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“Come on then.” He chuckled again. “Let me go explain the puzzle to you. But don’t feel bad, even Chay didn’t see it at first.”
Well now, he just had to mention that one, didn’t he?
“That was supposed to make me feel better, right?” She shot him a withering look. “It didn’t work.”
“Sure it did,” he drawled as they neared the back door. “You just want me to think you’re titanium. I know better.”
Really? Oh, he had no idea how wrong he was.
“Good Lord, another know-it-all male,” she muttered. “Remind me to keep my ass out of Kentucky when all this is over.”
“You’d have to escape first. . . .”
That was what she was afraid of.
• • •
Duke watched the exchange, aware of Chaya standing next to him, her hand over her mouth, her breathing choppy as she listened to her husband and her daughter pretending to bicker as they made their way outside.
“That’s Angel,” he said softly, looking down at her as she walked away from him to the window, peeking around the shade as she followed Natches and Angel as they made their way to the fence.
“She sounded like Bliss,” she whispered hoarsely. “She does that when she doesn’t know how to respond, or if she has to face something she’d prefer not to face.”
Well, he knew where Angel got it from now; he’d wondered about that.
“I bet Natches accuses you of the same thing.” He watched her expression, a mother’s hunger and pain reflecting clearly on her face.
A tear eased from her eye and slid slowly, unashamedly, down her cheek.
“How do I get her to talk to me?” she whispered, turning back to him. “What do I do, Duke?”
“I’m not allowed to conspire.” He sighed heavily, crossing his arms over his chest. “That was a promise I made her years ago.”
She stared back at him, eyes narrowed, her expression just a shade calculating, and that look was pure Angel.
“And you always keep your promises, huh?” she asked thoughtfully.
“My word wouldn’t be any good if I didn’t, now would it?” he asked.
“So if I wanted to know something . . . ?” she mused.
“If I break my promise to her, she’d never forgive me. I promised her I wouldn’t conspire with anyone but her, and I won’t break that promise.”
Chaya nodded slowly. “I understand, Duke. I won’t ask you anything then.”
“I appreciate that.” He nodded. “Now I think I’ll go see about that puzzle of Natches’s. I think I might have figured it out.” Saluting his fingers to his forehead with a grin, he strolled to the door and left the house.
There were things Chaya needed to know if she was going to find a way to get Angel to talk. They had to find common ground before it was too late and Angel walked away from the mother that loved her.
Because if she walked away from Chaya, she’d have to leave Kentucky. And that, Duke simply couldn’t allow. He couldn’t interfere, but if interference was needed, there was always Tracker. . . .
• • •
It was nearly dark before they made it back into the house. Angel washed up quickly, then returned to the kitchen, where she placed the soup she’d made earlier in the day on the stove to warm and hurriedly baked a skillet of cornbread to go with it.
As Chaya and Natches, Bliss, and then Duke made their way into the kitchen, rich, creamy potato soup bubbled merrily, the buttery, bacony scent of it drifting through the room.
“Is that Ms. Tully’s potato soup?” Natches sniffed the room curiously as Angel began ladling the soup into the bowls she’d put out.
