Page 49 of Rawhide and Ransom

As Miley spilled out the rest of her story, Hawk lifted his phone to his ear.

Annalee heard the wordspolice chiefand tasted relief, knowing the police would soon be on their way.

Tucker Pratt materialized and joined their huddle, speaking in undertones to Hawk. From the looks of others scurrying around the parking lot, the rez was battening down the hatches in terms of security.

“She bought a ton of stuff, Mom.” The excitement in Miley’s voice was palpable. “Our first customer of the day. Three wallets, eight coasters, and two belts. She spent a lot of money. If we keep this up,” she bragged, “we’ll be rich!”

A white patrol car pulled into the parking lot with its lights flashing, though its sirens were turned off. A tall, wiry Native American in a police uniform stepped out from behind the wheel, leaving his door open. He strode up to their booth with his long, black hair swinging behind him in the morning breeze.

“Hawk.” He walked straight up to Hawk and clasped his hand.

Hawk walked him over to Annalee and Miley. “Annalee, this is Police Chief Adriel Montana. Chief, this is my girlfriend, Annalee Gilbert, and her daughter, Miley.”

It was the first time he’d ever called her his girlfriend in public. It felt good to be claimed by him. Reassuring. Right. Annalee moved to his side and reached for his hand.

He twined their fingers together, and they faced the police chief together. “Tell him everything you know about your sister, babe,” he urged.

She launched into what she knew, which wasn’t near enough. “Obviously, she’s more clever and resourceful than anyone has given her credit for,” she concluded breathlessly.

“What did you expect?” her daughter muttered from somewhere behind her. “She’s a Gilbert.”

Annalee bristled. “Miley, hon, we’ll discuss this later.”

“I’m sure we will, Mom.” Her daughter’s impertinence was off the charts today. Annalee had never seen her like this before.

She returned her attention to the police chief and found him studying them with something akin to amusement. The glint in his eyes disappeared as soon as they made eye contact, however, making her wonder if she’d imagined it.

“Unfortunately, we still don’t know what my sister is planning.” Her stomach was in knots just thinking about it. “I’m just grateful she didn’t harm my daughter. More grateful than words can express.” Her voice broke.

“Aunt Mirabelle was nice, Mom!” Miley sounded indignant. “She wasn’t any of those things the police have been saying about her on TV. She wasn’t carrying a gun. She didn’t do anything stupid. She looked and sounded perfectly normal.”

But looks could be deceiving, and every mature person knew that. Poor Miley still had so much growing up to do. Annalee studied her daughter pityingly, not sure what it was going to take to convince her that how she’d handled the encounter with her aunt was wrong.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Miley abruptly held out a fist and uncurled her fingers. Resting on her palm was a gold ring with a jeweled rabbit mounted on the top of it. “She told me to give you this, Mom.”

“You forgot?” Annalee didn’t believe that for a second, but her daughter remained silent while she took the ring from her. She turned it this way and that beneath the sunlight and decided the tiny diamond chips on it were fake. The band didn’t look like real gold, either.

“It’s a flash drive holder.” Hawk reached for it. “May I?”

She handed it to him and watched in fascination while he examined it. Within seconds, he’d located and popped out a thumbnail-sized flash drive.

Tucker produced an electronic pad and waved it suggestively in the air. “Who wants to see what’s on it?”

Adriel Montana gestured for him to continue. “Go ahead. Afterward, we’ll need to take it to the station as evidence.”

Hawk bent his head to speak in Annalee’s ear while Tucker made a big show of putting on latex gloves before plugging the flash drive in. “Don’t worry. He’ll download us a copy before he turns it over.”

She squeezed his fingers gratefully. It was turning out to be really useful to have a bodyguard for a boyfriend and a growing number of P.I.s for friends, all of whom worked for the same security company.

Tucker tapped on his screen to open the contents of the flash drive. “Well, this is interesting,” he noted. “Very interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” Annalee leaned his way anxiously, but the pressure of Hawk’s fingers kept her at his side.

Right.Tucker was downloading a copy of the flash drive, probably saying whatever he thought it would take to stall for time.

“Looks like a bunch of medical reports and records for Mirabelle Gilbert,” Tucker said slowly. “Going all the way back to…wow! Some of them are over thirty years old. Thirty-two years, to be exact. The oldest ones are on letterhead for a place called Stepping Stones Preschool.” His eyebrows rose. “They’re signed by the school nurse, a woman by the name of Priscilla Hardy.”

Hardy?Annalee choked on the breath she was in the middle of taking. Rosamund Dakota’s first husband had the last name of Hardy. Annalee seemed to remember someone mentioning in passing that Rosamund had remained friends with her sister-in-law after the divorce. Unfortunately, she didn’t know the woman’s name.

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