Page 32 of Hawkeye

The blush returned, along with the unmistakable heat in her gaze. She cleared her throat and asked about the club anyway, though her voice had gone softer. I told her Stryker already had deep roots with the Black Crowns, and I knew enough brothers through him and Black Castle to understand the code before I patched. When the leadership changed, Stryker became president, and the club voted me in as vice president beside him.

“Years of trusting him with your life made it easy,” she murmured.

“Trusting him wasn’t the hard part.” I looked toward the security monitor before returning my attention to her. “Learning to sit through meetings without shooting whoever wasted the most time took longer.”

Josie smiled, then grew serious again. “Why are you willing to wait on the estate yard? They broke into my workroom, followed me home, and tested our lock. Doesn’t part of you want to go in tonight?”

“Every fucking part.” I set the empty plate aside and turned her until she straddled my lap, one hand spanning her waist. “But I want every man who came near you, every place they hid what they stole, and every bastard helping them. We move too soon, the rest scatter.”

She studied my face, understanding settling into her expression. “So you wait.”

“We watch.” My thumb moved along the warm skin beneath her top. “There’s a difference.”

Josie nodded, understanding that patience didn’t mean the men had been granted another night of safety. We were letting them build the road that would lead us through every door they believed remained hidden.

Her fingertips moved over my collar. “Your house wasn’t what I expected.”

“Too many books?”

“No.” She searched my eyes, her expression open in the way it only became when we were alone. “It was warmer than I imagined. More personal. It didn’t feel like a place no one else had been allowed to see.”

I caught the back of her neck and kissed her, taking her mouth slowly at first and then harder when she rocked against my cock. Josie’s arms locked around my shoulders, and the friction of her shorts over the thick ridge beneath my jeans made my balls draw tight. I wanted to carry her into the apartment bedroom, strip her bare, and bury my face between her thighs until her mother reconsidered the wisdom of giving us privacy. Instead, I kept one hand at her waist and the other in her hair, kissing her until both of us were breathing too hard for a man who had to leave.

“I hate that you’re going,” she confessed against my mouth.

“So do I.” I rubbed my thumb over her swollen lower lip. “Stay inside, listen to my men, and don’t make me abandon surveillance because you decided to inspect the fucking garage.”

Her brows rose. “That was very specific.”

“I’ve met you.”

I kissed her once more, set her on her feet, and forced myself to leave before duty lost the argument. Josie followed me to the door, and I waited until the locks engaged behind her before heading toward the ridge above the estate yard.

The teams spent the next four hours separating ordinary business from criminal movement. One truck completed a legitimate estate job, while another vehicle transferred several cases inside a commercial garage before leaving under a different plate. A third route ended at a storage property outside San Marcos that would need another night of observation before we knew whether it held stolen material or merely packing supplies.

I stayed on the ridge until the estate yard finally went dark and the last vehicle stopped moving. Through the scope, the property looked quiet, but the map in my head had grown three new roads and two new doors. The bastards believed they were emptying the evidence from under us, but all they were doing was showing me where to find it.

13

JOSIE

Iwas surprised by how quickly I’d grown accustomed to splitting my attention between Calder and the shadow box. Having him right there in the room with me should’ve been a distraction, but I was still making great progress on the restoration, even though he’d set up a makeshift desk only a few feet away.

This morning, the calls I’d gotten from the auction house had slowed me down more than listening to him talking on the phone. Mr. Smythe needed me to update a condition note. Michael wanted a photograph I had already filed. It felt like the list was never-ending.

I couldn’t complain too much, though, because Calder was clearly exhausted but still reviewed surveillance reports between handling other Black Castle business. And as I circled my workspace to grab a precision scalpel, his gaze still tracked me.

Being tired didn’t make him any less alert. Yet another trait that served him well as the Black Crowns VP and COO of Black Castle Security.

The only reason he finally slowed down was because I rolled my shoulders when I got a twinge in my upper back from being bent over.

Calder was out of his chair before I finished twisting back around. “Break. Now.”

“I can finish the⁠—”

“After you get some fresh air and eat.” He took the scalpel out of my hand and set it on the felt.

“Fresh air?” I echoed as he untied my apron and hung it off the back of the nearest chair. “Do you want to take a walk? We’re kind of in the middle of nowhere.”