Page 1 of Out of Reach

CHAPTER ONE

Jude

BAMBAMBAM!

Crouched in the dark closet, Jude jumped as someone pounded on his apartment door. Whoever it was wasn’t leaving, that’s for sure. Was it another crazed druggie after a fix? Or was the scary-looking pimp back again looking for the hookers who lived next door?

Hard to believe that six months ago, Jude had been living in a penthouse in Manhattan without a care in the world. Unfortunately, when he’d dumped his business mogul boyfriend, that life had all come crashing down, along with Jude’s budding career as a top model. These days, Jude struggled to make rent for a shit hole in the seediest district of Brooklyn while working nights in a liquor store.

BAMBAMBAM!

Peering through the inch-wide crack in the closet wall, Jude watched his front door bowing inward with every hit. Any minute and it would break in two. He could call the cops, but his cell phone was in the bathroom; besides, he knew from experience that New York City’s finest avoided calls from this part of town.

He could answer the door and tell whoever it was that they had the wrong apartment, but what if he was met with a gun to the face?

Two days ago, while stacking boxes in the back room at work, he overheard a customer asking his boss if he’d seen someone. Something had told Jude to stay out of sight. When the person had left, he came out of the back and asked Fazal about it.

“He was looking for you, Jude,” his boss had told him in his heavy Pakistani accent. “And I could tell he was a bad man. I lied for you, but I cannot risk falling into trouble with the wrong people. I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go.”

Fired. Just like that. It had takenweeksfor Jude to get that job.

His front door rattled on its hinges, reminding him of his present dilemma, and he backed farther into the corner of the closest, then froze when a voice he hadn’t heard in years yelled, “Jude! Open the door, goddammit! I swear I will break down this goddamn piece-of-shit door if I have to!”

The threat was followed by a fierce kick to the wood, which startled Jude into action.

Catapulting himself out of the closet, he peered through the foggy peephole, thinking he had to be mistaken about the owner of that voice.Hawk couldn’t be here.Focusing, he drew in a sharp breath.

Fuck.

“Jude!” Another kick, this one cracking the wood.

That, and the slightly frantic tone that had crept into the voice, had Jude sliding off the chain and turning the lock. Door open, he stood staring at the man in front of him. Four years hadn’t changed him much. Jude could tell that beneath the dark jeans and navy T-shirt, Hawk had retained his Navy Seal physique. Although his hair was a little longer now, it was still soot black, and eyes as blue as a summer sky stared back at him before his obnoxious personality took over and he pushed his way inside.

“What are you doing here?” Jude asked faintly as Hawk stopped in front of the shabby burnt-orange thrift store couch with stuffing spilling out of the side.

Hawk turned to him, and, suddenly, the memory of how it had felt to be held down and fucked by all that restless energy came slamming into Jude like hard pavement after a jump from a building.

“What the fuck, Jude? What happened?” Hawk demanded.

Feeling like he was dreaming, Jude blinked. “What do you mean?”

“What the hell are you doing in a place like this?” Hawk waved one arm toward the couch and the other toward the shabby curtains, parted to reveal a grimy view of the weather-worn brick wall of the apartment next door.

Cheeks growing hot, Jude tilted his chin in defiance. “I live here.”

Hawk’s gaze moved over the peeling paint on the walls, up to the water-stained ceiling, and back down to the faded gray carpet dotted with cigarette burns. “Jesus Christ,” he murmured under his breath, then, loud and clear, “Pack your bags. You’re coming with me.”

Fists on his hips, Jude scowled at his ex. “What? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“I’m the guy who’s here to save your ass, babe,” Hawk said with the infuriating smirk that Jude remembered too well. “Now pack.”

CHAPTER TWO

Hawk

Jude looked like he hadn’t had a proper meal in months. Oh, he was as beautiful as ever—maybe even more so now that he’d grown into a man, but Hawk didn’t like the way his hipbones jutted out above the tattered blue jeans that looked like they’d been rescued from a dumpster. He’d gone from model thin to gaunt since the last photo spread Hawk had seen of him.

Fucking Sam Prescott. How the fuck had Jude gotten mixed up with that thug?

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