by B. J Daniels
Huck laughed. “You’re smarter than you look. He’s not going anywhere until he gets money.”
“What if Travers gives him some?”
“He won’t for a while. McGraw is no fool. He can see that Vance isn’t comfortable in Oakley’s clothes.” Huck scratched his jaw, laughing at his own joke. “McGraw will spoon it out slowly to him so as not to scare him. Anyone can see that Vance has never had much. He won’t want to overwhelm his son.”
Wade had to hand it to his father. That night when he’d shown up with this crazy plan, Wade had been outside the garage putting new spark plugs in his old pickup. The moment he’d seen his father’s face, he’d known something was up. He knew about the marijuana deal the old man had going on with Abby’s mother, but he wanted nothing to do with it.
“Abby gets wind of this and she’ll flip out,” Wade had warned his father. “You’re going to screw up my marriage.”
“On the contrary, I’m helping you out. She’d never rat out her mother. This way we have leverage. One day, maybe you’ll be as smart as me—probably not, but keep trying.” He’d cuffed him and then changed the subject.
So that night when he’d seen the smug look on Huck’s face, he’d thought, Oh, hell, now what.
“Somethin’ I wanna show ya,” his father had said. Wade had caught the smell of beer on the old man’s breath even though he was still in uniform. Often he worried that Huck would get them both fired.
That was when he noticed the paper sack his father was carrying. Huck motioned for him to step into the garage. “Where’s your wife?”
“In the kitchen making supper. Why?”
“Look at this.” His father had opened the top of the large paper sack.
“What’s that?” Wade asked after getting a glimpse of what appeared to be a stuffed toy horse.
“That is money, son.” Huck had gone on to explain how he’d been one of the first law officers called out to the McGraw ranch the night of the kidnapping and how he’d found the stuffed animal lying on the ground and picked it up. “I was thinking eBay. People will pay a bunch of money for something from a crime scene.”
Wade had interrupted to tell him what a dumb idea that was. “They’d have traced it back to you. They’d fire you, charge you with...tampering with evidence at a crime scene and who knows what else.”
“Settle down,” his father had said. “I put it away, all right, and forgot about it until I ran into this guy at the bar down in Billings. It was his blue eyes. Dark hair, too. I thought, hell, that kid could be the missing McGraw twin.” Huck had started laughing. “We got to talking and...” He’d motioned to his pickup parked behind Wade’s. The passenger-side door had opened and out stepped Vance Elliot.
Wade had argued that it would never work. “They’ll want a DNA test.”
“Already got that covered. There’s this cute little redheaded lab tech...” Huck had winked. “It gets better. Vance is adopted. No kidding. Tell me this couldn’t be more perfect. And he’s about the right age.”
“But won’t there be paperwork?” Wade had argued.
“Falsified to cover up the fact that his parents had knowingly adopted the son from what is now a famous kidnapping.”
“But what if the real Oakley comes forward?”
“Who will believe him once our boy is in the big house on the ranch?” Huck had scoffed that things could go very wrong. “Five-hundred-thousand-dollar reward. Vance here gets a cut, but he will have the McGraw horse ranch.”
“Along with his three brothers and his sister, if she turns up,” Wade had pointed out.
“Stop looking for trouble,” his father had said irritably. “This is going to work. Trust your old man.”
That was when Wade had heard a sound from behind him. He’d turned in time to see the door to the kitchen close quietly.
Chapter Thirteen
WATERS COULDN’T HELP looking at his watch. Vance was late for dinner. He saw that Travers looked worried.
“Where is Vance?” Boone asked as Travers finally told the cook she could go ahead and serve the meal.
“He went into town to get a few things to wear,” Travers said. “I wanted him to look nice for the press conference tomorrow.”
“You’re really going through with this,” Boone said.
“Of course. He’s my son. I want the world to know.”
“Also it won’t hurt to get the kind of publicity we need for Jesse Rose to see it and possibly come forward,” Waters interjected.
Travers actually shot him a smile. “Exactly. I have faith that both of the twins will have been found by the end of the year.”
Louise was serving the salads when Vance hurried in.
“Sorry I’m late. Getting clothing took longer than I thought.”
Travers seemed to light up as the young man came into the dining room. Waters saw that his other sons noticed. Nothing like sibling rivalry. But he wondered how long it would be before the new rubbed off Vance and Travers wasn’t quite so enamored with his long-lost now-found son.
“Did it go well?” Travers wanted to know.
“I took your advice and let the clerk help me,” Vance said, taking his usual seat next to his father. “I hope she didn’t go overboard.”
Travers laughed. “Not to worry. I just want you to have what you need.”
Waters had been watching Vance and now saw him look around the table—and start. His gaze had fallen on Abby Pierce. She paled as the two met gazes across the expanse of the table.
“This is Abby,” Ledger said as he, too, had noticed the exchange between his girlfriend and Vance. “Abby, I don’t think you have officially met my...brother Vance. Or is it Oakley now?”
“Vance for now.” The words seemed to get caught in his throat.
“But soon to be Oakley,” Travers said, sounding pleased. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
Vance looked again in his direction. “No, of course not. It will just take a little getting used to.”
Waters noticed that Abby was still staring at the man as if trying to place him. He fought back the bad feeling that now knocked around in his chest. Things had been going so well. Except for Patricia. He and Travers had talked and now he would be handling some of the family affairs again. And he’d been invited to dinner almost every night since finding Vance.
He had his foot in the door. The last thing he wanted was for a problem to come up involving the soon-to-be Oakley. And yet, as he picked up his salad fork, he realized he’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop as if he was afraid to trust his good luck in Oakley turning up.
* * *
VANCE DIDN’T THINK he could eat a bite. He was still shaken from his meeting with the deputies. Huck scared him since he seemed to be carrying a grudge against the McGraws. His son, Wade, had mentioned something once about Huck having dated Travers’s first wife, Marianne.
It must have been a long time ago since the woman had been locked up in a mental ward for the past twenty-five years.
“I think after dinner, Oakley and I are going to go out and visit his mother.”
Vance didn’t realize Travers meant him until he felt all eyes at the table on him. “Tonight?” His voice had risen too high.
“There’s nothing to be concerned about,” Travers said. “I’m sure you’ve heard stories, but Marianne is doing well now and she is very anxious to see you.”
There was no way he was going to get out of seeing his mother. Not gracefully, anyway. So he smiled and nodded and took a bite of his salad. He could have been eating wood chips, for all he tasted.
With each bite, he could feel Abby’s gaze on him, burning a hole in him headed straight for his soul. If he had one.
He hadn’t taken Huck Pierce seriously the first time he’d
met him in a bar down by Billings.
“I’m telling you, you’re the spitting image of the McGraw boys,” Huck had said, fueled by the half dozen beers he’d consumed. “I think you might be Oakley McGraw.”
He hadn’t known who Oakley McGraw was and said as much.
“It’s the most famous kidnapping in the state of Montana. Where you been living, under a barrel?”
He hadn’t taken offense because Huck had been paying for the drinks, so he’d listened as the man had filled him in. Two missing babies, a boy and a girl.
“They think they were adopted by well-meaning parents who kept it quiet,” Huck had said.
Vance had felt a strange stir inside him. “I was adopted.” He’d always been told that it was some teenager who couldn’t raise him. But years later he’d heard that it was an aunt who’d dumped him off when he was a baby and his parents had finally had to adopt him.
His old man hadn’t minded having a son around to help with the work on the dirt farm they had. Vance couldn’t wait until he was eighteen to escape it. He’d taken off at sixteen and hadn’t looked back. He’d heard, though, that both his parents had died in a gas leak at the house. The place had been mortgaged up to the rafters along with the land, so he hadn’t gotten anything. He’d let the county bury them. They’d never liked him, anyway.
“Here’s what I’m proposing,” Huck had said that night at the bar. He’d spelled it out. Vance had said he’d have to think about it. “Doesn’t look to me like you have much for prospects. Don’t be a fool. This is too easy since I have something that was taken with the male twin the night of the kidnapping. Oh, don’t give me that look. I didn’t kidnap the kid. I was one of the first deputy sheriffs at the scene.”
“You’re a deputy sheriff?”
Huck had laughed. “You bet your sweet ass I am. You think about it. You call me tomorrow or forget it.”
Vance hadn’t been able to sleep that night. He’d looked up the kidnapping online. Huck had failed to mention that the McGraws raised horses. Vance had been making his living as a horse thief. He’d started to laugh until he saw something else Huck had failed to mention. The McGraws were rich.
He’d called the number the deputy sheriff had given him early the next morning. “This is crazy, but I’m in.”
Huck had laughed. “You won’t be sorry.”
Now the meal ended too quickly. Travers got to his feet. “Let’s go see your mother.”
Vance rose. He shot a guarded look at Abby. She was putting the pieces together. He could see it in her eyes. How long before she figured it out and blew the whistle on the whole damned thing?
As he started to leave the dining room, he just wished she would do it now and save him the trip to the mental hospital to see his “mother.”
* * *
“YOU OKAY?” LEDGER ASKED Abby as he led her back to her bedroom. She looked pale and he could tell she was still a little unsteady on her feet.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I’ve definitely seen Vance before. There’s something wrong.”
“Wrong how?” he asked as they reached her room.
“You’re sure he’s Oakley?”
“He had the stuffed toy horse that belonged to Oakley. Also he passed the DNA test. It came back that he’s Dad’s son.”
Abby sighed as she took a chair near the window. He took the other chair in the room. “I can’t trust my memory or my instincts or...” She met his gaze. “But the feeling is so strong. I know him from somewhere and it’s worrisome.”
“It will come to you,” he assured her even though he wasn’t convinced. “Let your brain heal. I can tell you have a headache. Can I get you something?”
“No. When I take the pills the doctor prescribed I feel even more fuzzy. But I’m all right.”
“You’re telling me that you don’t trust Vance,” Ledger said.
“No.”
“That’s good enough for me. I’ll keep an eye on him. In the meantime, I’m going to move into the bedroom next door. I don’t like you being on this wing with him in case your...instincts are right.” Ledger had been staying at his cabin on the ranch. She knew he’d been trying to give her space. As they both knew, she was still married to Wade.
She looked relieved, though, that he would be close at hand. It wasn’t just that she didn’t trust Vance. She was a little scared of him, as well.
“Thank you. I hope I’m wrong. Your father seems so happy to have him here. I hate to think what it will do to him if Vance isn’t the person he believes him to be.”
“That’s just it. We know very little about him. Jim Waters did some checking and swears there is nothing to worry about. But I have my reservations, too. I do wonder how it will go with Mother.”
* * *
THE SMELL HIT him first, then the noise of the mental hospital. Vance halted just inside the door, telling himself he couldn’t do this.
“It’s okay, son,” Travers said. “Give it a minute. I’m sure this is hard for you, seeing your mother.”
Vance wanted to laugh hysterically. The man had no idea. “There was this neighbor girl. She had to be...restrained. She ended up in a place like this. I visited her only once. I couldn’t bear going there.” He shuddered at the memory. Crazy Cathy—that was what the kids at school called her when they’d get a glimpse of her from the school bus. She would be tied up to the clothesline and she would run, her face stretched in a lopsided smile because she loved Vance—almost to death. She finally got sent away after she’d tried to kill him with a butcher knife one night after seeing him with another girl.
“I’m so sorry,” Travers said. “This must be even more difficult for you. If you’d rather not right now...”
“No.” He just wanted to get it over with. Trying to block out the sounds, the smells, the tension that sparked in the air like heat lightning, he walked down the hallway to be let into the violent wing. The sounds down here were worse—the crying, the screaming, the tormented shrieks that made goose bumps ripple across his skin.
A nurse opened the gate for them and led them down the hallway. Vance didn’t look into the barred windows. He stared at the floor at his feet, telling himself he could do this, but feeling the weakness run like water through his veins.
His mother used to say that he wasn’t strong. “We just need to toughen him up.” Then she’d give him the worst chores she could find on the farm. The calluses he got were heart-deep and still rubbed him raw some days. He knew he wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for his childhood and that made him angry. His adoptive mother was right. He wasn’t strong.
The nurse stopped at a door, used her key to open it and then told Travers she would be right outside the door if he needed her.
Heart in his throat, Vance followed him into the room and stopped dead.
The woman sitting in the rocking chair had lightning-white hair that hung around her shoulders like a shroud. But it was the face that froze his feet to the floor.
“Oakley?” the woman asked with a voice that cracked. She motioned for him to come closer.
It took every ounce of his courage to take that first step, let alone the second one, until he stood before her.
“Oakley?” she repeated, her green eyes narrowing.
He couldn’t speak, could barely breathe. He swallowed, trying hard not to look into those eyes as if he might be looking into his own hell.
She reached for him before he could move. Her wrinkled hand caught his and held it like a vise as she dragged him closer. The green eyes widened in alarm and he felt a chill rocket through him.
Then the woman shoved him away and began to scream.
* * *
ABBY HADN’T BEEN able to sleep last night. Her mind had been alive with strange flashes that could be memory or could
be her losing her sanity. Knowing that Ledger was in the next room hadn’t helped. Several times she’d almost gotten up and gone to him.
But she’d known what would happen. She was still married. It didn’t matter that it was a bad marriage. It didn’t matter what Wade had done. She couldn’t go to Ledger. Just the thought of him lying in his bed...
This morning she’d felt a little better.
“Stop trying so hard to remember,” the doctor had said when he dropped by to check on her. “You will make yourself crazy. If your memory is going to come back, it will, and when you least expect it. Relax. Enjoy this beautiful place. In fact, I think you should get out of this room. Maybe sit by the pool.”
Abby couldn’t help herself. She could feel the memories just at the edge of her consciousness and she had the horrible feeling that it was imperative that she remember. And soon.
“I’ll see that she takes it easy,” Ledger had told the doctor after thanking him for driving out.
Abby had tried to relax as she and Ledger went out by the pool after breakfast. She’d been glad that breakfast was more casual, with everyone eating on their own in the large, warm kitchen. Boone and Cull had already gone to work in the barns and Travers was in his office, so she and Ledger had the kitchen to themselves since the cook had gone into town for more groceries.
She was glad that Ledger didn’t mention marriage again. Right now, she couldn’t think of the future. There was so much of the past missing in her memory. She had to deal with it first. Or maybe she was just afraid of rushing into another marriage for the wrong reasons. She knew Ledger wanted to save her from Wade. For so long, he’d been trying to get her to leave Wade. But was that enough to build a marriage on? Once she was divorced, would Ledger still want to marry her?
Her head hurt even thinking about it. She had too much to worry about, she realized.
Ledger seemed content to sit with her by the pool and talk about the horses and his family’s plans for the ranch. She found herself smiling at him. He was a man with dreams. And she loved him so much it hurt.
“See that land on the mountainside over there?” He pointed toward a pine-studded hollow below a rock ridge. “That’s mine. That’s where I will build the house someday.” His gaze shifted to hers and she saw so much promise in his eyes that she wanted to cry.
