Page 31 of Restless Hawke

Safe.

I try to tell myself that each night when the nightmare of a memory comes for me, but it’s getting harder and harder to believe it. Especially when I’m not there toseeit with my own eyes. When I’ve had my damn phone shut off for almost a month so they wouldn’t find me. When I know full well that no one is ever reallysafeas long as a man like Satriano has us in his sights.

Luca’s visit the other day proved it’s impossible to hide from someone who has the motive and means to locate you. When the Hawkes want to find someone, they will—the same goes for the man I’m now tied to for the foreseeable future.

I reach for my phone on the nightstand with a shaky hand and power it on, suddenly needing to confirm there aren’t any messages saying anything is wrong. It’s been three days since Luca found me, and anything could have happened in that time.

A flood of messages that were never received or read over the last several weeks all come in at the same time—including one from Isaac sent only a few hours ago.

ISAAC

TURN ON YOUR DAMN PHONE!

He had to know how useless it was to send it, but he did anyway. Just as he had the hundreds of others. I scroll back to the night of Cass and Kennedy’s wedding to when he realized I had left the reception.

WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? YOU BETTER NOT BE DOING SOMETHING STUPID!

Am I?

Leaving seemed like the best option at the time.

Theonlyway to protect the Hawkes and endeavor to undo the damage I did when I placed that bet. But what Luca said when he tracked me down was right—Satrianodoeshave me by the balls now.

There’s no telling what he’ll ask me to do. I keep waiting for him to show up or to contact me some other way—a call to one of my hotel rooms, a note slipped to me during a game, an “associate” showing up to give me a message—to make his first demand beyond me paying back the ten millionplus interestthat I owe him.

It hasn’t come.

It will.

Reckonings always do.

And I have a big one in my future.

Isaac’s name flashes across the screen with an incoming call, almost like he somehowknewI had turned my phone back on. Which he probablydidsince the moment I hit that “on” button, the family would have been alerted that it was active.

“Shit…”

By now, everyone has heard what happened with Luca. That I refused to come back. That I made this deal with Satriano. There isn’t any point in attempting to hide where I am anymore. Not when they can so clearly track my passport and know I’m in Macau.

It would only take them a few moments to figure out what hotel, given what’s happening here in a few days.

One of the biggest poker tournaments in the world…with the largest purse.

I wouldn’t miss it.

Ican’t.

My finger hovers over the “send-to-voicemail” button, but all I can picture is the pained look on Luca’s face when I told him I wasn’t coming back with him. Not to mention the fight I saw behind his eyes and his body language, him trying to tamp down his desire to physically force me to New Orleans.

It absolutely destroyed him to have to leave me in Monaco, to have toacceptthat I wouldn’t leave with him.

If he was that upset, I can only imagine how Isaac, Mom, and Dad feel. Doing this to them, leaving without a word, disappearing, was agonizing, but it was the right decision for everyone.

I just hope they can understand that one day.

Maybe tonight, I can do something to help move that needle.

Sucking in a long, deep breath, I swipe the “accept” button. “Hello…”