Dead Ringer & Classified Christmas

by B. J Daniels

“Ledger. No.”

  “Why, Abby? Why have you stayed with him?” The pain in Ledger’s voice made tears blur her eyes. She hadn’t just been putting herself through this.

  She shook her head. All her reasons for staying no longer mattered. She took a step back, then another, bumping into a table before she got turned and rushed back to the kitchen.

  “Get control of yourself,” her elderly boss snapped as she rushed into the kitchen in tears.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” Abby cried.

  Ella took a step toward her. “If you’re quitting, you aren’t quitting in the middle of a shift.”

  “I’m not quitting.” She lowered herself to a stool by the back door, her face in her hands. “I can’t keep going back and forth, even in my mind.”

  Ella stepped to her and placed an arm around her shoulders. “Honey, this has been coming for a long time. You can’t be that surprised.”

  “I’m a married woman.”

  Ella snorted. “And Wade is a married man. You think that means much to him? Now, wipe your face.” She handed her a paper towel. “Honey, it’s time to fish or cut bait. You’re going to have to make a decision, and from where I’m sitting, it’s pretty damned clear. You going to let Wade keep knocking you around? Or are you going to put a stop to it?”

  She looked up, surprised, although she knew she shouldn’t be. Of course her boss knew. “I’ve told him—”

  “Telling him don’t mean squat. Anything short of shooting him won’t do any good if you don’t leave him. I’ve held my tongue, but I can’t anymore. Stop being a damned fool.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. And stop listening to your mother. She doesn’t have the sense God gave a goose. I’m telling you straight. Dump that man and get on with your life before you don’t have a life. Now, get back to work.”

  Abby went into the restroom and wiped her face. She’d cried enough over her situation. She looked as she came out to see that Ledger had left.

  “I told him to get on out of here and to quit crowding you,” Ella said. “You need to cut him loose if you don’t have the sense to end your marriage. Now, do what women have always done—buck up and get back to work.”

  * * *

  VANCE COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. He looked around the bedroom thinking he had to be dreaming. He’d downplayed how poor his adoptive family had been or how hard he’d had to work or how much debt he had from college.

  As he walked to the window to look out, he felt a stab of jealousy for Cull, Ledger and Boone. They’d grown up here. They’d had all this and more.

  But now you’re one of them.

  “Not yet.” There was the DNA test. He’d managed to put it off as long as he could, knowing it was just a matter of time before he’d be forced to take it.

  In the middle of dinner tonight Cull McGraw and his girlfriend had shown up. Both had looked at him like he was a bug under a microscope as if searching for his fatal flaw—just as they had the first night he’d met them. The girlfriend, Nikki St. James, the true-crime writer, had wanted to see the stuffed toy horse that night. He had watched her inspect it and seen that the horse had definitely been the ticket in.

  But it would all come down to the DNA test.

  “When is the DNA test scheduled?” Cull had asked his father tonight.

  Travers had seemed taken aback by his son’s abruptness.

  “No reason to put it off any longer, right?” Ledger had interjected.

  Vance had met Travers’s gaze. “They’re right. No reason not to schedule it,” he’d said with more confidence than he felt. One more major hurdle and then he was home free, so to speak.

  But he remembered that first night well. “So what have you been doing since college?” Nikki had asked.

  “You can interview him for the book some other time,” Travers had said with an embarrassed laugh.

  “Sorry, questioning goes with the occupation,” she’d said, but he had known he’d have to answer a lot more questions before this was over.

  That was why he’d answered it that first night. “I’ve been working on some ranches in southern Montana. I’m apparently good with horses.” That had pleased Travers—just as he knew it would. Vance had smiled to himself as he’d finished his meal.

  Now over a week later and alone in his room, he tried to relax and enjoy how far he’d come. This was definitely an upgrade from how he’d been living, but, he reminded himself, it was temporary.

  “How are you settling in?” asked a voice from the doorway.

  He swung around to find the attorney smiling at him. “This place is beautiful.”

  Waters agreed as he stepped into the room and walked to the window to look out on the swimming pool, pool house and horse barns. Past them, the McGraw ranch stretched to the Little Rockies. “Dinner went well again tonight, don’t you think?”

  “I guess.”

  The attorney shot him a look. “Is there a problem?”

  “No, but I think it’s time I took the DNA test. Until I do...”

  Waters nodded. “I don’t see any rush, but it’s up to you. Travers has accepted you. You seem to fit this place and this family.”

  He wasn’t so sure about that. He might have won Travers over, but he wasn’t so sure about the others.

  “Now it is only a matter of tying up the loose ends,” Waters said.

  He wondered if the attorney was referring to the DNA test or the five-hundred-thousand-dollar reward. “I was wondering... The reward money? The friend who pointed out that I might be Oakley... I want him to have it.”

  The attorney studied him for a moment. “Minus my ten percent, you mean. I’m sure that can be arranged. Do you want me to speak to Travers?”

  “No, not until after the DNA test.” He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. “Once there is no question that I’m Oakley...”

  * * *

  LEDGER CORNERED HIS brother Cull.

  “What do you want me to say?” Cull demanded after listening to what his brother told him.

  “He lied about Abby falling off a ladder,” Ledger repeated with more force.

  “Wade Pierce lied? Hell, stop the presses. What should we do? I know—let’s go over to his house and beat the crap out of him. Is that what you want me to say?”

  “That would be a good start. Not that I need your help.”

  “Yep, you should go alone, that way I’ll be able to get you out of jail on bail after you’ve gotten the hell kicked out of you by both Wade and his worthless father, who is also a deputy. Good plan.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Ledger demanded.

  “Do I have to remind you that Abby isn’t your wife, not your responsibility, not even your business?”

  “I’m just supposed to let him keep hurting her?”

  Cull sighed. “She chose him. I know that’s hard for you to accept but—”

  “You don’t know her. She sticks with whatever she promises to do. She promised to love him until death they do part.”

  “Then that’s probably what’s going to happen.”

  “I’ll kill him.”

  “Oh, damn,” Cull said and dropped his head into his hands for a moment. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”

  Ledger looked at a loss for words. “We have to save her.”

  His brother nodded. “Okay, I reckon we could kidnap her.”

  “Kidnap who?” Boone had come into the room but stopped at his words and looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  “Abby,” Cull said. “We could wait outside the restaurant about the time she got off work and just grab her and—”

  “And go to prison for kidnapping?” Boone demanded.

  “Wait, this isn’t such a bad idea,” Led
ger said. “Once we get her away from him, she will come to her senses and—” He stopped, seeing their disbelieving looks, and realized Cull had been kidding.

  “Haven’t you been trying to convince her to leave him?” Cull asked. “Has it done any good?”

  “It’s...complicated.”

  “Isn’t it, though? I hate to tell you this, little brother,” Cull said. “But as hard as it is, you need to step off.”

  Ledger flopped down in a chair. “I can’t do that.”

  “What choice do you have?” Boone asked. “She doesn’t want you.”

  “That’s blunt enough, thanks, Boone,” Cull said sarcastically. “Where are you going?” he asked as Ledger got to his feet and headed for the door.

  “I’m going to find Wade,” he said as he approached the door.

  “He’s going to end up in jail,” he heard Boone say behind him. “Or worse if Huck and Wade tag team him. You ought to stop him.”

  “I suppose we could hog-tie him in the barn, but eventually we would have to let him go and then what?” Cull said.

  Ledger let the door slam behind him as he headed for his pickup.

  * * *

  “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Abby asked when Wade finally showed up at home later that night.

  He jumped, startled to find her waiting in the dark corner of the porch. “You scared the devil out of me.”

  Somehow she doubted that.

  “I asked where you’ve been.”

  “You’d better change your tone and right now,” he said, but it wasn’t with the same meanness in his voice. She really had scared him. The last thing he’d expected was to see her sitting in the dark waiting on him.

  He reached in and turned on the porch light, blinked and then studied her as if trying to gauge what was going on.

  “I’m still waiting,” she said calmly.

  “I was working,” he said, starting to get belligerent. She could smell the beer on his breath from where she was sitting. But that wasn’t the only scent she picked up on him. The cheap perfume turned her stomach.

  She also noticed that he seemed to be swaying a little as if fairly drunk. Normally she wouldn’t confront him. But tonight it was as if something had snapped in her. He’d been so good for weeks, but she’d known in her heart it wouldn’t last.

  “Don’t bother to lie,” she said, getting to her feet. “I know where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.” She started past him.

  He grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him. This was when she would normally hurriedly apologize, look at the floor, take whatever belittling he threw at her and then try to get away as quickly as possible.

  Tonight she looked him in the eye with a fire she hadn’t known she possessed. He seemed startled, his grip on her loosening a little.

  Her gaze went to where his fingers clutched her arm. “Get your hands off me.”

  Amazingly, he let go. “You’re getting some kind of mouth on you,” he blustered. “You keep that up and I’ll—”

  “No, you won’t,” Abby said. She kept her voice calm but with an edge to it he’d never heard before because she’d never dared talk to him like this. “If you ever touch me again, you and I are done.” She pushed past him, half expecting him to grab her from behind and backhand her.

  But he didn’t touch her. He let her go into the bedroom where she closed the door, the sound of the lock deafening in the house at this late hour.

  Her heart was pounding like a war drum. She quickly moved away from the door, afraid he would charge it using his body like a battering ram and knock it down. The lock was fairly flimsy. It wouldn’t take much.

  But beyond the door she heard the shuffle of his heavy boots. He knocked over a lamp and cussed as it hit the floor. She heard him say, “I should bust down that door and teach that bitch what’s what.”

  But with relief, she knew he wasn’t going to do anything but pass out. She moved to the bed as she heard him collapse on the couch. Would he wake up in the middle of the night having sobered up just enough to be furious that she’d locked him out of his bedroom?

  She climbed into bed, feeling the cold aluminum of the baseball bat she’d purchased in town. It lay next to her. She’d bought it on impulse today after work because as good as Wade had been, she’d known in her heart it wouldn’t last.

  Abby took hold of the bat. If he busted down the door and came in all raging fists and angry threats, he would get another surprise.

  For a long time, she lay propped against the pillows, clutching the bat and waiting. Ella was right. She had to take control of her life. This was a start.

  If she could save her marriage, she had to try. Ella was right about that. She was also right about Ledger. She needed to cut him loose.

  Chapter Six

  LAST NIGHT LEDGER had driven around Whitehorse, looking for Wade’s pickup. The deputy hadn’t been at work. He also hadn’t been at any of the local bars.

  While he’d thought about driving out to Abby’s house, he had enough sense not to. The more he drove through the sleepy little Western town, the more he realized something had to change. He’d been carrying this torch for Abby since high school. If he’d married her when he’d had the chance, none of this would be happening.

  But they’d been too young and he’d promised his father that he’d finish college before they married. Unfortunately, Abby hadn’t been able to wait. He’d heard that she was pregnant with Wade’s baby, but that hadn’t been true. Instead, he suspected the rushed marriage had been Abby’s mother’s doing. That woman just wanted to get her daughter married off—didn’t matter to whom, apparently.

  He’d finally driven toward home, telling himself he had to stop going by the café on the mornings Abby worked. He upset her too much. He had to back off. His brothers were right, as hard as that was to admit.

  Feeling as if his heart was breaking all over again, he drove home. As he got out of his pickup, he saw that his brother Cull was sitting on the porch as if he’d been waiting for him.

  “You don’t have to get me out of jail,” he said as he climbed the porch steps.

  “Glad to hear it. Not that I was waiting up for you,” Cull lied.

  Ledger smiled at him as he took a step next to him. “I drove around looking for Wade for a while.”

  “Must not have found him.”

  “Nope, but I did do some thinking. You’re right. Abby knows how I feel. It’s in her court now.”

  Cull reached over and clasped his shoulder to give it a squeeze. “I know how hard this must be for you. But you’ve done all you can at this point.”

  He nodded. “I love her.”

  “I know.” Cull was quiet for a moment. “So you think this Vance Elliot is our brother?”

  Ledger shrugged. “He looks like us.”

  “He does that. Says he’s good with horses.” Cull chuckled. “I was thinking we’d put him on that new stallion.”

  Ledger actually smiled at that. “I’d pay money to see it.”

  Cull got to his feet. “It’s late. Guess we’ll know for sure when the DNA test results come back. I would imagine Dad will talk the lab into putting a rush on them. Or maybe not. I think he’s enjoying the idea of Oakley being home. You going to be okay?”

  “Don’t have a lot of choice.”

  * * *

  ABBY WOKE THE next morning, only her and the baseball bat in the bed. No Wade. He hadn’t awakened in the night. Or if he had, he’d thought better about breaking down their bedroom door.

  She realized that she felt better. Her ribs were still sore. She still had a dull ache in her head, but even it was better.

  Rising, she dressed, then she moved to the door and slowly unlocked it. She had no idea what to expect. The wear and tear of living
in a relationship where she had to walk on eggshells had taken a toll on her. She felt jumpy, unsure, afraid as she slowly opened the bedroom door, the doorknob in one hand, the baseball bat in the other.

  The couch was empty. She stood listening before taking another step. Was he waiting for her in the hallway off the bedroom, planning to jump her the moment she came out?

  With the bat in both hands, she started down the hallway. She took a few steps and stopped to listen. The house creaked and groaned, but there was no sound of Wade.

  She could see the indentation in the couch where Wade must have slept at least part of the night. One of the couch pillows was on the floor.

  Cautiously she moved down the hallway toward the kitchen. The floor creaked under her step. She froze and listened again.

  Just a few more feet and she would be able to see into the kitchen. He would have had time to think about what she’d said to him last night.

  She prayed that he would know she meant it this time and that if he didn’t change she would leave him. But she knew that her ultimatum might just as easily set him off and make things worse between them.

  If what Ledger had told her was true about people at the hospital knowing she hadn’t fallen off a ladder? Word would spread fast and everyone in the county would know the truth about her and Wade. Shame burned her cheeks. They’d know her terrible secret. All her lies had been for nothing. Because this time Wade had hit her hard enough that he’d had to take her to the hospital.

  That story about her climbing the ladder in the garage for jars to make peach jam had been just that—a ridiculous story that he’d cooked up.

  She shuddered as she realized that Wade hadn’t come up with that on his own. His father’s fingerprints were all over it. Wade would have panicked when he couldn’t wake her up. He would have called Huck to ask him what to do.

  Abby felt sick because all of it sounded so much more believable than the jam jar story. Yet she had wanted to believe it. Worse, she’d wanted Ledger to believe it.

  What was wrong with her? She’d let her husband hurt her, telling herself that he was under a lot of pressure because he’d lost his job or because he wanted to make good at the sheriff’s department or because he’d had a rough day at work. Like she’d never had one of those.