In Hawke's Eyes Read Free Page A

beautiful. They’re predators. It could have hurt you. Who the heck has a pet hawk around here? Shoo, damn it!”
    If Hawke could have sighed, he would have. She’d said he wasn’t beautiful, and the disgust in her tone told him revealing his animal side any time in the future would be a bad idea. He took to the air and returned to the trees far enough that the humans couldn’t see him. Tonight, he would continue his watch, but tomorrow, he had investigating to do.
    * * * *
    “Meechi Ward is her daughter’s name,” Hawke’s friend told him on the phone, and he frowned. Stephanie had told him she and Meechi’s father were married, so why not take on the man’s name?
    “What else can you tell me about her?”
    His friend worked in law enforcement and had access to databases that were off limits to Hawke. Where his friend couldn’t get to, being bound by the confines of his job, Hawke could. Over the years, they scratched each other’s backs. While he and Jim were close, he didn’t trust him with the knowledge that he was a shifter.
    “She’s a little heiress,” Jack told him.
    Hawke’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
    “Her father left her a pretty big stash. She’ll come into it when she’s twenty-one, but right now she gets a monthly allowance. If her mother wanted to dip into it, they could live in the lap of luxury. Looks like she barely takes any. The fact that he left it all to Meechi has been stuck in his family’s craw since the father died.”
    Hawke spun the pin in his hand and tapped it on the desktop. “You get all that from your database?”
    Jim laughed. “No, five years ago when the old man hadn’t even turned cold in the grave yet, the mother, Melanie Ward, sued Stephanie. She was backed by his two brothers and a sister. Stephanie won the case hands down because the will was iron-clad. Must have been a good guy to make sure his daughter was looked after.”
    “Or he knew his family were all greedy assholes.”
    “There’s that too.”
    “Thanks, Jim. You’ve been a big help.” Hawke disconnected the call and considered all he learned. On the day Stephanie had her accident, with nothing better to do, he had looked into the circumstances of the wreck. The other driver, killed in the crash, had scarcely had enough alcohol in his system to swerve the way Stephanie claimed he had. He wondered if it had anything to do with Stephanie, but it seemed unlikely. Nothing happened since that incident, and he would know, since he kept watch over her. Maybe they were cowards at heart and lost their nerve after her severe injury. Having another thought, he sent off a text message to Jim and waited for the response to his question.
    “No, the other driver had no connection to her dead husband or his family’s corporation,” Jim replied.
    Hawke swore. No, this was a good thing. If the in-laws weren’t serious about getting Meechi’s money enough to kill Stephanie, then she would not be further hurt by them. Still, something was going on, and he intended to get to the bottom of it.
    When his cell phone rang, Hawke glanced at the display and warmed at the sight of her name. He stabbed the connect button, not caring to let it ring more than once. “Hello.”
    “Hi, Hawke.” The breathless quality to her voice stirred his desire, and his cock grew hard. He imagined kissing her full lips and sliding his hands over her lovely body. “Hey, are you there?”
    He cleared his throat and brought his thoughts back to the moment. “Yes, sorry. You’re not calling to cancel, are you?”
    “No, of course not. I wanted to see if you could come a bit early and take me to pick up Meechi from daycare.”
    “Sure, what time do you need me there?”
    “Is four okay? I don’t know if you can get off work sooner.”
    “No problem.”
    They hung up, and Hawke stood from his desk. The small office he rented was one he used upon occasion when not chasing down a lead for a case. Private investigations