by Rita Herron
“Of course.” He gestured for Harrison to enter, and Harrison stepped inside, then followed the reverend to the den, a cozy room with dark leather furniture and wood floors. A Doberman lay on a braided rug in front of the fireplace.
His mother was perched on the sofa, hands twisting frantically in her lap. “Harrison, what are you doing here?”
“We have to talk,” Harrison said.
She stood, arms folded across her chest, her anger a palpable force. For a small-framed woman, she’d never backed down from disciplining her sons, who all stood a foot taller than her. “How did you know where I was?”
Harrison gritted his teeth. “Brayden said you were upset when you left.”
“He followed me?” she asked in an incredulous voice.
Harrison shrugged. “He was worried about you.”
“I can’t believe you and Brayden would follow your own mother,” she snapped as if he and Brayden had betrayed her.
“You’re the one who lied to us all these years,” Harrison said. “And you’re still refusing to tell us the truth.”
Reverend Langley held up a hand. “Let’s all calm down.” He gestured to Harrison. “Sit down.”
Harrison strode into the living room but leaned against one of the wing chairs that flanked the fireplace. “I’m sorry to intrude on you, Reverend. But I thought my mother might have come to you for advice.” He glanced at his mother. “Does he know?”
His mother and the reverend traded an odd look. “Yes,” Reverend Langley said.
“Then you know why I’m asking questions about Chrissy’s biological father,” Harrison said. “He may have something to do with Chrissy’s disappearance.”
“I told you he didn’t,” his mother said sharply. “You need to trust me on this, Harrison.”
“It’s hard to trust someone when you find out they’ve kept secrets for years, and that they betrayed your father.”
“That’s enough,” Reverend Langley said in a tone that brooked no argument.
His mother started toward the door. “I’m sorry, Ross. I’d better go.”
“No.” The reverend caught his mother’s arm. “It’s time to be honest with your boys.”
Harrison narrowed his eyes. “He’s right, Mother. I’m trying to find out who took Chrissy.”
“It wasn’t her biological father,” the reverend said.
Harrison’s look shot to the reverend. “Then you know who took her?”
The man shook his head, his gray eyes serious. “No, but I do know that it wasn’t Chrissy’s father.”
“How do you know that?”
Harrison’s mother squeezed the reverend’s arm. “Ross, no—”
“It’s all right, Ava.” Reverend Langley patted his mother’s hand then turned to Harrison. “I know Chrissy’s birth father didn’t hurt her because Chrissy is my daughter and I loved her with all my heart.”
* * *
HONEY BLINKED BACK tears and hurried to her bedroom as the crime scene team processed the house.
It didn’t take Honey five minutes to pack her clothes back in her rolling bag to go to Harrison’s. She hadn’t exactly unpacked.
Because this house wasn’t home.
It was a physical structure where the unhappiness between her parents had affected her. Where love hadn’t thrived as it would in a real home, where forgiveness wasn’t common, and anger ruled the roost.
If she ever had a family, she would do things differently. Her husband and children would know that she loved them unconditionally.
She froze, one hand gripping the picture of her mother that she’d found. She tried to see her features in her mother, to have some connection, but she felt none.
She stared out at the woods from the porch while the crime scene team worked, a chill washing over her. At five, she’d stood in this same place, gazed out at the woods, and she’d wanted to run away.
Back then she’d been afraid of the dark and spiders and snakes and other creatures that lived in the woods.
Now...she’d renovated so many abandoned, dilapidated houses that critters didn’t faze her. She’d grown accustomed to going into a dark house alone at night.
Living alone and sleeping alone meant she didn’t have to please anyone or answer to anyone or...be disappointed when they didn’t love her back.
She heaved a wary breath.
The only thing that really frightened her now was her crazy attraction to Harrison Hawk.
* * *
HARRISON STARED AT the reverend in stunned silence. A quick look at his mother, and guilt streaked her face.
Damn. It had never occurred to him that the man his mother had an affair with was the pastor he’d heard preaching when he was a little boy. The man who’d counseled him on drugs, sex and respecting girls when Harrison was a teenager. The very man who’d taught him to believe in God and to have faith that good prevailed in the end.
Betrayal cut through him. How could he ever look at his mother and this man the same way again?
He held up his hands in disbelief, or maybe it was just that he couldn’t handle any more shocking news. He wasn’t a kid anymore. He couldn’t run from things he didn’t want to face or hear.
This was too important.
He wanted, he needed to know more.
“I’m sorry, Harrison,” Reverend Langley said in the voice he used to soothe agitated parishioners. “It happened a long time ago, right before I decided to give my life to the Lord. In fact, our indiscretion was one reason I decided to serve God.”
“You have to understand, Harrison,” his mother said in a pleading tone. “We never meant for it to happen. Your father and I were having a difficult time with the ranch, with money, and your father was—”
“Don’t make excuses,” Harrison said, cutting her off.
“He’s right.” Reverend Langley patted Harrison’s mother’s shoulder. “But please know that your mother loved your father dearly, and I respected that. I envied it but I also admired her devotion.”
Harrison gave his mother a cutting look. “Devotion would have meant being faithful.”
The reverend had the decency to wince. “It was wrong of both of us to betray your father.”
“You’re damn right it was,” Harrison snapped.
“I regretted it the moment it happened,” his mother said. “But, Harrison, I never regretted having Chrissy. I loved you boys and I still do. But she was my little girl.”
“You’re sure she’s yours?” he asked the reverend.
The reverend murmured, “Yes. I loved her too much to let her grow up shamed by what we’d done in a moment of weakness.” A sad smile settled in his eyes. “I thought she’d be better off raised as a Hawk.”
“Are you sure she didn’t find out the truth?” Harrison said. “Maybe she heard you and Dad arguing and came to see you that night.”
“She didn’t hear us,” his mother said. “We argued at that stupid party. By the time we got home, we had settled things. Steven knew I loved him and he loved Chrissy and we didn’t want to tear her world apart.”
“You were okay to stand back and let another man raise your daughter?” Harrison asked the reverend.
“Yes, I told you I loved Chrissy. I wanted what was best for her.” Reverend Langley patted the Bible. “I asked for forgiveness and made peace with God and myself a long time ago.”
Harrison shifted. The man sounded sincere, like the preacher who’d doled out advice on life to him and his siblings.
Still, the sheriff in him had to ask, “Where were you the night Chrissy disappeared?”
His mother gasped. “Harrison, you can’t possibly think—”
Reverend Langley gestured for her to remain calm. “I was attending a private meeting
with a pastor in El Paso who offered to mentor me through the seminary. You can check if you need to.” He snatched a memo pad from the sofa table, scribbled a name and number, then handed Harrison the paper.
The paper crinkled in Harrison’s hand as he stuck it in his pocket. Dammit. He didn’t need to call. In spite of his anger, he believed the man.
“My heart has ached every day since Chrissy disappeared,” Reverend Langley added softly. “I’ve prayed you’d find her alive and safe.”
Tears blurred Harrison’s mother’s eyes, and she released a small sob. “When she vanished, I was certain it was God’s way of punishing me.”
Harrison didn’t think God worked like that, but he didn’t know what to say. His emotions were all over the place.
His phone buzzed. Lucas.
“I have to go.” His mother reached for him, but Harrison wasn’t ready to hug and forgive and forget.
“I’ll continue to pray you find Chrissy,” Reverend Langley said.
Harrison gave him a quick nod, then strode toward the door. He connected the call from Lucas as soon as he stepped outside.
“Yeah?”
“Harrison, I looked into that case you sent me, then checked the FBI databases and there were two other little girls in Texas around the same age who disappeared and were never found.”
Harrison’s blood ran cold. “You think they’re connected?”
A heartbeat passed. “I think it’s possible and that we should look into it.”
Harrison wiped perspiration from his forehead. If that was true, they were dealing with a serial criminal—perhaps a serial kidnapper/killer.
Chapter Fifteen
“I’ll fax the information on both cases to your office,” Lucas said. “Look them over, then we’ll interview the families.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Harrison started his SUV. “I’m just leaving Reverend Langley’s house.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Brayden followed Mom to the reverend’s house. I thought he might convince her to divulge the name of Chrissy’s biological father.”
“Did he?” Lucas asked.
Harrison silently cursed. “Oh, yeah.”
“What does that mean?”
“Chrissy’s biological father is the reverend,” Harrison said, disgust still eating at him.
“What?” Lucas sounded incredulous. “That can’t be right.”
“It’s not right, but it’s the truth,” Harrison said. “They both admitted that they slept together when Dad and Mom were having a rough patch.”
“My God, I can’t believe this,” Lucas said with equal parts denial and disapproval.
“According to them,” Harrison continued, “they decided Chrissy should grow up in our family as a Hawk.”
“Dad knew about this?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, but Mom said she thought they’d gotten past it. For some reason he brought it up that night at the party, and they argued. I thought Chrissy might have overheard and run off to find her biological father, but Mom insists that Chrissy didn’t know she wasn’t Dad’s.”
“Have you told Brayden or Dexter?” Lucas asked.
“Not yet.”
“What a mess,” Lucas said.
Harrison headed back toward Honey’s. “Yeah.” It sure was messing with his head.
“I’ll talk to Brayden tonight if you’ll let Dexter know,” Lucas said.
“No problem.”
“Just remind Dexter to keep his cool. You know he can be a hothead sometimes.”
He rubbed his jaw where he’d borne the brunt of his brother’s temper in the past. “I remember,” Harrison said. Dexter had been angry when their father left and took that anger out on everyone. Rebellion had fueled his temper, and acting out had been his norm. Their mother had been at her wit’s end until a local cowboy/rodeo star had taken Dexter under his wing and taught him to break horses.
But no one had broken Dexter. Even now, instead of conforming to a job where he worked for someone else and had to play by the rules, he’d opened his own detective agency so he didn’t have to answer to anyone.
Brayden had been the calm, methodical one, although Harrison always wondered if that tight control wasn’t a cover for the anger and hurt beneath the surface.
“Tomorrow let’s concentrate on investigating those other two cases. If they’re connected,” Harrison said, “we might learn something to help solve our own.”
Lucas agreed. “It’ll go faster if we split up the work. Why don’t I talk to the family of the victim from Corpus Christi, and you take the one in Austin?”
“That works for me,” Harrison said. “The sooner we question them, the sooner we can get answers.”
Although it was past dinnertime and the day was wearing on him, Harrison called Dexter.
Dexter answered on the third ring. “You got news, brother?”
Harrison veered down the street toward Lower Tumbleweed. “I know who fathered Chrissy.”
“You mean who Mom cheated on Dad with,” Dexter said in a growl.
Harrison gritted his teeth. “Yes. But before I tell you, you have to swear you won’t go half-cocked and do something stupid.”
“Like what? Pound the bastard’s head in?”
“Dexter,” Harrison said in a warning voice.
Dexter’s dark chuckle rumbled over the line. “I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,” he said. “Now, spill it. Who is he?”
“Reverend Langley.”
His brother took a minute to absorb the information, then Dexter cursed. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“Nope.” Harrison paused. “I talked to Mom and him. They confirmed that they were together years ago, but the affair didn’t last. Reverend Langley chose to go to the seminary and Mom chose Dad. Dad found out after Chrissy was born.”
“But he stayed with Mom after that,” Dexter said, confusion lacing his tone.
“Yes. Apparently they agreed not to tell Chrissy and for Dad to raise her as his own.”
“Unbelievable.”
Harrison silently agreed and parked in the Grangers’ drive. The crime scene cleanup crew was still working. “Lucas discovered two cases similar to Chrissy’s. We’re going to talk to those families tomorrow and compare notes.”
An expletive erupted from Dexter. “What can I do to help?”
“Have you been following up with everyone at the bluff that night?” Harrison asked.
“Yeah, but so far nothing. I have a few more names to cross off the list.”
“Okay, keep working that angle. Something is bound to break sometime.”
Honey stepped onto the porch, and his heart jumped to his throat. She looked so damn beautiful he wanted to haul her in his arms and kiss her.
She was also in danger.
Like it or not, she was stuck with him. There was no way in hell he’d let anyone get to her.
* * *
HONEY FORCED A brave smile as Harrison parked.
But the image of those threatening words and the violence in the destruction made her skin crawl. She’d never felt welcome or loved in Tumbleweed, but this intruder was dangerous.
“Just lock up when you leave,” Honey told the woman in charge of the cleaning crew. Not that locking up mattered. There was nothing valuable inside, and the vandal had easily broken in.
Harrison stepped from his SUV and she rolled her suitcase to the edge of the porch and handed it to him. He grabbed it while she climbed down the brick step.
She rubbed the back of her head where it was throbbing. Her muscles ached from fatigue and the stress of the day.
“Let’s stop and get something to eat on the way to my place.”
She sank into
the seat, and he drove toward town. His body was stiff, his jaw set tight.
“How did it go with your mother?” she asked softly.
He mumbled something beneath his breath, then explained that he’d met Chrissy’s biological father. Then he relayed his conversation with his mother.
“I’m sorry, Harrison. That must have come as a shock.”
“Yeah.” He turned into the parking lot for the Pie in the Sky, a pizza place that had been built since she’d left town. An outdoor patio offered a view of the mountains and bluff in the distance.
The decor was more eclectic and modern than any place in Tumbleweed, and probably drew the younger crowd as well as families.
Voices and laughter echoed through the open dining area, which was painted blue and silver and boasted scenes of constellations. Country music flowed from an old-fashioned jukebox, and the bar area was packed.
Several teenagers were laughing and hanging out in the back room. The front room held couples, families, and a few truckers occupied a booth to the left. A little boy with dark hair banged his spoon on the table, a mischievous look in his eyes. He reminded Honey of Harrison and what his child might look like.
She froze, wondering where that thought had come from. Then the question—was Harrison involved with anyone? Why wasn’t he married?
“It smells good,” she commented as the scent of freshly baked pizza wafted toward her from the brick oven.
“Food’s good, beer’s good,” Harrison said as he led her to a booth.
A tall, broad-shouldered man with dark, wavy hair and sparkling green eyes approached them, wiping his hands on an apron. “Nice to have you back, Harrison.” The man turned a curious look her way.
“Danny, you remember Honey Granger?” Harrison asked.
“Sure thing. Hey, Honey, I heard you were back.” He offered her a big smile. “So sorry about your daddy.”
“Thanks.”
Harrison angled his head toward her. “Honey, you remember Danny, don’t you?”
Her eyes widened. Danny Busby had been a skinny geek in high school with big black square glasses and he’d stuttered. He and Harrison hadn’t exactly been friends.