“Ah. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. He said anything done before we were married didn’t count. He promised me once he had a ring on his finger that my fingers were the only ones that would touch him, and there’d be no one but me in his bed ever again. He didn’t take me to bed before then, either. I wouldn’t let him. Didn’t want a shotgun wedding.”
Her smile turned playful. “Plus, he bought me things in return with what he was given by those ladies. Sometimes, they gave him cash, but when they gave him presents he sold them to buymepresents. Gave me a nice little engagement ring, and bought our wedding bands with that. And the truck we drove to Georgia. Drove that thing for years.”
Badger wasn’t certain how he was supposed to react so he kept a tight rein on his shock. “Um…okay. So what happened on yer visit? Before ye were married?”
“On that visit to New Hampshire, I decided if it didn’t count before a ring for him, then it wouldn’t count for me, either. Because once we were married, Caleb would be it for me, and I wanted a taste of what was out there before it was no longer mine.”
Oh, boy.“What happened?”
“There was this man who stopped by the garage where my uncle worked when me and my cousins were there taking him his lunch for my aunt. Handsome devil, sinfully so. White guy. Helookedat me and I felt my panties dampen. Little bit of an accent, like from England or something.”
Her smile widened. “He asked me if I wanted to go dancing that night. I told him I’d meet him, because I didn’t want my cousins to know.”
“I take it there wasn’t much dancin’ involved?”
She laughed. “Maybe five minutes of it standing up. The rest of it on his bed.” She happily sighed. “Caleb was the love of my life and he wasn’t bad but that stranger waswaybetter.” She sighed again. “Only got his first name. Didn’t tell him my real name. Said my name was Alexis because it sounded fancy to me. Didn’t want him to know who I really was. But after, I felt…changed. Not because he was my first, mind you. I wasn’t silly like that. He knew what he was doing. And he said all the sweetest things, like he could read my mind.”
She met Badger’s gaze. “I left the next morning, back to Brooklyn. Never saw him again. And I knew on my wedding night I was already pregnant, because I was late.” She chuckled. “That was the only regret I had, all those months of worrying. How would I explain it?”
“If she was born white?” he ventured.
“Of course! I didn’t want to lie and say I was forced. My mother’s side of the family was very light. And Caleb’s father was, too. But Imani was born beautiful and perfect and looked just like my sisters did when they were babies.” Her smile widened. “I realized no one would ever know what I did. And to the best of my knowledge, Caleb never stepped out on me after we were married. So I just made myself forget about Hamish and never mentioned him to anyone. Except you.”
“No offense, ma’am, but how could ye be certain Caleb was true to ye?” Normally he wouldn’t be this nosy, but now that he’d discovered this knotted mess he figured he might as well tug on all the threads to unravel them and see where they led.
She laughed. “I was wicked good with a butcher’s knife. I told him it’d be a shame for him to wake up gelded like one of his uncle’s horses. That he’d had his fun, and now it was time to settle down and be a man, or I was going to take Momma’s advice to heart.”
“You put the fear o’ god in him.”
“Nah. I put the fear ofmeinto him.” She leaned in. “Momma got a visit one day from a woman claimin’ she was Daddy’s girlfriend, and she wanted Momma to leave him.” She grinned. “That was before she and Daddy had any of us.”
“What’d yer momma do?”
“Momma got somethin from her friend who worked for the druggist and put it in his dinner. Daddy woke up later that night after dinner, found himself tied to a chair in the kitchen, no pants, a tarp on the floor under him, with Momma sitting there holding a knife. She gave him a choice—to stay married, or to go to his girlfriend. But if he left her, his dick would stay with her. Community property, she told him. And if he ever put his dick in any other woman but her, she’d repossess it for that, too.”
Badger’s gaze widened. “Um…”
Corrine cackled. “She wasn’t scared of him retaliating, either. Because she told him he had to sleep sometime. And so did his girlfriend. That she could just as easily repossess his dick at her place as she would right there. Needless to say, that curbed his wandering eyesandhis wandering dick. They had five of us, all girls, and were married over fifty years. That story wasn’t a secret, either. Momma raised us on it. I mean, once we were older, of course. When we were old enough to start dating, she wanted us to know about it. And wanted our men to know it, too. Daddy agreed it scared him faithful.”
She sat back in her chair. “Sometimes, I wondered what ever happened to Hamish. Wonder if he ever thought about me. He didn’t strike me as the kind to cat around. Something felt…differentabout him. I don’t think it was me being a naive girl, either. He was a sweetheart, though. Really wanted to meet up with me the next night. I hadn’t told him I was leavin’. Thought it’d be better that way. Didn’t want him showing up at my uncle’s house askin’ about me, either. But he sure was a fun night.”
Badger swiped into the picture Trevor Clarke had texted him overnight and held up his phone. “Is this that man? Hamish?”
She peered at it. “That sure does look like him.” She sighed. “I hope he had a good life.”
Badger dug the DNA test kits out of his messenger bag. “I need to take a few samples real fast,” he said. “This won’t hurt.” He quickly performed them, swabbing the insides of her cheeks, and tucked them away in his bag.
“Well, Corrine, I’m gonna tell ye something ye won’t remember later.” He looked her in the eyes as he touched her hand. “Don’t get upset, please. Yer absolutely right that Hamish was someone special. He was a shapeshifter. And yer little great-grand, Bebe? She’s a shapeshifter, too. Just like Hamish. So if there’s any information ye can give me that might help me locate Hamish, or find any other family o’ his, I’d appreciate it.”
She scowled. “Shapeshifter? Like a werewolf?”
“Sort of, but not exactly.”
“And she’s Imani’s granddaughter, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
