Page 27 of Hawk

“You can help by taking Seph out back again and playing with her.”

I didn’t think that was helping at all, but I didn’t see any point in arguing with him.

Mika

I waited until the door closed behind Hawk and then let out a long breath.

I was pretty sure Mars would say I needed to spend some time in meditation or something, but I didn’t really think that was going to help me right now.

I’d been foolish to think I was safe from Butch. That a few hundred miles would be enough to give me a fresh start. I should’ve kept going east until I couldn’t go any farther. That wasn’t what I’d done, though, andifsandbutsweren’t going to fix my problem. The problem was, I didn’t know what would.

I didn’t want to keep running for the rest of my life, but what else was I supposed to do?

I could get a dog, but honestly, all that would accomplish was giving Butch some other way of hurting me because I’d believed him when he said he would kill Seph.

I could shift to some kind of martial arts classes instead of self-defense, but it would take me forever to be good enough to do any damage.

I just wasn’t the fighting type.

A gun might be an option, but I’d never even held one, much less shot anything. I firmly believed guns were something you needed to master before you pointed them at another human. Plus, I wasn’t actually sure I could pull the trigger even if my life was in danger, so that wasn’t a good plan either.

I hadn’t felt this helpless since I got on the bus in Las Cruces two years ago, and I didn’t like it any more now than I had then.

I just wished I knew what to do.

I got to work loading the dishwasher and cleaning up my mess. I was just finishing up when the back door opened, and Seph came barreling in with Hawk right behind her.

He was such a strong man, and I don’t just mean physically. He was former military, a business owner, and an excellent instructor.

I was a hot fucking mess, and he had his shit together.

The last thing I wanted to do was seem like a helpless damsel in distress—or, in my case, I guess, a dude in distress.

I didn’t want him to see me as someone who needed rescuing. I wanted him to see me as—

As what, exactly? I’d already decided he was too much for me. Too big, too strong, too domineering, too everything, so why did it matter how he saw me?

But it did because the truth was, he was also too protective and too caring.

He was everything I thought I was getting in Butch—except he wasn’t some asshole poser.

He was the real deal.

You could tell by the way he interacted with Tucker and the other students in his class. The way he’d dropped everything to come to my rescue last night. He was just an overall good man, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that.

I dried my hands on the towel I’d tossed over my shoulder and then hung it on the door to the oven.

“You all done?” he asked.

“Yeah, all finished.”

“Okay, let’s talk about your security here at the house.”

“It’s a rental,” I warned. I didn’t know if he was getting any crazy ideas about what all I should change.

“Right. But there are still some things we can do to improve the security here. For example, we can put cameras in various locations outside—front and back. Visible cameras are often one of the best deterrents. Especially for a guy like Butch, who’s involved in questionable activities. I’m sure he doesn’t want his face plastered all over the news.”

“I would imagine not.”

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