“You and Freya needed it and at the time I wasn’t sure if you’d be staying or leaving. So I bought myself a classic.” His eyes twinkled mischievously.
“A piece of junk that doesn’t run,” she said.
“Just because something is as old as dinosaur bones doesn’t mean there’s no use for it.”
“You can’t keep doing this.” She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin.
“Doing what?”
“You know what.” She looked at him through the veil of her lashes.
“Honestly, two hundred isn’t going to make or break me but thinking of a mother and her kid stranded with no money certainly comes close to a cracking point. My ma taught her sons to do right, so I did.”
“I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.” Suddenly she’d lost her appetite although the omelet was the best she’d ever had. Hands down.
“Then you don’t worry about it. A simple thank you is enough.” A stretch of silence passed. “Helena, do you believe in fate? You said you thought fate brought you here.”
“Hmm.” She pondered over that question. “I think so.”
“Sometimes we have to ask ourselves if something has happened just by pure circumstance or is it something else? Did you and Freya breakdown outside of Cooper’s Hawk for a reason? You two could have landed anywhere. Maybe—just maybe—a higher power decided this place was where you and your daughter needed to be. Permanently or temporarily.” He gave a shrug. “Who knows, but I’m not sure who needs each other more. Anyway,” he swiped a hand down his tight jaw. “Back where you come from people must not get that there are places in the world where kindness is expected. You stick around here long you’ll see what I mean.”
“I have another question.” She plucked at her napkin
“Oh no. Should I be worried?”
“I missed my best friend’s wedding and for that I feel heartbroken. Astrid’s baby is due any day and I’m wondering—”
“If you can take some time off to visit? Sure?”
She blinked. “No, I wasn’t thinking that. I can’t visit. I was only thinking that I need to purchase a cell phone and if I could catch a ride to the closest store.”
“Sure, but don’t you want to visit?”
She moistened her lips. “I’m fearful that I’ll be seen.”
He swiveled on the stool to face her. “Speak to Chynna. I hear she has a knack at makeup. Maybe she can help you with a disguise so no one will know it’s you. If so, you’re welcome to take some time.” He slipped off the stool. “I should get out there.”
Helena spent the better part of the next few hours thinking over Hank’s words.
Even back home at the cabin after he’d dropped her and Freya off and she’d tucked her daughter into bed, she still couldn’t get past his meaning.
She was fixing herself a cup of tea when a vibration sounded.
Following the noise, she realized it was the disposable phone that she’d hidden in a drawer. Breathlessly, she answered.
“Helena! Finally.” It was Astrid and she didn’t sound her usual perky self.
“What is it?” They’d made a pact that her best friend would only call under dire circumstances. Helena’s stomach dropped into her toes.
“Craven and two of his men were here. At my apartment,” she said nervously.
“When? Tonight?”
“Hours ago. I’ve called you a dozen times and you wouldn’t answer. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Calm down, honey. I’m sorry I wasn’t home. I’m working and Freya and I didn’t get home until late. Tell me what happened and please tell me you didn’t tell him anything.” Helena squeezed the phone until her knuckles ached.
“No, of course not, but he wasn’t nice.” She sniffed loudly.
“Did he threaten you?” A familiar tightness lodged in Helena’s throat.
“He didn’t believe me when I told him that I had no clue where you were or hadn’t heard from you. He wanted me to give you a message.”
“What did he say?”
“Helena, he wanted me to tell you that you belong to him and just like everything else that he owns it’s only a matter of time before you’re back in his possession.”
Dropping onto the couch, Helena’s heart pounded so fast she thought it would pop out of her chest. She went quiet.
“Helena?”
“I’m here. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m not worried about that bastard, but I am worried about you and Freya. Craven was serious. I can see the longer you’re gone the more twisted he’s getting. A friend of a friend told me the Feds are breathing down Craven’s neck. You’d think he’d have enough on his plate than worried about getting married.”
“He thinks I’m the avenue to him taking over my father’s dealings,” she said softly.
“Then he won’t stop.”
“He’ll be arrested. I know he will be.”
“Helena, if he finds you…”
“He won’t. I can’t give you any information because you know it’s safer for you if you don’t know anything about where I’m located. When we hang up you need to destroy the burner phone. It’s for the best.” Tears welled in her eyes.
“But how will I reach you? What if you need me?” The line rattled. “What if I have the baby?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll reach out to you, but for now I’m thinking of your safety.”
“I’d never tell him or his goons anything. I promise.”
“Honey, I know you wouldn’t. Now hang up and get rid of that phone. Okay?”
“Okay. I love you and be safe.”
Once the call ended, Helena dropped her phone onto the coffee table and buried her face into her palms, allowing the sobs to come freely.
She hated Craven. Hated everything he stood for. At this point, she even despised her father who put her into this position.
She’d sat there for the longest time and almost drifted off to sleep when she heard a noise.
Sitting up, she blinked the blurriness from her eyes and scanned the room lit only by a few remaining embers in the fireplace. She got up and went to check on Freya who was sleeping soundly.
Chalking the noise up to the wind blowing against the loose boards, she started to go back to the couch when she heard a crashing noise outside.
The hairs on her nape lifted.
She waited. Holding her breath.
Then another thumping sound.
Someone was outside.
*****
Hank switched his headlights to bright as he made the winding, narrow road that took him off the mountain and toward Pelican. He’d dropped Helena and Freya off and wished he could have stayed but he understood the dynamics of spending the night with a single mother were different.
Thankfully, he’d managed to get a few hours of shut eye and felt better, refreshed. Also knowing that Brax would be starting to help wait tables took a load off Hank’s shoulders. He hadn’t been out to help his brothers on the farm in a while, although he knew they each took up the slack when a brother was busy. Still, they had a lot on their plates too. His ma had called everyday asking when she’d meet Helena. He’d not promised a specific day, but he didn’t mind the thought of taking her out to visit. In fact, he’d offered a couple of times.
Clicking on the radio, he turned up the volume to a popular song about broken hearts and happy futures…leaving the past behind. The lyrics reminded him of possibilities.
Helena had mentioned that she was thinking of staying in Cooper’s Hawk and his spine had tingled. Damn, that would open the door to opportunities. He liked her, a lot, and Freya too. The kiss they’d shared certainly did entice him to want to peel away the layers and get to the core of things.
He’d never been much of a romantic, but he also understood a woman liked to be pampered sometimes. Maybe he could pick up some flowers and chocolates to show Helena that he cared.
His cell buzzed from th
e console and he turned down the music to check who was calling. The number came up “unknown”. He dropped the phone back into the holder, but then thought, salespeople didn’t call at two A.M...
“Hello?”
“Hank? It’s Helena. I know you just left, and I hate to call but…”
The seriousness in her tone made his stomach drop into his boots. “Helena? Are you okay? Is Freya ok?” His heart thudded.
“I heard a noise. Outside of the cabin. I-I don’t know what to do.”
He’d already slammed his foot into the brake and did a U-turn in the middle of the narrow road. Jamming the gas pedal, the tires squealed on the pavement and the back fishtailed as he retraced the road back onto the mountain. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” But she didn’t hear him because the call had dropped. “Damn.” He shoved the phone in his pocket.
He knew the stretch of road like the back of his hand so he managed to reach the cabin in record time, the entire time his heart thumping so fast and hard he felt a bit dizzy.
By the time he pulled up and raced to the front door, Helena had the door open, greeting him.
Her eyes were red like she’d been crying, her bottom lip trembled and a butcher knife was held in her shaky hand, pointed right at the center of his chest.
“How about I take this.” He slowly extracted the knife and dropped it on the table just inside the door. Using his foot, he closed the door. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“I-I heard a noise. In the backyard. It was probably stupid of me to call you, but I didn’t know what else to do.” Her eyes were glazed and then she did something that would forever change their relationship.
She stepped into his arms and sobbed.
At first, Hank didn’t move as he adapted to the feel of her soft curves pressed against the hard planes of his chest and stomach. Then he did what any gentleman should do and wrapped his arms around her shaking body, holding her close, inhaling the scent of her hair. She was petite, barely reaching his shoulders, and slender—so slender that she almost seemed fragile yet he knew better. He didn’t like seeing a woman scared and upset, but Helena was a whole different ballgame than anyone he’d ever comforted. She tweaked parts of him he’d thought he never had. Other parts he thought had died back in some enemy village.
“It’s okay, Helena. I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you and Freya,” he said. Threading his fingers in her thick, satiny soft hair.
Her arms tightened around his waist and she pressed her cheek deeper against his chest. They seemed to mold together, like a hand and glove, and time stood still…neither made a move to step back from the hug. It felt good—too good to let go quickly. Although there could be an intruder just outside the cabin walls, he was here, with a woman that had him in stitches since she arrived on his doorstep. He would have held her for hours if that were what she wanted, but her arms dropped and she took a step back, lifting her chin.
“I-I…don’t know what to say.”
He places his hands on her shoulders. “Listen, you’re safe. Is Freya still sleeping?”
“Yes.”
“Go stay with her while I look around outside. I won’t be long.”
She gave him an understanding nod.
Once she was in the bedroom with the door closed, he stepped back outside, had a thought, then turned back and grabbed the knife to take with him. Up in the mountain, away from neighbors, anything could happen, but he couldn’t remember anything bad ever occurring to any of his neighbors. Yet, Yost hadn’t been found yet and there was always the possibility he’d made his way on the property surrounding the cabin.
Fourteen
“I found some bear tracks out back and the trash can by the shed had been upended,” Hank said when he came back inside after checking out the perimeter. Helena had her arms wrapped around her waist, looking tired and exhausted that even sleep probably couldn’t fix. “Is there any chance you didn’t double bag the trash?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I didn’t. I forgot. I’m not used to this. So it was a bear?” Some of the tension erased from her expression.
“It appears so. Out here we have our own dangers. Wild animals. Fires. Hunters who come from different areas and cross over onto private property. And bears. Big bears that get hungry and will come up onto the property when they get a whiff of dinner.” He was glad to see that one corner of her mouth had lifted some.
“I overreacted, didn’t I? I should have done my own investigation before I called you bringing you all the way back here.” She shook her head. “You must think I’m a mess.”
“You did the right thing by staying indoors. Although wildlife in these parts is just on survival mode, you wouldn’t want to come face to face with a hungry bear or wolf. I wasn’t far away.” In fact, he felt a certain joy knowing she felt comfortable calling him.
“Maybe I need a lesson in wilderness living.” She grinned.
She was standing in the kitchen and he joined her, bracing his hands on the edge of the counter. She then favored him with a bigger smile. “I can do that, for you and Freya. Hell, do you know how to handle a firearm?” Her expression went flat in a millisecond.
“I don’t want anything to do with guns,” she said with a stubborn tilt of her chin.
“Okay. No problem.” He swallowed hard. “I remember you saying you didn’t have a phone.” He felt it was time to ask a few questions. Instinct warned him he needed to be aware of what was going on.
She blinked. “I don’t. Well, I do, but it’s a disposable phone. I only use it when…”
“When what?” There went his invisible radar again. Damn, how could he put his thoughts into words without making her run? But if there was something dangerous going on he had a right to know, for everyone’s safety. He swiped off his hat and dropped it onto the counter next to the knife he’d laid there earlier. “You should reconsider filling me in. I can’t help if I don’t know what the hell’s going on and right now, I feel like my hands are tied.”
*****
Examining Hank’s face, she felt a heaviness in her chest. Why had she made the mistake of calling him? She should have known it’d lead to this. Yet how could she blame him.
He gave her a gentle smile that knocked at the wall she’d built as protection. Several emotions raced through her. He was such a handsome man with a lot of kindness in his pale eyes. There was also a humbleness about him that made him sexier to her. He didn’t walk around with a charisma that hooked women, but the laid back, cool confidence was the hook. She’d never considered herself a damsel in distress. In fact, that was the last thing she wanted to be, but everyone needed to feel like they had a life jacket during times of a flood. And right now, Helena felt like she’d been swimming upstream for months and she was growing tired. Those few moments while he’d held her, she’d felt doubt slip. Her worries had melted away.
Didn’t he deserve some answers? If she’d called him in to slay the dragons, he at least needed to understand what dragons he needed to slay. What would he do though? Would he ask her to leave?
She could do that. She had managed to save some money, but it wasn’t enough.
Or she could trust that he’d understand.
She didn’t want to leave Cooper’s Hawk—or Pelican. Or even Hank. Freya had found a friend in Livvy, and Helena in Mindy and Chynna. Her daughter deserved to have friends, a life of normalcy. Helena deserved friends too.
Going to Hank, she grabbed his hand and held it in her own, then led him over to the couch and together they sat down.
She steadied herself on the edge on the cushion, searching for the words. The ticking of the clock on the wall reminded her that they’d been sitting there in silence for some time and he wasn’t rushing her.
Clearing her throat, she said, “I didn’t leave California by choice as you probably already have guessed.” She brought her gaze up, testing the waters. He stared back at her, no expression. Nothing warning that he couldn’t handle what
she was about to tell him. So, she continued. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but my father is in prison and before that he’d arranged for me to be married.”
Fifteen
Hank absorbed her words, wondering for a mere second if she were joking, but she’d never make up something so horrendous. He searched her face, seeing her pale skin and worried eyes.
He listened while she went on to explain the details.
He leaned his chin on his clasped hands, blowing out a long breath. “How could this have happened? How could your father believe he had any right to force you into a marriage?”
Lowering her eyes to her clasped hands, she then brought her chin up. “My father is not someone people can say no to easily. I grew up in a bubble and running away had been a freedom for Freya and me both.”
“So this man, Craven, he wants you back?”
“I didn’t stick around to find out, but tonight I found out that he visited my friend, Astrid, and that he’s looking for me. I don’t know why because he doesn’t care for me, or Freya. We’re pawns in a game between Craven and my father.”
Disbelief turned to anger for Hank. “If Craven comes near Cooper’s Hawk, he’ll regret it. I’ll make sure of it.”
“He’s a dangerous man. I believe in time he’ll be arrested for his criminal activity, but I’m not sure what he’s capable of until then.” Her chin quivered as she fought more tears. “Leaving him at the alter embarrassed him. Going against him has angered him and fueled a fire.”
“Helena, what about Freya’s father?”
“He’s gone.” More tears came down her cheeks. “He died while I was pregnant with Freya. I’m responsible.”
“Why do you think you’re responsible?”
“I made my father mad. He warned us that if we didn’t stay apart, he’d make Greyson pay.” Once the words started a dam opened.
He reached out and dragged her against him, rubbing his hands down her hair trying to soothe her. “Do you think your dad had something to do with Freya’s father’s death?”
“I don’t know.” She buried her face into his shoulder.
Cowboy Hank (Cooper's Hawke Landing Book 3) Page 13