Page 22 of Rawhide and Ransom

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One month later

Over the next several weeks,Running Bear remained true to his word, visiting Annalee and Miley often to share stories about his people. He taught them ancient Comanche recipes and holidays, traditions, and folklore. He gave Annalee gardening tips and showered encouragement on Miley as she learned the rudiments of the leather carving trade.

One evening, however, he didn’t show up with any of his regaling stories. Or the evening after that. It was a full week before Annalee saw him again. She found him waiting for her and Hawk on the back porch of the cabin as they strolled there from the workshop.

He watched them climb the porch steps, eyeing her soberly. “Do you remember what I said about hoping your move to the reservation would help soften my brother’s heart?”

Our move?She’d never thought of her and Miley’s time there as permanent, but rather a temporary reprieve from the dangers waiting for them just outside the gates of the rez. However, that wasn’t what his question was about.

“I remember.” She nodded soberly, instinctively knowing he was referring to Ace Dakota’s terminal illness. “But please don’t hold your breath,” she warned softly. She hated to speak ill of someone on his deathbed, but Chayton’s father had barely been civil to her over the years. “He’s never wanted anything to do with us.” Though she’d always considered his absence in Miley’s life to be his loss, his attitude still stung.

Running Bear snorted. “It’s because he let both his first and second wives warp his better judgment. Unlike those gold diggers, you have a kind heart, and kindness is something he hasn’t experienced much of since leaving the rez.”

If he was attempting to make her feel sorry for her husband’s hardhearted father, it wasn’t working. She’d washed her hands of him a long time ago. “I honestly don’t know him very well, so I’ll just have to take your word for that.” They could probably hear the doubt in her voice, but she couldn’t help it.

Hawk opened the back door and ushered them inside. “When it comes to family, you’ve just gotta accept them as they are, warts and all.”

She sent him an incredulous look as she stepped inside the kitchen. “I’m not the one with the acceptance issues.” She couldn’t believe he was even implying such a thing. Her life was an open book for him and everyone else to read. There were no secret agendas. No hidden motivations.

“Oh, really? When was the last time you visited him?” he shot back.

She curled her hands into fists at her sides. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the one on the run.”

“In case you’ve forgotten,” he countered in the same tone of voice she’d used on him, “he’s the one dying.” He shut the door behind them.

She glared at him. “When was the last timeyouvisited him?” Two could play this game.

“Few days ago,” he admitted with a grimace. “He refused to see me.” He angled his head at Running Bear, who was facing her glumly with his arms crossed. “He refused to see his brother, as well.”

The bleakness in their expressions caught her off guard. “What makes you think he’ll agree to see me?” If he and Running Bear thought they could use her to get through the thick skull of Ace Dakota, they were barking up the wrong tree.

He gestured at her with both hands. “You belonged to Chayton. It makes you the next best thing to seeing his son again before he dies.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” she protested.

“What I do know,” he countered, “is that you may be our last hope of getting through to him.”

“You said you wanted to learn the Comanche ways,” Running Bear reminded mildly. “Consider this another lesson. From the oldest to the youngest, the shortest to the tallest, and the richest to the poorest, everyone in the tribe matters. We don’t turn our back on our own, even the ones who’ve made mistakes.”

It sounded downright Biblical to her. Unfortunately, it didn’t make what he was asking of her any easier. “You want me,” she pointed at herself, “to visit a man in the hospital who spent the last fifteen or so years refusing to have anything to do with me?” The odds were he would refuse to see her, the same as he’d refused to see them.

Running Bear spread his hands. “How badly do you want to be a part of our people, Annalee?”

“Very much,” she protested. “It’s just that…” Asking her to return to the same hospital where she’d been in a coma was no small favor to ask. Why couldn’t they see that? Sure, she’d since reclaimed her legal identity via a replacement driver’s license and social security card, but still!

“I’ll drive you,” Hawk offered quietly. “We can go after church tomorrow, if that sounds alright to you?”

She blinked at him. “You’re relentless! Both of you.”

He looked smug. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

Of course, it was a yes! She glared at him. They had her cornered, and they knew it.

Looking amused by the anger sparking between them, Running Bear headed for the front door, mumbling something about returning to attend church with them in the morning. Then he disappeared outside.

“I’m going to need a minute,” she mumbled as she stared after him.

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