Page 27 of Leading Conviction
“But Hawk! What if he gets hurt?”
“Then don’t let his sacrifice be in vain. Let’s go!”
He didn’t wait for her to respond. Instead, he hauled Hannah up and clumsily sprinted with her toward the closest exit. When he glanced back to check on his friend, Hawk’s recklessness made Eagle’s heart hammer impossibly harder in his chest.
The man who always played by the rules was breaking all normal protocol, not bothering to take cover as he shot out in the open, hopping dangerously through the rows, and obviously doing everything and anything he could to draw away the attackers to keep Hannah safe.
Eagle dragged his gaze away to focus on escaping and concentrating on getting them to the lower ground level. When he navigated Hannah toward the stairs, he whisked her down them, three at a time, and raced through the last rows.
A metal guardrail stood between them and the lowest level. Hannah yelped as he plopped her onto the other side without warning before leaping over the railing himself.
The ground-level exit was feet away, and he half carried her again through it until they ran smack into a stampeding crush of people trying to flee. Instead of fighting through the crowd toward the main exit, Eagle shoved across to a discreet employee exit on the other side, both thanking and cursing the fact that Hawk’s paranoia panned out. Eagle had thought he was a lunatic for making them memorize all the exits, but he was sure as fuck grateful now.
A pang of guilt sparked in his chest. Eagle had been the one to convince Hawk to go through with the stadium proposal. He’d told Hawk it would be safe.
“Leave it to me to be wrong as fuck,” Eagle muttered.
“What?”
He shook his head at Hannah’s question. “Nothing. Come on, this way.”
He tugged her through the door and pulled her to the rendezvous point, a bench on a sidewalk close enough to the stadium that the building provided cover. The small patch of pavement probably served as an employee break area, but it would be their sanctuary for now.
Once they arrived, he dropped Hannah’s hand and crouched to his knees, trying to catch his breath and bearings.
This was all his fault.
The whole reason why Eagle had insisted the proposal be at the Braves game was because he’d promised himself this would bethemoment. The do-or-die game-time decision where Eagle would either have the courage to stop the proposal and tell his best friend’s girlheloved her, or he’d realize his feelings had nothing to do with loving the girl and everything to do with the dream of being loved.
Logically, he knew Hannah would never choose him. She’d been in love with Hawk from the day they’d met.
But Eagle wanted what Hawk had and Eagle had promised himself he would at least try.
And he hadn’t.
He’d sat there, a torturous blend of happiness and despair swirling inside him as his best friend made his own dream come true.
“Who were those guys?” Hannah asked, still huffing for breath beside him. Her black hair had flown out of her side braid, and her forehead glistened with perspiration.
Eagle shook his head but Hannah didn’t let it go. She was like a dog with a bone when she was onto something and she’d always been able to run all over him. Only Hawk could make her relax when she was riled up. Hawk was her port in the storm and Eagle was just the rocks keeping her from safety.
“You guys said they were a ‘job?’ What does that mean?”
Eagle cringed at her words. She might’ve been one of his best friends and now that she was potentially at risk in all this, she might’ve even deserved to know the whole truth, but instead of explaining it to her, he took the coward’s way out.
Like always.
“You’ll have to ask him, Hannah. Right now isn’t the time.”
Hannah fixed her angry eyes on him and frowned, but a siren on the other side of the stadium pierced the air, making her jolt. Her narrowed gaze widened as she seemed to recognize that they weren’t out of the woods yet. Instead of arguing, she stared at the door they’d just barreled through, worry now replacing frustration.
“Do you think he’s okay?” she whispered, twirling the brand-new ring on her left hand.
Its royal-blue sapphire emerald-cut stone was flanked on each side by a smaller aquamarine gem and a diamond. The sparkling combination of blue with the gold band complemented her gorgeous warm-olive skin. Beautiful and understated. Bright and unique. It was perfect.
Eagle’s heart ached at the sight, but he had no way of knowing whether it was because the woman he loved was yet another step away from ever being his, or because the love ofherlife might be gone already, and he was doing jack shit to help.
But if Hawk is gone, then maybe I have a shot with Han—
