Chapter Nine
Hailey was humming after breakfast and had a seemingly permanent smile on her face. It was just after lunch when Mikhail approached her wearing a serious expression and a phone in his hand.
“Hey there. What’s up?” She looked back at Mikhail once more. “Where are Owen and Nolan?” She was feeling a little shakier as she watched Mikhail watching her.
“Nolan is in the bedroom, and Owen’s right there,” he pointed slightly to her right, and behind her. She felt Owen’s hand on her neck a moment later. Mikhail gave her the phone, and then backed off a couple of steps.
Pulling the phone to her ear, Hailey said hello and listened.
“Oh my God, Hailey. I don’t know what to do. I can’t lose him. He’s everything to me. You have to help me.”
“Sharon, calm down.” The woman was in hysterics, but the second she mentioned Dale, Hailey felt her knees go just a little weak.
“He’s gone. I don’t know where he is, if he’s hurting right now. He’s probably so frightened without me. You know how he is with his routine. I’m so scared, Hay!”
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Dale was Sharon’s six-year-old son. He had Down’s Syndrome, but was he was so full of life. His laugh always made everyone around him smile. And if someone was having an off day, he would just sit next to them, offer them a hug. He was the sweetest boy she had ever met. Hailey would do anything for him.
“He’s gone. There is a note.” She could hear the hysterics in Sharon’s voice. “Said if I called the cops, he was dead, that I had to call you. What’s going on? I need my boy back.”
Hailey looked at the men that were talking quietly amongst themselves. “What else does it say?”
“It says that you need to give him what is owed to him, or he would kill Dale. Jesus God, Hay, what the hell is going on? Who took my son?” she demanded with another choked sob.
Mikhail jogged out of the room, and Owen came to her side. He pulled her up from the chair, took her place, and pulled her into his lap. “What’s going on, baby?” he asked softly. His focus was entirely on her while he rubbed his hand up and down her back gently.
“Did he leave you a number or anything to get back in touch with him?” She looked at Owen and put the phone on speaker. “Sharon, I’m putting you on speaker so that the men that are with me and protecting me will hear what’s going on. Tell them, please?” She listened to Sharon repeat what had happened and filled in a couple of places that Sharon left out. “He has Down’s Syndrome as well as diabetes. We have to get him back. I don’t care what we have to do, we need to get him back.”
“We will,” Mikhail said when she had finished. All the men were there. Nolan was next to her holding her free hand, and the others were intent on the details. “What time frame are we working with because of his diabetes?”
“He is somewhat regulated with it, but he does take a shot. He’s due his next dose in five hours. Now, that could change in a blink of an eye with stress or if he isn’t eating. I will give him the money. It doesn’t matter at this point. It will wipe out everything that I have, but I don’t care. It will take all of my savings and everything that my parents left me, but Dale is more important than any amount of money.”
She had saved all of her money, still living in the same home that her parents had lived in because she did nothing but work and save money.
“You’re not going to need to give him any money,” Gareth told her. “We’re going to find them both, and we’re going to get Dale back to his mother. Brown, on the other hand, will have something much worse than the mob to worry about. Where is the meet to happen?”
Sharon brokenly gave them the address of a warehouse in a dangerous part of town. The docks were only a block from the warehouse that they were to go to. “He said that you have to take it, Hay. God, I’m so sorry, but this is Dale.”
“I know, Sharon, don’t worry. We will get him back, bring him home to you. I promise.” She just prayed that she wasn’t making a promise she couldn’t keep.
They hung up after a few more minutes, and Hailey let Nolan and Owen both hold her close between their strong and firm bodies. She felt precious and protected there. Now they just had to find Dale and bring him home.
She was leaving everything in the hands of the men. She knew that if anyone could deal with Brown and getting Dale out safely it was them. “I’m sure that the Russians are going to be pretty pissed that Brown will lose his bargaining chip.”
“Not sure they’ll be at all happy with that, but that really isn’t my problem. They should know better than to deal with scum like Brown. You’d think they’d be smarter about such dealings. Although with their reputation, who really would want to mess with them? So, I do see why they are willing to give lowlifes money.” Stepping out of the elevator, Owen looked around before letting her climb out of the car. Everyone else had taken another vehicle, which left her alone with Owen.
She stepped in close to his side, her hand sliding into Owen’s back pocket so that he could keep his hands free. She walked along with him, just slightly at the back and side of him. When they got to the SUV, she let him open the door for her and slipped inside of it and waited for him to join her. She knew that these next few hours were going to seriously suck.
He settled in behind the steering wheel and shot her a gentle look. “Remember to breathe, baby.” Turning on the car, he pulled something from his vest, flicked a switch, and then slid it back into place. “We’re on the move, guys. Where you at? Okay, sounds good. We’ll take a slightly scenic route. Let me know the situation as soon as you have eyes on. I don’t want to delay too much, not when a kid’s life is on the line.”
Hailey shifted slightly so she could look and saw the earbud inside of Owen’s ear. “That’s freaking cool. I thought that they had to have cords or something? In the movies, they always have the guys with those curly cords up and behind their ears.” She realized that the bud must be Bluetooth.
He shot her a bemused look. “The ones we used in the military do, but we got some of the newer ones to play with. They aren’t too bad, but you need to remember to change the batteries in the earbud occasionally, otherwise they don’t work. It’s pretty much the only drawback to having a cordless version. I will say the benefits of not having it yanked out, or yanking it out by accident because of the cord, are huge. I don’t think I could count the number of times I got hung up on something by that damn cord. Didn’t matter how well you planned, tucked, or adjusted it either.”
“And this way people don’t know that you have it either. If I didn’t see the earbud, then I wouldn’t know that you had something where you could listen to your guys. Where is the microphone?” She was keeping her mind occupied as they drove. Her hands, however, were shredding the labels of the water bottle she held, which one of the men had handed her earlier.
Owen tilted his chin up and tugged the vest down a little. “Still the standard voice activation set-up,” he told her. She saw the strap around his throat holding two circular discs near his vocal chords. “We’re working on building our own set-up to get rid of this part. But we can’t quite eliminate the delay in standard voice activation mics. There’s that delay before the mic clicks on that’s dangerous, especially for us. These aren’t too bad since they are next generation, but they do still have some downfalls to them. That’s why we’re playing around with a variety of ideas to up the game ourselves. At least until we all develop the ability to speak telepathically, of course.”
“Yeah, and that’s going to happen when? I don’t think evolution is quite at that place yet for humanity.” She watched the way his jaw tightened and frowned. “Owen, seriously, what’s going on? They can’t just jump evolution like that, can they?”
“We're kind of sure Mikhail already can read minds. We’re not sure if it goes both ways for him or not. He’s not exactly chatty, if you hadn’t noticed. When Ares took us up to Olympus for our training, he shielded us so we wouldn’t die like humans do when exposed to Olympus for extended periods of time. What we hadn’t realized at that time was we are in fact descendants of the gods, like you and the other women are. They showed us a list that had our names down, along with others on it. In us, this means that time up there kick-started something in us. From what we’ve determined so far, we’re accessing abilities inherent to whichever god we’re descended from. Prime example is Wyatt. He’s got Morpheus in his gene pool, and can dream walk. Very cool, I have to admit, but also mildly terrifying. Not bad enough to learn that all that shit I hated in school was actually right for the most part, but that I was related to one of them? Kind of freaks me out.”
“Fabulous. And who is it that you are descended from? Or do you guys know? Since you are as tech savvy as you are and all that, Hermes maybe?”
“Good guess,” he said softly. “You know your Greek mythos rather well, I have to say. You are also correct. Nolan is related to Hephaestus. The others I’ll dish on later when they’re not all breathing in my ear.”
“I was curious,” she admitted to him. “Greek mythos was something that’s always intrigued me. Norse mythology as well. At one time, I thought that it was all stories and all that fun stuff. Now I’m learning that it isn’t really all stories. Not good.”
“As far as I know they are all real. I haven’t met any of the Norse, or Egyptian, or anyone other than the Greeks. They’re more than enough really.” He turned a corner and sped up into traffic. “They’ve secured the location and are ready for us to join them. Mik has Brown in sight, and Dale as well. Dale looks okay from what he can tell, but he’s a little worried about the boy. He’s rocking himself and shaking his head pretty hard.”
“It’s his tic,” she whispered. “When he’s really scared. Usually, when that happens, we give him a light. He needs to look at the light, figure it out and watch it. It must be somewhat dark where they are, and he’s terrified. Poor kid. Do you have a flashlight that I’ll be able to give to Dale?”
Nodding, he pulled open a pocket, the sound of the Velcro loud in the vehicle, and passed her a small flashlight. “Turn the front quarter of it to get it on,” he told her. “We’re ten minutes out, guys. Keep me apprised of the situation until we’re on site.” Owen reached over to take her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Thank you.” She kept the light off but held onto it. “If he begins to start to rock back and forth, go in. If he starts that it means he’s looking for something. When he’s in moods like this and he turns like he does, his sugar is dropping, which is never a good thing. He’s somewhat predictable, and I love him for that, so keep watch for that tell, okay?”
Owen gave her a nod and relayed the instructions to the team. “Copy that. Mik says that Brown is ignoring Dale for the most part. He’s pacing around. If you want, they can go in now, and we’ll meet them there. The guys will look after Dale until we arrive, Hailey.”
She watched the scenery as they passed it and counted down the minutes. “Hailey,” he said her name and squeezed her hand. “Baby, are you listening to me? Shit, screw it, move in guys. Take Brown down, and get Dale to safety. We’ll be there in eight minutes.”
“Why?” Hailey asked and turned to face Owen. “I’m fine. Seriously. I’m trying to get into the right headspace and was just zoning out. Jesus, if they go now will they get hurt or get Dale hurt?”
“No, that’s why they told me about it. Hailey, they know what they are doing, baby. They wouldn’t even attempt it if there was the remotest of possibilities of Dale being harmed. Trust in them,” he said. “They’re moving,” he murmured with a frown of concentration on his face.
The sound of yelling and shouting could be heard from the ear piece as he let it hang down enough for her to listen. She was so lost in the commotions going on, that she missed how fast Owen was driving. No gunshots were heard, but it was clear that Brown was yelling and screaming as the sound of her name left his lips. A few smacking sounds filled the air, giving her the impression he wasn’t going down without a fight. But what gutted her were the small, tiny cries in the background. Dale. He was hearing and seeing all this. He must be so afraid and scared. She wanted so bad to be running in and holding him tight to let him know everything was going to be okay. Instead, she could only get background noises from a small ear wig that Owen was letting her listen to.
Unfortunately, it all came to an end when they hit a red light, and he placed the piece back into his ear, listening to whatever was being said on the other end from his team.
A long minute later he blew out a breath and gave her a smile. “They have Brown subdued, and Dale is okay. Gareth is talking to him right now. Gareth, give him your flashlight and turn it on. Hailey says it will help to soothe him until we’re there.”
She felt relief all but whoosh through her body. “Thank God,” she whispered and closed her eyes. “Thank you.” She once more reached out to Owen and closed her hand over his. “We will be there soon. Hopefully, the flashlight will help calm Dale and then we will get there and take him for food and then home to his mom. Crap, Sharon. I need to call her.”
Owen dug in one of his pants pockets and handed over his phone. “It’s unlocked so you can dial straight out. Give her a call and let her know that Dale is safe. Pick a place he’ll be comfortable with to have her meet us at.”
“Thank you.” She made the call to Sharon. After calming the woman for three minutes, she told her where they could all meet. Hailey told Sharon to bring Dale’s medication as well, and that they would feed him to help a little, she hoped. Once she hung up with Sharon, she looked to Owen and smiled. “We are good, right?”
“We’re good, baby,” he said softly. “Guys, we’re nearly there. Don’t shoot us as we pull in.” He pocketed the phone when she passed it over to him, and then took her hand. She smiled at that and nodded. “Thank you. For everything, thank you.” He had ensured that she was well taken care of and that they got someone who meant so much to her out of harm’s way. “You guys are heroes, each one of you.”
“Hardly,” he said. She watched his cheeks darken slightly. He slowed and turned into a fenced off lot, pulling forward toward where Hailey could see some of the men waiting. Dale was sitting out in the sunlight with the men playing with what looked like a flashlight. Once Owen had the truck stopped, she hopped out to rush over to the boy.
Hailey fell to her knees and touched Dale’s cheeks and stroked his hair. “Hey, Big D.” She smiled and kissed his cheek. “I’m so happy that you are okay. I’m glad that my friends got you out of there. Are you all right?”
“Okay,” the boy said and continued to play with the flashlight. “Can I keep this, Ms. Hailey?”
“Of course, you can. These men are extraordinary. They are all heroes, and I’m sure that you would want to have the flashlight so that you will always have a light in the dark. Right, guys?” She heard the agreement from the men and nodded. “Now, how about we go and see your mom? She’s waiting for us to come meet her for food.”
“You guys go ahead,” Gareth said. “We need to deal with this guy before we can meet up with you. Mikhail’s in there making Brown very nervous. We were only waiting for you to come get Dale before we had our chat with Brown. This will likely be the last time anyone will see him in one piece.”
She looked down to Dale and held her hand out for him. “Come on, buddy, let’s go and find some food, and I’ll introduce you to one of the men that I love.”
Absolute silence descended around her at her words. Gareth grinned when she finally looked his way. “You might have wished you’d told them that first without the audience I’m thinking. Both appear to be mildly surprised,” he murmured. Pushing up from his crouch next to Dale he moved off with most of the other guys. But Hailey knew two of them still stood behind her.
“Oh, crap.” She hadn’t even realized what she was going to say, until it until it came from her mouth. She was in love with these men. She sat down on her ass and looked up at her two men. “I do. I don’t know when or how it happened, but I fell in love with you both.”
They moved closer and helped to pull her up to her feet again. Nolan brushed some hair back from her face and leaned in to kiss her gently. “I love you, too, and I know Owen does as well. He may need a moment to get over you shocking him like you did. One hell of a bomb to drop on us, sweetheart. A good one, but still a bit of a surprise.”
“I do, love you that is.” She leaned in and gave Nolan a hug. She rested her cheek on his chest and squeezed him tightly. “Now, we need to get Dale to his mom and feed him. Are you going to come with us?” She was hopeful that he would go with her.
“Absolutely,” he said with a nod. He tipped her chin up for another kiss, and then stepped back. “Let’s get him in the truck and get out of here so the lads can tend to business. We don’t need to traumatize Dale any more than he has been already today.”
“Agreed.” She licked her lips and smiled. She looked back at Dale, who was looking up at Owen.
“I think you broke him, Ms. Hailey,” Dale said and slipped his little hand into hers, firmly planting himself between Hailey and Nolan.
“I didn’t break him. He just needs to think about what I said. Poor guy, I didn’t tell him I loved him before I blurted it out here.”
“So, you broke him.”
Hailey laughed and looked at Owen and then Nolan. Looking back down at Dale she nodded. “Yeah, buddy, I think I broke him.”
“Come on, Owen. Let’s get you in the truck so you can let that big brain of yours work without having to worry about things like standing.” Nolan winked at her and gave Owen a shove. “But I’m driving. You, my oddly mute friend, are the passenger on this trip. Hailey, why don’t you and Dale take the back seat so you have some room to spread out?”
“Okay.” She walked along with Dale, who was asking questions a mile a minute. When she had Dale into the vehicle, she looked at Owen and grabbed him to give him a kiss. “I love you, Owen. Snap out of it, baby. You are scaring me here with how quiet you are.” She then got into the truck and closed the door behind her.
For a time, he stood staring at her through the window before climbing into the passenger seat. He turned in the seat to grab her hand and squeeze. Then he moved so he was leaning over the seat and pulled her in close enough for a kiss. “I love you,” he whispered against her lips.
“There’s my guy,” she whispered and kissed him back another time. “Strap up, big man. Let’s get ourselves going, shall we?” She pulled away from him so that she could buckle up and talk with Dale.
Nolan winked at her in the mirror before turning the vehicle on. Owen watched her a moment longer before he settled down into his seat. They pulled out of the warehouse parking lot a minute later and headed to where they were meeting with Dale’s mother.
Hailey answered all of Dale’s questions as best she could. When it came to the men, she said, “They are all exceptional people, ones that were in the service at one time. Now they are their own unit. They make the world safe for all of us, and saving special little boys like you is just the icing on the cake for them.”
“She’s right you know,” Nolan said. “We really like being able to help special little boys when we can. Makes our jobs all the better when we get to see how happy they are when we arrive.”
“Cool. So, you guys are like GI Joe, right? Do you have cool code names like Snake Eyes? He’s my favorite you know. He doesn’t talk, but he can still make jokes. I like that.” There was joy in the boy's eyes as he spoke. “And Lady J is so pretty. Do you have a woman on your team, too? Can I meet her? Is she pretty like Ms. Hailey?”
Hailey was just grinning and shook her head. “They don’t have a woman on their team, that I know of. Do you?” It didn’t matter to her if they did. If they did, they did. It didn’t change how she felt about her men or how they felt about her.
“We don’t have any ladies on the team, but we’re not against it by any means,” Nolan told Dale. “We do all have code names we used when out in the field. I don’t know if they are all that cool, but they were what our other teammates or instructors pegged us with and have stuck with us even to this day.”
“Really? What are your code names?” Hailey asked with a grin and watched her men. God, she loved these men. Heaven help her, but she was keeping them. “I would like to know your code names as well as how you got them, too, please?”
Nolan shifted around in his seat and shot Owen a look.
Shaking his head, Owen turned to look at her. “His code name is Sphinx. Nolan got it from one of the instructors. As part of our training for potentially being a part of a special unit they threw all sorts of tests our way. One of them was coded messages. The Sphinx of Greek lore, and yes there was apparently a Greek Sphinx, too, protected the city of Thebes. The Sphinx would give travelers a riddle, and if they answered correctly, they could enter. I guess if they didn’t then they were sent on their way.”
Nolan snorted at that. “You really need to read up on your Greek mythology, buddy. I won’t say what the Sphinx actually did, given the young impressionable ears in the vehicle, but sending those who answered incorrectly on their way was not it.”
“Really?” At Nolan’s nod Owen frowned a bit, and then his eyes went wide. “Oh.”
“Yup.”
Hailey giggled and shook her head. She looked down at Dale and ruffled his hair. “Dale doesn’t care for riddles. He says that if life was supposed to be riddles, we would have been born in the world where opposite Superman came from, right, buddy?”
“Duh, Hailey, his name is Bizzaro, and he comes from Bizzaro World.” The boy rolled his eyes and looked at Nolan and while shaking his head said, “Women, right?” Which caused everyone in the vehicle to begin to laugh.
Owen grinned at her. “Kid’s got you pegged, baby. Anyway, now you know Nolan’s moniker from the military. He occasionally lives up to it, and other times makes us question how they could have gotten it so wrong.”
Nolan glared at Owen, and apparently was holding his tongue on what he wanted to say. But it was the evil grin he did right before he spoke that had Hailey intrigued. What was he up to? “You will pay for that later, Viper,” Nolan muttered.
“Viper? Are you like a snake? Did you have big long teeth? Can I see?” Dale asked while watching Owen.
Hailey just snickered. He did like to bite, in the best way possible. “If he wants to, he’ll tell us how he got his moniker. Maybe he doesn’t want to share, though. Perhaps he is shy about why he has the name he has.”
“He’s not shy,” Dale stated confidently. “He’s a warrior, and those are never shy. Right, guys?”
“I like this kid,” Nolan said with a chuckle. “You are right about that, Dale. Shy is not something any of us can claim. Not saying we haven’t had moments, but we’re big on brazening our way through. As to Owen’s Ranger name, he came by it honestly, and with a lot of luck.”
“Had one decide to use my bunk for its nap, and we ended up in a standoff. They’re extremely venomous so you don’t want one getting its fangs into you. It was very annoyed I’d taken its blanket and was trying to back me into a corner where he could get a piece of me.”
“Rumor has it he managed to grab it when it lunged at him, and then proceeded to have a rather lengthy discussion with the thing. One of the lads who told me the story said the Viper actually calmed down and appeared to be listening,” Nolan told her. “Owen walked the thing outside, set it down on the ground, and told it to get a move on. It eyed him up and down, and eventually went on its way without going after him again, or anyone else. There were a few nicknames tossed about, but Viper’s the one that stuck.”
Owen was looking at Nolan with an expression akin to having just sucked a lemon. “You’d think you of all people would know better than to buy into the military BS.”
“That’s so cool. Much better than the Riddler.” Dale said in complete awe. “What are your guys’ other names? Who else has a name? Can I have a name?”
“Dale, honey, calm down,” Hailey told the little boy with a grin. “They all have names. If you are really good, they will all tell you their code names and how they got them if the stories are kid-friendly. Keep in mind, it’s the military, and these men talk a great deal about things that little kids shouldn’t listen to.”
“Most of them adults shouldn’t have to hear either,” Nolan said. “They aren’t particularly people friendly stories. They are truths of war. Cold, hard facts with no embellishment, and with a lot of miserable endings. As for the others, most of the stories revolving around how they all got their monikers are pretty tame. Except Antonio’s, if he starts telling you about his, muffle the little ears. That is definitely one story even adults will be blushing over.”
“What’s his code name?” Hailey asked without pause. “Then I will know if we should find out the story behind it or not.” She looked around and then grinned. “We’re almost there. Good timing.” She teased the men. “Although I am curious as to the other names.”
“Me, too. Please?” Dale asked and flipped the flashlight on and off several times.
Owen was the one to answer her. “Lynx,” he told her. “And yes, we mean the cat. He was on the prowl, got caught with his pants down, and had to do some very fancy footwork to get out of the very hostile situation he found himself a part of suddenly. He’s also a bit of a scrapper. Long story short, he got pegged with Lynx.”
“I like it. Lynx.” Hailey was fighting her laughter. She could see it. Antonio did seem to be a bit of a lothario. He was super sweet, and honestly, he was hot, too. She could easily see a girl dropping her pants for him without hesitation.
Nolan shared a look with her in the mirror. “Gareth’s is Gunner, Mik’s is Wolf, James is Fury, and Victor’s is Magnum. Dieter is known as Demon, or Doc depending on who you ask. Wyatt is Dragon, Stefan is Orion, Lincoln is Saber or the Scot, and last, but not least, is Thomas who’s known as Brick.”
“Thomas is the young one that looks like he’s lost something, isn’t he?” Hailey was still trying to put all names to faces, and that was one thing she thought about when she thought about Thomas. He looked sad, looked as if he was missing something but wasn’t sure what it was.
“Yeah, that’s him,” Owen told her. “You’ll figure out our rather ragtag family eventually. We grow on you over time, and then you will one day wake knowing every single one of the names. Along with that comes the good, the bad, and the mildly weird.”
“I look forward to it,” Hailey said honestly.
“Will I get to know you guys, too? Will I be able to talk to you again?” Dale asked with a frown tugging at his lips. “You are my new friends, so we should keep talking, right?”
“Of course, you will, buddy,” Hailey promised the child. “They wouldn’t want to give up their new friend, would you guys?”
The men shared a look before Owen turned in his seat to look at Dale. “We will always want to talk with you, Dale,” he said gently. “We might not be in the same city, but we can always talk on the phone, or even on a video conference. Before we leave, I’ll make sure you and your mom are hooked up so that when we have our chats it’ll feel like we’re right there in the room with you. And we can come visit from time to time, too if you’d be okay with that.”
Hailey could have kissed Owen for his promise to Dale. She reached out and stroked her fingers over his cheek and nodded. Nothing needed to be said. She said it all in that touch, that look. She did, however, talk to Dale. “We’ve Skyped before, haven’t we, buddy? When I go with them, we will still have our weekly chats. Sometimes I will even let the guys come and have talks with you, too. How does that sound?”
The kid seemed to be thinking about it. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. That will work, I guess.”
Nolan was slowing the truck down before turning them into the parking lot of the restaurant Hailey had chosen. Out front, she could see Sharon pacing by her car. A quick look to Nolan had him nodding before he took the spot next to the frantic woman’s vehicle. Once he’d turned the engine off, he hopped out and pulled the back door open so Dale could see his mom.
Seeing his mom there, Dale jumped out of the SUV and into his mom’s arms. He was laughing and crying at the same time. He was talking a mile a minute, and his mom was just crying, holding Dale and petting him while listening. The woman looked up at them and nodded, mouthing a “thank you” to them all.
Nolan nodded and closed the door. On the other side of the vehicle, Owen pulled her door open and held his hand out to her. “Come on, Hailey. Let’s get him inside and fed. I think his mother needs a seat soon, too, and maybe a stiff drink.”
“Sharon doesn’t drink, never has. I’ll take one, though.” Hailey slipped her hand into Owen's and let him pull her out of the vehicle. She was so happy that this was finally over. Life was going to go back to normal now, she just knew it. The only difference would be she had two amazing men in her life as well.
“We can make that happen,” he said. Wrapping his arm around her waist, Owen hugged her close as they headed inside.