Bridger shot her his patented smirk, and its cold mockery was worse than a slap in the face. “Hopefully it won’t be another eight years before I see you again.”
Avalyn had no answer for that.
Bridger stormed through the study door. Avalyn followed him when she should’ve stayed safely in the study. He yanked the front door open. The cold air rushed in, but it wasn’t nearly as cold as the look in his eyes as he glanced back at her. “Goodbye, Ava Baby.”
Avalyn couldn’t say goodbye. Not to him. He stared at her for a few beats, and she couldn’t breathe as his dark eyes seared through her. Finally, he walked out into the crisp winter night. Avalyn pushed the door closed and leaned against it. Hopefully it would be longer than eight years, or she wouldn’t survive the next encounter with Bridger Hawk.
ChapterFive
Avalyn loved being with her family for Christmas break. Her nieces and nephews were the perfect distraction and almost kept her from pining away for Bridger. Almost. She still couldn’t believe he’d followed her back to Long Island. It was insane and a bit surreal. She sometimes wondered if she’d imagined it all. Then one of her family members would tease her about dating Bridger Hawk, and she’d have to draw on all her acting skills from high school drama class to pretend she didn’t care one bit about the man.
New Year’s Day she said goodbye to everyone and flew to Belize City in one of Callum Hawk’s private jets. He’d donated it to her foundation last year so she wouldn’t have to deal with commercial flights. The Hawk brothers had given more to her and her causes than anyone in the world. Avalyn made decent money herself with the books she’d authored and the fees her agent negotiated when she spoke at various conferences, dinners, and auctions, but she couldn’t have afforded a fraction of her humanitarian projects and especially not luxurious perks like her own jet and pilot without the Hawk brothers. They were good men. They just weren’t the right men for her. At one point, she’d thought maybe she and Emmett would try dating—they attended enough benefits and auctions together—but there just wasn’t any spark there. Why did there have to be spark with the crazy, youngest Hawk brother?
She exited the airplane with her suitcase in hand. A driver would be waiting and take her to the New Hope Orphanage. She’d start her visit there, but most of this trip was focused on outlying villages to assess the quality of nutrition and water and help teach the parents how to care for their children and keep them safe from diseases.
A driver waited by the airport exit with a sign with her name on it. She strode up to him.
“Avalyn Shaman?” he questioned with a slight Spanish accent.
“That’s me.”
He didn’t smile, just gestured with his head. “This way, please.” He reached for her bag, but she held on to it. He shrugged as if he’d tried.
Avalyn walked to the airport exit, but he put a hand on her elbow. “No, this way. Your agent made some changes to the trip.”
Avalyn sighed, more annoyed than anything. She liked her agent, but the woman was much more bent on making money than giving it away like Avalyn was prone to do. She let the man direct her back through the airport and then out a side door. There was a helicopter ready. “What kind of publicity stunt does Sarah have planned?” she asked. “Are we not going to the orphanage first?”
He cracked his first smile. “No, ma’am.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side.
She tried to struggle free, but he was too big, too strong. Panic rose in her chest, making it impossible to catch a full breath. The annoyance she’d felt moments ago was crowded out by the rush of fear. What was this guy doing? There was no one around, but she screamed anyway, praying someone would hear and come help her.
He put a cloth over her nose and mouth. It was an odd-smelling mixture of sweet and chemical. Chloroform? Avalyn threw her head back but couldn’t escape him or the cloth. As darkness edged in on her vision, she wondered who she’d ticked off this time and what they were going to do to her.
* * *
Bridger had finished a hard workout in the gym and was running sprints along the short length of beach in front of the resort in Cancun. He’d spent a nice week with his family. Luckily the wedding guests were mostly gone, especially one Britney Nolan, when he returned from New York, so he could just focus on his parents, his siblings, and their wives and fiancées. Callum and Lexi returned after a couple of days spent with her family. It was great to be with everyone, but by New Year’s Day he was ready to throw himself out of an airplane without a chute.
He loved his family and they were fun and entertaining, but being without Avalyn was excruciating, especially when each of his brothers had a wife or fiancée by his side. Bridger was humiliated that he’d not only thrown himself at Avalyn repeatedly in Cancun but actually followed her back to Long Island, knocking on her parents’ front door Christmas Eve. What kind of a loser did that? A desperate one, for sure.
He knew how unworthy he was of her, of course. Avalyn not only noticed the discrepancy; she wasn’t willing to bridge it. He didn’t blame her, only mourned the fact that he’d never have a chance with her. He could only blame his desperate actions on his brothers being infected by the love virus, and he’d gotten all caught up in chasing his woman down like Callum was doing. It obviously worked out a lot better for Callum than him. He snorted. Why was he surprised? Everything worked out a lot better for Callum. The man was like Midas with his golden touch.
Bridger’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of the pocket of his running shorts.
“Bridger,” Ramsey greeted him warmly.
“Ramsey, my friend. How was Christmas?” He loved Ramsey. The guy had some screws loose, was even crazier than Bridger, but he was a lot of fun. The two of them were always competing for the number one and number two spots. Ramsey was constantly calling Bridger out on social media, doing some daring stunt and taunting that Bridger Hawk couldn’t do it as well as him. Bridger hated to admit that he always rose to the bait, but he loved that he usually bested his longtime friend. Ramsey was a talented athlete, but he had a lot more money and power than common sense. Bridger guessed some people might say the same about him.
“It was great.” But something in Ramsey’s voice didn’t sound great. “Lots of women, lots of sun. What more could you want for Christmas?”
Bridger grimaced. He only wanted one woman, and he couldn’t have her.
“How was Creed’s wedding?”
“Really great.” How did Bridger tell Ramsey how badly he’d screwed things up with Avalyn? Ramsey had teased him about Avalyn Shaman a few times throughout the years, but he doubted his friend recognized the depth and stupidity of Bridger’s devotion.
“You up for a little friendly competition?”
“Always.” His spirits lifted. He didn’t care what Ramsey threw his way; this was his chance to get away from it all and forget about Avalyn, at least for a few seconds.