The Midnight Hour - Brenda Jackson [87]
"No, I haven't heard from Hawk," he said in a quiet yet husky voice. "I think we should talk before I contact him, but first you need to eat something. I've cooked and left breakfast for you wanning in the oven. There are a few places I need to check out around here and I'll be back in about an hour."
She nodded. "All right."
She then watched as he turned and left.
An hour or so later Drake returned to the cabin. Tori had eaten breakfast and changed into a pair of denim shorts and a top. He walked into the living room where she sat curled on the sofa reading a magazine that she had found somewhere in the cabin.
He came and sat beside her. "Okay, what do you want to talk about first? Cross or us?"
Tori closed the magazine, not sure there was an "us" even after last night. The question that still plagued her mind and stoked her uncertainty was whether or not Drake could accept the woman she was now? Five years ago her life had been filled with being a soldier, a marine, one of those few good men-or women. It had also been about becoming his wife. But she was not the woman he had fallen in love with and he needed to understand that. She didn't look like the same woman, not even remotely. And although he basically looked the same, she knew deep down that he wasn't the same. Over the years they had changed on the outside as well as the inside; their values, their ideals and the very things that had made them fall in love. For the past five years she had lived alone, without a man in her life, without sharing a relationship with one. She looked forward to loving and caring for her baby but she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with an overbearing male, even one that she loved as much as she loved Drake. They would drive each other crazy hi no time.
"Let's talk about Hawk," she said, deciding it was safer to go there. Besides, the sooner Drake knew what they were UP against, the better. She had kept things from him long enough.
"Hawk is pretty positive that Cross is behind what's going on," she said, uncurling from her position on the sofa and turning toward him. "But he doesn't mink the reason Cross is after me is because he's found out that Sandy is alive. Hawk thinks your earlier assumption is correct and that Cross is after me because of your interest in me."
Tori inhaled deeply before continuing. "It seems you were also right about something else."
Drake raised a brow. "What?"
"Rangel didn't waste me because he'd been ordered to bring me to Cross alive. According to an informant, Cross planned to torture me and send you my leftover body parts to make you think twice about involving yourself seriously with another woman again."
She watched Drake flinch at the candid picture she had painted. She also saw the look of hard, cold anger that appeared in his eyes but he needed to know what they were dealing with. Cross may have kept a low profile over the past five years, but his mind had gotten even more demented.
"There's more," she said, after giving Drake what she'd felt was enough time to digest what she'd said.
"What?" His voice was as hard and cold as the look in his eyes.
An icy chill crept up Tori's spine and she was glad his anger wasn't directed at her. What she saw in Drake was deadly anger; the kind of anger she had never seen in him before. During their days in the marines, she had seen him get angry, but never to this degree.
"You threw a monkey wrench into Cross's plans when you grabbed me before Rangel. According to Hawk, Cross got furious and has hired someone to hunt us both down and bring us to him alive."
To Tori's surprise, Drake smiled. "Alive?"
"Yes."
"How is this person supposed to accomplish that, dealing with the likes of the two of us? We're not just ordinary people."
Tori shrugged and she couldn't help returning Drake's smile. He was one cocky, arrogant, son of a-
Suddenly they heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up and, like a flash, they were off the sofa with pistols raised. Ashton and Trevor