Soldier's Christmas Secrets. Laura Scott

muffled sob was the only sound she uttered.

      His heart squeezed painfully in his chest, but he forced himself to ignore it. There was no time to waste. He reached under the twin bed, found her arm and tugged. She resisted, but the little girl was no match for him. He gently pulled her out and gathered her stiff body into his arms. She clutched a tattered brown teddy bear against her pink fleece footie pajamas, like a shield.

      “I’m sorry, Lizzy. But we have to go.” He carried her to the next room, where a grim-faced Jillian was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, tossing items into an overnight duffel bag.

      “Lizzy.” She held out her arms for her daughter and Lizzy practically jumped to get away from him, grabbing onto her mother and clinging like a baby monkey.

      He told himself not to take it personally as he slung the duffel over his shoulder and cupped Jillian’s elbow in his hand. “Grab coats for you and Lizzy. We’ll take my car.”

      “I’m not sure—” She stopped abruptly when she saw the man lying in the hallway. “Who? What? Oh my—” She looked as if she might scream, so he cut her off.

      “Later. We need to be quiet in case there are others nearby.” Hawk steered her around the body. The man groaned, indicating they were running out of time.

      In the kitchen, Jillian snagged her purse from the counter. They paused long enough to grab winter gear, especially for Lizzy. There hadn’t been time to change her out of her pajamas, but that didn’t stop Jillian from putting winter boots on her daughter. Hawk waited impatiently, desperate to get them out of the house.

      Outside, the second man remained unmoving. Hawk’s SUV was in the driveway, where he’d left it. But Jillian dug in her heels, resisting him much like her daughter.

      “Wait. Where are we going? Shouldn’t we call the police? I don’t understand...”

      “Not now,” he said forcefully. “We’ll talk later.”

      “Fine, but I’m not going without Lizzy’s car seat.”

      Giving in was easier than arguing. “Give me your keys, then get into the SUV.”

      Thankfully she did as she was told. He grabbed the child seat out of Jillian’s rusted sedan and hurried over to his vehicle. Within minutes he had the car seat strapped in and Lizzy plunked inside. The little girl’s crying shredded him.

      After sliding in behind the wheel, he wasted no time in backing out of the driveway. Keeping an eye on Jillian’s house in the rearview mirror as he drove away, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a black-clad man staggering out through the front door, holding the ski mask in his hand.

      Fearing more hostiles on the way, Hawk hit the gas, speeding as fast as he dared through the slick, snow-covered streets of their Brookland, Wisconsin, neighborhood, until he reached Highway 18. Then he headed west toward the interstate.

      “I don’t understand,” Jillian said. “What’s going on? Who were those men?”

      He glanced over at her. “I don’t know. But they were armed and dangerous.”

      “Why did they come after me?” Jillian’s voice sounded shaky and confused. He had to give her credit for not falling apart. She lifted a hand to her long, dark-red hair, a gold wedding band on the third finger of her left hand glinting in the moonlight.

      “Could they have been looking for your husband?”

      “My husband is dead,” she said in a flat tone.

      “Lizzy’s father?”

      She glared at him with clear exasperation. “Weren’t you listening? My husband, Lizzy’s father, is dead. James was killed in Afghanistan a few years ago.”

      Hawk went perfectly still, his gaze locked on the highway stretching out before him. He wanted to tell Jillian that he was really James—and that he wasn’t dead. That he didn’t die in Afghanistan but almost had from a small plane crash that had killed his three teammates and their pilot, deep in the Appalachian Mountains. That despite the fact that he looked completely different thanks to the horrible facial fractures and scars he now wore on his face, he was right here, next to her. But the words remained locked in his throat.

      Two hostiles. Professional hit men. No way they had shown up just to take out Jillian or Lizzy.

      They’d come for him.

      To finish the job of killing him.

      Jillian gripped the armrest with such force her fingertips went numb. Two men wearing ski masks and carrying guns had come to her house! She couldn’t comprehend what was happening—it was all so surreal. If she hadn’t seen them for herself, one lying in the hallway and the other on the snow-covered ground, she would have thought Hawk had lost his mind.

      Lizzy’s crying increased in volume.

      “It’s okay, Lizzy.” She reached back to stroke her daughter’s knee. The four-year-old was obviously terrified. “We’re fine, see? Everything is just fine. Mr. Hawk has come to save us, isn’t that nice? We’re going to be all right.”

      It took a while, but her daughter’s sobs slowly quieted. As Jillian had hoped, the little girl began to nod off, still clutching the teddy bear close. Car rides had that effect on her.

      Jillian glanced at Hawk. Her strong, silent, scarred yet kind neighbor who didn’t say much but was always there to lend a hand. At times it was as if he knew what she needed done before she did. She would come home from work to find her lawn had been mowed or a broken shutter repaired. Just that morning he’d gotten up early to shovel her driveway so that it was clear before she needed to head to work, the last day of school before Christmas break. It was odd yet sweet. Hawk wasn’t one for small talk, either. He would simply lift a hand to acknowledge her, and that was all.

      Frankly they’d spoken more tonight than they had in the five months she’d known him.

      She was grateful he was there to help her now. She noticed Hawk kept his eyes on the road and made several turns, getting off the interstate, taking side streets and then getting back on. He was obviously taking care to be sure they weren’t followed.

      Not once since he’d moved in next door had he ever made her feel uncomfortable. He’d never indicated he was interested in anything other than being neighborly. Maybe because he assumed she was married.

      Her gaze dropped to the gold wedding band her deceased husband had given to her five years ago. She’d taken the diamond engagement ring off but not the plain band. She wasn’t sure why. James had been the love of her life, but barely a year after they’d married he was deployed to Afghanistan. Two months after he’d gotten there, he’d been sent off on some secret mission that he couldn’t talk about. One that had ultimately killed him.

      James had never known about Lizzy. She hadn’t known about her pregnancy until after he’d died. She’d never understood why God had taken James from her so quickly, and she had stopped attending church after his death for several months. When she’d moved here to be closer to her mother, she’d found her faith and comfort in the church again.

      “Jillian?”

      “Huh?” She pulled away from her sorrowful thoughts. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

      “I have a cabin in the north woods. I’d like to take you and Lizzy there until we can figure out what’s going on.”

      “A cabin?” She wasn’t sure why the news surprised her. In the months she’d known Hawk, he’d been home at odd hours. Sometimes leaving before she did, and at other times, remaining at home as she left for school. In fact she’d often wondered exactly what he did for work but hadn’t wanted to pry. From the scar on his face, she thought he might be on disability or something. He knew she was a second grade school teacher at Brookland Elementary, but only