WalkingSin

by Lynn LaFleur

  Later there would be time for desire, for passion. Now he kissed her softly, gently, a bare meeting of their lips…telling her without words how much he cared for her.

  Dax continued the gentle massage. “How’s your neck?”

  Her eyes glowed with happiness. “Much better.”

  “Come home with me after dinner and I’ll give you a full-body massage.”

  “On one condition.”

  “What?”

  “Since I’m naked during a massage, you have to be naked too.”

  Oh, he loved that impish grin that turned up her lips. “But you’re covered, so I don’t really see any of your body except what I’m working on.”

  “I don’t have to be covered.”

  This situation sounded better and better. “I think you just want to be bent over my massage table again.”

  “Works for me.”

  Dax burst out laughing. He had the feeling life with Kelcey would never be boring. “You have a deal.”

  The phone rang as Kelcey rose from the chair, reached for her shirt on the bed and tugged it over her head. Once her clothes were straightened, Dax took her hand and led her from the room.

  A roar greeted them as they stepped into the living room. Dax looked at the TV screen to see one of the Cowboys doing a celebratory dance in the end zone. “Who’s ahead?”

  “We are, now.” Rye looked over at them. His gaze drifted down to Dax’s hand wrapped around Kelcey’s. He winked at his brother and gave Dax a subtle thumbs-up.

  Beverly walked into the living room, stopping short when she saw Dax and Kelcey. “Good, you’re through. I was about to come see you, Kelcey.”

  “Oh?”

  “You have a visitor in town. He stopped at Walt Kinney’s station and Walt called me to see if it was all right that he give the gentleman instructions to our house. I told Walt that would be fine.”

  Kelcey glanced at Dax, confusion in her eyes, then looked back at Beverly. “A gentleman? Who is it?”

  “Your uncle.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The room spun around her. Kelcey had never fainted in her life, but had a strong suspicion she was about to if she didn’t sit down.

  Dax must have read her mind. He urged her down onto the arm of the couch. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to see your uncle?”

  Her uncle was here. In Lanville. Which uncle? she wondered. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t see either of them. “I have to get out of here. I can’t be here when he arrives.”

  Jumping up from the couch, she made it no more than a step when Dax wrapped his arms around her from behind and stopped her. “Hold it! What’s going on, Kelcey?”

  Dax told her he loved her just a few minutes ago. She’d never been so happy in her life. Now her past was on the way to destroy everything. She twisted, trying to get Dax to release her. “Let go of me! I have to get out of here!”

  “Did I do something wrong?” Beverly asked in a small voice.

  Kelcey stopped struggling long enough to glance at Dax’s mother. Beverly’s eyes filled with tears and she looked mortified. It wasn’t her fault that Kelcey had two rotten bastards for uncles.

  “Mom, I’m sure you did nothing wrong.” Dax whirled Kelcey around to face him. “Talk to me, right now.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kelcey saw Alaina and Emma rush into the living room. Concern and fear covered both their faces. Dax looked at them, then back at Kelcey. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to get Alaina and Emma to tell me?”

  Kelcey looked at Alaina, who gave her a nod. “It’s okay, Kelcey. Tell him the truth.”

  She frantically looked around the room. She couldn’t blurt out the truth in front of these wonderful people who had been nothing but kind to her, had been more of a family than her blood relatives.

  “Kelcey, what’s going on?” Dax squeezed her upper arms. “You can talk in front of my family. Whatever is wrong, no one here will judge you.”

  She looked into Dax’s eyes and saw nothing but love and caring. His support gave her the courage to admit the truth. “It-it was my uncles wh-who raped me.”

  Silence filled the room until Beverly whispered, “Oh my God.”

  Dax seemed stunned. Kelcey couldn’t blame him. He probably never expected her to say something so awful.

  “Your uncles raped you?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

  Kelcey nodded.

  “When?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters to me. When did this happen?”

  “A long time ago.”

  Dax’s eyes narrowed and he squeezed her upper arms again. “Define ‘a long time ago’.”

  “I-I was eight the first time.”

  “Fuck,” Rye muttered.

  “I’ll second that,” Griff said.

  “The first time?” Dax demanded. “How many times did it happen?”

  “Se-several over two years’ time.”

  “Where the hell were your parents when this happened?”

  “My dad died when I was six. My mother…” Her voice broke. It still hurt all the way to her soul to know her mother hadn’t believed her. “She took her brothers’ side.”

  Dax hung his head. Unsure how he felt about what she’d told him, Kelcey looked at her friends. They were both crying. Tears tightened Kelcey’s throat, yet her eyes remained dry. Her heart ached too much to cry.

  The doorbell rang. Kelcey jumped. Dax lifted his head. She’d never seen murder in a person’s eyes. She saw it in Dax’s. “Wh-what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  He headed for the front door. Before he was halfway there, Beverly stepped in front of him.

  “Get out of my way, Mom.”

  “No. You aren’t going to do something stupid.”

  “It won’t be stupid. I’m going to pound his head against the side of the house.”

  “With our help,” Rye said as he and Griff stepped to either side of Dax.

  “No. My sons are not going to end up in jail. Kenneth, answer the door.”

  Growling softly, Walker moved in front of Kelcey. She reached down and grasped the scruff of his neck to keep him from charging at her uncle. She braced herself to face the man who had hurt her so much. Kenneth opened the door. A handsome man in his late forties stood on the porch.

  Kelcey had never seen him in her life.

  The man smiled. “Hello. I’m here to see Kelcey Ewing.” He held up a business card for Kenneth to see. “I’m Bruce Jensen.”

  Kenneth took the card, studied it, then faced Kelcey. “Do you know this man?”

  “No.”

  Dax looked at her too. “He isn’t your uncle?”

  Kelcey shook her head. “I don’t know who he is.”

  Kenneth held up the business card. “His card says he’s an attorney.”

  Bruce Jensen smiled again. “If I could be permitted to come in, I can explain my presence here.”

  “It’s up to you, Kelcey,” Kenneth said.

  Surrounded by the Colemans, her friends and Walker, Kelcey felt completely safe. She nodded.

  Bruce stepped over the threshold. He stopped short, a worried expression on his face, when he saw the Coleman triplets standing together. “Uh, perhaps I could speak to Ms. Ewing alone?”

  Dax crossed his arms over his chest. “Ain’t gonna happen, fella. Whatever you have to say, you say in front of all of us.”

  He looked over at Kelcey. “Ms. Ewing? Is that all right with you?”

  Kelcey gazed at everyone in the room. They’d formed a semi-circle around her, protecting her. She barely knew Beverly and Kenneth, yet they already treated her as if she belonged in their family. Her chest tightened with emotion. She lifted her chin. “You can talk to me in front of my family.”

  Dax winked at her. That simple gesture eased the fear from her heart. She gave him a small smile.

  “Won’t you sit down, Mr. Jensen?” Beverly ask
ed.

  “Thank you. And it’s Bruce, please.”

  Kelcey sat on the couch, Dax right next to her. Walker lay at her feet, staring at the stranger in the room. She thought she saw Bruce swallow as he sat in the chair closest to Kelcey.

  “He, uh, won’t attack, will he?”

  “Not unless I tell him to,” Dax said.

  That didn’t seem to make Bruce feel any better. Kelcey waited until everyone had settled in a chair or on the floor before she turned back to Bruce. “Why did you pretend to be my uncle?”

  “Because I doubted if anyone would help me find you unless I pretended to be a relative.”

  “Why did you want to find me? I don’t know you.”

  “I was your mother’s attorney, Kelcey. May I call you Kelcey?”

  She nodded. Bruce reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a thick, legal-sized envelope. “I believe this will explain everything.”

  He held out the envelope to her. Kelcey clasped her hands together, not knowing for sure if she wanted to see what the envelope contained.

  “Do you want me to look at it?” Dax asked, his voice gentle. “Or Alaina or Emma?”

  “I can tell you what’s in it,” Bruce said. “It’s a copy of your mother’s will and a personal letter to you.”

  Kelcey blinked. “Her will?”

  Bruce nodded. “She passed away two weeks ago from lung cancer.”

  Kelcey remembered her mother smoking almost nonstop. She had no idea if her mother continued to smoke after Kelcey went to boarding school since she never went home for visits. The last time she saw Claudia Ewing, Kelcey had been ten years old. She didn’t know if her mother had ever remarried, had moved somewhere else, had any more children. When she left San Francisco, she never looked back.

  She should feel something. Kelcey thought she should feel some kind of remorse or sadness at the passing of the woman who had given her life.

  Nothing.

  “I don’t know what the letter says,” Bruce said, “but your mother asked me to have you read it. In fact, she told me to beg you to read it, if that was necessary.”

  Kelcey reached out and took the envelope from Bruce. She saw her name written in her mother’s perfect penmanship. She stared at her name while she asked her next question. “Do you know if my mother’s two brothers are still alive?”

  “Kirt is in prison, serving a long sentence for a variety of white collar crimes. Frank was killed in a car accident several years ago.”

  That meant neither uncle could ever hurt her again. The tightness in Kelcey’s chest eased a bit. It eased even more when Dax slipped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. She gave him a grateful smile, then slid her finger beneath the envelope’s seal. She withdrew a single piece of her mother’s custom stationery. After clearing her throat, she began to read aloud.

  Kelcey,

  There are no words I can write to make amends for how badly I hurt you. I couldn’t believe Kirt and Frank would ever do something so horrible, especially to my baby. It was completely unthinkable.

  Frank admitted the truth to me while he was in the hospital after a major car accident. The injuries he suffered eventually took his life. Before he died, he told me how much he hated what he’d done to you. It had been Kirt’s idea, but he’d gone along with it. He’d hated himself his entire life because of it.

  Perhaps deep inside I knew the truth all along. I was too selfish and wrapped up in my own life to get to the truth. It was easier to ship you off to boarding school than to confront my brothers.

  How I’ve regretted what I did! I missed the most important years of my baby’s life. I missed watching you grow up, seeing you wear makeup the first time, go on that first date, graduate from school and college. I’ve kept track of you, my darling. I know you graduated from college with honors and made a good living for yourself in Dallas. I’m very happy about that.

  After you returned the letters I worked up the courage to write to you and refused my phone calls, I decided the best thing I could do for you was stay out of your life. I had to give you the chance to find your way, to be your own person. Losing your father made me bitter and cold. You were always such a sweet little girl. If I hadn’t sent you away, you probably would’ve grown up as bitter and cold as I.

  I hope somewhere along the way you find a special man who loves you the way you deserve to be loved. I hope you have a wonderful, long life. I’m sorry I won’t be part of it. I’m sorry I can never again hug you and tell you I love you. I’m sorry I won’t see you get married, or hold my grandchild in my arms. I’m so very, very sorry for everything.

  Mother

  Kelcey’s hands trembled as she folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. Her throat burned with the need to cry. She was afraid if she started, she would never stop.

  Bruce cleared his throat, as if Claudia’s letter had affected him too. “I can give you the short version of what your mother’s will says. Claudia was a very smart businesswoman. She took what your father left her and invested wisely. You’ve inherited her entire estate, which is valued at about twenty million.”

  “Holy shit,” Emma whispered.

  It was too much for Kelcey to comprehend. She rubbed her forehead to help Bruce’s words sink into her brain. “I can’t… I can’t accept that. I haven’t had anything to do with my mother in years.”

  “Which she regretted. She couldn’t make amends with you in life, so tried to do it after she died.” Bruce crossed one leg over the other. “Part of that estate is a beautiful mansion overlooking the San Francisco Bay worth about twelve million. The rest is in cash, bonds and stocks. She had several offers over the years from people wanting to buy the mansion. I don’t think you’d have any problem selling it if you don’t want to keep it. I’ll be happy to take care of that for you.” He smiled at her. “After you research me to make sure I’m legit, of course.”

  The humor brought a smile to Kelcey’s lips. “The fact that you have this letter from my mother proves you’re legit. I haven’t seen her handwriting in a long time, but I recognize it, and her stationery.”

  Bruce uncrossed his legs, leaned forward in his chair. “I know this is a lot for you to take in right now. Think about it for a few days and then call me. I’ll be happy to help any way I can. I can make arrangements for your mother’s assets to be transferred to you, or I’ll work with your own attorney. Whichever way you wish to go.”

  Kelcey nodded. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

  Bruce stood and headed for the front door, Kelcey by his side. Once he’d opened the door, he faced her. “I rented a car and drove here, just to take a little break. I think I’ll turn in the car and fly back to San Francisco tomorrow. I’ll be in my office Tuesday should you need to speak to me.”

  “Thank you again, for everything.”

  Kelcey closed the door behind the attorney and rested her forehead against it. Her mind whirled, her legs felt like gelatin. She worried she might fall until strong arms slipped around her waist.

  “You okay?” Dax asked.

  She turned, wrapped her arms around his waist, laid her cheek on his chest. His strength seeped into her. With Dax by her side, she could handle anything that came her way.

  “Hey, Kelc,” Emma said from her perch on the floor. “Wanna invest in a restaurant?”

  Emma’s joke helped ease the tension in the room. Kelcey could always depend on her friend to make her feel better. “I’ll think about that too.”

  “Right now, we need to think about dinner.” Beverly motioned for Alaina, Emma and Kelcey to follow her. “C’mon, girls, let’s finish up in the kitchen.”

  Just like that, everything was back to normal. Kelcey accepted the soft kiss from Dax and followed the ladies out of the room.

  * * * * *

  Dax handed a glass of wine to Kelcey, then sat beside her on the couch. She leaned back against his chest and took a sip. “Mmm, good.”

  “I’m glad you approve.�
�� He wrapped his arm across her chest, nuzzled behind her ear. She felt so good in his arms, he didn’t want to ever let her go. “I’m also glad we decided not to stick around my folks’ place after dinner.”

  “I wanted to be alone with you.” She laid her hand on his arm, slid her fingers back and forth. “My whole life changed today. I’m still trying to get used to it.”

  “Finding out you’re an heiress was a big shock.”

  “A huge shock. And that was on top of you telling me you love me.”

  “I don’t think my confession measures up to an estate worth twenty million.”

  She tilted her head on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “It’s worth more than twenty million to me.”

  A comment like that deserved a kiss. His hand dipped down to cradle one soft breast as his lips covered hers. He loved touching her, loved how responsive she was to his caresses. They’d make love later…long, delicious, unhurried lovemaking that would last far into the night. Now, they needed to talk.

  “You never had sex after what your uncles did to you?”

  “No.” She took a sip of wine before continuing. “I tried, once I moved to Dallas. I thought new city, fresh start. I decided not to let what happened to me keep me from finding someone to love. But nothing ever…worked. The memories would swamp me and I panicked.”

  “Like you did that first night at my house.”

  She nodded. “I never gave a guy a second chance. Not that he’d want one, after I screamed at him.”

  He nipped her earlobe. “I happen to like screaming.”

  Chuckling, she accepted his kiss. “I don’t recall doing any screaming except for that first night.”

  “Then I’ll have to work a little harder in bed.”

  She relaxed against him once more. He couldn’t resist kissing that spot beneath her ear that always made her moan. “I’m glad I told you my feelings before Jensen showed up.”

  “Why?”

  “So you don’t think I want you for your money.”

  “I would never think that.”

  “I hope not. I’m not rich—not like you are now—but I make a good living. I still owe on my house, but otherwise I’m debt free.” Wanting to lighten the mood a bit, he grinned. “I’m a great catch.”