kept the fire in check, however. Despite the hints she’d been throwing his way recently, he knew damned well he was too old for her, too rough around the edges. He also knew that undercover work could be dangerous not only for him but for anyone who went into the field with him.
He looked at her now, his insides twisting as another face superimposed itself on Gillian’s classic features. He could hear the splat of bullets tearing through the vines. Feel the vicious downwash of the chopper hovering above the canopy. See the sprawled, lifeless body of the woman he’d gone into the jungle with.
Slamming the door on the searing memory, he swung toward Gillian’s parents. “You’ve both been field agents. You know what it’s like. You’re good with this?”
“Yes,” Maggie said instantly, then flashed an annoyed look when her husband gave a less enthusiastic response.
“I’ll admit I’m not particularly thrilled with the idea,” Adam said coolly, “but I trust Gillian’s instincts.”
Christ! Hawk’s gut kinked again. Couldn’t they see she lacked the killer instinct? She was too refined, too educated, too damned beautiful to…
The sudden buzz of the phone on Lightning’s desk sliced into Hawk’s chaotic thoughts. The blinking red light that accompanied the buzz stiffened his shoulders.
He and everyone else in the room knew that blinking light was the direct line to the White House…and that they should clear out of the director’s office, fast. Depositing their champagne glasses, they made for the door.
Maggie and Adam could have stayed. They’d both taken direct calls from past presidents and were still cleared at the highest levels. But Lightning now shouldered responsibility for OMEGA. Unwilling to intrude on his turf, they joined the general exodus.
The operatives headed for the elevator that would whisk them to the ultra-high-tech Operations Center on the third floor of the town house. Hawk hesitated several seconds before he, too, strode toward the elevator.
Adam’s eyes were narrowed as he followed the man’s progress. Maggie’s were thoughtful. Hooking her chin, she signaled for Jilly to accompany her to the ladies’ room just off the first-floor foyer.
“Okay, daughter of mine.” Leaning her hips against the marble counter, Maggie crossed her arms. “Tell me again, no frills, no fuss. How much of your decision to join OMEGA’s ranks stems from a real desire to work undercover and how much from a determination to prove to Mike Callahan that you’re all grown up?”
Jilly didn’t blink. “I’m one hundred percent…on both counts.”
Maggie eyed her daughter for long moments. She knew Hawk’s paternalistic and overly protective attitude irritated Jilly no end. The irritation had increased exponentially since their trip to Scotland. Maggie thought of all the advice she could offer and reduced it to one caution.
“Don’t push him too hard, Jilly. You might not like it when he pushes back.”
Her daughter’s jet-black brows snapped together. She looked so much like her father when he was annoyed that Maggie’s heart kicked over.
“You and Dad have known Hawk for years. This is the first time you’ve ever hinted that you have a problem with him.”
“We don’t. We would trust him with our lives.”
“But not with your daughter. What do you know about him that I don’t?”
Maggie hooked a strand of golden-brown hair behind one ear, considering her answer. She’d cheerfully rip out the heart of anyone who threatened her husband or children. But she had to weigh that fierce, primal love against her loyalty to the men and women she’d lived, worked and sweated blood with for so many years.
“I don’t know the details,” she said slowly. “No one does. Hawk has never talked about why he left the military, but…”
“But?”
“Your father ran into his former commanding officer at some function or another. The general didn’t go into specifics, but he did say Hawk hung up his uniform after a botched mission in Central America. Hawk went in with two other operatives. One of them didn’t make it out. The general didn’t say so but the implication was he buried his heart with her there in that steamy jungle.”
“Her?” Jilly echoed softly. “That explains a lot.”
“I thought it might. Tread carefully, sweetheart.”
Maggie couldn’t resist giving her daughter’s silky black hair a gentle yank. Where was the wide-eyed toddler who’d pulled up the just-planted pansies to decorate her mudpies? What happened to the mischievous little girl who loved to dress an ungainly iguana in doll clothes, deposit him in her baby sister’s buggy and stroll nonchalantly around the block? When had the giggling teen with braces grown into this smart, self-assured woman?
With a silent sigh, Maggie gave her daughter’s hair another tug and shooed her out of the ladies’ room. “You’d better go see what that call was about, Special Agent-in-Training Ridgeway.”
She tried to contain her emotion as she watched Jilly make for the elevator, but her husband knew her too well.
“She’ll be okay.”
Adam forced a smile as he looked down into his wife’s face, but acid rolled around in his stomach at the thought of what lay ahead of his darling, his little princess. He’d been out there. So had Maggie. Her exploits in the field had aged Adam well beyond his years. Remembering those turbulent times, his smile relaxed into a rueful grin.
“She’ll be okay,” he repeated. “She’s her mother’s daughter.”
The atmosphere inside OMEGA’s third-floor Control Center left no doubt in Jilly’s mind. Something was up. Something big.
She’d been up to the busy Control Center any number of times while filling in for Elizabeth. But the realization that one of those amber lights on the digitized world map that took up an entire wall would soon represent her sent a shiver of excitement down her spine.
Most of the agents had already dispersed, some to milk OMEGA’s computers, some to work the phones. Lightning stood at the main console with Hawk, their eyes glued to the data scrolling across a monitor.
They couldn’t be more different, Jilly thought as she approached the two men. With his tawny hair, deep tan and sartorial elegance, Lightning looked very much like the sophisticated jet-setter he now was.
Mike Callahan, on the other hand, looked very much like the man he was. Tough, uncompromising, no nonsense. He was more rugged than handsome, with a square chin and a mouth that rarely smiled. He wore his dark brown hair cut military short. His gold-flecked hazel eyes missed little. So little that Jilly had always believed that’s how he’d come by his code name of Hawkeye.
Until she’d seen him shoot, that is. The first time had been at an International Law Enforcement Tri-Gun Competition. Her parents had taken her to watch the final round, where Hawk scored top honors in the handgun and heavy metal categories. To his disgust, he’d come in second in the shotgun class. He rose to hero status in her eyes that day. She’d been trying to bring him down to the level of mere mortal ever since.
