Chapter 16
Sixteen
“Hey, Dad!” Jessie called out as she entered the house.
Her heart was tumbling around in her chest, but she’d seen his work boots off by the door and knew he had to be somewhere nearby.
She’d finally gathered up the courage after Lachlan’s push to tell her family.
It took her another week to figure out how exactly she wanted to tell them, and Hawk had been so supportive.
She knew he was dying to tell his parents, but had held out so Jessie wouldn’t feel guilty that only her family didn’t know.
Daniel Ford’s head full of gray hair popped out from the kitchen, a cup of coffee with steam still swirling off the top in his hand.
“Hey, kiddo. What’s going on? Thought you were working with Lach until dinner tonight?”
“He gave me the afternoon off. I’ve been pushing off my responsibilities here onto Beau, and I figured after I took care of Lucky, I’d come help Mom with dinner.”
“Sounds like a plan. But your Mom put something in the slow cooker before she went into town. Now, before we both head outside, are you ready to tell me why we’re hosting Hawk at this family dinner? Do I need to clean my shotgun this afternoon?”
Yes. If Hawk had his way, they’d be coming to tell her family not just about Bumblebee, but also that they’d gotten hitched.
Thankfully, she had some sense. Those Montgomery Defense men did not play around with settling down.
And she wouldn’t be the reason Hawk ever felt trapped just because she’d gotten pregnant.
He’d said all the right words, and he’d been showing up for her in the most incredible ways, but she wasn’t going to let herself get attached to the idea of everything just magically working out.
“Jess? You’re not making me feel great about why he’s joining us.”
“No! Dad… It’s nothing to worry about.” Her dad lifted his coffee to his mouth and nodded. Before he could respond, Jess turned on her heels and headed towards the stairs. “I need to put my laptop up on my desk and change before I head out to the barn. I’ll see you later!”
It took all of five minutes to drop her things off in her room before sliding into her work boots and heading out to the small barn where she could finally tackle the list of chores Beau had sent as payback for taking care of Lucky a couple of times over the last few weeks.
The walk to the small barn felt heavy. A million thoughts were racing through her head, but Jessie tried to shove them all down as she walked past the homestead that had once belonged to her great-grandparents.
While her brothers all lived in their own homes on the Silver Ridge Ranch property, Jessie had been happy living in the main house with her parents.
But she’d always known growing up that one day, that homestead would be hers to renovate.
She’d spent countless hours on the front porch, wondering what it would be like to hear her children running in the fields out back like she’d done with her brothers. It was bittersweet to realize that Hawk would probably always want to stay in town. His team was there, for the most part.
Lucky greeted Jess with a bleat, hopping down from his favorite tree stump to mosey over to the gate.
“Hey there, handsome. I’ve missed you so much.”
The goat greedily accepted some pats on his head before Jess took off to tackle her chores, Lucky never once leaving her side. Well, not until about a half hour in when Jess couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched.
Lucky trotted from the barn, putting Jess on even more of a high alert. But as soon as she stepped fully out into the sunlight, she realized her nerves were just getting the best of her. Lucky was back up on his stump, happily surveying the land around him.
“Alright, Luckster. I’ve got to go back up to the main house. You be sure to give Beau as much grief as possible if he comes out here to take care of you, okay?”
She swore a mischievous sparkle twinkled in his eye, and Jess laughed all the way until she stood at the bottom of her parents’ porch.
Hell, she’d just been inside talking to her dad. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was actually the beginning of something beautiful…
But this was it. The moment she’d tell her whole family she messed up…
and it was leading her down a path to have everything she ever wanted.
Either that, or to the biggest heartbreak of her life.
But Jessie trusted Hawk, and after the way he’d been so open with her, she had to move forward with her heart wide open too. It was the only fair thing to do.
And she was happy. Her hand ran over the anti-nausea bracelet on her wrist. A constant reminder of Hawk’s determination to take care of her, and the baby.
“Mom?” Jessie called out as she made her way into the living room. Even with heading into town earlier, Jessie knew her mom should have been home by then. Whatever she was cooking in the slow cooker smelled absolutely divine.
Why wasn’t she answering?
Jessie started towards the kitchen. The plan was to tell her family all together, but Jessie was just chicken enough that she might blurt it right out to her mama if she had the chance to before everyone else joined them. Footsteps overhead stopped her in her tracks.
Who the hell was in her room? If Beau thought for one minute he could go in and steal her shit from her bathroom…
Jessie turned, heading upstairs. Her room was overhead of the small hallway that connected the kitchen to the living room. Maybe her mom was tucking something away in there for her? But it hadn’t sounded like her mother’s footsteps. They’d sounded clunky.
If one of her brothers wore their disgusting horse barn work boots into her room, they were going six feet under. She didn’t care. Turning the corner, Jessie stopped in the doorway, her breath rushing out of her lungs.
Her room.
It was a mess.
Her brothers wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t destroy her things. Jessie’s hands shook as she pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans. Oh god. Her mattress was off the frame. All her clothes were pulled from their drawers. Her laptop was laying on the floor by the window.
Her fingers trembled as she pulled up her phone app and called the one person who she knew could calm her down.
Hawk answered the phone on the second ring.
“Hey, mama. I’m almost ready to head out the door. Everything okay?”
“Someone was in my room,” she whispered. “I-I don’t know where my mom is. She should be here, and my dad is out on the ranch somewhere and I think I’m alone at the house. My room is trashed.”
“You’re there alone right now?” His voice had shifted in an instant. Silky softness had become a steel-hardened bark that made her erratic heartbeat pick up.
“I’m standing in the doorway. Someone rifled through everything. My s-stuff is everywhere.” Her eyes went to the floor where the small cloud lamp she’d had since she was a kid sat broken, shattered pieces spread across the hardwood flooring. She’d wanted to put that in the baby’s room.
Tears stung her eyes.
“Jessie, go to another room and lock the door. Another bedroom. A bathroom. I’m on my way. Don’t open the fucking door until I get there.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Hawk.”
“Baby. Go, now. Whoever did that could still be in the house.”
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
The door to her bathroom opened and a tall, masked figure stood, blinking back at her.
A blood curdling scream filled the air around her, but she wasn’t sure where it had come from.
How could she possibly make a noise when her whole body was frozen in place?
The intruder raced to her window, grabbing her laptop off the ground and hauling it out onto the back roof with him.
Before Jessie could think, she was throwing her cell phone after the masked man, a satisfied smile growing wide across her face as she nailed the asshole right in the back of the head, his hand coming up to rub the spot the phone grazed as he disappeared over the ledge onto the roof of the back porch.
She made her way to the window, trying to find anything memorable about the man as he disappeared into the woods that surrounded the ranch. Fuck. There wasn’t anything. Except for the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke left in his wake.
And that had her running for the bathroom.
“I was talking to Nash about that simulation we ran a few weeks ago with all that smoke.” Hawk sat down in the chair across from Nash’s desk. His buddy sat back in his chair, arms going behind his head as he nodded and stretched.
“Oh yeah, the one where the machines couldn’t keep up.”
“Yeah, exactly. I was thinking that for Trident II, there should be a different setup, but I’m not sure how to go about it.
It makes sense to have the machines mounted on the ceiling, but I like the option to have them floor mounted too for when we force the guys to the ground with physical obstacles.
It seems shitty to lose that option just to avoid a different issue. ”
“Cap said go all out, didn’t he? You’re supposed to be fixing all the gripes we have now that we’ve spent some actual time operating and running people through tactical simulations at The Trident. Mount them from the floor and the ceiling for the simulator. Easy fix.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“So, why are you really dragging your feet on this?” Nash asked. Leave it to him to see through Hawk’s bullshit.
“I’m not sure I want this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I really want this opportunity. To step up for the team. For the business. For Cap. But I just keep thinking this isn’t the right moment. It’s not what I want to be focusing on right now.”
“I get it. When Lace was pregnant, I couldn’t think about anything else.
I just wanted to be with her in case she needed something.
God,” he chuckled, “that used to drive her up a wall. She’s getting better about asking for help, but she probably lost her mind a time or two with how much I hovered. ”