“When she was just a little over six months pregnant, she miscarried. It’s been almost eight years, but I don’t think Johnna really got over it. She got hard after that and she hates the ranch more than anything. Her law practice is nearly nonexistent, and sometimes I think she’d do anything to destroy this ranch and every memory of our father.”
He shifted positions, once again pulling April against him, wanting, needing her warmth. “Luke would love to be independently wealthy so he could do nothing but play his guitar and romance half the town.”
April was silent for a long moment. He wished he could see her face, wondered if she found his suspicions of his siblings as abhorrent as he did. “You told me how everyone else fit in with your father. What about you? What was your role with him?” she asked softly.
“I was the invisible child. I tried not to gain his attention either in a negative or positive way.” Mark leaned forward, once again scraping a hand across his lower jaw.
He wondered if he’d ever get the smell of this place out of his nose. It was not only the smell of dank clay and sand, but there were also faint odors of sweat and urine, of fear and blood.
He stood, surprising April with the abruptness of his movement. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Exploring,” he said as he used his hands to feel up and down the walls. “Trying to discover if there’s another way out of here.” He didn’t want this place to be April’s grave.
He heard her as she got to her feet. For a few moments the only sound was the brush of their hands against the walls and their breathing, shallow and rapid as fear continued to grow.
When they’d felt and touched every space and realized there was no exit except the trap door, Mark pulled April into his arms and burrowed his face into the curly softness of her hair.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his chest tight with regret. “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess.”
“Shh.” She pressed two fingers against his lips, then removed her fingers and rose up so her mouth was touching his.
They kissed hungrily, desperately, as if aware of time running out. Her body pressed against his, a perfect fit.
The utter hopelessness Mark felt about their situation made him realize they would never have a future together. He would never have the opportunity to let her down, to be too little. He kissed her again and knew she was silently crying, for he tasted the salt of her tears. He used his thumbs to wipe her tears, then kissed her yet again.
“We’ll get out of this mess,” she said as they once again sat side by side. “Somehow, someway. You wait and see, we’ll get through this.” She squeezed his hand.
Mark said nothing. He knew the truth. The boss who had killed Marietta, had tried to kill him and had murdered Lenny wasn’t about to let them walk away from here. They were doomed.
Chapter 13
It was easy for April to lose track of time with only the beat of Mark’s heart to signal its passing. In another place, at another time, her heart would be singing with joy because Mark was holding her close. But it was difficult to sustain joy while awaiting whatever fate was in store for them.
April closed her eyes, imagining how things would be if—no, when they got out of here and the danger was gone. She just knew in her heart that her relationship with Mark would deepen and grow. And maybe, just maybe, he would love her just a little.
She snuggled closer to Mark’s side, comforted by his arm around her. “Tell me something. Talk to me,” she said, wanting his deep, strong voice to momentarily carry her away from the fear that coiled deep inside her.
“What do you want me to talk about?”
“Anything,” she replied. “Tell me how much you like kissing me.”
She sensed the smile on his lips. “I like kissing you as much as I like anything else I can think of.”
“Even better than your horse? I heard that a cowboy’s horse was the most important thing in his life.”
“I love my horse,” Mark agreed. “But she doesn’t kiss very well.”
April laughed, the edge of fear apparent in her laughter.
Her laughter stopped, and she felt him tense as noise resounded above them. Heavy footsteps…deep voices… It was obvious something was happening above.
April tensed, as well, her body aching with the need to jump up and run, escape from whatever was about to occur. She gasped as the door above them opened, spilling down light that momentarily blinded her.
“Come on, both of you get up here,” Billy said.
Mark turned to her, his features more taut than she’d ever seen. He touched her cheek, and she felt his love, his regret in that touch. She also saw the fear that haunted him.
She knew it wasn’t the fear of death, rather it was the agony of anticipating that when they climbed out of the hole, he would possibly come face-to-face with one of his siblings.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight for a long moment.
“Come on, let’s go. We don’t have all day,” Billy snarled.
April released Mark and with trembling arms and legs, made her way up and out of the hole. Mark followed just behind her and they stood before Billy, who once again had his gun trained on them.
There was no sign of the five men who’d been hidden in the hole, and no sign of Larry, although the murmur of voices and the sound of footsteps drifted down from the loft. “The boss is on his way,” Billy said.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Mark said. His hands clenched at his sides. “Don’t you think somebody will get suspicious if April and I are found dead?”
Billy shrugged and gave them an easy grin. “It’s not my problem. But if I’m to guess, it’s gonna be a long time before your bodies are found.”
“Then people will look for us,” April said, fear clutching at her throat and stinging at her eyes.
“I don’t think so,” Billy countered. “Everyone knows you’ve got the hots for half-wit there. It should be relatively easy to start a rumor that you two took off for Mexico. Your car will be missing, along with a suitcase full of clothes.”
“Nobody will believe that I went off with Mark and left my son,” April exclaimed fervently.
Before Billy could reply, a voice called out, “Then perhaps we can arrange for your son to join you and Mark in your graves.”
April gasped at the familiar voice and turned to see Walter Tilley enter the barn.
“Walter,” Mark exclaimed in surprise. “What in the hell are you doing, Tilley?”
“Making my fortune.” As usual, Walter was clad in a spotless linen suit. His gray hair was meticulously styled and he looked fresh and unruffled by the events unfolding.
“Your father was a stingy, selfish man,” he said to Mark. “He didn’t pay me half of my worth and I had to be resourceful in order to keep myself in the manner in which I want to be accustomed.”
“And that resourcefulness includes murder?” Again Mark’s hands balled into fists, and April knew he was thinking of Marietta.
Walter waved his hands as if to dismiss Mark’s anger. “An unfortunate situation. Marietta wanted to use the barn for some social activity and made several trips out here. Unfortunately, on one of those trips she saw us transporting some of our friends out of the barn. Had she told somebody immediately, we would have had trouble, but instead she waited to meet you outside the barn.”
“And you were waiting for us.” Mark’s voice was flat, emotionless.
“It was nothing personal, Mark. You certainly surprised me by surviving.” The corner of Walter’s mouth curved upward in a humorless smile. “And I must say, you have continued to surprise me, particularly by the acting ability you’ve exhibited. I must confess, you had me fooled. I thought I’d truly managed to scramble your brains with that shovel.”
Mark lunged forward, as if to attack Walter. He was halted when Billy cocked his gun in warning and April grabbed his arm. “Damn you, Tilley. Damn you to hell,” Mark cursed.
Walter looked at Billy. “Take them out and shoot them. Make sure their bodies aren’t found for a very long time.”
“What about her car?” Billy asked.
“I’ll have Larry dispose of the car after they’re taken care of.” Walter turned to leave but was stopped at the door as Matthew entered.
“Hello, Walter,” he said, his eyes as hard and cold as the gun he held. He stepped into the barn. “Having a party and forgot to invite me?”
“Matthew.” For the first time since he’d arrived, Walter looked distressed. “How— What are you doing here?”
Johnna followed Matthew into the barn, a shotgun in her arms. “It isn’t nice to walk out in the middle of a family meeting,” she said.
Behind her, Luke sauntered in, a lazy smile curving his lips as he nodded to her, then to his brother.
April wanted to weep with gratitude. She wasn’t sure exactly how the Delaneys had known she and Mark were in trouble, but she’d never been so happy to see anyone.
“Give the gun to Mark, Billy,” Matthew instructed. At the same time Luke ascended the stairs to the loft.
Billy hesitated, sheer panic on his face. He pointed his gun first at Matthew, then at Mark.
“Give it up, Billy,” Mark said softly. “It’s over. Right now you aren’t facing murder charges, but pull that trigger and one way or the other, your life is over.”
“You shoot my brother, and trust me, your life is definitely over,” Johnna said, her gun leveled at Billy.
With a scowl Billy handed Mark his gun. At the same time Luke escorted the illegal aliens downstairs.
“How did you all figure it out?” Walter asked.
“We didn’t know exactly what was going on, but we knew something was up,” Matthew said. “There was no conceivable reason for you and Billy to have contact with each other, but I saw the two of you together several times.”
“And I saw you talking to Larry Greco one day in town,” Luke added. “Not smart, Walter. Didn’t your mama ever tell you that you get judged by the company you keep?”
“We were already suspicious of you before Billy interrupted our meeting this morning and you high-tailed it out of the house,” Matthew continued. “All we had to do was follow you.”
“The only real surprise here is that Mark is apparently all right,” Johnna said, her gaze on Mark.
Before anyone could say anything more, several car doors slammed shut.
“That will be the sheriff and his men,” Matthew said. Before the words were fully out of his mouth, Sheriff Broder and four deputies entered the barn.
The next thirty minutes were a flurry of activity. Walter, Larry and Billy were all handcuffed, along with the five illegal aliens. They were loaded into awaiting cars and driven off.
It was only then that Mark pulled April against him in an embrace of relief. “It’s over,” he murmured into her hair.
She clung to him, tears blurring her vision as she was overcome with emotion. She felt as if she’d been riding a roller coaster for the past several hours, shooting up to the heights of joy with Mark’s arms around her, then slamming downward to the depths of despair when she’d believed they were going to die.
Mark finally released her. “Why don’t you take your car and go on back to your cottage. I need to talk to my family.”
“Okay. We’ll talk later?” she asked.
He nodded and April fought the desire to fall back into his arms. Instead, knowing he had things to discuss with his brothers and sister, April left the barn and found her car where she and Mark had parked it hours before.
She drove back to her cottage, her heart filled with the sweet joy of love.
It was over. The bad guys were in custody, Mark no longer had to pretend brain damage, and everything was going to be just fine. The future was as bright and warm as the Inferno sun overhead.
Mark faced his family, both gratitude and shame coursing through him. “I have never been so grateful for family meetings,” he said.
“I wondered where you were when I got up this morning,” Matthew said. “Right before the meeting started, one of the hands came to tell me that your horse had come in earlier without you. Before I could do anything about that, Billy showed up and asked to speak to Walter. Yesterday you’d mentioned Billy to the sheriff and so when Walter and Billy left the house together, I knew something bad was going on.”
“I always knew Walter was a slimeball,” Johnna exclaimed. “But what I want to know is why you’ve been pretending to be brain damaged.” There was a hard glint in Johnna’s eyes as she glared at Mark. “Am I the only one who didn’t know that you were pretending?”
“Nobody knew…except April,” Mark replied.
“You want to explain why you felt the need to fool us?” Matthew asked.
Mark sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I thought it was the only way to find out what was going on around here.”
“But why didn’t you let us know what you were doing?” Johnna asked. Her eyes widened with sudden enlightenment. “You thought one of us might be involved, didn’t you? You just didn’t trust us enough to tell us the truth.”
Mark’s face warmed with shame as he thought of how he’d suspected one of his siblings of being involved in illegal activities, of killing Marietta and trying to kill him. “That night, just before Marietta was killed, she told me to trust nobody…not any of you and not the sheriff. She didn’t know who was involved in all this.”
“But you should have known,” Johnna replied. “You should have known in your heart that none of us was involved in this. For goodness sake, Mark, we’re your family!”
“It’s one hell of a family we’ve got here, isn’t it?” Luke said dryly. “Tell the truth, Johnna, if you’d been in Mark’s place, would you have trusted the rest of us?”
Johnna leaned against the wall and sighed. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s sad, isn’t it? That the four of us don’t even really know one another.”
“Father’s legacy,” Mark said with a touch of bitterness.
“Maybe the smartest thing we all should do is cut our losses and move on,” Johnna said.
“And let Aunt Clara have everything?” Luke looked horrified. “That woman once dressed me in a bunny suit, for crying out loud.”
Laughter erupted from all of them. Mark grinned at the memory. Luke had been about four, and Aunt Clara had come to the ranch for one of her frequent visits. It had been Easter time, and she’d brought a fuzzy white one-piece bunny suit for little Luke.
“We just worked together and managed to stop Walter from destroying the ranch. We can’t just give up on each other now,” Matthew said.
They eyed one another, and Mark knew they were all weighing their options, as he was. “We’ll need to find another lawyer to oversee the terms of father’s will. And there are half a dozen ranch hands who need to be fired for a variety of reasons.” Mark swept a hand through his hair. “Somehow I just feel like if we let it all go, then he wins. From the grave our father manages to keep us from being a real family.”
Even as he spoke the words, Mark wasn’t sure if he and his brothers and sister could really learn to be a family. Their father certainly hadn’t given them the tools to forge healthy relationships with one another, or with anyone.
April. Her name caused an ache in his heart. He loved her. And he knew it was time to put some distance between them. He loved her, but he didn’t intend to do anything about it and he couldn’t lead her on anymore.
Johnna pushed herself off the wall. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need some time to think. At the moment I’m hurt and angry that Mark didn’t trust me. And I’m shocked by Walter’s betrayal. I need some time to assess everything.”
“Why don’t we have a family meeting in two days?” Matthew suggested. “In the meantime, I’ll contact a lawyer, and Mark and I can start firing some men who apparently need to be fired.”
Johnna nodded, a
nd together she and Luke left the barn.
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride back to the house,” Matthew said.
Mark shook his head. “I’ll walk back. I’ve got some thinking to do.”
Together the two brothers stepped out into the bright sunshine. Matthew’s horse nickered and pawed the ground and Matthew absently stroked her mane, his gaze lingering on Mark. “You should have come to me when Marietta first mentioned trouble to you.”
Mark raised an eyebrow wryly. “From what you said earlier, you had some suspicions of your own, but you didn’t pass those suspicions on to me, Luke or Johnna.”
A whisper of a smile curved Matthew’s thin lips. “I guess we all suffer the same lack of trust in others. We’ll have to work on that.” With these final words, Matthew mounted his horse and rode off toward the ranch.
Mark took off walking in the same direction. The hot sun felt good and the air was wonderfully clean smelling after the hours of being cooped up in the hole.
He was going to break April’s heart. The knowledge of what he was about to do made his footsteps heavy. He loved April as he’d never loved anyone else in his life, but the conversation he’d just had with his siblings reinforced the perception that April would be better off without him.
April deserved a man who knew how to be a husband, a man who would know how to parent her son. She deserved more than what Mark could ever give her.
Making love to her had been a selfish indulgence on his part. He’d known with each kiss, every caress that he couldn’t be the man for her, and yet he’d refused to deny himself the pleasure of loving her. And in this selfishness, he wondered if perhaps he was more like his father than he cared to admit.
As the cottages came into sight, dread filled Mark. He knew the most difficult thing he would ever do in his life was to stand before April and tell her that although he loved her, he could have no future with her.
When he reached April’s place, Brian, Ricky and Doreen stood on the porch. “Hi, Mark,” Brian greeted him, his eyes dancing with excitement. “Everyone is talking about you and Mom and how you caught the bad guys red-handed!”
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