Breaking Free

  ****

  Hawk paced the outer office as he waited for Zoe and Marjorie to arrive. He turned as Brett entered the office, a gym bag slung over his shoulder. “That was a short ride, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, there and back in twenty-four hours.”

  “Good. Zoe’s been driving me crazy pacing the floors waiting for you to call. You did call?”

  The big brother protective vibe Cutter was putting off brought the first smile in days to Hawk’s lips. “I’ve spoken to her, but not about being back. I’ve been tied up here dealing with this thing about Flash.”

  Hawk scrubbed a hand over his face. He wasn’t about to air team business in front of the office staff. “Come into my office.” He turned and led the way and closed the door behind them.

  “Marjorie called her, Derrick beat her up,” he said.

  “Jesus.” Brett shook his head.

  “They haven’t found him, yet. I have men out checking all the bars and any other hangouts where they might find him. No luck so far.”

  Brett’s frown deepened.

  “You don’t know of any place he might go, do you?”

  “No. Is he in his car or on his motorcycle?”

  “His bike is in the garage at the apartment complex. He’s in his car.”

  “You’ve alerted the civilian police?”

  “Marjorie has.”

  Brett nodded. “Good. Enough is enough. I tried to talk to him, convince him to see someone the whole time we were ‘in the real world’.” Brett’s eyes narrowed in thought. He rubbed his forehead, the gesture at odds with the frozen stillness of the rest of him.

  “What is it?” Hawk asked. Was he remembering something?

  “There was something--“ Pain flickered across his face. “I can’t get it to come. It’s like chasing shadows. I get a glimpse of something, it’s like an impression or a feeling, then it dissolves.”

  Hawk hid his disappointment and slapped him on the back. “It’ll come, Brett.”

  Brett shook his head. “Fuck! I hope so. It’s fucking driving me crazy.” He drew a deep breath. “What about Flash?”

  “They haven’t found him. Either he’s in the wind or something’s happened to him.”

  Brett slumped into a seat in front of Hawk’s desk.

  “Well, with me out on medical, and Flash and Derrick gone, it may take a few weeks for them to transfer in replacements,” Brett said.

  “Yeah, I’ve thought of that, too.” Hawk’s smile was grim. It might give him time to get things squared away with Zoe. Which was the one positive thing he had to hold on to in an otherwise fucked up situation.

  But how many months would it take of evaluating his command skills before they dumped him into some shit detail? The men in a team were only as good as the commanding officer they followed. If he set the bar high enough. It had been his responsibility to keep these guys in line. To make sure they were the best they could be in every way. What did it say about his command skills that he’d been in the dark about so many things?

  “Well this is a real cluster fuck,” Brett said after a long silence.

  “Pretty well sums it up from my perspective, too.”

 

  CHAPTER 27