Chapter Twenty
Hawk racked the barbell after his last rep and sat up on the bench he had been lying on.
He pulled a towel over his face. Sweat was a welcome relief.
Maybe if he pushed himself physically, sleep would outweigh his dreams, and he’d finally wake without adrenaline coursing through his veins.
“Look who made it in today.”
The familiar voice had Hawk turning his head and splitting his lips into a smile. Standing, he thrust his hand out to greet his brother.
“When did you get home?”
Rhett pumped his hand and then pulled him in for a hug.
“Three days ago.”
Hawk took a good look at him. “This is new,” Hawk said, brushing a hand against his own face.
Rhett swiped at the beard covering his chin with a shrug. “You know how it is.”
Yes, Hawk did.
A beard was a man’s best disguise if unkempt and dirty. Toss in clothes to match the filth, an accent, or a second language, and you could be anyone.
“Mom hates it.”
Hawk nodded. “Mom hates everything to do with the need for it.”
Rhett was older than Hawk by fourteen months. They were close growing up. They had to be, with all the moving around they did. Hawk idolized his big brother and had no problem following him into his profession.
Only Hawk had gotten out, and Rhett still took long deployments deep in the South American jungles, pretending to be something he wasn’t.
“She should be happy with one of us playing it safe.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, brother,” Hawk said.
Rhett lifted his chin. “Where have you been? It’s not like you to miss your gym time.”
“I’ve been coming at different times. My client’s schedule varies.”
“Your client? As in one?”
Hawk nodded.
“Consistent?”
He knew where his brother was going with this. “It’s a family business. She’s the CEO.”
“She’s married?”
“No.” Hawk realized he answered too quickly when Rhett lifted an eyebrow.
“Why does she need you?”
“Someone has threatened to put her in a grave. So far, the police have zero leads on who it could be.”
Rhett nodded a few times. “I see your job hasn’t changed so much.”
Hawk thought of the private jet, the estate ... the lack of humidity and men walking around with ARs on their backs. “The working conditions are better. Don’t tell Mom.”
“Who is watching out for your CEO now if you’re here?”
“This isn’t like Colombia or Guatemala. When she’s home, the team is there. When she’s out, I’m with her. And why all the questions? Looking for a job?”
“I’ve touched a nerve. You like this woman.” It wasn’t a question, and Rhett knew he was right before the words ever left his mouth.
“I know what you’re thinking, and this isn’t the same thing,” Hawk told his brother. He lowered his voice. “Her father isn’t involved in organized crime. He isn’t even alive.”
Rhett nodded. “All right. If you say it isn’t the same thing, then it isn’t the same thing.”
“Good.”
“Does she—”
“Are you here to work out, or should we go grab some tea?” Hawk interrupted.
Rhett threw his hands up in the air with a smile. “Got it.”
Hawk retrieved his phone and car keys and moved to the next bench to start another set.
A missed call caught his attention.
He scrolled through, saw Charlie’s name, then realized a text message came in right after the call.
Call!
Charlie was at the estate and wouldn’t demand attention unless something was wrong.
Hawk turned away from his brother and put the phone to his ear.
Charlie answered on the first ring.
“What’s going on?”
“She left.”
Hawk went still. “Alex? What? Where did she go? Why didn’t you stop her?”
“What, what? I don’t know, and she didn’t ask permission. One minute she was in the kitchen, and the next, she was driving out the gate.”
“Everything okay?” Rhett asked.
Hawk shook his head. “I’ll call you later,” he told his brother before doubling his steps to his locker, grabbing his bag, and heading out the door. “Did she get a call? Did she say anything to you?” Hawk asked Charlie.
“She said something about work. I assume she meant the work she was doing from here.”
Out in the parking lot, Hawk put his phone on speaker and scrolled through his phone to see Alex’s location.
According to her GPS, she was on the freeway headed toward Stone Enterprises. “Damn it, Alex! Looks like she’s on the way to the office.” Hawk hit the button, unlocking his car before he reached it.
“I can head over.”
“No. If someone is watching the house, they’ll know you left. I’m on my way.”
Morning traffic did what morning traffic did best ... it sucked.
Forty-five minutes later, Hawk pulled up to the front of Stone Enterprises. Right behind Alex’s Lexus.
Hawk strapped his gun holster to his side, ripped his weapon and ID badge from the glove compartment, and shot out of his car.
He pulled on a light jacket, but there was no mistaking the fact that he’d just left the gym and wasn’t dressed for a day at the office as Alex’s chaperone.
Hawk stormed past the front desk, straight through the security system, and to the elevators.
Those milling about the lobby gave him double looks.
The closer he came to the executive floor, the more unpleasant his demeanor became.
Every employee that slowed his ascent made his eye twitch.
Finally, the doors opened, and Hawk sailed by Kira at the reception desk and straight to Alex’s office.
Hawk made eye contact with Dee and pointed to the closed door of Alex’s office. “Is she in there?”
Dee blinked several times, opened her mouth, closed it ... opened it again. “Yes.”
Hawk took a step and reached for the door.
“She’s in a meeting.”
He didn’t give a fuck.
He snatched open the door and pushed through like the force of a crashing wave.
At least five people stared at him from the sitting area of Alex’s office. Whatever conversation they were having screeched to a halt.
Hawk met Alex’s eyes in an instant. “Mr. Bronson, we are—”
“We need to talk.” His breath heaved in his chest.
Alex stood and glanced briefly away. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll only be a minute.”
Hawk held the door open for her as she passed by.
“What . . .”
The moment the door closed, Hawk took hold of her elbow and led her to Chase’s office, which he knew was vacant since the man was on his honeymoon.
Once alone, Alex pulled her arm free.
Hawk took several steps away before facing her. “ What are you thinking?”
“What happened?” she asked.
“Why are you here? Why did you get in your car and sneak away from the security that you agreed was needed?”
Her shoulders slumped; her eyes narrowed. “You drove down here to ask me that?”
“Answer the questions, Alexandrea. Rushing to the hospital, the scene of an accident, these scenarios I can buy into, but here?”
The entire drive over, all Hawk could think was that Alex had been lured by whoever placed that bag under her car, and she was walking into some kind of a trap.
Even though there was relief at the sight of her in what looked like a routine meeting and not a vacant office with no one able to locate her in the building, Hawk was pissed.
When she didn’t answer right away, he added, “And why didn’t you respond to my calls?”
“I ... my ...” She took a deep breath, then placed both hands on her hips and glared at him.
“First, I didn’t sneak. I left.” Alex lifted two fingers in the air.
“Second, my business sometimes requires unexpected and immediate meetings that cannot be put off or avoided. What you have so rudely pulled me away from is one of those meetings.” She took a step closer.
Waved another finger. “And third, I was on my phone the entire drive in and haven’t had a moment to assure you or answer your call.
” She stopped directly in front of him, lips pressed in a firm line of annoyance.
That was rich.
Alexandrea was annoyed.
“You hired me to keep you safe.” His words were a rough whisper.
She lifted her arms to the empty room. “I’m safe.”
“And if this was a setup?” he yelled.
“And every person in that room was behind the Play-Doh bomb? Not likely, Hawk,” she yelled back.
“You agreed to a bodyguard. The office protection, the house security.”
She paused, tilted her head to the side. “I still do, but this couldn’t be avoided. Besides, nothing has happened. Not so much as a peep from—”
Hawk reached out, grasped her arm. “From the person who likely knows your brother married this weekend and isn’t in the office?
The person who, if they are watching the estate, knew you left without me?
” It would have been so easy to take her out on the drive down the Beverly Hills road or as she was exiting her car.
On some level, Hawk knew those things could happen even with him by her side.
He squeezed his eyes shut with the sudden image of her falling back after the loud crack of a gunshot.
“Hawk?” Alex’s voice had softened. Her fingers touched his hand as he grasped onto her arm.
He released her instantly, realizing he held her too tight. And then turned away and walked to the window.
Get a grip. No one shot her.
Still, the image lingered.
He heard her walk closer, and his tension started to ease when her hand touched his shoulder.
She’s safe. She’s alive.
“Hawk?” Alex stepped around him and looked into his eyes. The concern he felt for her rippled in her gaze at him. “Are you okay?”
He wasn’t. Not really. And Hawk knew he was all kinds of fucked up with the feelings boiling under his skin.
Hawk lifted his palm to the side of her face. His fingertips brushed over the skin where the feared gunshot had struck in his mind.
The heat of their argument flashed in her eyes and morphed into something completely different. Passion, yes ... but of a different kind.
Alex did not pull away from his hand, not even when he placed both palms on her face.
Her lips parted, and her breath mixed with his.
She was so damn beautiful. So damn alive.
“Hawk ...” His name was a breath on her lips. Lips that tilted to his.
He didn’t stop to rationalize or talk himself out of what came next.
He simply dove in.
Hawk pulled her forward and pressed his lips to hers.
She was still at first.
One second.
Two.
And then Alex pressed into him and kissed him back.
He coaxed her mouth open and tasted the sweet and tart of her tongue against his. He slid one hand to the back of her neck, the other to her waist, and felt her delicate fingers grasp his hip.
This was so much more than any dream that plagued him in his waking hours or lulled him to sleep at night.
Her touch, her taste ... would hold on to him long after she was gone.
Hawk felt his body tighten in response, forcing him to remember where they were and how much he needed to end this moment.
No sooner had the thought entered his head than the lights in the room suddenly went dark.
He released her lips, his eyes widened.
Alex was looking at the closed door.
The darkness came with silence as the hum of the lights in the room was gone, the air vents no longer blew.
“Power outage?” Alex asked, looking at the ceiling.
The passion below his waist turned off almost as quickly as it had switched on. He reluctantly left her arms and walked to the door. Hawk tuned in to any voices or noise beyond the door but didn’t hear anything.
“You have generators, right?” he asked.
“Yes, they normally kick on.”
Hawk’s spidey sense trickled up his neck.
He reached for the weapon at his side and released it from his holster.
“It’s just a power outage,” Alex told him.
“How often do they happen?” he asked as he reached for the door.
A sound in the room hummed, and the lights flickered before the emergency lights turned on. Not that they needed them with all the natural light coming into the room from the windows.
“We’ve had a few.” Alex moved beside him.
“Stay behind me.”
“I’m sure it’s—”
He turned to her, his eyes were a warning.
Alex stopped talking and stood behind him.
Hawk eased the door open.
The noise from the people in the office was much the same as it had been when he’d stormed through only a handful of minutes before.
There were no sounds of alarm. No cries of concern.
Only the muttering of voices. One in particular asking if someone forgot to pay the electric bill.
Then laughter.
Hawk’s shoulders relaxed as he poked his head outside and didn’t see anything abnormal.
He holstered his weapon and opened the door farther.
Dee’s desk was empty, and one of the men in Alex’s office had stepped out into the hall.
Hawk turned to Alex right as the electricity in the building sprang back to life.
“Just a power outage,” she said with a grin.
Maybe, but he’d still investigate and see if it was only in the building, or the block ... or the city.
He blew out his first full breath he’d taken in an hour.
“I need to get back to my meeting,” she told him.
Hawk studied her then, the dusty rose of her lips, which were a little swollen from their kiss, but whatever color she used on them was the kind that stained and didn’t smear.
“I’ll be right outside.”
She looked him up and down. “Blending in?”
He lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders. His gym clothes were about as acceptable as Alex showing up in a bikini. “Consequence of your actions.” Truth was, he had a change of clothes in his car. Not a suit, but something more than shorts and a T-shirt.
He noticed the muscles of her neck work a swallow. “Try not to attract all the attention of the women in the office. I pay them to work.”
For the first time in an hour, Hawk smiled.