Her Secret Alaskan Family. Belle Calhoune

feedback. “Cooked and seasoned to perfection.”

      “Yes!” Piper crowed in an animated voice as she raised her fist in the air. She did a little dance back toward the counter. Sage let out a giggle at her antics. Sometimes she wished she could be as spontaneous as the other woman seemed to be. Traveling to Owl Creek was probably the most daring thing she had ever done in her life. Only time would tell if it had been a wise decision.

      Although she tried to block it out, Sage could hear the conversation between Hank and his two friends as clear as day. She knew without a doubt that one of his lunch companions was Connor North. He had walked by her table a few moments ago and she’d nearly let out a gasp of surprise at the sight of him. With his dark hair, blue eyes and striking features, he looked remarkably like the press photos of him. She felt her pulse quickening at the idea of being so close to someone who might be her blood relation.

      “I’ve hired a team of private investigators to look into the case,” Connor was saying, his tone radiating intensity.

      “Do you really think they’ll come up with anything after all this time?” their companion asked.

      “I don’t know, Gabriel. When it happened, my family hired the best private investigators money could buy, but the trail went cold,” Connor responded. His expression looked grim. “I do know that I want this thing to be pursued until all leads are checked out. Someone has to know something. People just don’t vanish into thin air.”

      “I completely agree with you,” Hank said with a nod. “It would have been near impossible to pull off something like that without anyone knowing about it.”

      The man named Gabriel nodded and kept eating his meal.

      Connor banged his fist on the table, causing both men to look up at him. “Someone needs to be prosecuted for abducting my sister! My family has been through the ringer and we deserve peace.”

      Suddenly their voices quieted, and they were now talking in hushed tones. A part of Sage felt relieved she could no longer hear their conversation. It had gotten way too intense.

      Peace. Sage also wished peace for the North family. It was one of the reasons she had come to Owl Creek. She had hoped to discover that the North family was doing just fine all these years later. If that was the case, it would be much easier for her to walk away and stop torturing herself with images of faded press clippings and age-enhanced photos of a missing baby girl. She could put a lid on this whole nightmare.

      But judging by Connor’s anger and the things she had overheard him say, it wasn’t even close to happening. The Norths were still struggling, and Connor was seeking vengeance. A reckoning of some sort for his sister’s disappearance.

      Sage shivered at the idea of what might happen if she revealed herself as Lily North. They might not even believe her story. And if they did, her beloved father could be the target of that quest for justice. He might be prosecuted and incarcerated. She might lose him forever.

      Above all else, Sage couldn’t allow that to happen. Throughout her life, especially when her mother had been having emotional difficulties, Eric Duncan had been her rock. Without him, she might not have made it through the tender middle school and teen years with her self-esteem and beliefs intact. He had taught her what it meant to be a child of God and a woman with strong convictions. Although she had loved her mother very much, her father had always been her world.

      And that, she vowed, would never change.

      By the time Hank had finished his lunch and calmed Connor down a bit, Sage was gone. He stuffed down his disappointment. He had intended to stop by her table on his way out and check in on her. But while he had been serving as a listening ear to Connor, Sage had slipped out of the restaurant. It shouldn’t matter to him that she’d left, but it did. Hank really didn’t want to examine the reasons why.

      With a sigh, he headed out of the diner and walked down the street toward the sheriff’s office. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have things to do. He had a bunch of paperwork to complete as well as checking in on a few older residents who lived farther out from town. Some of them didn’t have working phones and tended to be off-the-grid. Hank made it his personal mission to make sure they were safe and sound. Even if you were a born-and-bred Alaskan, winters could be challenging.

      He hadn’t walked more than twenty feet away from the diner when he saw a flash of pink. Sage was standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking around her in all directions.

      A feeling of relief swept through him at the sight of her.

      “Sage! You look a little confused. Are you lost?”

      A sheepish expression crossed her face. “I got a little turned around. Trudy told me how to get to my destination, but needless to say, I walked in a big circle. I’m not sure where I went wrong.”

      “Where are you headed?”

      “The chocolate factory. I was hoping to get a tour.” She sniffed the air. “I’m surprised I can’t smell it from here.”

      Hank grinned. “Oh, trust me. When you get close to it, you can smell the chocolate. It’s utterly delectable.”

      Sage rubbed her mittened hands together like a little kid. “I’m looking forward to it. Chocolate is my weakness.” It had been a long time since Hank had seen someone so excited about the North Star Chocolate Factory. Although the townsfolk loved it, they were also used to it, so people didn’t tend to get overly animated about it. It was like having the Grand Canyon in your hometown. You knew it was spectacular, but you didn’t rave about it all the time.

      “How about I drive you over there? It’s not far, but you’re going to slip and slide all over the place in those boots.” Hank really didn’t want to keep harping on Sage’s attire, but she was going to find out the hard way that frostbite was a very real thing in wintry Alaska.

      Sage made a face and looked down at her suede boots. “Getting a sturdier pair is on my to-do list. Trudy told me to order some genuine, Alaskan-made boots. Lovely Boots she called them.”

      “That’s good advice.” He nodded, then pointed toward his squad car. “It’s a quick ride to the chocolate factory. I don’t mind taking you, Sage. That way you can orient yourself to the downtown area.”

      “I don’t want to inconvenience you since you’re on the clock,” she demurred.

      “No worries there,” Hank said. “If there’s any kind of emergency I can be reached at all times.” He flashed her his best smile. “I consider it my civic duty since you’re a visitor to Owl Creek.”

      “If it’s not a bother, I accept,” she acquiesced, walking beside him toward his squad car.

      A feeling of triumph roared through him. There was something about this woman that made him want to be in her orbit. At the same time, he couldn’t get rid of the sinking feeling she was being a bit standoffish. Or perhaps he was simply jaded based on his past. It wasn’t fair to view her through a cracked lens.

      He opened the door for Sage, then waited as she slid into the seat. Once he got behind the wheel, Hank started the engine and backed out of his spot and onto Main Street.

      He looked over at her. “Have you ever gotten a ride in a squad car?”

      “I can’t say I have,” she answered. “I’ve always been a rule follower. When I was a kid, I always colored inside the lines.”

      Hank wasn’t sure whether Sage realized it or not, but her statement told him a lot about her. “I had my first ride in a squad car when I was six years old.” Hank chuckled at the memory. “I stole a candy bar from the local market. Trudy insisted the store owner call the sheriff’s office to report me. The sheriff arrived and put me in the back of the squad car and lectured me about how stealing was a crime and a sin. I had just learned the Ten Commandments so I was shaking in my boots.”