Raising The Stakes. Sandra Marton

feel his blood pumping hot and fast through his veins but he was here for information and beating the stupid son of a bitch across from him to a pulp wasn’t the way to get it.

      “Yeah. Okay. I understand, but you need to understand my position. I’m legally charged with seeing to it that your wife gets what’s coming to her.”

      “Trust me, Baron. I want her to get what’s comin’ to her, too.”

      Harman saw the lawyer’s eyes narrow. Stupid, he told himself, stupid, stupid. He had to watch what he said around this slick bastard. The guy wasn’t from around here. He was from a big city, Phoenix or L.A. or even someplace on the East Coast. He wasn’t as easy as he looked, either. He had a lazy smile, clean fingernails, a way of talking that made him sound as if he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he also had an iron grip and a hardness to him that had been a surprise. And what in hell was this talk about that bitch, Dawn, and some kind of inheritance?

      He still had trouble saying Dawn’s name, even thinking it, without wanting to put his fist through the wall. Goddamn slut, taking off in the middle of the night, walking out on him as if she had the right to do whatever she wanted. He should have slapped her around more often. That would have kept her in line, same as it had done for her mama.

      And all these damn fool questions about Dawn’s grandfather. She’d never talked about a grandfather. Hell, she hadn’t talked about her own mama much, never mind anybody else, and now, from out of nowhere, she had a grandpa who had left her money? Hot damn, that was something to think about. Some dead presidents would go a long way toward making up for what the bitch had done to him, leaving him with an empty bed, leaving him to cook and clean for himself, stealing his son even though he’d been able to see, even four years back, that the kid was going to grow up soft, like his mother.

      Well, he’d have changed that. He’d still change it, when he found Dawn. And he would. He’d always intended to; he’d be damned if he’d let her think she could get away with walking out on him. But now, if there was money on the line, there was more reason than ever to find his sweet wife.

      If she had money coming, it belonged to him. A man had the right to be king in his home. Dawn had never understood that but she would, once he got her back. He’d bring her home to the mountain, beat the crap out of her and the kid, too, until they both understood he was the one law in their lives.

      He lifted his coffee cup, took a sip of the rapidly cooling liquid and did his best to conjure up a smile.

      “Dawn’s going to be real upset when she finds out you was here and she wasn’t.”

      Gray nodded. “Uh-huh.”

      “‘Course, there ain’t no real problem. You probably got some papers for her to sign, right?”

      Gray gave another nod, more noncommittal than the first.

      “Well, you can leave ‘em with me. I’ll see to it she puts her name where she ought to and mails them to you.”

      “Yeah. Well, I wish I could do that, Kitteridge, but the law…” Gray leaned forward and flashed a man-to-man smile. “As long as we’re being honest, I have to tell you that I talked with some people around town.”

      Kitteridge’s eyes turned cold. “People ought to learn to keep their mouths shut.”

      “They seem to think your wife left quite a while ago.”

      “If she did, it ain’t nobody’s business but mine.”

      “You’re wrong. It’s my business. I mean, this inheritance…” Gray sighed. “Well, that’s a pity.”

      “I’m here,” Kitteridge said sharply. “And I’m her husband. Whatever’s comin’ to her should come to me. That’s only right.”

      “I agree,” Gray said pleasantly, “but the law…”

      The law, Harman thought. The goddamn law. What he ought to do was drag this son of a bitch attorney out of his seat, do it fast, before he knew what was happening, and beat the crap out of him—but that wouldn’t get him what he wanted. The question was, what would? The thing to do was calm down and think. What would soften up a hotshot lawyer? A little hearts and flowers, maybe. Yeah. A sad story, complete with violins. That might just do it.

      “Okay,” Harman said. He wrapped his hands around his cup and looked down into its murky depths. “I’m gonna tell you the truth, Baron. I don’t talk about it much ‘cause it near to kills me to do it, but my wife run out and left me four years back.”

      “Ah. That’s rough.”

      “It is, for a fact.” Harman lifted wounded eyes, locked them on Gray’s. “She was everythin’ for me, you know? I loved her like I never loved another woman. But she weren’t no good. She catted around, paid no mind to her wifely obligations or to our son.”

      That did it. He saw the lawyer’s eyes go dark.

      “She had a child?” he said.

      Harman pulled a sad face. “Oh, yeah. A little boy. Sweetest thing you can imagine, but she didn’t give no more thought to the kid than she did to me.”

      “You mean, she didn’t take the boy with her when she left you?”

      Harman didn’t even blink. “No.” Violins, sad stories and a leap to abandoned babies the lawyer had taken all by himself. Fine. Whatever would work. “You can see why I don’t talk about it much.”

      Oh, and it was working. Baron was nodding in agreement, clearly thinking bad thoughts about a woman who had slept around and dumped her kid. Well, the sleeping around part was surely the truth, and there wasn’t a way in hell Baron would ever find out she’d taken the boy with her.

      Harman took out his wallet. “See this?” He took out a dog-eared photo of a woman with a baby in her arms and pushed it across the table. “That’s what she left behind. That innocent babe. Boy’s seven now an’ there’s times he still wakes up in the middle of the night, cryin’ for his mama.”

      It was the perfect touch. The lawyer was staring at the picture as if it was the Madonna and child.

      “Yeah.” The attorney cleared his throat. “So, where is she? Where’d she go?”

      “If I knew, don’t you think I’d have brought her back?” Harman’s mouth twisted. “Teach her a lesson for walkin’ out on me?” He saw the way Baron’s head came up. Dammit. He’d overplayed his hand. “I mean, I’d tell her how much she hurt me. How I still love her. How I miss her. How I ‘spect her to keep the promises she made when we was married, is what I’m saying.”

      “The bottom line is that you don’t know where she is, do you, Kitteridge? That’s what I’m saying.”

      Harman smiled slyly. “I don’t, no. But I bet a hotshot lawyer like you got ways to find her.”

      “Maybe, but I’ll need your help.”

      “Anythin’ I can do, you just ask.”

      “You said she catted around. How about the names of some of the men she slept with?”

      “Don’t actually got names. She was sneaky.”

      “Well, how about places she’d been and liked, that she might have gone back to?”

      “She never went nowhere. Not that I wouldn’t have taken her, if she’d been a good woman, but—”

      “Places she talked about visiting,” Gray said impatiently. “Nothing? Come on, man. Think. Didn’t she ever look at a picture in a magazine or someplace on TV and say how much she’d like to go there?”

      “If she spent time on such things, she was smart enough not to let me know. Wastin’ time makes the devil happy.”

      Gray started to answer, thought better of it and, instead, took his wallet