Chapter 22
GAGE
Hawke Tower rises above me dozens of stories.
Fog and inky clouds hang around the upper floors, blocking my view from the street, but I know what waits in the penthouse.
This is the only place they would have brought her. The most secure and defensible position in their empire. Where they’ve kept Allegra locked up since it became evident her father knew about her pregnancy and would probably be returning for her.
I knew this is where I needed to come to find Bishop.
And I know what I’ll be walking into.
A firing squad…
I tug open the glass doors, and the moment I step into the lobby, four guns are pointing directly at me.
The security team I was introduced to as a coworker not that long ago now stares me down as if I’m the enemy. Because, to them and the Hawkes, I am. Because everyone now believes what Bishop does…
That I was responsible for the bomb.
That this entire time I’ve been working to infiltrate their family and their organization, just to get close, just to have access to create that pain and chaos.
It doesn’t matter that none of it is true.
She believes it is; so will everyone else. Including these men who are paid very well to protect the Hawkes against any and all threats.
I raise my hands. “I’m unarmed.”
The huge former police officer who has been put in charge of the Hawke Tower security force steps forward and re-holsters his gun. Hard, distrustful eyes sweep over me as he approaches. Tony has been with them a long time. One of the reasons he’s here today, because they trust him.
I held that same trust only hours ago.
But it shattered so badly there’s no way to ever piece it back together.
He pats me down to ensure I’m not carrying, then stands in front of me with a scowl that would intimidate just about anyone.
If I care at all about my own safety at this point, I might be more worried, but I stopped giving a shit about that the second I found Bishop in that room.
The moment she looked at me like I was a complete stranger instead of the man she so desperately needed last night, I knew there was no point in pretending anymore, no point in anything anymore.
Not if I can’t have her.
“I need to speak with them.”
Tony snorts incredulously. “What makes you think I’d allow you anywhere near the Hawkes?”
It’s a good question. One I would ask if I were in his place today and was told there was a traitor in the security team. A man he himself worked with only days ago.
“Because I have answers they need.” I hold out my hands. “You can cuff me.”
He raises a brow, examining me carefully for a moment before he retreats to snag his radio from the counter. “Mr. Clarke?”
Saint responds to his call immediately, having no doubt been watching and listening through the surveillance feed since the moment I pulled up outside. “Send him up. Cuffed.”
Hearing those words shouldn’t be such a huge relief, but if he had sent me away, or worse yet, had me taken somewhere remote to be dealt with another way, there would have been nothing I could do to try to save them.
To try to save her.
At least now, there’s a chance.
I put my hands behind my back and turn so that he can easily apply the cuffs. He slaps the metal on them. Tightly. Intentionally securing them so the metal digs into my skin. But it isn’t anything I haven’t experienced before, and the small bite of pain isn’t anywhere near what I deserve right now.
All I can do is pray they listen.
Tony grabs my bicep, tugs me into the elevator, then releases me and uses his hand to conceal the keypad and punch in the code for the penthouse, which I’m sure they’ve now changed since I had the old one.
They’re no doubt scrambling to revamp their entire security structure since I not only know it all, but even made suggestions for changes they recently implemented.
Everything was supposed to make them safer, which is part of why this guy is glaring at me on the ride up like I betrayed him personally.
But there’s only one person I truly betrayed.
One person whose trust I decimated.
Not to mention what I did to her heart…
Fuck.
My chest tightens again thinking about that look on her face at the shop, how quickly I became the enemy and not the man who had just cared for her, who had shown her how incredible it could be to let go of the things she clung to so tightly.
God, I really fucked this up.
I knew this would be hard, but one thing I never accounted for was what walking in and seeing that look again will do to me.
Nothing can prepare me for it.
The ding that signals us reaching the penthouse makes me cringe, and my escort grabs my arm again and drags me out and into the hallway that contains two doors: one to the left, one to the right.
Even if Atlas is home, he wouldn’t be at his place. They would have told him what happened by now. The Hawke flock will be together, unless they made a decision to limit everyone’s exposure—which could certainly be the case.
Saint might have moved most of them to a location I’m not familiar with, some place I could never find.
If he took Bishop there instead of here…
If I’m wrong…
We move to the door on the left, and someone inside opens it for us. Before I can even take a step, I’m shoved forward by a forceful hand on my back. Stumbling, I fall to my knees on the hard floor, barely managing to maintain my balance enough to avoid ending up face-first on it.
But maybe that would have been better.
I wouldn’t have had to see the furious eyes staring back at me.
It isn’t just Saint. Caroline, Isaac, Stone, Kennedy, and Cass all glare at me from their places around the open living room. But there is only one set of eyes I search for.
Those smoky bourbon ones I love so damn much…
I find them in the back corner, where she leans against the wall, tucked away near the fireplace as if she wanted to put as much space between us as possible and make herself as small as possible.
And it isn’t just hatred and anger that burn in her gaze.
It’s utter betrayal.
And that’s so much worse.
For someone like Bishop, who spent her entire life with walls built around herself and her heart, who helped erect them around her family to ensure they were always protected, finding out the one person she let in has been lying to her is the ultimate treason.
Something you never come back from.
Her heart has been crushed beyond repair, and my own shatters seeing her like this.
Trembling.
Curled in on herself as if she doesn’t have the strength to even stand on her own.
Terrified of what she’s done to the people she loves so deeply and for whom she sacrificed so much.
The door clicks closed behind me, sealing me in with the people who have every right to want me dead, even though all I’ve ever done has been to try to save them.
Saint steps into my line of sight, blocking my view of Bishop, an unmovable wall of hostility. “You don’t get to look at her.”
I struggle to get to my feet from my kneeling position with my hands still secured behind me, but I somehow manage it, swaying slightly when I do. “You need to let me explain.”
Bishop’s father shakes his head, dark eyes flashing almost black. “I don’t have to let you do anything.”
“Please.” I squeeze my eyes closed, picturing that room, how scared she was standing in it. “I know what she saw, and I know what she probably told you”—I glance back up—“but I can explain.”
It’s Caroline who steps forward next to her husband, her arms crossed over her chest. The woman may be tiny compared to Saint, but she’s just as intimidating with her current look.
Maybe even more so.
I always thought Bishop took after him since she chose his line of work, but seeing Caroline now, I’m starting to think I was wrong.
This little woman is terrifying.
“We don’t need to hear more lies from you, Gage. If that’s even your real name…”
I flinch. “It is, but I’m not who you think I am.”
Isaac glares at me from where he stands near Bishop beside fireplace and snorts. “No fucking shit.”
The hostility is more than warranted.
From all of them.
I so badly want to let my gaze drift over to hers, to look into her eyes while I plead with all of them to listen to me and believe what I’m about to tell them, but if I try, Saint will make sure I don’t have the opportunity to offer them the answers they need.
“First, you need to understand something.” I cut my gaze from Isaac to Stone where he sits on the couch, then to Kennedy and Cass. “I had nothing to do with the bomb that hurt Gabe and Savage. Nothing.”
Kennedy sits on a high barstool at the kitchen counter and starts to slide off it, like she’s going to come at me, but Cass wraps an arm around her waist, holding her back. “How the fuck can we believe you after what Bishop saw?”
“She’s right.” I stare down the woman primed to become the head of Hawke Enterprises when her father and uncles finally retire and hope she can see the truth in my eyes.
“Everything I had in that room was for making bombs. And I have been following all of you for months. But not for the reason you think.” I swallow thickly, trying to dislodge the nerves threatening to choke me.
“I don’t work for Satriano. I don’t work for Michael McDonald… ”
The words of warning from my call earlier echo in my head, reminding me exactly what’s at stake if I continue down the road I’ve already stepped onto by coming here to offer the Hawkes an explanation.
“If you do that, you’re a dead man…”
It doesn’t matter, though.
My life stopped meaning anything to me when it became clear that I might lose Bishop forever.
“I’m not the enemy.” Even though I shouldn’t. Even though I’m risking the wrath of her father, I lock gazes with Bishop across the room. “I’m CIA.”
She doesn’t react.
It’s as if I didn’t say anything.
Not a blink. Not a gasp of surprise. Not so much as a breath taken.
She just stands there, staring at me but not seeing anything.