Authors: Desiree Holt
His shoulder was 99 percent and, to him, that was good enough. He’d take care of this little task for Ghost and then go pound on the doc to release him for duty.
He’d been about to watch Chuck Norris’s movie,
Delta Force,
for the twentieth time so he could once again pick out all the flaws when the phone rang and Ghost gave him a reprieve. Now he was headed to someone’s house at ten o’clock at night to do a favor he hoped wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.
There wasn’t much traffic at this time of night, especially in the residential sections, and Gretchen LeBeau’s house wasn’t far from his, so, in little less than twenty minutes, he was pulling into her driveway. He took a moment to check his personal weapon, a Glock 9mm like the one he carried on missions, locked and loaded. When he got out of the car, he tucked it at the base of his spine.
He was glad to see all the outside lights were on. No way to get close to the house without being seen. When he got to the front steps, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number Ghost had given him.
“Hello?”
He cleared his throat. “Ghost sent me.”
He felt stupid, as if he was playing some kind of game. Couldn’t Ghost have given him something a little more sophisticated?
“And your name?”
“Levi St. John. Hawkeye.”
In a moment, he heard the locks being disengaged and then the door opened. “I’m Gretchen. Come in. And thank you for coming so late. I—we—appreciate it.” She stepped aside to let him into the house.
“Sure.” He punched the End Call button.
She was what he’d call a nice-looking girl, with shiny brown hair cut chin-length, a figure with all the appropriate curves, and warm brown eyes that didn’t look quite so warm at the moment. Not his cup of tea, thank god. Ghost would fry his balls if he made any moves on his cousin.
“I don’t know what my cousin told you,” she began, “but it’s really my friend Maddie who’s having the trouble.”
Hawkeye shifted his gaze to the woman sitting on the couch in the great room and every cell in his body stood up and saluted.
Uh-oh and holy shit!
Masses of auburn hair tumbled to her shoulders, framing a heart-shaped face that, at the moment, was paler than a ghost. Thick lashes framed eyes of deep gray, an unusual combination with her hair color. When she stood up to shake his hand, he had to drag his gaze away from her luscious body. The skirt and short-sleeved sweater did little to disguise her mouthwatering figure with its full hips and plump breasts.
What he wanted was more than shaking her hand. He was struck with an overwhelming desire to haul her up against his body, thrust his tongue into her mouth, and taste every delicious inch of it while he slid his hands beneath her sweater and palmed her gorgeous breasts.
Hawkeye had to grit his teeth to keep from sporting an instant boner.
Fuck!
He had more discipline than this. Didn’t he? He was supposed to be here helping a woman in danger, not wishing he could strip her naked and take her to bed. And wouldn’t Ghost just roast his balls if he did that.
“Thank you so much for coming out like this.”
Blink!
The soft voice jarred him back to reality, and he realized Gretchen’s friend was standing there with her hand out, saying something to him in a soft voice like a soothing caress.
“Uh, sure. No problem.” When he took her hand, her palm was like a slide of satin against his.
Get your shit together.
“Why don’t we all sit down, and you can fill me in on the situation.” He’d almost asked for a sitrep before reminding himself this was a civilian situation.
“Let’s go into the kitchen,” Gretchen suggested. “I can fix coffee for all of us.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” He waited for them to precede him. “After you, ladies.”
He watched Maddie carefully as she accepted the coffee from Gretchen and blew a puff of air on the surface to cool it a little. He spotted a slight tremor in her hands, and even the heat of the liquid didn’t put much color back in her face. Other than that, he was pleased at the way she pulled herself together. Even if this had all been blown out of proportion, most women he knew would be flying off the ceiling and crying buckets.
There was something familiar about her, too. Something he couldn’t quite place. Something—
Then it snapped into place in his mind.
“The kid who had a gun in school. You’re the teacher who talked him down off the ledge.”
She glanced at him, and the first traces of color stained her cheeks. “I hate being a celebrity.”
He snorted. “Don’t we all. But that was a brave thing you did. That kid and his parents should be more than grateful to you.”
“They are. I wish people would stop bringing it up.”
“They’ll be talking about it for a long time,” Gretchen reminded her. “Get used to it, babe.”
“Okay.” Hawkeye could see discussing the situation was making Maddie uncomfortable. “Let’s take a look at the current situation. Tell me when the incidents began and how many there have been. And be sure to give me every detail, no matter how innocuous you may think it is.”
It took a while to get it all out on the table. It was obvious Maddie was disturbed by everything and hadn’t a clue as to what brought it on. She was also frightened, and no doubt with good reason.
“Question,” he said. “If they were so careful, what made you think there was a break-in at your house and call the cops?”
“They asked the same thing. They didn’t think taking the picture of my parents was such a big deal. Even kept trying to convince me I’d misplaced it.”
“But you hadn’t.”
“No.” She shook her head. “We don’t really have any relatives, so that picture is very important to me. And….”
“And?” he prompted.
“And little things seemed out of place. A drawer not quite closed. Files on my desk moved. Not much, but enough I felt uneasy about it. I know the police thought I was nuts, but I had the distinct feeling someone had been in my house.”
“In my line of work,” Hawkeye said, “I’ve learned to trust those feelings. Sometimes they’re all you have. Okay, then. The gray car.”
She gave him chapter and verse on that, all the times she’d spotted it, the days she’d sworn it followed her home only to speed up and drive away because there was someone at her house.
“And then, of course, what happened tonight,” she told him.
“The cops tried to tell her she might have misinterpreted. Maybe he was coming up the driveway to talk to her.” Gretchen made a rude sound. “Yeah, right.”
“Not if he blocked you in that way. Tell me about your daily routine.”
He didn’t take notes. He didn’t need to. He’d had plenty of practice etching things onto his brain. Although, sitting next to Maddie Winslow, with erotic electricity popping in the air around them, made it more difficult than usual. If only he could thread his hands through that silken hair, string kisses along the slender column of her neck. Bend her over the couch and—
Shit!
He had to get his head out of his pants. Or hers, more to the point. He was doing a favor for Ghost, who would cut off his balls and grind them up for sawdust if he so much as laid a finger on this woman.
Great. Just great
.
“So what do you think?” Gretchen asked, when they’d finished with the questions and answers. “Are we making mountains out of molehills?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. But I can’t help being curious as to what set all this in motion.”
Maddie frowned. “Could it be what happened at school? Did it set something off? Although, I can’t imagine what.”
“I’ll pull up all the stories on my laptop, all the video footage, and see if there’s anything that sticks out. We’ll start there.”
“But I’m so boring,” she protested. “I teach school. I’m an only child. My parents live in Texas. We moved there when I was two years old.”
“No family outside of them?” Hawkeye frowned. “Not even aunts or uncles or grandparents?”
Maddie shook her head. “I was told both my parents were only children and both sets of grandparents had passed away. My father’s an accountant, and my mother works at the library. Could there by anything more unexciting?”
“I’ve learned never to discount anything. Here’s the deal. For whatever reason, someone wants you. Bad. My job is to focus on two things—keeping you safe and finding out what these people are after. To do that, Maddie, I’m going to have to dig into your background, even though you say there’s nothing there. I have to touch all bases.”
She flapped a hand at him. “Dig away, but I know you won’t find anything.” She pushed away from the table and carried her mug to the sink. “Meanwhile, I should get out of here and let Gretchen get to bed.”
“I’m fine,” Gretchen protested.
“And the correct statement,” Hawkeye said, “is
we
need to get out of here. From now on, we’re joined at the hip.”
She stared at him with those sexy gray eyes that made his body send unwanted messages through his system.
“We are? What do you mean?”
“Tonight, I’ll be sleeping on your couch. In the morning, pack a suitcase with everything you’ll need for a couple of weeks. I’m taking you to my house.”
“What?” She shook her head. “No, that’s—”
“Not negotiable. I gave Ghost my word, and Deltas never break their word.”
“B-but…I have to go to work. I have afterschool activities I supervise. I have—”
“To stay safe.” He blew out a breath. “Look. I’m willing to bet you don’t even have an alarm system at your place. Mine is state of the art, plus I’m fully armed at all times. If whoever this is escalates, you can’t be out there like a sitting duck. Ghost would castrate me if I let anything happen to you.”
“Ouch!” Gretchen shivered.
“Yeah.” He gave a rueful smile. “Ouch indeed.” He stood up and reached for Maddie’s hand. “Please trust me here. Your safety is the first thing to consider.”
She stared into his eyes for so long he began to get itchy. Finally, she nodded.
“Okay. I want to be safe, and you’re the expert.” She turned to Gretchen. “Please thank Ghost for me.”
“You can thank him yourself.” He pressed a speed dial on his cell. “Ghost? She’s here with me.”
He wondered what Maddie thought when he kept his hand on hers the entire time they talked. And when they said good night to Gretchen.
“My car.” She stopped as they were about to bypass it.”
They couldn’t leave it here. They needed to move it. Park it at her house. Move around in his car. That was safest. When he told her, she only balked a little.
”I’ll be right on your bumper all the way to your house.” He grinned. “So don’t run any red lights.”
At last, it seemed he had coaxed a grin out of her.
“Wouldn’t think of it.” She bit her lower lip. “Thanks again, Hawkeye.”
“No sweat. We’ll get to the bottom of this and keep you safe.”
But who was going to keep her safe from him?
Maddie gripped the steering wheel as she drove through the silent residential streets, every molecule in her body alert for the damn gray car. It was hard not to constantly be looking in her rear view and side mirrors. She had to keep reassuring herself Hawkeye was practically kissing her bumper with his and no one would be able to do…whatever with him on her tail. She had never considered herself a nervous person. Even when she’d been talking Jason off the ledge in the classroom, she had managed to put everything aside and concentrate on the task at hand. But that was a known quantity while this was not.
For the life of her, she couldn’t think of why she’d be on someone’s radar. She’d never considered herself anything more than average. There was nothing remarkable about her childhood, nothing different from any of her friends. If her parents were a lot more subdued, kept a lot more to themselves, well, she’d chalked it up to their personalities. She’d never had the usual conflicts her friends had with their parents, although hers did seem a little overprotective. They’d pitched a fit when she told them she was accepting a teaching position in Tampa where her best friend from college lived. Maddie wanted to spread her wings. See more of the country. They’d eventually backed off, but they called and Skyped frequently. As worried as they were, she couldn’t tell them about what was going on.
And what
was
going on? She hoped Hawkeye could help her find out.
At last, they pulled into her driveway. She parked in the garage, and Hawkeye pulled up right behind her, his headlights illuminating the dark interior.
“Step out of the garage, Maddie,” he called as he walked up to the open overhead door.
“What? Why—”
“Just do it, please.”
His voice, hard and uninflected, sent chills up Maddie’s spine. She walked out to the driveway and waited while he checked out every corner of the garage, even looking behind the storage cartons she had stacked in one corner.
“Okay. Wait right here for me.” He grabbed a duffel from his car, walked back to where she was standing, and told her to punch the button to close the overhead door.
“Your car is going to block mine in,” she pointed out.
“We’ll be going everywhere in my car from now on,” he told her.
She stared at him. “You planning to drive me all the time?”
“I am. For as long as it takes. Okay. You let me go inside first.”
It was an order, not a request. Truth be told, she was just as happy to do it. She got a little nervous when he pulled his gun from the small of his back. Then she realized there might be someone inside who also had one, so she stuck as close to him as possible. She followed him inside, pausing in the hallway while he lowered his bag.
“Get behind the couch.” His tone of voice left no room for argument.
She squeezed between the wall and the back of the couch, crouching there, battling a case of nerves while he checked the rest of the house.
“Okay.” He was back in the living room. “Come on out now.”
She eased out from behind the couch to find him standing in the middle of the room. He studied her with an intensity she found unsettling.
“I apologize if I scared you, but I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“No,” she squeaked, cleared her throat, and tried again. “No, you didn’t. I guess I didn’t think someone might be inside waiting for me.”
“Maddie.” He moved forward until he was so close to her she had to look up to see his face. “We have no idea at the moment who this is or what they’re after or what they’ll do. I want to take every possible precaution.”
“Of course.” She shoved her hands into her pockets so he wouldn’t see them tremble. She was safe. With him. She had to remember that, even if she’d just met him tonight. Maddie’s cousin wouldn’t have sent him if he’d thought the man wasn’t up to the task. The problem was, she wasn’t used to having strange men in her house, at least not for some time.
Please don’t let me think about my pitiful dating life right now.
“So we’re okay here?” He blew out a breath. “Forgive me. I’m so used to working with people where we could read each other’s minds. I’m not used to civilians.”
“I know that.” She wet her lips. “And I want you to know how much I appreciate this. It may turn out to be nothing more than my overactive imagination—”
“Don’t do that,” he broke in, his words sharp and edgy. “If Ghost thought that’s what it was, I wouldn’t be here. But he knows his cousin and he trusts her interpretation of things. So I’m here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this. Find who it is and stick them in a cellar ten miles underground.”
Maddie couldn’t stop the smile at the image that conjured up. “Okay. That works for me.”
“Good.” The hard planes of his face seemed to relax an infinitesimal amount. “I know it’s late, but show me where the picture was taken from and the other things you thought were out of place.”
“B-but I fixed all of that.”
“I understand. I want to see everything, anyway.”
He walked through the house with her, a grim, silent presence, taking pictures with his cell phone. He asked questions, nodding at her answers. Finally, they were done.
“Why don’t you show me where I’ll be sleeping. In the morning, we’ll have coffee and go over some of the rules.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Rules?”
“Yes. For keeping you safe.”
By the time Maddie had settled Hawkeye in one of the guest rooms and gotten herself ready for bed, she was as jumpy as she’d been earlier. She didn’t know if it was the aura of danger hovering out of reach or the hot alpha male getting ready for bed in the room across from hers. And that definitely was the best description of him.
Hot. Alpha. Male.
A man who pushed every button in her body. Who sent her hormones such a wakeup message that, since the first contact, her nipples had been hard as stones and the walls of her sex had spasmed with need.
God!
Tall, hard muscled, with a square-jawed face made all the more interesting by the thin white scar on his left cheek, he was every inch the warrior. The five o’clock scruff on his face that by now was more like midnight scruff only added to the look of danger. His body gave off the air of instant readiness, his sharp green eyes assessing every minute. She wondered if that hard-looking mouth ever smiled, or what it would feel like to kiss it.
What? I’m going crazy here. I need to be worried about my safety, not wondering about how great this guy would be in bed.
She couldn’t help it, though. Just looking at him made her nipples tingle and beg for his lips to close around them. The insistent throbbing in her sex pulsed through her body, her panties damp with proof of her desire and need. She, the calm and steady one, had to make a conscious effort to refrain from ripping off her clothes in front of him and jumping onto his cock.
Maybe it was the long dry spell that did it. Or maybe it was easier and safer to fantasize about her new protector than to drive herself nuts trying to figure out who was after her and why. She pulled on her sleep shirt, washed her face and brushed her teeth, and climbed into bed.
And lay there with her eyes wide open.
Damn!
What was the matter with her, anyway? Someone or several someones were trying to intrude into her life, and not for any good reasons. She was grateful both to Gretchen and her cousin, and she felt a lot safer with a Delta Force operative across the hall. She just wished she could stop fantasizing about him.
She slept fitfully, her sleep disrupted by dreams. Dreams of an alpha male with a thin scar on his face, sculpted muscles, his mouth a hard line. In her dreams, he was naked, his magnificent cock standing out from his body, surrounded by a thick nest of curls. He held out his hand to her, and she reached for him, and—
Maddie sat up in bed, yanked from the erotic dream she was having. Damn this was no good. She shuffled to the bathroom to get a glass of water then crawled back into bed, scrunching her eyes shut. But, in the morning, when her alarm went off, she felt as if she hadn’t slept at all.
*****
Hawkeye took advantage of Maddie’s single serving coffee maker to brew a mug for himself as soon as he hit the kitchen. She had told him she was usually up by six o’clock, so he’d gotten himself up earlier to call Ghost. He took his coffee and his phone out on the patio and punched in the number.
“Is it something or nothing?” were Ghost’s first words.
“I’m pretty sure it’s something,” Hawkeye told him. “Maddie Winslow doesn’t seem like the Nervous Nellie type. I don’t think she’s seeing goblins where there aren’t any.”
“I figured. Gretchen’s got a good head on her shoulders. She wouldn’t bother me for some nut job.”
“She’s definitely not that,” Hawkeye assured him.
“What’s your assessment?”
“She’s, ah, nice.” Shit!
Nice
didn’t begin to describe her. He made his voice as noncommittal as possible. “Did you know she’s the teacher who talked that kid with the gun out of shooting his classmates?”
“No. Gretchen left out that little fact. So she’s got smarts.”
“Yeah. I’m going to call Grey Holden this morning. He’s got a hotshot computer genius over at The Omega Team. I thought I’d see if they could give me a hand checking into that kid’s background just in case there was something wonky there. Then I want him to pull everything on Maddie Winslow there is, here and in outer space.”
Ghost was silent for a moment. “Does she know you’re doing that?”
“Yes. I told her in the beginning, and explained why it was necessary. I don’t think this is random, so there is no telling what’s tucked away in her life that was the catalyst. I’ll have them pull everything on her since she’s been in Tampa, but, more than likely, it’s something from her past she doesn’t even think of.”
“And she’d not pissed about it?” Ghost asked.
“I think it’s more important to her that she stay alive. What’s your schedule today?”
“More training exercises. I’ll give you a call when I get a break.”
“Good enough. Later.” He disconnected the call.
Maddie Winslow had definitely been a surprise to him. Maybe he needed to get rid of his stereotypical idea of a teacher. No, what he needed to get rid of were the erotic thoughts of her that had plagued him all night. Images of her naked in front of him, her lips wrapped around his cock, her tongue caressing his thick shaft. Her sitting astride him, his shaft buried deep inside her hot, wet pussy, her hands cupping her breasts as she offered them to him.
For fuck’s sake, he was a Delta. He had discipline. He was on assignment here. He needed to use his big head, not his little one.
As early as it was, he knew someone always manned The Omega Team phones. Grey Holden might not be in yet. Hell, he might not even be in town, but at least Hawkeye figured he could get a message to him.
“Omega.” The voice was abrupt. “State your business.”
Well, okay then. No wasting time.
“This is Hawkeye St. John calling for Grey Holden. It’s important. Please have him call me back. He recited his number twice before he disconnected. He couldn’t do much else besides wait, so he decided to check out Maddie’s house again while waiting for her to get up. He’d done a complete circuit inside and out last night, not happy with what he found. Repeating it in the daylight didn’t make him any happier.
Her small house had a lot to recommend, but safety and protection weren’t on that list. No alarm system, but he hadn’t really expected one. No fencing around the small yard. Entry doors in the front, the back, and the outside wall of the garage. Lots of windows. Thinking about what would have to be done to make it safe for her gave him a headache. He’d have to go to Plan B, whether she liked it or not.
When he went back into the kitchen to refill his mug, he heard sounds from the bathroom indicating Maddie was up. Just as he lifted his mug, his phone chirped at him. The readout said simply
Omega
.
“St. John here.”
“Hawkeye.” Grey Holden’s deep voice rumbled over the connection. “Did you decide to tell me you’ve finished your tour and are ready to join Omega?”
Hawkeye’s laugh had a rusty sound to it. “Not quite yet. But I do have a big favor to ask.”
As succinctly as possible, he outlined the problem.
“What can we do to help?” Grey asked without hesitation.
“I don’t know if I’ll need backup down the line, but right now, I could sure use the skills of your magic computer genie.”
Grey chuckled. “Magic is the word, alright. So let’s have it.”
“If she could do a search for everything surrounding that major episode at Maddie’s school. I can’t imagine how that would prompt anyone to do any of this stuff, but you never know what prompts a crazy.”
“What else?”
“I also want a complete background search on Maddie. There’s a reason the picture of her folks was taken, and I want to know what it is. Every little detail you can find—her, her parents, any relatives you dig up.”
“We’ll get on it. I’ll need to get some information from you first, though. The kind of stuff that can make our job a little easier.”