Princess (10 page)

chapter
14

O
ver, Jess thought.

Except that her fingers were clutching her blouse and her other hand was on top of his underwear.

Don’t be a complete idiot, she thought blindly as she tossed him his underwear. “Not my style.”

Heat filled her face as he drew her blouse over her shoulders, smiling faintly. Dear God, what kind of fool would he take her for? How hopelessly naïve did she seem to him?

She tugged at her skirt, trying not to watch him pull on white cotton and denim jeans with a ripple of taut muscles.

Forget your own underwear, she thought wildly. There was no time for small details.

She stabbed at her buttons with shaky fingers, then tossed him his T-shirt. As her hair swung into her face, she felt his hands finish closing her blouse and then tuck the silk into her skirt.

She passed him his belt as the elevator flashed down another floor.

Jess saw him shrug on his black sweater. The man had fantastic shoulders.

Third floor.

She jerked on her suit jacket, punched her feet into her shoes, smoothed her hair.

Wearing no stockings, no bra, no panties.

Wearing the taste and smell of a man she barely knew and would never forget.

The elevator chimed once and the doors flowed open with silent, flawless ease. Hawk was two steps ahead of her now, pulling on his backpack.

Jess realized he was blocking any view of her, giving her a few more seconds to prepare for prying eyes.

He leaned lazily against the doors, holding them open as his friend Izzy strode up in a gray uniform.

“About damned time,” Hawk said calmly. “You’d think there was some kind of storm outside.”

When he looked back, Jess was finally ready, her jacket straight, her face calm.

Her heart was rattling like a jackhammer, but no one could hear that. She wouldn’t show it, wouldn’t say anything. She would be calm and contained like the sister she’d always admired.

She straightened her shoulders, reaching for the hand Hawk held out to her.

And staggered as her heel caught in the metal track of the elevator door.

The two men were at her side in a second. To Jess’s mortification, she couldn’t move. Muttering, she wriggled her foot and finally stepped out of the shoe, hobbling out into an avidly curious circle of staff and guests.

Her skin crawled as she remembered the voice on the elevator. He was here somewhere, she realized, scanning the faces intently.

Then Hawk was beside her, one arm draped over her shoulders. “Keep walking,” he whispered. “I’ll handle your friend from the elevator.”

She heard fast steps, a sharp voice. “Ms. Mulcahey?”

Jess stiffened.

“No,” she said imperiously. “You must be mistaken.”

The man stared after her, frowning.

Stocky. Small, trendy glasses. She hadn’t seen him here before, but his face suddenly seemed familiar. Maybe she had seen him in Santa Fe. Or Chicago or Phoenix.

Hawk’s hands tightened. He drew her closer, guiding her through the lobby, where rain painted silver trails over the windows and trees bent down before hammering winds.

After what felt like a century they reached the shadows beyond the front desk, away from the crowd of curious staff and guests. Izzy Teague hung back, speaking with two men in gray uniforms with Acme Elevator Repair badges in bright red letters.

They didn’t look like any repairmen Jess had ever seen. They were tall and muscular, their eyes tracking a continuous flow across the lobby, noting those present and anyone leaving.

They were all wearing small earphones, Jess realized, and they moved with silent efficiency.

This was definitely goodbye.

But she could deal with that. She
had
to deal with it.

“I’ll send someone with you,” Hawk said quietly. His hand opened, picked a piece of granola bar off her collar.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Like hell I don’t,” he said harshly.

She closed her eyes, wriggling. What she felt left her pale with embarrassment.

“What’s wrong?”

She moved from side to side, flushed. “It’s just—”

“What?” Hawk said urgently.

She swayed again. “I’m—I didn’t have time to . . .” She wriggled from side to side. “Afterwards, I mean. From you.”

His eyes hardened to slits, and something dark and possessive crossed his face. One of the hotel workers walked toward them, but one look from Hawk sent him scuttling away.

“The ladies’ room is straight to your right.” His voice was like gravel. “I’ll wait here and see that no one goes in.”

Jess swallowed hard, then walked away quickly, feeling his eyes bore into her back every step of the way.

“Are you okay?”

Hawk didn’t answer, his eyes locked on the door where Jess had vanished. He couldn’t get her last words out of his mind.

He couldn’t stop wanting to touch her again.

“Mackenzie, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah.” Hawk scowled at Izzy. “We’ll leave as soon as Jess comes out.”

“What happened in there?”

“She got a nasty warning. Have one of your team check that elevator, because you’re going to find out the power problems didn’t all come from the storm.”

“No shit. So Jess was right about the retaliation.”

“Dead right.” Hawk watched the man in the designer glasses walk calmly to the far end of the lobby. “And I know the man behind it.”

Izzy followed his gaze. “Night manager?”

“I recognized the voice, despite a few basic steps he took to disguise it. I want the man reported and fired. Ideally, I’d also like to gut him slowly and hang him up above the tennis court.”

“Not standard policy,” Izzy said dryly. “I’ll put someone on it. How’s Jess doing?”

“She’s damned tough. Terrified of elevators, but she took it like a pro.”

Izzy said nothing, staring at Hawk.

Hawk didn’t turn around. “If you’ve got something to say, you’d better spit it out, Teague.”

Izzy watched the door open to their right. Jess emerged looking serene and polished, like the princess she was supposed to be. Her gaze locked on Hawk, then skittered away, her face filling with sudden color.

Izzy cleared his throat. “I got nothing to say, Navy. Nothing at all.”

“Good. Let’s have the intel from the latest satellite flyover.”

As Jess watched Hawk and Izzy, a thin woman with very red lipstick and anxious eyes bore down on her.

“This is awful. No, this is worse than awful. You were stuck in there for all that time during the storm?” The woman shook her head, watching Izzy’s team work in the elevator. “If you ask me, it sucks, but then no one ever asks me anything. By the way, my name is Doris.” She stuck out a hand. “The manager sent me to see how you were doing.” She looked at Jess. “You
are
Elena Grimaldi, aren’t you? I mean, that’s what the manager told me.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “He also told me that you were . . . well, the inspector.”

Jess waited a long time, then nodded slowly. Her identity didn’t matter now. She’d decided she didn’t want the job any longer.

“And if you ask me, which no one ever does, this place is a disgrace. We get a new night manager every week, the head of the beverage and catering department keeps quitting, and our occupancy rate is way below national average.” She cleared her throat expectantly. “So are you?”

Jess felt like she had stepped right into the path of a whirlwind. She was still trying to assimilate her nightmare of being caught in the elevator, with the amazing experience that had followed.

She watched Izzy’s team efficiently check out the wiring in the elevator, while Izzy spoke quietly with Hawk. Neither man looked at her.

“I’m sorry, what was your question?”

Doris leaned closer. “Are you the hotel inspector? I mean, the manager told us someone would be coming, so it isn’t a complete secret. From the way the upper management have been scowling, I figure you already delivered your report.”

Jess saw Hawk turn. A moment later he looked up. When their eyes met, awareness sparked between them like a downed power line, and Jess felt goose bumps snap to life all over her body.

Then, very slowly, Hawk’s mouth hiked in a faint grin.

Jess felt giddy with the reckless high spirits she hadn’t felt since she was a girl. She was still wearing Hawk’s watch, she realized.

Doris hadn’t stopped talking, deep in the middle of a monologue involving a dozen more questions and something about the night manager.

“Could you excuse me for a moment?”

Without waiting for an answer, Jess crossed the lobby and held the watch out to Hawk. “I don’t mean to intrude, but . . . I didn’t want you to forget this.”

As he took the watch, Hawk’s hand skimmed down her arm. Neither spoke.

But Jess knew that they were both remembering.

Long seconds passed, and she heard Izzy clear his throat. Jess recalled that they were in the middle of the lobby, surrounded by bustling people, and Hawk was clearly an important person who had been kept away from his work too long. “Well . . . I guess that’s all. I just wanted you to have your watch back.”

Pathetic to want to stay, she told herself.

Even more pathetic to want him to want her to stay.

She raised one hand and gave a little two-finger wave, keeping her smile casual. Nothing had really changed after their strange interlude in the elevator. Clearly, Hawk’s colleague was impatient to reclaim his attention, while Jess had decisions of her own to make, starting with her line of work.

“Drive carefully.” She smiled crookedly. “On your bike, I mean. In the storm and everything.”

More pathetic than ever, she thought grimly.

She wanted to touch his face, but she didn’t. She wanted to kiss the little scar above his right eyebrow, but she didn’t do that, either.

The lobby was more crowded than ever. Now there were three men standing near Hawk, all of them clearly impatient to hold a private discussion.

“See you around,” she said.

Oblivious to Doris and everyone else, she picked up her handbag and suitcase and walked quickly through the crowded lobby out into the storm.

chapter
15

“W
ant to tell me about that?” Izzy’s voice was low, but not quite casual.

“About what?” Hawk watched Jess’s slender body vanish behind a bellman and three hotel guests in bright yellow rain slickers. He wanted to follow her, to be certain that she was safe.

But that was out of the question. He’d already missed precious hours of work. “You’ll put a man on her for the rest of the day?”

“He’s waiting out in the parking lot. She won’t have a clue. The manager was pretty certain the Neanderthal who pulled the stunt with the elevator was the night manager. He won’t bother Jess again.”

Hawk nodded, feeling some of his tension slip away. But he couldn’t take his eyes from Jess’s back as she strode with quick grace through the crowded lobby.

How had he ever thought she was a foreign agent, when every emotion raced through her eyes, and she couldn’t lie to save her life? But he was paid to see traitors behind every corner. He was trained to smell guilt and manipulation. After a while you started seeing them even if they weren’t there, Hawk thought grimly.

“So what happened between you two in that elevator?”

“None of your damn business.” Hawk’s words came out in a snarl as he watched Jess slip through the front doors of the hotel. Why did he care where she went or what she did? She’d been a pain in the ass from the first moment he’d seen her lathering her hair in his shower. Despite what had turned out to be decent sex, they had no possibility of a future.

Decent? Hell, it had been astounding sex, Hawk admitted. And as fantasies went, fast sex in an elevator with a stranger was right near the top.

He cleared his throat, hit with sharp memories of her nails digging into his back, her legs locked around his waist.

The soft, squeezing pull of her climaxes.

Yeah, fine, Mackenzie.
But they
still
had no possibility of a future.

Suddenly the front doors opened. A slender woman in a tan raincoat walked in, an umbrella over her head.

But it wasn’t Jess.

Hawk stifled a curse, remembering the smell of her perfume, the feel of her skin.

Which was about as stupid as it got.

“Let’s move out,” he said savagely. “Have you narrowed that list down yet?”

“We’re down to six prime suspects. Three of them have relatives in the area, and I’ve got updated locations on all of them,” Izzy said quietly. “I’ll bring you up to speed outside, while we walk to your bike.”

Jess had $87.23 in her bank account. Though she would have preferred to have one last meal courtesy of room service, staying was impossible.

Ignoring her empty stomach, she headed for her mud-spattered Jeep Wrangler. It had its quirks, but the car was her baby, and Jess figured she could nurse it along for another five or six years.

As she swung her suitcase into the backseat, she saw a news van pull up to the front of the hotel. She remembered what Hawk had said when he’d accosted her after her shower. It had something to do with the mesh laundry carrier he’d seen on the floor near her bed.

Had he thought she was a smuggler hiding contraband? Jess realized she’d probably never know.

She glared through the heavy rain. The sky already looked like midnight. The weather would make her drive south to Portland tricky, especially with all the downed tree branches and debris from the storm.

Jess sighed as her stomach growled noisily. She dug one of her staple granola bars from the glove compartment, then revved up the Wrangler’s motor, pleased to hear that it had been perfectly tuned, just as Hawk had promised.

Her gas was topped off, too, she noticed. She hoped they’d used high-octane, since it made the motor run better.

On an afterthought, she checked the tires. The Wrangler was a little quirky, and she didn’t want any problems on a deserted stretch of road.

Satisfied, she slid behind the wheel and rechecked her maps, then studied the hand-drawn directions Hawk had given her. Despite the weather, she planned to drive five or six hours before she took her first break.

Assuming that the storm didn’t kick in with full fury again. Then all bets were off.

More news vans pulled up as she cruised through the parking lot, and she barely avoided two men with cameras who were interviewing eager hotel staff about storm damage and power problems.

She took one last look at the hotel. Hawk was probably still inside, deep in discussion with his friend. Whatever was on their minds seemed crucially important. Not that any of that mattered to her.

Her job here was done.

Jess took a deep breath and shoved away the memories, concentrating on the road.

After a swift briefing on the suspects and a transfer of the latest topo and aerial maps, Izzy vanished with his team. Hawk’s new orders were to investigate the coast to the south, and ascertain if the assault force was still in the area. His main area of focus was to be a small town named Bright Creek.

He was crossing the grass, headed toward his motorcycle, when he saw a throng of people standing beneath bright lights. A press van was parked near a well-groomed reporter, who was talking excitedly on her cell phone.

Press
. How in the hell was he going to get to his motorcycle?

Backtracking silently, he circled a minivan and waited impatiently, but the news crew showed no sign of leaving. Apparently they had just returned from an extensive report on local floods and a bridge wash-out.

Five minutes later, the press truck was still parked directly opposite his motorcycle. A huge halogen dome flicked on, casting searing light across the parking lot.

Hawk inched away from the news team. He was under tight orders to keep a low profile and stay well under the radar of the press, but he heard several crew members discussing the stalled elevator as a possible human interest story in connection with the devastating storm. The last place he needed to be was on TV, so he beat a retreat, scanning the parking lot. As he did, a battered Jeep Wrangler climbed the hill, headed toward the main road.

A Jeep would be just about right for his needs, Hawk decided. And this particular workhorse had big thirty-one-inch tires and some nifty off-road modifications.

He backtracked swiftly into the pool area, then cut into the heavy woods lining the road.

As soon as he was out of sight of the hotel, Hawk sprinted toward the highway, and when he finally broke through the trees, the Jeep was just climbing the hill.

He turned up his collar against the rain and moved out into the road. Jess wasn’t going to like it, but right now Jess wasn’t his problem.