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Chapter Forty-Eight
Mia
The darkness of the unfamiliar room wasn’t a welcome sight when I opened my eyes the next morning. I sighed, looking around, knowing exactly where I was: in some safe house with Hawkeye. The nightmare wasn’t over, although everyone promised that it would be soon. Rolling over, as best I could with my ankle, I reached for my laptop beside my bed.
I had fallen asleep last night while catching up on emails and other work that needed to be done. My staff was supposedly in the dark about all that was happening. I hoped that was true. They would know that I was in an accident and that I broke my ankle, requiring bedrest. Ally was in the office now, making sure the ruse was sold.
“Are you already working this morning?” a voice across the room called out to me in the darkness. I heard a rustling and a light switch flipping on. Hawkeye’s face was lit by the soft, white light.
“No rest for the wicked,” I quipped. It earned a laugh from him.
“Do you always work this much?”
I nodded, leaning over to turn on a light of my own so that he could see me. “I do. It’s my baby,” I admitted, smiling sheepishly at him. His features lit up with a soft smile. It was a rare sight. Hawkeye wasn’t one to smile a lot, I was coming to realize.
“I’m sorry you drew the short straw by having to hang out here with me.”
He laughed at my remark. “I didn’t draw the short straw. It’s part of the job, and I don’t mind doing it.”
“Well, I appreciate it.”
“I was wondering if you knew how to say that.”
I flushed. I knew I hadn’t been the most cooperative, and I had grumbled a lot while being at the safe house, but it wasn’t all bad.
“Do you wish Terry was here?”
Hawkeye’s question caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I shrugged.
“You do, don’t you?” he asked me, his smile appearing again. “It’s okay. I know I’m not someone you’d want to be locked up with, given the choice. And you’re not exactly someone my wife would want me locked up with either.”
“Wait, you have a wife?” I asked, the shock on my face apparent.
“You don’t have to sound so surprised. But yeah, I do. Her name is Laura and we have a son.” He shrugged, watching me process the information.
“I just didn’t imagine you as someone who would have a family.” I felt like an ass for saying it. But I thought these men, save for Jackson, were the total job and didn’t have lives outside of it. Otherwise, why would they be so okay with them being disrupted?
“Ask me what you want to ask me.” Hawkeye rose and headed for a chair closer to my bed.
“Why am I someone your wife wouldn’t want you to be locked up with?”
The smile I was rewarded with was priceless. It reminded me of what an attractive man I was locked away with. Not that anything would happen. Even if he wasn’t married, there was still the pain of letting go of Terry. I had set him free and managed to lose the love of my life for the second time.
“Because you’re a beautiful woman,” he admitted as if it were the most obvious answer. “But she’s got nothing to worry about, am I right?”
I nodded it, confirming it for him. “She doesn’t.”
“Why would you let your fella go?”
“My fella?” I asked, laughing at his choice of words. “I’m going to need some coffee before we go into this.”
He nodded. “Okay, let’s move you out into the living area.”
I nodded in agreement.
Once I was settled on the sofa, Hawkeye busied himself banging around once again in the kitchen. Coffee was brought in to me, which I greedily accepted.
“Caffeine addict?” he said with a laugh as he handed me the cup.
