Page 51 of Leading Conviction
Those words suddenly triggered a spark of hurt in her chest. She frowned, unable to stop her frustration from bubbling up. “Look how that turned out.”
His eyes widened and his jaw dropped just as hers did the same. Her hand flew to her mouth.
“I… I can’t believe I just said that. I’m so sorry—”
“Shh, it’s okay.” Hawk shook his head and cupped her cheek. The sincerity in his gaze was enough to make tears prick in the corners of her eyes. “I… I get it. I hate it, but I get it.” Hawk sighed heavily, the weight of the world and all the emotions in the helicopter no doubt weighing him down more than the Kevlar safety harness ever would. “I have a lot of proving to do and forgiveness to ask for. All I can say is with the information I had, I thought I was doing the right thing at the time. Hell, I wonder now if the whole shooting on the Braves opening day was rigged.”
It was an idea she’d wondered ever since her father threatened her at the scholarship party, but she’d never been brave enough to say it out loud. Before Hawk found her, she thought it was the worst thing her father could’ve ever done, tricking them into separating by orchestrating a shooting at a Braves game, all just to scare Hawk into submission. But now that she’d heard the whole story, well, a simple mass shooting sounded like amateur status. It was hard to imagine anything hewasn’tcapable of.
That day flashed through her memory of Hawk drawing away the shooters so she and Thomas could be safe. Risking his life for her and his best friend without hesitation while they fled to safety. Not only had they not pursued Hannah and Thomas, but from the way the news reported, her “mysterious hero vigilante” had narrowly made it out alive.
“You almost lost everything that day,” she whispered and placed her hand on his heart.
“I lost everything anyway.” The pain in his voice knifed through her, making it hard to breathe as she scanned the sorrow in his face and traced it with her fingers.
“Maybe not everything,” she whispered.
His cheeks rose in a soft grin underneath her touch. In the dim twilight, the faint, fine lines on his handsome dark-sienna skin were invisible, but she could still feel their presence. They were the lines that had been etched every year they’d been separated by her own father, and her entire being ached for the time they’d lost. For the memories they could never have, for the choices they’d both made that further drove them apart in the end.
Butwasit the end?
A buzzing beneath them broke their focus and Hawk grumbled as he dug for his phone and swiped the screen.
He huffed as he saw the message and the glow of the screen in the dusk light made his small smile bright white before he spoke into the mouthpiece.
“Tell him she’ll be down in a minute.” His eyes found hers and his small grin turned sinful with longing mixed in as he brushed her hair off her shoulder. “We had some catching up to do.”
He pocketed his cell phone after the voice memo and sat back again.
“I like your hair. The color suits you.”
She’d just grinded herself to pleasure against his cock and yet his simple compliment gave her butterflies in her belly all over again. She gave him a cheeky grin as she unbuckled him.
“I’m an artist, Hawkins. All colors suit me.”
“Can’t argue with that.” He laughed.
He gathered her close to his chest and hopped them out of the open helicopter frame onto the roof. They walked hand in hand toward the roof door where he grabbed his baseball glove, tucked it underneath his armpit and enveloped her palm in his again. He escorted her down the stairs to the second floor, but when she went to open the door his grip tightened, stopping her.
“Wait…” He tugged her close against his chest. With his arms around her, his glove lay against her back and she rested her hand over his pounding heart. His eyes had a hint of worry in them and the pain twisting her own chest made her feel the same.
He threaded his hand in her loose hair and pulled her by the nape to kiss him. Their lips pressed long and hard in a chaste kiss that still sent her heartbeat throbbing to her already sated core.
When they finally broke away, she stepped back to see yearning on his face that she knew mirrored her own.
“I just… I needed another moment with you,” he explained.
“Was it enough?” she asked with a small smile.
He shook his head. “Never, but I’ll take what I can get.”
Whatever this was, whether it was backsliding in a moment of weakness or the continuation of an epic love story, she wasn’t sure. But her heart was racing with possibility while her mind screamed at her to run while she could.
He’d left her once, and from what she could tell, what he was doing was just as dangerous as when he was in MF7. So what would stop him from leaving her again? She didn’t know if she’d make it if she had to go through that heartbreak a second time. If it hadn’t been for Tommy, she might not have made it the first time.
The sound of her sullen child snapping at an undeterred little girl filtered through the steel stairwell door.
“I don’twantto watch a girl movie. I want to watchSportsCenter. Mom only pays for streaming shows so I haven’t watched it in forever!”
