Chapter 6 Councilman in the Making
One week later
H awk stood in the doorway of his workshop, sharpening one of his carving knives. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy — sore, but happy. The hit-and-run accident he and Annalee had endured together had nearly jarred his teeth loose and pulled his bones from their sockets.
The police who’d arrived on the scene hadn’t understood why he and Annalee hadn’t suffered more than bruises and general soreness. The two of them hadn’t even been in seatbelts at the time of the collision, but Hawk knew the reason. He’d been given a Psalm 91 moment with the woman he intended to marry someday. He had the first two verses memorized:
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.
Yeah, he was decently strong, and he’d shielded Annalee as best he could with his body. Under normal circumstances, however, a t-bone collision like that would’ve landed them both in the hospital or worse.
Instead, he was spending his morning giving Miley her first official lesson on leather carving, and he was doing it while keeping a watchful eye on the woman he was fast falling in love with. Annalee was outside planting raised garden beds in his backyard.
Because of the hornet’s nest her presence at the hospital in Clarendon had stirred, he was now being paid to serve as her bodyguard. Paid! He had the Comanche tribal council to thank for that.
They’d called an emergency meeting the morning after his and Annalee’s accident to fund a protective detail for Running Bear’s niece and grandniece. The vote had passed unanimously. To his additional gratitude, his higher ups at Lonestar Security had seen fit to give him the assignment. The only downside was that it had forced him to take a leave of absence from his side job at Johnny’s Dairy. He hated leaving Johnny and Ashley shorthanded like that, but right now his presence was needed day and night on the rez.
He watched Annalee arch her lower back to work out a kink, giving him an eyeful of her lithe, energetic frame. Man, but his favorite farm girl sure knew how to fill a pair of jeans!
She turned her head and caught his eye. “Have you ever felt like someone was staring at you?” she called in a joking voice.
“Just doing my job,” he hollered back.
“Smooth,” Miley muttered from inside his workshop. “That’s what every woman wants to hear.”
“Clearly, I don’t keep you busy enough.” He continued sharpening his carving knife. “You seem to have way too much time on your hands to shovel out unwanted opinions.”
“If the truth hurts, Pops…” She continued to tap the head of her beveling knife with her tiny mallet, painstakingly driving her first design into the piece of damp leather. It was a pattern of roses and vines with thorns that she’d drawn herself. He’d been hoping to start her off on an easier pattern — something that contained less detail. However, she was turning out to be a natural at leather carving.
Her level of creativity came from within. She didn’t simply sketch flowers; she made the petals come alive and look like they were blowing in the breeze. Once she got the hang of using some of the more complex carving tools and techniques, she would be producing heirloom-quality masterpieces. He could feel it in his bones.
“The truth is,” he countered as he cast a look over her work to gauge her progress, “protecting you and your mom is my job.”
“Yeah, well, the way you look at my mom isn’t,” she retorted sassily.
He pretended to throw his carving knife at her, and she pretended to duck. “Lucky for you, you work too cheap for me to fire you,” he lamented with a gusty expulsion of air.
“Lucky for you, I’m too grateful for the job to walk out on you in protest of my deplorable working conditions.”
“Deplorable!” He pretended to be wounded by her claim, staggering as if she sent a real blade through his heart.
“Yes, deplorable,” she snapped, sounding genuinely put out. “You broke my heart when you chased off that barn cat I wanted to adopt.”
Hawk straightened. “He was dripping with fleas.” He wasn’t about to apologize for that to a smart-mouthed teenager. He had zero interest in working inside a flea-infested shop.
“Fleas can be treated.” She sounded glum. “All you’d have to do is buy some medicine and put it on the back of his neck. It’s not cheap,” she admitted with a wary look at him from beneath her lashes, “but it would be so-o-o worth it.”
“Easy for you to say.” He was already mentally tallying the extra expenses a cat would entail. “I’d also have to buy food, a litter box, bags of litter, pay for trips to the vet, and the list goes on and on.”
“Happy employees are more productive,” Miley declared in such a sly voice that he suspected she’d rehearsed her answer. “There are whole psychology books on the topic.”
Before she could suggest a trip to the library to prove it, he muttered, “I’ll just take your word for it.”
“Does that mean we can get a cat?” Her hands stilled over her work as she pinned him with a hopeful look.
“How about I discuss it with your mom first?” He was stalling, and she probably knew it. However, it wasn’t an outright no.
She emitted a happy shriek that made Annalee’s head whip back in their direction.
“Miley?” Annalee dropped the trowel she’d been holding and dashed in their direction.
Hawk playfully blocked her entrance into the shop with his much broader frame. “What’s the password?” he teased.
“Is she—?” Annalee stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck to see over his shoulder.
“I’m fine, Mom.” Miley had the bored teenager act down to an art. “But I’m glad you showed up, because my boss has a very, very, very important question to ask you.”
“Oh,” she whispered, glancing away from him and turning pale. Then she blushed.
“Good grief.” He propelled her backward a few steps, lowering his voice so that Miley couldn’t hear what he said next. “I’m not going to get on a knee and propose to you, babe. Not yet, anyway.”
She stood in front of him with her face flaming the shade of the cherry tomatoes she would be harvesting in a few weeks. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
He drank in her rosy complexion, reveling in how beautiful she was when she was flustered. “I can’t believe I’m about to ask your permission to adopt a cat for your daughter.”
Annalee swayed enticingly closer to him, still blushing. “I can’t believe I’m about to say yes.”
He curled his upper lip at her. “He has fleas.”
“Not for long,” she assured in a breathy voice. “There’s an easy treatment for that.”
“So I’ve been told.” His gaze dropped to her very kissable lips, longing for the day he would finally get to sample them.
Running Bear stepped out from behind a nearby copse of trees. “Do you have a minute, Hawk?”
It was the first time Hawk could remember being irritated by one of the councilman’s unexpected appearances. He sent him a mildly exasperated look for interrupting the moment he’d been sharing with Annalee. “For you, sir? Always.”
“Good.” Running Bear rubbed his hands together as he surveyed the preliminary design for the park-like setting Hawk and Annalee had been mapping out. So far, it was nothing more than a maze of strings running between wooden stakes in the ground, but Hawk could already visualize what it would look like when they were finished. There would be a quarter-mile-long walking path flanked by hedge rows, flowerbeds and fruit trees. In the center of the path would be a playground on one end and a neighborhood-sized garden on the other end.
“I’ll, um…get back to gardening so you two can chat.” Annalee backed away from him, smiling shyly.
“What can I do for you, sir?” Hawk’s gaze followed Annalee on her short trek back to the raised garden bed where she was busy planting a variety of herbs. After saving eggshells for a few days, she’d crushed them into tiny bits in a small silver bucket. It was sitting on the ground beside the herb patch, waiting to be mulched into the soil. According to her, it was a natural remedy for curbing the invasion of unwanted pests.
“From an experienced councilman to a councilman in the making,” Running Bear intoned, stepping closer to him, “I’d like to update you on an important matter.”
“I’m listening, sir.” It wasn’t the first time Running Bear had referred to him as a councilman in the making. Though Hawk was honored by the title, he didn’t aspire to a career in politics. He hoped the guy was just kidding, though a part of him was afraid he was not. As one of the most respected members of the tribal council, Running Bear was accustomed to getting what he wanted.
He folded his arms over his deerskin shirt, looking every bit the revered leader and mentor that he was. “Early this morning, the council held another special vote, this time to hire a P.I. to investigate Chayton Dakota’s death.”
Whoa! It was a huge development. Hawk frowned as he mulled over the revelation. “Did they say why?”
“Yes. Your and Annalee’s visit to my brother’s bedside stirred a viper’s nest, possibly because it revealed her current whereabouts to her would-be killer. Naturally, the incident lent credence to the possibility of foul play surrounding her husband’s death.”
“Wait a second.” Hawk rounded on him, not liking how smoothly Running Bear had laid out the reason for the emergency tribal council vote. It had almost sounded rehearsed. “It was your idea to send Annalee to visit your brother. She knew it was a bad idea, but you goaded her into it, anyway. I was there.” His gaze narrowed in suspicion at the man. “All the while, you were using her as bait, weren’t you?”
“Bait is a strong word.” Running Bear didn’t deny it, though. “If you couldn’t have accompanied her to the hospital, I would’ve taken her there myself.”
Hawk knew it was his way of saying that Annalee had never been in any real danger, but Hawk wasn’t sure he agreed. “I don’t like being manipulated, sir.” He especially didn’t like putting Annalee in any unnecessary danger.
Running Bear’s jaw clenched stubbornly. “Would you have rather she spent the rest of her life looking over her shoulder?”
“Of course not!” That wasn’t the point.
“I took the fight to them.” Running Bear spread his hands. “Now, we’re playing offense instead of defense. Someday, you’ll thank me.”
“For using Annalee as bait?” Hawk couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this angry. “You’re going to be waiting a long time for someday, sir.”
“You would’ve never let anything bad happen to her.” His mentor’s voice was steely.
“We were run into by a maniac trying to kill us both!” He was a bodyguard, not a crash-test dummy.
“And you lived to talk about it,” Running Bear reminded. “Believe me, I knew what was at stake. That’s why I stayed on my knees the entire time you were gone. Not only did the Lord protect you, we’re one step closer to catching Annalee’s and Miley’s would-be killer.”
“We are?” Hawk wanted to believe that, but there were still so many variables in play.
The councilman nodded gravely. “My brother is hospitalized, so there’s no chance he was the driver of the hit-and-run vehicle.”
“Unless he paid a hitman,” Hawk pointed out.
Running Bear ignored his words. “His stepson is chained to a wheelchair, so he isn’t likely the hit-and-run driver, either.”
“Maybe. Maybe not, sir. There are a lot of other factors to consider.” Hawk still wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll investigate each and every one of those factors,” Running Bear assured, keeping his voice down for Hawk’s ears alone. “But none of this would’ve been possible without the tribal council voting to fund an investigation, and they wouldn’t have voted the way they did if you and Annalee hadn’t given them such a strong reason to.”
He’d been playing chess, carefully setting the stage for a much longer game. Hawk still didn’t like the subterfuge Running Bear had employed, but it was hard to complain against the outcome.
“It’s only a theory at this point, but I suspect whoever wanted Chayton dead also wants his widow and daughter dead. Now all we have to do is figure out why, then prove it.”
Before it’s too late. Hawk finished the troubling thought inside his head. It was a tall set of orders. Getting Chayton Dakota’s death moved from the natural causes list to the homicide list wouldn’t be an easy task. For starters, they’d have to exhume the body and run a new autopsy, but Annalee would probably give her permission for that.
Hawk cocked his head curiously at Running Bear. “Please assure me the council is hiring a P.I. from Lonestar Security.” There was no other firm he trusted more than the one he worked for.
The councilman gave an affirming nod. “If we’re lucky, they’ll assign the case to your friend, Johnny Cuba.”
“We’ll be in good hands with him.” Not only were they friends, Hawk trusted the man implicitly.
“I’m counting on it.” Running Bear grew antsy like he always did when he was ready to disappear into the woods. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a patrol to get back to.”
Hawk pounded a fist against his heart like he always did when they parted ways.
Running Bear returned the gesture. Then he was gone.
Hawk wasted no time jogging over to Annalee to share the latest development with her. When he reached her side, however, he found himself at a loss for words.
She held a finger over her lips to buy his silence while slowly pivoting his way with a trio of butterflies resting on her arm — two big ones and a small one.
It looked like a whole butterfly family. He drank in the smile on her face like a man dying of thirst. She was so lovely on both the inside and the outside that it made him dizzy.
She watched the trio of insects while he watched her, until they fluttered their wings and took off.
He immediately stepped closer. “I just found out something that I think you’ll appreciate hearing.” He broke the news to her as gently as possible about the tribal council’s vote to treat her husband’s death as a homicide.
Her eyes took on a glazed sheen. “How can I ever thank you?”
“No thanks are necessary. He was one of us.” Hawk wasn’t sure if she truly understood that yet. “Even though he was raised away from the tribe, he never forgot who he was. The first time he sent money to the charity fund on the rez, his letter had said he owed his Comanche heritage for how profitable Gilbert Farm had become.” He couldn’t express what he was going to say next strongly enough. “The elders on the tribal council have long memories.”
He didn’t tell her that Running Bear had used her as bait to motivate the council to launch an investigation into her husband’s death. All Annalee needed right now was to know she was surrounded by a tribe of people willing to protect her and her daughter — her husband’s people and her future husband’s people.
Ever since the church service they’d attended together a week ago, he’d been reading and re-reading the Book of Ruth. He’d been researching what it meant to be a kinsman redeemer. And although their circumstances didn’t fit the exact same scenario, he wanted to be her Boaz.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Annalee’s words weren’t much louder than a whisper.
“Like what?” He kept his voice as soft as hers.
“Like you want to…you know...”
“Kiss you?” He adored the way her fair skin grew pink all over again beneath the sprinkling of freckles on her nose.
“I still can’t…yet.”
The word yet that she’d added hesitantly at the end buoyed his hopes. “Like I said, I’m a patient man.” Some things weren’t meant to be rushed.
“It’s not that I couldn’t go through the motions for you.” Her voice sounded strained. “But you deserve more than that, Hawk. You deserve a woman in your life whose heart is whole. Whose thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams are focused on you and you alone. Not divided between you and the past. You and my memories of someone else.”
As tough of a topic as it was, Hawk liked the fact that they were talking about it so openly and honestly. If she feared such transparency would discourage him, she couldn’t have been more wrong. Yeah, she’d just admitted that her late husband was still nestled inside her heart, but she’d also just admitted that the man standing in front of her was beginning to wiggle his way inside that same space. He had no problem sharing her heart and memories with a good man. A man who’d loved her and Miley the way they deserved to be loved. A man who’d provided for them and protected them the way a husband and father should.
Hawk’s only problem with Chayton Dakota was the way his life had been unfairly cut short. He was convinced the man had been unjustly and cruelly torn from his wife and daughter. What Chayton Dakota deserved was justice beyond the grave, and Hawk planned to do everything in his power to get it for him — for Annalee and Miley’s sake.
He studied the war of emotions in Annalee’s eyes. “Boaz wouldn’t have run from the grief you’re grappling with, and neither will I.”
“Wh-what?” The question wrenched out of her.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the butterflies she’d been holding earlier fluttering her way again. Instead of answering her question, he ever-so-slowly extended his arm in their direction. One of the bigger ones flapped its wings closer, hovering over his wrist. Then it darted off.
He dropped his arm in disappointment.
Annalee’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “How did you do that?”
He snorted. “I didn’t succeed. You watched me fail.”
“But you almost succeeded.” She sounded amazed. “It took me a lot longer than that. It also took rubbing honeysuckle all over my arms,” she confided with a chuckle.
“Is that your secret?” It was rather genius, come to think of it.
She nodded. “Chayton taught me that.” She smiled to herself, adopting a distant look as she did the backstroke through a welcome pool of memories. “He taught me so much, Hawk. Like Running Bear, he loved the land, and he was closer to it than most people.” She made a rueful face at him. “Sorry. Sometimes I get caught up in my?—”
“Tell me more,” he said quickly. He didn’t want her apologies. He wanted her to feel free to tell him anything and everything that was in her heart. He wanted her to feel safe enough to share her innermost thoughts. The good ones. The bad ones. The uncertain ones. Learning more about Chayton Dakota’s life would aid the investigation into his death. Not to mention spilling her heart in the middle of the gardens she loved would be a lot easier than sitting through an interrogation in Johnny’s office at Lonestar Security.
To Hawk’s dismay, his suggestion made Annalee’s eyes grow damp. “It’s hard talking about him,” she confessed thickly.
He hadn’t meant to upset her. “Then don’t.” The last thing he wanted was to cause her more pain.
“It hurts.” Her voice trembled. “It also terrifies me.”
His eyebrows rose. “To talk about him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Curiosity burned in him. Whoever had made her afraid was going to pay to the full extent of the law. He and his friends in security and law enforcement would see to it.
“I don’t know. Maybe because the answers we seek are stuck in my head somewhere.” She pressed her fingers lightly against her temples. “Answers to all the things that still don’t make sense. Like why a perfectly healthy husband and father could just stop breathing and be gone in an instant.” She snapped her fingers. “He took Gilbert Farm to new levels with his no-pesticides growing policy and non-GMO fertilizers. He loved every row of corn and beans. He nurtured every plant.” She smiled sadly to herself. “I teased him mercilessly about how in tune he was with animals and nature, even calling him a Disney Princess.”
Her voice grew choked with tears as all the things she’d kept bottled inside her for months came pouring out.
Hawk was content to listen to the storm surge, knowing she would feel better afterward.
She dabbed the corners of her eyes. “He couldn’t eat a peach without tossing the pit into a cup of water afterward.” She shook her head in bemusement at the memory. “The next thing I knew, it was sprouting on the windowsill and ready to transplant. And each time I kept a potato too long in the pantry, he’d jam a few toothpicks in the side of it, balance it over a bowl of water, and watch the roots go bananas!”
Hawk enjoyed the way she came alive as she relived some of the happiest moments of her marriage. “You weren’t kidding when you said you learned a lot from him.”
“I did.” She nodded vigorously. “My adoptive parents taught me how to plant, prune, and mulch; but he showed me which flowers would bring butterflies and which ones would bring hummingbirds. He taught me which plants would settle the stomach and which ones would heal a burn. Because of him, I know how to smell when the next rainstorm is on its way before the first cloud shows up. He was a man of few words, but he was completely in tune with the beauty that surrounds us and with his Maker.” She seemed to wilt. “Which is why his passing felt all the more sudden. And wrong.”
Hawk agreed wholeheartedly. “I take it he didn’t have any chronic health conditions?”
“None.” She shook her head. “He wasn’t even sick the day he died. He woke up early like he always did, gave me a good morning kiss, and headed outside to tackle the daily chores he loved so much. I found him an hour later, stretched out in one of our greenhouses. It looked like he was taking a nap. For a second, I thought he was playing a practical joke on me.” She drew a shaky breath. “But he didn’t answer when I called his name. He didn’t move at all. Ever again.”
“I’m sorry.” Hawk’s heart constricted with sympathy over the shock and grief she must’ve felt that day. The condition she’d found her husband in was proof that whatever had happened to him had happened quickly. “May I ask you a difficult question?”
“You may.” Her gaze narrowed a little. “Depending on how difficult it is, I can’t promise you an answer.”
“Fair enough.” He was pretty good at reading body language, though, so he’d probably get his answer regardless. “Did the attending physician order an autopsy?”
She gave a jerky nod.
“And the findings?”
“Cardiac arrest.” She gave a weary shrug. “I know it’s not much to go on.”
No, it was not. “Do you have any way of accessing the autopsy report?” She’d arrived at his cabin with nothing more than the clothes on her back, and they hadn’t even been her clothes.
“Theoretically.” She spread her hands. “Now that my new driver’s license and social security card have arrived, I can apply for a new copy of Chayton’s death certificate and our marriage certificate. Those items should give me the authorization I need to request a copy of his medical records.” She paused and grimaced. “Assuming whoever has taken my life as a ransom hasn’t put any roadblocks in place to prevent me from accessing such information.” She looked frustrated. “It’s a process, Hawk.”
He hated hearing the doubt in her voice. “With your permission, I’d like to share everything you’ve told me this morning with Johnny. He’s the P.I. I’m hoping will be assigned to your case. A guy I know and trust.”
“Of course.” Her eyes widened in surprise. “I’ll do anything I can to help Chayton get the justice he deserves.”
Hawk couldn’t resist reaching out to tap her nose. “The justice you and Miley deserve, as well.”
She playfully swatted at his hand.
He used the opportunity to grab hold of her hand and twine their fingers together.
“What are you doing?” She started to pull back. “Miley might see us!”
He held on. “What’s the worst that can happen? I’m not ashamed of the way I feel about you.”
Annalee abruptly stopped trying to pull her hand away from him. “What if she thinks I’m being disloyal to her father’s memory?” There was a quaver in her voice that twisted his heartstrings.
“She’s eighteen, babe. Not eight.” He used their joined hands to tug her closer. “She can handle the truth.”
“You’re right.” She closed her eyes with a weary sigh. “I know you are.”
“Can you?” He ran his thumb over her fingers.
She cracked her eyelids open. “Can I what?”
“Handle the truth about what’s happening between us?” He raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingers.
“I’m trying to,” she whispered. “It’s so confusing, though, inside my head right now. There’s still him, but now there’s you.”
He liked the sound of that. He kissed her fingers again. “Something tells me there’s room inside your beautiful heart for both of us.” Someday, she would understand this was what it truly meant to be Comanche — to embrace the past as well as the present. To remember what used to be while reveling in what is. To learn. To grow. To be forever moving toward something better.
Her eyes grew damp. “You say that like my completely messed-up life doesn’t bother you, which I don’t believe for a second.”
He spoke against her hand that he was still holding to his lips. “Yeah, it bothers me that someone is trying to hurt you. It bothers me unbearably that someone tried to hurt Miley, too, and I’m bothered enough to do something about it.” He kissed his way across her knuckles. “Being bothered isn’t always a bad thing.”
Her eyes grew glassier. “When you say things like that, I want to bear hug you to try to soak up all of your confidence. And your strength. And your determination.”
He lowered her hand from his mouth. “Let’s gooooo!”
To his amazement, she did.
“Oh, wow!” He enclosed her in his arms and gathered her close, hugging her tight enough to raise her to her tiptoes. The moment was too potent to do anything but hold her. She felt so delicate and breakable. She smelled good, too. He turned his face against the side of her neck to breathe her in.
A summer breeze wafted over them, stirring wisps of her hair and blowing them against his temple and forehead. He could feel her fingers in his hair, warmly pressed against the back of his neck.
“You sure this is okay?” Her voice was muffled against his shoulder.
“Yep.” He lowered her to her feet, rubbing his hands in circles across her back. Being in her arms was more than okay. It was perfect.
“I’m not trying to make you as crazy as I am.” She sounded so unsure of herself that he cuddled her even closer.
“Bring on the craziness, babe. I’m ready.”
She gave a shaky laugh. It was a beautiful sound. Like music. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He knew what she meant, but he wanted to hear her say it in her own words.
“For being you and being here for me.” She fisted a hand in his hair and gave it a gentle tug. “And being here for Miley.” She let out a long, slow breath. “For very quickly becoming someone who’s very special to us.”
“You’re welcome.” Though she didn’t know it yet, she was that and more to him — every last one of his biggest dreams come true. She checked off the entire list of things he wanted in a relationship. She was intelligent, down to earth, and real. She was beauty in motion. She was the one he’d been waiting so long for.
His cell phone buzzed in his back pocket with an incoming call he was in no hurry to pick up. He let it buzz until it went to voicemail, but it started buzzing again almost immediately.
Annalee gave a muffled chuckle. “Are you gonna get that?”
“Do I have to?” he grumbled.
“No, but you should.” She kept her arms twined around his neck. “Not that I’m near ready to let you go.”
Man, but she was making him smile from the inside out. He managed to keep an arm slung around her while digging his phone out of his pocket. Johnny’s name was on the caller ID. He punched the accept button with his thumb and raised the phone to his ear. “Yo!”
Johnny snorted out a laugh. “You sound awfully happy. What’s up?”
“You called me,” Hawk shot back with a grin. “You’re supposed to tell me what’s up!”
“You’re smiling, aren’t you?” Suspicion edged his friend’s voice.
“Whatever you called for, spill,” Hawk growled, losing patience.
“Alright, alright! That’s more like the Hawk I know.” Johnny sobered and launched into the reason for his call. “Were you aware that Chayton Dakota had a stepbrother?”
His shoulders tensed. “Yes, I was aware that Chayton Dakota had a stepbrother.” He spoke against the top of her head, answering Johnny’s question with a full sentence to keep her in the loop about what they were discussing.
Johnny snorted. “You with somebody?”
“Hang on a sec.” He hit the mute button. “Mind if I put you on speakerphone?”
“That’s fine.” Annalee lowered her hands from his shoulders to his upper arms.
He was just glad she wasn’t pulling away altogether. He hit the unmute button and started talking. “To answer your question, yes. I’ve got Annalee with me, and she’d like to weigh in on this.”
“Cool.” Johnny sounded like he was grinning. “Hey, Annalee! I’m Johnny Cuba, the private investigator assigned to your case.”
“Hi, Johnny!” The cautious hope in her voice made Hawk want to keep holding her and never let go.
“Not sure why I put up with a friend like him,” he continued in a long-suffering voice.
She laughed like he intended her to. “I think I know why.” She met Hawk’s gaze warmly. “He’s a pretty handy guy to have around.”
“You shouldn’t say stuff like that out loud,” Johnny warned on a dire note. “It’ll give him a big head.”
She chuckled again. “About Chayton’s stepbrother…” Her smile faded. “What little I know about him, he seems like a nice guy. Chayton never had anything bad to say about him, other than the fact he’s the emotional baseball bat his parents used to whack him out of their lives.”
Hawk didn’t like the sound of that. “How so?” he demanded.
“They were opposed to Chayton marrying me,” she admitted in a smaller voice. “They never really said why, but it was kind of obvious. I started off as a teen mom, and they thought he could do better.”
“Their loss,” he declared gruffly.
“They were a little more civil to me after I inherited Gilbert Farm, but just barely.” Her lips twisted. “Actually, Ace Dakota was the only one who thawed out a little. His second wife, Rosamund, has never liked me and has never bothered to hide it.”
“You aren’t kidding.” Hawk gave a huff of agreement. “Johnny, you should’ve heard the woman at the hospital. She was like a cobra ready to strike. Purposely took something Annalee said out of context and used it to throw her out of Ace Dakota’s hospital room.”
“Brutal,” Johnny muttered.
“Anyhow…” Annalee muffled a sigh. “Ace threatened to disinherit Chayton and leave everything to his stepson if Chayton went through with our marriage, which he did. Then his father followed through with his threat, and they never spoke another word to each other. It was so sad,” she mourned. “I hated being the wedge that drove them apart.”
Something about her story didn’t add up for Hawk. “I’m not so sure you were,” he growled. “Your thoughts, Johnny?”
“I’m right there with you, bro,” his friend agreed. “Their entire disagreement reeks of outside interference.”
“Or inside interference,” Hawk countered. A new theory was forming in his mind, one in which a new stepmother had entered Chayton Dakota’s life and had immediately gone to work usurping his relationship with his dad. Her end game was easy to imagine since her son was now in line to inherit Dakota Farm —lock, stock, and barrel. But how far had she gone to secure her son’s inheritance? Had she been willing to kill for it? It was a chilling thought.
Also, what was the point of the venom she was still spewing in Annalee’s direction? Rosamund Dakota had won, hadn’t she? So why did she still view Annalee as a threat?
Hawk didn’t voice his questions aloud, not wanting to upset Annalee any more than she already was. However, his gut told him there was more to the story. What they knew about Chayton Dakota’s life and death right now was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
“One more thing.” Johnny sounded like he was winding down. “Seems as if Rosamund Dakota is back in the hospital.”
“Oh?” Every cell in Hawk’s body went on full alert. “Any chance she was recently involved in a vehicular collision?” A hit-and-run one, to be more precise.
“No idea. According to my sources, she’s undergoing some cosmetic surgery. It sounds like it’s something she does on a regular basis.”
“It is,” Annalee affirmed. “What’s she getting done this time?”
“Nose job.” Johnny’s voice was dry.
A nose job sounded, well, on the nose to Hawk. Was Rosamund Dakota truly getting cosmetic surgery, or was it simply her cover story for getting all bruised and banged up while trying to kill Hawk and Annalee? As far as Hawk was concerned, the fact that she was currently receiving any medical treatment at all made her a prime suspect in the case.
He added alibi for Rosamund Dakota to his list of things to ask Johnny for in private later.