Page 16 of Tormented Hearts
After a moment, he began to speak. “I don’t know what to make of Sinead Winthrop. She’s wearing brand-new thousand-dollar hiking boots. She knows her way around a gun well enough to shoot a small, moving target. She didn’t flinch when she picked up the dead snake. She’s got pictures in her phone of saving her safari guide after a lion attack.”
“So she’s not your average heiress,” Lex said in her no-nonsense manner. “Got it. What else?”
“She’s stubborn. She’s observant. She’s scared, but she won’t fall apart.”
At that moment, the war room door burst open. Hawk launched to his feet.
They all swung around to greet whatever trouble was hitting them this time.
The person who ran in was trouble, all right. And as tall as Hawk’s knee.
“Navy—” Denver pushed out of his chair, prepared to wrangle his offspring, but she ran right up to Hawk and wrapped her arms around his leg.
The small arms around his thigh…shouldn’t make it hard to swallow.
He looked down at her, unsure what he was seeing. He was used to Navy’s little handshakes, not this type of affection.
He reached down automatically and brushed his hand over her head as if he’d done this a dozen times since joining the team.
Soft brown curls threaded between his fingers and made his throat constrict tighter.
“Your boo-boo all better?” she asked.
He looked down at her big gray eyes and nodded. “Much better.”
A smile broke over her face. She bobbed her head, sending her braids bouncing, and ran back out.
The room was silent for a long beat.
Then Denver chuckled. “Someone is getting soft.”
He jerked his focus back to Lex, to profiling the men who attacked Sinead and who could be behind it all.
Lex tilted her head. “Does your ward understand the level of threat?”
“She understands people shot at her. She doesn’t understand why.”
None of them did.
Gray’s expression turned darker. “Now that we know the guys following her were mercenaries, she probably wasn’t even in danger until she called for help. They were probably waiting to take what she dug up, but Hawk showed up and they reacted.”
Before anyone could respond, Ayla stepped into the office carrying a stack of papers. “Sorry to interrupt. I need these signatures to move forward with the Warren deal.”
Hawk was already moving toward the door. “Where’s Ms. Winthrop?”
Ayla set the papers in front of Gray, looking up at Hawk as she did. “Willow took her to the dining hall.”
The dining hall in the therapy lodge.
A room full of rugged vets and more than enough ranch hands who hadn’t seen a woman like Sinead Winthrop walk through their doors in a long time, if ever.
A beautiful woman with enough attitude to draw every guy to her like lightning to steel.
He’d been in enough barracks to know exactly how this would go. He pictured her at one of the long tables, men gathered around her, delivering bad pickup lines because beautiful women pulled stupidity out of even decent guys.
His jaw clenched hard enough to pop.
He told himself that being a bodyguard wasn’t only standing between a client and a bullet. Emotional care was part of the game, and keeping her from feeling cornered mattered more right now than finishing this meeting.
