Page 25

“Wow.” Charlotte stood in the doorway, and her gaze traveled around the room.

This was not at all what she’d expected to see behind that door.

There were nine flat-screen monitors mounted on the far wall in three rows of three. Below it was an old metal desk with drawers on both sides and a keyboard and what looked like a video game controller sitting on top.

Next to the desk was a closet with a glass door. Sitting on the floor inside was what looked like a black computer tower with some flashing red and green lights on the front.

Hawk followed her gaze. “That room is temperature-controlled for the standalone server.”

His own server. Impressive.

“There are motion sensors all around the perimeter of my property.” He strolled over, tapped a key on the keyboard, and one by one, the monitors flickered to life. “There are also nine strategically placed cameras with night vision capability.” He grabbed the game controller. “I can maneuver each one separately using this controller or my cell phone. Here, watch monitor number one.” He pointed to the top, left screen.

She stepped closer. “That’s your front gate.”

“Right. I can pan side to side and up and down.” His right thumb moved a little joystick on the controller to demonstrate how it worked. “If someone breaches the perimeter, it’ll trigger one of the motion sensors, and two things will happen simultaneously. All of the cameras will be activated, and you’ll hear three beeps.” He pressed a different button on the keyboard, and there were three loud, rapid beeps that rang throughout the house.

Her entire body flinched, and her hands flew up to cover her ears.

“Sorry, I should’ve warned you.” Hawk soothed her by smoothing his hand down her arm. “It’s critical that it can heard from everywhere in the house.”

Hell, people a mile away could probably hear it.

“You must have deer and other animals out here. Don’t they set off the motion sensors?”

“Sometimes but not often enough to be a hassle. Let me show you how this works.” He instructed her on which number was assigned to each monitor, left to right, and that the number corresponded to the number on the keyboard.

“So if I want to look at, say, this one”—she pointed to the monitor on the bottom right—“then I press the nine key. Right?” She looked at him for confirmation.

“Exactly.” He handed her the controller. “Here, give it a test drive.”

She pressed the number nine key and, using the controller, was able to view the entire back of the house on that monitor.

“That’s so cool.” Motion sensors, night vision cameras, and a gun on her hip.

Man, her life had become so strange, so quickly.

“I don’t expect you to stay in here the whole time I’m gone, but I wanted you to know how to operate the cameras, just in case.”

“Wait, you’re going after them by yourself?” She assumed he would wait with her until his team arrived.

Cole’s call had already kicked her adrenaline into high gear, and now, hearing Hawk talking about possibly facing those people alone, combined with the unfamiliar weight of the gun on her hip—

“I’ll stay with you as long as I can.” He held out his hand. She placed the controller on his palm, and he twisted at the waist to set it back on the desk. “But if that alarm goes off before the team gets here, I can’t wait. Going after bad guys—that’s what I do, Charlotte.” He spoke so casually about running out into the dark after an unknown number of killers, like it was an everyday occurrence.

She wasn’t an idiot; she knew his job came with risks. But now, seeing him in work mode and being up close and personal to this nightmare, she was struck by how truly life-threatening the work was that Hawk and his team did on a regular basis.

Was she going to be able to live with knowing he could walk out the door on an assignment one day and not come back alive?

“Charlotte.” He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and lowered himself to her eye level. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course, I trust you.” Without hesitation and with her life.

And that, right there, answered her question. She trusted Hawk with her life, and she trusted him to come back to her. Besides, choosing not to have him in her life was no longer an option.

Charlotte loved him too much to let him go.

“Good.” He straightened to his full height. “Because the only way I can do what I need to do out there”—he pointed in the general direction of the woods—“is if I know you’re safe in here.”

Charlotte’s stomach churned at the thought of being a distraction for him when he was walking right into danger.

“What do I need to do?” She drew her shoulders back, determined to be a help and not a hindrance.

“That’s my girl.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m going to keep this room open for now. But if that alarm goes off, I want you to lock yourself in here. Luna will receive an automated notification and will check in with you. I want you to keep an eye on those screens. Especially number eight and nine; they’re aimed at the front and back of the house.” He removed a key from the keychain and handed it to her. “Keep that on you, because you’ll need it to lock the deadbolt from the inside.”

She tucked it in the front pocket of her jeans, then looked around the room again, stopping on the door.

How long it would take for someone to break that thing down?

“Don’t worry about the door. It has a steel core, reinforced hinges, and the deadbolt is the best there is.” He was so attuned to her, he could already tell what she was thinking. “Also, there’s no window to break through.”

She’d been so distracted by all the security equipment, she hadn’t noticed the lack of a window.

“You’ll be safe in here, Charlotte. I promise.” He wrapped her in a reassuring hug, and she gripped the back of his T-shirt in her hands. “Come on, there’s something else I want to show you.” He kissed the top of her head, laid his arm casually over her shoulders, and patted the side of his thigh.

Remy hopped up and walked with them to the front door.

“The entire house, all doors and windows, are alarmed.” He gave her the code and showed her how to arm and disarm the system. “If something sets it off—”

“I lock myself in the back room and watch the monitors,” she said.

“Exactly.”

“What happens if the power goes out and the touchpad doesn’t work?” She envisioned there being no alarm and bad guys circling the house like sharks.

“I have a whole-house generator that kicks on automatically.” He checked the alarm again before taking her hand and heading toward the kitchen. “I’m going to check in with Cole. Do you mind feeding Remy? His bowl and food are in the pantry.”

“Sure.” She welcomed the mundane task as a much-needed diversion. “Come on, bud.”

Remy followed her to the pantry and sat down. His tail swept back and forth on the floor as he patiently waited for her to fill his bowl.

Hawk tugged his phone from a vest pocket, tapped the screen, and set it on the counter.

Cole answered halfway through the first ring.

“Lucas, Eddie, Viking, and I are ten minutes out, and according to Luna, Kimball is about two miles from you. Calliope is with Charlotte’s mom.” His voice sounded far away, like he was speaking through a tube. “It’s gonna be close, Hawk.”

Two miles?

Her adrenaline spiked, making her slightly lightheaded. She turned away from Hawk, closed her eyes and took a few breaths before setting the bowl on the mat next to Remy’s water bowl.

Charlotte would not add to Hawk’s already heavy burden by being weak and needy.

She closed the pantry and turned to Remy. “Break.”

At the command, the dog trotted over to his bowl and chowed his food like he hadn’t been fed in days.

“We’re ready.” Hawk assured his boss that Charlotte knew what to do. “I have complete faith in her ability to take care of herself.”

She mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

Hawk winked at her.

Hearing someone of Hawk’s caliber say those kinds of things about her to a man he respected as much as he did Cole meant more to her than he could ever know.

She’d never considered herself brave and certainly not a fighter. Sure, she’d spent her entire career fighting and advocating for victims, but there was never any physical threat to her life in doing so.

That had all changed with one incorrect keystroke.

Remy finished devouring his food and turned his attention to his water. He lapped it up, splashing it onto the floor around his bowl, then he licked his chops and walked over to stand next to Hawk.

Charlotte swung open the fridge door and set the stew back inside. Hawk wasn’t going to have time to eat, and until he came back to her safely, she wouldn’t be able to eat.

There was a barely audible voice in the background of the call.

“Lucas wants to know if the area around your workshop is clear for him to land the helo?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, there’s grass and very little debris to worry about,” Hawk said.

“We’ll let you know when we’re on the ground,” Cole said.

“See you soon.” Hawk tapped his phone to end the call.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Charlotte jumped, then turned to Hawk.

Voice deathly calm, he said, “We’ve got company.”