Twin Secrets (Mills & Boon Desire) (The Rancher’s Heirs 01)

by Jules Bennett

  “I was going to have some work done on the house to get it up to the standards I needed.”

  A piece of her heart broke, fell at her feet and shattered.

  “Because?” she asked, thick emotions welling up in her throat.

  “Because this house is going to be part of my dude ranch.”

  “The hell you say?” Her father was on the verge of exploding. “I paid off my loan to the bank and this house is mine.”

  Colt cleared his throat, his chest puffed out as he drew in a breath. “Actually, the house and the land belong to me.”

  “What?” Annabelle gasped. “How is that possible? I’ve worked myself to death for the payments coming due.”

  Honestly, she didn’t want to know the answer. He’d deceived her. He’d lied to her face, made a joke of her and she’d given him her virginity. How naive could she be?

  Baby cries echoed over the baby monitor in the living room. She’d come to tell them apart and this was definitely Emily. Annabelle turned toward the steps, but her father held up a hand.

  “I’ll go.” He threw a glance to Colt before turning back to her. “See what this mess is all about.”

  Once they were alone again, Annabelle sank onto the steps. The fight was leaving her. She’d been hit so hard, so often lately, she wasn’t sure she could keep standing for the final knockout.

  “Just tell me,” she stated as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

  “I want to explain why—”

  “No.” Annabelle held up her hand. “I don’t care about the why. That part is obvious. You’re a selfish bastard, only looking out for your family, your precious land and not caring who you hurt in the process.”

  “Yes. That was the case at first. But then you came into the picture.”

  Annabelle laughed. “Seriously? That’s the route you’re going to take for the defense? You were dead set on having my childhood home, but then you saw me and the error of your ways shone bright. Am I close?”

  Suddenly she felt like fighting. The burst of anger surged her to her feet. It felt good, and kept the hurt at bay. “So let’s hear it. How do you own this? Because when you gave Dad the money, he paid the bank. Now we owe you and he signed a paper with you... Oh, no. What did he sign?”

  Any minute she’d wake from this nightmare.

  Colt took a step toward her, but she held out both hands. Emily’s cries echoed once again over the monitor, along with her father’s soothing words. This house meant everything to her and she wasn’t about to let Colt take it away. Surely there was something she could do.

  “When he asked for the money to pay off the loan, I offered to buy the place for more than market value, all cash. He turned me down. So when I gave him the money to pay off the loan, I had everything put in writing. My attorney drew up a document stating the amount due back and how it should be split into payments.”

  Annabelle shook her head. “Wait. Why would Dad come to you for the money anyway? I’ve wondered that from the beginning.”

  When he hesitated and glanced away, she threw her arm in the air. “Oh, come on. It’s a little late to protect me now, isn’t it? You’ve taken everything from me, just say it.”

  Colt dropped his head between his shoulders and stared down at his worn boots. “That’s not the first time I’ve loaned him money.”

  She couldn’t have heard him right. “What?”

  “He’s borrowed before,” Colt stated, bringing his bright gaze up to hers.

  “And...has he paid you back?” she whispered.

  Colt shook his head. “That’s how I knew I could have this place. He was so desperate for the money, he didn’t read what he signed. It states that after the debt is paid back to me, I will be the sole owner of your property, the house, and all outbuildings.”

  The wind literally was knocked out of her as if he’d punched her in the gut. She reached out, placing a hand on the newel post, and looked out the window toward the large oak tree in the front yard.

  How could this day be so bright and sunny when inside her heart was black and stormy? There was nothing left. She literally had nothing but a gambling father and two babies depending on her.

  “Annabelle.”

  “Don’t say my name. Don’t talk to me and don’t ever touch me again.” She jerked and took a step backward. “You made a fool of me. You used me on your ranch, worked me like one of your minions, purposely seduced me and made me feel... I hate you for that most of all.”

  Dampness tickled her cheeks, and she swiped the backs of her hands across her face. “Get out. Get the hell out so I can figure out what to do now.”

  The harsh reality slapped her in the face. “I can’t order you out of your own house, can I? Damn it. Can you at least give us a few days to find someplace to go? We need to pack...and my mother’s things are in the attic...her dishes, where will I store all of that?”

  She was thinking out loud, muttering really, because she certainly wasn’t talking to the devil disguised as a cowboy.

  “You can stay here,” he told her. “I wasn’t going to just kick you out. I will buy you someplace to stay. You can pick it out.”

  Tears flooded down her cheeks and she didn’t even care at this point. Pride be damned. She had nothing left to lose.

  “I don’t want a thing from you,” she growled. “I don’t ever want to see your face again. I don’t want to hear your name. We’ll be out by Friday. Tell your precious engineer he can return then.”

  He continued to stare at her, and she had to be hallucinating because she could’ve sworn she saw pain in his eyes. But men with cold hearts and no souls didn’t hurt.

  “Everything that happened between us was real,” he told her. “I have feelings for you and I wanted you to move in so we could try—”

  “So I wouldn’t find out what a lying jerk you are?” she asked, another realization hitting her square in the chest. “My eyes are wide-open now. You only wanted me at Pebblebrook so I wouldn’t learn the truth. But you got your wires crossed with one of your minions, exposing you for the worthless man you are.”

  Why did looking at him hurt so badly? Those blue eyes that had captivated her for days, held her when they made love...

  No. They hadn’t made love. They’d acted on their attraction and used each other for sex. Nothing more. No matter how much she thought she’d been in love with him.

  “I care for you,” he told her, and his tone might have been convincing had she not known the truth. “I want you happy, I want to help your family. Let me find you another house.”

  A humorless laugh escaped her. “I’d think you of all people would understand the importance of family tradition and loyalty. I don’t want another place and I most definitely don’t want you paying for it. I’d live on the street before I took a dollar from you.”

  It may come to that. But she’d figure something out. An inexpensive apartment in town could always serve as backup.

  “Annabelle—”

  “Leave, Colt. You’ve got the house, the land. That’s what you wanted, right?” She bit down on her quivering lip and swallowed. “You have everything now.”

  His eyes misted. “Not everything.”

  Then he was gone, leaving Annabelle to sink back to the steps. After all the fighting, all the hurdles she’d jumped, she had been defeated by a man she’d fallen for in a whirlwind affair.

  Her broken heart would have to wait. Right now, she had a house to pack and a future to try to piece back together...a future without any dream coming true.

  Eighteen

  Colt slammed his office door and cursed the moment he’d decided to back Neil Carter into a corner.

  The land was his. The debt wasn’t fully paid, but the end result was inevitable since Neil signed the papers. For years Colt had dreamed of this moment. He’d waited for the day when he could tell his father that they had secured the land next door and were ready to move forward with Pebblebrook Dude Ranch. The extra home and barns
would be useful space. Added to that, the other property carved into the corner of Pebblebrook and now their ranch would be complete.

  But instead of texting his brothers the news or rushing to the nursing home to tell his father, Colt went straight to his bar and poured himself a tumbler of bourbon. He downed it, welcoming the familiar burn.

  Getting drunk wouldn’t solve a thing. It sure as hell wouldn’t turn back the clock and give him the chance to handle this whole ordeal differently.

  But he truly didn’t know what he’d change. He wanted the land, that was obvious. Hurting Annabelle was never part of the deal. She’d come to him broken, ready to slay any dragon in her way to save her family. He’d admired her from day one and had instantly set out on claiming her.

  Well, he’d done that, as well. So now what? He had the land, he’d slept with Annabelle, and now she held his heart. How the hell did he get himself into this mess and how could he work his way back out without doing more damage?

  Damn it. He hadn’t expected emotions to botch up the triumph of his success.

  His office door jerked open and Colt barely raised his gaze to his brother in the doorway.

  “Not in the mood,” Colt growled as he poured another round. Nothing like toasting your failures with yourself and having your oldest brother, the miracle surgeon, as a witness.

  “I saw you tear in here like your world just ended.” Nolan didn’t take the not-so-subtle hint that Colt wanted to be alone. He crossed the office and stopped on the other side of the bar. “I assume this has to do with Annabelle.”

  Colt tipped back the glass and closed his eyes before slamming the empty tumbler back onto the mahogany bar top.

  “The land is ours and the engineer will be moving forward with drawing up some plans and getting us an estimate.”

  Nolan braced his hands against the grooved edge of the bar and leaned forward. “Which is what you’ve always wanted, so I’m assuming Annabelle knows that she no longer has a home.”

  “She knows everything.”

  Well, not everything. There was one more thing he could do for her that might lessen her pain. She’d still hate him, he couldn’t change that, but he owed her.

  “You care for her.” Nolan let out a low whistle. “I didn’t see that coming. But I can tell you from experience, if you want to be with her, fight. No matter what you’ve done, you can’t let her go.”

  Colt shook his head. “She doesn’t ever want to see me or talk to me again. Those were her parting words.”

  “And you’re just giving up? You fought for years for this property, but when you find a woman you care for you opt to drink and will the pain away?”

  Wasn’t that what any cowboy did?

  “She deserves for you to grovel, to show her that she means more than this dream of yours,” Nolan went on. “But only if she does mean more. I could be reading you all wrong, but you look like hell.”

  Colt had never second-guessed a business decision he’d made. Confidence was key to maintaining a successful ranch. But right now, he wanted this pain to go away. And he knew if he was hurting this much, that Annabelle was miserable. She was still trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and all he’d done was throw more shards into the mix.

  “There’s no fixing this,” Colt stated, pushing away from the bar. “I can make the process a little easier, but she doesn’t want my help. I offered to buy her another house.”

  Nolan laughed and raked a hand through his dark hair. “You don’t get women at all, man. She doesn’t want another house. She wants the one she grew up in. We don’t need that property to grow, Colt. We have five thousand acres. Use some of the east side to build cabins. You want the girl, go get her. If you’re content with simply keeping the property, stay here and drink your day away.”

  Nolan started back toward the door before stopping and glancing over his shoulder. “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

  Colt knew Annabelle didn’t want to see him. He needed to give her time before he approached her again and explained his side, and maybe then she’d understand.

  But if he wanted to nudge her in the right direction, then he needed to take something to her, something that rightfully belonged to her.

  There was no denying the truth any longer...he loved Annabelle. In a short time, she’d captured his heart. Oh, she’d fought the attraction, but he’d pursued her and he wasn’t sorry. How could he be? She was the greatest thing that had happened to him and he’d destroyed their chance at happiness before it could even get started.

  He had to prove to her that he wasn’t an unfeeling jerk.

  Colt headed to his master suite to retrieve the box he’d had hidden for nearly two years. Doing the right thing at this point was rather moot, but he couldn’t let Annabelle believe he was the monster she claimed.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry, Belle.”

  If she only had a dollar for every time her father had said those words just this evening alone...

  Annabelle cradled a sleepy Emily and swayed back and forth on the porch. “There’s nothing we can do now. We wouldn’t have the money to fight that document anyway. But I am going to demand to see it. I know Colt wouldn’t have allowed for any loopholes, but I won’t take his word for it.”

  From the start, she’d known he had an agenda, but she’d thought most of it was getting her into bed. She had a clue he wanted her land, but she never dreamed he already owned it.

  She heated all over again when she thought of how foolish she was, how much of a laughingstock she must’ve been each time she showed up for so-called work at the ranch.

  From here on out, she was focusing on her girls. Annabelle needed to go out first thing in the morning and find a job, and then she’d look into housing.

  The thought of packing up the only place she’d ever wanted to be hurt almost as much as Colt’s betrayal. Just his name in her mind had her heart aching.

  “We’ll get through this,” she told her father. “But when I say no gambling, I mean it. This can’t go on. I don’t care if it’s one dollar or one hundred. No more.”

  He stood up from the swing, sending it rocking on its own in the breeze. “I’m going to do everything I can. I know we need to do this together. I’m trying.”

  “I know.” He was always trying, but this time he had to stick to a plan and now that she was back, maybe she could watch him more closely. “Go on to bed,” she told him. “I’ll come in later. I just want to hold her a while longer and enjoy the silence and the fresh air.”

  She wanted to sit on this porch swing with Emily and Lucy, just like her mother used to do with Annabelle and her sister. Leaving the memories behind would be the hardest part. Seeing the inside of this home bare would quite possibly break her.

  “I can take Emily in and lay her down if you’d like. It’s rather late.”

  Annabelle nodded. “I know, but she can sleep in my arms. She calms me, gives me peace. I guess I’ll have that time to spend with my babies after all until I find another job.”

  Considering the hell she’d been through, Annabelle needed peace. She needed to focus on her family, on piecing the broken hearts back together.

  “We’re going to rebuild our lives,” he told her. “With your mother and Trish gone...”

  His voice caught and it was all Annabelle could do to hold it together. Her father never broke down in front of her.

  “Now that they’re gone,” he said on a shaky breath. “You are all I have. You and those sweet girls. I want to be a better man for you guys and I want you to know I’m going to help by getting a job. We’ll do this together.”

  She truly hoped so because she wasn’t sure she could do it alone. “I love you, Dad.”

  He crossed to her, kissed the top of her head, and headed inside. Annabelle patted Emily through the cotton sleeper and made her way to the swing. Wherever she ended up, Annabelle vowed to own a porch with a swing. It may not be this porch, it may not be this s
wing, but it was a tradition she could take with her.

  Tears slid down her cheeks as she pushed off the porch with her toes to set the swing in motion again. Emily clutched onto Annabelle’s T-shirt as she drifted off to sleep. Trish’s precious babies were counting on her to provide protection, stability, a future, and she planned to deliver.

  So much had happened today and Annabelle was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was still in love with a man who had hurt her so deeply, she didn’t know if she’d ever recover.

  But he’d told her all along that family was everything to him. He hadn’t been lying.

  He’d cradled her in his arms after making love and told her his father’s ultimate goal when he’d been in charge. Now Colt was pushing forward with those plans no matter who was run over in the process. A part of her knew where he was coming from, realized the importance of clinging to a parent’s dream.

  Still, it didn’t cancel out what he’d done. He’d stolen her home. From the moment she met him, he knew exactly what the outcome of this situation would be and he chose to play with her life anyway. Those actions were unforgivable.

  Headlights swept up her driveway and Annabelle came to her feet, tightening her hold on Emily and pulling her into her chest.

  Colt’s truck came to a stop and Annabelle braced herself. If he was coming to beg for forgiveness, he could take his shiny, expensive vehicle and get the hell off her...

  It was his land. He had every right to be there.

  The soft glow from the porch cast enough light for her to see that he was carrying a box. As he drew closer, she recognized that box. Her mother’s.

  Annabelle went to the edge of the porch and met his eyes when he stopped at the base of the steps.

  “I’m not staying,” he told her. “I just thought this should be returned to you.”

  There was no holding back the tears, making it difficult to juggle a sleeping baby while swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Why do you have my mother’s jewelry box?”

  Colt held the box between his hands, his attention never wavering from her. “Because your father needed money. He knew there wasn’t anyone around who could afford to buy this, so he came to me.”