Page 3 of Out of Reach

Hawk, who had turned to start up the sidewalk, obviously expecting Jude to follow him, stopped in his tracks and came striding back. “But Prescott could? Because Iknowa man like that didn’t stand for your sassy mouth. It would be his way or the highway. Or more like the morgue.” He picked up Jude’s suitcase and motioned for him to walk ahead of him.

Yanking his suitcase out of Hawk’s hand, Jude said, “I’m not going with you. If you really think I’m in danger, I’ll go stay with a friend.”

If he had a friend to stay with. Which he didn’t.

Hawk’s big, warm hand curled around Jude’s bicep as he pinned him with a steely gaze. “Prescottwants you dead,” he said quietly. “Now, I’m sorry you don’t want to be in my company, but right now I am the man who is trying to get you off this busy street. Get moving, or I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you to the car!”

He’d do it, too. Jude stalked ahead of him, only for Hawk to quickly catch up, placing himself between Jude and the street.

“Stick by me, you got it?”

Jude nodded. Hawk crowded him as they walked around the corner of the Adult XXX shop, then suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Damn it, would you fucking look at that!” Hawk shouted.

Peering around Hawk’s big frame, Jude saw a silver Ford Focus parked at the curb, stripped of all four of its wheels.

“I take it that’s your rental car,” Jude said.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Hawk muttered, taking his phone out of his pocket. “Stand back here under this awning while I call a cab.”

Jude did as he was told, fuming the entire time until a taxi pulled up and Hawk escorted him into the backseat. It smelled like vomit.

Was it possible that Sam had really put a hit out on him? He shook his head. He just didn’t believe it. Sam might have been a little domineering, but he’d never been mean to Jude. And maybe he was possibly involved in some less than legal activities, but not the kind of things Hawk had said. Jude had been surviving day to day the past few months, not accomplishing much of anything except keeping a roof over his head and at least one meal a day in his belly. Hell, as scrawny as he was getting, at this point he probably couldn’t get a modeling job even if Sam hadn’t blacklisted him. He’d recently come to the realization that he was going to be stuck in that ratty apartment, working a shit job,if he was lucky enough to find one, for the rest of his life. Maybe he shouldn’t be digging in his heels about Hawk taking him out of that situation.

Hawk ducked in after him, his thigh pressing against Jude’s as he sat down.

“Airport,” Hawk told the driver while scrolling through his cell phone before pressing it to his ear.

“Mr. Falcon? I’ve got Jude English with me. Actually, we’re in a taxi. Someone stole the tires off the rental car while I was in his apartment building. Yeah, the corner of Howard and Charter. Okay. We’re on our way to the airport. Thanks.”

“Where are we going?” Jude asked when Hawk disconnected from his call.

“North Carolina. I’m taking you home with me.”

Jude stared at him. “I’m not going to live with you!”

“You’re just going to stay with me for a bit while we figure this out. I live where I work. There’s plenty of bedrooms.”

Slightly mollified, Jude stared out the window at the traffic. All the effort he’d gone to in the past six months to stand on his own two feet for once—flushed down the toilet.

Who are you kidding? You wouldn’t have found a job—it took you three weeks to find the one at the liquor store. You were a couple of weeks tops from blowing guys for cash.

With a sigh, he leaned back and closed his eyes. Maybe he had to go with Hawk, but he didn’t have to talk to him.

CHAPTER FOUR

Hawk

Hawk thought Jude would argue with him some more, but he just leaned back and closed his eyes. And that was worrying. He didn’t like listening to Jude bitch when Hawk was only trying to help him, but he liked the resigned look currently on Jude’s face even less. When they’d first met, Jude had been barely eighteen while Hawk had been in his late twenties. They’d met in Detroit at a club. Hawk was filling in for a friend as a bartender while on leave with the SEALS, and Jude appeared at the bar wearing leather pants and a fishnet shirt, trying to buy a drink. Hawk had carded him. Instead of looking sheepish and walking away, Jude had flirted outrageously with Hawk. And when that hadn’t worked, he’d stuck his chin in the air and argued. Hawk had the bouncer escort him out.

The next time they met was close to a year later. Jude was working as a barista at the coffee shop near Hawk’s apartment. Hawk was home on leave and stopped in for a cup of coffee on his way to the bank. While Hawk perused the menu, Jude looked him over. Hawk wore what he almost always wore—camo pants and a tight black T-shirt. He hadn’t recognized Jude from their short encounter at the club a year before, but Jude recognized him.

“I know you! You’re the bartender who had me thrown out ofLeo’slast year.”

Hawk didn’t immediately know what the kid was talking about, but after about a minute of listening to him run his mouth about what a jerk Hawk had been to him, it all came back. After that, until his next deployment, Hawk would run into Jude daily, either at the cafe or on his morning run, or sometimes right outside Hawk’s building. Hawk wasn’t stupid. He knew the kid was doing it on purpose. But it was kind of flattering. Jude was a really cute guy, although Hawk was too old for him. And he made that plain, but he didn’t tell Jude to scram. Hawk got the idea he didn’t have much of a home life, and then he found out that Jude was basically living on the street.

That was when Hawk invited him to stay with him—in the extra bedroom, of course. Not that Jude didn’t try to get into Hawk’s bed, but when Hawk told him flat out that he was welcome to stay there, even when Hawk had to be deployed, but only if he stopped hitting on Hawk, Jude started towing the line.

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