Grace? He stopped her before she got into the seat. Given our history, why would you come to me with this? he asked.
Her gaze met his with a touch of frost. Because I think Hope is in trouble and she needs a sneaky devil to make sure she isnt charged with a murder I know she didnt commit. And you, Charlie Black, are as close to the devil as I could get.
She didnt wait for his reply. She got into her car, started the engine with a roar and left him standing
to eat her dust as she peeled out and back down the driveway.
Grace drove until she was out of sight of Charlies ranch and then pulled to the side of the road. She leaned her head down on the steering wheel and fought back the tears that burned her eyes.
A nightmare. She felt as if shed been mysteriously plunged into a nightmare and couldnt wake up to escape, didnt know how to get out.
Shed barely had time to mourn her stepfather, the man who had married her mother when shed been sixteen and Hope had been a baby.
William Covington had not only married their mother, Elizabeth, but had also taken on her two children as if they were his own. Graces father had died of a heart attack and William had adopted the two fatherless girls.
Hed guided Grace through the tumultuous teen years with patience and humor. Hed been their rock when their mother had simply vanished two years ago, taking with her two suitcases full of clothing and her daughters broken hearts.
Grace raised her head from the steering wheel and pulled back on the road. She couldnt think about her mother right now. That was an old pain. She had new pains to worry about and a little sister to try to save.
No way, she thought as she headed toward the hospital. No way was Hope capable of such a heinous crime. And Hope had always been the first one to declare that she thought drugs were stupid. She couldnt be taking drugs.
But how do you know for sure? a little voice in her head whispered. Shed been so busy the last couple of years, working at the shop and flying off for buying trips. Since the disappearance of her mother and her subsequent breakup with Charlie, Grace had engaged in a frenzy of work, exhausting herself each day to keep the anger and the heartache of both her mothers and Charlies betrayals at bay.
Sure, lately, when shed spent time with Hope, the young girl had voiced the usual teenage complaints about William. He was too strict and old-fashioned. He gave her too little freedom and too many lectures. He hated her friends.
But those were the complaints of almost every teenager on the face of the earth, and Grace couldnt believe they had meant that Hope harbored a killing rage against William.
She turned into the hospital parking lot and slid into an empty parking space, then turned off the engine. She stared at the small structure that comprised the Cotter Creek hospital, her thoughts filled with Charlie Black.
Six months ago, everyone in town had been buzzing with the gossip that Charlie Black had finally come home. She knew his father had died from an unexpected heart attack and had left Charlie the family ranch, but shed assumed hed sell it and continue his self-destructive path in the fast lane. Shed been stunned to hear that hed closed up his practice in Oklahoma City and taken over the ranch.
Shed met Charlie two months after her mothers disappearance. She hadnt told him about her mother, rather shed used her time with him as an escape from the pain, from the utter heart break of her mothers abandonment.
With Charlie shed been able to pretend it hadnt happened. With Charlie, for a blessed time, shed shoved the pain deep inside her.
Shed refused to tell him because she hadnt wanted to see pity in his eyes. Shed needed him to be her safe place away from all the madness, and for a while thats what hed been.
As soon as shed heard about Williams murder and Hopes possible involvement, Charlies name was the first one that had popped into her head. All the qualities shed hated in him as a man were desirable qualities in a defense attorney.
His arrogance, his need to be right, his stubbornness and his emotional detachment made him a good defense attorney and would make him a terrific professional bodyguard, but he was definitely a poor bet for a personal relationship, as shed discovered.
That was in the past. She didnt want anything from Charlie Black except his ability to make sure that Hope was safe.
As she got out of her car, she recognized that she was in a mild state of shock. The events of the past three hours hadnt fully caught up with her yet.
Shed been at the shop when shed gotten the call from Deputy Ben Taylor, indicating that William was dead and Hope had been transferred to the hospital. Hed given her just enough information to both horrify and terrify her.
Her legs trembled as she made her way through the emergency room entrance. She hadnt been able to see Hope when shed been here before, as Hope had been undergoing the stomach pumping. Surely they would let Grace see her now.
She told the nurse on duty who she was, then sat in one of the chairs in the waiting room. She was the only person there. She clasped her