Chapter 33
33
She blurted it out to him before it was too late. Before he could respond, the doors opened. Was he upset with her for telling him? She and Hawk stared out into the hallway, but neither of them spoke. Neither of them moved to exit the elevator.
Hawk leaned in close to her ear. “You’re going to live to share this information yourself.”
A white-coated physician and a nurse in purple scrubs rushed to catch the elevator, and Hawk and Remi stepped off. As she walked next to Hawk in silence, he picked up the pace. Easy for him with such long strides, but she had to work to keep up with him. They exited the hospital into the parking garage.
Hawk suddenly moved behind a column and pulled her with him.
“What are we doing?” she whispered.
“Someone was looking at our ride.”
“What?”
“I recognized him.”
Remi had been too preoccupied to notice. “John’s security detail?”
“I assumed he was. I saw him talking to two men standing outside John’s door, including Banks. But I could have gotten it all wrong.”
“What do you think he was doing?”
“If he’s with John’s team, then he could have been trying to make sure it was safe and no one had bothered it.”
“Or if he wasn’t with John’s team, he could have tampered with it.” She wouldn’t say the word bomb .
John wanted her alive for the intelligence he suspected was hidden away in her brain. But someone else wanted her silenced for that same reason. Her pulse kicked into overdrive. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ll look it over.”
After making sure the guy was gone and no one else was lurking and watching, they rushed forward to the vehicle. Hawk checked beneath it—looking for a bomb or a tracker? She wasn’t sure. He gave her a thumbs-up.
What did that mean? He found something or he hadn’t found anything?
But when he opened the door for her, she knew it was all clear. She climbed in and Hawk shut the door. While he moved around to the driver’s side, she glanced at her cell to read a text that had just come through. Earlier, she’d texted Jo the burner phone number. Jo would receive it whenever she got a bar. Hawk wouldn’t be happy, but Remi couldn’t remain unreachable to her staff. She managed the lodge, after all. They hadn’t prepared for her sudden disappearance during the height of storm-watching season. So, she’d asked Jo to give her updates, and finally Remi got one. She quickly read the text.
What could it mean?
Hawk opened the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. “I sent Gordo a text letting him know we’re on our way.”
He started the vehicle and adjusted the temperature, then just stared at the rearview mirror. No shifting gears into reverse. No backing up.
“What are we waiting for?”
“I’m thinking.”
And he was watching. What would she do if she didn’t have Hawk with her in this? She shuddered to think of going through this alone. But she’d been followed before and had disappeared on her own, or so she had thought. Maybe being alone would make it easier to go completely off-grid. Then again, she would not choose that for herself. Besides, she really liked Hawk more than she should, and maybe she was getting much too close to him for her own good. But this involved his brother. She owed it to him to let him make that decision, that call, for them to go their separate ways whenever that needed to happen.
With the thought, she realized how much time she’d given up and the relationships she’d avoided. She’d avoided romance, declined invitations to dinner because she couldn’t afford to get too involved. Her proximity to Hawk screamed that reminder every day she was with him. And she’d given up much more than relationships all because she’d taken a picture of Sergei.
That her need to see the world and expand her horizons—write a travel blog—had landed her in Hidden Bay, hiding from the world, was pure irony.
But if she had to hide, she couldn’t think of a better place.
The one thing she had going for her was that no one except Hawk knew what she knew, but evidently it was enough to suspect she held on to those secrets. Still, she could keep playing dumb about the events until the time was right to share.
She stared out of the parking garage at the constant rain.
Finally, Hawk backed out of the slot and steered slowly through the busy garage. Hospital staff both exited and entered the facility. Afternoon shift-change time. Patients and their caregivers walked slowly to their cars or entered the hospital. Had he simply been waiting for the activity in the garage to pick up before they exited? Behind a line of departing cars, Hawk turned out of the parking garage onto the street, went through a light, and then merged onto the freeway choked with heavy traffic. They hadn’t discussed where they would go so she could be safe while waiting to hear from John, but she had an idea.
He swerved out of the way of a vehicle switching lanes. “I never liked the traffic here.”
“How about we get lost in the rainforest?” She chuckled. I sound hysterical.
“Funny. I think I’ve had enough of traipsing through the cold woods during this storm system. Let’s not do it again.”
Yeah, she didn’t want to land there either. She was so tired of running and hiding. “Hawk, I know what to do.”
“I’m listening.”
“You’re not going to like it,” she said.
“We’ll never know until you tell me.”
“I need to go back to Hidden Bay.”
He jerked the wheel. “You’re kidding.”
Had he swerved to avoid another vehicle, or was that just a physical knee-jerk reaction to her statement?
“I’m not, actually. John said I need to relax and take my time to recall details. I’m not going to feel comfortable until I’m back there on the rugged coast. I keep going back to what Sergei said, thinking about it. He thought he was a good guy doing the right thing, but he would be labeled a traitor.”
“And?”
“I need perspective. So much about this isn’t making sense to me. Isn’t adding up in my head. I just have this gnawing feeling in the back of my mind.”
“I understand needing perspective. But the lodge isn’t exactly the safest place for you right now.”
“You heard John. Cole is in custody. You can let him know where we’re going, and he can have people waiting when we get there. How about that?”
He grunted.
“Look. I know my way around better than anyone. It’s my home turf—at least it has been for two years.” And she might call it home forever if given the chance. “You saw the photographs of the waves that I took. The ones with the faces?”
“Yep. I’d love to ask you more about them. Like how in the world did you get them. But more importantly at this moment—what do they have to do with our situation?”
“Patience. And perspective. Do you know the difference between an amazing photograph and just a boring image?”
“Other than one is amazing and the other is boring, not really.”
She laughed. “To capture an image that stirs emotion, you can’t look at things at just eye level. You have to move around and look at things from different angles.”
“I get what you’re saying. But why do you think we need to look at things from a different angle? There’s nothing more to figure out here. You’ve remembered. Now you just have to tell the right person.”
“Do you really think it’s that simple?”
He sighed. “There’s more going on here, but I’m not sure it’s for us to worry about. Regardless, how will going back to the lodge give you a new perspective?”
Yeah. About that. “Jo texted me with an update.”
“Wait. We got burner phones, and you passed that number to someone else? Brilliant.”
“I’m responsible for that place,” she said. “Jo isn’t going to share the number with anyone.”
“You’re not responsible to manage the lodge when your life is threatened.” He practically growled. “Your friends and employees can pick up the slack.”
“And I appreciate that. But just listen, will you? I’m glad she got my text and was able to respond.”
“Get to the point.”
Right. He was right. She dreaded telling him the rest. “I got another one of those packages.”
“Package with the puzzle piece?” His jaw working, Hawk stared straight ahead. “All the more reason you shouldn’t go back.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.”
“If you really believe Cole sent the package and is asking you to remember, then it’s just a strategy to lure you back to the lodge.”
“How do you know? Okay, maybe I’m wrong and Cole isn’t the one behind it. That was just a working theory. Whoever sent it might not even realize that I’m not there at the moment. So we need to go back. If it’ll make you feel better, you can let John know so he can send assistance. I understand why you trust him, and I don’t blame you. I’m not asking you not to trust him, but whatever we do, let’s just be careful.”
Let’s. As if they were a team. Because they had been working together. Hawk had saved her and helped her. Part of her kind of hoped he would remain with her now even though his brother was incarcerated. Weird to admit that was true. But she might be fooling herself believing that Hawk thought of her as more than a means to an end.