Kristen Ashley - Mystery Man

That was Tracy: fashion before everything, even safety.

“She’s not payin’ for it,” Hawk replied, Tracy’s face instantly lit up again and her eyes flew back to Hawk while Troy’s eyes narrowed on him.

“Hurray!” Tracy exclaimed.

“Babe, stop saying ‘hurray’, this isn’t what it seems,” I finally got out and Hawk’s arm squeezed my shoulders.

“What is it then?” Troy asked me but didn’t wait for me to answer. “And who is this guy? And who broke in? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Do the police know? Did they catch him?”

I opened my mouth to answer but Hawk answered before me and for me.

“Like I said, I’m Hawk, Gwen’s man. We don’t know who broke in. Gwen’s fine, my boys and I are lookin’ out for her and the police have been informed.”

“Hawk,” Tracy breathed, gazing up at him with stars in her eyes. “Cool name. Way cool. Super cool. Super, double extra cool.”

Good God.

“Honey, you need a brief but I don’t have time, I have work,” I told her and looked at Troy. “And I’m sorry, Troy, I can see you’re concerned but things are a little crazy and I have deadlines. I can’t do my Troy Day today. But I’m fine, totally fine. I’ll call you and explain everything tomorrow.” Then I looked at Hawk and snapped, “And you. Will you quit speaking for me?”

“That’s cool,” Tracy said immediately before Hawk could reply and went on. “And by the way, honey, your hair is the bomb.”

Troy wasn’t cool. He was staring at me. Then he asked, “Does this have to do with Ginger?”

When he asked that, Tracy’s eyes swung to me and they were wide.

“Ohmigod,” she breathed. “I didn’t think of that.”

Troy didn’t wait for my answer; he jumped straight to the right conclusion. He’d known me a long time but my escapades, even at their worst, wouldn’t lead to a team of commandos installing a security system.

“What’d she do?” Troy asked.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve disowned her,” I answered.

“Finally,” Tracy muttered.

“I want to know and I care if it means, in a day, you’ve found and hooked up with Rambo,” Troy clipped, jerking his head at Hawk.

Hawk did that deep, manly, amused chuckle.

Tracy missed the chuckle because she was declaring, “It wasn’t a day. They’ve been seeing each other for a year and a half.”

Uh-oh.

Tracy saw the look on Troy’s face, realized what she’d done and said my thought out loud, “Uh-oh.”

“A year and a half,” Troy whispered and my stomach lurched. He looked like I’d kicked him and not in a good place.

Shit, Hawk was right. Troy definitely wanted to get in my pants.

“Troy –” I whispered back and Hawk spoke.

“Friendly advice. Next time, get your head outta your ass and stake your claim.”

My body went solid but it still turned woodenly toward Hawk and I snapped loudly, “Hawk!”

Hawk looked down at me. “Man to man, babe, he’s a man, he can take it and he’s gotta know he fucked up.”

For the first time in my life I was wishing murder wasn’t illegal.

“I can see you’re not in the mood for an intervention,” Tracy said softly to Troy, “but, um… he’s kind of right, honey.”

This time, my mouth dropped open as I stared at my sweet, wouldn’t-do-or-say-a-thing-to-hurt-a-soul Tracy saying something that hurt a soul.

And Troy looked at her just like I’d figure someone would look whose soul was just wounded.

Then he jerked around and started to go.

I pulled away from Hawk, rushed forward and grabbed his hand, saying, “Troy –”

He stopped and shook his hand free, his eyes narrowed on me. “Don’t,” he whispered.

“Troy –” I started, again.

“You need a washer changed or you’re freezing your ass off because your furnace doesn’t work, Gwen, don’t call my number. Call Rambo there,” he jerked his head toward Hawk, “and hope he knows how to use a fucking wrench.”

Then he walked out my front door.

When he did I swung to face Hawk and Tracy.

“What the hell?” I yelled.

“Babe,” Hawk replied.

“I know,” Tracy said softly. “It was harsh, honey, but Cam isn’t here and someone had to say it. She and I have been talking about it for ages. He should have made his move or moved on. He didn’t do either. Now that you have Hawk, maybe he’ll forget about you and move on.”

Cam and her had been talking about it for ages? Why hadn’t they talked to me?

I didn’t ask this. Instead I shouted, “He’s already moved on! He’s got a girlfriend.”

Tracy waved her hand in front of her face. “Hardly. Every girl he picks he picks so they’d be someone he could drop like a rock if you gave him an in. I don’t like her. Cam doesn’t like her. You don’t like her. She’s a whiner. No one likes a whiner. Even Troy. Therefore, easy to drop like a rock.”

I looked at Tracy. Then I looked at Hawk. Then I looked at my audience of commandos.

Then I went into denial.

“This isn’t happening,” I announced. “I can’t do this right now. My Pad Thai is already cold. I need to nuke it, eat it and get work done. No one exists. I live in a world all alone.”

Then I stomped through Tracy and Hawk, up my stairs and to my food.

When I’d grabbed my noodles and turned around, Hawk was in the door.

“Babe,” he said.

“I don’t see you. You don’t exist,” I informed him.

“Gwen, someone had to tell him.”

“No, they didn’t and if they did, it didn’t have to be you,” I shot back.

“I did him a favor.”

“Really? You did? Should I call Troy and ask him if he thought you did him a favor, telling him that shit in front of me, Trace and your bunch of badasses?”

“Next time, he’ll get his finger outta his ass.”

Definitely exploring the boundaries of head explosion.

“Go away. I don’t want to see you for, I don’t know… maybe a million years. A million years ought to do it. If I have a million years, I think I’ll get over being,” I leaned forward, “insanely pissed at you.”

He grinned.

Then he repeated, “Babe.”

“Thanks for the food,” I snapped sounding about as grateful as I felt, which was to say, not at all. I walked toward him and finished, “See you in a million years.”

As I tried to move around him, he caught me with an arm around my belly and I decided not to struggle because firstly, I might drop my Pad Thai and secondly, I’d lose.

“What?” I snapped when I’d twisted my neck to look up at him.

“We’re havin’ dinner tonight,” he informed me.

“No, we’re not,” I informed him. “I’m enduring dinner with Dad and Meredith where I’ll have to explain about Ginger and you. Then I’m working until I fall asleep at the keyboard.”

His brows drew together. “Are you that far behind?”

“Yes!” I shouted. “I was that far behind yesterday when Darla came to visit and I stupid, stupid, stupidly decided to go to Ride. Now I’m even more far behind and all this shit, Hawk, it is not helping.”

“I should let you get shit done,” he muttered.

“You think?” I snapped.

His arm curled, moving me to his front and curving around me so I had to execute evasive maneuvers not to lose my Pad Thai.

“Hawk…” I warned when his head dropped, I twisted my neck to try to avoid it, his arm tightened, his other one wrapping around me, and I failed to avoid his lips hitting my neck.

“You need to get caught up, baby, carve some time out for me,” he murmured against my neck and I was about to say something snotty but wasn’t able to when his tongue touched the skin behind my ear, I instantly forgot I was insanely pissed at him and then he said, “We’re due.”

“Due?” I breathed because I could still feel his tongue behind my ear.

His head came up, he looked at me and he repeated, “Due.”

“For what?”

His black eyes warmed, the dimples popped out and his arms got even tighter, plastering me to his long, hard body.

Oh.

Due.

Mm.

I momentarily forgot that we were over as I stared into his warm, black eyes in the light of day, felt his long, hard body against mine and mentally recalled what that body felt like naked.

Mm.

“Babe,” he called and I blinked.

“Hunh?”

He smiled, this time with white teeth against his beautiful brown skin and he dropped his head and kissed me lightly.

“Get to work,” he ordered.

Then, suddenly, he was gone.

I stood there with my Pad Thai staring at my empty hall thinking, shit.

I’d managed to get rid of Tracy, nuke and eat my Pad Thai and return to my computer but after an hour of work, my mind wandered. My foot came up so I could rest my heel on the seat, I swiveled my chair and I put my chin to my knee so I could comfortably stare out the window without doing anything too taxing, like holding my own head up.

I wasn’t daydreaming, I was thinking about where I’d gone wrong.

Two years ago, after Tracy had successfully passed an online course in bartending, she’d stepped out of her chosen career of hopscotching through every exclusive retail clothing store at Cherry Creek Mall and scored a job at Club. Club was a trendy eatery that had really good food, stylish, sophisticated glasses in which they served their drinks, three open fires that made the space warm and welcoming, every table was a booth and it had a huge circular bar in the middle where you could see and be seen.