Hawk (Stag) Read Online Free PDF Page B

at her again. “He needs you and in my book that means Hawk gets you.”
    “You can’t do this. It’s kidnapping.”
    A muscle in his scarred cheek twitched. “He’s hurt.
The only thing that kept him going was seeing you again. He even refused to go
to hospital in Germany as is the normal rule.”
    “Hurt, how bad is he?”
    “Pretty bad but he’ll live this time. Stupid fool
tried to get himself home. No wonder the boss didn’t want him to hook up with
you.”
     “What? He told me the boss said…” She looked out
the window, his words coming back to her.
    “He said he could but only after Hawk handed in his
notice.” The blond shook his head and laughed. “The unit would fall apart
without him so there was no choice. But that doesn’t change things. He still
needs you.”
    Cass was confused and her mind was in turmoil. “How
badly is he hurt?”
    “Gunshot wound to his leg, broke a bone and he lost a
heap of blood.” He turned the four-wheel-drive up the track toward the house.
“He needs rest but he needs you more.”
    “What happened?” She glanced over.
    “You know I can’t tell you the details.”
    “I need to know.” She watched the man’s mouth turn
down in a grim line before he glanced at and made his decision.
    “We had to go and rescue a family being held by
insurgents. No ransom was ever going to be paid so you can guess the outcome if
we hadn’t been sent in.” He pulled over at the gate and looked at her. “There
were children involved. That never goes down well with any of the team. Kids
involved in war … that’s just wrong, Ma’am. Anyway, we thought we had them all
when one of the kids panicked and ran back.”
    “Oh no.” Cass had a moment of breathlessness waiting
for the rest of the story.
    “Hawk ran after him. We couldn’t go back and help, we
had our orders to get the rest of them out and that’s what we did. I made sure
they were all in the chopper before I headed back. There were gunshots fired
and he got caught up in it.”
    “Did the child … did you manage to…”
    “Yeah, your superhero man managed to get the kid out
even with a shattered leg. Bloody fool.” He leaned out and punched the code
into the security pad next to the gate. The movement caught her unawares and
she jumped, hunkering closer to the door, so tense to hear the outcome of the
story.
    She blinked and realized there were tears in her eyes.
    Hawk’s team mate pushed a tissue in front of her face.
Cass looked over at the man who’d brought her here. A crooked smile changed his
whole appearance. “Thanks.”
    “Name’s Romeo and you’re welcome. I have a vested
interest in this working out for you guys. Just listen to what he has to say
and remember … you were all he could talk about on the flight home. He needs
you and this country needs him. By the way, I burned your note. Only you and I
know about it.” Romeo put the four-wheel-drive in gear and drove up to the
house, parking underneath it.
    Cass jumped out of the passenger seat and walked
around to the house. Romeo took her arm and led her up the stairs where a man
in commando colors stood guard at the door.
    “Thank fuck you found her. I can’t take anymore of his
freaking shit today.” He looked between her and Romeo. “Sorry, Ma’am. It’s been
hard on us all. I’m glad to see you made it safely.”
    “Stand down, Harper. I’ll take the next watch.”
    Cass was led inside. The lounge was cleared of the
furniture she saw last time she was here. Now in the middle of the room was a
hospital bed with medical equipment close by. Lying pale and still on the bed
was Hawk.
    She gasped when she saw him. He was stripped to the
waist with a large bandage around his left thigh. A medic sat in a chair
nearby, his eyes closed and his head back against a chair. A hand pushed into
her back. “Go and sit with him.”
    Cass glanced at Romeo and bit her lip. Her heart told
her to be with Hawk but her head was a mix of