Alexa hung up and looked at Damian with a smile. “Daddy’s going to be late,” she murmured. She pulled her eyebrows together. Did Hawk consider himself a father to Damian or was he simply ‘Uncle Hawk? She wondered if Damian was even old enough yet to know the distinction.

 

She had done a little searching through the kitchen while he took his nap, but without knowing how long Hawk was going to be gone, she’d hadn’t gone too deep. Now that she knew for sure she’d have at least an hour, she stuck Damian on her hip and headed to the office.

 

When she walked through the hall, she thought about their weird moment earlier. Had they really almost kissed? It made her heart race all over again just thinking about it. She’d wanted to kiss him. She’d wanted him to kiss her. None of it made any sense to her. Was he feeling the same tension she was? Did he want her, too? Regardless, her emotions were running contrary to common sense, and she patted her cheeks.

 

She was here for a reason. She recalled her conversation with her sister the night before and her stern warning not to get feelings for Hawk. It’d been too late then, and now, after that moment, she didn’t know if she could stay as disconnected as she needed to be. The thought haunted her.

 

Hawk was a proven criminal even if he had had zero part in Hugh’s death. He’d stolen cars and other things, gotten into fights, and been in possession of illegal weapons. When she’d mentioned weapons to him earlier, it’d been something of a test. Hawk was still on probation. He wasn’t allowed near guns and could only handle knives that were used for cooking. If she found something like that in his house he could go back to jail. She hadn’t found anything he shouldn’t have. Yet, she reminder herself.

 

Damian gurgled happily and wiggled on her hip as she looked through papers in the office. She bounced him around a little, but she didn’t want to put him down in case he got into something he shouldn’t. It would be difficult to explain why an important paper had been chewed on without fessing up that she’d been in the office where she had no reason to be. Her close call with him earlier was enough to put him on alert and she didn’t want him being suspicious of her.

 

She thought her cover was pretty decent. He had barged into the house making a lot of noise, and hadn’t called out to her until he was already inside. She had jumped and panicked, so that part wasn’t even a lie. But obviously, she hadn’t been in there hiding from a threat, she been searching for one. And she had her own gun for protection if someone broke in. She might have put Damian somewhere safe, but she would never hide from an intruder like that. That was something people without weapons and training did, not something a former cop did.

 

Damian started to close his eyes longer and longer with each blink. This was perfect timing. She hurried off to lay him in his crib and after making sure he was falling back asleep, she returned to the office. She would still have a solid half hour to go through things before Hawk came home. And from where the office was located in front of the house, she’d hear his bike and see him before he came inside.

 

She went through all of the papers in his desk, looking for signs of faked books or anything that might point to illegal activity in his business. She looked for anything related to Hugh or Damian or the murder. By the time she’d gone through it all, she had to conclude that either his business really was legitimate, or he was hiding something somewhere else. She glanced at his computer. Tomorrow she’d go through the files he had there.

 

Still, he appeared to be holding up his end of the deal when it came to probation and his plea bargain. The one major charge that she tried her best to ignore was the reason he was on probation now after so many years. He’d been charged with manslaughter and served a few years. Not long enough for most manslaughter sentences, and then he’d gotten a plea deal.

 

She needed to get information, and she had a friend in the force pulling records for her, but all she knew was that the death he’d been charged with had been labeled accidental. But the fact that it was his own father made her suspicious. He had plenty of motive to kill him. What new evidence could have come up, or what else could have changed in order to get him out of jail and onto probation for something like that?

 

There was more to the story, for sure. When she got the official records, and with some internet searching, she should be able to get more information. And when the time was right, she could ask Hawk about it and see what he said. It seemed a little too convenient, though, that he’d gotten out like that. Made her think that he knew someone or that he’d been part of something bigger.