Shadow Hawk Read online

  She slanted him a baleful stare.

  “Okay, name it,” he challenged her. “Name a lie I’ve told.”

  Clearly unable to, she turned her head away.

  “Okay, fine. Great. Don’t talk to me. Just promise me that you won’t scream for help.” He unzipped a small pocket on his outer thigh, pulling out a key. “Promise me, and I’ll uncuff you.”

  At that, she leveled him with a furious look. “So now you want me to lie?”

  “Fine.” He tucked the key away again. “We’ll do this the hard way. Why the fuck not? We’ve done everything else that way all damn night.”

  She went back to her stony silence, and he was back to talking to himself. “I’m going to slide out. You’re going to sit in the driver’s seat and give me as much slack as you can while I pump gas.”

  She didn’t answer, big surprise. He reached for the door, then let out a breath at the renewed pain in his chest.

  Abby looked at him, her gaze darkening with what he sincerely hoped was a tiny bit of sympathy. Some of her hair had slipped free of its bond, falling in silken curves around her face, framing those eyes he could look at all day.

  “The effects shouldn’t last much longer,” she said.

  He wasn’t sure why, but something turned over inside of him, and it was all he could do not to haul her close and kiss her again, just hold onto her until this nightmare was over. Except she was sending out serious back-off signals, so he got out of the driver’s seat to get the gas. She willingly shifted over, giving him enough arm room to maneuver the nozzle into the gas tank.

  And that’s when he remembered. He had no money.

  His gaze locked with hers, and he could see she’d thought of the same thing, since her eyes were mocking him. Christ, he was tired of fighting with her. “You don’t by any chance have a wallet on you?”

  She simply arched an eyebrow.

  Terrific. He hadn’t died of smoke inhalation, his wounds, or the fact that his heart had been ripped out by everyone believing he’d gone rogue. Nope, he was going to die because he’d been stupid enough to take her with him, to protect her no less, when she’d as soon rip off his nuts. “Do you or do you not have any money?”

  “I don’t carry money when I’m being kidnapped.”

  Hawk understood her anger, he really did. But he was hurting, too, and cold, and just about beyond frustrated. “He’s coming for you, too, Abby.”

  She turned her head to lock her gaze on his. As she did, the scent of her hair drifted over him like a sweet balm. He had no time to be feeling anything since he was currently up hell’s creek without a paddle. And yet he felt plenty, mostly an inexplicable need to kiss her again. “I need your cell phone.”

  “No. Don’t—” She choked as his fingers slid across her abdomen, trying to get to her pocket. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Relax.” His hand brushed the warm skin of her belly just above her low waistband. “I only want the—”

  Her elbow clocked him in the nose, and he saw stars. “Jesus!” He fell back against the opened door. “Jesus Christ, woman!”

  Breathing like a lunatic, she glared at him, eyes hot and furious beneath the hair that had fallen in her face. “I told you not to touch.”

  “Okay, yeah, getting that loud and clear. The phone, Abby.”

  Her jaw tightened. “It’s almost out of battery.”

  The battery didn’t matter, and they both knew it. She threw her cellphone at him, and thank you, God, the little keychain he’d seen with her mini credit card was attached to it.

  “I can’t believe you expect your victim to pay for your gas.”

  “No, what I expect is to wake up from this nightmare any second, but I’m not going to get that lucky.” He swiped the card at the pump and nearly fell to his knees in gratitude when the gas began pumping into the truck.

  Her cell phone vibrated in his hand. Incoming text message. His gaze locked with hers, then he looked at the caller ID. “Do you know this number?”

  She looked and blinked.

  “Abby?”

  “It’s an established line between Gaines and me. He got it after…it was just for us to communicate back and forth.”

  He flipped open the phone to read: Where are you?

  “Interesting that he isn’t concerned with making you think he’s dead. Interesting, and very telling.”

  “Right.” She closed her eyes. “Because if I’m on his short list for the evening, it doesn’t matter if I know he’s alive. Because I won’t be for much longer.” She slid him a glance that sliced at his heart as she waited for him to nod.

  Hawk slapped the phone closed against his thigh and sighed.

  She didn’t say anything more, and after a moment he realized she wasn’t being obstinate—her default mood of the night—but rather trying hard to control whatever emotion she was keeping to herself. Bending closer, he risked life and limb to see into her face. “Talk to me.”

  She just shook her head.

  “Abby—”

  “Please,” she whispered, clearly trying with all her might to keep it together. “Don’t. Just let me think.”

  Okay. He could do that. For a little while, anyway. But then she shifted in the seat at the same time he pulled back, and her shoulder brushed his chest. The accidental touch seemed to freeze her.

  It sure as hell froze him, and he watched as very slowly her head came up. God, her eyes, they completely slayed him. He just wanted to look at her all night. Look at her and inhale her and touch her…. The yearning was nothing new. He’d been inhaling deeply to catch her scent for six long months now. Hawk breathed her in and tried not to lose it, but, God, she got him, right in the gut.

  In the heart.

  She had a strand of silky hair over one eye, and very, very slowly he reached out to stroke it away, wanting to do much more but unable to figure out how to further touch her without her gutting him. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmured. “Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly how, but we’ll get there, I promise.”

  Her gaze searched his, soft now, uncertain, leaving him just as uncertain what to make of the shadowed expression in her eyes. Was she still mad? Hurt? Was she feeling any of what he was feeling, which was that he wanted to kiss her again, for real this time, without anything coming between them?

  Abby turned away.

  And there was his answer. No, she was not feeling any of what he was. Still waiting on the gas, he pulled out the phone again and dialed Logan’s cell. No answer. Damn…Glancing up, he found her watching him.

  “Last I heard,” she said quietly. “He was in the air, headed back to Cheyenne County.”

  He only hoped that wasn’t as serious as it sounded. “Okay, so we go with what we’ve got. The rifle. I just have to match it to the ATF serial number list to place it as one of the stolen weapons. So we need to get into regional offices.”

  “Or to my laptop at home.”

  “Yeah, much easier. Let’s go.”

  “There’s that ‘let’s’ again.”

  “We have to do this, Abby. Placing the rifle is evidence of the inside job.”

  “Still not enough.”

  “Well, we’ll think of more then. We have to do this, you know we do.”

  “No, we don’t. We don’t have to do anything.” But Hawk realized the heat in her voice was gone.

  Best news all night, from where he stood, because whether she knew it or not, he was winning her over. “If I’m wrong, I’ll—”

  “What? Turn yourself in?”

  “Yeah.”

  She stared at him. “Let’s call Tibbs now.”

  “Not without the serial number. Not when he already has evidence against me.”

  “Hawk…”

  “Look, if I’m wrong, you can call him. I promise.”

  She tugged on the cuffs. “Your promise is no good to me when I’m with you against my will.”

  Okay, good point. But he wasn’t letting her go until they we