Page 59 of Hawk

“I bet you are, but Samuel says Hawk is the best at what he does and that he’ll fix all of this for you.”

Mars looked so confident—that because Samuel said it, it must be true—that I couldn’t help but smile.

“I know he’s doing his best to find Butch and put an end to all of it.”

“We should plan a dinner party when it’s over. Samuel would love to have Hawk, Jesse, and Keith all come hang out.”

“We’ll do that.”

A few minutes later, Mars got the notification that their car was there. Andy promised to come hang out again the next time he wasn’t on shift. They both gave me a hug, and then they left.

It had been so nice having people here in the house, and now that they were gone, it was so quiet.

I went into the kitchen to put everything away and noticed the extra pan of brownies sitting on the counter. We’d only eaten half of the first batch, so there was still plenty left in it for Hawk. He’d mentioned that the guys liked to hang out together in the common area on the ninth floor when they weren’t working, and this was Saturday, so there might be someone down there who’d like a brownie, and if no one was there, I’d just leave them for them to eat later.

I went to the study and dug around in Hawk’s desk until I found a piece of paper. I wrote a nice little note telling them where the brownies came from and included a little warning that they included nuts, just to be safe. I covered the pan with foil and taped the note on top.

I shoved my phone in my pocket and made sure I had my card so I could get back up to the condo, then headed down to the ninth floor. When I stepped off the elevator, it sounded like there was a party going on. Music was playing, people were talking, and someone was shouting that some idiot was going to get everyone killed. That came from one of the guys sitting on the couch with a game controller in his hands and a headset on, so obviously, no one was in real danger.

I’d met a few of them before—either at the self-defense class or down in the ops center the day Hawk brought me in—but some of them I’d never seen before. Tucker and Gator were sitting at the poker table playing with a man with a beard and tattooed hands I didn’t know and the twin with the short hair. I couldn’t remember if he was Axel or Maddox. He looked up and grinned when he saw me.

“Mika, it’s about time you came down to hang out with us.”

Everyone except the guy yelling at the video game stopped what they were doing to look at me.

“I just came down to see if y’all wanted these,” I said weakly, holding out the baking dish. I really hadn’t thought this many people would be here in the middle of the afternoon, so I hadn’t been prepared at all.

Tucker hopped up from her seat at the poker table and walked to me. “What do you have in there?”

“It’s, um, brownies. They do have nuts, though, so if you’re allergic, you should know that.”

“Well, I’m in the clear ’cause I love me some nuts,” Gator said.

“That’s what he said,” the guy who was gaming called out, looking over his shoulder—and I realized he was the other twin.

Tucker rolled her eyes. “Ignore them. What kind of brownies are they?”

“Turtle. They have chocolate, salted caramel, and toasted pecans.”

“Those sound great.” The guy from the table I didn’t know stood up. “I’m Crowe, by the way. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“We haven’t, but Hawk has told me about you. You live out at the camp, right?”

“I do, but I have an apartment here, too. When I don’t have classes out at the camp, I stay up here so I can take these assholes’ money.”

He reached for the baking dish, and I handed it over. He pulled back the foil covering and whistled. “Damn, those look good.”

“You better save one for me, Maddox,” the one who was obviously Axel said.

“If you want a damn brownie, you can stop playing your game and get over here and get one.” Maddox got up and tried to take the brownies from Crowe, who had no intention of giving them up.

“You only say that because you don’t want me to beat your high score, and you know I’m about to.”

Everyone in the room was rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at them, so I guessed this was normal behavior for the brothers—and I had to admit, it was entertaining.

“Mika, will you please save me a brownie? I’m on a mission to prove my superior shooting skills, and it would be just like that numb-nut to punish me by eating all the yummy goodness you brought for us to feast on.”

OMG. Drama much?

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