Page 71 of Guarding Grace

I laughed. “Bye.” I ended the call.

A few minutes later, I was standing next to Terry with a glass of wine and the most delicious-looking home-cooked meal I’d ever had.

He lifted his wine glass, and we repeated my earlier toast. “Friends.”

I hoped that was only the beginning.

I could do a reasonable job on spaghetti and meatballs, and I made a decent macaroni and cheese and a killer meatloaf, but after two bites of this meal, it was clear Terry’s cooking put me to shame. “Thank you. This is delicious,” I mumbled through my food.

“Don’t thank me. You did most of the work.”

“I was just the minion. You’re the chef,” I insisted. I forked anothermushroom and piece of chicken. “When you said the boss—the guy you called Tall Tony—wouldn’t cross that line, what did you mean?”

Terry put down his fork. “Years ago, two idiots, the Barzon brothers, came after a Hawk woman, Lucas’s wife.”

That was news. “I didn’t know he was married.”

“He was, but she died.”

My hand went to my mouth as my stomach revolted. “My God, that’s terrible. I had no idea.”

“We don’t talk about it. That’s a rule.”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, it was kept out of the news, but it was a big deal in all the wrong circles that Lucas’s wife had been targeted. We all knew the Barzon brothers were behind it.”

“What happened?”

“A week later, the brothers were found dead. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Lucas?” I asked, unsure whether I wanted to know the answer.

Terry shook his head. “Couldn’t have been. He was across the country at the time.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you think?—”

“It doesn’t matter. The message the bad guys took from it was clear—you don’t ever mess with a Hawk woman. And that protection now applies to you.”

I didn’t know whether to be elated, or scared, or both. “I’m not…” I added air quotes. “A Hawk woman.”

Terry twisted his fork in the pasta and lifted it. “Are you forgetting that Lucas said he considers you a part of the family? He also told Victor you were my woman.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “I’m not yours or anybody’s.” After the words came out, I didn’t know why I’d said them, except as a gut reaction.

“True,” he said defensively. “But Russo doesn’t know that.”

Damn him. Had he sensed that in the middle of our kiss this morning, I would have done anything to claim the title of Terry Goodwin’s woman? But then the arguments had started again. Now he was pushing me away. It was all too confusing.

Terry smiled at me. “Lucas says you’re a Hawk woman, so you’re a Hawk woman.”

Before I could object again, he added, “You’re mine to protect, and you have been ever since Pete left. You’re under Hawk protection. That was Lucas’s meaning.”

There was that duty to my dead brother again. “I guess I should saythank you. I mean, without you I would have been…” The words trailed off, too horrible to speak. “You and Zane.”

His eyes narrowed at the mention of Zane. Then he cleared his throat, saving us both from an awkward moment. “I’d like to hear how your company uses the VR process.”

I really wanted to get back to the conversation about us, but accepted the off-ramp anyway and started with the vision of interactive design that had been my inspiration to start SpaceMasters.