Backlash

by Lisa Jackson

Denver’s muscles became rock hard as he slowly straightened. “Well, you finally made it! About time,” he drawled, clapping his brother fondly on his back. “And from the looks of it, you’re not too much the worse for wear.”

  Colton’s glance slid to Tessa. “So tomorrow’s the big day,” he said without inflection. Grimacing a little, he twisted off the cap of his beer.

  Tension crackled in the air. Tessa sat up quickly, smoothing her denim skirt and feeling very much like a sixteen-year-old virgin caught in the backseat of a car. Reminding herself that Colton was just Denver’s brother, nothing more, she forced a smile. “I’m glad you made it. We were worried you might not get here in time for the ceremony.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Colton drawled, sweeping his gaze back to Denver. “The day that Tessa Kramer finally traps you into marriage is a red letter day for the McLeans.”

  “No one trapped anyone.” Denver’s eyes became slits, and his affable smile tightened into a thin line of frustration. Crossing the room, he draped his arm possessively around Tessa’s waist.

  Tessa, thinking of the baby within her, wanted to die. Would Denver think she’d tried to trap him? Colton would surely hammer the point home.

  “So you’ve said,” Colton replied, his gaze drifting through the house where he’d grown up.

  There was a fight brewing—as intense as the storm outside. Tessa could feel it in the tightness of Denver’s muscles, see it in the pulse throbbing at his temple. She tried to intervene. “How’s your shoulder?”

  “Just great,” Colton muttered. He leaned against the windowsill, staring at the black night beyond. His gray eyes were dark, his lips drawn tight. “Anyone else around?”

  Denver shook his head. “Just us.”

  “So where’s the rest of the Kramer clan?”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “It’s been a long time,” Colton said slowly. “I just wanted to talk with my new family.”

  “Leave it alone, Colt,” Denver commanded.

  Tessa was in no mood for Colton’s snide insinuations. She tilted her chin up proudly. “Dad’s down at his place and Mitchell’s due back anytime.”

  “Good.”

  “You know,” she said, watching as he crossed the room, dropped into a chair and rested the heels of his boots on a coffee table, “my family wasn’t too thrilled about this marriage.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “But they came around.”

  He lifted skeptical dark brows. “And why’s that?”

  “For the same reason you came all the way back here,” she said, “because they care about me. Just as you care about Denver.”

  Colton took a long swallow of beer. “I didn’t come here just to give you a wedding present,” he said, wincing a little as he shifted in the chair. His face grew taut and white from pain. “I want to know how you can reconcile yourself to all this, Denver. How you can give up your life in L.A. and marry a woman you can’t trust?”

  Denver stepped between Tessa and Colton. “It’s simple.”

  “Is it?”

  “We love each other.”

  “Bah! Love?” Colton laughed. “You? Give me a break!” His insolent gaze moved to Tessa. “You conned him again, didn’t you? He’s always been weak where you’re concerned.”

  “Leave it alone, Colt,” Denver growled.

  But Colton’s mouth curved into a cynical smile. “At least she’s smart enough to get what she wants, isn’t she? She always wanted this ranch, Denver, and now she’ll have it.”

  Tessa’s chin inched upward. “Believe what you want, Colt. I’m sure I can’t change your mind. But just to set the record straight, I’m marrying Denver because I love him.”

  “Sure you do.” He took another long swallow. His eyes slid to his brother. “Have you ever explained what happened the afternoon of the fire?”

  Denver crossed the room and loomed, huge and furious, over his brother. “It’s a closed subject.”

  “Not with me.” He took another long swallow, ignoring the storm in Denver’s eyes.

  “If you just came here to cause trouble, you may as well leave. Now.”

  Beneath his beard, Colton grinned roguishly. “Now that’s not very hospitable of you, Denver. I traveled all this way—”

  “To mess things up.”

  Colt’s smile faded. “To straighten things out. I owe you one, and I’m paying you back right now.”

  Denver’s voice was low, threatening. “I appreciate your concern. Now, either you’re here with good wishes or you’re history—if I have to throw you out myself.”

  “Stop it!” Tessa intervened. Outside, thunder cracked. “If you two want to fight like a couple of twelve-year-olds, for God’s sake, wait until after the wedding—after Colton’s recovered.”

  She heard the whine of an engine and her heart dropped. Glancing through the windows, she saw the truck roaring up the lane. So Mitchell was back. Maybe he could stop the fight simmering between the two brothers.

  “God, Denver, open your eyes, for crying out loud!” Colton said just as the back door banged open. His voice had taken on a slight Irish accent—as if he were used to slipping into brogue. “The woman’s been playing you for a fool from the first time she set eyes on you.”

  “That’s enough!” Denver growled. “Tessa is going to be my wife and nothing you can say—”

  “What the hell’s goin’ on in here?” Mitchell asked. Standing, dripping, in the front hall, his wheat-colored hair plastered to his head, he surveyed the room with surprised green eyes that landed with an almost audible thud on Colton.

  “Well, if it isn’t Denver’s future brother-in-law,” Colton drawled.

  “Colt?” Mitchell whispered, eyeing the bearded man. All the color drained from his face.

  “In the flesh.” Colton stood and ignored the fire in Denver’s eyes. “Tell me, what do you think about Denver and Tessa tying the big one?”

  “I figure it’s Tessa’s life.”

  “And my brother’s,” Colton added.

  “Knock it off, Colt,” Denver warned.

  “Not until I get to the bottom of this. Not until I convince you that the woman you’re planning to marry betrayed you and the whole family. Don’t you remember the fire, Denver?” he asked, clutching Denver’s scarred hand and raising it high in the air like some sort of medal.

  Tessa took one step toward Denver, wrapped her arm through his.

  “It’s over.” Denver yanked his hand back.

  “It’ll never be over, Denver. How can you forget all those days in the hospital—all the surgery?” Colton spit out. “And the fire. You remember that, don’t you? And Mom and Dad didn’t make it out of there, for Christ’s sake! All because Tessa, here, and her old man, were ripping us off!”

  Mitch’s face washed with horror. “Don’t—” he rasped.

  But Denver moved as quickly as a cat. He shoved his brother against the wall and pinned him there.

  Colton’s shoulder slammed against the wall and he winced.

  Face set, Denver curled his fingers around the sodden lapels of Colton’s jacket. “You want to settle this, Colt, then let’s settle it. Between us.”

  “A fight?” Colt drawled, his face tight with pain but his hard smile flashing beneath his beard. “How chivalrous!”

  “No!” Aghast, Tessa wedged herself between the two brothers. “Stop this right now! I had nothing, nothing to do with that fire—”

  “Like hell!” Colton hissed.

  “But maybe you did,” she went on defensively. “You didn’t have an alibi—”

  “Are you crazy?” Colton asked incredulously.

  “Leave her alone!” Mitch commanded.

  Denver gave Colton a shake. “And get the hell out.”

  “Not until she admits what she and her father planned—”

  “No!” Mitch cried, shaking. “She had nothing to do with it!”

  “Then who—” But the questio
n died on Colton’s lips, and Tessa, horrified, met Mitch’s tortured gaze.

  “No—Mitch—”

  Denver swung around, staring at Tessa’s brother.

  “It—it was my fault.” Mitch’s voice cut through the anger simmering in the air.

  Tessa couldn’t believe her ears. Wouldn’t. “No, Mitch—”

  “It’s the truth, damn it!” Mitchell’s face was pale, his eyes clouded with self-loathing.

  “What the hell?” Colton said as Denver dropped his hands.

  “I altered the books,” Mitch admitted slowly, “I—I was ripping off the ranch.”

  “No!” Tessa cried, walking to him. “Don’t—”

  “It’s true.”

  “I won’t believe it.”

  He turned pleading eyes to Tessa. “I’m sorry, Tess. So sorry.”

  “Don’t even say it,” she whispered, disbelieving. Not Mitch—not the brother who had helped pull her out of her own emotional rubble.

  “It’s true, damn it!”

  Colton’s eyes fixed on Mitchell.

  “I was in trouble—gambling debts—and so I started taking some money, a little here and there. Denver’s father was catching up to me. I didn’t mean to start the fire—it was an accident.”

  “You bastard! You lying, cheating, murdering bastard!” Colton growled, starting across the room.

  Denver held him back. “Let him finish,” he said, but his voice was harsh, his blue eyes frigid.

  “Don’t do this,” Tessa whispered, “You don’t have to—”

  “I do, Tess,” he said, his eyes pleading with her to understand. “It’s been too long. I should have told everything right up front, but Dad insisted that it would only be worse for me.” Mitch’s body was shaking. “God, I’m sorry!”

  “Curtis was in on this?” Denver hissed.

  “Not really.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “He didn’t know. I’d been stealing from the petty cash in the office, and I knew old man McLean was on to me.” His eyes turned dark with the memory, his breathing irregular. “I—I was going to rip the ranch off one last time and take off. But something happened, I don’t know what.”

  “Oh, God,” she murmured.

  Colton tried to break away from Denver’s grip. “You were paying off gambling debts, and it cost my family their lives?” he roared. “Christ, what kind of man are you?”

  “And you ‘accidentally’ caused a fire that consumed the whole damned stables and everything in it?” Denver hissed.

  “Stop it! Please, all of you,” Tessa commanded. “Stop it!”

  But Mitch wasn’t finished. “I used to smoke,” he said. “I was nervous, and I guess I must have dropped my cigarette in the straw in the stables before I went up to the office. By the time I took the money and changed the books the downstairs was already in flames. I opened all the stalls I could and left.”

  “You bloody bastard!” Colton lunged again, but Denver held him back.

  Tessa’s eyes were bright with tears, her insides ripping apart. Her world was out of kilter on its axis, spinning crazily out of control. “You could have told me,” she whispered.

  “You were already destroyed because of Denver!” he spit out, then lost some of his fire. “Dad thought it best if no one said anything. I’d already had a couple of scrapes with the law—Oh, hell, Tess, why do you think Dad drinks so much? Why do you think it’s been worse since the fire? Because he took the rap for me, damn it!”

  Denver released Colton. “Two people died in that fire, Kramer!” Colton thundered. “Two people!”

  “I know it.”

  “What kind of a miserable bastard are you, Kramer?” Denver demanded, his temper exploding. “My parents and seven horses burned to death! And all this time, you knew. Your father knew! Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

  “Denver,” Tessa whispered, seeing the anguish in his eyes, the throbbing of the arteries at his temples.

  “Oh, God, I don’t know,” Mitch whispered, his eyes red. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

  “Sorry?” Colton bellowed. “Sorry?”

  Denver’s teeth clenched. “Why the hell didn’t you tell anyone? And don’t give me that baloney about doing what your father wanted! That’s just plain crazy. You ran because you were scared. Because you were a coward.”

  “Yes!” Mitch choked out, his eyes swimming in tears of remorse.

  “Just listen to him!” Tessa yelled, defending her brother. “Can’t you see how hard it is?”

  “Harder than this?” Denver asked, stretching his fingers wide, his webbing of reddish scars more visible than ever before.

  Mitchell was shaking. “Dad was sure that I’d be sent to prison for ... involuntary manslaughter. He told me to join the Army—to get away. Let things die down.”

  “And so your dad poured himself even deeper into a bottle,” Denver accused. “All because of you!”

  “You miserable, lying murderer!” Colton hissed. He lunged at Mitchell, drawing back his fist. He connected with a right cross. Mitchell’s head snapped back, and he reeled backward to land against the wall. His skull crashed into the wainscoting and he slid to the floor.

  “Stop this!” Tessa screamed, running to Mitchell’s side. “Get out, Colton! Just get out!” She dropped to her knees as Mitchell, holding his jaw, struggled to a sitting position. “It’s over! Can’t you see it’s over?”

  “It’ll never be over,” Colton snarled, as he kicked at an end table, sending it crashing against a far wall, then stalked out of the room.

  Tessa’s eyes flew to Denver. His face was taut, his eyes filled with accusations. He stood poised over Mitchell, muscles coiled, nostrils flared, as if he, too, would like to beat the living hell out of her brother,

  “So that’s it, Tessa,” Denver said. “Your brother is a murderer and your father a drunk. Hell of a family I’m marryin’ into!”

  “No one’s twisting your arm,” she threw back at him.

  His lips thinned furiously before he turned, shoved open the front door and stalked outside into the driving rain.

  All the pain of the past—the lies, the treachery, the mental anguish of the days after the fire—burned bright in Tessa’s mind. Denver had walked out on her before. And now she, because of Mitch, was linked to the fire. No doubt he blamed her. No doubt he thought she had known the truth all along.

  “I’m sorry, Tess,” Mitch said, biting his lip and rubbing a hand over the bruise already showing on his chin. “I should’ve told you a long time ago. I should’ve gone straight to the sheriff. God, it’s been hell.”

  She saw him more clearly then, the relief that seemed to wash away his scowl, the pride that held his chin upward. Obviously Mitch had suffered every day since the accident.

  “It’s all right.”

  “It’s not, Tess! Two people died. People Denver loved.” He blinked rapidly. “It cost so many people so much. But it’s over. Thank God, it’s finally over.” Standing, he forced pride back into his shoulders. “I think I’ve got a few phone calls to make.”

  “Can’t you wait till morning? Give yourself time to talk to an attorney.”

  His green eyes were calm when they met hers. “I’ve waited seven years. It’s time to face the music.” Wincing, he reached for the phone.

  But Tessa snatched the receiver from his fingers and slammed it back in the cradle. “Just stop and think a minute—call Ross Anderson.”

  “Forget it, Tess. This time I do what I should’ve done seven years ago. Don’t you have a few things to do, to get ready for tomorrow?”

  Tomorrow—the wedding!

  “I don’t know if there will be a wedding,” she whispered, shaken to her roots. She ran quivering fingers through her hair while her mind spun out of control, trying to sort out everything that had happened in the past ten minutes—as well as the past seven years. “Denver and I have a few things to iron out,” she said shakily. She force
d her shoulders square, took in a deep breath and told herself it was now or never. “Will you be all right?”

  Mitch smiled tiredly. “Better than I’ve been for seven years.”

  “I’ll be right back,” she said. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

  “I can handle it, Tess.” He reached for the phone and waved away the protest forming on her lips.

  “Okay, Mitch, do it your way.”

  “You just worry about McLean.”

  “That I will,” she vowed, thrusting open the front door and dashing down the rain-slickened steps. Wind tore at her hair. Rain drizzled relentlessly from the sky to run down her neck and cheeks. Squinting, she scanned the yard. Denver was nowhere in sight.

  Maybe he’s already left, she thought, her heart thudding painfully.

  Then she saw him. Tails of his shirt flapping in the wind, his hair ruffled, he sagged against the bole of an old apple tree near the burned-out remains of the stables. She took off running, her heart in her throat. This time she wasn’t afraid. This time she would force the issue. This time, come hell or high water, she was going to put out those last smoldering ashes of the fire no matter how long it took!

  “What’re you doing here?” he growled as she dashed through the wet grass.

  “Looking for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we need to talk.”

  His face was lined and strained, his shoulders set. He didn’t look at her, just glared at the ugly black timbers. “What did you know about the fire, Tessa?”

  “Nothing more than I told you.”

  “Your brother didn’t fill you in?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Not until tonight.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  Wind howled through the valley, chilling the air. In the distance, thunder rumbled across the hills.

  “You can believe what you want to,” she said, shivering. “But you’d better listen to what I have to say. I’ve taken a lot from you, Denver. More than I should have. And I’ve done it for only one reason. Because I love you. I’ve let you humiliate me, degrade me, use me and accuse me, but I won’t take it anymore.”

  She saw him flinch, but still he didn’t look her way.

  “Go back to Los Angeles, Denver. Run away. It’s what you’re best at! But don’t expect me to be here if you return, because this is the last time I’ll let you walk away from me, the last time I’ll ever let you drag my heart through these damned ashes!”