by Cat Johnson
“So anyway, Hawkins, I wanted to say good job today.” The computer god actually sounded sincere.
Reminded again of the loss, and that Matt Coleman and his computers were the cause of it, Hawk scowled. “Yeah, thanks.”
“No, really. I mean it. If I didn’t have your entire squad mapped with thermal satellite images so I was able to tell our boys your exact locations, you might have had a chance.”
Thermal satellite images. Crap. The word cheaters sprang to Hawk’s mind again as he let out a disgusted sigh before taking another gulp of his beer.
“Toys, Hawkins. Just toys.” Blake grinned once again.
Hawk was starting to really hate these boys and their toys.
Chapter Six
On the flight to Germany, Emily read and reread every document in the file Katie had given her—the plans and goals for the marketing campaign and, more importantly, the information about David Hawk Hawkins. BB had supplied them with the soldier’s nickname, but there was scarce little else she knew about him. What there was, she devoured eagerly.
Too excited to really concentrate on anything, Emily totally ignored both the paperback novel she’d bought at the airport shop and Jai Devereaux, the photographer on the assignment with her. Out of guilt, Emily finally turned the book over to Jai to read on the long, boring overseas flight.
When Katie had rushed to schedule phase one of the campaign, the photo shoot, for as soon as possible, Emily hadn’t argued. For some reason, Katie was convinced Hawk would back out and they’d have to find a replacement.
Emily’s motives for the rush were very different.
She’d scrambled to secure both a photographer and plane tickets and had done so incredibly fast. Just days after BB had chosen Hawk, Emily was in the air and on the way to meet him in Germany.
Hawk. God, she loved that nickname. It was so manly. She glanced down at the file for the thousandth time. Staff Sergeant David S. Hawkins. Aka Hawk.
Oh, yes. A man with a name like that brought to mind all sorts of images and possibilities, and Emily considered each and every one of them repeatedly throughout the flight. And during the wait for the luggage. And on the drive to the base at Hohenfels, where she hoped her dreams would finally come true.
“How long until we get there?” It was the second time during the drive from the airport she’d asked that question, but she couldn’t help herself. She was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.
Behind the wheel of the rental car, Jai raised one dark eyebrow and glanced at her sideways. “Anxious to get there, are we?”
She may have known Jai for two years now and worked with him on countless of Katie’s marketing campaigns, but that didn’t mean she told him everything. No way was she willing to divulge her true hopes for this shoot—the real reason her hand shook as she held the file she’d once again taken out.
Prince Charming was just miles, or rather kilometers, away now. And after studying him on paper for days, Emily was already half in love with him.
“Of course I’m anxious. This is the first solo assignment Katie’s ever trusted me with.”
“Yeah, about that. How did you get her to do that? She’s usually totally hands on.”
“Don’t you mean a control freak?”
Jai’s dark face broke into a grin. “Yeah. So what happened?”
Emily bit her tongue about the pregnancy. That wasn’t her news to tell, so she shrugged. “I guess she thinks I’m ready.”
She hoped her boss was right.
“You’ll do fine.” Jai’s dreadlocks swung as he pivoted his head to glance at her and then turned quickly back to the road. A car right on their tail flashed its lights and then passed them in the oncoming lane of traffic.
Damn, people drove fast here in Germany. Emily was certainly glad Jai had offered to take the wheel. Once she could breathe again after the near traffic disaster, she decided to try and get some work done during the remainder of the trip. “I’ve got some ideas for shots.”
“Great. Shoot.” Jai grinned at his own little joke.
Rolling her eyes, Emily couldn’t help but smile herself. “I’ve been considering what to have Hawk wear. I guess we have to get a few of him in his dress uniform. But I really want a bunch of pictures in those cute camouflage pants too.”
“Of course. I totally agree. Camo was all over the runways in Milan and Paris this season.”
“I know.” Excited, it wasn’t until she saw Jai’s smirk that Emily realized he was teasing her.
“Sorry, Em. Couldn’t resist.” Jai winked in answer to her scowl. “Go on. What else did you have in mind?”
Glancing at the death grip Jai had on the steering wheel as another car honked and whizzed past, rocking both them and the vehicle, Emily decided the rest could wait. “Let’s see what we find when we get there. We might get more ideas on site.”
“Looks like you don’t have long to wait now, because here we are.”
Emily put down the folder and saw the high fence of the base coming into view. She felt her heart thud harder. No, there wasn’t long to wait at all.
Jai slowed the car to a crawl as they neared the two armed, make that very armed, guards at the gate. He stopped and rolled down the window. “Jai Devereaux and Emily Price. We’re here to photograph Staff Sergeant Hawkins. We’re expected, I believe.”
“Yes, sir. IDs, please.”
“Got your passport handy?” Jai looked at Emily expectantly as he passed his own to the guard through the open window.
“Um, oh. Yeah. Hold on.” Emily searched through her large and now rather unorganized carry-on and finally, after a brief moment of panic, found her passport in the side pocket. She handed it to Jai, who gave it to the scary guard for his intense scrutiny.
“I’ll have to ask you both to exit the vehicle.”
Panicked, Emily shot Jai a look. “What did we do? Are they going to search us?”
Oh my God. What if they strip-searched her? Was she wearing nice underwear? She couldn’t remember.
“It’s fine, Em. Just do as they say.” Jai looked much calmer than she felt.
Emily stared at Jai, suddenly unable to move. “But—”
“Em. Trust me. Just get out of the car, please...and stop talking.” Jai stared back as the armed and ready guards waited in stony silence for them to get out of the car.
Here was an unexpected wrench in Emily’s fairytale scenario. Getting strip-searched or shot or thrown in a foreign prison by the guards at the gate.
The one guard who had moved to her side of the vehicle made Emily so nervous it took her two tries to get the door of the car open. When he told her to leave her bag inside, she nearly passed out from anxiety. Airport security, she was used to. Stone-faced men with machine guns calling her ma’am as they ordered her about and searched her belongings was quite another.
Although the sun shone brightly, Emily wrapped her arms closer around herself to ward off both the cold air and the chill of fear.
After one guard had finished inspecting the front and back seats while the other one stood by and watched with weapon in hand, the first camouflage-clad soldier turned to Jai. “Pop the trunk, sir.”
While Emily decided men in camouflage uniforms might not be so sexy after all, Jai nodded and reached in to hit the button on the door. It released the latch on the trunk where they’d stowed their luggage and photographic equipment at the airport.
Just as Emily decided she was going to call Katie as soon as possible and tell her she would never take another military assignment again, a soldier rushed toward them in a light jog. Instinct had her taking a step back, until she noticed he was smiling and had his hand extended in greeting. The fact he wasn’t armed with some kind of machine gun also helped calm her immensely.
“Miss Price.” She shook his hand and then watched as he turned to Jai. “Mr. Devereaux. I’m Ryan Pettit. The captain sent me down to escort you.”
Pettit watched as the guards replaced Jai’s
camera equipment carefully back in the trunk. “We send a soldier down to meet any photographers and reporters and then after a routine inspection of the equipment, we sign them in under our care.”
Emily breathed for what seemed like the first time since they’d pulled up to the gate. Jai sent her a look that said, I told you so, but she still had no intention of apologizing to him for being worried. The entire experience had been nerve-wracking and she would definitely yell at Katie at the earliest opportunity for not warning her about base procedure.
After a short interaction with the guards that included a nod, some salutes and very few words, Pettit turned to them. “We’re good to go. I can ride in the backseat and direct you where to drive.”
Just having him in the car made Emily feel better. Kind of like the guards would be less likely to shoot her if one of their own was seated directly behind her in the line of fire. Pettit’s smile and enthusiasm was infectious. Once out of view of the guardhouse, she began to relax.
“The captain didn’t go into any detail except that you’re here for a photo shoot. So what are you going to photograph?” Pettit, sitting in the center of the back bench seat so he could both give Jai directions and talk to Emily, leaned forward.
“It’s a new marketing campaign to establish stronger branding for the US Army. We’re hoping to raise public awareness and increase recruitment.” Emily turned in her seat and recited verbatim the goals Katie had developed for the campaign.
Pettit laughed. “Okay. Whatever you say. Turn right up here.”
Jai nodded and did as he was told, driving at a snail’s pace, which also helped to calm Emily’s nerves after the hour and a half speed-of-light drive from the airport in Munich.
“I don’t know much about marketing and stuff but branding means logos and slogans and things, right?”
She nodded. “Pretty much. Yeah.”
“But the Army already has that. Army slogans are classic. Be all that you can be. Army Strong. They’re great. Are you going to change it all?”
“No, just reinforce it and make it stronger.” Emily felt the need to reassure him since he seemed very attached to the existing slogans.
Pettit nodded. “How you going to do that? Make it stronger?”
“By giving the Army a face the people can relate to.” Hawk’s face, Emily thought. “One soldier that will represent all of you.”
“Really? Cool. So who—oh wait. I missed the turn.” Pettit interrupted his own question. “We’ll have to turn left at this corner and then left again. It’s the first building, right there on the corner. You can just park at the curb.”
As soon as the car stopped, Pettit jumped out and opened Emily’s door for her. Military guys were so polite. She got a tingle again in anticipation of meeting Hawk.
“I’ll run in and tell the captain you’re here then come back out and help you unload your equipment. Captain has a room cleared for you to set up in. You can leave your stuff there overnight if you want. It’s secure.”
After relaying that information, Pettit trotted off and Emily had the opportunity to consider just how sweet soldiers were...at least the ones without guns who weren’t searching her.
What the hell?
Hawk stared down at the large manila envelope lying on top of the blanket on his rack. He dropped the unopened letters he’d gotten during mail call onto the bed and reached for the envelope.
The moment he opened it and pulled out the paper, he knew what it was. Orders for Dalton’s damn special assignment.
Sitting down heavily, he read over the duty he’d let Pretty Boy talk him into betting. When no orders had shown up immediately upon his return from the training in the Alps, Hawk had deluded himself into thinking this mystery assignment had been Dalton’s idea of a practical joke.
No such luck. Even reading it again didn’t change the contents.
“No. No fucking way.” He shook his head and spoke out loud in his empty quarters.
“What’s up, Hawk?” Wally poked his head through the open doorway.
Hawk glanced up at Wally. “Um, nothing. Just a, um, letter from home.” He lied and folded the computer printout in thirds, hoping Wally would think it was a letter even though it looked far more like orders than mail.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just um, my sister. She’s uh, dating some idiot. No big deal.”
“She cute, your sister? Give her my address. We can be pen pals. I’ll knock that other guy right out of her mind with my charm.” Wally grinned wide.
“Yeah, right, ’cause you would be a real improvement over her dating an idiot.” Lie or not, Wally the womanizer dating Hawk’s sister, or even being pen pals with her, was not going to happen. At least not during Hawk’s lifetime.
“Damn right, I would. Besides, chicks love me. You got a picture of her?”
“Get out of here, Wally, and let me finish reading my mail.”
“Just keep me in mind.” With one final grin, Wally was gone.
Thank God, because Hawk had enough to deal with right now. The moment the coast was clear of Wally and his curiosity, Hawk headed out of the barracks to find someone of some authority. His sole goal was to get out of this assignment if it killed him.
There was no way he was going to do this. No way his superiors would make him do this. Why should he have to follow orders that Dalton and Coleman had somehow finagled? After all, this wasn’t a real assignment. He wouldn’t be saving lives or even taking them, but instead... Hawk shuddered at the thought of what he would be doing.
Fucking Dalton. No wonder he’d looked so smug about this mystery assignment, and it made total sense that he’d already done it himself. Damn white-toothed fancy boy probably enjoyed it too.
Thinking back to his last discussion with Pretty Boy and the Zetas—as he’d come to think of them—things started to make even more sense. Coleman’s mention of the female attention Hawk would garner from this assignment. Blake saying he couldn’t do it because he was no longer regular Army.
Fuck. He’d walked right into this. He would never, ever agree to something without knowing all the details again.
Hawk was shaking, vibrating with anger and tension by the time he got to the Head Shed. It was affectionately called that because the company commanders hung out there. As he had hoped, he found his own captain in the Company Orderly Room.
“Sergeant Hawkins. Pleasure to see you back.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you. Captain, can I, uh, speak with you for a moment?”
Ignoring his request, Hawk’s company commander turned to the other captain seated next to him. “Sergeant Hawkins and his guys had a little fun in the Alps with some of Hank’s boys this past week. In fact, Hank called to compliment me on how exceptionally well the squad did during the training.”
Hawk’s brow rose. “Hank’s boys, sir?”
“Yeah. Hank Miller. He was the training commander up there with you.”
“Yes, Captain. I met him. I, uh, wasn’t aware... You know him, sir?” And are on a first name basis, no less. Great. Just great.
“Oh, yeah. We were deployed together once upon a time, back when he was regular Army. Then he moved on to Delta Force, and from there, onto the teams as he calls the boys in black.”
“I wasn’t aware of that, sir. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, sir, the training and the, uh, other thing.” Hawk held up the folded orders in his hand, wishing his company commander would ask the other captain in the room to leave so they could have some privacy.
No such luck. His commanding officer laughed.
“Oh, yeah. The special assignment.” To Hawk’s great dismay, his commander turned to his neighbor again. “You won’t believe this. Sergeant Hawkins here has been chosen to be the face of the modern Army for some feel-good marketing campaign. They figure by plastering his mug all over the press, everyone will get the warm and fuzzies about us and what we’re doing.”
“To what end?” The cap
tain’s cohort finally spoke, looking surprised.
“Increase awareness. Encourage recruitment. Enlighten folks to our efforts for stabilization and rebuilding. Supposedly they had a similar campaign for the SpecOps starring one of Hank’s guys last year. Some former SEAL who had modeling experience prior to joining up, if you can believe that.”
A SEAL on Hank’s team with prior modeling experience. Yup, that had to be Dalton. He had been a male model? Hawk supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by that. He remembered Pretty Boy’s exact words. “I’ve already done it, Hawkins. Believe me.” This kind of assignment was fine for Dalton, but not for Hawk. He was a real soldier.
The captain went on. “That campaign was incredibly successful for recruitment and public relations. That’s what Hank said when he sold the idea to me on the phone anyway.”
So the miraculous appearance of Hawk’s orders hadn’t been all Dalton’s doing. It had been Dalton’s commander, Hank Miller, helping too. At least Hawk felt a bit better that Pretty Boy and his computer god, Coleman, weren’t all-powerful.
The chances of Hawk getting out of this incredibly embarrassing and ridiculous assignment were looking slim. Still, he had to try. “Sir. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m not some male model. I’m a trained soldier.”
“Exactly. That’s why they want you. They don’t want a hired head. They want a real, battle-toughened warrior.”
“Forgive my asking, sir. But have you seen the guy they used for the SpecOps ads? Because I have. He’s some pretty boy who looks like he belongs in those perfume ads you see on television. I look nothing like that.”
“Thank God for that. I don’t want some fancy boy representing my Army.” The captain shrugged. “The marketing people chose you, Sergeant. I have to trust they know what they’re doing.”
Bullshit. Dalton had chosen him out of spite, not some marketing expert. And how that all fit together—how Dalton got to choose the new face of the Army—Hawk still wasn’t sure. Not that it mattered now. All that mattered was getting out of it.