goddamn hero for her and she’d still not given it up for him.
Had she given it up for Hawk?
If so, it was only one more damn good reason to kill the son of a bitch. And then, unfortunately, her as well. It was going to disappoint him as much as it hurt her, but some things just had to be done….
Abby’s condo complex
ABBY STOOD ON HER BACK PATIO, hidden behind a tall potted ficus, staring at the glass slider, but unable to see more than her own reflection.
The ficus needed watering.
Story of her life. Oh, she’d been a big talker back there in the SUV, telling Hawk that she was living her life.
Liar.
She was still hiding. Still keeping herself closed off to feelings. But she hadn’t kept herself closed off to him, had she? Nope, she’d let him inside both her body and her heart. Come on in, steal the china. Sighing, she pressed her forehead to the potted tree and closed her eyes. What was she doing? Did she have any idea at all…?
No. No, she did not.
Lifting her head, she eyed the glass door again. Hawk had been gone just long enough to get up the stairs. Hawk, who’d put her life ahead of his.
Several times last night alone.
Last night…God, last night. It’d been the wildest night of her entire life. A shuddering sigh went through her. There’d been a moment, several of them, when she’d wanted to stay in his arms forever, as implausible as that wish had seemed.
Implausible and very, very unlikely.
It had just been one night. She was positive there’d been no more to it than fear and adrenaline and need, creating a desire she hadn’t been able to ignore. Very soon now things would go back to the way they’d been.
And yet, some things would most certainly change. Her, for one. She’d forever be different for the experience, for discovering that she was every bit as strong as she’d hoped, that she could absolutely be a woman in every sense of the word. That maybe, just maybe, she could even learn to trust her heart again.
Had he entered her bedroom yet?
Had she made her bed?
Why was she standing out here wondering? Clearly, there was no trouble, she’d have heard something by now. Abby let herself inside. In the past, where she’d slept at night had never really been a home. She’d never had the time, nor the inclination to make one. But when she’d come here, she’d tried hard to create a haven, using warm colors, soft, cushy furniture and landscape photos of her favorite places on the walls.
She headed for the stairs, and in the doorway of her bedroom came face to face with the man who could both stop and kickstart her heart.
“Hey,” Hawk said. “I heard you coming. I thought we decided you’d wait outside.”
“No, you decided.”
“Abby.”
“Hawk.” She repeated his tone, which made him laugh a little and reach for her.
She stepped right into his arms, and felt…amazing. Like she wasn’t just standing in her home, she’d come home. Tilting her head back, she looked into his eyes, thinking she’d never had a man here, in this bedroom.
She’d never even given it a thought.
And yet this man, this quick-witted, smart, funny, sexy man, looked utterly and completely at home in her space.
It was a good fit.
“What?” he asked softly. “What is it?”
So damn much…“Later,” she said.
Nodding slowly, he dipped his head and kissed her. Just a short, sweet kiss but their lips clung, and then opened, and then tongues got involved, and then…and then they were both panting and sort of arching into each other.
“The laptop,” he murmured, his breath ragged, his hands beneath her shirt. “We’re here for the laptop.”
Right. With a steadying breath, she backed out of his arms and pointed to it on the small table by her bed. “And get the locked box out of the drawer underneath it.”
“What’s in it?” He grinned at her. “Condoms?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Something even better for protection—my backup gun and ammo.”
Hawk looked impressed. “A woman after my own heart.”
He headed for the nightstand while she did her best to get her racing pulse back under control—but whew. The guy’s kiss packed a punch. Past him, on the floor, she could see the clothes she’d tried on yesterday and discarded, and then tried on again before deciding what to wear to a raid with the man she’d been secretly lusting over, as if it had been a date. Which was a joke, because she hadn’t dated since…
Since Gaines. And their last date hadn’t exactly been a rousing success—
Oh, God.
It all came back to her. He’d taken her to his second home, a luxurious ranch outside of Cheyenne, a “secret haven” he’d called it.
Secret haven.
“Abby?” Hawk put his hands on her arm. “What is it?”
What was it? Suddenly, she knew where to find Gaines.
19
Cheyenne Memorial Hospital
LOGAN OPENED HIS EYES WITH some trepidation, but to his relief the blazing pain in his head had faded to a dull throbbing.
He could live with that.
Another thing he could live with? The woman curled up at his side.
Callen had stayed. Well, mostly because she hadn’t wanted him to leave the hospital, but he knew it was more than that. Any woman who held his head while he tossed his cookies on a helicopter, risked her job to hide him, then played strip poker just to make him listen to her, was interested in more than just a patient/nurse relationship.
Or so he hoped. He stroked a hand down her side and she jerked straight up, eyes clear. “You hurting?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Leaning in, frown in place, she put a hand to his forehead, but he took it in his and brought it to his chest.
There. That felt slightly better. But he wanted to pull her entirely inside him. “Here. I hurt here.”
Still frowning, she yanked his hospital gown down to stare at his chest, her fingers running softly over his skin. “I don’t see anything. Let me call the doctor—”
“No, it’s not that kind of injury. Listen, Hawk’s going to call—”
“He already did. He’s coming for you. But—”
“No buts. We won’t have time for this once he gets here, and before I go—”
“If you’re in pain, we should reth
ink you going at all.”
“Before I go,” he repeated, “and make a really big fool out of myself here, I just want to ask you something. About last night.” He met her gaze. “It was different, right? I mean, for you, too—”
“I’ve never been with a patient like this before, if that’s what you’re asking.” Callen looked down at their clasped hands. “Never. In fact, I haven’t…with anyone…in a long time. I haven’t met anyone that I wanted—I’ve been working a lot, and—” She bit her lip and shook her head. “No, those are lies. A year ago I got out of a long relationship, and I haven’t wanted to risk my heart again.”
“Makes perfect sense, since I feel the same way. Or did, until about twelve hours ago.”
“Logan—”
“Look, I know this is ridiculously fast, but I’ve just got to tell you, before today goes straight to hell—”
“No. No going straight to hell. No going anywhere.”
“Actually, yes, I am. With Hawk, but—” He blinked, as he realized something. “I’m not in the same room as before.”
“No.”
His old room had been white, stark and smelled sterile. This one had soft pastel painted walls and different equipment—very different. Stirrups, for one. Huh. “Where am I, Callen?”
“I moved you. You’re under a different name, on a different floor. Hawk’s idea.”
Good. It didn’t matter where he was, as long as he got out to help Hawk. “I’ll need clothes.”
“Logan, this is crazy. You’re crazy.”
“Crazy. Yes. Crazy for you. You should know, I have no idea where this thing is going between us. I only know that I don’t want it to end when I leave here.”
“Oh.” She breathed this softly, with no hint of whether that was a good or bad oh. So he swallowed hard and did the only thing he could, which was lay it all out for her.
“I want to see you again after this is over.”
“You want to see me again.”
“Tonight, if possible.”
“Tonight.”
“And tomorrow. And the next day. And—”
“I…get the idea.”