Shotgun Bride. Leann Harris

wouldn’t buy that. He was worried that whoever kidnapped David would try again with Renee. He’s set it up—if anything happens to her, I’d inherit.”

      Ash shook his head. “So how’s Renee taking it?”

      “She agreed, after the shooting.”

      “It took a shooting to convince her to tie the knot?”

      “Yeah. She wasn’t too thrilled with the idea at first.”

      “She turned you down? The stud of HPD? She had the nerve to say no?”

      Hawk glared at Ash. “You know how women are. She wanted romance.”

      “Females are like that. In those psych classes they made us take, we heard about women wanting home and hearth—a nesting instinct.”

      Hawk threw his pen on the desk. “It’s like walking on cut glass. No matter how carefully you step, you’re going to get sliced to ribbons.”

      “So her pregnancy was a surprise to you?” Ash asked.

      “It was, but it shouldn’t have been. Of course, I think the baby was the only reason Renee agreed to marry me.”

      Ash snorted. “Don’t believe that. I saw you two together, remember. Also, I recall, she was as smitten with you as you were with her. We could’ve powered the northern suburbs on all the electricity y’all were generating.”

      Hawk could’ve done without the reminder. The wattage hadn’t gone down since they’d separated. It had only gone up. Being close to Renee only added to his misery. “After the danger to Renee is over, I’m not going to be able to walk away from her and the baby.”

      “And the problem is?”

      “She agreed to the marriage as long as it was in name only.”

      Ash’s eyes were wide, and he sat up straight in the chair. “No sex?”

      He didn’t want to admit it. “Yeah.”

      “Hawk, you’re smarter than that. Why are you surrendering? If you want the lady, work it out. Listen, as clever as you are, put your brain in gear.”

      Hawk took a deep breath. Ash was right. He needed to find a way out of this maze. “What’s the video?” he asked, nodding to the tape on his desk.

      “That’s the surveillance tape from the garage in Emory’s building.”

      “Anything on it?” Hawk asked.

      “Yeah. A man. It’s a side shot, but I thought you’d like to see it.”

      Hawk took the tape and shoved it into the VCR setup that was built into the bookcases in his office. In the low lighting, he could see movement in the bushes. A dark shape appeared out of the darkness—a man aiming his gun. He pulled the trigger twice, turned and disappeared into the foliage.

      Hawk stopped the tape and rewound it until the man’s profile appeared again. He froze the motion. “So that’s our shooter. Looks to me as if he was waiting for Renee.”

      “I agree. I’ve got stills of this, plan to pass it out to the patrol officers to be on the lookout for this guy. I’ll get you a copy to post at Texas Chic.”

      “Why don’t we get that copy now? I want to take it with me so Renee can see this jerk. She needs to be aware of him.”

      “Let’s go.”

      He took a deep breath. “We need to find who’s behind this, because whoever did this will try again. And I’m not going to let it happen.”

      Renee pulled the purchase order from the file and glanced over the figures.

      “Well, well, who would’ve guessed that Little Red Riding Hood was sleeping with the Big Bad Wolf?” Stacy’s voice rang out, silencing the other people in the file room. “He’s likely to eat you for breakfast.”

      Closing the file, Renee turned to face Stacy, who stood at the entrance. The secretaries beyond the door silently watched. “Is there a point to your comment?” Renee asked.