The Hunter (18 page)

“Don’t know.” Her voice came out breathless and high. “I’ll come down…soon.”

She hit the off button. Just in time. Her assailant turned over suddenly. If she had still been on the phone, Brad would have definitely heard the telltale squeak of bedsprings as Hawk began his assault.

She stared up. He had a devilishly satisfied expression on his face.

“I’ll come down soon,” he mimicked her words. He leaned forward and his kiss was hard and hungry. Possessive. “Come for me first, baby.”

Hawk had never, in all his life, slept with
another man’s woman, but he didn’t think he could hand Amber back to Bradford Sun that easily. This feeling of possessiveness was unfamiliar territory for him. He had never wanted a woman this much before.

“I need to explain,” Amber said, “before you two meet.”

“Are you going to tell him the truth?” he asked quizzically.

She regarded him levelly. “Do you think I’d have slept with you if I weren’t ready to tell the truth?”

“I didn’t give you the chance,” he pointed out.

“Oh yes, you did. You carried me up here. I’d have said no if I hadn’t wanted to,” she came back. She patted his newly shaven face. “I’m running late, and I don’t want to keep Brad waiting.”

“You really think he’s going to come up and have dinner with me here?” Hawk shook his head. If it were him…like hell. He would be running up here to break a few bones. He would feed the bones to the other man for dinner. He would…He shook his head again. He’d had too much violence the last few days. He continued, in a sarcastic drawl, “Sure, I’ll wait here. A nice civilized European air-clearing, followed by a nice glass of wine before dinner. You don’t mind if I make rude sounds now and then, do you? I’m an American, after all.”

Her eyes filled with amusement. “Brad’s American, Hawk. And there are things you don’t know about, so that’s why I’m bringing him up here. I don’t have time to explain it to you and have him wait downstairs. People will wonder. There are spies all over the place. We’ll be talking a little business, too, okay?”

“Okay.”

Hawk sat down and impatiently studied Amber’s living area. He hadn’t noticed anything that belonged to another man, not even when he asked for a razor. She had given him her own. If Bradford Sun overnighted here sometimes, he didn’t leave any of his stuff lying around, not even an extra pair of slippers for lounging. Well, hell, how would he know? He hadn’t checked under the damn bed.

He almost got up to return to the bedroom. Took a deep breath. Relaxed back into the chair. He looked around again. There was something missing in this picture and he hadn’t quite figured out everything yet, but one thing was for sure. Now that he’d had a taste of Amber Hutchens, there was no way in hell he was going to share.

He didn’t share. Or poach another man’s woman. He expelled a disgusted sigh. It seemed that ever since he took on this covert operation, he’d gone back on every one of his values, from protecting women and children to getting rid of the world’s scum that were responsible for hurting them.

Everything was fucking backward. He didn’t share. And the woman he wanted for himself was downstairs talking to another man.
Her
man. He didn’t poach. And he had gone and…He felt tension rising in him again. She couldn’t have a very loving relationship with the guy if she responded so passionately to his lovemaking. Maybe she would break off with him. Either that or Hawk would just break one more code of honor and steal her away from the son of a bitch. And then what?

Hawk scratched the back of his neck. What the hell was happening to him? He had a job to do, and shouldn’t be thinking about ways to seduce a woman or steal her away from her lover. His mind was back on the two things that had gotten him in trouble that first night when he and Amber had clashed. Woman. Amber in all her naked luminous glory. And now—his lips twisted in self-mockery—food. Running a hand through his damp hair in frustration, he stood up, needing to expend energy. Where was his SEAL training to forgo all physical needs when under stress?

Concentrate on the job, man.
He needed Amber’s help.
Don’t fuck it up.
Everything depended on him.

The stairway door opened. Hawk turned around. Amber walked in, followed by a tall man. Light hair, almost as blond as Amber’s. Square-jawed. A big man in an expensive suit, carrying a bottle of wine. Hawk clenched his teeth. Unlike the other man, he was wearing his dirty pants and one of Amber’s T-shirts. Certainly no competition in the suave and debonair department.

Bradford Sun looked every bit the chief of CIVPOL, in command of his world. The easy and quiet self-assurance of a man of power. He looked very good together with Amber. Hawk disliked him already. Intensely.

Amber’s blue eyes narrowed just a little. Her smile was different, a smooth complacent curve that was nothing like the pouty, sassy grins she had given him. Then she broke the tension of the moment with a wink. The woman was a tease.

“Brad, this is Hawk McMillan. Hawk, this is my friend Bradford Sun.”

Brad regarded him for a moment before extending a hand. “Mr. McMillan,” he said, his voice cultured, his eyes keenly studying him.

What did one say to the lover of the woman he’d just bedded? Nice to meet you? A pleasure? Hawk opted for noncommittal. “How do you do?”

They both eyed each other for an instant before Brad inclined his head. “I hear you’re after Dilaver. That’s one thing we have in common.”

“Not the only thing,” Hawk said, keeping his voice bland. He didn’t like the way Brad smiled at Amber. “I’ve heard that you can’t seem to put him behind bars.”

He enjoyed the sight of Brad stiffening his shoulders. Hit a hot button there, hadn’t he?

Amber moved in between them. “Sit down, both of you, and please, my place is too small for all this testosterone. Can both of you stop baiting each other while I get us something to drink? We’ll talk like adults, and then we’ll eat.”

Hawk sat down again. Either something was very odd, or Brad and Amber had one of those very open relationships. Talk like adults and eat….

Amber came back with three glasses. “Open the bottle of wine, Brad, and pour us some.” She flipped open her cell phone. “I think Lily’s not going to show. I see a message from her.”

Lily was coming to dinner, too? So this wasn’t a twosome thing? Hawk relaxed a little. She listened intently to the phone as she and Brad exchanged glances, her expression unreadable. Brad turned and filled the glasses, giving one to Hawk.

“Thanks.” He really didn’t want to talk like an adult and eat. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the violence out of his system for the day because he was feeling like beating someone up again. Hawk scowled. That brought his mind back to how he had come here and what he had been doing with Amber. Brad sat down at the table, too, seemingly unperturbed that Amber’s hair appeared a little damp, like Hawk’s. Maybe the man wasn’t as perfect as he looked; he was probably nearsighted.

“Lily has an emergency,” Amber said after she had sat down between them, “but she says she’ll try to make it. If not, she gave me some details to pass along.”

“Do you believe her?” Brad asked. There was something in the tone of his voice that made Hawk study him closely.

“You know how important this project is to her, Brad. She wouldn’t not show up when the interview can help the girls.” When Brad didn’t say anything, Amber turned to Hawk. “This isn’t as complicated as it looks, although your being here does add one complicated factor. Brad and I are seen as an item by some people. Since I deal with information, it’ll be reported to certain ears if he goes home without dinner, or doesn’t stay his usual length of time, or if you were to go down and have dinner with us in our private booth.”

“Okay.” Seen as an item. Her choice of words was peculiar. Hawk drank down his wine. “But Dilaver knows I’m here.”

Brad’s eyebrows lifted. “Do you report your whereabouts to him?”

“He dislikes you,” Hawk said, and looked at both of them, “so anything to do with you interests him.”

“So he must have told you Amber and I are more than friends. Did he set you up to come between us? Are you reporting back to him?”

Hawk stared back at the other man, challenging him silently.

“Brad…” Amber cut in. She put her glass down. “Why don’t I do the talking for now, hmm? This is…awkward.” She turned to Hawk. “Brad and I are just friends, but it helps me to let Dilaver and various other gangs think I’m dating the chief of CIVPOL.”

“I see.” He didn’t have time to wonder about the odd sense of release washing through him at the revelation. For some reason Amber wanted to include him in this secret and he was hoping to find out more. “Then you’re sort of a couple so Mr. Sun can protect your outfit and you can give him information. Very good front.”

“He’s got some brains,” Brad remarked wryly. He looked at Hawk again and added, “Don’t think I won’t check up on you when I get back to my office.”

It was a small warning that he hadn’t earned Brad’s trust yet. Fair enough. He didn’t care, either. As long as Amber wasn’t really going out with the man, who cared what Bradford Sun thought of him? “Dig away.” Hawk shrugged. “Why don’t you spend some time going after Dilaver instead?”

“Brad raids Dilaver’s
kafenas
whenever he has reliable information from me,” Amber said, “but Dilaver, as you know, is very hard to catch.”

What, the man couldn’t speak for himself? “All you have to do is raid his compounds with a bunch of peacekeepers and shoot a lot of bullets,” Hawk said very politely.

“We’re under NATO and international laws, Mr. McMillan,” Brad said equally politely. “And, if I may also point out, Dragan Dilaver appears to be under the protection of the United States government.”

“Certain sectors of the U.S. government,” Hawk swiftly corrected. Not
his.
He had never pretended to understand all the political games played back home, but since going under training with GEM and the COS organizations, he had a better picture of how many covert operations crisscrossed each other. Dilaver was a useful asset for now and that was why he was alive. He didn’t agree with the reasoning behind it, but he was under orders and he would do his best to make sure everything went as planned.

“Nevertheless, he does have his connections,” Brad said. “I arrest his minions, but that’s nothing. Even if I managed to lock him up, he’d be freed too soon.”

“You don’t have a lot of confidence in the justice system around here.”

“Hawk, you know very well there isn’t much of one around Macedonia and the former Yugoslavian states,” Amber said quietly. “There are a hundred
kafenas
here alone, run by a dozen or so pimps who are under the crime organizations. Human and drug trafficking are businesses around here, and the United Nations turns a blind eye to some of it because they are busy rebuilding nations.” She made imaginary quotation marks to the last two words, then added, “Many UN officials have been eliminated by assassins since the war. The last chief of CIVPOL had a bomb scare before Brad was appointed.”

“You don’t have to make him feel sorry for me, Amber,” Brad said wryly. “I think he doesn’t care, as long as I’m not sleeping with you. Right, McMillan?”

“Right,” Hawk agreed.

Amber’s fair skin betrayed her discomfort. He supposed she had to tell Brad about why he was upstairs, and the chief probably wasn’t too stupid to put two and two together. He had heard about the assassinations in between his own deployments overseas, of course. He supposed being a CIVPOL official would make Brad a big target. Dilaver had expressed his dislike for the new chief, saying that he had been targeting his holdings. If nothing else, Hawk respected Bradford Sun for causing the kingpin some grief.

“You two are determined to have a pissing contest over nothing,” Amber said quietly.

“Nothing?” Hawk asked, raising an eyebrow. Her blue eyes flashed at him in answer.

“I have to make sure he’s worth all the trouble he’s going to cause you,” Brad said, looking from one to the other. “Besides, if Lily were here, I wouldn’t feel as if I were intruding.”

Lily…Hawk remembered the tall, dark-haired woman he had met. So Brad was interested in another woman. Good. One problem eliminated. He could concentrate on more reasonable things now.

“I can talk like an adult and eat,” Hawk said softly to Amber.

“Oh, goodie,” she said sarcastically. “I was beginning to think I’d made a mistake.”

Where was Lily? Amber wished her friend hadn’t left her in this predicament. Brad was playing protector and Hawk was…well, she didn’t know what Hawk was doing. She wasn’t even sure why she felt she had to explain the situation to him. She didn’t owe him anything.

But she didn’t want Hawk to think that she was the kind of woman who would play around. Somehow, it was important that he respect her. It suddenly struck her as odd that she wanted him to meet Brad and Lily, her two close friends, and get along with them. It was so totally out of character for her to do this, and Brad knew because he was looking at her like she had grown another head.

She couldn’t explain it to herself, so how could she do a good job of it for Brad? She did the next best thing—let Brad and Hawk meet. So far, Brad had been predictably careful, almost like a big brother giving subtle warnings. Hawk—she had to hide a smile—didn’t seem afraid or care about making any impression. In fact, he was acting like he had the right to be in her kitchen, eating dinner here. He looked too comfortable sitting there, wearing her T-shirt, one that looked big on her but fit him snugly, stretching over those broad shoulders that she knew were corded with muscles, fitting around that hard body that had been on top of her own not too long ago. Damn, why did she have to think of that now? The man looked too good in that shirt. And she wanted it off.

The glint in Hawk’s eye told her he knew what she was thinking about. He had accepted the story about her and Brad’s façade as a couple without making any personal comments, and throughout dinner he sat listening quietly as she gave a brief outline about what she and Lily were doing. She didn’t give the full version, just enough details so that he understood where she stood as far as Dilaver was concerned.

“That’s why I’ll help you locate the item you want,” she said. “Anything that will eventually bring an end to Dilaver’s control of this region is good.”

“Is that a yes as my guide, then?”

Amber nodded. “That’s also why I need Brad and Lily to know what’s going on. I’m the facilitator to both operations and when I’m gone with you, someone will have to take over certain details. We’ll have to make up some story about my being missing at the same time that you are. This is where Brad comes in.”