Chapter Seven

“Get down and stay down!” He barked out the order and pulled Sky along behind him.

Other than a gasp, Sky didn’t make a sound, and Hawk ran low, gripping Sky’s hand. They ran through the kitchen and out the back door, ending up in an alley. Hawk turned east, away from the diner and into the dark night. Other than a whimper or two, Sky never uttered a word and it was at least forty-five more minutes before Hawk felt safe enough to stop.

“Who was that?”

“That? Probably a second hitman to kill you.” Hawk suddenly glanced down and even in the dark, he saw the trail of blood on the sidewalk behind them. “Fuck.”

Sky was barefoot and the glass from the diner window had gouged his feet, but the younger man hadn’t made more than a few sounds since they’d left the place.

What Sky had done, though, was leave a trail of blood that any trained killer could follow. Spotting an all-night gas station with a convenience store, Hawk pulled Sky across the asphalt. He tucked the man against the building, put his gun in Sky’s hands, and left him there to go inside and get supplies.

He returned to find Sky gripping the gun like a fucking expert and almost hidden from view in the darkness.

“Come on.” He pulled the man around the corner and into the filthy bathroom.

After tending to Sky’s feet and wrapping them tightly, he shoved on a pair of sandals he’d spotted hanging on a display in the back of the store.

“Thanks,” Sky whispered and held out his gun.

“You’re welcome.” Hawk tucked the gun away beneath his shirt and then bent down to take out his ankle pistol. He held the smaller gun out to Sky, who slowly took it from him.

“Why?”

“Just in case.”

Sky nodded, but that shy smile was missing and Hawk hadn’t felt this fucking helpless in a long time. The first thing he needed to do was hide Sky’s hair. The blond strands were like a fucking halo around his head, screaming, look at me…see how beautiful I am?

The crazy thing was that no way in fucking hell was Hawk going to dye that hair.

“Wait here.” He left Sky and reentered the gas station, found a beanie, and was back in minutes.

He pulled the dark blue stretchy cap down over that bright hair and tucked in the strands that escaped while Sky tipped his face up and went very still. There was no way of them walking away from each other until Hawk got to the bottom of whatever the fuck was going on.

First, he needed to get Sky to trust him completely by sharing everything and second, he needed to know how Erebus had made such a grievous oversight.

He took the man’s hand and pulled him over to an older model truck. It had been some years since he’d stolen a vehicle, but back in his youth, he’d been a reckless hellion. He’d run with one gang after the other until he’d ended up working for the mob for a while. It was during one of those jobs that his mob boss had introduced him to the Secretary of Defense.

A few months later, Hawk was working for a secret society of assassins call Erebus, who reported to the SecDef. When Dave retired, the President had tasked the man with control of the specialty teams that protected America.

“You’re stealing a truck,” Sky hissed at him and Hawk smirked.

“It can’t be helped. Plus, this one doesn’t have the GPS crap that the newer models do.”

“But…” Sky sputtered. “Stealing?”

The door popped open and rather than stand there arguing why he needed to do this, Hawk shoved Sky through the opening and climbed inside. Reaching beneath the dash, he got the truck started and was out of the parking lot in moments.

“Buckle up.” He tossed Sky a glance and received a cheeky grin.

It was something he was growing quite fond of.

They ended up in another motel for the night and then Hawk decided to find something a bit more permanent and contacted an old friend. The next day, he closed the door to the penthouse on the top floor of a well-known hotel. Hopefully, it would only take a few days to take care of Sky’s issue.

He would come to realize later that it would take more time than he’d anticipated to get the job done.