How Beauty Met the Beast

by Jax Garren

  Hauk nodded. “You don’t strike me as military.”

  “I’m not. I spent a year in Mosul covering events for an online journal. Made real good friends with the soldiers, who saved my ass more than once. Found it was better for my health to stick near the military.”

  “A war correspondent? And now you’re hopping cars? Who’d you piss off?”

  Travis chuckled as he checked the time on his phone. “My parents. I took a trip instead of going to college. Spent five years backpacking from Lhasa to Istanbul and kept a blog. Trust me when I say I’ve had far worse jobs than valeting cars. But the blog was how the guys at Saoirse found me for the Mosul gig. You heard of Saoirse? It’s a political blog. ‘Saoirse’ is Gaelic for ‘freedom.’ Kinda radical, definitely not the Benoit cup of tea, but it’s worth a read. They have some interesting points and do some smart stuff.”

  Hauk blinked. “Yeah. I read it.” Religiously, in fact. Saoirse Press was run by the Boston Underlight. Most of Saoirse’s articles were freelance and few of the reporters actually knew about the Underlight. But it took a sharp mind and a suspicious streak for a writer’s work to be deemed fit. The same qualities it took to get an invite to the Underlight.

  Travis didn’t know it, but they were on the same team.

  “So now I’m part-time at UT working on a journalism degree and full-time here paying for it.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “I gotta admit though, it’s usually not as pleasant a job as certain redheads make it. Except when she’s trying to pawn off the gluten-free beer.” Travis wrinkled his nose. “Sorry, man.”

  Hauk laughed, but before he could confirm Travis’s opinion, the pretty redhead in question entered the room. He grinned and said loudly, “How dare you insult this fine beverage.”

  Travis mouthed, “Asshole,” but his smile showed he wasn’t offended.

  “Travis! You bad-mouthing my beer again?” Jolie shook her head and feigned offense. “Some people have no taste.”

  The buzzer went off on the pizza as Hauk tried to hide a laugh.

  “Want to join us for lunch? I’m pretty sure we made plenty,” Jolie added.

  “Wish I could, but my break’s about over. Gotta get back.” Travis hopped up and tossed her the phone. “You leav S. nt e this everywhere, you know that?”

  “I didn’t have pockets earlier,” Jolie protested.

  “It’s a six-hundred-dollar phone with your personal information stored in it.”

  “At least I got it to my car.” At Travis’s look, her voice quieted. “This time.”

  “Uh-huh. Good to meet you...?” Travis quirked his head.

  “Hauk.”

  “One word? Like, Prince? Madonna? Just ‘Hauk’?” Before Hauk could come up with a suitable reply, Travis shrugged. “That’s cool.” His face turned more serious. “Thanks for your service, man. I know that’s not much to say, but after what I saw? There aren’t sufficient words.” He turned away and raised one arm. “Penthouse Princess?”

  Jolie rolled her eyes but squeezed him in a quick side-hug.

  “You have a good afternoon.”

  As the elevator shut behind Travis, Hauk turned to Jolie. “I like him.”

  “Yeah. He’s pretty cool.” Jolie’s smile crumbled. “You know, for a few minutes I forgot what we were doing this afternoon.” She took a deep breath and headed for the buzzing oven. “Want to start telling me the plan?”

  Hauk took his own deep breath as Jolie pulled lunch out of the oven. “No.”

  She stood, pizza in hand. “Huh?”

  “I’ll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it.” He grabbed a dishtowel, took the pizza, and set it on the counter.

  “Wait a minute. That’s not right. Are we working together or not?”

  He frowned and started slicing thick triangles. “See, that’s the real problem, isn’t it? I think we are. I want to think we are. But what if I’m a bad judge of character? What if you’re working for Ananke? I’ve caused a helluva lot of havoc over the past few years. Hell, I’m Austin Underlight’s best line of defense. They’d love to take me out of the equation. So, say I tell you where we’re going to be and when we’re going to be there, and you report back to your boss, and I walk into a trap. The less you know ahead of time, the less warning they have.”

  Frustration squeezed her shoulders and turned her beautiful mouth into a scowl. “Except that I’m not going to do that because I’m not one of them. I didn’t even know they existed until this morning. How many times am I going to have to say that?”

  He set down the knife and raised a hand. “For what it’s worth, I believe you. But it would be irresponsible to act as if I’m incapable of making a mistake. It’s not just my safety that’s at stake here. I know things that can hurt a lot of people.”

  “So basically what you’re saying is, I have to trust you but you can’t trust me.”

  Hauk took a step toward her, feeling as if a field of land mines separated them. Was that what he was saying? Maybe so. But it wasn’t that simple. “If you don’t want to come with me, I’ll try to get your niece back on my own. But I think you deserve to see what I’m going to show you. I think you deserve to see for yourself that everything we said this morning is true.”

  She looked at the floor as conflicting emotions warred in her expression and posture. But he could see the moment when she gave in. When her eyes found his, her sense of humor was back, and she poked him in the chest. “This adventure Shisld see the runs your way...but only because I understand your point. Next one’s my way.”

  Hauk tentatively curled his hand around her accosting finger. She didn’t pull away. “Mm, I like a woman who knows how to take charge.”

  He’d meant it as a joke, but Jolie drew in a sharp breath and Hauk could swear her eyes darkened as she looked up at him under those long lashes. Just like that, the room charged with new energy, and his head clouded with an urge to lean down and kiss her. His fingers shook as they reached up to her hair and smoothed one long strand.

  She cleared her throat. “Why do you wear gloves all the time? Your hands aren’t that bad.” Her eyes widened in embarrassment, losing any hint of that beautiful lusty darkness. “I mean, damaged. I mean...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  Hauk dropped her hair and looked at his hands, bare since he’d pulled off his gloves for food prep. The backs were lightly scarred and one palm had a knot-work pattern of burns that had been a bitch to rehabilitate back into usefulness, but she was right. They were nowhere near as bad as the rest of him. “Temperature sensitivity. The grafted skin lets in the cold.”

  “Oh.”

  She seemed at a loss for what to say, and the moment was busted anyway, so he turned to the pizza. “Lunch?”

  She flashed a smile and busied herself finding dishes and napkins and filling two glasses with water, while he watched her lithe form bustling about the kitchen. When she finally stopped and presented lunch, her nerves were gone, replaced by a hearty smile. “You know, you’ve made my life

  awfully interesting. I haven’t decided yet how I feel about that.”

  Hauk took the pizza and with some effort, put a damper on the last of his hormone rush. “Stick with me, beautiful. I can’t promise a good time, but if history is any indicator, I can promise it’ll always be interesting.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Don’t get me wrong. I want to get Whitney back ASAP. But don’t you normally sneak into evil strongholds at night?”

  It was the blazing middle of the day, and Hauk had a Batman-esque rope-and-claw launcher out as they faced a wall nearly twice his height.

  Lunch had been surprisingly fun. Turned out, the raging warrior she’d labeled demon-man was a friendly guy with a quirky sense of humor and deep sense of loyalty to his friends in the Underlight. So much for first impressions. After eating, they’d hopped back in her car and he’d directed her to head into west Austin’s hills, down backroads and over creek beds until they pulled over at a locat
ion she could only describe as “the middle of nowhere.”

  A short walk through the trees, however, had proved that to be far from true. A giant wall blocked any further progress toward a Grecian temple.

  She looked up the hill again, half-convinced her eyes had to be deceiving her. Nope. Still a big-ass Grecian temple. Gleaming white on the hilltop, its columns rose in marble glory from a pristine platform to a vividly painted frieze and triangle pediment. “I think it’s bigger than the Parthenon.”

  “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” Hauk answered. With a whump of air, the rope launched out and latched onto the top of the wall. “They keep more guards at night. I feel reasonably certain I can beat our way out right now. Less so after dark, when their secur Vgain, ity kicks into high gear.”

  “You know, I’ve been to the Parthenon several times. We took lots of trips growing up, but Greece was Dad’s favorite.”

  Hauk shot her an “I-told-you-so” look before tugging on the rope. “I’m assuming after your acrobatics on the hoop last night that you can climb a rope.” He reached into his bag and pitched a pair of gloves at her. “This one’s not too easy on the hands, though.” With a heft of his impressive arm muscles, he pulled himself up.

  Jolie put the gloves on. “‘The hoop’ is called a lyra, and it’s my specialty. But yes, I can dance on a rope, too.”

  Hauk’s progress stopped. “Dance?” Jolie gave him a not-so-innocent smile, and he got that dazed look again that made her all warm inside. “Fuck me,” he murmured before continuing up the rope.

  “You wish.”

  “Jolie,” he growled.

  “You have a great ass. Has anyone told you that lately? You’re at the perfect angle to really admire it, too. I just want to reach up and...” She reached out and squeezed the air in front of her as Hauk mumbled something unintelligible. “I figure a good perusal of your ass-ets is only fair, as you got to see mine yesterday. Without paying for a ticket.”

  “Peruse all you want, sweetheart. I’ll be back for your next show—without a ticket—to get another eyeful. But do me a favor this time and go for a thong instead of hot shorts.”

  “Ooh! A throwdown from the peanut gallery.”

  He heaved himself on top of the wall, shoulder muscles clenching nicely under his jacket. “Takes a real woman to wear a thong in public.”

  Jolie grabbed the rope and climbed as Hauk pulled from above, making quick work of the distance. At the top she grabbed his hand and he hoisted her up. “I rock a thong.”

  The look he gave her sizzled. “I’ve no doubt.”

  She waved at the faux-Parthenon. “So, we just gonna stroll in there like we own the place, or is there a more sneaky plan? You do realize I’m not so much with the spy skills.”

  He crossed his arms. “You drive a mean getaway car and scale walls. Princess-rescuing should be right up your alley.” He tipped his head. “You absolutely sure you’re not a plant? ’Cause g’damn, woman. You got mad spy skills.”

  “Not a plant.”

  “And also ’cause I’m about to walk into the snake den with you.”

  She shook her head and dropped any teasing from her voice. “I just want my niece back.”

  He studied her intensely for a moment before nodding. “Then let’s get inside.”

  Without further hesitation he turned away, and Jolie looked over at the fucking Grecian temple they were breaking in to. The one that had sent a bunch of guys to shoot at them earlier today.

  The one Hauk thought her father worked for.

  God, he really was trusting her. He was breaking into an enemy stronghold with the daughter of his enemy to rescue a girl he’d never met. While Jolie had been living an easy life, he’d been getting himself burned nearly to death in a war zone. Then he came home, recovered (she didn’t know what went into burn rehab in addition to repeated flaying, but it couldn’t be pleasant), and went right back to [ighe drisking his neck for other people.

  Grade-A hero was what that was.

  Oblivious to her admiration, Hauk landed on the ground inside the wall and let go of the rope. As Jolie swung herself back onto it his voice rumbled beneath her. “You got a problem with me saying you’ve got a mighty fine ass yourself?”

  She landed and arched an eyebrow at him. “I told you. I rock a thong. Now, me and my planless ass are going to proceed blindly toward that building, unless you care to fill me in on any more details?”

  He grinned. “Nope.”

  “You’re loving this power thing way too much.”

  “Yup.”

  The closer they approached, the more the temple struck Jolie with awe. The marble columns soared above her head, each thicker than a man and topped with a Corinthian crown of leaves. The building had a double row of them surrounding an inner temple with solid walls.

  “Inside, is it structured like the Grecian temples? Just three rooms?”

  “The upstairs, yeah, but there’s a whole below-ground compound.”

  “When were you inside?”

  “Five years ago, right after I got out of Afghanistan. At the time I had no idea who they were or what I was getting myself into.”

  “They wanted you to work for them?”

  “That they did.”

  Catrina and Hauk had both been recruited? And both turned them down. Interesting.

  They approached the back corner of the building, but Hauk stopped at an olive grove about a hundred yards away. “Better entrance.” He brushed aside a net of fake leaves to reveal a trap door buried in the ground.

  “They don’t guard this one?”

  Hauk popped the door open and reached in. When he brought his fist back, a man’s neck was caught in it, his mouth gaping and gulping soundlessly for air. “Yeah, they do.” Hauk rubbed something beneath the struggling man’s nose until he passed out. “But he’s not as hard to get past as the retinue at the front door.” Hauk set him to the side and proceeded down a narrow staircase. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going first.”

  Jolie forced her eyes away from the unconscious man and managed to keep her voice light. “I admit I usually appreciate ladies first. But we’ll make an exception for sneaking into enemy territory.”

  “Smart girl.”

  The tunnel Jolie found herself in was more like a hallway in Versailles than an underground lair. Red carpet, low electric lights and plush furnishings in Neo-classical style lined the walls. Innumerable doors led off into who knew where, and the passageway continued both behind and in front of them. “Geez, this is huge. Where do you think Whitney is?”

  “This way.” Hauk strode forward like he owned the place, a slight lowering of his voice the only sign that he didn’t belong here.

  “If my dad’s a member, why did they kidnap his granddaughter?”

  “There are warring factions within The Order of Ananke. Your father must’ve pissed somebody off. Or they need him to prove his loyalty. Or there’s infighting. Who knows? They’re not always so good at working in harmony.”

  Muffled voices sounded from around a corner and Jo [cor so goolie froze. Hauk opened a door, shoved her inside and followed behind. The door shut just before the echo of the voices changed, indicating the men had turned into their hallway.

  Jolie took a quick breath as her eyes adjusted to the new dimness. They’d jammed themselves into a closet. Ritual equipment, like candlesticks and banners, hung from the walls and was stacked on the floor, giving them barely any room to stand. Hauk pulled her away from a wall where several stanchions precariously balanced.

  Leaving her nuzzled up next to him. The heat from his body warmed her cold skin, and once again she felt stupidly safe in his presence—literally stupid, as they had no idea who was on the other side of that door.

  She turned her face away, embarrassed by her desire to burrow closer to Hauk like a frightened kitten. He pulled his hoodie tighter around his face as his lips pinched together in anger or embarrassment. He’d gotten the wrong idea.

&
nbsp; Honestly, by the time lunch was over she barely noticed his scars anymore. She should do something to make him realize that. Like touch him. If she tipped his chin down to look at her, and if she touched his burned skin and not the fabric he blocked out the world with, that would show him she wasn’t afraid, right?

  But she was afraid of taking that step from sight to touch. He didn’t look strange to her anymore, or more accurately, she didn’t notice the strangeness. But what would his damaged skin feel like? Would the ripples be hard ridges or give under her touch? Would it feel waxy like it looked? Or scaly? Or...

  There was only one way to find out. She reached two fingers up—

  “This is outrageous. I told them we could swing the vote without their horseshit. And what do they do? Kidnap my goddamn granddaughter.”

  Jolie froze at the sound of her father’s angry voice. He was really here. She dropped her hand and stared at the door in shock and outrage.

  “Isn’t Andrew supposed to be on duty here, sir?”

  Her father’s harsh breath blew in a sound of frustration she knew far too well. “Andrew? That boy needs to have his balls screwed to a wall somewhere so he can concentrate. Call him. Get his ass here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And get that goddamned trial started! I want Whitney’s memories of this incident wiped away, and I want her home with my daughter where she belongs.”

  * * *

  That snippet was all Hauk needed to know he was heading for the right place. When the footsteps faded, Hauk opened the door and glanced both ways. “Let’s keep moving.”

  “That was my dad.”

  He stopped. Jolie’s face was so pale he almost put a hand out to steady her. But he remembered her aversion to his closeness in the closet and restrained himself. “I figured, based on their conversation.”

  “He’s really here.”

  “He’s going to get your niece back and she won’t even remember this. You sure you don’t want to just let him?”

  “It’s not money. It’s never money with him. It’s news. They want him to print something.”