Page 44 of Cease and Desist

“Still, a good high-end hotel will do most of that.” Remy still didn’t get it.

“Maybe, but you’re thinking along strictly legal lines. With the society anything goes. Anything. If you were a bad guy, where would you want to spend your time? Somewhere you know you will be safe, no questions asked. Somewhere your every wish is granted. Somewhere you can let your guard down and say or do whatever the hell you want. They can’t do that at high-end hotels.” His face hardened. He wasn’t going to spell it out any further for her, but she got the message.

She nodded. Her family helped the worst of the worst do whatever they wanted. Revulsion clawed its way up her throat, freezing her from the inside out.

This was a world she wanted no part of.

She met Hawk’s gaze. He was a trained killer. She’d forgotten that, but looking at him now, there was no mistaking it. And as much as she might wish it wasn’t so, his skill was probably the only thing that was going to keep her alive over the next couple of days.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Hawk kept his arms crossed over his chest because if he didn’t, he’d reach out and pull Remy to him. He wanted her safe in the circle of his arms, but his training forced him to be realistic. Having sex with her had been a major mistake. When he most needed a clear head and laser focus, he’d clouded the line. Emotions, including lust, were a big distraction, and they weren’t ever helpful.

That was one of the reasons he was glad that, as a SEAL, he’d never had a wife back home for him to return from a mission. He’d witnessed his team struggle to leave their lives in the US behind. To not think about their wives and kids when it came time to missing anniversaries and birthdays. It was drilled into them that they needed to disengage with life at home, once they got on the airplane that was taking them to their next assignment. Hell, they’d even had to leave wedding rings and family pictures in their gear lockers.

He never wanted to have to struggle like that. Thanks to his fucked up parental situation, he never thought about all those things. He didn’t have anyone to really miss, and that made him fucking good at his job. Like scary fucking good. But it also made him lonely.

Now he needed to be his old self. The calm, focused, cold-as-ice asshole who would get the job done. Emotion would just cost him, and Remy was too dear of a price. He swallowed. “We need to start seriously thinking about where your grandfather could have hidden his token.”

“We don’t even know what it is. How can we look for it?” Remy huffed out a breath. “Plus, everyone has beaten us to the two places I thought he would hide something. Do you think they missed it?”

Hawk rested his ass on the desk. “It’s a possibility, but not likely. I think your grandfather was a smart man. It sounds like he didn’t need to show his token regularly. Only for board meetings. He didn’t have to have it when he let people use the stairs because at most he would have to walk them down. He wasn’t always going in, so it wouldn’t have to be in the shop or his apartment. No, I think he put it somewhere he could retrieve it when he needed it but kept it out of reach in case such a situation arose.”

Remy set her mug on the table next to the bed. “Why do you think he didn’t introduce me to the board?”

Hawk didn’t want to answer that. “I have no idea. He must have had his reasons.” He didn’t know Remy Jr. so he didn’t want to comment on the man’s integrity, but Dragan had said that Remy Jr. would have lost his protection the moment he introduced Remy to the board. Was the old man that selfish? Was it because he had already lost his son and daughter-in-law, so he was super careful with his granddaughter? Keep her out of it as long as possible? Who the fuck knew? And it was pointless trying to figure it out. He’d leave those machinations up to Remy. Now, his prime responsibility was to create a plan of action for them to find the token before it was too late.

“What if someone else finds the token?” Remy asked. “What happens to me?”

Hawk frowned. “I’m not following you.”

“Well, what if we just wait until someone else claims the token and becomes a board member? Then the danger is over, and I don’t have to worry anymore. Maybe that’s what we need to do. Just lie low until the meeting is over and the new board member is put in place.”

“Remy.” He didn’t know how to point this out to her, so he was just going to be blunt. “If you don’t claim the token and the seat on the board, then you’re a loose end. You heard Dragan. No one talks about this society. Do you think they’ll just leave you alone? Logically, it would make a whole hell of a lot more sense to kill you. Then the threat of exposure is over.” He hated even voicing that thought but he had to make it clear to her.

“Also, with you still alive, there’s always the threat that you’ll take the token back. Dragan didn’t say anything about stealing the token. Your grandfather was supposed to be untouchable because he was on the board. No one is supposed to be allowed to kill him, but who knows if they’re allowed to steal the token and then claim a seat on the board.

She blinked owlishly at him.

He continued with his brutal assessment. “You have a target on your back. The only way to get that mitigated is to find that token and claim your seat on the board. Then you’ll be as safe as possible.”

She stared at him. “As safe as possible. You didn’t stop at safe. I’ll never really be safe again, will I?”

With every rebellious fiber of his body, he wanted to tell her that it would all be fine. That she could go back to her normal life. But, logically, he didn’t believe she ever could. To be truthful, he thought what she once considered normal was fading in her rearview mirror. Suddenly, he had a deeper understanding of the decision that her grandfather had wrestled with.

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

It was a lame answer, but he didn’t think she could take any more truth. Her eyes were huge, and she was blinking back tears by the looks of things. Her hands were shaking, and she was struggling to draw a normal breath. He desperately wanted to comfort her, but he wasn’t going to lie. He just wouldn’t do that.

“We need to go over everything you know about your grandfather. Who were his friends besides Gus? Where did he go on a regular basis? What hobbies did he have?”

She let out a long breath and cleared her throat. “I could use more tea and possibly some food.”

She had her hand on her stomach like it was bothering her, but if she wanted food, he’d dig some up for her. She needed to keep her strength up. Besides, he was starving.

“I’ll go downstairs and rustle up something. Do you have any preferences?”

She shook her head.

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