“You must have deer and other animals out here. Don’t they set off the motion sensors?”
“Sometimes but not often enough to be a hassle. Let me show you how this works.” He instructed her on which number was assigned to each monitor, left to right, and that the number corresponded to the number on the keyboard.
“So if I want to look at, say, this one”—she pointed to the monitor on the bottom right—“then I press the nine key. Right?” She looked at him for confirmation.
“Exactly.” He handed her the controller. “Here, give it a test drive.”
She pressed the number nine key and, using the controller, was able to view the entire back of the house on that monitor.
“That’s so cool.” Motion sensors, night vision cameras, and a gun on her hip.
Man, her life had become so strange, so quickly.
“I don’t expect you to stay in here the whole time I’m gone, but I wanted you to know how to operate the cameras, just in case.”
“Wait, you’re going after them by yourself?” She assumed he would wait with her until his team arrived.
Cole’s call had already kicked her adrenaline into high gear, and now, hearing Hawk talking about possibly facing those people alone, combined with the unfamiliar weight of the gun on her hip—
“I’ll stay with you as long as I can.” He held out his hand. She placed the controller on his palm, and he twisted at the waist to set it back on the desk. “But if that alarm goes off before the team gets here, I can’t wait. Going after bad guys—that’s what I do, Charlotte.” He spoke so casually about running out into the dark after an unknown number of killers, like it was an everyday occurrence.
She wasn’t an idiot; she knew his job came with risks. But now, seeing him in work mode and being up close and personal to this nightmare, she was struck by how truly life-threatening the work was that Hawk and his team did on a regular basis.
Was she going to be able to live with knowing he could walk out the door on an assignment one day and not come back alive?
“Charlotte.” He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and lowered himself to her eye level. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course, I trust you.” Without hesitation and with her life.
And that, right there, answered her question. She trusted Hawk with her life, and she trusted him to come back to her. Besides, choosing not to have him in her life was no longer an option.
Charlotte loved him too much to let him go.
“Good.” He straightened to his full height. “Because the only way I can do what I need to do out there”—he pointed in the general direction of the woods—“is if I know you’re safe in here.”
Charlotte’s stomach churned at the thought of being a distraction for him when he was walking right into danger.
“What do I need to do?” She drew her shoulders back, determined to be a help and not a hindrance.
“That’s my girl.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m going to keep this room open for now. But if that alarm goes off, I want you to lock yourself in here. Luna will receive an automated notification and will check in with you. I want you to keep an eye on those screens. Especially number eight and nine; they’re aimed at the front and back of the house.” He removed a key from the keychain and handed it to her. “Keep that on you, because you’ll need it to lock the deadbolt from the inside.”
She tucked it in the front pocket of her jeans, then looked around the room again, stopping on the door.
How long it would take for someone to break that thing down?
“Don’t worry about the door. It has a steel core, reinforced hinges, and the deadbolt is the best there is.” He was so attuned to her, he could already tell what she was thinking. “Also, there’s no window to break through.”
She’d been so distracted by all the security equipment, she hadn’t noticed the lack of a window.
“You’ll be safe in here, Charlotte. I promise.” He wrapped her in a reassuring hug, and she gripped the back of his T-shirt in her hands. “Come on, there’s something else I want to show you.” He kissed the top of her head, laid his arm casually over her shoulders, and patted the side of his thigh.
Remy hopped up and walked with them to the front door.
“The entire house, all doors and windows, are alarmed.” He gave her the code and showed her how to arm and disarm the system. “If something sets it off—”
“I lock myself in the back room and watch the monitors,” she said.
“Exactly.”
