I didn’t know where he and I were with our relationship but still, I lifted my hand, curled my fingers around his neck and leaned in to touch my mouth to his as my show of gratitude.
“Fuck me, I’m gonna be sick,” Ginger groaned and my mouth left Hawk’s, my hand went away from his neck and I twisted to Ginger.
“Do you need a bowl?” I asked, squeezing her hand which I still held.
“No, Gwen, f**k, at you.” Her one unswollen eye not covered in an iced up dishtowel slid to Hawk. “She’s always been gushy. It’s sick. Even somethin’ stupid, like watchin’ TV, she’d curl up to me. Fuck.”
Hawk had no response.
“I thought you liked cuddling,” I stated.
“Yeah, when I was five,” Ginger replied, I sucked in breath and prepared to retort.
“Gwen,” Hawk spoke in a warning low voice and I looked at him.
“Right,” I whispered, turned back to Ginger and pulled her hand to my mouth. “Whatever happens next, honey, and whatever we left behind, I love you and I always have. You can believe me or not. I don’t care. I need to say it and tell you I mean it. It’s your choice whether you believe it.”
Then I kissed her knuckles, let her go and raced through Cam and Leo to the guest room.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Is Everything All Right?
My guards were Fang and a man named Suarez.
Suarez was a mini-commando in the sense that he was younger than the rest and not in the sense he was less scary than the rest. His body was such that they could use it in anatomy class to teach musculature, such was the definition.
When we made it to the warehouse, Fang took his position outside, Suarez took me inside then positioned himself at the door.
I asked if he wanted coffee. He said no.
That was the extent of our conversation. This was because Suarez was clearly a conversationalist of the Fang variety but also because I didn’t have conversation in me.
Then I paced. After I paced for awhile I realized I was trembling. I wasn’t trembling because I was cold; I was trembling because I was scared. So I raced up the iron steps and went to Hawk’s wardrobe. I should have gotten dressed. But being in a Do As I’m Told mood, my clothes, jacket and shoes had hastily been stuffed in a plastic grocery bags so I could carry out Hawk’s orders and I was too wired to get dressed. I searched and found a navy blue flannel shirt of Hawk’s. Then I put it on. After I put it on, I stopped trembling.
There you go. Hawk’s superhero superpowers extended to his clothes.
Good to know.
Then I walked back down the stairs and started pacing again.
After I did this for a good long while, Suarez spoke.
“Maybe you should try to sleep,” he suggested.
Yeah, like that would happen.
“I’m not thinking that’s a possibility,” I informed him then asked, “Can I watch TV?”
“Rather be able to hear,” he answered.
Right. It was probably better that, if bad guys approached, he had advance warning.
I nodded.
Then I paced some more.
Time slid by, adrenalin seeped out and exhaustion seeped in. So I lay down on Hawk’s couch, curled up and stared at the moonlight on the scrub opposite the small-river-maybe-large-creek and thought about breaking my promise to Ginger and calling my folks. Then I thought about Ginger’s face. Then I thought about how I’d never forget Ginger’s face. Then I hoped that I’d see it again when it wasn’t bleeding, mangled and swollen.