Cold Case Investigation, page 13
“Don’t insult me, Anna. And don’t lie to spare my feelings. It isn’t you.”
She sat up and stared down at him. He was scowling, but his eyes were closed. Insult him? Lie to him? Of all the...
“You have no idea what I’m trying to say.”
“I know what you’re trying not to say,” he returned in that obnoxious law enforcement voice like he was so much smarter than her. Detached and in control of everything.
When no one was in control. Life was a series of...dangerous events and horrible people and fear and worry and...and... He was lying there concussed, acting like he had it all figured out.
“BS! You don’t know...” She had to get out of bed because she wanted to explode, and there was no staving it off, but she wasn’t going to hurt him while she did it. “You don’t know how to love someone? I have been fighting the world since I was eight years old. And I’ve had this very enviable cushion in my family, but everything I’ve done is because losing hurts so much and I want to be the one to control the hurt. I have never been so damn afraid as I was tonight. All I could think was you’d be dead, and I wouldn’t even have a chance to marry you.”
He opened one eye. “So you’re going to marry me?”
She stared at him for a full shocked minute. The nerve. “You’re impossible.”
“Yeah, but so are you. Maybe we were made for each other.”
She didn’t know how he did it, but the anger just leaked out of her. Maybe it was the fact that he looked terrible, or that he was in her bed, or that...he’d said he loved her and then listened to her whole explosion and hadn’t exploded himself.
Maybe they were made for each other. She wasn’t sure she was ready to believe that for certain, but she liked the idea of it, anyway.
She sat back on the bed. She didn’t cuddle up to him, but knelt next to him, looking down at him until he opened both eyes.
“I love you,” she said, and she’d always considered herself brave, but she was sure uttering those three things was the bravest thing she’d ever done. “But we have a lot to talk about first, before we agree to any...marrying.”
He closed his eyes again, on a careless shrug. “Well, that’s progress, anyway.”
He really was impossible.
“Lie down, Anna,” he murmured. “Let’s get some sleep.”
She didn’t appreciate being ordered around, but she saw a flash of how terrible he’d looked when he’d walked in that door. So she lay down. Curled up next to him.
His arms came around her. “Chessa was very clear. Whoever this man is, he wants to hurt you. You have to take that seriously.”
She rested her palm on her stomach. “I do.” Then she took his hand and laced it with hers and placed their entwined hands on her stomach.
And when he finally fell asleep, so did she.
* * *
HAWK WOKE UP a while later with a thundering headache that got worse as he opened his eyes and found the room flooded with light. Anna was no longer beside him, but Pita was curled up where Anna should be.
It eased his frustration a little. As if the puppy sensed him being awake, he wriggled closer and closer until he was curled up in the crook of Hawk’s shoulder.
“You’re a good dog,” he murmured. “But you’re never coming along on another investigation, I hope you know. Not until you’re bigger and meaner, anyway.” He couldn’t let himself think about it—that little yelp of pain. How much worse everything could have been.
The bedroom door eased open and Anna stepped in, carrying a tray. “Oh, good. You’re awake. Here’s breakfast.”
He sat up in bed, trying not to wince against the pain. He tried even harder to sound his authoritative self. “I need an update on what’s going on with the investigation.”
“And I need a mansion in Hawaii to winter in. Doesn’t mean I’m getting it.”
He scowled at her. “I am the arson investigator on this case, and I’m not going to be shoved out just because of a little head injury.”
“Little?” she snorted, shaking her head. “Yours was worse than mine and I went to the hospital.”
“I’m doing fine, as I’m not pregnant and didn’t inhale a roomful of smoke.”
She studied him with pursed lips. “You’re doing better, but hardly fine.” She put the tray on the bed next to him. “You need to eat, hydrate and keep resting.”
There was no point arguing with her, or maybe arguing with her just hurt his head. Besides, sometimes it was better not to argue—and just do what needed doing. She couldn’t babysit him all day. He’d find a way to get the information he wanted.
But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to eat a little first. He started with the toast as Pita tried to climb up on the tray. Anna plucked him off the bed and cradled him in her arms. “You have to eat yours on the floor.” She put him down on the ground, then took the bowl off the tray he realized was wet dog food and put it in front of Pita. Then she carefully settled herself on the bed without dislodging the tray.
He ate a little, drank some juice and formulated his plan. Even if he got a little out of her, she wouldn’t tell him everything. But a little would give him something to go off of. “The way I see it, you have two choices. Give me an update, or I get one myself in whatever ways I feel necessary.”
She laughed and gently ruffled his hair. Like he was a child. He scowled even harder at her.
“I think you underestimate the Hudson machine. You’re our prisoner until you’re better. Everyone is going to make sure you rest, so whatever you feel necessary ain’t happening, bud.”
“I think you underestimate me.”
Anna considered, or maybe she pretended to consider. “You see that puppy right there? The one you didn’t want. The one Mary steamrolled you into?”
He didn’t bother to respond to that. So maybe he had been steamrolled into adopting a dog. And a few other things, but...
“There won’t be any you getting your way until you get the all clear from the doctor.”
Hawk considered this with the sinking feeling that...she was probably right. There were too many of them. He was outnumbered.
“It’s called being taken care of, Hawk. And if you’re sticking around, you’re going to have to get used to it.”
“From your whole family?”
“Yup. We come as a unit. If that scares you off, then that’s on you.”
“It doesn’t scare me off,” he muttered. Maybe he didn’t relish the thought of her whole family “taking care,” but he was hardly going to run away with his tail between his legs just because she had some overbearing siblings.
It would take a lot more than that to scare off Hawk Steele.
“Now, if you’re a good boy and finish your breakfast, I’ll give you an update.”
Hawk stared at her and had the uncomfortable realization that if he hadn’t been trying to force her to give him information, she probably would have offered that deal in the first place.
So he ate, though he wasn’t happy about it. Once he was done, he raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed.
“All right. A deal is a deal. Jack says Chessa isn’t talking. He said the running theory is she actually doesn’t know anything. She was just a pawn, so we’re not much closer than we were on that front.”
Unfortunately, that was the impression he got from Chessa as well. “What’s the other front?”
“Mary, Dahlia and I found a possible connection and Mary passed that on to Hart last night, so they’re looking into it.”
“Explain the connection.”
She didn’t say anything as she got up off the bed. She picked Pita up and put him back on the bed. Then she skirted the bed, came to the other side and leaned over him. She looked him right in the eye. “No.”
He could have argued with her, but maybe on this he was finally learning a lesson. “I at least need my phone.”
“No screens. You need rest, and that’s it.”
“I have to call my boss.”
“According to Hart, he’s informed all the necessary parties that you’re out on medical leave until a doctor says otherwise.”
“Anna.”
“Be a good patient.” She leaned over, brushed a kiss over his forehead. “You and Pita.” But before she could pull away, he reached for her wrists to keep her there. Maybe he couldn’t get through to her about the investigation in this moment, and the investigation was the most important thing in this moment, but he wasn’t a man who liked losing. He had to win a point somewhere.
“Was I dreaming, or did you agree to marry me last night?”
“You must have been dreaming.” She tugged her hands, but he didn’t let her go. “I very specifically said we had a lot of things to discuss first.”
“First.”
“Yes, and first comes before second, which still wouldn’t be an agreement.” She kept tugging, but he also knew she was afraid to use her full strength against him since he was injured, which gave him the opportunity to hold on to her and keep her there and face this—them—if nothing else.
“Okay, let’s start with first. What’s the first thing you want to talk about?”
She stopped tugging for a minute, looking at him like she couldn’t decide exactly how to feel about any of this. He didn’t mind.
She had said she loved him, and while he might have been frustrated with her initial hesitation, maybe even a little insecure about it, he’d watched her explode about...fighting the world and he’d understood a deeper facet of her.
So he didn’t think she was lying, that love was something she’d ever feel comfortable lying about. And she definitely wasn’t the kind of woman who convinced herself she was in love with a man to be nice, to be taken care of.
He imagined love was as much a surprise out of left field for her as it was for him.
“I want to live here. Not Bent. Not Sunrise. The ranch.” She said it so seriously, like it was some kind of challenge.
“With me?”
She tugged again. He didn’t let go.
“No, with Bigfoot, genius.”
“That’s easy. I don’t care where I live.” He thought about all her siblings and living permanently under the same roof and tried not to grimace. Maybe not ideal, but how could he argue with her wanting to stay here with her family, her roots?
Maybe if he had roots he’d want the same, but he only had himself. “Because I love you, Anna. I don’t have ties to my house, to Bent, to anyone. So you want to live here, it means something to you, that’s more than all the stuff that doesn’t mean anything to me.” And their child would grow up a part of all this?
It was no sacrifice. It was a gift.
She frowned at him. “You know, the plan was to make sure you realized I was a bad bet, and you wouldn’t want to marry me.”
It amused him that she’d had a plan. Even if it had been a terrible one. Who wouldn’t fall for her? “Major fail, huh?”
“Yeah, major.” She heaved out a sigh. “All right, if I tell you about this possible connection in the case, you have to promise. No screens for at least twenty-four more hours. You stick to bed. You eat, you rest. You be a good patient.”
He held up his hand. “Scout’s honor.”
“You were never a Boy Scout,” she said, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“On the contrary, I was. For one whole year. Before I got kicked out of my pack for starting a few unauthorized fires at camp, just to see what would melt. And what wouldn’t. What can I say? I’ve always been interested in fire.”
She let out a delighted laugh, then settled in next to him. And told him all about the case, curled up with him.
Where she belonged.
Chapter Sixteen
The days passed with no break in the case. Anna was almost relieved, if only because it gave Hawk a chance to recover. As much as she wanted answers, needed to know the people who’d hurt them, in those first few days all she could bring herself to care about was Hawk getting better.
After her harassing, and his boss’s insistence, he’d finally gone and gotten checked out by a real doctor. A few days later, he had a clean bill of health to go back to work, and he’d spent the entire day away from the ranch, working.
Anna was shocked and appalled to find herself missing him. What kind of lovesick teenager was she becoming? The closer it got to dinnertime, the less she could concentrate on any task. What if he had some kind of relapse? What if he was hurt? What if...?
What if you got a hold of yourself? she demanded internally.
“Why don’t you go set the table?” Mary said pleasantly. The kind of pleasant that was an order, not a request. The kind of pleasant lesser men did not see through.
Anna looked down at the cucumber she was supposed to be slicing and realized she’d chopped it to bits. It wasn’t her turn to set the table. Mary just wanted her out from underfoot so she’d stop ruining dinner preparations.
“Yeah, why don’t I?” she muttered, then started gathering everything they’d need. She set out plates and glasses, then the silverware, all the way chastising herself.
If she was going to do this whole till-death-do-they-part thing with Hawk, God, she had to figure out a way to deal with his job. And he’d have to find a way to deal with hers. They would have to be apart sometimes. They would have to deal with their worry more constructively than she was doing today.
She couldn’t feel this way all the time. She’d burst.
But actually witnessing him be injured was like opening up a floodgate of anxiety and worry. How did people do this love thing? It was excruciating.
She heard someone enter the dining room, but focused on her work, focused on harnessing all these terrible new feelings she didn’t know what to do with. She didn’t want to deal with small talk with one of her siblings or anyone who lived here.
“Hey.”
She practically dropped the entire collection of flatware at the sound of Hawk’s voice. She had to squeeze on to it to keep from rushing over to him. What was wrong with her? Slowly, she put the forks and knives down and turned to face him, forcing herself to smile casually. “Hi, honey. How was your day?”
He smirked. There was almost an entire room between them and they stood frozen, just staring at each other, all this space between them. Her heart fluttered in her chest. He was honestly the most attractive man she’d ever laid eyes on. And she loved him.
Loved.
“Annoying,” he said. “Hart’s as frustrated as we are. The CS Computer Systems is the only real lead, real connection, but everyone’s clean. At least as far as we can find. If there’s something there, we haven’t found it yet.”
Anna nodded. That was frustrating. Somehow, they had to find a break in this case. So she could go back to having a normal life not worried someone was out to get her. Not wrapped up so much in this man she couldn’t concentrate.
“And you weren’t there,” he said, his voice quiet but firm, his blue eyes intense even with the big table between them.
She let out the breath that had gotten clogged in her lungs, all anxiety and stress and want. “You weren’t here.”
She figured they both moved then, since they met somewhere in the middle, but it wasn’t a conscious choice. It was like moon to tide, a magnet. His arms banded around her, and she pushed to her toes and pressed her mouth to his.
It hadn’t even been twelve hours since she’d seen him, but it felt like centuries, and she just...needed him. Needed this. And it was scary and wonderful all at the same time. To need someone like this. To love someone like this.
To have something like this.
It was like she hadn’t seen him in decades, and she didn’t know what that was. Just that it was. And she didn’t want him to stop touching her, kissing her—
“Do you mind?”
She managed to pull her mouth away from Hawk’s, look over his shoulder at her brother. Grant’s face was all pinched, and he was looking at the ceiling in an embarrassed kind of horror. Poor Grant, who loved his girlfriend, clearly, but still didn’t engage in much PDA. At least around them.
“Yeah, I do mind,” Anna returned. “Why don’t you scram?”
Grant scowled at her, and she thought she might have been able to get rid of him, but then Jack entered. His bland expression turned into a scowl.
“You have a room,” he pointed out.
“What’s the fun in a room?” she returned, but Hawk was disentangling himself, setting her away from him. Coward, she mouthed at him.
He laughed, but he didn’t come anywhere near her as everyone else started appearing, helping Mary set out the dinner. Cash had decided to keep Izzy at their cabin and eat there, as he often did when things got a little dicey.
But Anna also had to wonder if the knowledge Chessa had been involved in all this made him less inclined to be around them. Much like she hadn’t loved the idea of her family poking around her past to figure out who was after her, likely Cash didn’t like being reminded of what a disaster his daughter’s mother had turned out to be.
But the rest of them congregated around the table, and no one bothered with small talk tonight. They went straight into the case.
“I suppose the only positive is that if the case does go cold, we’re experts at that,” Palmer said, clearly trying to ease some of the tension in the room.
Jack scowled harder. Hawk set down his fork. It clearly did not have the desired effect.
“I do not plan on letting this investigation go cold. If CS Computer Systems wasn’t the thread we thought it was, we only have to find a new thread. I’ve got some reports from all the fires. My office is chasing down potential buyers of the accelerants and fire starters used. We should have some names to check out by tomorrow.”
“Should have. Check out. These aren’t done deals,” Louisa pointed out.
