Chapter Two

Just an hour before dark, Sky noticed the gun Hawk carried.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen a gun before, of course he had, and he could use one but he hadn’t been expecting the stranger to be carrying. Hawk’s weapon was black and had a silencer twisted on the end. He’d seen the piece of hardware when Hawk had tried to discreetly adjust the gun beneath his leather jacket.

Was Hawk there to kill him?

What a fucking fool he’d been to trust the guy, remembering how he’d rummaged up something for them to eat and they’d passed the rest of the afternoon and into evening playing cards from an old deck he’d brought with him.

The light in Hawk’s green eyes when they’d landed on the backpack had Sky feeling a moment of hesitation. It was the only thing he owned that screamed expensive. He’d covered up his mistake by telling Hawk that he’d found the pack. He wasn’t sure Hawk had believed him, but the guy had turned away and made a bed out of old blankets on the cardboard.

That was where Hawk had settled down and removed his leather jacket to bunch beneath his head. Sky didn’t see the gun anywhere and figured Hawk had slipped it into the blankets. The man’s movements were controlled and precise and Sky began looking him over with a critical eye.

No freaking way was this guy homeless.

But Hawk hadn’t killed him…so there was that.

Hadn’t killed him yet, he reminded himself.

“You okay?”

“Sure.” Sky gave a quick, practiced smile, the type he’d been giving his whole life, and lay prone on his piece of cardboard. From there, he could see the sky and it was a clear night, pitch black with millions of stars shining. The breeze had picked up and the stench of the area lessened and he could almost pretend he was on an island far away, safe, and the man resting a few feet from him was not there to kill him in his sleep.

Almost pretend.

Hawk shifted slightly, increasing his snoring a bit. He wanted Sky to think he’d fallen asleep and it worked. A few moments later, Sky slipped from the old ratty blanket, pulled on his hole-riddled sneakers, and crept away from the cardboard. When he was sure Sky was far enough away to not notice or hear him, Hawk slipped from his own rank blankets, tucked his gun away, slid on his leather jacket, and followed on the younger man’s tail.

Keeping track of Sky’s bright head of hair wasn’t hard for Hawk to do since the young man had removed the beanie to sleep.

Following Sky was easy enough since the man’s direction seemed to be chaotic, first going one way and then the other. At no time did Sky try to hide and Hawk grew irritated at the risk the young man was taking.

Although, he shouldn’t be worried about whether or not the younger man could protect himself because he knew in detail the training Sky had received. He’d read the inch-thick file on the man before accepting the job.

Sky was an expert marksman and currently held a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. He should have reached red level status but he’d up and disappeared.

The interesting part was that the client who took out the hit was Jack Franklin, Sky’s stepfather.

According to Jack Franklin, Sky may look innocent, but the man was a murderer and embezzler. When Franklin had confronted Sky about the money, Sky had beat the crap out of the guy and killed the maid who’d been a witness to the whole thing. Franklin cautioned Erebus that Sky was not to be underestimated at any cost and killed on sight.

Underestimated? Killed on sight?

Fuck that. Hawk could blow the younger man over with a good breath of air. Sky had been slender in the photo that had come from the file and he may have had training, but that was a far cry from the young man’s current rail-thin frame. The long, lean, and lithe frame he figured was a result of being on the run for the past eleven months and not having enough to eat.

He grimaced remembering the leftover food he’d endured when Sky had dug through what looked to be selected garbage. All Hawk could manage was a few bites of things that were remotely edible and then passed on anything else and he silently vowed to feed Sky and himself some fucking decent food in the morning.

Only, Sky wasn’t sticking around until morning, was he?

No, and Hawk thought that maybe the guy had seen his weapon when he’d tucked the standard Glock G19 beneath the blanket.

He felt a little off his game right then. Usually, around this time after he found his mark, he was on his way to dispose of a body or finished completely and on his way to knock back a few beers. Typically, he would have shot his mark in the head, slit his throat, or strangled him quietly and been on his way.

But he’d done none of those things and it was a bit concerning, if he was being honest. He should have been back to his nondescript apartment in a busy part of town and planning how he was going to invest his new funds, not chasing after his blue-eyed, blond-haired mark.

The alley narrowed, with buildings rising on both sides. Trash cans and boxes littered the area, but it was lit up with a few lights positioned over the back doors of the closed-up shops. Someone had decorated early. Stretching across the top of the buildings were sparkling Christmas lights.

Movement from behind brought Hawk around and he lifted his arm to deflect the piece of pipe coming at him.

Sky landed a blow on his forearm and Hawk grunted beneath the impact. He snatched at the pipe, but Sky leaped nimbly away, swinging the pipe back and forth in a figure eight.

Experience oozed from the younger man and Hawk reassessed his opponent.

A thrill of excitement shot through him when Sky balanced lightly on bare feet—shoes discarded somewhere.

It was clear Sky was pulling on his martial arts training.

Hawk smirked.

Okay, kid. Let’s see what you’ve got.

Sky returned the smug bastard’s smirk.

He couldn’t help it. He could tell by the smug expression on Hawk’s face that he thought he was going to come out the winner of this one. Sky didn’t bother to tell him that he’d taken down much bigger men than this one. He wasn’t fully developed at his craft yet, but he’d surprised his Grandmaster by fighting some of the red belts, which was a level above him, and won. He’d been set to test for the next belt, but had had to run.

Right then, he was a bit underfed, but sometimes going without food for a while gave him a razor-sharp focus. He may not have the stamina for a long fight, but this was going to be short and sweet.

Spinning, Sky kicked and sent his foot into Hawk’s chest. The hit landed, the man grunted and fell back, but stayed on his feet. Sky didn’t wait, he swung his arm out and the pipe cracked against the side of Hawk’s thigh. Not low enough to take out the man’s knee, but he’d smacked the muscle hard enough to send pain shooting through the leg.

Growling, Hawk moved in and Sky whipped the pipe again, this time toward the man’s head. Hawk deflected with enough force that he had almost dislodged the pipe.

Gripping the metal tube harder, Sky stepped back, swung the pipe in a figure eight, and circled Hawk. He blew his hair from his eyes and moved in. He swung high, anticipating when Hawk lifted an arm upward to block again. Taking advantage, Sky whipped the pipe and swung it low, aiming for the man’s ribs.

Hawk moved so fast, his arms seemed to blur and they traded blow after blow. Sky grew winded trying to keep up and just when he thought he’d drop the pipe, Hawk wrenched it from his grip and tossed it away.

The tube clattered on the pavement and rolled away.

Smiling through his teeth, Sky fell back on what he knew and used his arms and legs to attack. Hawk defended every blow and returned a few that caught Sky by surprise.

Their exchange had them both winded and left Sky panting and lightheaded. The hard surface of the building came up behind him as the bigger man moved in, leaving Sky with no other choice but to back up. When the hard surface met his back, he was caged and he realized two very important things. One, that Hawk had martial arts combat skills that were some of the best he’d ever come up against, and two, that if he didn’t move, he was going to be trapped. He rushed forward and would come to regret the move. Hawk gripped him by the front of his shirt in one hand and shoved him hard.

Sky was slammed into the wall and pain splintered up his spine before he was caught by the throat in a powerful fist.

Shit! His feet left the ground and his air cut off and he clawed at Hawk’s hand, digging at the fingers that were choking the life from him.

Panicking, every bit of training left his mind as instinct kicked in and he clawed and lashed out with his feet as the world turned gray.

The last thing he saw was a pair of furious green eyes before the world faded.