Page 85 of Tormented Hearts

“Couldn’t have done it without every one of you.” Hawk looked around the table—Gray, Carson, Denver, Crew, Willow, Ayla and Lex, all of them still bearing the exhaustion of the last week in the set of their shoulders, all of them showing up anyway, every single time, without a beat of hesitation.

“I mean that.” He swallowed hard at the emotion rushing through him, not only relief for having Sinead safe…but for the people in this room. He cleared his throat. “What news is there of Shiloh? Is she okay?”

Willow spoke up. “She’s recovering from a mild concussion, but she’s going to be fine.” While she smiled, her eyes revealed the fear that had taken over the whole Malone family at one of theirs being harmed.

Carson closed his laptop, glancing around the table with the ghost of a grin. “All right. Go ahead, Hawk. Give us your numbers.”

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “My what?”

“Your numbers.” Denver leaned back with his arms crossed, nodding toward him. “We all know you love to give us a rundown of your numbers. Let’s hear them.”

Hawk sat with that for a second, turning over all that Carson already recounted, and found he only had one number that mattered right now.

“One.”

The room went quiet.

“One woman,” he clarified. His heart took up an extra beat as he said it out loud for the first time. “That’s it. That’s my whole count.”

He threw a look around the table, lips tilting at one corner. “I’ve never been more entrapped in my life, and I’ve never been happier about it.”

A low chorus of approving sounds moved through the room. Someone issued a soft whistle, and Ayla grinned.

“I guess we can let the clause about no personal relations with your ward slide,” Carson added.

“She’s gonna try to cut me loose now that the danger’s over.” Even as the thought formed, Hawk was working through it. “Tell me the job’s done, contract’s fulfilled. I’ve got no reason left to stick around. She’ll say she doesn’t need protection anymore.”

“You gonna let her get rid of you?” Gray’s eyes sparked with amusement as he already hazarded a guess.

“Not a chance in hell.”

He considered what Denver said to him weeks ago, back before any of this started…before he’d let himself fall for a woman he was supposed to be protecting instead of loving.

Denver had mentioned how Hawk was next in line for a wife and a family. He was right. Hawk didn’t see it then, but now he knew he’d finally found the people worth building a life around instead of just passing through.

“I think I found my family.” Hawk’s voice was steadier than he expected. “Right here. All of you.”

Willow let out a happy sigh, and Ayla brushed a knuckle beneath her eye.

“I hope you’re prepared for me sticking around indefinitely. Whatever Black Heart needs, I’m in. Long-term. I’m not just passing through on some short contract.”

Carson’s mouth curved. “Good. We need you here.”

“One condition, though.” Hawk held up a hand, and a few people laughed at the sudden seriousness in his tone. “I’d like some time off from anything involving mountains. At least for a while.”

That got a real laugh out of the room. The tension broke as the latest events finally faded into memory.

He sat back, letting the noise of his team wash over him, and thought about Sinead safe, alive. She might not know it yet, but she was his in a way that had nothing to do with contracts or bodyguard assignments anymore.

One woman. One family, expanded now to include people who would have bled alongside him this past week.

One life he couldn’t wait to build.

He’d take that number over any other tally he’d ever kept in his life.

* * * * *

Sinead walked into the crowded war room and saw Hawk at the table, a pen in hand. He scrawled his name across the bottom of a document she recognized instantly.