Page 13 of Rawhide and Ransom

“You must be Annalee Gilbert.” He placed a steadying hand beneath her elbow.

Instead of answering his question, she asked one of her own. “You found my daughter, didn’t you?”

She looked ready to implode on herself. In the midst of her crumbling, however, a sheen of steel pushed through. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Take me to her!” It was a command, not a request.

Her show of strength amazed him. Not only did someone want her dead, she was a woman who’d recently awakened from a coma. She was far from full strength. However, her only concern was for her daughter.

“Don’t make me beg,” she rasped.

“I won’t.” Fearing she was about to fall off her stool, he kept his hand beneath her elbow. “Just hang tight until her breakfast burrito arrives.” He quickly filled her in about the cut on Miley’s arm that had gotten infected. “She’s been properly stitched up,” he assured, “and our P.A. on the rez called in a prescription for antibiotics. I just finished picking them up from the pharmacy.”

Annalee’s lips parted on a whimper of gratitude. “I-I’ll pay you back,” she blurted. “For everything. Just as soon as?—”

“I’m sure you will.” He waved away the rest of her words, unsure if she had a penny to her name at the moment. His food arrived shortly afterward.

On the short drive to his cabin, Annalee recounted the hit-and-run accident she’d been involved in as best she could, though the details surrounding it sounded like they were still fuzzy. “I was in a coma for a few weeks, but I called my daughter as soon as I woke up. A stranger answered her cell phone, claiming she’d taken my life as a ransom. Isn’t that the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Though it wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d ever heard, it was close. Working for a security firm meant he got to see weird things nearly every day.

Annalee’s eyes grew damp as he drove them through the checkpoint. “My late husband still has family here,” she murmured brokenly. “His dad’s brother, if he’s still alive.”

“He is.” Hawk was happy to affirm that bit of information for her. “Miley told me about him. He was the one she was looking for when she hitchhiked her way here.”

“Hitchhiked?” Annalee gaped at him. Then she dissolved into damp laughter. “What a stinker!”

“Like mother, like daughter.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m assuming you arrived the same way?”

“Yep. In the passenger seat of a cattle transport trailer. Go ahead.” She made a rueful sound. “Tell me I’m an awful parent.”

“I wouldn’t dare.” He found her reckless bravery nothing short of impressive. But like he’d done with her daughter, he resorted to humor to lighten the tone of their conversation. “I have two very resourceful ladies on my hands. I’m starting to feel outnumbered.”

Annalee drew a shuddery breath. “Fair warning. What you’ve seen so far is nothing. Miley is a force to be reckoned with when she’s not sick or injured.”

He could easily believe that since the kid was a force to be reckoned withwhileshe was sick and injured.

“She has her stepdad to thank for her resilience.” Annalee sniffled damply. “May he rest in peace.”

Her grief sounded much fresher than Hawk had been expecting. He didn’t know what to say, so he kept silent as he drove up to his cabin and parked on the grass in front of his porch.

“Stay behind me,” he instructed as he led her to the front door. He balanced the to-go boxes and bag of meds with one arm as he unlocked it. Then he reached for the frappe.

Annalee silently handed it to him before he stepped across the threshold. The only thing she was left holding was the Styrofoam cup containing her to-go coffee.

Miley sent him a blurry-eyed look from the sofa. As her gaze landed on the frappe, she straightened beneath the blanket she was huddled under.

“You’re my hero.” Her whole face lit up as she greedily reached for it.

He decided on the spot that it was the best money he’d ever spent. Blocking her view of her mother with his shoulders, he deposited the to-go boxes beside her wallet on the end table. “You’re cold.” He glanced worriedly around the room for another spare blanket, but there wasn’t one in sight. Since it was June, he’d folded away most of his winter stuff on the top shelf in his bedroom closet. “Maybe I shouldn’t have let that teenybopper clerk talk me into a coffee shake after all.”

“Are you kidding?” Miley lifted the straw to her mouth. “This is the best medicine ever! It’ll lower my fever from the inside out.” She took her first sip, and another shiver worked its way through her.

With a grunt of concern, he dropped the bag holding her prescription in her lap. “Your driver’s license is in the bag.” Before he loped off to fetch another blanket, he neatly swiped her frappe out of her hands.

She made a grab for it. “What are you—?” Her words froze in her mouth as he stepped aside, revealing the woman who’d been standing silently behind him. “Mom?” A guttural sob tore out of her.

If Hawk hadn’t caught Annalee’s cup of coffee, it would’ve splatted on his floor. Watching the two women collapse into each other’s arms was one of the most satisfying things he’d ever witnessed.

He felt richly blessed for the small part he’d played in their reunion. They still had an uphill battle to get the justice they deserved, but at least they were together again. It was a fight they would face shoulder to shoulder.

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