Chapter 5

A Full House: Kings And Queens

Hawk looked at his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes, sighed and wondered again, how women could always be late.

"Vomen, dey are alvays late, nyet? Even in my country, ve have to vait for de vomen." His Russian counterpart laughed. "It is in their DNA, da?"

"You would think that a woman in command of one of the world's most specialized anti-terrorist military organizations would be on time." Hawk mused.

"Du vould dink, but, du did zay no uniform. Zo, da voman is getting, how you zay, dolled out?"

"Dolled up, not dolled out." Hawk laughed. "Still, she had three hours. We're going to be late for dinner with the base commander and his wife."

"I vill never understand you Amerikanskis, Alvays vith the vorrying about vat your people dink." Brekhov mused. "In Mother Russia, Generals make Colonels vait."

"There are some Generals here who would agree with you. I'm not one of them" Hawk replied dryly. "I've found that if I treat my people with respect, they'll go to the ends of the Earth for you."

"I've found that as well." An staunch English accent said from behind the two men. The two men turned to find Commodore Catherine Flynn standing in front of them decked out in a form-fitting royal blue gown with dipping neckline and side slit Hawk was sure nearly reached the woman's hip. He felt his mouth lose all moisture. Her raven hair cascaded around her shoulders in gentle waves.

"Three hours, is vorth it, da?" Brekhov said with a wink.

"Да, мой друг. Просто рад, что моя жена не здесь[i]." Hawk said as the two men laughed.

"Is there something I should know about, Gentlemen?" The stout, proper British accent asked. Her shoulders were so square, they emphasized her ample bosom making both men's mouth suddenly dry. Hawk tried to remind himself he was happily married and his wife was back at the Pit. He loved Caroline, he really did. She was his life, but, he wasn't exactly dead. He could still appreciate a beautiful woman.

"Not at all, Commodore. We were just discussing command styles." Hawk answered.

"Really, well, maybe General Abernathy, we can discuss

that later. Over drinks?" Her blue eyes twinkled as she subtly ran her hand along his arm.

"I think that the three of us should compare notes, maybe at dinner?" He smiled. He wasn't exactly sure how to put this woman's advances to rest. He may have been married for 24 years, but he could still recognize a come on when he saw and felt it. "Right now, we are going to be late." With that, the three officers headed towards the Tropicana. Hawk wondered why the Base Commander, his brother in law of all people would choose a casino to have dinner at. But, then, he never did understand Pete Bradley, and Pete didn't understand him. But, then, Hawk figured, he didn't have to understand the man, just get along with him. Which, luckily, he did, usually.

Fifteen minutes later, Hawk and his fellow commanders stood outside the Tropicana waiting for Bradley and his wife, Sarah to arrive. Hawk was once again staring at his watch. Pete was never late, which worried him. Finally, his brother-in-law, a near spitting image of Hawk's wife Caroline arrived with his wife Sarah in tow. Even though Caroline and Pete were fraternal twins, it never ceased to amaze Hawk how close the two looked. Both had blond hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to see right through a person and perfect bow lips. On Caroline, the entire package was gorgeous, on Pete, it made him look like the quintessential pretty boy.

"Pete. It's about time." Hawk smiled as he shook his brother-in-law's hand.

"Sarah couldn't figure out what to wear. You know how she can be." Hawk laughed because he saw his sister in law roll her eyes at her husband.

"Clay, so good to see you. Is Linny with you?" Sarah smiled as the two hugged. Hawk loved his petite sister in law. She was a firecracker sometimes that easily kept her husband in tow but, He hated their nickname for his wife. In fact, so did his wife. "And you know full well, it was this idiot over here that took forever. Couldn't decide on wearing his dress uniform to show off his distinguished flying cross. You know how he is. Or a simple suit. I finally convinced him the suit." Sarah rambled on.

"Yes, I do. And no, Carrie isn't with me this time. She's back at the base. With the baby due in less than a month, I didn't want her to travel too far."

"I still can't believe I'm going to be an uncle again and at her age. What were you thinking?" Pete shook his head.

"To be honest, thinking wasn't exactly involved at the time." Hawk lied, he and Carrie had discussed a third child.

"Well, you'd better be taking care of my sister." Pete growled.

Hawk finally turned to his fellow commanders, ignoring his brother-in-law's growl. "Caroline is my wife and she's 8 months pregnant with our third child. Pete here is her brother and my brother-in-law" Right then, he saw the steam let go out of Catherine Flynn. Well, that wasn't exactly how he'd planned on rejecting the woman's advances.

"Congratulations, General." Catherine said, disappointment resonating clearly in her voice."You said this was your third child, how old are your other children?"

"Thank you".Hawk had to hand it to the woman. She regained her composure rather quickly. "Kerry is twenty-two, about to graduate from Air Force pilot training. Jamie is twenty and a midshipman at the Naval Academy."

"Goodness. Twenty years apart from your last to now. How does your wife feel about that?"

"She's ecstatic actually. I'm getting nervous' personally." Hawk laughed. "In fact, I have a jet on standby in case she needs me." He took a sip of his water. "Now, Pete, let's get down to business, what exactly are we to expect." For the next hour they discussed the expectations of each team during this exercise.

Scarlett turned this way and that, trying to decide if the dress she'd brought with her looked good enough for dinner with the guy she'd had her eyes on for months when her roommate for the next six weeks came storming in, slamming the door.

"Damn that man!" Her roommate yelled. "Of all the nerve." Now she was storming around the room, tearing through her clothes.

"Now, what did Flint do?" Scarlett rolled her eyes at her friend and teammate.

"He ignores me all day, except to glower at me when I was being nice to that Russian Colonel." The brunette complained.

"Being nice to the Russian Colonel, is that what you call it?" Scarlett interrupted her friend with an delicately arched eyebrow.

"Yes, what else would you call it?" Lady Jaye whirled around to face her friend, dropping the dress she had just pulled out.

"Oh, I don't know, flirting?" Scarlett put her hands on her hips in frustration.

"I was not flirting. I was told to be nice, so I was."

"Well, honey, that isn't how it looked to us." Scarlett said simply. "It looked like you were trying to get Flint jealous. In fact, it sounded like it when Duke called you on it too."

"Maybe I was. The jerk doesn't pay attention to me except when he's feeling, you know, frisky. And he acts like I'm nothing more than some secret."

"You have to look at it from his point of view. He's a warrant officer, you're a corporal. He can get courts-martialled if anyone outside of this team found out about you two."

"True. But, what about you and Duke?"

"Different story, we're both NCOs. You two aren't." Scarlett pointed out. "And we're on an active Air Force Base. The Air Force doesn't take to fraternization the way the Army does. You can get an exception in the Army, the Air Force, you can't." Scarlett watched as her friend's shoulders slumped as the realization kicked in.

"I forgot about that." Lady Jaye. "But, still, he has to know that I'd never…"

"Maybe he doesn't. Men can't read minds. Heck, sometimes I have hit Duke upside the head before he understands what I'm saying. Heck, why do you think I bought this dress? I'm ready to go to the next level, he's just not getting the message yet."

"That is a nice dress." Lady Jaye finally noticed how the Ivory dress skimmed the redhead's curves, showing ample skin both above the waist and below with its dipping bust line and high side slit along the thigh. "I love what you did with your hair too, I had no idea you had so many waves in it."

"Thank you. Now, if Duke will finally notice what I'm looking for." Scarlett sighed. "Now, what else did Flint do?"

"He expects me to go to dinner with him tonight. Said to dress up. Like I brought a damn evening gown with me." She looked at Scarlett and smiled. "Where are you going?"

"Duke's picking me up to go to dinner." Scarlett smiled.

"Wish Flint had thought to ask me to bring something like that. Now, I have to go find something." Lady Jaye sighed.

"Listen, you know Flint loves you. But, well, sometimes you don't make it easy on him."

"What do you mean?"

"There are times when you, well, act aloof and then you're all over him." Scarlett pointed out. "What's he supposed to think."

"I'm only aloof when we have a job to do. We have to be professional."

"What about today? With the Russian Colonel?" Scarlett stood with her hands on her hips.

Jaye blew out a breath, fluttering her short brown hair. "Hawk told me to be nice to the guy. That's all I was doing."

"Being nice to the guy doesn't mean flirting with him." Scarlett pointed out. "And don't deny it. I saw the look in your eyes when you were doing it."

"Alright, so I wanted to make Flint a little jealous. Maybe he'd finally realize I don't have to be with him." Lady Jaye said simply.

"Jaye, you know the man loves you. But, you're forcing his hand right now and I think it's going to backfire on you." Scarlett pointed out just as a knock sounded at the door. "There's my date." Scarlett smiled as she opened the door to find Duke standing in a tuxedo carrying a bouquet of red roses. Scarlett nearly squealed. "Damn man, you clean up good."

"So do you. Red, you look amazing!" Duke smiled a megawatt smile.

"Think about what I said, Jaye." Scarlett pointed to the brunette as she closed the door taking the roses from Duke.

[i] Yes, my friend. I'm just glad my wife isn't here.