Page 2 of Tormented Hearts

“Daddy!” She shot straight to Denver’s arms. He squeezed her and tugged on her braid.

She squealed and laughed. Then she turned to Hawk.

“Say hello to Hawk, Navy,” Rhae instructed.

Navy gave Hawk hugs. True to form, she walked straight up to him and held out a hand for him to shake.

Hawk held out his hand. This was his arrangement with Navy. While the girl hugged every family member and pretty much every vet in the therapy program, she did not hug him.

Which was fine by him. He wasn’t a hugger.

He shook her hand as firmly as he could without crushing her sweaty little fingers. But she didn’t stand still for long. The next second, she shot out the door, crying, “Aunt Willow!”

A laugh echoed from the front office as Navy found her aunt, but the sound cut off when a phone started ringing.

Denver dropped a kiss to the baby’s fuzzy head and sent Rhae off to work with a tender smile. When they settled again after the interruption, Hawk glanced at his report, skimming over anything they’d deem unimportant.

He set the paper on the table and scrubbed a finger over his stubbled jaw. “Assignment completed. Client returned safely. Nothing further to report.”

Denver waited a beat. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

He flashed a grin. “See? Was that so hard?”

Hawk’s lips tipped at one corner. “So you don’t want to know how many breaths I took while I was in Vegas guarding the performer?”

“Unless you were breathing fire, the answer is no.”

They shared an amused look.

Hawk settled back in his seat for a chat with his boss. “Your kids are growing fast. The baby is twice as big as last time I saw her.”

He nodded, eyes lighting in a way they only did for family matters. When it came to the ranch or any of the operations on it, Denver was all business.

“She’s long for her age. And she’s finally sleeping through the night too. I thought we’d never get there.”

“You were a SEAL. You’re trained for sleepless nights.”

Like everyone else on the ranch, Denver bounced between his duties to the agency and helping out with chores, but he spent most of his days at the new training facility.

For Hawk, the biggest adjustment was the change in scenery.

He’d traded concrete FBI federal buildings for a Wyoming ranch where someone was always making coffee, muddy boots were left by the back door and meetings occasionally paused because a horse had gotten loose.

Denver eyed him. “You’re next in line, Hawk.”

He blinked. “For what?”

“A wife. A bun in the oven.”

Hawk laughed. “You’ve heard that you can’t get blood from stone? I’m the guy who can’t be lured by a pretty face.”

Just as he said this, the receptionist Ayla, who’d been here about as long as Hawk had, popped her head into the war room. “Denver, we’ve got a client near Timberline Ridge who says she’s being followed.”

Denver jolted upright. “Name?”

“Sinead Winthrop.”