Chapter Sixteen
Alex stared at the yellow roses as if she’d never seen a rose before in her life. “What the hell is Bakshai sending me flowers for?”
Hawk, Chase, and Piper stood beside her, all of them looking at the yellow buds.
“Yellow roses mean friendship,” Piper pointed out.
“Three dozen is a serious friendship,” Chase said.
“I’m not his friend. I don’t know the man. Nor do I want to,” Alex huffed.
“Men send flowers to open doors,” Piper said.
“Do they?” Alex asked.
“Your father did. All the time.”
Alex shivered. “That’s gross.”
“In fact, I’m pretty sure I sent yellow roses to women on your father’s behalf several times.”
“Women in a professional role?” Chase asked.
“Not routinely. But your father didn’t like working with professional women. Patriarchy and all that.” Piper picked out a bloom and held it to her nose.
“Bakshai and your father used the same playbook,” Hawk said.
Alex caught Hawk’s gaze. “You think he’s hitting on me?”
The look on Hawk’s face said he considered it.
“Yuck.”
“Or maybe he constructed the Play-Doh bomb so he could do this?” Chase suggested.
Alex stared at Hawk. “What do you think?”
“I think I want to know more about what your father and Bakshai had in common. Why he was eager to get you alone, why he came to your office ... and how that ties into this.”
She paused. “You sound less like a bodyguard and more like an investigator every time I see you.”
Hawk looked away. “I haven’t always worked for Ed.”
What does that mean?
“Should we bring Fitzpatrick in on this?”
“Do you think Bakshai is responsible?” Hawk asked instead of answering the question.
Alex couldn’t see it. “What motive? To scare me into asking for his help? He has to know I have more resources than that. He hasn’t made himself endearing to me. Like I’d turn to crying on the shoulder of a man I just met.”
“You don’t cry on the shoulders of the men you know,” Chase said.
“Exactly! I have you and Max ... Nick, and even Gaylord and everyone that comes with that whole Texas branch of our new family. Bakshai isn’t on the list.”
Hawk picked up the card next to the flowers. “Maybe there is a hidden message in this?”
“Seems cut-and-dry to me,” Alex said.
“Maybe your father called on him with some troubles ... or vice versa.”
The three of them looked at Piper.
She shook her head. “I already did a search through past calendars, and outside of the event you just crashed, Bakshai’s name doesn’t come up.”
Alex took the card from Hawk’s hand, looked at it again, then tossed it on the table. “What do I do with this?” She threw both hands in the air. “Have my assistant thank him and move on? Call him and ask him what he means? Ignore the gesture?”
“You’re playing chess here. Move the pawn. Have Dee thank him on your behalf. If he is playing a game, he’ll make the next move. If he’s looking at you as some kind of conquest, he won’t give up so easily,” Hawk told her.
Alex rested both hands on the table and let her head hang. “I half expected pity flowers from you or Max,” she said looking at Chase through the corner of her eyes. “Not this.”
Chase shook his head. “I know better, and Max is ... where is Max?”
“He’s in the guest house setting up an office space for Alex,” Piper said.
“What’s wrong with Dad’s office?” Chase asked.
Alex lifted her head to glare at her brother. “ Dad’s office!”
“Oh,” Chase said when he realized what she meant.
“I know, it’s dumb. I don’t care. The rest of the house has lost the feel of the man, his office ... not so much.” Alex hated that it bothered her so much. That the memory of him grated on her nerves, even after nearly a year.
“If you’re going to be in the guest house, we will need another camera or two,” Hawk said. “I’ll see what we need and have someone on it in the morning.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Alex said.
Hawk placed a hand on her arm. “That’s not your job.”
She felt his fingers squeeze briefly before letting go.
When he left the room, her gaze followed him out. Hawk’s soft smile and gentle touch while making sure she was safe felt a little too good to be true.
Hawk tightened his tie around his neck and then pulled down on the edges of his suit.
He didn’t need to look like a guest but needed to blend in for the Hawthorn event Alex had to attend. Hawk had quizzed Alex on the event and didn’t feel extra eyes were necessary. This wasn’t Stone Enterprises as much as a personal endeavor.
“It’s a dinner and an auction. My father attended every year.”
“How many guests?”
“I don’t know ... a hundred,” Alex had told him. “I’ve actually been looking forward to it.”
The drive to the estate was starting to feel like the norm. Alternative routes had been figured out, and the best timing to avoid the worst of the traffic sometimes meant Hawk was early.
In the driveway, a hired black SUV waited with the driver standing outside the vehicle.
The service the Stone family used had been vetted and approved, which freed up staff from Hawk and Ed’s team.
Hawk parked his car on the far side of the driveway and then walked over and greeted the driver.
Elliot, the middle-aged driver, had arrived early because he’d picked up Piper’s parents at the airport and drove them in.
Hawk obtained Elliot’s phone number since the man was on call for their return trip.
He checked his watch and started toward the house.
Alex was punctual for work events. The question was, Did she take her time for private ones?
Hawk rapped his knuckles on the door and paused. When no one answered, he went ahead and let himself in.
Voices in the back of the house told him where everyone gathered. He followed the noise and was met with everyone but Alex and two new family members.
Sarah turned and smiled at him first. “Hi, Hawk.”
“Good evening.”
Max stepped up and shook his hand. “How is everything at the office?”
“Construction teams are ready to invade and should be out by Sunday night.”
Max smiled. “Glad to hear it.”
Chase spoke a little louder than who Hawk had to assume were Piper’s parents, who were doting over their granddaughter. “Hawk, these are Piper’s parents, Margaret and Darryl.”
Darryl reached across the island. “A pleasure.”
“Likewise,” Hawk said.
The Midwestern parents went back to talking with Piper and cooing over Hailey.
“Is Alex getting ready?”
“She’ll be down any minute,” Sarah told him.
Piper walked past him, her greeting a simple hand to his arm and a smile. “I don’t know why we’re all standing in the kitchen. Mom, Dad ...” Piper walked back the way Hawk had entered and toward the massive front room of the house that had enough seating for twenty.
The family followed.
Hawk trailed behind.
Chase walked beside him. “Be thankful you’re leaving.”
“You don’t like your in-laws?” Hawk asked.
“Piper gets stressed around them. I conned Max and Sarah into sticking around as a buffer.”
Hawk chuckled. “I’ll take an auction with strangers over family drama.”
“You definitely pulled the long straw.”
As the family funneled into the living room, the sound of a woman’s heels clicked on the stone of the staircase.
Hawk slowly looked up and found Alex floating down.
Holy shit.
Hair that was almost always pulled back in a tight ponytail was fashioned in a loose bun, or updo, whatever women called it.
Tendrils framed her face and wisped down her bare shoulders.
Spaghetti-string straps on a burgundy gown that draped across her chest, went in to hug her slim waist and her hips before falling to the floor.
A slit to the side showed her long leg and black stilettos with each step.
Hawk stared while the others in the room continued with their conversations.
Alex stopped at the bottom of the stairs and placed the long coat she’d carried on the banister before looking up and meeting his eyes.
She’d used a heavier hand with her makeup. Smoky eye shadow and black eyeliner. Her lips were the perfect complement of color for the dress ... and her.
Hawk didn’t think he’d ever paid attention to a woman’s makeup before.
Most of the time, he thought it was a waste.
Alex was certainly beautiful enough without it, but like this, there wouldn’t be a heterosexual man in the room that didn’t look twice and have their wives hitting them to gain back their attention.
Hawk couldn’t help but stare.
Was that a blush on her cheeks?
The smile that hinted on her lips said it was.
Wow, he mouthed, knowing she could read his lips.
Someone in the room whistled and broke the silence that stretched between them.
“Damn, sis. It’s a good thing you have a bodyguard,” Max called from across the room.
Bodyguard.
Hawk needed to remember that.
Alex was not his date. She was his assignment.
He stepped aside when she walked past.
Alex waved a hand in front of her face as if she were warm. “What was that? I didn’t quite hear you,” she teased.
Max laughed.
“That dress is Oscar-worthy,” Piper said.
“I’ll be sure and wear it there if I ever get a chance to go.” Alex crossed to Margaret and Darryl. “Nice to see you again.”
She kissed Margaret on the cheek and smiled at Darryl.
“Where are you off to?” Margaret asked.
“A fancy dinner that I won’t be able to eat and still fit in this dress.”
Sarah pointed at Hawk. “Make sure she eats.”
Alex looked over her shoulder at him, a challenge written in her eyes.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
She turned back toward their guests. “We have all week to catch up.”
“You look fantastic, Alex. Try and have fun,” Chase suggested.
Hawk took the liberty of draping her coat over his arm before opening the front door.
They stepped out of the house and into the cooler air. “Do you want this on?”
She shook her head. “Not in the car.”
Hawk placed his free hand on the small of her back as she descended the stairs to the car. He used the excuse that women in tight dresses and high heels had a tendency to lose their footing. But in truth, he simply needed to touch her.
She felt like porcelain under his hand.
Small and breakable.
Even though he knew Alexandrea was anything but.
Elliot opened the door of the car when they approached, and Hawk took the driver’s place until Alex was seated.
He closed the door, then rounded the car and pulled in a deep breath.
This was going to be a long night.
Once Elliot was on the road, Hawk glanced over. “You’re going to make me work for my money tonight.”
She kept her eyes forward. “I never said I’d make your life easy.”
Hawk chuckled and then took a deep breath. “You’re stunning, Alexandrea.”
She looked at him then, a flush to her cheeks. “Thank you.”
They arrived at the airport thirty minutes later.
Elliot drove right up to the airplane on the tarmac, where a pilot stood at the bottom of the stairs to greet them.
Another reason Hawk didn’t see a need for more security was because of the location of the Hawthorn dinner and auction.
It was in Napa Valley.
They’d be landing on a private airstrip close to the vineyard where the event was taking place.
“Hello, Carson,” Alex greeted the pilot. “This is Hawk Bronson.”
They shook hands. “Welcome aboard.”
Inside the jet, Alex took her jacket from Hawk and hung it in a closet.
Carson told them their flight path, altitude, and approximate time in the air before closing the door of the plane and taking his seat next to the copilot.
Hawk took in the space. Plush deluxe seats framed the windows. A couch took up one wall, a large television was affixed to a half wall.
“Bathroom, galley, and bedroom,” Alex pointed out to him.
As private aircraft went, this was one of the nicer ones that Hawk had seen.
“I’ve found where you spend your money,” Hawk said.
“This was all Dad.” As she took a seat and crossed one long leg over the other, the slit of her dress parted, and Hawk had to look away or risk drooling. “Can you believe Chase and I never stepped foot in here until after he was dead?”
That surprised him. “Really?”
“He wasn’t much for sharing.”
Hawk took the seat opposite her. “I suppose that’s why you and your brother seem so well adjusted and down-to-earth.”
She reached for the seat belt. “I can’t help but wonder how long that will last.”
“How so?”
“Between my dress, shoes, and handbag, I’m wearing five grand.
We’re on a private jet that’s going to cost .
..” She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“I don’t even want to know how much ...
to go to an auction at a vineyard where I have every intention of dropping some of Dad’s money on wine I don’t need, but arguably want, with a bodyguard at my side.
How long will it take for me to start complaining about turbulence?
Or the quality of the food at an event?”
Her humility was refreshing.
“So long as there are people in your life to bring you down here with the rest of us, you’ll be fine. Besides, what’s the point of making money if you’re not going to spend it?”
“That’s something Gaylord would say.”
“Wise man.”
The sound of the engines firing up filled the air.
“I’ve met some extremely rich people, Alex. It’s the ones that treat others like garbage that you have to watch out for. You and your brothers don’t have that in you.”
The seat belt sign went on with a chime.
Carson’s voice came over a speaker. “Ms. Stone, Mr. Bronson ... we’re about to take off. Please fasten your seat belts.”
Hawk buckled in.
“Who?”
“Who what?” he asked.
“Who were the people you’re talking about? The rich ones?”
He thought of the faces he’d just as soon forget. “No one you’d know.”
She didn’t press. At least not directly. “What did you do before you worked with Ed?”
How much should I tell her?
“I had a federal job.”
“FBI?”
“No.”
She looked at him silently.
The aircraft picked up speed as it raced down the tarmac before lifting into the air.
Hawk took a glance at his watch, noted the time.
All the while, Alex stayed silent with her unwavering gaze.
He sighed. “There are immigration and border authorities that check people and cargo on entry. And then there is another federal branch that stops drugs, human trafficking, firearms ... you name it, from ever getting to the border. That’s what I did.”
Alex’s mouth opened in surprise. “Undercover?”
“Sometimes.”
Any smile on her face had fled. “That sounds dangerous.”
“The people involved in that life don’t like being intercepted.” And already, he’d said too much.
“What made you stop?” she asked.
The sound of a gunshot, the flash of heat in his gut. The tear in his soul. “I had my reasons,” he said, hoping she’d understand that he didn’t want to talk anymore about the life he’d left behind.
The intensity of her stare wavered. “I guess that makes you overqualified for babysitting me.”
He wanted to thank her for not pressing.
Instead he paid her a compliment. “Dressed like that, I’m going to have my hands full.”