Shotgun Bride

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Renee sat at the table and buttered her toast. Oddly enough, her middle-of-the-night snack had helped with her morning sickness today.

She heard the shower shut off. Hawk was in her bathroom—naked. She closed her eyes, wanting to shut out the thought of him. It didn’t work.

Opening her eyes, she tried to concentrate on the newspaper. The front page reported that a body had been found floating in Buffalo Bayou. That’s probably something that Hawk should know about.

“Mornin’,” he called out.

When she glanced up, he stood at the entrance to her kitchen, tucking his shirt in.

“I left you some scrambled eggs.” She nodded toward the stove.

He didn’t need to be told where things were kept in the kitchen. He knew. After dishing out the eggs, he joined her at the table.

“Sorry there’s no coffee—”

Holding up his hand, he said, “That’s okay. I’ll get a cup at work.”

“Hawk, I can drive myself to the office.”

He put down his fork and looked at the gauze at her temple. “Humor me, Renee, for a while. Until we get a feel for what’s going on here, let’s err on the side of safety. Yours and the baby’s.”

“What’s everyone going to say at work if you follow me around?”

“It will give credence to our marriage on Saturday if people see us together this week.”

His point was reinforced forty minutes later when he escorted her into her office. They passed Stacy in the hall.

“Hawk, what are you doing here at this time of the morning?” Stacy asked. Her eyes went from Hawk to Renee.

“I brought Renee to work.”

“Why, was her car not working? I could’ve picked her up on the way in.”

Hawk slipped his arm around Renee’s waist. “It wasn’t any trouble, was it, Renee?” The intimate look he gave her shouted that he’d spent the night.

Renee’s cheeks reddened. “No.”

Stacy’s eyes narrowed.

“Are we having a party and I don’t know about it?” Todd asked, stopping beside Stacy.

“Why not ask Hawk?” Stacy grumbled. With a final glare, she turned and stormed back into her office.

Renee closed her eyes. It was not a good beginning to her business day.

Hawk finished writing his recommendations about how to proceed with a case that had come back to the department. Closing the file folder, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You look like hell, Hawk,” Ash commented as he strolled into Hawk’s office. Ash slumped down into the chair across the desk and tossed a video tape toward him.

Hawk’s brow shot up. “Since when are you worried about how I look?”

“Since you told me you’re going to get married. You okay?”

Leaning back in his chair, Hawk ran his hands through his hair. “Damn, I wish I knew. After my divorce, I swore I’d never make that mistake again.”

“Have you thought about hiring a bodyguard?”

“Yeah, but Emory wouldn’t buy that. He was worried that whoever kidnapped David would try again with Renee. He’s set it up—if anything happens to her, I’d inherit.”

Ash shook his head. “So how’s Renee taking it?”

“She agreed, after the shooting.”

“It took a shooting to convince her to tie the knot?”

“Yeah. She wasn’t too thrilled with the idea at first.”

“She turned you down? The stud of HPD? She had the nerve to say no?”

Hawk glared at Ash. “You know how women are. She wanted romance.”

“Females are like that. In those psych classes they made us take, we heard about women wanting home and hearth—a nesting instinct.”

Hawk threw his pen on the desk. “It’s like walking on cut glass. No matter how carefully you step, you’re going to get sliced to ribbons.”

“So her pregnancy was a surprise to you?” Ash asked.

“It was, but it shouldn’t have been. Of course, I think the baby was the only reason Renee agreed to marry me.”

Ash snorted. “Don’t believe that. I saw you two together, remember. Also, I recall, she was as smitten with you as you were with her. We could’ve powered the northern suburbs on all the electricity y’all were generating.”

Hawk could’ve done without the reminder. The wattage hadn’t gone down since they’d separated. It had only gone up. Being close to Renee only added to his misery. “After the danger to Renee is over, I’m not going to be able to walk away from her and the baby.”

“And the problem is?”

“She agreed to the marriage as long as it was in name only.”

Ash’s eyes were wide, and he sat up straight in the chair. “No sex?”

He didn’t want to admit it. “Yeah.”

“Hawk, you’re smarter than that. Why are you surrendering? If you want the lady, work it out. Listen, as clever as you are, put your brain in gear.”

Hawk took a deep breath. Ash was right. He needed to find a way out of this maze. “What’s the video?” he asked, nodding to the tape on his desk.

“That’s the surveillance tape from the garage in Emory’s building.”

“Anything on it?” Hawk asked.

“Yeah. A man. It’s a side shot, but I thought you’d like to see it.”

Hawk took the tape and shoved it into the VCR setup that was built into the bookcases in his office. In the low lighting, he could see movement in the bushes. A dark shape appeared out of the darkness—a man aiming his gun. He pulled the trigger twice, turned and disappeared into the foliage.

Hawk stopped the tape and rewound it until the man’s profile appeared again. He froze the motion. “So that’s our shooter. Looks to me as if he was waiting for Renee.”

“I agree. I’ve got stills of this, plan to pass it out to the patrol officers to be on the lookout for this guy. I’ll get you a copy to post at Texas Chic.”

“Why don’t we get that copy now? I want to take it with me so Renee can see this jerk. She needs to be aware of him.”

“Let’s go.”

He took a deep breath. “We need to find who’s behind this, because whoever did this will try again. And I’m not going to let it happen.”

Renee pulled the purchase order from the file and glanced over the figures.

“Well, well, who would’ve guessed that Little Red Riding Hood was sleeping with the Big Bad Wolf?” Stacy’s voice rang out, silencing the other people in the file room. “He’s likely to eat you for breakfast.”

Closing the file, Renee turned to face Stacy, who stood at the entrance. The secretaries beyond the door silently watched. “Is there a point to your comment?” Renee asked.