CHAPTER 15

Dad let go of Hawk's hand and clamped me to his side again, looking down at me. "Honey, why didn't you tell us you were seeing someone?" he asked, giving me a shake and beaming at me like a lunatic.

"Um..." I mumbled.

"This is lovely, we'll have to have you over for dinner," Meredith put in, my head swung to her to see she was smiling brightly at Hawk.

That was Meredith. If it was a-okay with Baxter, it was hunky dory with her.

Shit!

"Um..." I mumbled, louder and more hysterical this time.

"Make your lasagna," Dad put in his order then turned to Hawk.

"The lasagna is good, son, but it's her garlic bread that takes the cake. It's homemade, from scratch, all the way down to the bread."

Oh my God! Did my father just call my mystery lover "son" after only knowing him for five seconds? He'd never called Scott "son".

The only thing he ever called Scott was "Scott" and "a pussy".

"Um...!" It came out like a strangled cry.

"Samantha," Lawson called and my frantic eyes few to him.

"Yeah?" I answered.

He took a step in to join our huddle, his hand in his jacket pocket and he pulled out a wallet while speaking. "I'm done here but you need anything, hear anything you think I need to know or remember anything," he was pulling a business card out of his wallet and he handed it to me, his soulful brown eyes locked with mine, "call me, day or night. My cell is on that card."

"Uh... okay," I replied, taking the card and his eyes released me and moved to Hawk.

"You got footage?" he asked.

"Yep," Hawk answered.

"You know this guy?" Lawson went on.

"Haven't seen the tape," Hawk replied, "but my boys couldn't ID him. I'll have a look at it when I get back to base."

"The car?" Lawson kept at it.

"Ran the plates, it's stolen," Hawk answered.

"Is it too much to ask you to share that footage with us?"

Lawson continued.

"It's already been e-mailed to the Station," Hawk returned.

"Footage?" my father butted in and Hawk's eyes went to him.

"Got a business, part of what I do is security. Sam and I hooked up; I put cameras on her house. It's monitored twenty-four, seven. Couple weeks back, we installed more cameras to monitor the street. We got tape of the guy who broke in."

Dad's arm squeezed me and his face, which had been slightly bemused when Hawk and Lawson were talking, had started beaming again at the thought of my Army man monitoring my house in an effort to keep me safe.

What he didn't know was that it was an effort to keep tabs on me.