Cold Case Colton. Addison Fox

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