by Lora Leigh
“Anna.” Her mother came to her feet, her face lined with sorrow and with guilt. “There’s so much you don’t understand, so much that would be impossible to explain.”
Her father rose from his chair more slowly, his expression heavy.
Everyone now seemed frozen, as though they didn’t know what to say, or what to do.
Archer stepped closer to her.
“My deputies have found irrefutable proof that Wayne’s has been blackmailing the Corbin, Rafferty, and Ramsey families for the murders of JR and Eileen Callahan, also their sons and daughters-in-law’s, Benjamin and Ann Callahan, Samuel and Mina Callahan, and David and Kimberly Callahan, that he committed.”
Everyone seemed to be waiting.
“There was also proof of Clyde Ramsey’s murder and a cowboy, Dale Layden. It seemed Clyde and my father were working together for a number of years to find proof that Wayne had committed the murders. Dale was JR and Eileen Callahan’s workhand just before they were killed. He saw Wayne loading their bodies into JR’s ranch truck and driving off with them just before the blizzard. He followed on horseback and witnessed him sending the truck over that cliff. Unfortunately, Wayne saw him as well. Knowing Wayne’s father was a judge in the County, rather than telling anyone what he saw, Dale ran. Clyde tracked him down but somehow Wayne learned of the meeting and followed him. After Clyde left, Wayne killed him. He then came out to the Ramsey Ranch and killed Clyde out in the field before rigging the tractor accident.”
“My God.” Her grandfather sat down in the large easy chair that had always been his favorite, his hands shaking. “But why?” He stared back at Archer, his gaze beseeching.
Taking a seat as well and watching as Robert and Lisa Corbin, the couple Anna believed were her parents for so long, take their seats, Archer began.
He had explained this part to her as they dressed, and she still had problems believing the story.
“Do you recognize the surname Mulrooney?” Archer asked.
Her grandfather frowned. “There was a story of a Mulrooney claiming the land when our ancestors bought it from the state,” John said, confused.
“Same family.” Archer nodded. “Wayne’s a direct descendant. He needed control of the Callahan property to find and claim the treasure those early Mulrooneys were rumored to have hidden on Callahan lands. He abducted Anna to force her to leave out of fear until he could make use of her when she turned twenty-five and could take possession of her part of the estate.”
“There’s no treasure. It’s a rumor, nothing more.” Her grandfather stared back at her, his eyes filled with a desperate pain. “It was just a rumor, Anna. There’s nothing anyone could gain from all this.”
“It’s a rumor the Mulrooney family has always believed.” Archer sighed. “We found generations of journals in Wayne’s home, detailing the search for that treasure and early efforts to drive the Callahans out of the area and make the other Barons pay for their supposed parts in the loss of the treasure. Investigators are still going through the journals but it appears there are generations of them.”
The family sat still and silent. Her mother’s head was lowered, her hands covering her face, refusing to look at her.
Then the woman Anna had always called Mother lifted her face and Anna’s breath caught at the pain and tears that filled it.
“The night your mother died, my newborn daughter died,” she told her tearfully. “Your grandfather flew out to California.” Her breathing hitched with a ragged sob. “He flew out, gathered us all together, and told us what happened, and how he had to protect Kimberly’s child. He looked at me.” She laid her hand on her heart, her lips trembling. “Lisa,” he said. “That sweet baby girl we’ve all waited for you to have is gone.” She sobbed. “But her death could save Sarah Ann’s life. You could save her, he said.”
She could barely talk now the pain was so thick, the memories so ragged.
“I had you with me,” her grandfather stated as Anna held onto Archer’s hand like a lifeline, her tears falling along with her mother’s—no, the woman she had called mother. “I begged her,” he admitted. “Me and your gran’momma, we begged. Within hours we flew home. When we landed, Lisa carried you and I slipped her beautiful baby girl to the M.E.’s office where the coroner and Archer’s father were waiting on me. We buried Lisa and Robert’s daughter with David and Kimberly. Their wills demanded they be buried together, and it was a damned good thing, because if Wayne was the Slasher all these years, then he was the one who demanded that David not be buried with the wife that loved him so much.” He shook his head and focused on her once again. “They loved each other desperately, Anna, but they loved you and Crowe just as much. So much, they did everything in their power to protect the two of you and themselves. And she would have been very, very proud of both of you.”
Anna stared at the couple who had been her parents for nearly all her life, aching so deep with such furious pain that she couldn’t force herself to say anything. She couldn’t rid herself of the aching hurt or the sense of desertion that had followed her for so long.
Her father—no, not her father.
No, no matter why, no matter the hurt—
“Da,” she whispered.
His face twisted with pain as her momma gripped his hand tighter.
“Why couldn’t you just trust me?” she asked the question that had been tearing her apart and laying waste to everything she believed in. “Why, Momma? Da? Why couldn’t you just tell me instead of allowing me to feel as though you had deserted me? As though I meant nothing to you, or to my family?”
It was Archer who kept her grounded. Keeping her hand in his, his warmth close to her, letting her handle her tears, her anger, and her pain without assuring her everything was going to be fine.
Because it wouldn’t be fine for a long time.
Her mother wiped desperately at her tears while her father inhaled sharply and blinked back the moisture in his eyes furiously.
“We were so scared, Anna,” her momma rasped, her tear-roughened voice strained. “We never knew when he would call or what he would demand. All we knew was that we were losing you more and more every year. And more and more every year my soul was dying.” She sobbed. “I had lost one child already, I couldn’t bear to lose another.”
“You are our daughter,” her da stated hoarsely. “No matter what you feel, or what you will feel later, you are and always will be our daughter, Anna. I loved my sister. She was the baby of the family, treasured and cherished. And you were her child. But you’re our daughter.”
Her grandfather pulled his handkerchief free and wiped his face with trembling hands. “The day we buried your parents, you were quiet. The perfect baby,” he said. “For a while. When you heard Crowe scream at me when he learned he wasn’t coming back to the ranch with us, you woke instantly.”
Anna’s heart shattered at the knowledge that Crowe had suffered far more than she had.
“You screamed for hours,” her grandfather said. “You were sobbing for him, I knew. I was sure you couldn’t cry anymore, that your tears had to empty themselves, but even after we returned to the ranch, you still screamed. And that day I would have given my life, Anna, my life, if I could have had both of my grandchildren here. If I could have helped Crowe with his grief, if I could have sheltered him. I would have given everything, all the bastard would have had to do was tell me what he wanted.”
As Anna’s lips parted, a sudden pounding on the back gate had her swinging around and watching in shock as it was suddenly pushed inward and fury itself stepped onto the patio.
Crowe stood like a dark visage of death, his amber-brown eyes filled with murderous fury as they swept the room and found her.
The look didn’t change, but the tension, the killing rage that tightened his body eased somewhat.
“Crowe?” Archer questioned the entrance as they all came instantly to their feet.
Crowe’s gaze sliced to John Corbin. “Well, if it isn’
t the martyr of Corbin County,” he sneered. “Tell me, old man, have you sacrificed yourself for anyone else this year? Hell, I hope not. Your brand of help sucks.”
Surprisingly enough it was his grandmother who reacted.
“James Crowe Callahan, your mother raised you better than that, and I know she did,” Genoa rasped, her voice weak, and for the first time Anna noticed the tear tracks that glistened on her lined face.
Crowe’s jaw tensed until Anna thought it would crack.
For a moment, she actually thought he would ignore her.
“Look at you,” Genoa said. “As proud and stubborn as your daddy, but with your momma’s eyes and with her way of staring at a person like you could run through them.”
“Don’t do this.” His voice wasn’t as cruel, but neither was it respectful. “You haven’t been a grandmother since I was ten, and I don’t need one now.”
“I’ve always been your grandmother,” she told him. “And you need one now, Crowe, far more than ever. Let’s hope you don’t wait too late to ask your own questions.”
“I don’t have any questions,” he told her, the anger throbbing in his voice. “I don’t have any questions, requests, or time to play these games.” He turned to Archer. “We found Amelia Sorenson and a young woman, Elizabeth Haley, bound and suffering dehydration and exposure on the front porch of my cabin.” His voice was so harsh, so filled with fury it was animalistic.
“Amelia?” Lisa whispered in a tone filled with the same shock Anna could feel tearing through her. “Why?”
“According to Amory Wyatt,” Crowe sneered, “because Wayne wasn’t playing by the rules.” He turned to Archer. “Amelia is prepared to testify it was her father, Archer. She’s—” He shook his head wearily before rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s with Doc Mabry and his wife. Cayna’s keeping an eye on her.”
Leaning against Archer, his arm wrapped tightly around her, Anna could only stare back at Crowe, barely able to comprehend everything.
Amelia had disappeared from the hospital in the early hours of the morning.
“I was heading here when Amory called me,” he continued, and the look he gave her parents and grandparents was savage.
“Don’t leave without me,” she told Archer softly, drawing his gaze as the emotional upheaval tore her apart inside.
“Never,” he promised. “Let me see what’s going on, and I’ll be right back.”
“Rafe and Logan are outside,” Crowe all but snarled. “Along with those damned Resnova misfits that won’t stay the hell out of my business.”
Bending his head, Archer kissed her cheek gently. “Give me ten minutes.”
Anna nodded, watching as he strode from the patio with Crowe following close behind.
Anna turned back to her family, her gaze settling on the two who had nurtured and raised her.
“You’re my parents,” she told them, clasping her hands in front of her, her fingers twisting and twining together as she watched her momma and da warily. “If you don’t want to be my parents, then I can’t force you, just as I can’t force them.” She glanced back at her grandparents. “But I love you,” she said, the tears falling again as she faced life without the man and woman she’d always called Momma and Da. “Crowe will always be my brother and I hope some way, one of these days, we can find that relationship as it should have been, and I’ll wish I had known the man and woman that gave me life. But you gave me manners, honesty, security as best you could, and I always thought, until I was forced from my home, you taught me to love.” Her voice broke as she lifted her hands, covering her face for a moment, hoping to stem the tears. “But you also taught me to fight for what I want. And I want to be in Corbin County. I want to be a part of my brother’s and cousins’ lives, and yours.”
But nothing could stem the pain resonating inside her. Just as nothing could change the love she felt for this family. Faults and all, and in spite of the past that had nearly destroyed them all.
Her father’s arms went around her.
She knew the feel of them.
Other than for the first three weeks of her life, this man’s arms had held her, this woman’s had comforted her, and the grandparents she so loved had done their best to spoil her.
And her momma was there. Pulling Anna to her, Lisa Corbin tucked the only daughter she had ever truly known against her heart, and they sobbed together as her gran’pop and gran’momma came to her, their hugs, their whispers of love perhaps not healing, but easing her heart.
They had lost time, years spent in fear and fighting to protect the child who stole their hearts with her broken sobs at such a young age.
They were praying the tears were over.
“My baby girl.” Her momma said as Anna stepped back. “No matter the name you carry, you’ll always be our baby girl.”
CHAPTER 25
She felt broken when they returned to Archer’s house that evening.
Amory Wyatt and Wayne Sorenson had disappeared entirely.
Thankfully, Rory Malone was coming out of the hospital in a day or so with a clean bill of health.
“Hey, babe.” Archer entered the kitchen after his shower, moving to her to place a gentle kiss at her nape. “I ordered dinner in. It should be here soon.”
Anna stared back at him, her heart aching at the warmth in his gaze.
She knew just this: the warmth and sexual need would never be enough. She needed his love. She deserved his love.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’d forgotten about dinner.”
The doorbell sounded at that moment, an announcement that the food had arrived.
Archer winked back at her with wicked, lustful intent. “You can show me how appreciative you are after dinner.”
And she would, because she needed him. Because his touch, his warmth would haunt her once this was over.
Archer returned to the patio with the food long minutes later. Stopping in the kitchen, he’d transferred the still hot fries and sandwiches to plates, collected the salt, pepper, ketchup, mayo, and hot sauce.
Stepping back to the patio area for a second, Archer was taken aback by the sight of Anna and the romantic glow the fire cast around her.
Dressed in the ankle-length, full gypsy-type cotton skirt and pale peach camisole top that revealed soft shoulders gleaming with a silken sheen. The tops of her firm, rounded breasts with a hint of a lacy bra pulled at his gaze and had his mouth watering to taste her nipples.
Long dark hair hung loose around her face, heavy curls falling over one shoulder to curl over the lush curve of her breast.
Lower, beneath the thin material of her blouse and the lace of her bra, her nipples pressed pebble hard, and waiting for the heat of his mouth.
Every inch of the tempting, curved body hardened his dick and made him ache for her touch.
She was sinking inside him, he admitted silently. Never had he brought a lover to his home or dealt well with the thought of having some female imprinting her presence inside his house. But this woman, this lover—he simply couldn’t imagine his home without her.
As they ate their food, conversation stilled, and the sounds of the waterfall in the far corner and the flames licking at the wood opposite turned the patio into an intimate, warm cocoon.
Intimacy couldn’t dispel the concern that Wayne and Amory couldn’t be found though, because of the threat they represented to Anna and to Cami, Skye, and now Amelia as well.
“You look worried,” she stated as they finished the last of the food and the beer.
Archer watched her face, watched the light of the fire flicker over the pretty features, the somber cast of her eyes. She’d smiled at him earlier, and he swore his heart was going to beat right out of his chest with excitement.
A woman shouldn’t be able to do that to a man, he told himself. It was damned dangerous. It started him thinking that maybe the fairy tale could be more than just an illusion.
“We have to figure out where Wayne and Amory ar
e hiding,” he breathed out roughly. “Neither Amelia nor Elizabeth knew where they were holding them, but they’re certain the drive there was more than an hour, but no more than two.”
Anna turned her eyes from Archer’s and stared into the fire instead. The flames were lower now, the wood more than half consumed as they sat before it and ate.
“They can’t hide forever,” she stated as she rubbed her arms, knowing that as long as Wayne and Amory were free, they were dangerous.
“Do you know how it tortures me? I’m terrified I’ll blink, and he’ll snatch you again.” he told her as he moved his chair closer to hers, then pulled her into his arms. “Knowing he’s still out there, knowing he won’t stop until he’s dead.”
And he wouldn’t. Anna remembered the pure evil in his voice, as well as the need he’d felt to hurt her.
Leaning against his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath her ear, she couldn’t stop the chill that raced up her spine at the memory of it.
Tilting her head back, she stared up at him, catching his gaze as he stared down at her and seeing the determination inside him.
“If anyone can stop them, you will, Archer.” She knew that to the bottom of her soul. “You’re not the kind of man who will give up just because others think you should. You’ll catch them, and when you do, Amory and Wayne both will regret each drop of blood they shed.”
As she stared up at him, his head lowered, his lips brushing against hers.
She was sinking inside him, and he had no idea how to make it stop, how to make her stop. The problem was, he didn’t want it to stop. And that scared the shit out of him.
“I wish we had happened another way.” The regret in her voice had him tightening his arms around her. “I used to imagine I could slip out to one of the socials. That you would see me. Your eyes would touch mine and in your eyes I’d see how much you wanted me.” Tears might not be falling, but he swore he could feel them falling in her soul. “You’d walk across the dance square, all tall and handsome, and you’d take me in your arms. We’d dance until you danced me right into one of those little grottos, and there you’d kiss me. You’d tell me how you’d waited for me and were never going to let me go.” Her head fell back against his shoulder, the long strands of her hair feathering out over his arm. “And now there’s just not even a chance.”