Men of Mercy: The Complete Story

by Cross, Lindsay

  “I have no idea. Look at you, those boxer shorts and t-shirt show off your figure perfectly.”

  “I know, right?” Mandy laughed and took another sip. “Thanks for leaving early with me, I’m sorry I pulled you away from hanging out with Chance.”

  “It’s okay. I had enough flirting tonight to last me all week. Besides, I really need to get back in the lab tomorrow morning and do some more work.” She’d actually jumped at the chance to escape the party. Chance had been steadily getting closer to her as the night went on. Touching her or putting his arm around her waist whenever he got the opportunity, trying to turn her light hearted flirtation from earlier into something more serious than Hayden was ready to handle.

  “Saturday? You’re going to school on the weekend? Oh honey, you’re worse off than I thought. We need to find you a man pronto.”

  Hayden rolled her eyes and went to the small kitchenette just off the living room to refill her wine, studiously ignoring the slight buzz tripping up her feet. She’d gone to her apartment and changed into her comfy cotton pajama bottoms and a loose tank that read, ‘Ho’s before bro’s’. “No, thank you. I’ve had enough men for one night.”

  Hayden made it back to the couch and collapsed into the cushion. As if on cue, her cell phone rang from the coffee table. She grabbed it and her light hearted mood soured. “Why is he still calling me?”

  “Who?”

  “My ex. I haven’t talked to him in months and he picks tonight to blow up my freaking phone.” Decline. Hayden sat it back down on the coffee table and thought seriously about shutting the damn thing off completely.

  “Hoyt? The guy you’ve been mooning over? Maybe he saw you out tonight with your new boy toys.” Mandy sat up on the couch, excited about the prospect of drama.

  “Hoyt Crowe? At a frat party? You’ve lost your mind. Besides, he wants absolutely nothing to do with me.”

  A fact he’d made abundantly clear.

  “Then why is he calling you?”

  “How should I know?” Hayden took a big gulp of wine, trying to cover up the fact her hand shook just thinking about Hoyt.

  “Maybe he wants you back?” Mandy asked.

  Hayden nearly choked and she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep the wine from spraying out across the room. When she finally got it down she looked at Mandy. “You really are nuts. The man turns and walks the other way when he sees me on the street.”

  Mandy shrugged. “A guy who doesn’t care anything about you doesn’t go out of his way to avoid you. And he sure as hell doesn’t blow up your phone the first night you go out to a party without him.”

  Hayden opened her mouth with a comeback and then slammed it shut. Hoyt had completely avoided her, not ignored her. Like he was scared to be near her.

  Her heartbeat kicked into fast forward and she slowly lowered her wine glass to the table with a trembling hand. The thought rolling around in her brain with new momentum. Maybe Hoyt had been afraid to see her. Maybe he still wanted her and just didn’t know how to tell her?

  “That’s ridiculous, I haven’t heard from him in months.”

  Someone knocked on Mandy’s door and both girls jumped.

  Mandy stood. “Who could that be?”

  Hayden craned her neck around to watch Mandy go to the door. Her apartment was small, so the door was at the other end of the couch. “You better not have invited Chance over.”

  “I didn’t invite anybody. Maybe it’s Hoyt.” Mandy peered through her peep hole and gasped. “Shit.”

  “What? Who is it?” Hayden shot to her feet, clutching her arms around her stomach.

  Mandy took a step back and shook her head. “I don’t know but that guy isn’t getting in here.”

  Hayden frowned and crossed to the door. “Let me see.”

  When she pressed her eye to the peep hole she gasped and stumbled back. “Oh my God.”

  “I’ll call the cops.” Mandy raced over to the couch and shoved her hand into the cushions, digging for her phone.

  “No.” Hayden’s mouth went dry. What was he doing here?

  “No? Did you not see that guy? He’s not here to talk, I can tell you that much.” Mandy found her phone and held it up triumphantly. “Got it.”

  “Mandy, I said no. It’s okay, I know him.”

  Her friend looked at her like she had horns growing out of her forehead. “How?”

  “He’s my ex.” Hayden jerked the door open and propped her hands on her hips.

  Hoyt stood there, filling up the doorway, dark and sexy. His black shirt molded to every muscle on his chest and tucked into tactical pants that emphasized his narrow waist and lean hips. The two scorpion tattoo’s licking up his arms flexed and moved when he propped a hand on the frame and Hayden had to keep herself from licking her lips.

  His hair was shorter than it used to be, almost skull-trimmed, making the angular planes of his cheeks and hard line of his jaw even more pronounced. The effect was devastating.

  “Ignoring my calls?” He was looking at her with an intense almost brooding expression that made her knees shake.

  “What do you want?” Shit, she sounded all breathy. Hayden cleared her throat and forced her gaze up to his. Then she locked on to a long gash on his forehead. “What happened to your head?”

  “Nothing. Just an accident. Why won’t you take my calls?” Oh Lord, his coarse voice slid over her skin, awakening nerve endings that had long been dormant. Everything about the man was raw sensuality, whether he knew it or not.

  Remember, you vowed to move on. He’d toyed with her heart enough right before he’d broken it. Hayden almost snorted to herself. That’s why her heart was blasting off like a freaking rocket. “Because I don’t want to talk to you. Why are you here?”

  He was so mouthwatering it hurt. God, she hated herself at that moment. Hated how aroused she got just from him standing in the doorway, hated knowing that despite her vow to move on with her life, and the months of torture worrying about him and thinking about him, he could still affect her like this. And then Hayden remembered what Mandy had just said about him not being unaffected. A smidge of optimism edged into her awareness. Maybe he was here to see her, to apologize…

  “Your brothers have been looking for you. They need you to come home. Now.”

  Her hope tanked and she let her lips turn down into a frown. “My brothers never send anyone to look for me, and if they did, they wouldn’t send you.”

  Sure, Ranger and Hunter called to chat sometimes and she typically saw them on a daily basis when they weren’t on deployment. But they lived in the same town, and they knew how bad Hoyt’s breaking up with her had hurt. So why send him?

  Hoyt gestured with a thumb over his shoulder. “I don’t have time to go into it here, get in the car.”

  “I’m not leaving until you tell me what you want.” Hayden gasped and crossed her arms defiantly, knowing how much her stubborn streak used to affect him.

  Gauging by the furious light in his dark, almost tortured expression, it still did. His knuckles turned white on the doorframe and his biceps bulged. “We don’t have time for this, we need to get to Hunter’s, now.”

  Suddenly Hayden noticed the lines around his blue eyes weren’t just cold and distant carvings, there was fatigue mixed in. The anger heating her veins turned cold. “What’s wrong? Did something happen to Evie? The baby?”

  Hunter had said they were sick yesterday, what if they’d gotten some kind of terrible infection. That could be the only explanation, that or the Team was deploying on another suicide mission.

  “They’re fine,” Hoyt said.

  “Hank? Ranger? Are they okay?”

  Hoyt growled and stepped into the living room, forcing Hayden back a step. And then the breath left her body when his gaze turned soft, and just for a minute she got a glimpse of the old Hoyt, the one before torture had destroyed his soul and darkened his heart to her. “Your family is fine. No one is injured.”

  “Then why are
you acting so strange?” Hayden covered her chest with her hand, not bothering to hide the tremble. He still affected her, there was no doubt, and no matter how much she wished he didn’t, she knew he always would.

  Hoyt’s gaze slid to his right and Hayden grabbed onto the break like a lifeline, gulping in air and reaching for non-existent control. She followed it to see Mandy braced against the kitchen bar, holding on to the counter behind her. Hayden rolled her eyes at her friend. “Mandy, meet Hoyt. Hoyt, meet Mandy.”

  Mandy gave a little wave but didn’t budge. Hoyt was staring at her, his brows drawn down low in confusion. But the effect was scaring the crap out of her friend. “Mandy, go wash your face, I think you’re freaking him out.”

  Her friend’s awareness came back in a split second. She touched her face, eyes wide and rushed out of the room.

  “This is gonna mess her up for life. She’s never gone out of the house without make-up. You just got the one and only glimpse of the real Mandy.”

  The tightness around his mouth eased and Hoyt said, “Is that what all girls look like under their make up?”

  “You don’t wanna know.”

  Hoyt cleared his throat. Then he paced over to the hall, glanced down and then back to Hayden. “Listen, this has to do with the Team. I need you back at your dad’s, now. For your own safety.”

  Hayden sobered in an instant. There were only a few things these men took so seriously, and if it involved her brother’s Special Forces team and they’d sent Hoyt to bring her in, there was something major going on. “Will you please fill me in on the way back to dad’s?”

  She wouldn’t try to force him to talk in front of Mandy. She might be seriously pissed and hurt and filled with longing for Hoyt Crowe, but this was different. She’d have to stuff her feelings back for now.

  “Yes.” Hoyt moved back to the door and scanned the parking lot and then his penetrating gaze landed on her again.

  Hayden stopped breathing.

  “Hurry. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  Hayden nodded and rushed down to Mandy’s bathroom. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I can’t talk right now, but I promise to call you tomorrow.”

  Mandy finished toweling off her face. “Wait.”

  “I can’t wait. I need to grab some stuff at my apartment and go to dad’s for the night.”

  Mandy grabbed her arm, her face pale. “You sure you’re okay with him?”

  “I know he looks scary, all those guys look scary, but Hoyt would die before he let anything happen to me. I promise.”

  “I’m not talking about that. I saw the way you looked at him. It wasn’t anything like how you looked at Chance and Malik. You really do still love him.”

  Hayden’s throat closed up. She couldn’t talk about this right now. She couldn’t face the facts, not with him standing two rooms over. “I’m fine. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Hayden…”

  “No, I have to go.” Hayden pulled her in for a quick hug. “Thanks for tonight.”

  Mandy hugged her back. “Okay, I’ll let you escape, for now, but you will tell me the whole story. You got it?”

  “Sure.”

  Hayden left before Mandy could forget and start grilling her again. She ran down the short hall. “Okay, take me to my apartment. I need to grab a few things.”

  About thirty minutes later, they were on the road out to her dad’s place. “So are you going to fill me in?”

  Hoyt held silent for so long that Hayden started to think he hadn’t heard her. “There’s been an attack, here in Mercy. We think they are targeting our Team.”

  All the air whooshed out of the cab. Hoyt took a hard left off Highway 1 down Hanks driveway and she grabbed the door handle. “Where?”

  “In town. Me and Merc got into it with a couple of them tonight.”

  “So those butterfly stitches holding your wound together aren’t from an accident?” Hayden pressed a hand to her throat.

  “The accident involved my head and my Jeep’s windshield.”

  “You were in a car wreck? Tonight?”

  Hoyt glanced her way, his eyebrows raised as if to say, so what? “Yeah, no big deal. We just got a few scratches.” And then his face hardened into a deadly mask. “You should see the other guys.”

  Hayden swallowed and faced forward, she didn’t want to know what happened to the other guys. She spied the yard light over the big metal building Hank had given to her brother, Hunter, in the distance. Tall pine trees and oaks stood sentry in a thick line down the half-a-mile long drive. “Does dad know?”

  “No. He took Maxine camping and we haven’t been able to get in touch with him.”

  Crap that’s right. He’d been planning this trip for weeks. “Do you know anything else? Are there more of them here?”

  They pulled up to the building and turned right. The parking lot was full of trucks she didn’t recognize. Hoyt gripped the steering wheel in a death grip and his face went blank.

  Fear dotted down her spine and sank into her legs, making them feel heavy and weak. “What are you not telling me? Who are all those people?”

  “I’ll let Hunter fill you in. It’s not my place.” He flicked a look her way beneath lowered lids and Hayden wanted to scream.

  “Dammit, Hoyt, you’re scaring me. Tell me what’s going on?”

  Hoyt slammed the SUV into park. He kept his right arm on the steering wheel and craned his head to face her, that damn carefully blank expression still in place. She knew right then he wasn’t going to tell her, he wasn’t going to do anything but drop her and run. “You had no intention of telling me the full truth did you?”

  He shook his head.

  “You just said what you needed to get me out here, because you knew I wouldn’t ride with you.”

  Her chin wobbled and she clamped her lips together. How could she have thought he might have softened to her? Mandy’s words taunted her, running in circles around her mind. Hoyt Crowe wasn’t scared of anything, let alone a relationship with her. He was a ruthless machine.

  “Your brother is inside. Need me to carry your bag for you?”

  Nothing. Not a flicker of regret, longing or even lust…just nothing. Hayden lifted her chin. Screw him, she was a James. Her family ate guys like him for breakfast.

  Hayden reached in the back, grabbed her backpack and got out, keeping her shoulders straight as a steel cross beam and marched to her brother’s front door. She lifted a hand to knock, but before she let her fist fall, the door swung open. Hunter stood there with Hank Jr. on his hip, his eyes bloodshot and his face pale. “Thank God.”

  Thoughts of Hoyt and his new level of being an ass fled. “What’s wrong?”

  Hunter thrust Hank Jr. to her and Hayden cradled her eight-month old nephew to her chest. He had a head full of midnight black hair, just like Hunter, but blue eyes like his mother and he was the most gorgeous baby on the planet, in her opinion. Right now, he was naked except for a diaper and was trying to swat at her nose.

  “I think Jr.’s over the stomach bug, but he gave it to me and Evie.” Her usually stoic, tough brother wiped a shaky hand down his face. “Can you help take care of him?”

  “Of course, but I want to know…”

  Hunter held up a hand. “Later, just come inside and lock the door.”

  And then he took off in the direction of his bedroom. Hayden walked inside and turned to lock the front door, spying an already empty driveway. Hoyt had fled the minute she stepped foot onto her brother’s front porch.

  Hayden shut and locked the door, dropped her bag by the entry table and snuggled Hank Jr. to her cheek. “I guess it’s just me and you tonight, buddy.”

  Chapter 12

  Hank Jr. woke her the next morning at the ungodly hour of eight a.m., crushing her hope to sleep in this Saturday. Last night, she’d dragged his pack-n-play into the spare bedroom, sprayed down a heavy layer of Lysol, and sang her nephew to sleep before passing out around one a.m.

  Hayden changed
his diaper, hoisted him up to her hip and checked on Hunter and his wife, Evie. Both of them were out cold on their own bed. Hayden quietly shut the door and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. “So what are we going to do today?”

  Hayden propped him up in the high chair and then fixed him a sippy cup of milk. Hank Jr. downed it and tossed the empty cup on the floor. Clapping his hands and grinning in her direction.

  Hayden bent to pick it up. “We’re not playing this game today. The last time you did this to me, I ended up scrubbing the kitchen floor because you broke your sippy cup.”

  Her nephew clapped and cooed and pointed at the cup, totally uncaring and so cute she couldn’t tell him no. “Fine, just one more time, that’s it.”

  After a few more rounds of fetch, Hayden managed to make him a bowl of baby cereal and get him to eat. Then she fed herself and went to the living room, put Hank Jr. down on his play mat, where he immediately grabbed the nearest light up toy piano and started banging out notes.

  Hayden slid down on the floor next to him and flipped on the T.V.

  Last night’s foray into the single world had gone quite a bit better than she could have hoped. At least until Hoyt showed up and Hayden had jumped right onto her typical emotional rollercoaster ride of joy and anguish.

  The news came on the TV, showing a panoramic view of Stanley Hall surrounded by an unusually large amount of students for the weekend. Most were huddled in small groups of three and four, whispering the same way high schoolers did when the latest flash of drama hit the school.

  The news crew followed the local anchor lady up the massive concrete staircase and through the double doors. Police ushered most of the crowd to the sides and held them in check with tightly wound police tape.

  Dread crept up her spine like fire ants marching to her scalp, warning of impending doom.

  The news anchor took a right, and then a left, striding down the puke-green tiles and tan walls, her mouth moving the whole time. Hayden recognized that part of the building. The hallway led to the row of professor offices. Hayden realized she had the TV on mute and quickly turned the volume up.