B.J. Daniels - Atonement

“So you fell in love with him.” It wasn’t a question.

She nodded. “We’d set a date to get married.”

That surprised him, she saw. “What happened?”

“You know what happened,” she said irritably, realizing she was buying into his act—and not for the first time. He’d played her for a fool once. She was determined he wouldn’t again. “You took my money and skipped town.” She stood up.

“You know it wasn’t me.” He said the words softly, his gaze holding hers.

She stared into his eyes for a long moment, then she lowered herself back onto the edge of the bed. She felt a small chill ripple through her. This wasn’t the man who’d hurt her. Hadn’t part of her known that the moment she’d seen the way he’d handled the horse yesterday?

“I don’t understand.” Her voice broke as her eyes welled with tears.

“There is only one explanation,” the undersheriff said. “If you’re telling the truth, then my brother is alive.”

CHAPTER FIVE

FRANK HAD WANTED to tell Lynette—he’d never called her Nettie—about the crow he’d seen on the telephone line at the ranch. But he already regretted telling Dillon. He knew it was silly, but he feared he’d jinxed it, and when he went home the crow would be gone.

He couldn’t explain it, but the crows gave him a feeling of well-being, as if everything was right with the world. The birds fascinated him, as well. He recalled one morning when he and Lynette had sat in his patrol pickup and watched two young crows playing on the main street of Beartooth.

It had been a game of tag, the young crows dancing around, teasing each other with a twig between them. Before that morning, Lynette hadn’t understood his fascination with the birds.

“They are like us,” she’d said after watching the young crows play.

He’d told her how they made extended families, taking in uncles and aunts, any crow that needed a place to stay. He still wasn’t sure exactly how they communicated among themselves, but they did. There was one thing he did know, though, for certain. Crows were better at making and keeping their families together than humans.

Frank shoved that thought away. He was in too good a mood to think about the past now. He and Lynette were going on a date. He smiled. And he was going back to work, back to a job he loved and had almost given up because of—

Nope, he wasn’t even going to think his ex-wife’s name. He’d put that all behind him. Over the past six months he’d worked hard at the ranch, filling his days so full that at night he couldn’t think. He would walk into the house, often too tired to eat, and would fall into his bed.

All that was in the past, he told himself, and yet he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to quit locking his doors at night or stop keeping his loaded gun within reach beside his bed. So maybe not everything could be put to rest in the past.

Frank had barely reached the sheriff’s department, retrieved his service gun and gold star, when he got his first call. A domestic dispute. Never his favorite. But it was nice to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

* * *

“WHAT ARE YOU saying?” Tessa demanded as she stared at Dillon. It was hard to look at him and not see Ethan. But more and more she was seeing subtle differences between the two men that had nothing to do with their looks.

“There is only one way you can be carrying my brother’s baby,” he said. “And that is if Ethan didn’t die in that car crash last March.”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know.”

She shook her head. “If the person behind the wheel wasn’t him, then why didn’t he come forward?”

Dillon let out a short, hard laugh. “He wanted everyone to believe he was dead.” He shook his head, as if amazed that his twin could be that cruel. A thought seemed to strike him. “What name was he going by when you met him? You said he’d lied about his last name.”

“Ethan Cross.”

He nodded. “That makes sense. It’s our mother’s maiden name.”

“You really are his twin brother.” She suddenly felt awful for calling him a liar. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

His smile was benevolent as he held out his hand. “Maybe we should start over. My name is Dillon Lawson.”

“Tessa Winters,” she said, her hand disappearing into his large, warm, callused one. She couldn’t tell which of them was trembling. Maybe both of them were, given what was becoming apparent. “Is it really possible?’

“With Ethan, anything is possible. Even probable.”

“Why would he let everyone think he was dead?”

“My guess is that he was in trouble and needed to disappear. How better than letting everyone believe he had died in the car wreck?”

“Everyone, including his twin brother?”

“We haven’t been close in years. Also, he’s apparently good at disappearing.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out his checkbook. “You said he took five thousand dollars from you?”

“Not quite. But I don’t want your money.”

He raised a brow. “You wouldn’t have come all this way unless you needed it.”

“I’ll manage. More than anything I wanted to look into Ethan’s eyes one last time.” She hated to admit that she’d actually thought about giving him another chance. Not for herself, but for their daughter. She couldn’t bear the thought of her little girl growing up without a father.

How foolish she had been. The man had let everyone believe he was dead. He’d lied about more than she could have imagined. Now all she wanted was for Ethan to sign the form giving away his rights. The last thing she wanted was him coming in and out of their lives and bringing his troubles with him.

“I’m sorry.”

She met Dillon’s blue gaze and wondered why she hadn’t seen it before. They might be identical twins, but where Ethan had tried to be gentle and caring, Dillon just was.

“What I really want is for him to sign the form. He didn’t want this baby. I don’t want him showing up years from now and trying to lay claim to my daughter.”

“You’re having a girl?” His voice broke. He cleared his throat. “I’m going to have a niece?” He smiled as she nodded, and she felt her heart lift at the joy she saw in his expression. She’d so wanted her daughter to have family, especially since she herself had grown up without any.

“I’ll see what I can find out about Ethan,” Dillon said, suddenly looking uneasy. “In the meantime, I would imagine you’ll be going back to California. I’ll let you know when I find him.”

Tessa shook her head. “I didn’t come all this way to give up that easily. If Ethan is alive, I’m finding him—with or without your help.”

* * *

“I DON’T THINK that’s a good idea, Tessa. Not only are you pregnant—when are you due?”

“Three weeks.”

“Very pregnant, and not trained for this sort of thing, and we have no idea what kind of trouble my brother is running from.” Even as Dillon said the words, he saw the stubborn lift of her chin. Determination burned in her blue gaze.

“You said you hadn’t seen him in two years,” she argued. “I, on the other hand, have firsthand knowledge of your brother during the past year. Between the two of us, we stand a better chance of finding him if we work together than alone.”

He studied her for a moment, remembering the .45 in her shoulder bag. He didn’t doubt that she could take care of herself under normal circumstances. But these weren’t normal. Whatever his brother was running from, it must be something big if it had forced him to fake his own death.

“You have to think about yourself and your baby,” he said. “If I’m right, my brother was involved in something bad. This could get dangerous.”