Page 31 of Rawhide and Ransom

“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,veryimportant 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.

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