Epilogue
Three months later…
Jack “Hawk” Hunter nursed his beer as his teammates laughed about something he hadn’t quite heard.
He smiled as if he was in on the joke, but Big Mac narrowed his gaze at him as if he could tell that Jack was faking interest. All the guys were in Buddy’s tonight—Matt “Richie Rich” Girard, Billy “The Kid” Blake, Sam “Knight Rider” McKnight, Nick “Brandy” Brandon, Garrett “Iceman” Spencer, Chase “Fiddler” Daniels, and Ryan “Flash” Gordon—along with their women.
Richie, Big Mac, Knight Rider, and Kid were all in serious relationships, but the other guys at least had dates.
Jack didn’t want a date. Hadn’t wanted a date in quite some time, in fact.
Possibly because he was still thinking about a woman he couldn’t seem to forget even though he really damned well should.
A song came on the jukebox then and every last nerve ending in his body went on red alert at the smoky voice issuing from the machine. This is the way it happened these days. He heard her voice and memories unfolded in his mind like the pleats of a fan spreading open.
Gina Domenico. He looked at the faces of his teammates. Not one of them was fazed by the sound of that voice. Every last one of them had met her once, when they’d rescued her from an island where the Greek industrialist-slash-arms-dealer she’d been dating had taken her.
Jack lifted his bottle and took a long drink. It had been almost three years since he’d seen her, but he couldn’t get her out of his mind. She’d been beautiful, vulnerable—and more complicated and intelligent than her lifestyle would lead anyone to believe.
He’d kept up with her. Not on purpose, but because she was who she was.
A popstar. A media darling. A mega-talent.
He couldn’t walk through a grocery store without seeing her face in the checkout line.
She’d adopted a baby, moved to Europe. She was living her life and probably never thought of him at all.
“Hey, dude—everything good?”
Jack jerked his gaze toward Big Mac. His teammate was standing to the side, head tilted as he stared just a little too knowingly at Jack.
Not for the first time, a wave of guilt swamped him as he looked at the happiness on Kev’s face.
Jack had been happy once too. Married and in love. And then he’d lost it all.
If he hadn’t been fighting those demons when he’d met Gina, if the loss hadn’t still been fresh, maybe things would have turned out differently.
Yeah, right. A popstar and a sniper. Not on your life.
“Sure, why wouldn’t it be good?” he replied.
“You seem awfully quiet.”
Jack snorted. “I’m always quiet. You know that.”
“Yeah… but this seems different.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Sorry, man. Just thinking about things, you know? Nothing wrong.” He lifted the beer in a salute. “I’m happy for you and Lucky. You seem meant for each other.”
“Yeah, I think we are.” Big Mac grinned and turned to look at his wife. As if she sensed his gaze on her, she turned her head. Their eyes met and a smile passed between them that said it all.
Jack tried not to be jealous of that smile. Tried not to let it catapult him backward into painful memories. He’d had his shot at happiness and it had been ripped away. He wasn’t getting another shot. Once was all you got in this life.
He set the beer on the table and stood, peeling off a couple dollars and dropping them. “I’m heading home. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Big Mac said, studying him hard again. “See you in the morning. Shooting range at five a.m., right?”
“Yep,” Jack called over his shoulder as he walked away. Maybe he shouldn’t leave like this, but he was done. He just wanted to go home and not have to pretend he was having a good time.
Gina Domenico’s whiskey-smooth voice followed him out the door and all the way to his car. Not that it mattered, really. She wasn’t the one for him. He knew that because he’d had the one and lost her.
He and Gina would never cross paths again. Their worlds were too different. Whatever attraction had been between them was purely physical.
She had a baby now, and he had his job. It was enough for him. More than enough…
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