Page 10 of Rawhide and Ransom

“Tell me more about your mom’s look-alike,” Hawk pressed.

Miley’s gaze flickered like blue fire. “She marched right into our living room wearing my mom’s favorite t-shirt and sneakers! It was like she was wearing the same skin or something.” She shivered and seemed to wilt. “I know how crazy this must sound to you, but it wasn’t her. You have to believe me!”

He did believe her. “I think you’re more than old enough to know your own mom, kid.” It was a bizarre story, though. No way around it.

“Thank you for saying that.” Miley viciously chewed on her lower lip. “I’ve been trying to figure out why she looked so much like my mom. It was more than makeup. I can tell you that.”

“What else can you tell me about her?” Hawk gestured for her to continue. “Tell me everything you can remember, no matter how insignificant it might seem.”

“Okay.” She blew out a breath, making her bangs rise on her forehead. “The imposter looked like my mom and was roughly the same build. She was also wearing her clothes, but she was older, and her voice didn’t sound anything like my mom’s voice.”

“Older,” he repeated carefully.

“Yes, older,” Miley snapped, pointing at the edges of her eyes. “She has more lines around her eyes than my mom has, and her teeth are straighter. Like so straight they can’t be real.”

He cocked his head at her. “You think they might’ve been dentures?”

“Yeah. Dentures.” She pressed the ice pack more firmly to her arm. “I took some pictures on my cell phone so I could compare them to my mom’s pictures. They look enough alike to be twins, other than the few differences I mentioned. Definitely older. And she didn’t seem to know anything about me. Like she totally forgot that I dip my French fries in mayonnaise instead of ketchup. What kind of mom would forget something like that after eighteen years of buying me mayonnaise?”

“Not your real mom, that’s for sure.” Hawk couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to wake up one morning and realize the woman posing as her mom wasn’t actually her mom. It sounded like something out of a horror movie.

“I know, right?” Miley spluttered.

Now for the hard question. Hawk watched her closely, not wanting to miss a single nuance of her body language. “What made you decide to break a window and climb out of it?”

Miley paled. Then she turned red. “My mom’s imposter sent me to my room for no particular reason —like I was four-years-old again. Then she locked me in!” She sounded incensed. “I didn’t realize she’d reversed the doorknob until it was too late. The whole thing was really unnerving, you know?”

“I bet.” Hawk’s chest ached for her. “And then?”

Her lips tightened. “I watched through my bedroom window as she drove away. Then I smelled smoke. I tried to open my window, but it was jammed shut. I had to launch a bowling ball through the glass to break the double panes. Once I made it to the other side, I took off running and didn’t look back.” She paused to yawn broadly.

“You did the right thing.” It filled Hawk with rage that someone who looked like Miley’s mother had attempted to burn her alive. “Next question. How’d you find your way here?” His cabin wasn’t exactly walking distance from where she’d come from.

“I have a great-uncle living on the rez.” Therezwas what most of the locals called the Comanche reservation he lived on. “Or used to. I’ve never met him, so I can only hope he’s still alive.” She lowered the sodden tissues from her face and dropped them on the bar beside the glass of water he’d poured for her. “I hitchhiked my way here, hoping he might help me search for my mom after I introduced myself and explained what was going on.”

“What’s his name?” Hawk already knew it, but he wasn’t ready to reveal his relationship with the man yet.

“I assume his last name is Dakota, but my parents have always referred to him as Running Bear,” she admitted. “From what I understand, he and my grandfather had some sort of falling out years ago, so there was never any contact between us.”

Running Bearwas definitely a name that Hawk recognized. He wagged a finger energetically at her. “He serves on our tribal council.” Given Running Bear’s choice of lifestyle, Hawk wasn’t sure what his interest would be in taking on the responsibility of a teenager.

“Oh, Hawk,” Miley breathed, lighting up like a candle. “Are you serious, or are you just messing with me?”

“I’m always serious.” He pointed at the ice pack that she’d laid on the cabinet while downing the pain meds. “You’re gonna need to ice your arm for at least twenty minutes. Want me to set a timer?”

“Yes, please,” she returned meekly.

He set one on his watch. Then he met her gaze again. “Now that you’ve verified your great-uncle is alive,” he spread his hands, “are you gonna turn in your resignation from the rawhide business?” He sure hoped not, but he wasn’t going to arm-twist her into doing anything she didn’t want to do.

She glared at him. “Is that your way of saying you don’t want to be bothered with me anymore?”

“Nope.” He meant it, too. “I’m running behind on several orders. I could use the extra help.”

“Good, because I still need a job.” She sounded relieved. “Plus, I have no idea what Running Bear is going to think about meeting a niece he may or may not know he has.” Misery edged her voice. “A niece not even related by blood.” She glanced away from him. “In case I failed to mention it before now, my dad adopted me after he married my mom.”

Hawk studied her, wishing he could think of the right words to make her feel better, but nothing came to mind.

Fortunately, Miley didn’t seem to be waiting for a response from him. She drew a heavy breath. “To make matters worse, my grandfather and dad didn’t get along, either. All I really know about my grandfather is that he became a widower, remarried, and disowned my dad all in the same year — possibly because of me.” She sounded sad.

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