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“I …” Charlotte shifted beneath Hawk’s penetrating gaze. It was like those dark eyes of his could see through to where she tucked away all of her secrets. She wanted to look away but found it oddly comforting, too.

“Charlotte?” His voice was gently coaxing and smooth, like warm honey.

She’d heard it before, when he used it to convince her to let him walk her to her car.

She considered lying, but heaping more lies on this situation would be dumb and would just further complicate things. Especially since these were the only people she could trust to help her.

Besides, the thought of lying to him didn’t sit right with her.

“I wasn’t really running , per se, more like taking a few days off … out of town.”

“Bringing this stuff here was the right thing to do.” He stretched his arm across the table and placed his warm hand over hers. “Going it alone, not so much.”

Wowzer. As powerful as his gaze was, it was nothing compared with the feel of his hand on hers. Heat filled her cheeks, and she knew without fail that her freckles would pop out.

To hide her reaction, she looked down and noticed the stark contrast between his darker skin and her fair skin. She also got a better look at the tattoo on his forearm. She recognized the eagle, globe, and anchor as the Marine Corps emblem. Her Uncle Jerry had a similar one on the upper left side of his chest, though his had become faded and blurred over the years.

“With everything you’ve told us, I would have to agree that someone knows you’ve accessed that file,” Hawk said.

“Oh, God.” Hearing him say it out loud and with such certainty made it that much more real.

Suddenly, her lungs constricted, her vision blurred, and her fingers squeezed tightly together, as if attempting to hold herself in place.

“Hey, hey.” He gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “Charlotte … Charlotte, look at me.” She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “I want you to take a deep breath, then slowly release it.” Hawk’s voice was gentle yet held a hint of command. “Good. One more time.”

She followed his instructions and let out a last, long breath.

“Better?” He watched her carefully, his calloused thumb brushing over her knuckles, sending a zing buzzing through her body.

Charlotte couldn’t seem to form a sentence, so she nodded instead.

“Good.” He gave her a last long look, then, regretfully, slid his hand from atop hers and sat back in his chair.

No man had ever looked at her the way Hawk just did. And her body had never responded to a guy the way it responded to him—making her all tingly and warm inside. He’d always been nothing but a gentleman to her, but something about him made her nervous. Not scared, just … on edge.

Probably had something to do with the power and air of mystery that seemed to emanate from him. In contrast, Charlotte was just sort of ho-hum and not all that interesting compared with a guy like him.

Take Dulce and Cole, for example. They fit together like two puzzle pieces. With her tawny skin, caramel-colored eyes, and slightly husky voice, she had a very mysterious air about her. Plus, she was as gorgeous inside as she was outside. She was intelligent, well-respected, tough—the perfect match for someone as intense and intimidating as Cole.

Them being together made sense.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was pretty average—average height, average weight, average clothes, average job—well, it used to be average, anyway. The only thing about Charlotte that stood out was her red hair, and even that was cut in a practical, run-of-the-mill bob.

She worked long hours, volunteered her services at ELC as much as possible, and her mom was her best friend and favorite person to hang out with. People might think that was weird, but she and her mom were barely sixteen years apart and had been through a lot together.

There were a couple of people from work she would grab a drink with, and they would sometimes meet at the gym for an indoor cycling class. Not because she was a gym rat—far from it—but because it was the best way to counter the effects of her borderline addiction to chocolate ice cream.

Charlotte considered herself a good person and was, generally, content with her life. She always figured someday she might settle down with a guy who worked a nine to five job, liked to watch sports on the weekend, and maybe they’d have a couple of kids they could shuttle back and forth to various activities. You know, just a regular guy.

Hawk was nothing like the man she’d imagined would be suited to her, and maybe that was why he made her so nervous. He was intense and extremely alpha, and she couldn’t envision him living such a normal life.

“We’re not going to let anything happen to you, Charlotte.” His voice broke through her thoughts. “You have my word on that.”

She believed him—the truth was there, in his eyes.

“He’s right.” Dulce gave her a soft smile. “These guys are really good at what they do.”

They spoke with such certainty and conviction, and she wanted desperately to believe them. But the people involved in this disgusting scheme wielded a great deal of power and would do whatever it took to maintain it. However, having OSI on her side made her feel better and less alone in this mess.

Her fingers relaxed, and for the first time in weeks, the tension in her shoulders lessened.

“Sammy is checking to see who else has been accessing this file.” Cole waggled the papers as he walked back over to them. He set his phone on the table and sat. “She’s also running background checks on all of the people on this list.” The pages fluttered when he dropped the papers on the table.

“She can do that?” Charlotte looked from Cole to Dulce and landed on Hawk.

One corner of his mouth lifted. “With her eyes closed.”

“Charlotte, we’ll make a copy of these documents, then I’m going to overnight the originals, the external hard drive, and the knife to Beatrice at our lab in Washington state for testing,” Cole said.

“Beatrice?” Another person involved that she didn’t know.

“Dr. Beatrice Parker, she runs the OSI forensic lab,” Hawk said. “She’s engaged to Mathias O’Halleran.”

“How many O’Hallerans are there?” Charlotte had met Beck, Caleb, and Jonathan O’Halleran when Dulce had set up a meeting with them to discuss becoming a consultant with OSI.

They’d asked Charlotte to conduct training sessions with their operators. Since they were the ones who typically encountered the victims first, it was important for them to know the best, most compassionate way to handle them.

She’d also offered to meet confidentially, one-on-one with the operators. Their job was extremely dangerous, no doubt bloody, and exposed them to the bleakest side of human behavior. Charlotte could provide them with the tools needed to help them deal with any lingering trauma.

“Currently, there are six O’Halleran siblings working for OSI in some capacity, along with a few significant others and one cousin.” Cole grabbed the papers again and walked over to the small copier behind Dulce’s desk. “You’ve met Calliope, right?”

“Yes, she reached out to me, wanting to know the best ways to allay the fears of victims during a rescue operation.” Charlotte had been shocked the first time she met Calliope.

At only an inch or two over five feet with bouncy blond pigtails, she did not look like a covert operative or a deadly sniper. Yet she was both.

“Calliope is Lucas O’Halleran’s girlfriend, and he’s one of their cousins,” Dulce added.

“Six siblings, spouses and significant others, and a cousin?” Charlotte couldn’t imagine having that many people in her life. “That’s a lot of O’Hallerans.”

“Yep, and they’re all amazing people.” Dulce’s tone held an enormous amount of respect and affection. “Considering who their parents are, that comes as no surprise.”

“Michaleen and Molly are pretty great.” Cole looked over his shoulder at them.

Everybody turned to Remy when he groaned and rolled over.

“He’s so cute.” Charlotte smiled at Hawk’s dog.

“He has his moments.” Hawk leaned forward, rested his forearms on the table, and threaded his fingers together. “So, Charlotte, where were you planning to go?”

“My great aunt and uncle have a place in Harper’s Ferry,” she said. “They both passed away, and my mom and I just recently inherited their house. We haven’t had time to change the name on the property, and I was hoping no one would make the connection.”

“Once a will goes through probate, they become public record.” Hawk shared another look with Cole from across the room. “A simple public records search and they’ll be able to connect you and your mom to that house.”

“Oh, my God.” She twisted to grab her bag, shoved her chair back so hard it rolled several feet away, then she stood. “They could go after my mom.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Hawk hurried around to her side of the table. His long fingers wrapped gently around her forearms, and he bent his knees so they were eye to eye. “We’ll send someone to pick her up.” He kept hold of her and turned his head back to Cole. “Eddie can get her. He was working out at the training center earlier but should be done by now.”

“Where is your mom right now?” Cole pulled his phone out, ready to make the call.

Hawk’s hands slid down her arms, and he released her. She turned her wrist so she could look at her smart watch.

“It’s almost eleven, so she should be at her office. But I’d like to call her and give her a heads-up that someone’s coming to pick her up.” Her mom had learned at a young age not to trust strangers, especially men. “It’s the only way she’ll leave with him.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Cole agreed. “But don’t tell her anything just yet, okay?”

Charlotte nodded, dug her phone from a pocket on the outside of her bag, and scrolled to her mom’s number. Her fingers quivered, so she shook out her hand and tapped the screen.

It rang twice before her mom answered.

“Hey, sweetie! What’s up?” She sounded so cheerful and happy to hear from her.

Charlotte hated having to spoil her mood.

“Um, Mom, I—”

“What’s wrong, Charlotte?” Her mother’s happiness was instantly replaced with concern.

“Something happened and … well, I can’t really go into it over the phone, so I just need you to trust me.” She should’ve given some thought to what she was going to say before she called her. “A man named Eddie …” She turned to Hawk. “What’s his last name?”

“Calabretta,” he said.

“A man named Eddie Calabretta will be coming to your office to pick you up.” She lowered the phone from her mouth. “Can we send her a picture of him?” Hawk nodded and slid his phone from his pocket. “Mom, I’m going to text you a picture of him.”

Cole was on the phone with Eddie, quietly giving him the high points of what was going on.

“Sweetie, you’re scaring me a little.” The last thing she wanted was for her mom to worry.

“Just please go with him when he gets there, okay?” Her phone pinged with a text message.

Hawk mouthed the words, “The picture.”

She nodded.

“I promise, I’ll explain more when I see you.” She hated that something she’d done had put her mother at risk. “I’m sending Eddie’s picture to you now.”

She opened Hawk’s text and sent the photo to her mom.

“Okay, I got Mr. Calabretta’s picture. Thank you for that. Can you send me his cell phone number, too? I’ll add it to my contacts list.” She quickly added, “Oh, and please ask him to text me when he is close to my office so I can meet him in the lobby. If this good-looking young man walks in here to pick me up, it’ll just give all of the hens in the office something to gossip about.” Her desk phone started to ring in the background. “I’ve got to go, sweetie. My boss is calling. I’ll be ready when Mr. Calabretta gets here.”

“Okay. Love you, Mom.”

“Love you, too.” Her mom ended the call.

She relayed her mother’s request for Eddie to meet her in the lobby. “Are you sure he can keep her safe?”

All three of them shared a peculiar look.

“Trust me, Charlotte,” Hawk said. “As long as Eddie’s with her, no one will get to your mother.”