“Has Max called yet? Dante?” Maddie asked, digging the rut she’d worn into the carpet of the suite a little deeper as she turned and paced back north with Sarah in her arms.

Hawk knew he needed to get her out of there, or she might have a meltdown if they didn’t get word soon. Something to distract her, he thought. Running! She had the blade to do that, but they had been otherwise occupied since she was released from the hospital.

“No, if you remember, which you probably don’t because you were on death’s door on the way back from Guatemala, it’s a two-day trip and the phone service is sketchy before El Paso. He’ll call soon,” Hawk replied.

It was day three, and he should be in range very shortly. He had no excuse for Max, whom he hadn’t heard from at all. Yeah, there was probably plenty of paperwork to file for his formal exit from the military, but his sister going to jail should be a bigger concern.

“I sure hope so, because I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Maddie said, turning at the far wall to walk back toward him. Hawk got up and moved to her to take the baby from her arms.

“Mickie wants her turn with Sarah this morning, and we are going running,” Hawk said, bouncing Sarah in his arms and adjusting her pacifier when she fussed.

“Mickie has work to do,” Maddie replied, trying to reclaim the baby, but Hawk turned away and walked toward the door of the suite.

“Get your blade on. It’s only an hour, and you need it. I need it too,” he growled, as he opened the door. “This pacing and worrying is getting us nowhere.”

“Neither is trying to forget it,” Maddie replied, her voice trembling.

“Get ready for PT and maybe a little target practice at the range,” he said, slipping out of the suite and letting the door close behind him.

He was halfway down the hall to the front office when his phone rang in his pocket. Balancing Sarah on his left arm, he pulled it from his pocket and thumbed the button to answer.

“This is Max,” he said without preamble when Hawk put the phone to his ear. “I have information, but you’re not going to like it.”

Mickie took the baby from him and smiled. He nodded his thanks and walked back down the hallway to the conference room. After he shut the door, he huffed a breath.

“Shoot. I’m secure,” Hawk said, sitting down.

“I could go to Leavenworth for sticking my nose into this, but here’s what I found out. They interviewed several of her teammates who trained with her in Kentucky and the commander at the JCET compound. All of them told the investigators that she was not happy to be there. She was distracted and they were afraid to fly with her. Since she was one of the most seasoned pilots, the commander blew them off as men just not wanting a woman there. That’s why he assigned her the mission.”

“Any idea why she was distracted?” Hawk asked, suspecting the answer was she knew she was pregnant.

“No, they had no idea. The investigators took it farther to try to find that answer, though. They interviewed the General, too…”

Hawk groaned. “What did he tell them?” he asked, his stomach clenched.

“That he’d pushed her to go into the Nightstalker program. Pulled strings for her. That he wouldn’t doubt she wanted out badly enough to desert. Probably stayed in Guatemala so she didn’t have to come back to face him, because she was a coward.”

“Wow,” Hawk hissed through his teeth, astonished at the level of evil they were dealing with. Her own father had sold her out. That man did not deserve to wear a uniform, much less have children. He deserved to be in hell, where he came from.

“Oh, it gets better. He also planted all kind of ideas as to how she probably did whatever she had to do to stay with the cartel, including flying drugs for them and spreading her legs. Told them she could’ve escaped if she wanted, because she was a resourceful girl.”

“Good God Almighty—when this is over, I’m going to kick that bastard’s teeth out,” Hawk snarled, his left fist clenched with his teeth.

“Get in line. I haven’t confronted him yet, because I’m mad enough to kill him at the moment.” Max dragged in several ragged breaths. “He pushed our mother to kill herself—I’m not letting him do that to my sister too.”

There was no way in hell he was telling Maddie all of this right now for that same reason. She was too on edge to handle it well.

“Thanks for sticking your neck out. I appreciate it,” Hawk said.

“Oh, I’m not done yet. Call me if anything changes,” Max said.

“Roger,” Hawk said, then sat there in stunned silence. He looked up when the door opened and Maddie stood there in her workout clothes.

“Did you hear something?” she asked, her eyes glittering, her voice trembling.

“No, that was just Logan asking the same thing,” Hawk replied, forcing a smile as he stood to walk over and pull her into his chest. “I think he’s as worried as we are, but maybe he’s more worried about his helicopter.”

Her body deflated in his arms as her breath rushed out. “I can’t wait for this to all be over, but I can’t stop feeling like it never will be,” she said, hugging him tight.

Hawk’s phone rang again on the table. He ran to pick it up and his muscles unfurled when he saw it was Dante.

“Thank God, it’s you,” Hawk said as he answered.

“Yeah, well we had a little trouble, but nothing major. We dropped Maria and her kid a little too close to the compound and took some fire. I wanted to get the best coordinates I could for you, and had to get closer to get a visual on the Little Bird, too.”

“It’s there?” Hawk asked, feeling his heart pounding in his throat.

“Yeah, it’s there, right where we left it,” Dante replied, and relief made Hawk’s knees weak and he melted into a chair.

“Thanks, man. Can you text them to me? I want to forward them to the investigators as soon as possible.”

“I’ll do that now. We’re about to stop in El Paso to refuel.” The phone disconnected and Hawk’s chin dropped to his chest.

“What?” Maddie asked, walking over to put her hand on his shoulder.

“I think this is finally about to end,” he replied, his voice choked. “Get those party shoes ready, baby, because we are going dancing this time.”