Chapter Twenty-Six
When the wind started rattling the windows, Hawk knew the weathermen had it right. It was only a matter of time before the power would fail.
But he’d done all that could be done. Even taking the time to shovel the flakes that had fallen the night before from the driveway. In addition, he salted the space in hopes of making it a little easier to get out if they needed to.
It was likely a wasted effort, but the workout was worth it.
To be fair, both of his workouts had been worth it.
Alex had found a thousand-piece puzzle and had dumped it out on the coffee table in the living room.
He was surprised to see her humming to herself and bouncing around either on her knees or sitting cross-legged as she separated the pieces by color and shape.
The oversize sweaters she had taken to wearing were just as inviting and soft as the woman in them. Her hair hadn’t been up since they entered the state. He liked it.
Here she was just Alexandrea. Not Ms. Stone. Hawk knew he was witnessing a side of her that few knew existed.
With her suggestion, he’d found a novel and had started to read while Alex put the edges of the puzzle together.
He managed two pages before Alex started chatting. “Did you and your brother ever put together puzzles?”
“When we were kids.” Hawk looked back down at his book.
“On our family vacations, and by family , I mean Chase, me, and our mom ... we would find a local store wherever we were and buy the largest puzzle we could find that showcased the area. I think it was our mom’s way of getting us off our cell phones.
” The whole time Alex spoke, she didn’t look up once.
“Clever.”
She was quiet for a moment.
Hawk read one line.
“We had to finish it before the trip was over. Bad weather, no problem. If one of us got sick, a puzzle was our medicine. If we got in a fight, by the evening, we were huddled over one of these, trying to stay mad but couldn’t.”
He put the book down and took up space across from Alex.
She looked up, smiled, and then explained her strategy.
Of course, she had a strategy.
Alex had a plan for everything.
They’d gotten the entire perimeter put together when the power flickered twice and then immediately went out.
“I guess that answers that question,” Alex said.
“The way it looks outside, I’m surprised we made it this long.” Hawk stood, stretched his arms over his head. “I’m going to close all the doors to the rooms we’re not using. Try and keep some of the heat in.”
Alex arched her back. “I could use a break.”
They had about an hour before the sun went down, which they used to ready the house and then put some food together.
A task that proved to them both that a cooking class might be in order when they returned home.
Despite burning the rice, they managed to cook a meal with the gas range that they could eat.
Hours later, spent after partaking in what was by far the best pastime Hawk had ever experienced, Alex’s cheek rested on his bare shoulder. The fireplace in the primary bedroom was more than sufficient to keep the room warm.
They stared at the flames and learned a little more about each other.
When Alexandrea’s fingertips brushed over the scar on his hip, he knew the question was coming.
“How did you get this?”
Hawk had lied about the wound so many times that the answer hovered on his lips.
He considered telling her his practiced lines but found himself telling the truth instead. “I was on the wrong end of a gun.”
Her hand stilled, and she lifted her cheek enough to look at him. “You were shot?”
“Humm” was his answer.
“How, why?”
The concern in her eyes touched him.
He guided her head back to his chest and stared at the fire. “I was in Guatemala. I had infiltrated the compound of an arms dealer. It was a long-term assignment. The cartel men I fell in with were the distributors. We wanted the top guy.”
He went silent. That day replayed like a looping video in his head.
“What happened?” she asked in a whisper.
“They caught on to me. They put a gun in my hand and told me to shoot one of the grunts they used as slave labor. To prove I could be trusted.”
Alex’s hand stilled.
“I was fucked. I either murdered someone in cold blood or risked being killed myself.”
“Oh, God.”
“The kid was seventeen. They’d caught him taking the equivalent of fifty bucks. For food for his family. He was dead whether I did it or not.”
“What did you do?” There was a tremor in Alex’s voice.
Hawk stroked her hair.
“I didn’t kill him. I told them to take the fifty bucks out of my pay and let the kid go.”
“Please tell me they—”
“Like I said. He was dead either way. They dragged his body out one door and me out another. The gun they’d put in my hand wasn’t even loaded.
They knew I was a mole. The only reason they kept me alive was to learn who else was dirty.
” The memory of the hole they’d put him in, the smell of death, the darkness . ..
Hawk would spare Alex those details.
“I maintained my lie. Told them they had it wrong. After a week with no rescue attempt, they pulled me out of my cell.”
“Your boss left you there to rot?”
“My boss didn’t know I was compromised. If there had been another agent in the camp, I didn’t know them. Once they let me out, I knew I had a small window before they’d test my loyalty again.”
Gabriella slipped into his room. Tears ran down her face as she threw herself at him. “I tried to get to you. I begged my father to let you go.”
“Shh,” he whispered in her ear. Taking a lover on an assignment hadn’t been planned. Only Gabriella was used to getting what she wanted. She damn near asked her father, the man in charge, to give Hawk to her as a birthday gift.
“Make her happy. If you don’t, I’ll have to kill you.” Santiago patted Hawk on the shoulder before walking away.
Hawk knew the only reason he was thrown in a hole and not shot on the spot was because of her.
Any other man, and they would have been dragged out with the seventeen-year-old kid.
Hawk held her, thankful he no longer smelled like the sewer he’d rotted in for a week. “I’m okay,” he told her.
She pulled away, looked at him. “Are they feeding you?” She grasped his hands and looked him over. “They didn’t cut you, did they?”
She was looking for missing fingers or ears.
“ I’m whole, Gabriella. ”
Her forehead hit his chest in relief.
“ It’s all going to be fine now. Things will go back to normal. I told them you weren’t a spy. I, of all people, would know if you were. ”
Twisted morality ached in his head.
He couldn’t let guilt stop him now. “They won’t go back to normal. We both know that.”
She grasped his shirt. “They will.”
“ Your father won’t be happy until I kill children or rape women. Is that the kind of man you want me to be? ”
Conflict swam in her eyes. “I want you alive.”
Then the answer was yes.
Why was he surprised? She loved her father, and his crimes were barbaric.
Hawk held her face in his hands. “And you can live with that?”
She blinked, then nodded.
She kissed him then and didn’t let go until she fell asleep.
The problem was, he’d fallen asleep, too.
And when he woke, it was to the bedroom door banging against the wall from being kicked open.
Hawk rolled naked off the bed and reached for his gun.
A gun that hadn’t been returned to him since he’d been released.
Santiago’s second in command, Emilio, held a gun to Gabriella’s head.
It wouldn’t dawn on Hawk until much later that Gabriella had been fully clothed.
“You were shot while trying to escape?”
Alexandrea’s question pulled him out of the memory. A memory he kept to himself.
“Yeah.”
She lifted herself just enough to press her lips to the scar. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Her lips moved to his soft, sweet ...
Then she settled once again in the crook of his arm.
Her breathing settled, and her frame started to go lax. “I’m glad you made it out alive,” she whispered.
Hawk stroked her arm and stared into the fire.
Made it out alive so he could sleep with an assignment once again.
You would think he’d learn.
Alex is different , his heart declared.
How so? his head argued.
The weatherman got it right.
When the storm had been reduced to a dusting of flurries, five feet and some change had fallen from the sky.
They were on day three of no power.
Hawk had used Mother Nature’s icebox and filled a chest with food, which he left on the back porch to stay cold.
Even though the porch was covered, that didn’t stop the snow from piling up inside.
Never in all her years had Alex personally seen the amount of snow that was on display as the storm fluttered out.
The snowdrifts along the house were even more impressive. Seven, even eight feet where the wind had blown snow and piled it up.
Alex and Hawk both bundled up and decided to put some effort into clearing a path from the house to the shed, where more firewood was stored. In addition to that, Hawk insisted on shoveling snow from the driveway.
With a lot of effort, they managed to open the garage door manually. And then proceeded to laugh at the enormity of snow staring back at them.
Alex positioned herself behind Hawk and attempted to push him into the wall of snow, only to have him turn around, pick her up, and toss her in.
“You’ll pay for that.”
“You promise?” he asked, staring down at her.
She reached her arm out for him to help her to her feet. Her attempt at pulling him with her was laughable.
Once they pushed through the snowdrift, they could see the outline of the driveway where Hawk had shoveled the first two feet between storms.
Even though clearing the snow was hard work, Alex found herself enjoying the physical labor. Tossing snow in Hawk’s direction had its advantages, too.
The path to the shed was harder, the snow deeper. The real challenge was where to put the misplaced snow. Tossing it over five feet was laughable.