“Any famous last words?” the Russian officer in charge asked Hawk.
“This is the price of liberty and freedom,” Hawk said, shouting so all the soldiers could hear him. “May you be so fortunate one day to experience it for yourselves.”
The man slapped Hawk and then spit in his face. “No one will ever find your body.”
Hawk took a deep breath and stood up straight. “My life speaks for itself.”
“But you’re about to speak no more,” the officer said.
He lumbered across the field before sliding behind a row of soldiers with rifles trained on Hawk and Alex.
“Say something, Alex,” Hawk said.
She was still unconscious.
“I love you,” he said.
“Time for the infamous Brady Hawk to retire,” the officer said. “Comrades, prepare to fire.”
CHAPTER 16
“STOP!” SHOUTED A MAN charging hard into the execution area. Gasping for breath, he was waving a piece of paper in his hand. The Russian officer in charge took the document and scanned it quickly. With a sigh, he folded up the order and slid it into his jacket pocket.
“Untie them,” the officer ordered in Russian.
Hawk looked at Alex, who was regaining consciousness.
“Wha—what happened?” she asked as she opened her eyes when her blindfold was removed.
“Oh, nothing,” Hawk said. “Other than you and me getting thrown in front of a firing squad. That’s all. Just another day at the office.”
Her eyes widened. “Then how come we’re still alive?”
Hawk shrugged. “Somebody halted the guards just before they were about to shoot.”
“Good thing,” she said. “That’s not how I imagined going out.”
“Me either,” he said. “I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t going to get to tell you goodbye.”
She cocked her head to one side as guards scurried around, untying the bindings.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hawk asked.
“Were you crying?”
“Of course I was,” he said. “The thought of seeing you like that and knowing you’d never wake up, I—”
He paused, unsure of how to end the sentence. Nothing he could think of seemed to capture the sentiments he felt for Alex. He tried again.
“It’s just that—”
Alex smiled and patted him on the arm. “Sometimes there just aren’t words, are there?”
Hawk shook his head. “None of them could do justice to how I feel about you.”
The Russian officer strode up to them, wearing a scowl. “Apparently you are both worth something. You’re to be included in a prisoner trade that will occur tomorrow.”
“A prisoner trade?” Alex asked.
“That’s right,” he said. “Our governments agreed to terms moments before you were to be put to death. Perhaps miracles do fall out of the sky.”
“What are you talking about?” Hawk asked.
“The prisoner the Americans are exchanging for both of you is my cousin, Andrei Orlovsky. And if it weren’t for you, I’m quite certain I never would’ve seen him again. So, I have the two of you to thank for that.”
Hawk tried to hide his shock. In the short time since they planned the mission to capture Evana Bahar, he understood that Orlovsky was off limits. Hawk had wanted to use Orlovsky in the operation to ensnare Bahar, but that request was denied.
“Being traded for an illegal arms dealer is not something I want to be thanked for,” Hawk said.
“Watch your tongue, Mr. Hawk. We still have plenty of time with you before the exchange. And how you spend those hours is up to me.”
“If you want me to grovel at your feet, you can forget it.”
The officer pulled his jacket taut and nodded at the guards. “Put him in the hole. And leave the woman with me.”
Hawk resisted the guards’ prodding as they shoved him forward. “I will hunt you down and kill you if you touch her.”
“Enough,” Alex said as another pair of soldiers ushered her away.
Hawk didn’t make it easy for the men to take him back to “the hole,” fighting them every step of the way. When they arrived, he understood the reason why it was called a hole. One of the guards lifted a round cover, revealing a dark space. Hawk peered inside but couldn’t tell where the bottom was. Before he could say a word, one of the men used his foot to shove Hawk in the butt, sending him tumbling head over heels into the hole.
Hawk hit the ground with his left shoulder, resulting in an immediate ache.
The guards laughed as they slammed the hatch shut and walked away.
Hawk wasn’t amused by any of it. He should’ve kept his mouth shut, and he knew it. He’d endangered Alex with his mouth, though he knew she could deal with anyone on her own. But he couldn’t excuse himself for such behavior.
He spent the next two hours beating himself up for his interaction with the Russian. But the ruing ended abruptly when two guards called down into the darkness for him.
“Come with us,” one of the men said.
Hawk looked up, unsure of how to proceed. Before he could ask, one of the men shone a light into the area, revealing a ladder attached to the side of the wall and leading up to the cover.
Hawk didn’t need explicit instructions, scaling to the surface. The guards led him down a series of corridors where he was reunited with Alex.
“Did he touch you?” Hawk asked.
She shook her head. “He was just rattling your cage. And you fell for it. You’re better than that.”
Hawk sighed and nodded. Alex was right, and he needed to keep his composure, despite the intense pressure he felt from every aspect of his life.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should’ve held my temper.”
“You’re a good man, Brady Hawk. Just don’t let that fiery attitude be the death of you, okay? You’ve got enough people taking aim at you that you don’t need to make yourself an even bigger target. Besides, I can handle myself, and I think you know that by now.”
Hawk nodded, refusing to shy away
