Chapter Ten

Liz halted and jerked her gaze to Hawk, who already had the rifle pointed in the direction of the sound to their right. Sunlight seeped across the early morning sky, casting enough light into the wide saddle they were crossing to make them easy targets. A murmur of voices floated to them from around the hill.

Hawk motioned her to go to the left toward the hillside. She quietly followed his lead as he sidestepped in that direction. Her heart pounded. There were no trees or rocks to use as cover. If Hawk shot one of the men, would the other shoot him before he could shoot back? They were so close to the dig—fifteen minutes, Hawk had estimated. Reid must be desperate to have sent his men into the mountains after them again.

A man appeared around the bend. “Whoa!” he called, his eyes glued to Hawk’s rifle.

He lifted his hands to show he held no weapon, but Liz saw the revolver strapped to his waist. She gave a small cry at recognizing the grey uniform of law enforcement and the mounted unit patch on his arm.

Hawk lowered the rifle. “You almost got yourself shot.”

“I see that.” The man glanced from him to Liz. “Professor Hawkins? Ms. Williams?”

Hawk nodded.

“You two all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” Hawk replied.

The man pulled the radio from his belt. “Joe, I found them fifteen minutes to the north. They’re alive and well. We’ll meet you back at the cars.”

The radio clicked, then, “Roger that,” Joe replied. “Over.”

Liz startled at the feel of Hawk’s hand on her shoulder and leaned into him as he pulled her close.

The man clipped the radio back to his belt. “You’ve got some worried friends and relatives.”

“Who alerted you?” Hawk asked.

“Ms. Williams’ daughter reported her missing. We would have had no idea to look for her out here, but the sergeant who questioned her remembered a call from a Ms. Gloria Alameda who said you didn’t come home last night, Professor Hawkins. When Ms. Williams’ daughter mentioned your name, he put two and two together.” The officer gave them a penetrating look. “The officer who drove out here found your two vehicles and realized something was wrong. What happened out here last night?”

“We had a couple of men shooting at us,” Hawk said.

The officer’s gaze sharpened. “You know who they were?”

“I do, and we can give a full statement.”

He nodded. “Let’s get back.” He looked at Liz. “Your daughter is very worried.”

Liz’s stomach clenched. Emma would be worried sick. Once her concern passed, she would know something had happened between her mother and her professor.

****

Detectives Lyons looked at Hawk from across the small table in the interview room. The police had separated him and Liz when they’d arrived at the precinct an hour ago.

“You’re absolutely positive the men were Harry Jones and Jack Phillips?” Lyons asked.

“I’ve seen them half a dozen times,” Hawk said. “The Beanstalk—Harry Jones—drives that SUV that tried to run us down the other night.”

“You recognized him that night?”

Hawk shook his head.

“What about a license plate number?” the detective asked.

“I didn’t have time to take notes. You have a witness who saw the whole thing. Didn’t they get it?”

Lyons’ leaned back in his chair. “Ms. Williams told you we had a witness?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know that witness saw you get rough with her.”

Hawk had wondered when the detective would get around to what happened between him and Liz. The detective’s attitude had been subtle but aggressive. “We had a disagreement. I thought Reid sent her.”

“You think it’s okay to get rough with the women Mr. Reid sends your way?”

“No,” Hawk answered honestly. Saying more would only play into the detective’s hands.

Lyons stared for a long moment, then glanced down at the small notebook sitting on the table in front of him. “You were carrying a falling-block rifle when the rangers found you.” Lyons looked up at Hawk. “Do you carry a rifle with you everywhere you go?”

“The rifle stays in my truck. When Liz and I found her slashed tires and my cut brake line, I kept it close. Good thing I did.”

“Yeah?” Lyons said.

“Yeah. Reid’s thugs came back—and shot at us.”

The door opened and another detective entered with a woman. “Professor Hawkins, I’m Detective Marlow, and this is Assistant DA Brenda O’Malley.”

Hawk stood and shook hands with them.

“We’ve been trying to find solid evidence against Vance Reid for five years,” Brenda said. “Could you identify the men who shot at you in a line-up?”

“Yes,” Hawk said.

“Good. Come on.”

Lyons stood, and Hawk followed the three of them from the room. They reached a small room with a one way glass. Liz was there with a female detective. She gave him a tremulous smile. He crossed to her, and she nearly fell into his arms.

Hawk hugged her tight for a moment, then pulled back. “You ready for this?”

She nodded. “It’s gotta be done.”

“Okay,” Hawk told Brenda.

The men were filed out, and Hawk and Liz each picked out their two attackers. He saw the fear that flickered in Liz’s eyes before she was able to hide it, and he knew what he had to do.

****

“This is ridiculous.” Liz looked from Emma to Hawk. They sat across from her at the kitchen table.

“You’re the one being ridiculous,” Emma said. “Professor Hawkins is right. You can’t stay here alone tonight.”

“Emma,” Liz began, but Hawk cut her off.

“Liz, if you’re not going to think of yourself, think of Emma. What happens if Reid sends someone to your place while Emma’s here?”

That stopped Liz cold. “Em, you have to go away until this is over.”

“What? No way. You’re staying. I’m staying.”

“This isn’t a game.” Liz looked at Hawk. “I’m right. You know it. Tell her.”

“Maybe,” he said.

“No way,” Emma exploded.

“Hold on,” Hawk said before Emma could go ballistic. “Let’s start with tonight, shall we?” He looked at Liz. “We’ve had a rough day. How about we hunker down for the night, the three of us, get some rest, then see what the police come up with tomorrow?”

Liz hesitated.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Em said.

“You will if I say so,” Liz replied. “But I’ll agree to tonight. Then,” she looked at her daughter, “tomorrow, you will do exactly what I say.”

Emma’s mouth tightened. “Maybe.”

Liz was too exhausted to argue.

Emma rose from the table. “I’m going downstairs to my place and get some studying done.”

Liz nodded. “I’ll call you for dinner.”

“Three’s a crowd, Mom.”

“You’re coming for dinner, or I’m coming for you,” Liz said. “I’d say about an hour.”

Her daughter nodded and left.

Liz released a breath. “Will she be all right downstairs?”

“Is there a separate entrance to her basement apartment?” Hawk asked.

She shook her head. “No. She has to enter inside through the hallway.”

“Then she’ll be all right. No one will get past me to her.”

Or you, Liz knew he was thinking. “How does steak sound?”

“Barbecue?” he asked.

“I could fire up the gas grill.”

He rose. “Leave it to me.”

She stood, and he grasped her hand. A tremor rippled through her when his fingers tightened gently around hers and drew her close. He surprised her by placing a kiss on her forehead.

“Come on.” He led her from the kitchen and started down the hallway.

“Hawk—”

“Which room is yours?” he asked.

“Emma’s here. I don’t think we should—”

He opened up the first door on the right to the bathroom, then closed it.

“Hawk.”

He opened the second door to the left, which was her office.

He looked at her. “Very nice.” He closed the door and stepped to the door on the left.

Her heart was pounding. “If Emma comes up here, she’ll hear us,” Liz protested as he opened the door to her room.

Hawk stepped inside and led her to the queen sized bed. He grasped her shoulders, bent, and brushed his lips against hers. Liz stilled, unable to deny she was glad for the warmth of his mouth against hers, the pressure of his fingers in the flesh of her shoulders. She suddenly realized she wanted him, needed him.

Before she could respond, he pulled away and drew back the covers. When he eased her onto the bed, her heart thumped even harder.

Then he tugged the covers up over her and sat on the edge of the bed. “You need some rest.

“Rest?” she repeated.

“Rest.” He smiled. “You expected something else?”

She flushed.

His brows rose. “Maybe you were hoping for something else?”

“Emma’s here,” Liz said in a whisper.

He nodded, and she couldn’t tear her eyes from his face.

“Later.” He kissed her forehead again, then left.

She stared at the closed door, uncertain she could let him walk away so easily. Then she closed her eyes.

****

“You tell GFW they can make payment on time or talk to our lawyers.” Liz spoke into the phone at her home office to Ben Dixon, CFO of GFW, Leland Industries’ largest buyer. “You received the product, Ben. We expect the final payment in five days—per our contract.”

She shifted and winced when butt muscles screamed. She’d slept through dinner and clear through the night, which probably hadn’t helped. A tremor radiated through her stomach. Was it the run or the hard workout Hawk had given her that had her body sore? Memory rose of the way her anus had stretched as he entered her and the pleasure when his finger had plunged in and out of her pussy as his cock met each thrust from behind.

“Liz.” Ben’s voice dragged her back to the present. “We’ve done business too long for there to be this kind of animosity.”

“And we’ve done business long enough for me to know when I’m being stonewalled,” she replied. “I read the Wall Street Journal. Leland Industries isn’t about to finance GFW’s merger with Suyama Industries.”

“One month, Liz. That’s all I’m asking.”

Her assistant Karen walked in and pointed to her watch. Liz nodded. She had a conference call with a new start-up design company in five minutes.

“Tell you what,” she said into the phone, “you give Leland Industries the interest you’ll make on keeping our money in your bank, and you’ve got a deal.”

Silence.

“Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“Liz—”

“No,” she cut in. “You’re asking us to lose money so that you can make money. We won’t do it, Ben.”

He sighed. “I’ll talk to Anderson. Maybe he can offer some sort of incentive.”

“Five days,” she repeated.

“You sure you won’t come over to the dark side and work for us?”

She laughed. “You make this offer every time you get tired of arguing with me.”

“Hell, yeah,” he agreed. “But I mean it.”

He’d meant it every time he said it over the last ten years. Ben wasn’t a bad guy, but today was a perfect example of how GFW did business, and she didn’t like it.

“I’ll talk to you later, Ben.”

“Think about it,” he said. “Seriously.”

“I have. Now you talk to your boss.” She hung up.

Karen sat down in the chair across from Liz’s desk. “Are they going to pay?”

Liz leaned back in her chair. “Hard to say. The interest they’ll make by withholding payment is enough to induce even good old honest Abe Lincoln to give thought to holding out. What have you got?” She nodded toward the pink slips of paper in Karen’s hand while reaching for the quarterly production report she’d been poring over when Ben called.

“Two messages from Suzy Chang and one from Professor Hawkins.”

Liz’s head jerked up before she could halt the action.

Karen’s brows rose. “That must have been some night in the mountains.”

Liz’s heart raced. Why would he be calling when she was meeting him and Emma in two hours at the university? She blew out a breath she hoped said last night was an experience I don’t care to repeat, and said, “A person doesn’t get shot at every day.”

“No. And they don’t get stuck in the mountains with a man like Professor Hawkins every day, either. I saw his picture in the paper. The man is drop-dead gorgeous.”

“It was life or death, Karen. Gorgeous had nothing to do with it. Not to mention the man’s twelve years younger than me.”

Karen’s gaze sharpened, and Liz realized her mistake when her assistant said, “You noticed that, did you?”

Liz shrugged. “It would be hard not to notice a man like him.” When in doubt, fall back on the truth. “But that doesn’t change the fact we were running for our lives.”

Karen’s expression sobered. “Hard to believe all this is over some land.”

“Land that’s worth enough money to make our dispute with GFW look like couch change.”

At least Hawk’s goal had been accomplished. Artifacts supporting Hawk’s theories that the site was Paleo-Indian had been discovered on the north-east section of the land, butting up to and reaching into Reid’s land, which explained Reid’s desperation to get to Hawk. Liz glanced at the clock. Six-thirty. Injunctions would already have been filed to stop all building until experts were brought in to assess the find. Hawk would be one of those experts.

“I still can’t believe there’s nothing the police can do,” Karen said.

Liz had been just as surprised. But Hawk had known the police wouldn’t be able to connect Reid to the two men they identified—a fact that wasn’t going to stop Hawk from dealing with Reid, despite Liz’s attempts to dissuade him. According to him, the only good thing that had come out of their attack was the fact that, since the case was now high profile, Harry Jones—also known as The Beanstalk—and his partner Jack Phillips wouldn’t be able to get near Liz again.

That didn’t mean someone else wouldn’t try, which was why an unmarked police car sat outside and why Liz had agreed to work from home today. That and Hawk’s threat to follow her to the plant and stick by her side all day if she didn’t stay home. The question in Em’s eyes when Liz had explained what happened had been bad enough. She didn’t want to confirm her daughter’s suspicions by having her professor follow her mother around all day. She had to admit, working from home in jeans and a T-shirt was a welcome respite from dressing for work. She needed the break after the last couple of days.

“You’ve got that call,” Karen said.

Liz nodded. “You go ahead and take off.”

“You sure?”

“Yep.”

“Same place, same time tomorrow,” Karen asked.

Liz laughed. “Yeah. I think Emma would have a fit if I left the house just yet.” But it wasn’t Emma she was worried about.

Half an hour later, Liz flipped off the bedroom light and stepped into the hallway. A hulking figure stood at the far end, silhouetted against the soft light behind him in the foyer. Not The Beanstalk but a stranger inside the house. She whirled back into the room, slamming the door shut.

Liz turned the tiny lock then raced to the window on the far wall. She wound the handle and the window began to roll outward. A crash against the door caused her to jump. Her heart thudded. Where were the police? The door banged with his weight against the wood. Liz fought panic. He’d be inside and upon her before she could open the window and climb outside. She released the window handle, grabbed the cordless from the nightstand, and jabbed nine-one-one.

One ring, then a voice said, “Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”

“Someone—” The door creaked again and splintered.

Liz dropped the phone and grabbed the crystal lamp on the nightstand. She ripped the shade from the lamp and raced to the wall beside the door. Hands shaking, she raised the lamp as the door gave way beneath the gorilla’s weight.

He propelled two steps into the room, and she swung the lamp with all her strength. The thick crystal slammed into the side of his neck with a sickening crack. She swung the lamp again. His arm shot up, and he wrenched it from her grip. Iron fingers seized her wrist, and the back of his hand made hard contact against her cheek.

Her head jerked sideways, and pain shot through her cheek. He dragged her forward. She stumbled. The goon yanked her upright as they crossed from the bedroom into the hallway. Spots raced across her vision. Liz fought nausea and kicked his leg.

“Fucking bitch,” he cursed.

She drew breath for a scream, but he clamped a large hand over her mouth and jerked her against him. Hot breath covered her ear. She forced back the whimper that rose to her lips.

“Keep your fucking mouth shut.” His voice, low and deep, resonated in her ear.

She fought tears. Where were the police that were supposed to be outside? Emma and Hawk weren’t expecting her at the university for another hour and a half.

Keep it together. If Reid intended to kill you, you’d be dead. He needed her as leverage against Hawk.

They reached the foyer, and the man turned left into the family room, instead of right toward the front door as expected. He was headed for the garage beyond the kitchen, which was part of the large area that made up the family room.

Liz caught sight of the knife block sitting on the counter beside the door that opened into the garage. Her stomach knotted. Could she stab another human being? Once Reid threatened to kill her, Hawk would give into Reid’s demands, then Reid would kill her and Hawk.

A vision rose of Hawk stepping from the door to the university parking lot on a deserted night, and a bullet ripping through his massive chest. No one would be there to stop the gush of blood as he crashed to the asphalt, then bled to death.

They reached the door.

“Keep your mouth shut, or I’ll come back for your daughter,” her attacker ordered.

Liz froze.

Emma.

He released her mouth and opened the door. As he crossed the threshold, Liz closed her fingers around the handle of the nine-inch chef’s knife. The blade slid noiselessly from its wooden sheath. Her heart hammered. They stepped into the garage, and he started around the front of the Land Cruiser. She rammed the knife into his thigh. Her stomach roiled at the feel of the blade slicing into his muscle.

He bellowed an animal’s cry, twisting in a frenzied movement. His grip on her loosened. She yanked the knife free and forced back bile when slick, warm blood covered her hand. She stabbed again and pushed free. He crashed to his knees in front of the Toyota, clutching his leg where the hilt protruded like an all-too-lifelike Halloween prank. Liz reached back, steadying herself on the fender as she sidled around the car. Blood spread in a dark stain across the thug’s thousand-dollar suit’s trouser leg.

He grabbed the knife, and his face contorted as he yanked it free. He threw it aside. The knife clattered on the cement and skittered under the Land Cruiser. He lifted his head, and wild eyes met hers. She retreated another step, then froze. He was nearly as close to the door as she was. A grotesque smile twisted his mouth. He’d realized the same thing.

Liz lunged forward, slapped the garage door opener, and whirled. The mechanical door jerked into motion and the man’s heavy grunt told her he’d shoved to his feet. She pulled down paint cans, cleaning bottles and anything else she could grab from the shelf on her right. Debris bounced off the Land Cruiser and clattered to the floor. A crash sounded behind her, and the man bellowed in pain. The door had lifted a mere foot from the ground. Liz dropped to her belly to roll underneath.

A large hand seized her leg. She twisted onto her back. He was on his knees, blood gushing from his leg as he grabbed for her other leg with his free hand. She kicked his face. Bone and cartilage cracked beneath the ball of her foot. Blood spurted from his nose, but he held tight, while grabbing for her other leg. She kicked again and pulled loose.

Liz rolled under the garage door, onto her feet, and hit a solid wall. Steel arms banded around her. She blinked against the glare of the streetlight behind them and raked nails across her new attacker’s face.

He grunted. “Liz.”

Tears streamed down her face. “Let me go, you son of a bitch.”

“Mom!”

Liz grimaced against the fog of fear that clouded her brain. A large hand seized the hand with blood on it. A noise behind her caused her to jerk her head around, and she saw her attacker stumble from the garage. An animal growl emanated from the man holding her. She startled at the sight of Emma at his side. A siren wailed in the distance.

The man holding her stepped around her, and Liz sucked in a breath.

Hawk.