Page 74 of Tormented Hearts

Gray was already seated at the table. The monitors were filled with everything the team could dig up on the two dead guys from the forest and the ones from the mine.

Four bullets. Four kills.

He straightened and took a seat across from Gray.

“You good?” Gray asked, watching him.

“Better than good.” His side ached with every movement, stitches pulling tight under the bandage. The pain was manageable now, background noise instead of the screaming urgency it had been on that mountain. “We get the name of who dispatched these four mercs, we’re one step from ending this whole thing.”

The two of them began to sort through the digital trail, uncovering names and connecting lines between them, including everything from the plate on that abandoned vehicle, registered to a shell corporation, to the financial trail Denver’s buddy pulled.

Everything led to a private security contracting outfit two states over—a small operation that supplied muscle to anyone willing to pay and asked few questions while doing it.

Hawk met Gray’s stare. “Short flight. In and out. We’ll have the name of who hired them.”

“They won’t be happy to see the man who killed four of their men.”

“That’s not my problem.”

“Crew’s been doing flyovers of the region around the mine to deter anyone else from going there. He should be back by now. I’ll have him ready the chopper.”

They got in the truck, and he threw a look at the lodge, wondering if Sinead had fallen back to sleep. Probably not, he thought with warmth spreading in his chest. She would be talking to the vets about what would provide them with better lives and planning how to use that gold.

He and Gray drove to the training facility a short distance away. There was a field exercise going on, and he watched the students they referred to as operators run through drills.

As he and Gray approached the helipad where Crew was waiting to fly them to their destination, he spotted Colson, the guy who led the group in the search for sign of any vehicle the first two mercs had driven.

Gabe Thorne was acting drill sergeant. He picked Colson out of the group and made him drop into a round of pushups.

Hawk found himself smiling for the first time in days. “Guess he’s learning what not to do.”

Gray grunted. “Colson’s good when it comes to being in the forest. But from what I’ve heard, he’s struggling some with compliance.”

“Think he’ll make it?”

Gray shrugged. “If he wants it bad enough.”

As they approached the chopper, Hawk caught Crew’s gaze.

He stood with his legs braced and arms folded. He relaxed as they neared. “You look a hell of a lot better than you did last time I saw you.”

“I owe you, man.” He held out his hand, and Crew grasped it hard.

“Just doin’ my job. I’m glad to see you’re on the mend.” He tipped his head toward the chopper. “You ready to see what trouble you can get into next?”

“Just doin’ my job,” he tossed his words back at him.

Crew’s face creased with a smile as he climbed into the cockpit. In minutes they were off, rising over the mountains. From the vantage point above, he tried to pick out some of the route he and Sinead had taken but the trees made it impossible to see the ground they’d walked on. Slept on.

Made love on.

His chest heated at the thought of having her beneath him again. Waking beside her the past few days hadn’t been easy when one part of his body insisted it was raring to go and his healing wound told him something else.

There were other memories the mountain held, ones Hawk wasn’t ready to examine too closely. Like three words in a mine shaft he still hadn’t responded to.

Their destination sat in a nondescript strip of industrial buildings outside city limits, the kind of place built to blend in.

He and Gray walked in and they demanded to speak with the guy in charge. The receptionist started to protest, but Gray flashed credentials that weren’t technically law enforcement but read close enough to make people fold.