To hide her reaction, she looked down and noticed the stark contrast between his darker skin and her fair skin. She also got a better look at the tattoo on his forearm. She recognized the eagle, globe, and anchor as the Marine Corps emblem. Her Uncle Jerry had a similar one on the upper left side of his chest, though his had become faded and blurred over the years.
“With everything you’ve told us, I would have to agree that someone knows you’ve accessed that file,” Hawk said.
“Oh, God.” Hearing him say it out loud and with such certainty made it that much more real.
Suddenly, her lungs constricted, her vision blurred, and her fingers squeezed tightly together, as if attempting to hold herself in place.
“Hey, hey.” He gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “Charlotte … Charlotte, look at me.” She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “I want you to take a deep breath, then slowly release it.” Hawk’s voice was gentle yet held a hint of command. “Good. One more time.”
She followed his instructions and let out a last, long breath.
“Better?” He watched her carefully, his calloused thumb brushing over her knuckles, sending a zing buzzing through her body.
Charlotte couldn’t seem to form a sentence, so she nodded instead.
“Good.” He gave her a last long look, then, regretfully, slid his hand from atop hers and sat back in his chair.
No man hadeverlooked at her the way Hawk just did. And her body had never responded to a guy the way it responded to him—making her all tingly and warm inside. He’d always been nothing but a gentleman to her, but something about him made her nervous. Not scared, just … on edge.
Probably had something to do with the power and air of mystery that seemed to emanate from him. In contrast, Charlotte was just sort of ho-hum and not all that interesting compared with a guy like him.
Take Dulce and Cole, for example. They fit together like two puzzle pieces. With her tawny skin, caramel-colored eyes, and slightly husky voice, she had a very mysterious air about her. Plus, she was as gorgeous inside as she was outside. She was intelligent, well-respected, tough—the perfect match for someone as intense and intimidating as Cole.
Them being together made sense.
Charlotte, on the other hand, was pretty average—average height, average weight, average clothes, average job—well, itusedto be average, anyway. The only thing about Charlotte that stood out was her red hair, and even that was cut in a practical, run-of-the-mill bob.
She worked long hours, volunteered her services at ELC as much as possible, and her mom was her best friend and favorite person to hang out with. People might think that was weird, but she and her mom were barely sixteen years apart and had been through a lot together.
There were a couple of people from work she would grab a drink with, and they would sometimes meet at the gym for an indoor cycling class. Not because she was a gym rat—far from it—but because it was the best way to counter the effects of her borderline addiction to chocolate ice cream.
Charlotte considered herself a good person and was, generally, content with her life. She always figured someday she might settle down with a guy who worked a nine to five job, liked to watch sports on the weekend, and maybe they’d have a couple of kids they could shuttle back and forth to various activities. You know, just a regular guy.
Hawk was nothing like the man she’d imagined would be suited to her, and maybe that was why he made her so nervous. He was intense and extremely alpha, and she couldn’t envision him living such a normal life.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to you, Charlotte.” His voice broke through her thoughts. “You have my word on that.”
She believed him—the truth was there, in his eyes.
“He’s right.” Dulce gave her a soft smile. “These guys are really good at what they do.”
They spoke with such certainty and conviction, and she wanted desperately to believe them. But the people involved in this disgusting scheme wielded a great deal of power and would do whatever it took to maintain it. However, having OSI on her side made her feel better and less alone in this mess.
Her fingers relaxed, and for the first time in weeks, the tension in her shoulders lessened.
“Sammy is checking to see who else has been accessing this file.” Cole waggled the papers as he walked back over to them. He set his phone on the table and sat. “She’s also running background checks on all of the people on this list.” The pages fluttered when he dropped the papers on the table.
“She can do that?” Charlotte looked from Cole to Dulce and landed on Hawk.
One corner of his mouth lifted. “With her eyes closed.”
“Charlotte, we’ll make a copy of these documents, then I’m going to overnight the originals, the external hard drive, and the knife to Beatrice at our lab in Washington state for testing,” Cole said.
“Beatrice?” Another person involved that she didn’t know.
“Dr. Beatrice Parker, she runs the OSI forensic lab,” Hawk said. “She’s engaged to Mathias O’Halleran.”
“How many O’Hallerans are there?” Charlotte had met Beck, Caleb, and Jonathan O’Halleran when Dulce had set up a meeting with them to discuss becoming a consultant with OSI.
