by B. J Daniels
Ledger had forgotten why he’d come into the kitchen. His mind was on Abby, as usual. He’d realized that he couldn’t keep her here like a prisoner. And yet he couldn’t let her move back into town—not with Wade on the loose.
Now that she’d thought she remembered seeing Vance with Wade and Huck Pierce, he was all the more worried about her. He’d been so sure she was safe while in this house. But with Vance here, too...
Through the kitchen window, he saw Vance coming out of the trees at the back of the house. That was odd. He appeared to be pocketing a phone. Ledger realized he’d never seen Vance with a cell phone before. Who had he been calling that he hadn’t wanted to make the call in the house?
“If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do,” the cook said.
“Yes, of course,” Ledger told her distractedly and put the box she’d left on the counter out of his mind as he heard the elevator. Abby.
* * *
“VANCE!”
He’d practically run into Travers as he’d come in the back door of the house.
“This is for you.”
He took the envelope and glanced inside. The paperwork from the bank—along with what looked like a savings account bankbook and a checkbook. He wanted to see how much was in his account. The waiting was going to kill him.
“You need to sign some forms in there and return them to the bank,” Travers was saying. “But you should be all set.”
“Thank you so much,” Vance said sincerely.
“You’re my son.”
He felt the warm, large hand on his shoulder and swallowed.
“But we do need to talk about getting your name changed legally—if that’s still what you want. Also I hope you’ve been thinking about what section of land on the ranch you would like. I’ve hired a new attorney. I’d like to get this taken care of right away.”
Vance could only nod.
“There is one other thing, though.”
He froze. Why did he always expect the worst?
“I want you to pick out a horse. A man should have his own horse.” Travers chuckled. “There’s a few out there. You do ride, right?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I’d been wanting to saddle up and take a ride. I wasn’t sure if that was all right.”
Travers looked sorry again. “Son, this is your ranch, too. I want you to enjoy it. I also hope that you might be interested in working it with your brothers.”
He’d known that was coming. “Absolutely. I just need to learn the ropes.”
The man looked delighted. “I’ll tell Cull. He’ll get you started. Tomorrow is soon enough. You’re settling in here all right?”
“I am.”
“I know it will take a while for it to feel like home.”
Vance held the manila envelope with the bank papers in it to his chest. “Yes, this is all so new for me.” He couldn’t wait to leave the room, feeling as if he’d won the lottery. Except he didn’t know how much he’d won. Or worse, how long it would last.
* * *
LEDGER MET THE elevator as it came down, anxious to see Abby. Her injuries were healing and he knew it wouldn’t be long and he’d have to let her go. That scared him in a way that nothing on this earth did. She would never be safe as long as Wade Pierce was out there.
As the door opened and he saw her, his heart did a vault in his chest. He never saw her or heard her voice that it didn’t send a thrill through him. He loved this woman. He’d never been able to let go because of it.
“Hey,” he said, feeling like he’d been injected with helium.
She smiled broadly. She was almost her old self again. He could see it in her eyes. There was no reason for her to stay here—other than the fact that her husband was out there somewhere planning who knew what.
“I thought you might want to go for a ride. You’ve been cooped up too long. What do you say? Want to see my favorite parts of the ranch?”
“I’d love that, assuming you don’t mean on a horse.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure your ribs could take that. I’ve packed us a picnic.”
“You think of everything,” she said and squeezed his arm.
He wished he did think of everything. Otherwise, he would have better understood why Abby married Wade. If he’d known about the lies... As his father had said, “Water under the bridge.” But still it was hard not to want to rewrite history and save them both a lot of pain.
As they started through the living room, he heard a vehicle pull up out front, engine revved. Through the window, he saw nothing but a cloud of dust. Someone was in a hurry. His father and Cull came out of the office, both having heard the vehicle.
The knock at the door sounded urgent. Or angry. Just like the thunder of the boot heels did on the porch.
“I’ll get it,” Ledger said and then turned to Abby. “Wait here.” He moved to the door, expecting it would be Wade.
Opening the door, he found a cowboy he’d never seen before standing there. He wore worn dirty jeans, a Western shirt with holes at the elbows and a belt with a rodeo buckle. The cowboy reached to take off his straw cowboy hat at the sound of the door opening.
Sans the hat, his dark hair caught the sunlight like a raven’s wing. The young man brushed back a lock as he turned to look at him. Ledger found himself gazing into intense green eyes the same shade as his mother’s. For a startled moment, Ledger thought he was seeing a male version of his mother.
“Can I help you?” he asked the man, his voice sounding calmer than he felt. There was something about this cowboy...
“No, but I can help you,” the young man said, still standing in the doorway. “I heard there’s someone here claiming to be Oakley McGraw.”
That didn’t surprise Ledger after the press conference had gone viral. What did surprise him was that this cowboy had not just gotten onto the ranch, he was standing at their front door.
“And what does that have to do with you?” he asked.
“The name’s Tough Crandall. Before you ask, my father rodeoed and so did his father, thus the name.”
“Well, Mr. Crandall, I’m not sure what that has to do with my brother Oakley—”
“I’ve been out of state. I just happened to see on the news that the McGraw kidnapping son had been found. I’m here to tell you that Vance Elliot is not your brother.”
“How would you know that?” Ledger demanded.
“What’s the problem?” his father said, moving from where he and Cull had stopped just outside his office doorway.
“Mr. McGraw,” Tough said to Travers, hat in his hand. “I heard you’d been sickly. I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t want to bother you, but I can’t let you be tricked. The man staying with you pretending to be your son is a fraud.”
“I think you’d better step inside,” Ledger heard his father say. He could tell by Travers’s shocked look that he’d seen the cowboy’s green eyes and dark hair.
Once inside the office, his father asked Tough Crandall to sit down. The cowboy looked around at the expensive furniture and said, “I’d prefer to keep standing if you don’t mind. I picked up a couple of horses over in Minot earlier today. I would have waited and come after I’d cleaned up, but I was afraid it couldn’t keep. Anyway, this won’t take long.”
“Mr. Crandall...” Travers began.
“Please, call me Tough.”
“All right, Tough. Why is it you think Vance isn’t Oakley?”
Tough looked down at his straw hat for a moment before glancing up again. Ledger saw the effect those green eyes had on not just his father but his brothers, as well. Even Boone, who had quietly joined them, was staring at the man.
“Because, sir, I’m your biological son.”
Travers cocked his head. “And what makes you
think that?”
“My mother told me all about my adoption. I’ve known since I was five.”
“Then why didn’t you come forward before this?” Cull demanded.
Tough chewed at his cheek for a moment. “Beg your pardon, but I had no good reason to. I have parents who raised me just fine and I didn’t want to bring that kind of trouble down on them. They are good people who believed they were doing the best for me. I agree with them.”
“Are you saying you didn’t want to be a McGraw?” Boone asked, sounding as if it wouldn’t take much more to make him mad.
“No offense,” Tough said quickly.
“Who did your mother say brought you to her when you were six months old?” Travers asked.
“Pearl Cavanaugh from the Whitehorse Sewing Circle. She, too, meant no harm. God rest her soul.”
“Do you have any proof?” Boone asked.
“No, other than me standing here telling you what I know.”
“But you’d be willing to take a DNA test?” Ledger asked.
“I didn’t come here looking to be adopted into the family. I just thought you ought to know that Vance Elliot is an impostor.”
“Vance passed the DNA test,” Boone challenged.
Tough nodded as he seemed to study the lot of them. “Then you’ve got more vipers among you than even I thought.” He took a step back. “I’ve done what I came to do. Believe me or not, doesn’t matter to me. I just couldn’t have this on my conscience without speaking up.” He turned toward the door.
“Just a minute,” Travers said. “My youngest son was taken from his crib with two items—”
“I saw that on the news,” Tough said with a sigh. “I don’t know anything about a stuffed toy horse. But I had a baby blanket with tiny horses on it. It was blue. The horses weren’t quarter horses like you raise. They were Arabians. My mother gave me the blanket before she died. She told me to do with it what I wanted. I burned it.”
A gasp came up from the room. “Why in the hell would you do that?” Boone demanded.
“Because I had no interest in doing what I’m doing right now,” Tough snapped. “I won’t be grilled. I won’t be tested. I won’t be looked at under a magnifying glass. I sure as hell don’t want any press conference for the world to know. I know who I am, who my ‘real’ parents are, and I’m fine with that.”
“But if you’re Oakley—”
Tough cut Travers off. “Please, sir, don’t make me sorry I came here. I couldn’t let you be defrauded. But if you want to go on believing Vance Elliot is your son, that’s fine with me. Please don’t take offense, but I want no part of this family or what comes with it.” He stuffed his straw hat onto his thick head of dark hair and lit out the door, leaving behind a stunned silence.
* * *
VANCE HAD WATCHED the whole thing from the doorway of the kitchen. After Abby had come down in the elevator, he’d gone into the kitchen and, finding it empty, had gotten himself a snack before opening the envelope.
Now he stepped back so no one saw him.
He heard a sound behind him and turned to see the cook. She had her phone in her hand. All the color had drained from her face.
She must have heard what was going on, as well. She was looking scared, no doubt because she’d been snitching to Huck about him. She was probably afraid she’d get drawn into all this.
“Please tell Mr. Travers that I’m not feeling well and have to go. I’m sorry about dinner.” She headed for the door. He saw her glance at a large box sitting on the counter and she seemed to avoid it, increasing her speed as she went out the door. He noticed that some of the tape had been removed from the top of the box. There was a pair of kitchen shears next to it.
Whatever the cook had been getting out of the box, she seemed to have lost interest. Vance had the feeling that they wouldn’t be seeing her again.
He wanted to run, too. He’d opened the envelope with his new bank account information but had seen right away that until he signed the necessary forms, he couldn’t withdraw any of the ten grand Travers had put in his account. Ten grand. He’d had to count the numbers since he couldn’t believe it. There was also a note in the envelope that read, “Thought you might want to buy yourself a vehicle. Let me know and I will see that the money is put into your account.”
He’d groaned when he’d seen that. If he stayed, he got to buy himself a brand-new pickup. It was all too much. Worse, it was all a lie.
Had he really thought this was going to last? He couldn’t stay. Even before that cowboy had shown up, he’d known that. But he also couldn’t hide in the kitchen like the phony he was.
Vance walked into the living room, feeling the tension thick as fog. “The cook just told me to tell you that she isn’t feeling well. She’s sorry about dinner.” He knew he couldn’t ignore that tension. Or the way they all looked at him. “What’s going on?”
“Some cowboy just stopped by claiming to be Oakley McGraw,” Boone said. He was the most suspicious of the brothers. Vance couldn’t tell who he thought was lying. Maybe both him and the cowboy.
“Well, he’s too late, isn’t he?” Cull went to the bar and poured himself a drink. The others joined him, all except Travers. “You passed the DNA test. You’re Oakley, right?”
Vance swallowed, his throat too dry to speak. Anyway, what would he have said?
“That was disturbing,” Travers said as he looked at his sons, his gaze finally taking in Vance.
He thought of how much he’d wanted this man to be his father. More than he’d wanted the money and the name. He felt an apology working its way up from deep in his chest.
His cell phone rang. He cursed silently. He’d stupidly forgotten to turn the darn thing off after his call to Huck. Pulling out the phone with trembling fingers, he looked at caller ID. Huck. It was marked Urgent.
He saw he’d missed an earlier text from Huck. It read: Unless you want to die, get out of the house. Now!
“I should take this.” Quickly turning, he headed for the back door, wondering what this could be about.
Chapter Seventeen
“DID ANY OF you know he had a cell phone?” Ledger asked the moment Vance was gone. Abby had sat down with the others. He joined her. She looked as shocked as he felt.
“Everyone in the civilized world has a cell phone,” Boone snapped. “What is your point?”
“I just wonder who’s calling him.”
“You think he didn’t have a life before he came here? Friends? People who care about him?” Travers asked as if he’d wondered the same thing.
They all looked after Vance for a moment before Cull spoke. “This Tough Crandall. He described the baby blanket perfectly. The type of horse on the blanket was never released.”
“But he didn’t have the toy stuffed horse,” Ledger said.
“Vance did,” their father said.
“For the sake of argument, let’s say Tough Crandall is Oakley,” Cull said reasonably. “How is it he had the blanket but not the stuffed horse?”
Boone brought his drink over to the couch and sat down. “The stuffed toy was taken the night of the kidnapping along with Oakley and his blanket, right?”
“Maybe the kidnapper dropped it when the ladder rung broke,” Cull said.
“And the kidnapper’s accomplice picked it up?” Boone said.
Ledger felt a chill. “Or whoever was the first person on the scene.”
“Like maybe one of the deputy sheriffs?” Abby said.
Travers sighed. “All this is just speculation. Vance’s DNA matched.”
“Dad, there’s something I need to tell you,” Cull said and looked at Ledger. “I’ve taken DNA from Vance’s room and some of mine. I’ve had another test done at a different lab.”
“Why wo
uld you do that?” His father sounded angry.
“Because Abby remembered something,” Ledger said, looking at her. She nodded and he continued, “She remembered seeing Wade and his father with Vance. It was at her house.”
“What?” Travers shook his head. “When was this?”
“Before he showed up at our door claiming to be Oakley. That’s not all,” Ledger continued. “When we were at the lab getting Vance’s DNA test done, I saw Deputy Sheriff Huck Pierce talking to one of the lab techs.”
The room went deathly quiet again.
“Let’s all take it down a notch here,” Travers said, but Ledger saw that he looked worried. “You realize what you’re accusing Vance of being involved in.”
“Fraud,” Boone said, putting down his drink and getting to his feet. “I think someone should go check on Vance.”
Ledger reached for Abby’s hand. “We’re going on a picnic. Hope you get it all worked out before we get back.”
They’d barely reached the pickup when the back of the house exploded.
* * *
VANCE HAD REACHED the trees past the pool house and was about to put in a call to Huck when the world behind him went up in flames.
He spun around in horror as he looked at the back of the house. The kitchen wing looked leveled while the rest of the house was quickly catching fire.
For a moment he couldn’t move. Two ranch hands came running from the direction of the barns. Out of the smoke at the back of the house, he saw Boone. He’d been knocked to the ground but was now running back toward the burning house.
Vance’s cell phone rang. Still in shock, he took the call.
“Did you get out in time?” Huck laughed.
“You did this?” he demanded.
“And just imagine what I will do if you cross me,” the deputy said. “Now get rid of this phone. I’ll find you when I need to talk to you again.”
* * *
LEDGER GRABBED ABBY, not sure at first what had happened as glass showered over the porch as the front windows of the house were blown out.