Cold Case Colton. Addison Fox

of the good guys.”

      She couldn’t hold back the small smile. “We’ll see about that. In the meantime, let’s hear more about my supposed past. While I’ll admit it’s an enticing thought to imagine myself not actually Livia’s daughter, I left those fantasies behind when I grew up. The imagined princess just waiting until the time is right to receive her title or the Little Orphan Annie, hanging on until her real parents can come back to find her. Both were a kid’s fantasy, nothing more.”

      “You’re awfully easy about this.” His voice was low, whispering between them like smoke.

      Was that a small shot of remorse in his tone?

      Or was it what she wanted to hear as she tried to process the feminine awareness of him that wasn’t fading? She wanted to ignore the sensual tug but couldn’t quite hold back the subtle awareness that had her nerves on edge.

      Delicious nerves, she admitted to herself before coming to a stop at the four-way that led out of town. Willing away the quick flash of desire, she turned fully to face him. “I’ve had a lot of years to come to terms with my mother and her behavior. It’s a hard thing, to think so ill of the woman who raised you, but it doesn’t make the feelings any less true. My mother hurt a lot of people.”

      “It’s different, Claudia, when the person she hurt was you.”

      “That’s assuming you’re right about all this.”

      “I am right.”

      His words hung there, stubborn and considerably more solid than whispers of smoke. Hawk Huntley wasn’t a man who liked to be wrong. Most men didn’t, and she had three brothers and a surrogate father who proved that fact each and every day.

      But she sensed Hawk’s determination came from somewhere else. That it ran far deeper than stubborn male pride or a desire to be right.

      “Okay, then. Convince me. Give me all your reasons why.”

      “It all started with your mother’s recent escape from prison.”

      The welcome sign for Shadow Creek faded from her rearview mirror as Claudia fought the grimace that threatened at Hawk’s comment. “As good a place to start as any, I suppose.”

      “It’s put her back in the spotlight. I remember her case a decade ago—few who lived in Texas at the time have forgotten it—but like anything else in the 24/7 news cycle, life moves on.”

      It had moved on. Wasn’t that why she’d gone to New York in the first place? To follow a dream, yes, but it had been something more.

      It was a chance to start fresh. New. Unnoticed. An opportunity to start out as a nobody. In the competitive world of fashion, no one cared who you were, they just cared where you were going.

      And she’d been going places.

      Places that were hell and gone away from Shadow Creek, Texas.

      Funny how she’d found her way back anyway.

      The thought had dogged her for the past few months. She knew why she was there. Her family needed her. More, she belonged there. But she still hadn’t figured out how the one place on earth she’d believed she’d never return to had been the first place she’d run.

      Home?

      Or was it something more?

      Her entire life people had whispered secrets about her mother. For a long time she’d managed to shut them out, simply pretending they didn’t exist. Then her world had crumbled with Ben’s increasingly menacing behavior and her brother Knox had dealt with the kidnapping of his son.

      All of it had combined to pull her home.

      “Your mother’s always been big news in Texas—the entire Colton family is—but it was when I saw the blog article about her that I sensed a connection.”

      “What blog article? What connection?”

      “The Everything’s Blogger in Texas article that came out a few months ago.”

      Claudia’s mouth soured at the mention. That article had nearly destroyed her sister Leonor. The betrayal—at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, who’d run to the press with every detail she’d ever shared—had made its way on to one of the biggest gossip blogs in Texas. Although the pain of the blog had oddly been the pathway for Leonor to find her fiancé, Joshua, the article had done sufficient damage to their family.

      Worse, it had destroyed Leonor’s self-confidence and sense of security.

      “You mean the website that took private information obtained from my sister and broadcast it like it was some sort of fluffy infusion of cotton candy.”

      Hawk nodded. “That’s the one.”

      “Just wanted to make sure.”

      “Even if their ethics should be questioned to the hills and back, it didn’t diminish the information. Or the connection to the Krupid family.”

      Claudia came to another four-way stop. The sign for Whisperwood indicated downtown was two miles away. “And this family thinks my mother is involved?”

      “The Krupids think nothing other than the fact that their pregnant daughter went missing nearly twenty-seven years ago. I’ve not yet shared this lead as I don’t want to get their hopes up.”

      There it was again. That subtle thread of remorse that was layered beneath his words. She genuinely believed he didn’t want to hurt that family.

      And why did that streak of compassion strike her as so important? Deeply important, somehow.

      “So walk me through this connection.”

      “The Krupids tried to leave Russia for many years. During that process, their teenage daughter, Annalise, became familiar with a shady group who’d offered to spirit them out through less legal means, pretending she was a mail-order bride. She’d encouraged her parents to consider the offer, but they were wise to the scam and told her to ignore the vague promises.”

      “So how did she end up here?”

      “Based on the timing it looks like she got pregnant during that same time and the opportunity to come to the US through shady means suddenly seemed like a way out.”

      Despite her skepticism, Claudia could see it. A young woman scared at being discovered, desperate to take the promise of a new life far away. Hadn’t she sought out the same by going to New York? Sure, her reasons were different, but she understood the desire to leave.

      To escape.

      “Did her parents know she was pregnant?”

      “Her mother suspected, but it wasn’t until the days after Annalise vanished that her boyfriend came around looking for her. He shared the news of her pregnancy.”

      “It’s a sad story, but I still don’t see what it has to do with my mother. Or me, for that matter.”

      “The trail for Annalise goes cold after she was spirited out of Russia and into Mexico. She was one of your mother’s.”

      “How’s that even possible?” Although she had no doubt he believed what he said, Claudia knew there were holes in Hawk’s timeline. “My mother was convicted of prostitution here in the States.”

      “But she had to have a pipeline of women.”

      “A pipeline?” The tantalizing whisper that she might not actually be Livia Colton’s daughter faded at the reality of what Hawk suggested.

      “One of your mother’s lines of business was human trafficking. It provided her ready supply of prostitutes. And her ring is known to have associated with the mail-order bride scammers, among others.”

      “And you think this girl was one of hers?”

      “Yes.”

      “And you think she