Davis Ames turned back to face me, his expression inscrutable, his posture impossible to read. “And why the hell would she think that?”

I kept expecting someone to open the door and join us on the deck, to interrupt this conversation, but no one did. It was just the two of us, out here, alone. “Campbell doesn’t have the highest opinion of your son,” I said. “Or her mama. Ana’s pregnancy was awfully inconvenient, and as far as Campbell and I have been able to tell, neither Ana’s family nor anyone hereabouts has heard from her in twenty years.” I held his gaze. “It doesn’t look good.”

He stared at me for a moment, then let out a huff. “Too much like your grandmother for your own damn good,” he muttered, before getting down to business. “How much have you told Campbell?”

“I didn’t tell her that you handled Ana,” I said, “if that’s what you mean.”

“I didn’t kill the girl,” Davis said, “and you damn well know that.” He shook his head. “I spoke to her about her situation just once. I told her she had options.”

“Options,” I repeated, making no attempt to downplay the skepticism in my voice. Davis Ames did not strike me as someone who sat back and let other people make their choices, completely free of input and coercion.

“Yes, options. Alternatives. Choices. And I suggested that she’d have a hell of a lot more of them with money.”

Of course he had. “You bought her off.”

Davis Ames didn’t seem insulted by that statement in the least. “I scared the hell out of that girl, and then I offered her a way out. Money up front, and more once the baby was born.”

The latter half of that statement surprised me. “Once the baby was . . .”

He gave me a look. “I have a reputation for being a real bastard—well earned, I might add—but if there’s one thing I care about, it’s my own flesh and blood. Yes, I wanted to protect my son, but that child was my blood, too. I had hopes that once Ana realized her parents weren’t going to support her, she’d see her way to an adoption.”

I stared at him for a moment. This was a man who made decisions, a man who liked control. “You probably had adoptive parents all picked out.”

Davis didn’t deny it. “That’s neither here nor there. Ana took my money, Sawyer. She left town. And I never heard from her again.”

CHAPTER 18

Within moments of reentering the ballroom, I was waylaid by Campbell.

“What just happened?” she asked. “And don’t tell me that you and my grandfather were simply overcome with a need for fresh air and chitchat.”