A laugh broke from her. “Thanks. I’d probably have landed on my butt if you hadn’t been there.”

The sunlines beside his eyes crinkled. Then he nodded at Aric. “Good job hiding.”

Aric took a step closer to Hawk and confided, “There were cabrones here. Did you see ’em?”

Wasn’t that Spanish for bastard or something? Kit shot Caz a frown, and he winced.

“Yeah.” Hawk nodded gravely. “Cabrones. We chased ’em off.”

“With guns,” Aric agreed, then took Kit’s hand. “’S’okay, Mama. They’re gone now.”

It seemed Hawk and her son had both decided she needed to be protected. Fine, she’d give them that, but darned if she wasn’t going to learn to do something more productive than cower behind a rock. Even if the thought of action was terrifying.

Until then, she was surrounded by tough guys. Even her little blond one. She smiled at them. “I guess we can get moving, hmm?”

Chapter Six

Boy, everything you can put your hand on can be turned into a weapon. Use your fucking imagination. ~ First Sergeant Michael “Mako” Tyne

Hearing the thump-thump-thump of a helicopter landing outside the Hermitage, Gabe walked out his garage side door to see what was up. Hawk didn’t usually bring the helicopter home; it stayed at McNally’s Resort.

Bull and Caz jumped out. Gabe saw Aric and Kit still seated as Hawk strolled around.

Did they need help? Moving forward, Gabe noted his brothers’ tenseness. Looked almost like post-combat jitters, except they weren’t in the sandbox. “What happened? Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, you might say.” Bull had a grim smile on his face. “I need a soda—and I’ll tell you.”

Yeah, something had gone down. However…Bull had the look he got when he was planning a snow job.

“I could use a drink too.” Caz said.

Bracketed by his brothers, Gabe was escorted back into his cabin. Undoubtedly to keep him from seeing what was still in the helicopter.

“You smuggling in a woman?” he asked as he handed out drinks from the fridge.

“Nope.” Bull sat at the dining room table, turning the can in his big hands. “It’s like this… We heard the Feds had left the PZ compound, and Kit wanted to pick up something she’d left there.”

Gabe slammed the fridge door shut hard enough to rattle the shit inside. Had they really endangered civilians? “You went out to the compound?”

“Not…exactly.”

No longer interested in sitting, Gabe stood at one end of the table and tried to set aside his anger long enough to figure out what he wasn’t being told. The compound was easy enough to reach in a vehicle. “Why the helicopter?”

“The location was too far for her to walk to in the shape she’s in,” Caz answered. “Hawk volunteered to take her.”