Breaking Free (25 page)

Hawk spread Zoe’s windbreaker over her shoulders and she turned to look up at him. “We’re getting ready to pick up speed. You might get a little chilly.” A smile spread her lips and brought quick heat to his skin. He helped her don the jacket over-top the life preserver and slipped an arm around her pulling her against his side. She leaned into him.

The boat’s nose rose as its speed increased and they headed through the channel. To the right, Mission Beach came into sight. Palms etched a distinctive silhouette against the horizon, their frilly green tops in frivolous opposition to the long straight buildings that stretched in a parallel strip behind the beach.

Turning to Hawk, Zoe raised her voice above the wind. “It really is a beautiful place.”

“Yeah, it is. Just wait until you get up in the air.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I want you to go up with me.”

He studied her face. “All right. You’re not afraid, are you?”

She shook her head. “I just want to share it with you.”

He smiled and tightened his arm around her.

The beach grew distant and the boat slowed as it neared a buoy. The metal float bobbed and weaved in the vessel’s wake. Perched atop the device, sea lions clung to it as though they were riding a carnival ride, and ignored the humans looking at them.

“They’re so used to people they don’t pay much attention to us, unless of course you’re stupid enough to try and pet or catch one,” Derrick said. “You’d get bitten for sure.”

The boat headed further out to sea.

“Who wants to go first?” A crewman said from behind them.

“We will,” Derrick said, raising a hand. He grasped Marjorie’s arm and the couple moved aft.

“Have fun,” Zoe said.

Zoe swiveled around to watch and laid an elbow on the back of the seat. Hawk turned as well. One at a time, Marjorie then Derrick stepped up on the slightly raised flight deck and were secured into a seat harness that clipped them to the parachute side by side. The two-toned blue and white chute already filling with air billowed behind the boat. As the vessel moved forward, a winch fed the rope out, and the couple rose slowly into the sky.

Hawk cradled her back against his chest. “This really is easier than jumping out of the belly of a plane,” he said against her ear and fought the urge to nuzzle the tender spot beneath that he knew made her shiver.

She rested her hands on his arms. “Have you ever had trouble getting your chute to deploy?” she asked.

If he told her the truth, she’d freak out for certain. She might leave him...she might never give him a chance.

“No. If there’s trouble with the main chute, there’s a back up.”

Even with the danger involved, what he did was as much a part of him as
who
he was,, he couldn’t change that. If she couldn’t accept his being a SEAL, he’d have to break it off. He’d have no choice. An ache settled just beneath his breastbone.

Maybe he should break things off now and save them both from heartache. Before either one of them got in any deeper. He studied her profile. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t
give up on her. Zoe wasn’t a quitter. He had to believe that. Even if he was setting himself up for a harder fall than a three thousand foot parachute jump.

Her shoulders grew taut, the tension in her body mounting. She turned to look up at him and started to say something then changed her mind. After a pause she asked, “You’re really careful aren’t you?”

The desperation he read in her face gripped him by the throat. “Yeah. We’re trained to be very, very careful and to stay calm during emergencies.”

She nodded and rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder. Hawk’s lips brushed her temple with a sigh of relief.

They had dodged a bullet, for now at least.

****

The low level whine of the winch being activated drew Zoe’s attention to the back of the boat. She watched as Derrick and Marjorie were slowly reeled back in. The vessel came to a stop.

“Your turn,” Derrick said as he joined them at the front of the boat.

“You’re going to love it, Zoe,” Marjorie enthused. “You can see all the way to Mexico from up there.”

Zoe’s legs were shaky, not from fear or excitement about the flight, but the sudden serious tension between her and Hawk. There had been a moment when she had wanted to say, ”Why do you have to be a SEAL? Why do you have to do a dangerous job?” Something in his face had strangled the words. If she said them, if she challenged what he was, it would be over.

The military wasn’t just a job. It was a way of life. It was a calling, like being a minister or a Peace Corps worker. It had to be, otherwise, why do the job? To ask him to give it up would be like asking him to stop breathing.

She got to her feet and shed her sandals and the wrap around skirt that matched her bathing suit. “Could you hold on to this for me, Marjorie?”

“Sure.” Marjorie’s eyes settled on her thigh where a rectangular scar, pale and shiny, defaced the top of her leg.

As Zoe walked forward, she imagined every eye on the boat homed in on her left calf. She avoided looking at the other passengers. It didn’t matter what they thought. As long as Hawk could look at her and still want her, nothing else was important. His grasp on her hand never faltered as he followed her aft to the flight deck.

The young blond crewman offered her a hand up onto the platform. “Hold onto my shoulder while I help you with the harness,” he instructed. “All you have to do is sit and enjoy. The parachute will do all the work.” He clipped the harness to the rigging. A crewman stood behind them controlling the chute as the wind pulled and tugged on it. Hawk braced his feet as the man strapped his harness and secured it to the tandem bar. The boat started forward.

At the blonde crewman’s nod, the other released his hold on the rigging. The chute, already filled with air, shot upward lifting them from the deck. The wind whipped about them as they rose. The ocean stretched away into the horizon disappearing into a bluish-white haze. Hawk’s hand covered hers on the rigging and she turned her head to look at him.

He shouted above the wind. “You kick ass, baby.” His grin projected equal parts amusement and pleasure. “You just strutted your stuff like a model and every guy on the boat was looking at your perfect backside.”

“No they weren’t.”

“Yes, they were. I didn’t know whether to be jealous or proud.”

Zoe burst out laughing. “Only you could come up with something like that. You are shining me on, Lieutenant.”

“I’m not. They weren’t looking at your leg, they were checking you out.”

“Great. Now I’ll be worried about everyone looking at my behind.”

“That’s what guys do, Zoe. I checked it out the first time you walked away from me, and every time since.”

She grinned and shook her head.

The sound of the wind grew the higher they floated, making talking impossible. The buoyancy of flying free intensified.

On the right, Mission Bay circled around, a maze of cerulean water. Red and white buildings on the boardwalk became a miniature shopping village. The roller coaster at Belmont Park looked like a toy as the cars rose then whipped around the tracks. San Diego stretched outward to the southeast beyond it.

Down the coast Ocean Beach and Point Loma, lightly textured strips of green and yellow-brown, stretched against the bluish-gray water. A distant pier shot like a compass needle pointing out to sea. Along the sand crusted coastline, white foam frosted the waves like powdered sugar.

Hawk pointed downward and Zoe looked below. A pod of dolphin streaked through the water then bobbed to the surface in staggered synchronization. Their strength and speed in the water was impressive even from up so high.

The look of interest on his face as he watched them brought a smile to her lips. Tenderness swelled inside her. This passion, this emotion he inspired, filled the emptiness inside her in a way she’d never experienced before.

Hawk pointed toward the city indicating several places of interest. Zoe was as much aware of his every look and gesture as she was the scenery. They were together, yet separate, and totally in communion with one another without words.

When the chute started being towed in from below, she sighed.

Back to the real world. Back to the hospital and her brother who still hadn’t woken up. Back to Derrick and Marjorie and the special tension their association with them created.

Back to this tug of war that never stopped between her feelings for Hawk and what he did.

She was in love with Adam “Hawk” Yazzie.

But if he asked her to commit herself, she didn’t know if she could live with this feeling of constant dread, in order
to be with him. But could she live without him?

She had to make a choice.

CHAPTER 19

Hawk studied the shelves of books, CDs, and DVDs on either side of the TV. There was no rhyme or reason to their arrangement. A collection of framed drawings, obviously done by the children, set atop the shelf in an arrangement. It was the normal clutter of family that his house lacked. And it was part of what made the Marks house so welcoming. The place, enjoyed by the whole team, was a kind of hub where they all met, probably more often than Trish would like.

“This is what I’ve got, Hawk,” Lang said as he hunched over the computer keys. With a click of the mouse, he enlarged the image of a man dressed in hospital scrubs on the computer screen. He then pushed a button on a signal splicer to project the image onto the large forty-eight inch television screen.

“He has a badge on his pocket but it’s turned to one side, and I can’t get the name. I’ve tried every angle in several images. Even if I could, it could be one already attached to the scrubs before he put them on.”

“What about the face?” Hawk asked.

Lang changed the image on the screen. “He has his head down, and the camera only picked up his hat. He’s carrying a basket just like every other lab tech.”

Damn it, he wanted to know if one of his men was involved, yet dreaded it. Zoe laid a hand on his back in support, and he glanced in her direction.

“What about the body type?”

“Nothing stands out. He’s about six feet. Could be any one of the guys. There’s not enough of his hair showing to identify him.”

Lang rolled back from the computer desk and looked up at him. “There ought to be a schedule for blood work being done. Has security checked it out?”

“Yeah, but there was some mix up as to who drew blood that day because one of the techs had a family emergency and had to leave. And they’re not certain who filled in for her.”

“Shit,” Lang swore then glanced up at Zoe. ”Sorry.”

“I’ve heard the word before. Even said it a time or two myself, Langley,” she said with a smile and a shrug.

“The initials of the tech should be on the samples. They have to date them and keep a record,” he said.

“The dates are there but they’re entered under the original lab techs ID.” Hawk raked his hands over his close-cropped hair.

“It sounds like someone’s going to get an ass chewing when they find out who really drew the blood.”

“Possibly.” Hawk rubbed a hand over his jaw. “But it doesn’t shed any light on who hit Cutter. Have you thought of any moments of friction between Cutter and any other member of the team?”

Lang shook his head. “No.”

“All right.

Hawk glanced in Zoe’s direction. She wasn’t going to like it, but he had to talk to Doc and try and rule him out once and for all. And he’d have to do it alone. He turned his attention back to Langley. “I have a few more things I have to check out today. Maybe that will clear everything up.”

“I’m here if you need anything else.”

Hawk nodded and slapped him on the shoulder.

“What’s next?” Zoe asked as they left the Marks’ house.

“I’m going to drop you by the hospital then go over to Doc’s apartment. I need to talk to him.”

Zoe’s brows drew together in a frown and her expression grew anxious. “I understand why you have to go, but promise me you’ll call me as soon as you get there, and as soon as you’re finished.”

He looped an arm around her waist. “You got it.”

“You’ll be careful?” She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than ask a question.

Was she finally accepting that he could take care of himself?
He hoped so. “Always, Zoe.”

She tucked a long strand of hazelnut hair behind her ear. She looked younger with her hair down, more vulnerable. He tugged her close and kissed her. The kiss, and her response, built from softly comforting to passionate in only seconds.

“Are you trying to distract me, Lieutenant?” she asked, her tone breathless, her hands moving restlessly up and down his back.

He rubbed his cheek against hers. “Yeah, is it working?”

“A little.”

“A little.” He raised his brows. “I must be losing my touch.” He gave her a gentle squeeze. “After I’m through talking to Doc, and you spend some time with Brett, we’ll see exactly how distracting I can be.”