“And Brad’s doing all he can,” Amber continued, ignoring Lily’s sarcasm.
Lily cocked her head, her eyes darting from one person to another, as if she were seeing them for the first time. “It isn’t enough for me,” she told them, and the fierceness in her voice reminded Hawk of Tatiana’s anger. “All these girls all over the continent being sold and used in a human meat market, and all perpetuated and sanctioned by the so-called authorities. They are all the same, all crooks and rapists, all guilty in my eyes. I’d take down every one of them if I could.”
She gave Hawk one final glare and swept out of the room.
“I’ll go talk to her,” Amber said, touching his arm before slipping out, too.
“She doesn’t like it when she isn’t in control,” Hawk remarked to Brad, who hadn’t bothered to join in the argument. “She yell at you like that often?”
Brad looked at the cup in his hand. “Only when she isn’t in control,” he said quietly. “She usually takes off for a while and comes back a lot calmer.”
“Sounds like you have heard her tirades a few times already. How do you handle the attacks on the job thing?” Hawk was curious about the relationship between Brad and Lily. From their body language, it was obvious that they were hot for each other and were in the middle of some kind of struggle. “Is this part of the quarrel between you two right now?”
Brad looked up, a wry twist on his lips. “You make all my women hot and bothered.”
Hawk lifted an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Lily isn’t the only one reacting so excitedly to your presence. I’ve never seen Amber quite like this before. Doing things on her own, running off with you to do things without consulting Lily. She’s never the crazy one.”
Hawk thought about a certain message hung on his dick. A certain triumphant feeling surged in him when he realized that Brad really didn’t know Amber. “I beg to differ,” he said.
It was Brad’s turn to lift an eyebrow. “Somehow I get the feeling you’re happy about Amber’s wild side. As for Lily, she’s always been a bit unpredictable.”
“Is that why you’re hooked on her?”
Brad frowned. “I wouldn’t say ‘hooked.’ I’m…fascinated.” He shrugged. “Lot of good that does me.”
“Maybe she thinks you have a thing for Amber,” Hawk suggested. It was just another one of his gut feelings. Lily had been looking at Amber surreptitiously over the last week and had him wondering. He had noted that the intensity always grew whenever Brad was around the two women. “Does she know about your fascination, as you call it, for her?”
“Not that it’s any of your business. She does, and she knows Amber and I are friends.”
“Then there’s something very wrong.”
Brad regarded him from behind the cup as he took a slow sip. “What?”
“I’m sure you checked up on the women when you first got to know them,” Hawk said, walking to the coffee table to refill his cup. “I’m damn sure you have or are still checking up on me. All of us have something in our background that we don’t want others to know.”
Jed had told him that he needed to find out more about Lily Noretski because the risk she posed was an unknown factor. Brad had the means.
“Are you saying you don’t trust Lily?” Brad asked, watching him pour the tea.
“That isn’t what I meant. I know my secrets. I have a lot of background info on Amber because that’s who I’m supposed to work with. You’re a public official, so the background is pretty open. Lily’s the only one I don’t know much about, except for one or two things.” Hawk took a gulp from his cup. “She’s a friend of yours and Amber’s, so I’m not trying to bring trouble to the table, but there’s something in her past that makes her tick like a bomb whenever it comes to these girls.”
“You’re the one we don’t know about here, Hawk. If there is someone who shouldn’t be trusted, it’s you. These two have run their operation for a number of years.”
“Want some more tea?” When Brad shook his head, Hawk settled back in the sofa. “Okay, let’s say it’s either your presence or mine in this operation that’s grating on Lily’s nerves. Amber doesn’t know what it is, or she isn’t telling me. You don’t appear to know and aren’t able to solve the problem, or you’d be in Lily’s pants. I still say it’s all about Lily.”
Brad put his empty cup down. “You’re a confident son of a bitch.” Although his tone of voice was quietly mild, there was steel in his gaze. “Don’t think I haven’t been watching you. Been here a couple of weeks and taking charge of lives you hardly know. I wonder what’s in your background that makes that second nature to you. So far, someone’s definitely delaying certain files from reaching my hands, but don’t think I don’t have other sources.”
Hawk smiled. “Dig deeper.” His smile disappeared. “You have the connections. It doesn’t hurt to know more about the people you’re fascinated with.”
Brad was silent for a moment. “I will,” he said, his fingers tapping a quiet beat on the arm of the sofa.
Hawk nodded. There wasn’t any handshake, but he knew Brad had agreed to find out more about Lily. He wasn’t afraid that the bureaucrat would find out about his own secrets. For one thing, he wasn’t the one with whom Bradford Sun had a fascination.
Nor Amber, he added. And he was glad about that, too. He couldn’t help but admire the woman. How she managed to run a café, an information service, a complicated operation of saving and transporting girls from country to country,andavoid being caught by all the different thugs and groups who moved around her was beyond him. He couldn’t help wondering if, given the chance, she would run his own SEAL team just as capably and calmly.
One day, they might be able to tell each other things about themselves. Not that he didn’t enjoy finding out about Amber with intimate contact. There were secrets about the woman he had grown particularly captivated with. Like that tattoo. And he didn’t deny the male smugness that came with knowing that Bradford Sun wouldn’t know about that secret.
