High-Caliber Christmas

by B. J Daniels

  Jace knew what she was saying was true. She’d been like the true black sheep of the family, since no one in the Winchester branch of the family tree acknowledged that she even existed.

  “Virginia Winchester?” he said, trying to calm down.

  “My aunt. She was pregnant with Jordan McCormick’s son. Virginia’s been gone the past twenty-seven years and has only recently returned to town.”

  So he was the child of Virginia Winchester and Jordan McCormick. “They weren’t married?”

  She shook her head. “Jordan’s mother was against the relationship. There has always been bad blood between the Winchesters and McCormicks. I have no idea why. But Joanna McCormick was afraid that once the baby was born, her son Jordan would marry my aunt. That is apparently why she paid a woman posing as a nurse to switch the babies.”

  Jace shook his head in disbelief. “What happened to my mother’s… Marie’s baby?”

  “Marie had a difficult pregnancy, and an even more difficult labor, apparently,” McCall said. “At her advanced age, she knew the risks. From what I’ve found out, she was lucky that the pregnancy didn’t kill her. As it was, her baby died two days after it was born.”

  He closed his eyes, thinking of all the times his mother had told him about how badly she’d wanted a baby, how hard it had been and how lucky she was to get him. She’d known the babies had been switched. Maybe not at first, but later…

  “I’m sorry, Jace, but Joanna McCormick confessed. So did your uncle.”

  His eyes flew open. “My uncle?”

  “It’s complicated,” she said and waited for him to lower himself back into his chair. “I can only tell you what we’ve been able to piece together from the last people to see Audie alive. Thirty years ago, he’d been dating a woman posing as a nurse. He knew she was going to switch the babies and obviously must have known that Marie’s baby wasn’t doing well. We don’t believe he knew that Joanna McCormick had already paid the woman to make the switch. When she changed her mind and switched the babies back, he…”

  Jace felt his heart drop. “No.”

  “He killed her and switched the babies. I’m sure he did it because he knew it was his sister’s last chance to have a baby. Unfortunately the woman’s sister—”

  “He killed her, as well?”

  McCall nodded.

  Jace was on his feet again, pacing the floor. He raked a hand through this thick, dark hair and swore.

  “This isn’t possible.” Jace felt sick. He couldn’t quit thinking about all the times his mother had told him that he’d been a blessing from God. Well, not exactly a blessing from God, as it turned out. “You have any proof of this?”

  “Because it became a criminal investigation, the baby Virginia Winchester buried was exhumed. DNA tests confirmed that the child was Marie Dennison’s.”

  Jace looked away. “Did my mother know?”

  “It all came out after she died,” McCall said. “I don’t think she knew what her brother had done.”

  Or she’d known from that moment thirty years ago when a nurse had put the baby in her arms—and said nothing?

  Jace hated to think how long she had known he wasn’t the son she’d conceived. Long enough that she’d wanted to tell him before she died, of that he was certain.

  “This is really a hell of a thing to drop on someone,” he said. “What am I supposed to do with this information?”

  McCall shook her head. “Virginia Winchester is your mother. What you decide to do with the information is up to you.”

  He rubbed a hand over his face.

  “She’s staying out at the ranch with my grandmother.”

  “Your grandmother?” He remembered stories about the reclusive Pepper Winchester. Since when had she acknowledged that McCall was her granddaughter?

  McCall smiled. “Like I said, a lot has happened since you left town.”

  “Apparently.”

  “I’m sorry you had to come back to this along with everything else.”

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  “If there is anything I can do…”

  “So, I guess you and I are…”

  “Cousins,” McCall said.

  “You’ll understand if I’m not excited about being a Winchester.”

  She smiled. “Call me if you need anything.”

  He left, stopping outside on the sidewalk to breathe. The news had him more than a little rattled. It was as if nothing in his past had been as he’d thought it. Not his mother. Not even his uncle Audie. Most especially, not himself.

  Jace walked three doors down to the Range Rider Bar, shoved open the door and stepped into the dim, cool darkness. He needed a drink.

  As he took a stool at the bar, the young female bartender smiled at him. “What would you like?”

  “Beer. Whatever you have on tap.” He’d never been a drinker. As she walked away, he realized he should have ordered something stronger. He glanced in the mirror behind the bar, taking in the three patrons on stools at the other end, glad to see that he didn’t recognize anyone—nor did they seem to know him.

  When the bartender brought his beer, he stared into the depths of his glass and tried to take in what McCall had told him.

  Audie murdered two women and took his own life? He thought of his uncle, a prickly loner who only softened when he was around his sister Marie and Jace. But he would never have guessed the man capable of murder.

  “Holy hell,” he breathed and took a long drink of the beer.

  Marie Dennison wasn’t his mother. Instead Virginia Winchester was? He’d never laid eyes on the woman.

  Nor did he plan to, he thought as he took another drink. He’d get the only mother he’d known and Audie buried. Then he would get the hell out of here.

  He thought about his family ranch to the north of town, where he’d been raised. He’d put it up for sale. That way there would be no reason to ever come back here.

  He finished his beer, feeling a little better. First the mortuary, then a real estate office. With luck, he’d be putting all of this behind him in forty-eight hours.

  Getting up, he tossed some money on the bar and headed for the door. As he stepped out onto the sidewalk, he came face-to-face with the only woman he’d ever loved—and the real reason he had sneaked in and out of town all these years.

  MCCALL HATED THAT SHE’D had to give Jace Dennison the bad news. She was still a little shocked to see how much he looked like the rest of the Winchesters. Why hadn’t they all seen it growing up? Maybe some people had seen it.

  Or maybe it had taken him growing into a man to see the striking resemblance. He’d left Whitehorse at eighteen. Now he was a man, an incredibly handsome man with the Winchester dark eyes and hair.

  What would he do now that he knew the truth? Get out of town as quickly as possible. As it was, he’d given Whitehorse a wide berth for years. After his father’s death, he’d visited the ranch to see his mother and uncle but hadn’t been seen around town.

  Her phone rang. She picked up, not surprised to hear her grandmother’s voice.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?” Pepper Winchester asked.

  “I was just thinking about you,” McCall said. “I might come down to the ranch this afternoon. Are you and Virginia going to be around?”

  Her grandmother chuckled at that, since she hadn’t left the ranch in twenty-seven years except recently, and that was only to help McCall pick out flowers for her wedding.

  “I suppose Virginia will be here,” Pepper said. “Is there something you need to talk to her about?”

  “Yes, I’ll be there in about an hour,” McCall said. “Please don’t have Enid cook anything.” She hung up, thinking about her grandmother’s irascible housekeeper. For all the years Pepper had been a recluse, closed up on the ranch, all she’d had for company was Enid Hoagland and her husband, Alfred.

  With Alfred gone, now there was only Enid and McCall’s aunt Virginia. Virginia was possibly even a worse companion, giv
en her bitter relationship with her mother. McCall often wondered why she was still at the ranch.

  Pepper was convinced her daughter was after the famed Winchester fortune, but McCall suspected Virginia had other reasons for wanting to be with her mother after all these years.

  KAYLEY.

  Jace looked into those amazing blue eyes of hers and was surprised that they were exactly as they were in his dreams. Her hair was still the color of sunshine, and he knew the feel of it between his fingers the same way he knew the feel of her skin beneath his lips.

  “Kayley,” Jace said on a breath. What was she doing here? Last he’d heard she was teaching school in some small town in western Montana.

  “Jace,” she said, her wide, full mouth quirking a little as if amused at his reaction to running into her. She would have expected him to return to Whitehorse for his mother and uncle’s funerals, but he didn’t have a clue she’d be in town, even though he should have. She and his mother had always been close.

  His mother—he groaned inwardly at the thought of what the sheriff had told him.

  “So you’re just home for the funeral,” he asked. Kayley had always been able to knock him off balance. He’d thought he’d outgrown her effect on him. It shocked him that she could still make him feel like a teenager.

  She shook her head. “I live here now.”

  Damn, but she hadn’t changed. If anything she was more beautiful. Her blond hair was shorter, her blue eyes still like the Montana sky, her wide, full mouth still entirely too kissable. She wore jeans, boots, a checked Western shirt and jean jacket…and no one wore jeans like Kayley Mitchell.

  “I came back a year ago. I’m teaching kindergarten here in town.” Her expression softened. “I was so sorry to hear about your mother. Marie was a very special person.”

  “Wasn’t she, though.” Marie had adored Kayley and had been devastated when he’d broken the engagement. While his mother had not mentioned Kayley for years, he’d known that Marie kept in touch with her. He’d seen a letter to Kayley at his mother’s house the last time he was in town. That’s how he knew she was teaching in Western Montana. It had been addressed to her at the school.

  He’d wondered then if his mother had left the letter out where he could see it. The address had been Miss Kayley Mitchell. Not subtle, but effective. Kayley hadn’t married. At least, she hadn’t been married then.

  “So, you came back to Whitehorse,” he said.

  “This is home,” she said a little defensively. “I missed it. You’re still doing whatever it was you do.”

  “Still,” he said, also feeling defensive.

  They stood like that, just looking at each other, neither of them seeming to know what to say. Jace wondered why she didn’t tie into him, tell him what a jackass he’d been to break things off so close to their wedding date. He deserved her anger after what he’d done to her. He thought they’d both feel better if she just let him have it.

  “How are you doing?”

  He shrugged. “I’m okay.”

  She nodded, clearly knowing he was lying. That was the problem with a woman knowing you too well.

  “It’s tough, you know, with everything that came with Marie’s death.”

  “Marie?” She raised an eyebrow. “She was still your mother no matter what.”

  “Yeah.” And Audie was still his uncle, and everyone in the county knew his life history even before he did.

  “I know it was hard for you to come back,” she said.

  He almost laughed, because he was just wishing to hell he hadn’t. Seeing Kayley made it all worse. If that plane crash had laid him up just a little longer in the jungle…

  “If you need any help, or just someone to talk to, for old time’s sake,” she said, “I bought my folks’ place. If you don’t remember the phone number, it’s in the book. They moved to Arizona, spend most of the year there and some with my sister in California, only a month here in the summer.” She stopped abruptly.

  He figured she knew he wasn’t going to call.

  “My thoughts will be with you tomorrow,” she said.

  “It was good to see you,” he said. Good and painful. All these years, he’d tried to convince himself that he’d gotten over her. No wonder he’d gone out of his way on his other visits back home to make sure he didn’t run into her.

  “You, too, Jace.” She studied him for a moment, her smile rueful.

  As he watched her walk away, he felt all those old feelings rush at him like fighter planes. He swore under his breath, wishing she’d told him what a bastard he was instead of offering to help him through the next few days.

  Just the sight of her still stirred a desire in him like no woman ever had.

  As he turned toward his rental SUV, he told himself as he had twelve years ago that he would have hurt her worse if he’d married her and stayed in Whitehorse. But even as he told himself that, he couldn’t get one thought out of his mind. What if he hadn’t left? What if he’d stayed and married her? Hell, they could have a couple of kids by now.

  That struck him like an arrow to the heart. He stopped as he reached the SUV and was reaching for his keys, when he felt it again. That insane sensation that someone was watching him.

  He realized with a sobering shock that normally he was more aware of his surroundings. It was a survival skill in his business. But he’d been so shaken up over everything since getting his mother’s letter and the news of her death and his uncle’s that he’d gotten sloppy.

  Now, though, he took in the street. On this side was a row of businesses, a half-dozen pickups parked diagonally in front of them. An elderly woman came out of the hardware store. A man went into the bank at the end of the block. A car came up the street.

  He thought for a moment that he’d imagined the feeling of being watched. He’d already realized that he couldn’t trust his instincts earlier with that moment of panic before he’d boarded the plane.

  But his instincts told him that he wasn’t so out of it that he’d imagined this.

  His gaze fell on a silver SUV like the one he’d rented. It was parked across the street by the park. Someone was sitting behind the wheel, but with the sun glinting off the window…

  A pickup went by, casting a long shadow over the SUV across the street. That’s when he saw her. She wore large sunglasses and a hat. She quickly looked away, but he’d recognized her. As he started to cross the street, she hurriedly started the engine and took off, her face turned away. But there was no doubt.

  The woman driving the SUV was the woman he’d met at the airport. Ava Carris. What was she doing in Whitehorse? Or maybe more to the point, why was she sitting on the main drag watching him?

  Chapter Three

  Kayley Mitchell climbed into her pickup, telling herself she was fine. But after several attempts to put her key in the ignition, she gave up and quit pretending, letting the tears come. Jace.

  She’d known seeing him again would be hard. She’d thought she was ready to face him. She’d been wrong. Nothing had prepared her for this, even though she’d known he would come home for his mother’s funeral—if he could.

  But then Jace had been running from his feelings for years. Could she really be sure what he would do? Especially now after hearing about not only his mother’s death, but also his uncle’s suicide and all that that entailed.

  The story was all over town. Her friend and local reporter Andi Jackson had finally done an article about the murders, the baby switch and how Jace Dennison was actually the son of Virginia Winchester. It was all anyone had been talking about for the past month.

  Kayley could just imagine how hard all of this was on Jace. She knew seeing her didn’t make things easier for him. Did he think she didn’t know that he seldom came home even to see his mother and uncle, and, when he did, he avoided town? Avoided even the chance he might run into her if she was home visiting?

  She had thought for sure that he would come home when he heard about his mother’s ill
ness. But he hadn’t, so she had begun to doubt he would show up for her funeral—until she came out of the store, and there he was.

  It had taken her breath away. She was still trembling inside. One look at him and she saw that he’d heard about his uncle. Her heart had gone out to him, even as badly as he’d hurt her. He’d lost his mother and uncle. As far as she knew, he had no other family.

  Kayley brushed angrily at her tears. She felt just as she had in high school, her heart pounding, pulse racing, mouth dry as cotton. Hadn’t she cried enough tears for Jace Dennison? He’d broken her heart and she’d never gotten over it. It had taken everything in her not to let him see the effect he had on her.

  Not that she ever wanted him to know how much he’d hurt her. Twelve years had dulled the pain but done nothing to temper the desire she still felt for him. She’d moved on, and yet just seeing him had brought it all back, the memory of the two of them together.

  She looked around now, afraid she’d been seen crying over him, or, worse, that Jace had witnessed it. Everyone in town would be talking about the two of them as it was. She didn’t need them gossiping about her breakdown on the main drag.

  But as she glanced around, she didn’t see Jace. Still, she felt as if someone was watching her.

  AVA HAD PANICKED WHEN she’d seen Jace coming across the street toward her car. That had her less upset than the fact that he’d somehow known she was sitting across the street watching him. He’d sensed her.

  She’d seen the way he’d looked up, suddenly aware of her. That alone told her she’d been right to follow him to Whitehorse. She’d felt a connection the first time she’d seen him at the Denver airport. It wasn’t just that he looked so much like her deceased husband, John. Something else was going on. She could feel it.

  Ava had seen him talking to that woman. That was why she’d driven around the block after her close encounter with Jace. She’d been curious about the woman, picking up something in the way they’d stood as they talked to each other. There was a history there. She could feel it.

  She’d gotten around the block in time to see the woman climb into a pickup. Parking, she’d watched her, seen her start to leave, then drop her head to her steering wheel. Even from a few vehicles away, Ava could see that the woman was crying.