Chapter Eighteen
The war room smelled like coffee and gun oil, with most of the team gathered around the table. Hawk waited his turn to debrief, sitting with his side still wrapped tight, stitches pulling with every deep breath. A few stitches were popped after carrying Sinead out of there, but it was all worth it.
Carson stood in front of the big screen, legs braced wide as he studied the spreadsheet Ayla projected there.
In a flat, methodical voice, he read off the items. “Four bullets spent total. Sutures—nineteen. Gauze, more rolls than I care to count, but we’re restocking the med facility before the week’s out.
One tetanus shot—” He threw a wry glance Hawk’s way as a reminder of the snake bite that required it and went on.
“Three helicopter flights, full fuel both times, including the charter out to the contracting office.” He looked around the table.
“And enough adrenaline burned through this team to power a small city.”
A tired ripple of laughter circled the table.
Hawk scrubbed a finger across his upper lip. “My ward and I might have encountered more issues than most.”
Gray leaned back in his chair. “Good news is Sinead’s no longer in danger.”
“Bad news is,” Carson countered, “we’ve never run a job with a body count this high. Two mercs dead on the ridge, two more near the mine, plus McCrae himself at the bottom of a shaft. Five bodies in under a week.”
Hawk issued a low sigh. He’d seen death plenty in his years in the military, had made his peace with violence a long time ago, but this particular tally sat heavier than most. Maybe because every single one of those deaths traced back to protecting the woman currently asleep in his bed.
“We’ve done a deep dive into the families involved.” Carson pulled up another file. “We’re making sure nobody else has a legitimate claim, or thinks they do, on that gold. Gray, what did you find?”
“The Callahan line—the third family tied to the original mining partnership—died out completely. Last living descendant passed back in the eighties, no children, no heirs anywhere we can trace. As for the McCraes—” He glanced at Hawk.
“We sent Pope out to have a conversation with what’s left of that family. ”
Vander Pope was one of the newer members of the team, and his appearance alone would make people shake in their boots.
“Pope is currently out on a security detail, so I’ll relay his findings.
” Gray shifted in his seat. “He made it real clear to the McCrae family that any further action against the Winthrops will not be tolerated, and that Evan’s death closes this out.
No inheritance claims, no lawsuits, no more mercenaries showing up in the middle of the night. ”
From the corner desk, Willow looked up from the notes she was taking. “How did they take it?”
“Pope said the family seemed more relieved than anything. Evan had apparently been chasing this obsession alone for years, draining his own money into it.” Gray shrugged. “Sounds like his whole family’s glad it’s over too.”
The tight knot in Hawk’s chest finally loosened at that, and he let out a slow breath.
Case closed. Actually closed—no loose threads dangling, no other distant cousin waiting in the wings to pick up where McCrae left off.
Gray studied him for a moment. “You did good out there, Hawk. Whole team did. This one was ugly, but we got her out, and we got the answers we needed to make sure it stays finished.”
“Couldn’t have done it without every one of you.” Hawk looked around the table—Gray, Carson, Denver, Crew, Willow, Ayla and Lex, all of them still bearing the exhaustion of the last week in the set of their shoulders, all of them showing up anyway, every single time, without a beat of hesitation.
“I mean that.” He swallowed hard at the emotion rushing through him, not only relief for having Sinead safe…but for the people in this room. He cleared his throat. “What news is there of Shiloh? Is she okay?”
Willow spoke up. “She’s recovering from a mild concussion, but she’s going to be fine.” While she smiled, her eyes revealed the fear that had taken over the whole Malone family at one of theirs being harmed.
Carson closed his laptop, glancing around the table with the ghost of a grin. “All right. Go ahead, Hawk. Give us your numbers.”
Hawk raised an eyebrow. “My what?”
“Your numbers.” Denver leaned back with his arms crossed, nodding toward him. “We all know you love to give us a rundown of your numbers. Let’s hear them.”
Hawk sat with that for a second, turning over all that Carson already recounted, and found he only had one number that mattered right now.
“One.”
The room went quiet.
“One woman,” he clarified. His heart took up an extra beat as he said it out loud for the first time. “That’s it. That’s my whole count.”
He threw a look around the table, lips tilting at one corner. “I’ve never been more entrapped in my life, and I’ve never been happier about it.”
A low chorus of approving sounds moved through the room. Someone issued a soft whistle, and Ayla grinned.
“I guess we can let the clause about no personal relations with your ward slide,” Carson added.
“She’s gonna try to cut me loose now that the danger’s over.” Even as the thought formed, Hawk was working through it. “Tell me the job’s done, contract’s fulfilled. I’ve got no reason left to stick around. She’ll say she doesn’t need protection anymore.”
“You gonna let her get rid of you?” Gray’s eyes sparked with amusement as he already hazarded a guess.
“Not a chance in hell.”
He considered what Denver said to him weeks ago, back before any of this started…before he’d let himself fall for a woman he was supposed to be protecting instead of loving.
Denver had mentioned how Hawk was next in line for a wife and a family. He was right. Hawk didn’t see it then, but now he knew he’d finally found the people worth building a life around instead of just passing through.
“I think I found my family.” Hawk’s voice was steadier than he expected. “Right here. All of you.”
Willow let out a happy sigh, and Ayla brushed a knuckle beneath her eye.
“I hope you’re prepared for me sticking around indefinitely. Whatever Black Heart needs, I’m in. Long-term. I’m not just passing through on some short contract.”
Carson’s mouth curved. “Good. We need you here.”
“One condition, though.” Hawk held up a hand, and a few people laughed at the sudden seriousness in his tone. “I’d like some time off from anything involving mountains. At least for a while.”
That got a real laugh out of the room. The tension broke as the latest events finally faded into memory.
He sat back, letting the noise of his team wash over him, and thought about Sinead safe, alive. She might not know it yet, but she was his in a way that had nothing to do with contracts or bodyguard assignments anymore.
One woman. One family, expanded now to include people who would have bled alongside him this past week.
One life he couldn’t wait to build.
He’d take that number over any other tally he’d ever kept in his life.
* * * * *
Sinead walked into the crowded war room and saw Hawk at the table, a pen in hand. He scrawled his name across the bottom of a document she recognized instantly.
The contract between her and Black Heart Security.
Their contract.
The one that had started this whole impossible, life-altering chain of events, ended with nothing more than a signature.
Her chest tightened, and she gripped the door frame to steady herself.
Well. He might be signing off on the terms of their arrangement and closing out whatever official language had bound them together in the beginning, but she wasn’t ready to close out anything between them.
Not even close.
She must have made a noise, because everyone in the room looked up, but only one person mattered at that moment, and it was her amazing bodyguard.
She crossed the room and stepped up beside him. “If you’ve wrapped things up, I’d like to talk to you.”
The expression in his eyes shifted, and shadows darkened them. “I’m finished here.”
He pushed back from the table, and Sinead caught his hand. Right there, in plain sight, not caring what anyone thought about her unorthodox and probably scandalous relationship with her bodyguard.
She was her own woman. She didn’t have anyone to impress but herself.
And somehow, she felt her father would have approved of her choice in Heath Hawk. Not that she would ever listen if he disapproved—she was her own woman, strong enough to make her own decisions in life.
He looked up at her, surprise crossing his face before his eyes softened.
They left the office together, hand in hand. The second they cleared the door, she curled her fingers into his shirt and pulled him toward the side of the building.
He issued a huff of surprise that cut off as she went on tiptoe and crushed her lips to his. She kissed him hard, with all the passion that had been bubbling inside her.
He cupped her face and kissed her back with equal fierceness, his tongue sweeping through her mouth and tugging little noises from her without her meaning to make a sound.
When they finally broke apart, he turned the tables on her, walking her backward until her shoulders met the wall. As he slammed his mouth over hers, desperation gripped her insides.
“I love you,” she breathed against his mouth.
“I love you too.”
She froze, heart stuttering. She blinked up at him. “You…do?”
A rough noise broke from his throat. “God, Sinead, I love you so much.”
He said it like the words had been sitting on his tongue, waiting there this whole time, ever since the mine.
He leaned in and claimed her mouth again. Their kiss moved slower this time, and she savored every stroke until she forced herself to pull back, breathing hard.
“I wanted you to come with me.”
“I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth. I’ll even let you carry a weapon so you can have my snakebitten six.”
They shared a smile, filled with the trials they’d lived through and the promise of what was to come.
“I want to check on Shiloh,” she said.
They walked to the main house and found Shiloh in her bedroom, curled against Oaks’s side.
The pair looked up at their visitors, and Shiloh pushed up to rest on the pillows propped behind her.
Sinead settled into the chair beside the bed. She searched her friend’s face, noting the swelling on her temple. Things could have gone so badly, and her own role in Shiloh’s injury weighed on her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
Shiloh made a face. “Mild concussion. And apparently I have a parasite.”
Sinead’s stomach dropped. “Oh god. Is it from pork?”
“Sausage is my guess. I’m always telling Oaks to cook the breakfast sausage longer.” She sent her husband a solemn look.
Oaks let out an exasperated groan and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “I can’t take this anymore. Will you please stop calling our baby a parasite? It was just a joke to put off telling you—”
“Baby?” Sinead’s voice cracked.
Oaks’s expression was caught between panic and pure joy. He cradled Shiloh’s face in his palm and looked deep into her eyes. “They ran labs before the head scan. Doc Hitchcock said it’s standard protocol. One of the tests was a pregnancy screen. It came back positive, baby.”
She let out a soft sob. Then she balled her fist and punched Oaks in the arm. “You didn’t tell me!”
“I wanted to tell you somewhere special, when you were feeling better. Not in a hospital bed.”
Her eyes sparked with tears and outrage. “So you told me I had a parasite!”
“I panicked.” Oaks was laughing as he dodged another halfhearted blow from his wife.
Sinead and Hawk broke into laughter. Then Shiloh burst into happy tears and threw herself into Oaks’s arms.
Seeing their visit was over, Hawk took Sinead’s hand and led her from the room. They walked together to the therapy lodge and onto the big back deck that overlooked the pastures, the mountains standing purple against the sky. Hawk leaned against the railing, quiet for a moment before he spoke.
“This program means so much to me. More than I probably know how to explain properly.” His voice was husky with emotion.
Sinead studied him. “Were you ever in the program?”
He shook his head. “Thankfully, I didn’t have PTSD. Just the usual mess of figuring out who I was supposed to be once the uniform came off. I didn’t know what came next. It took me longer than I wanted to find my footing again.”
She gazed out over the ranch and felt an idea settle into place, as clear as the crisp mountain air.
“I want to fund a skills center. Here at Black Heart, or somewhere close. Specifically for those vets figuring out what comes after. It would include job training, career counseling…whatever it takes to help them build a life on the other side of service.”
Hawk turned to her and lightly gripped her arms, his eyes burning with tenderness and a deeper emotion that looked like pride. “You’re really something, you know that?”
She issued a quiet noise and moved into his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest, right over his thundering heart. He pressed a kiss to her temple, and they stood there together for a while, watching the light shift over the mountains.
“Take a ride with me.”
She looked up at his sudden request and nodded, feeling her stomach coil tight with want.
“Can you ride a horse with stitches?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “We’ll save the horses for next time. Let’s take the truck.”
They drove up a winding road until the whole valley opened below them, sunlight gleaming on every ridge of the mountain that had been both their reprieve and torment.
And the place where Sinead gave her heart to Hawk.
He parked, cut the engine and reached for her, taking her into his arms and kissing her in an unhurried way because there was nothing left to run from anymore—no mercenaries, no legends, no contracts standing between them. Just the two of them and a future finally, fully theirs to build.
“So,” she murmured against his lips. “What happens now?”
“Now?” He smiled, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Now we figure out our happily ever after. Together.”
His words burrowed deep in her soul, and she knew this was their path. It might be rocky at times, but they had each other, just as they had each other on that mountain.
She kissed him again, more certain of them than anything else in her life…
And ready for their next adventure.