Page 36 of Freeing Hawk
“Hawk.” Angel called from the living room.
I excused myself and entered but I knew Romeo and Tiberius followed. The Doberman probably wanted more Romeo pats, which I couldn’t fault him for. The man was all kinds of yummy.
“I put in a call to my contact in Mexico.” Angel was closing the laptop when I sat on the sofa. “He’s going to check out some stuff for me and call back.”
“Do you owe him?” I asked.
Angel laughed then smirked proudly. “He wants a slot at Alpha for his nephew. Even thought we have a waitlist a mile long, that’s something I can gladly give him.”
I nodded. “Um—”
“You two met?” He asked. “Romeo is staying with me during the week. He’s one of the instructors at Alpha.”
“Alpha?” I asked.
Romeo went down on the floor to play with Tiberius and one of his ropes. “It’s a camp that trains perspective cops and military recruits—put them through tier paces to see if they’re cut out for the life before they sign up.”
“Nice.” I nodded, impressed.
“Wanna go for a walk, Ty?” Romeo asked.
The large pup released the rope and ran from the room. I figured that was his way of saying no. I was in the process of picking up some of the information Tex had found for us when Tiberius returned with his ball in his mouth.
We laughed.
“All right, boy.” Romeo stood. “Let’s do this.”
Alone with Angel, I sat across his lap and tangled my arms around his neck. I took a few minutes to merely make out with him. All of that was new to me, feeling him grab me like they did in movies, his large hands dragging along my thighs, my hips, up over the rolls at my side. At first, it terrified me to have him feel me like that.
But I wanted to take a leaf out of Eris’ book—to not be afraid of this one man.
When I lifted my mouth from his, he smiled and moaned.
“Wow.” He whispered. “I enjoyed that a little too much, I think.”
I giggled and snuggled into his chest. “Can we please sit like this for a second? I feel like I’ve been going a mile a minute for the last little while.”
Angel exhaled loudly and wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my forehead then shimmied a little in the seat as if to get a little more comfortable.
Being with him like this did something to scraping my wandering pieces back together.
We remained like that, even as Angel ordered take-out for all of us, until Romeo returned. Angel left us to use the bathroom and Romeo went to the kitchen. When Romeo returned, it was to hand me a beer. I touched my bottle to his and rested back in Angel’s seat.
“How long have you known Angel?” I asked.
“Since the Rangers—a few years.” Romeo replied around hauls form his beer. “The question you want to ask is if he’s a good cat.”
I laughed softly. “I think he is.”
Romeo nodded. “Then why do you want to ask? Confirmation?”
“Something like that.” I admitted.
“You’re honest.” Romeo laughed. “I like that. Well, I could say he’s one of the good ones. But then again, I don’t know him like you do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know him in a different capacity.” Romeo explained softly. “I know he’s a great soldier, loyal, fierce—theleave no one behindkind. But that’s not what you want to know. What you want to know, is if he’s thetake home to mamakind.”
