Shadows from the Past

by McKenna, Lindsay

  “Don’t you think she loves him?”

  “Not a chance,” Iris insisted. “Allison used Rudd’s money to further her career in Hollywood. As soon as she had Regan, she got herself back into shape and took off for Los Angeles. Trevor and I practically raised Regan and Zach. And though I don’t like it, I accept that neither of them cares about the Elkhorn. Remember, I am the owner of this ranch. Then, after my death, it’s turned over to Rudd. Over the years, Allison has been trying to find out what changes I’ve made in the will.”

  Frowning, Kam said, “What do you mean?”

  “Allison wants not only Rudd to own the ranch, she wants my will to give Regan and Zach equal shares when I pass on.”

  “I don’t understand. If Rudd gets the ranch when you pass on, why would Allison be pushing for that sort of thing?”

  “Precisely,” Iris grunted. Raising an eyebrow, she said, “If Regan and Zach each get a third of the ranch, with Rudd inheriting the last third, from Allison’s perspective, she and her children are secure and taken care of because they would own the bulk of the ranch. Above all, Allison is power-minded. In her world, that kind of adjustment in my will would be perfect for her and her children.”

  “I’ve just never thought of wills or legal entanglements.”

  “No, you aren’t the type that would,” Iris said. “You were raised in a loving, stable family. From the sounds of it, your adopted parents are financially well-off. You were raised in security. You are secure. For Allison, finding security is everything.

  “She’s been a constant burr under my saddle about this. She hates me because I maintain ownership of this ranch. She wants Rudd to own it and run it, not me, but I’m not giving up control until I take my last breath. And Allison knows that. She’s done everything she could to get rid of Trevor and me, and she succeeded with my Trevor.”

  Startled, Kam said, “What do you mean?”

  “Allison is devious. She manipulates. She tries to sow seeds of anarchy in our family. Trevor disliked her intensely. You know he died of a heart attack?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “That was thanks to Allison. When I was in town one day, she found Trevor out in the greenhouse. She laced into him about her children not being named in our wills. When I came home, Trevor told me of their huge fight. And then, that evening, he had a heart attack and died. I know the fight he had with her caused it.” Bitterness leaked into Iris’s tone. “My wonderful Trevor was hunted and circled by Allison the way a coyote circles the sheep he wants to kill. I swear, at his funeral, Allison was smiling. I could see it in her eyes, the way her mouth was twisted into this grotesque line at the corners. As I stood opposite her at the grave site with the minister speaking, I saw her smile. Once. When she didn’t think I was looking. But I saw it, Kam. And I knew—”

  “I’m so sorry,” Kam whispered, reaching out and gripping her hand. “I just haven’t seen that much of Allison.”

  “No, you’ve been lucky. She’s been gone most of the time you’ve been here. But that’s going to change shortly. Rudd is talking with Allison right now. You need to prepare yourself. She’s going to see you as a direct threat to her children.”

  “Have you written them into your will?” Kam wondered.

  “Of course not! I made that very clear to Allison after Trevor died. She’s been trying to be nice to me, to sweet-talk me into doing it. I let her think I did it already just to get her off my back. Once she has you in her sights, Allison can make your life very miserable until you give her what she wants. She’s perfected nagging to a high art, believe me.”

  “I didn’t know any of this.”

  “Humph. Now that you know what kind of toxic family situation this really is I wonder if you think it’s worth it all. I rue the day Rudd married Allison. I have wished thousands of times he’d see her for what she is—a gold digger. But he won’t. Not ever.”

  “To do that,” Kam agreed, “would be to admit you’ve made a mistake for the last twenty-nine years of your life.”

  “Right.” Iris sighed and looked up at the white-painted ceiling above them. “I often wonder if I could admit to such a thing if it was me and not my son in this position.”

  “Iris, I’m no better than Allison. I sneaked in here, too.”

  Iris held up her hands in protest. “Whoa, now. Yes, you did come here incognito. But you confronted Rudd about why you came here. Allison was never honest. We all use subterfuge at some time in our lives. You and Allison couldn’t be more different. I hope you see that.”

  “When you put it into that kind of framework, I do,” Kam admitted.

  “One thing’s for sure,” Iris warned Kam in a heavy tone, “now that Allison knows your connection to our family, she will see you as a direct threat.”

  “Why? Because of the will?”

  Rolling her eyes, Iris muttered, “Of course! It’s all about money for her and you might take what she considers her property.”

  Kam sighed. “I don’t need anything, Iris. Just getting to know my father and family is the only gift I could ever want.”

  “You’re his daughter, all right,” Iris said.

  “She’s not wrong to want that security,” Kam said.

  “Technically speaking,” Iris said, “you’re right. But what if Rudd wants to leave you a piece of the ranch?” Iris peered at Kam through narrowed eyes. “Do you understand the dilemma now?”

  “I just don’t think like that, Iris. But yes, I do see your points.”

  Getting up, Iris smoothed out her wrinkled canvas apron. “You need to watch your back,” she said softly.

  Kam walked Iris to the door and opened it for her. “Thanks for welcoming me into the family, Iris. You can’t know how much this means to me.”

  Opening her arms, Iris embraced her granddaughter warmly and touched Kam’s cheek. “I’m so happy about this. You have no idea. Now, maybe the Elkhorn Ranch has the future Trevor and I always hoped for. I’ll see you later. And be ready for Allison’s wrath.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  WES ANSWERED his cell phone. He was out at the corral where the wranglers were unsaddling their mounts for the day. “Hello?” He thought it might be his mother and his stomach automatically tightened.

  “Wes? It’s Kam Trayhern. How are you doing?”

  Her voice was instantly soothing. Wes hooked his boot up on the lowest rung of the pipe rail and leaned against it. “Kam. It’s good to hear from you. I’m sure Rudd told you what happened.” He couldn’t keep the surprise and happiness out of his voice. Since coming back to his father’s ranch, he’d missed her most of all.

  “Yes, he filled me in. How is your father?”

  Grimacing, Wes said, “He’s in a coma. The doctors don’t expect him to live. There’s too much heart damage and his kidneys have shut down. It’s just a matter of time they said. Seven days at the most.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “How are you holding up?”

  He laughed a little and watched the cowhands leading their unsaddled horses to the nearby barn. The sunset sky was a shell-pink color with long wisps of high clouds. “Scrambling. Trying to learn everything in three days.”

  “I’m sure it’s all a shock. How is your mom?”

  “Struggling. She’s staying with my father at the hospital full-time. I’m taking over and trying to understand the rotation of everything that the cowhands have to do here. My father had a manager but the gent wasn’t very organized. And then he fired the man two weeks before his heart attack. I have to try and figure it all out as I go along. The hands have been decent about it and helped me out.” Although Wes was at the ranch, his mind and heart were with his father whether he wanted it that way or not. The bad blood between them was an open wound constantly digging into his chest. No matter what he did through the day, that pain, that loss, ate at him.

  “That sounds daunting.”

  “It is. But I’m not entirely ignorant. Two years ago, I was helping him run this pla
ce. A lot of stuff is coming back to me and I should be able to handle it all.” Wes felt his heart thumping hard in his chest. He missed Kam. He had ached to hear her voice and absorb that special warm look she gave him.

  “That’s a good thing.” And then, she hesitated. “Wes, I miss you. I know we didn’t get to talk much about what happened between us. I wanted to, but I was scared.” And then Kam managed a soft laugh. “I still am, but I felt you deserved to know.”

  He felt her reaching out to him. It sent a wave of heat and longing through him. Wes said, “I’m scared, too, Kam. I never expected to be interested in a woman while I worked at the Elkhorn Ranch. I don’t know why, I just didn’t. I miss you, too. How is Iris?”

  “Oh, she’s fine. Better than ever, in fact.”

  “I think it’s because of you.”

  “Maybe…”

  “What’re the chances of you driving up here for a visit one day soon?” he asked. Wes knew he was taking a risk by being so bold, but he missed Kam.

  “I’d have to check with Iris, but I’d love to come up.”

  “Why don’t you ask her and then call me back? It would give me some down time just to be with you, and I could show you the ranch I grew up on.” Any reference to his childhood still hurt, especially given his father’s condition. Wes wondered what his mother would do once Dan died. He’d left everything to her. Would she ask him to come back to run the ranch? Wes thought his mother would, more than likely, will the ranch over to him. Still, it pained him that his father had erased him from his life.

  “Okay, I can do that, Wes. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Smiling a little, Wes felt a lot less lonely than before. “I’ll look forward to it, Kam. Say hello to everyone for me.”

  “I promise I will. Goodbye, Wes.”

  KAM SAT there with the cell phone in her hand. Staring out at the dusk, the high pink cirrus clouds beautiful across the valley, she felt torn. Just getting to talk to Wes, to hear his low voice, lifted her spirits. What was Rudd going through with Allison? Would he talk to Regan and Zach, too? It was clear that Rudd took full responsibility for the situation. Iris had been right—he was a throwback to the days of gallantry, a gentleman who did the right thing. In her eyes, her birth father was a knight in shining armor for his integrity in this matter. Rudd could have disowned her just as Wes had been disowned by his father. There were so many things Rudd could have done, but had not. He did the right thing for the right reasons. Her father was a decent man and that buoyed Kam as little else ever would. Wes was made out of the same cut of fabric. Maybe that was why she was so drawn to him.

  Kam rose and moved restlessly about the room. The desire to get out, to get some fresh air was overwhelming. The cooks and help in the dining room always needed an extra hand and Kam could keep herself busy there. Right now, the pressure and tension in the ranch house was just too much for her. Grabbing her cowboy hat, Kam left her suite.

  The hall was empty and quiet. She looked down the well-lit corridor to Allison and Rudd’s suite, four doors down and opposite hers. She heard no screaming. Nothing. How she hoped Rudd and Allison were having a quiet, mature discussion about her. Maybe this situation wouldn’t erupt into a big family drama. Kam headed out of the house and over to the dining hall.

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE this cockamamie story, Rudd!” Allison leaped off her white leather couch and paced the room, arms stiff against her chest.

  Rudd watched his beautiful wife all done up in white linen slacks and a ruffled emerald-green blouse. She paced like a ravishing caged mountain lion. “I’m sorry, Allison. Sorry that this happened, but it’s my mistake and I’m the person who has to own up to it. Kam is my daughter.”

  Turning on her high heels, Allison snapped, “Are you dead sure, Rudd?”

  “The doctor confirmed it with the DNA test, Allison. She is my daughter.”

  “Damn you!” Allison shrieked. Her hands flew into the air. “How could you do this to me? I’ve been faithful and loving to you for twenty-eight years! And then, out of the blue, this girl shows up here to our ranch and says, ‘oh by the way, I’m your daughter.’” Allison pressed the palm of her hand to her brow. “This is like a bad movie, Rudd. I swear to God it is!”

  Rudd winced as she shrieked. Allison had her moments, he knew. And when she was really upset, she was a drama queen on a par with any great Hollywood movie star. “It’s no movie,” he told her heavily. “It’s real life.”

  Nostrils flaring, Allison glared at him. “And what do you propose to do now?”

  He shrugged. “Kam wants to stay here. I want her here, too. She loves the ranch. She loves Iris.”

  “Oh, and I suppose Iris already knows about your monumental screwup?”

  “Yes, she does. And she’s fine with Kam being my daughter.”

  “She would be!” Allison fumed, pacing once again. Her mind raced over the many elements of this shocking problem. Screaming at Rudd would only make him more defensive and set in his ways, Allison knew. Trying to tame her rage, she muttered, “And Iris accepts Kam as your daughter?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t she? DNA tests don’t lie, Allison.”

  “Stop rubbing salt in my wounds, Rudd. I’m angry enough about this.” She stared across the room at him, her hands balled into fists at her side. “So, now, you have three children, not two.”

  “That’s right,” he said, leaning his elbows on his thighs and studying his work-worn hands. “I just worry about integrating Kam here with Regan and Zach. I want them to get along, to love one another.”

  Snorting softly, Allison sat down on the couch and crossed her legs. She stared across the oak coffee table at Rudd who sat tensely on the white leather stuffed chair. “You can’t force people to love one another, Rudd.” She raked him with her gaze. When he was nervous, he would stroke the ends of his mustache, which he was doing now.

  “I know that. I’m just hoping that they will eventually accept Kam as a family member.”

  “And so Kam trumps our two children?”

  Rudd shot her a look of warning. “What do you mean she trumps Regan and Zach?”

  “I had two children by you, Rudd Mason. They deserve this ranch when you die. Not Kam. That is what I’m getting at.”

  Brows lifting, Rudd stared at her in shock. “I haven’t even thought about that, Allison.” But then, Allison would, Rudd realized belatedly. Her eyes flashed with anger.

  “Has Iris changed her will because of this?”

  “I don’t know. We really didn’t discuss that side of things, Allison. Iris just found out about this an hour ago. If you’re so concerned about it, why don’t you ask her?” He opened his hands. “Kam is now a part of our family. How Iris reacts to her or what she does about it in her will is her business, not mine or yours.”

  Nostrils flaring, Allison surged to her feet. “Well, it damn well should be your business, Rudd Mason! We have two children between us. Legitimate children, I might add.” She stormed around the coffee table, the click of her heels sharp against the cedar floor. Jamming her hands on the hips, she leaned over him. “You need to set this right, Rudd. Kam is not a full family member. Kam comes from you, not me. She’s an outsider claiming inheritance on a ranch she’s not been raised on or helped build.”

  Rudd almost said Regan and Zach hadn’t lifted a hand to help build this ranch, either, but he didn’t. Nor had Allison aided in the ranch’s prosperity. She escaped every chance she got. Those facts would only throw gasoline on the fire burning between them right now. Compressing his lips, he growled, “I have no say over how Iris conducts her legal business and you know that. Iris owns this ranch, in case you forgot.”

  Allison pushed a curl off her bunched brow. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten that for one second, Rudd!” Walking swiftly around the couch, she moved to the picture window and wrapped her arms around her chest. “Your mother has run this place forever. All you do is work for her. You might as well be a hired hand. It’s wrong that she doe
sn’t turn the ownership of the ranch over to you. She’s not doing much of anything except surviving and hanging on to the end, now.”

  As he slowly unwound from the chair, Rudd felt anger move through him. He stared at Allison’s pouty profile. Her full lips were set. “We are a ranch dynasty,” he reminded her. “We have a one-hundred-and-fifty-year history here in Wyoming through Mason men and women. The ranch has always been passed on to the next generation after the deaths of the previous one and you know that. Until Iris passes on, she is the owner. I have no problem with that, but you do. And I can’t figure out why, Allison. You get everything you ever wanted. Our children want for nothing. This is a good life for all of us.”

  Allison refused to look at Rudd. This argument was as old and dead as their marriage. “I don’t like Iris being boss!”

  “She’s a good manager, Allison.” Sighing, Rudd shook his head. “And she’s been nothing but good to you and our children. Iris and Trevor made this ranch what it is today. She’s earned the right to own it, don’t you think?”

  Twisting her lips, Allison muttered, “Her time is past, Rudd. You’re fifty-five years old. Don’t you think it’s time that you were the owner of the Elkhorn?”

  Rudd shook his head. “Allison, I just don’t understand this argument. Our names are in her will. When Iris dies, we’ll be the owners.”

  “Yes, and Iris has said that Regan and Zach will be given a piece of the ranch after she passes. Now will Kam be added to that list? Will the land given to our children be less? Can’t you see Kam wants to steal land that belongs to our children?”

  Rudd struggled to keep up with his wife’s emotional tirade. “I have no idea what Iris will do.”

  “Well, you should. Go to her and tell her not to give Kam anything. She’s your daughter out of wedlock. She is not a true child of this ranch.”