Page 86 of Native Hawk
Then Catalina’s gaze fell to the floor.
“Santo cielo!Those are Drew’s clothings! What are you doing with them?” She pointed the gun at the blonde again. “What have you done with him, you…bad lady?”
“Nothing! And stop calling me names.”
Catalina would do more than call her names. “If you’ve done anything to him…”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then why do you have his clothings?” And if his shirt and trousers were here, what was he wearing?
The woman blushed. “He…forgot them.”
“You are a liar.”
“Don’t call me—”
“Drew would not forget his clothings.”
“He was in a hurry.”
“A hurry?”
“He was running away.”
Catalina’s breath caught, and she felt a twinge in her heart. “Running away? What means this—running away?” She was afraid she knew exactly what it meant. The truth settled like a weight on her chest.
But after a moment, the woman answered carefully. “He wasn’t running away fromyou.”To Catalina’s surprise, there was a glimmer of compassion in the woman’s eyes.
She didn’t want to dissolve into tears of relief in front of the woman. So she muttered with false bravado, “Of course not. He would be a fool to do so.”
Then, grateful for the woman’s reassurance, she lowered the gun and glanced at the handcuff on her wrist. “Who did that to you? Not Drew?”
“No.”
“You cannot get free?”
“No, I can’t. But maybe you can help me. Maybe we can help each other.”
“Why should I help you?” Catalina asked. “You took Drew away from me.”
“I did not…that is…it was his idea to… All right, I did talk him into coming. But I didn’t think there would be trouble. I only wanted him to help Chase.”
“Chase. His brother?”
“Yes. I’m Chase’s woman. My name is Claire. Claire Parker.”
“Claire Parker.” Where had she heard that name before? All at once, she remembered. Claire was the name of the kidnapped daughter the men had been looking for when they burst into Drew’s room that morning. It made sense now. They must have mistaken Drew for his twin brother, Chase. “The rancher’s…little girl?”
“Yes.”
Catalina arched a brow. Claire Parker was definitelynota little girl. But then she supposed all fathers thought their daughters were little girls. Hers certainly did.
If, as Claire Parker claimed, she was “Chase’s woman,” then Catalina decided she was probably no threat. In fact, she might prove helpful.
“Do you think you can get me out of these?” Claire asked, holding up the handcuffs.
As a girl, Catalina had learned how to pick a lock with a sewing needle. She’d done it all the time to get back her dolls when her brothers locked them up in their trunks. In a pinch, a hairpin would work. She set down the gun, pulled the pin out of her hair, and set to work on the shackles.
