Free Special Agent's Perfect Cover by Marie Ferrarella

in Hawk’s stomach the moment he had seen Carly, but he had to admit that it did help. Some. At least he now felt ready to face the very definite possibility of seeing her again.

Chapter 6
    A week went by.
    A week involving what turned out to be mostly painstakingly fruitless observations and smoldering, growing frustration. Though he would have been the first to say he’d severed all ties to Cold Plains, the truth was that Hawk did not like what he saw happening within the town he’d once called home. The more he watched, the more annoyed he became.
    He grew more convinced that, at the very least, Samuel Grayson was out to line his own pockets at the expense of the weak-minded sheep who had so easily fallen under his spell. It was as if they had no backbone, no will of their own.
    He continued to try Micah’s number at least once a day, with the same frustrating results. Micah wasn’t picking up and he was nowhere to be found.
    Hawk’s bad feeling continued to escalate.
    He and the three special agents who comprised his team went on gathering information both on Grayson and on anyone in the man’s employ. They relied on both covert, firsthand observations as well as doing intense research as they went over old records and current databases.
    Every night, before he finally returned to his hotel room in town, a hotel room he was certain Grayson had bugged, Hawk would find himself driving over to the farm where Carly still lived.
    The farm that had come between them because she had remained to operate it for her father and sister, and he had left to find his true destiny.
    All the other nights, he had just driven past it, glancing to see if the lights were on.
    They always were.
    But tonight, tonight was different. Instead of continuing on his way, he’d stopped. Not slowed down as he’d initially intended, but stopped dead. He turned off his engine.
    Hawk leaned back in the driver’s seat, willing the knots out of his shoulders. He told himself that he was here because he had questions for her. Questions about what was going on in town. Questions that pertained to the five murdered women.
    After all, if she hadn’t left town, hadn’t moved on in all this time, who better to talk to about Cold Plains and the changes that had taken place than Carly? She was an observant woman, she should have insight into these things. The fact that he’d had feelings for her shouldn’t matter.
    Shouldn’t.
    But it did.
    Because he still had feelings for her. He hadn’t realized just how much or how strong until the second he’d seen her a week ago.
    Hell, the whole damn world had just stopped dead on its axis, freezing in place. The only sound he’d heard for a split second was the sound of his own heart banging against his rib cage, fit to kill.
    So much for telling himself that he was over her. That he would ever be over her, for that matter.
    Hawk squared his shoulders. Well, he wouldn’t get any questions answered like this, sitting inside his car, watching darkness creep in and surround her house.
    He allowed anger to get the better of him. It got his blood pumping, and that, in turn, forced him to get out of the car.
    She’d been home for over half an hour now. That was how long he’d sat out there, watching the house. Debating his next move.
    He’d followed her from the school, where she’d remained far longer than her students had. Though he told himself not to be, he had been consumed with curiosity about what she was doing and what had kept her there until almost seven, practically four hours after parents and school buses had shown up to transport students back to their homes. Was she grading papers? Talking to other teachers?
    Spending time with Grayson?
    A flash of something hot, unwieldy and unreasonable shot through him. Hawk refused to identify or put a label on it. Jealousy was for other people, not him. Certainly not now.
    For a second, he focused on Grayson. He knew that Samuel Grayson and Micah, his