Shadow Hawk

19

Cheyenne Memorial Hospital

LOGAN OPENED HIS EYES WITH some trepidation, but to his relief the blazing pain in his head had faded to a dull throbbing.

He could live with that.

Another thing he could live with? The woman curled up at his side.

Callen had stayed. Well, mostly because she hadn’t wanted him to leave the hospital, but he knew it was more than that. Any woman who held his head while he tossed his cookies on a helicopter, risked her job to hide him, then played strip poker just to make him listen to her, was interested in more than just a patient/nurse relationship.

Or so he hoped. He stroked a hand down her side and she jerked straight up, eyes clear. “You hurting?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Leaning in, frown in place, she put a hand to his forehead, but he took it in his and brought it to his chest.

There. That felt slightly better. But he wanted to pull her entirely inside him. “Here. I hurt here.”

Still frowning, she yanked his hospital gown down to stare at his chest, her fingers running softly over his skin. “I don’t see anything. Let me call the doctor-”

“No, it’s not that kind of injury. Listen, Hawk’s going to call-”

“He already did. He’s coming for you. But-”

“No buts. We won’t have time for this once he gets here, and before I go-”

“If you’re in pain, we should rethink you going at all.”

“Before I go,” he repeated, “and make a really big fool out of myself here, I just want to ask you something. About last night.” He met her gaze. “It was different, right? I mean, for you, too-”

“I’ve never been with a patient like this before, if that’s what you’re asking.” Callen looked down at their clasped hands. “Never. In fact, I haven’t…with anyone…in a long time. I haven’t met anyone that I wanted-I’ve been working a lot, and-” She bit her lip and shook her head. “No, those are lies. A year ago I got out of a long relationship, and I haven’t wanted to risk my heart again.”

“Makes perfect sense, since I feel the same way. Or did, until about twelve hours ago.”

“Logan-”

“Look, I know this is ridiculously fast, but I’ve just got to tell you, before today goes straight to hell-”

“No. No going straight to hell. No going anywhere.”

“Actually, yes, I am. With Hawk, but-” He blinked, as he realized something. “I’m not in the same room as before.”

“No.”

His old room had been white, stark and smelled sterile. This one had soft pastel painted walls and different equipment-very different. Stirrups, for one. Huh. “Where am I, Callen?”

“I moved you. You’re under a different name, on a different floor. Hawk’s idea.”

Good. It didn’t matter where he was, as long as he got out to help Hawk. “I’ll need clothes.”

“Logan, this is crazy. You’re crazy.”

“Crazy. Yes. Crazy for you. You should know, I have no idea where this thing is going between us. I only know that I don’t want it to end when I leave here.”

“Oh.” She breathed this softly, with no hint of whether that was a good or bad oh. So he swallowed hard and did the only thing he could, which was lay it all out for her.

“I want to see you again after this is over.”

“You want to see me again.”

“Tonight, if possible.”

“Tonight.”

“And tomorrow. And the next day. And-”

“I…get the idea.”

“But do you like the idea?”

Her smile warmed his heart. “Okay, but Logan? I’m coming with you-”

“No. No way.”

“You’ll need a nurse. Especially one with access to stimulants that can keep you on your feet long enough to get somewhere safe, and take care of you when you collapse after they wear off.”

“No, Callen. I’m not risking you.”

She let it go while she brought him clothes. And when he saw what she brought him, he shook his head. “Hell, no.”

“If the entrances and exits are being watched…” She smiled cajolingly. “A brand new momma is the perfect disguise to get you out of here undetected.”

Logan stared at the huge tent dress, wig and bag of makeup. “Fuck me.”

She grinned. “Ah, honey. Maybe later. But for now, let’s pimp you up.” She helped him pull the huge dress over his head, fussing with it, then standing back to admire it.

He shook his head. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Uh-huh.” She placed a dark blond frizzy wig on his head that made him look like a white RuPaul. “Cherry or strawberry?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Lip gloss.”

“Uh-”

“Strawberry,” she decided, and stepped between his legs to apply the makeup.

His hands went to her hips and he pulled her in snugly, or as snug as she could get with his cast up to his thigh. It wasn’t close enough. He spread his legs wider and let his hand slide down her back to squeeze her ass.

“Well.” Callen laughed. “I’ve never been come on to by a woman before.”

“It’s different for me, too, believe me.” He let his hand slip into her scrubs, then beneath the edging of her panties.

Her breath caught. “It feels kinky.”

He’d like to show her a whole bunch more kink but not in a damn dress, that was for sure.

Then she brought him a mirror and he stared at the female version of himself.

He was the ugliest woman he’d ever seen. “I can’t believe you let me touch you.”

She snorted, then pulled out a wheelchair.

“Uh-uh. I don’t need-”

She shoved a wrapped bundle into his arms. He stared down at the fake baby. “Okay, this is weird.”

“What, the clothing?”

“No. The baby. I’ve never really seen myself with kids.”

“Never?” She crouched to add booties over his very male feet.

“I guess I never figured myself as the kind of guy who’d settle down and have a woman love him enough to give him a kid.”

Callen glanced up into his face, her hand on his thigh. “You know what that means, right?”

“No, what?”

“That you’ve never been with the right woman.”

He stared into her eyes, and suddenly found his throat tight. “Is that right?”

Gaze latched on his, she slowly nodded.

“So would you have any idea where I’d find the right woman?”

Her eyes went suspiciously shiny, but she only smiled.

Abby’s condo complex

“I THINK I KNOW WHERE Gaines is,” Abby told Hawk. “He’s got another piece of property he doesn’t tell people about, an upscale ranch house about thirty minutes from here.”

Hawk absorbed this as they quickly moved back through the gate and along the path, her laptop tucked beneath his arm, her gun in his waistband. He kept one hand free as they headed to the SUV, watching all the angles, his expression dangerous.

She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Somehow she’d been caught up in this perilous game between two men capable of doing whatever they needed done. Just days ago she’d have said she didn’t trust either of them fully.

But she couldn’t say that now. Scary as Hawk seemed as he led her back to the relative safety of the SUV, she knew the truth.

She trusted him with her life. “Hawk.”

He opened the driver’s side and urged her in. “Yeah?”

She waited until he’d pulled out of the parking lot. “Do you remember the first thing I said to you last night?”

He sped down the road. “The part about you trusting a rat’s ass before you could trust me?”

“Um, yeah.” She winced. “That.” They’d both been Gaines’s victims. But no longer. “I’ve changed my mind.”

He glanced at her with an arched eyebrow. She’d surprised him.

“I can trust you. With anything.”

“Hold that thought,” he said, and whipped them onto a side construction road so fast her hand slapped on the dash. He steered them behind a cluster of trees and yanked on the brake.

“What are you doing?”

“This.” Hauling her to him, he covered her mouth with his.

Yeah, this. This was what she needed. She sank into the kiss, wrapping her arms around him, running her hands up and down his back, over his shoulders, up his neck into his hair, everywhere she could reach. She couldn’t get enough of touching him. In this spinning, out-of-control world, he’d become her anchor, her rock.

And given the way he clutched at her, his own hands fighting with hers for purchase, skimming up her sides, her spine, then back to the front, beneath her shirt now, skin to skin, he felt the same way. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.” His lips brushed her skin.

“It won’t.” She cupped his face as he gently set his forehead to hers. They stayed that way a moment before Hawk drew a deep breath and lifted his head to look into her eyes.

He’d shifted gears already, and she took a moment to catch up.

“Abby.”

She sighed.

“Gaines’s ranch. Can you tell me where it is?”

“That would be a really bad idea.”

“Or a really good one.”

She understood the problem. Without ever wanting to, she’d become his soft spot, his Achilles’ heel. Whether she was with him by choice or not didn’t matter to Gaines, that she was with him at all made her a problem. A dispensable one. If he didn’t get to Gaines, Gaines would likely get to him. And her. “I can draw you a map,” she admitted.

“Good.” Hawk punched some numbers into her cell phone. “Callen? Is he ready?” He listened, and his brow raised as he glanced at Abby. “I can talk to him? Great, thanks.” There was a pause. “God, Logan, are you ever a sound for sore ears-”

His voice was so husky with emotion, she felt her throat tighten.

“Are you sure you’re up for this, Logan, because-yeah, I hear you. Jesus, am I glad to hear you.”

Abby looked out the window, concentrating on breathing as she listened to their reunion. They spoke in short, clipped sentences that spoke of the longtime ease between them, and an ability to guess what the other was thinking.

She’d never had a relationship like that in her entire life, because she didn’t open up. She had started to with Gaines, and look what had happened. He’d set her up to be tortured.

How was she supposed to ever trust her judgment again?

She peeked at Hawk, still talking to Logan. He was trying to line up a secure place to dump her. Was she going to let him do that?

“I want her safe.”

The words did something to the cold spot in her heart. The truth was, in spite of herself, she had learned to trust again. She knew Hawk was innocent. She knew he cared about her, and the knowledge warmed her in a way she’d never experienced.

She wished they were still at the B &B and she was back in his arms, where everything was okay as long as he kept holding her. Because with him, no matter what was going on, she felt safe. “Hawk, I’m staying with you.”

Eyeing her, he said into the phone, “Are you sure, because Christ, Logan-yeah. Okay. We’ll be right there to get you. Yeah, ‘we.’” With a sigh, he closed the phone and reached behind him for her laptop, which he handed to her. “Serial numbers.”

“What’s the matter?”

He shook his head. “In a minute. Look up the serial numbers.”

She started up her computer and her e-mail program automatically opened. On a hunch, Abby opened some old files, then leaned back and shook her head.

“What?” Hawk leaned over her to try and see.

“You said you shot Gaines on that raid eighteen months ago.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t know it was Gaines at the time.”

“I didn’t come to suspect so until later, no.”

“Eighteen months ago he took a one-month leave.” She flipped through several e-mails from him from that time. “Emergency appendicitis.” She looked at him. “Too bad I don’t believe in coincidence.” Feeling overwhelmed by how big this was, she rubbed her hands over her face. “My God.”

He reached for her, but she straightened and shook her head. Not the time to fall apart. “The serial numbers.” While she pulled up another file, he grabbed the confiscated rifle and read her the number.

Abby’s stomach thumped as she matched it to her list. “It’s here. Now tell me what Logan said to put that look on your face.”

“Tibbs called again. They know the body wasn’t Gaines.”

Their eyes met. “Then who?”

“Watkins.”

“Oh, my God.” So Gaines had killed one of his own. Knowing it rammed home another certainty-Gaines would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

“Gaines had Logan pushed off that roof to kill him,” Hawk told her. “He needs us dead.”

“Which is a very good reason not to go to his ranch.”

“Or to go.” There was knowledge in his eyes and acceptance.

Oh, God. He was going there to end this, one way or another, for her. So she’d be safe. “Hawk,” she said. “You are not going to go there to die.”

“Not me, no.”

He sat there, so serious, so determined, she felt her heart just give in. From the very beginning he’d evoked myriad emotions from her-annoyance, lust, more annoyance, awe, affection, the ever-popular annoyance…and now, love. “We need to go to Tibbs.”

Hawk let out a low laugh. “So he can hold me while they sort this out?”

“He won’t-”

“He would, yes. That’s his job. We’ll call him, but when it’s too late to stop me from finishing this with Gaines.” His eyes were hard, his voice tight. “Which we do today.”