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“In part.”
“Why don’t we start from the beginning, then. Who are you?”
Hawk produced a card and handed it over. “I’m a private investigator. I have an office in Houston and I’ve been working on a case for the Krupid family for the past few months.”
He deliberately tossed out the Krupid name, curious to see if it registered, but Claudia remained unaffected as she glanced up from the card.
When she said nothing, he continued on. “They lost a daughter many years ago.”
Although confusion stamped her features, the wariness that had ridden her gaze at his arrival had faded in full. “I’m sorry for their loss, Mr. Huntley, but how does that have anything to do with me or my mother?”
“You’re aware of your mother’s ties to the skin trade?”
A flicker of something crossed her face, then vanished nearly as fast as it arrived. “Yes.”
“The Krupids believe their daughter was a part of your mother’s business, enslaved into prostitution.”
He’d expected anger. Perhaps even a bit of denial. What he never expected were the clear signs of remorse and sadness. They filled her face in sympathetic lines and spilled over in the gentling of her voice. “I wish I could say I’m surprised, but my mother ruined many lives. More than I’m sure we can ever fully fathom.”
“You’re aware of your mother’s crimes?”
“Of course. I was a teenager when she went to jail, but I’m well aware of what she’s capable of. Worse, I’m aware of what she’s done.”
From her ties to sex trafficking, to the politicians she’d kept in her pocket, to the tight rein she had over most everything illegal in central Texas, Livia Colton had done enough damage for five lives. Even today, there were rumors she’d only been convicted for about a third of what she was actually responsible for, including several murders that remained unsolved.
Yet even with that knowledge, Hawk was surprised by Claudia’s quiet acceptance.
The still figure captivated him and he paused a moment to simply observe her. She was a beautiful woman. Tall and voluptuous, she had blond hair that cascaded down over her shoulders in a golden glow, matched to gray eyes that could knock a man to his knees. She had a sophistication and grace about her—a refinement, really—that carried her beyond the simplicity of her current situation.
She was a diamond in a town that had very little polish on it. And if he weren’t mistaken, Claudia Colton’s shine came from who she was and the life she’d built for herself, not the life she was born into.
How did someone like this come from a woman like Livia Colton? Although he was still in college when the infamous woman’s crimes had come to light, Hawk could remember the trial. The hunt for answers. And the relatively few details that had ultimately come to light for a woman purported to have such deep roots in criminal activity.
Those details had remained equally sketchy as he began investigating the Krupids’ case. The only reason he’d even connected the Krupid family and the death of their daughter to Livia Colton had been almost a sheer accident. But once he’d made the connection, every line he’d tugged started in the same spot.
Shadow Creek.
The small town nestled in the Texas Hill Country boasted acres of farmland and some of the prettiest land in the entire state. It was also where Livia Colton’s six children had been raised and often made their home.
He’d done his research on all of them. Six siblings, all seemingly fathered by different men. Children who’d grown up in the shadow of a powerful mother and her shady life. Heirs who’d been abandoned by the town, left to fend for themselves when the truth of their mother’s crimes came to light.
Claudia was a product of that. And, Hawk pulled her details from memory, she’d hightailed it out of Shadow Creek at the first opportunity. The moment she turned eighteen, Claudia headed for New York City, earning her degree before starting work in the fashion industry. Her return to Texas was recent and, from what he could see, something she’d embraced.
Yet something didn’t add up.
Why was she back? The young woman’s return to Shadow Creek coincided with her mother’s prison break earlier in the year. And her reunion with her family seemed to have a permanence, especially since she’d become the newest proprietor on the busiest street in Shadow Creek.
“I’m afraid I still don’t know how to help you, Mr. Huntley. Those crimes of my mother’s were put to bed over a decade ago.”
“Do you honestly think the police uncovered everything there was to find?”
“Maybe not, but I hardly have the answers on where they should look.”
“Maybe you do.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I’ve been working this case for the Krupid family for several months now. They want to find answers. They want closure and the chance to still provide for their daughter, Annalise.”
That gray gaze had shuttered, her voice brisk and businesslike. “But I still don’t see how that affects me. Nor, I’m afraid to say, do I understand how her parents can possibly provide for a woman who passed many years ago.”
“By taking care of her child.”
Claudia shook her head. “Now you’re talking in riddles. Whatever my mother was, she wasn’t someone who killed innocent babies, Mr. Huntley. I’m afraid your leads have gone cold.”
He moved in, just a few steps but it was enough to have her eyes going wide, her mouth dropping in a small O. He lowered his voice, unwilling to share every private detail in earshot of her employee.
“If I’m right, and I believe I am, Livia Colton didn’t kill the baby. She took her and told everyone she was hers.”
“I think we’d have known if my mother stole a baby.”
The words were pointed fact, but Hawk didn’t miss the thread of understanding beneath them. Nor did he miss the light quaver in her voice that ensured whatever he said next wasn’t going to be a complete surprise.
“You’re the baby, Ms. Colton. Your mother is Annalise Krupid.”
* * *
“I’m what?”
Claudia had seen her mother pull a fainting spell several times throughout her life. Always dramatic, it was an act sure to bring several people running toward the delicate-boned woman with the features of an angel. She’d marveled at each occurrence, always surprised by the effectiveness of her mother’s show.
And up until now, she’d never had the urge to do the same.
But if there was ever a time to get a case of the vapors, this would have to be it.
“If my suspicions are correct, you’re Annalise Krupid’s daughter, Ms. Colton.”
“That’s impossible.”
Was it impossible? The question whispered over her senses, even as she caught sight of herself in the framed mirror that took up space behind the checkout counter. She was a big woman—her five-foot-ten frame and solid bone structure at decided odds with the delicate frame of her mother.
Claudia loved her body, but that hadn’t come easy. She’d spent far too many of her teenage years comparing herself to her mother’s small, willowy frame. A frame that good, old-fashioned biology had embedded in the genes of her sisters, Leonor and Jade. Claudia had always been the outlier. And it hadn’t been until she’d discovered fashion, and all the ways to find clothes and makeup, shoes and accessories to highlight every body type, that she’d come to love who she was.
No, she’d never be a waif like her sisters. But she could strut herself with the best of them and she had come to adore the way clothing clung to her hips and rear like a lover’s caress.
It had been at the heart of her focus for Honeysuckle Road and the core sensibility of her designs while living in New York. Every woman was beautiful. True fashion and all its artistry was about making every woman shine.
“Is it really impossible, Ms. Colton?”
The tantalizing belief that she might be someone else—that all the times growing up she’d questioned if she fit into her family might have been for a reason—were thoughts she needed to shut down.
She was a Colton. She’d been one for twenty-six years and in a matter of moments she was ready to throw that all away?
“Of course it is. I’ve lived here my whole life. I have a family—brothers and sisters—and—” She broke off, suddenly aware those things had very little bearing on how she came to actually be a Colton.
“Look, Mr. Huntley, it’s just not possible. For all my mother was, or is,” she quickly corrected herself, “she’s not a kidnapper of infants. Besides, why kidnap one to then raise it on your own? My mother had four children before me and never had a problem carrying a baby to term.”
“Maybe she saw something in you?”
“Another mouth to feed?”
“She’s a wealthy woman,” Hawk shot back, smooth and easy. “I hardly think that would have been a deterrent, do you?”
Nothing was a deterrent to Livia Colton when the woman set her mind on something. Claudia had seen that enough times in her life to know it as fact. More the point, she’d always sensed her mother had led multiple lives, anyway. There was the mother who raised them all, rarely present. On the occasions when she had been around, she’d exhibited a showy, over-the-top affection for her children.
Then there was the Livia Colton who’d contributed so much to Shadow Creek, from building a hospital to running the annual Christmas benefit for the widows and orphans fund, to even ensuring they had top-notch Little League ball fields. She’d set herself up well with the town leaders, and whether it was from a sense of benevolence or an attempt to buy off everyone in close proximity, it hadn’t changed the outcome.
Her mother had made the town a better place.
And then there was the third Livia. The one who’d helped run an enormous crime ring, who managed several nodes on the central Texas drug trade and who had no compunction about killing to get what she wanted.
Her brother Knox had already lived with that reality earlier this year when an associate of her mother’s kidnapped his son. Livia had returned from hiding to kill the man, saving her grandson. While Claudia had wanted to ascribe pure motives to Livia’s actions, Knox had sworn saving his son was a side benefit to killing the man.
Was it possible that Livia—the one who took whatever she wanted without remorse—had stolen a baby, too?
Claudia cast a glance toward the back of the store. While she trusted Evelyn implicitly and knew she’d tell her most everything later, it felt wrong, somehow, to be discussing this there, with an audience. Huntley’s accusations against her mother had far-reaching implications and at the end of the day, this was a family matter.
“Perhaps we can take this up somewhere else over a cup of coffee? You seem well-intentioned, but I hardly think this the right venue for a serious conversation. Especially when foot traffic picks up later this morning.”
She’d gotten a new shipment in the day before and she and Evelyn had spent several hours the prior evening setting up the new stock. They’d already braced themselves for a busy day when the suddenly hungry-for-fashion women of Shadow Creek wended their way into Honeysuckle Road.
A hot man with electric-blue eyes would only add to the excitement. It would also earn her a spot on the week’s hottest gossip list.
“I’m happy to discuss this somewhere else.”
“Let’s go, then. I have an errand I need to run a few towns over in Whisperwood. There’s a coffeehouse on their main street that makes a mean latte.”
“Let’s go.”
He nodded, his smile easy and simple. The small dents of his dimples were contagious and Claudia found herself smiling back before she could check herself. How she’d missed this. That simple connection with a man, fraught with nothing more than basic appreciation and a subtle sense of flirtation.
Ben had taken that from her. He’d second-guessed every kind word she said to someone of the opposite sex, whether it was a waiter, the postman or the old gentleman who’d lived in the apartment two floors above her. No one had been off-limits and over time she’d lost that sense of basic kindness and easy conversation with others.
He’d taken it all away and replaced it with fear and domination and she was so grateful she’d gotten away.
“Let me just tell Evelyn I’m running out.”
“I’ll wait by the door.”
Claudia hesitated a moment as Hawk drifted through the store, his hands by his sides as he navigated through the circular racks of clothing. A lean man, he was still big and there were several places where he turned sideways to avoid brushing along the clothes.
That simple show of respect—for her work and her store—went a long way toward calming the nerves that leaped in her stomach.
But it did nothing to drown out the dread of having one more mess, courtesy of Livia Colton, land on her front doorstep.
* * *
The SUV rumbled to life beneath them, the gentle purr of its engine humming as Claudia settled herself in the driver’s seat. Hawk had quickly acquiesced to her desire to drive and had held the door for her before moving around to the passenger side.
Evelyn had been concerned when Claudia had let her know she was making a quick trip to Whisperwood but hadn’t tried to stop her. Claudia suspected the fact Evelyn had all of the Colton men on speed dial, in addition to Mac, was what kept her from making too big a fuss. Claudia also made a point of leaving Hawk’s card behind so Evelyn had a record of who she’d gone off with.
Even as she questioned herself, Claudia couldn’t deny just how safe she felt in his presence. But it had been impulse that had her offering to drive when he’d headed out of Honeysuckle Road and beelined for his car to follow behind her. She knew she needed to be careful, but nothing about Hawk set off alarms.
Besides, she was curious about him. And while he’d had the element of surprise on his side, she gained significant home court advantage being in her car with her as driver. So she’d offered to drive, pleased when he’d accepted.
The man was a mystery—tall and lean, stoic and enigmatic—yet for all that he wasn’t threatening. She suspected he could be if he tried hard enough, but so far nothing had set off her flight response. In fact, if she were honest, all that enigmatic masculinity had her the tiniest bit captivated.
Okay, a lot captivated.
The ordeal with Ben, followed by the move, had made her swear off men for the better part of the past year. When she then added on the additional year they’d been dating, she hadn’t been actively on the market for quite a while. It was heady to feel that small spark of awareness; to look over and see a man filling her passenger seat, his long, strong fingers working the buckle of his seat belt.
Claudia waved at Evelyn where she stood inside the back doorway of the shop, her lips set in a firm line.
“She seems to have lost her fondness for me.”
“Excuse me?” Claudia put the car into gear, navigating the small lot behind the store she and Evelyn used for parking and where her deliveries came in.
“Evelyn liked me when I walked in. I think she’s changed her mind.”
“The jury’s still out on you, but I’m not worried you’re going to hurt me.” She decided to push a bit. “I’m not wrong about that, am I?”
“Of course not!” The answer flew back across the car with all the force of a rocket. “I may not be in law enforcement, but I collaborate in tandem with them for my work. I’m one of the good guys.”
She couldn’t hold back the small smile. “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, let’s hear more about my supposed past. While I’ll admit it’s an enticing thought to imagine myself not actually Livia’s daughter, I left those fantasies behind when I grew up. The imagined princess just waiting until the time is right to receive her title or the Little Orphan Annie, hanging on until her real parents can come back to find her. Both were a kid’s fantasy, nothing more.”
“You’re awfully easy about this.” His voice was low, whispering between them like smoke.
Was that a small shot of remorse in his tone?
Or was it what she wanted to hear as she tried to process the feminine awareness of him that wasn’t fading? She wanted to ignore the sensual tug but couldn’t quite hold back the subtle awareness that had her nerves on edge.
Delicious nerves, she admitted to herself before coming to a stop at the four-way that led out of town. Willing away the quick flash of desire, she turned fully to face him. “I’ve had a lot of years to come to terms with my mother and her behavior. It’s a hard thing, to think so ill of the woman who raised you, but it doesn’t make the feelings any less true. My mother hurt a lot of people.”
“It’s different, Claudia, when the person she hurt was you.”
“That’s assuming you’re right about all this.”
“I am right.”
