Linda Warren - The Texan's Secret

She swallowed and wasn’t sure what to say to him. The truth would hurt too many people. “Listen. I didn’t take anything from Southern Cross, so can we please let this drop?”

“No.”

She should have known that he didn’t plan to be lenient. He’d come for the truth and he wasn’t leaving without it. The truth. It was a can of worms that had been festering for over twenty years, and once opened, it would stink from Houston to High Cotton. How could she open that can? She had to stall, or maybe entice the handsome cowboy. She stopped herself from laughing out loud at the ridiculous thought. What did she know about enticing?

Chance shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Let me make this easy for you.” He could see she was thinking of dancing around the truth. He had to apply pressure. “If you don’t tell me why you were trying to rob the Calhouns, I’ll call the constable of High Cotton. He’ll notify the police here and they’ll arrest you for attempted robbery and take you back to High Cotton to face the charges.” He gave her a second to digest that. “Do you want to put Darcy through that?”

Shay paled. “You wouldn’t.”

“You know I would. I wouldn’t have come here otherwise.”

She winced. “I thought you were nice, but you’re not.”

“I’m the foreman of Southern Cross and responsible for everything that happens while the Calhouns are away.”

“I didn’t take anything, okay?” Her voice grew angry.

“I don’t know that for sure. When I came in, you had the safe open and were rummaging through it. What were you after? And how did you get the combination?”

Her head jerked up. “You saw me leave, and could see that I didn’t take anything. How many times do I have to say that?”

“But you were after something. I just interrupted you.”

Shay gazed down at her sneakers and remained silent.

The shattered look on her face twisted his stomach and prompted him to add, “Shay, I mean you no harm, but I have to know why you tried to rob Southern Cross—a house in a small out-of-the-way town.”

She still remained silent.

“If you’re innocent, I’ll forget the whole thing.”

Her hands curled into fists. “But I’m not innocent.” The words came out low, but he heard them.

He felt a blow to his chest. For the first time he realized he wanted her to be innocent, or to have a very good explanation. In a short amount of time she’d awakened his heart. He’d thought it had stopped working long ago, but one look into her green eyes had started him thinking of happy endings and the fairy tales his mother used to read to him.

Shay looked him in the eye. “If I tell you the truth, will you promise I won’t be arrested? I can’t leave Darcy. I’m all she has.” She sighed heavily. “And, yes, I should have thought of her before….”

“Why didn’t you?” When he saw the kid, he’d wondered why she’d take such a risk. There had to be a reason. “Where is the child’s father?”

“Darcy is my adopted daughter. Her parents are dead.” Shay heaved another sigh. “I did a very stupid thing because—”

“Shay!” a woman’s voice shouted, through a fit of coughing.

Shay glanced over her shoulder. “I really have to go.”

Chance placed his hand on the door to keep her from closing it. “Not until you tell me.”

They stared at each other, one unyielding, the other determined. Shay knew she was beaten and had no choice. She had to open that can and reveal secrets that should never be told, at least to her way of thinking. It was a little late to realize her foolishness, but she had to consider Darcy now. First, though, she had to have some assurance.

“Promise I won’t be arrested.”

“If you didn’t take anything, I’ll do all I can to get Judd to drop the whole thing.”

She frowned. “Why do you have to tell him?” She didn’t want anything to do with the Calhouns. Her momentary-insanity jaunt had made her realize she didn’t belong at Southern Cross. She should have kept that door closed, as always.

“Because he’s the owner of Southern Cross, and as his foreman I don’t keep things from him.”

“Do you have the word loyalty tattooed across your butt?” The question slipped out before she could stop it.

His lips twitched into a grin. “Yes.”

Shay realized the conversation had switched into flirtation. This could be easy.

She flipped back her hair. “Maybe you’ll show me one day.”

“Maybe,” he drawled, and then his voice became serious again. “But first you have something to tell me.”

Damn. She should have known this wouldn’t be easy. He probably really did have loyalty tattooed on his butt.

“Well?” He waited.

She tried to speak, but her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her mouth.

“Shay.”

Her name sounded so wonderful on his lips. It reminded her of lovers, moonlight and… What was she thinking? There was never going to be anything between her and Chance Hardin, especially after she told him the truth, and for a number of other reasons.

The words hovered in her throat and then she blurted them out. “My mother was once married to Jack Calhoun.”

Chance felt as if he’d been kicked in the head by the meanest bronc in Texas. Had he heard her correctly? “Excuse me?”

“My mother, Blanche Dumont, was Jack’s second wife. He lavished her with jewels and anything she wanted, but in the end he took everything from her, including her wedding rings.” Shay drew a long breath. “As I told you, my mother is dying of lung cancer and she’s obsessed with Jack Calhoun. He’s all she thinks about. She’s been pressing me for months about her rings. She wants to be buried with them on her finger, so she devised this plan…. That’s what I was doing in High Cotton.” Shay grimaced. “But things went awry.”

The name finally clicked. Blanche Dumont—the stepmother from hell. How many times had he heard Judd say that? But not lately. Since Judd and Cait had found happiness, Blanche’s name was no longer mentioned. Judd had filed that away under his father’s bad taste in women.

Chance barely remembered the details. He’d been just a kid, but everyone in High Cotton knew of Jack Calhoun’s love triangle with Renee and Blanche.

“How…how were you planning on getting in the house? You didn’t…”

“Have the wreck on purpose?” she finished for him. “I may have been under pressure, but I’m not that stupid. I didn’t plan on being gone overnight, either. I would never leave Darcy that long.”

Chance was glad to hear that, but he was still grappling with the truth. Could Shay be Judd’s half sister? How old was she? And how did you ask a woman that question?

“I was distracted with my phone,” she was saying. “I was going to introduce myself as Blanche’s daughter and ask for the rings, or demand them, as my mother wanted me to.”

“The asking part would have worked. The Calhouns are very nice people.”

“My mother didn’t have a good relationship with Renee, and I wasn’t sure.” Shay shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. Once I met her I couldn’t do it. She was too kind. But…” Shay hesitated. “When I left you in the kitchen, I had a wild idea to check and see if the rings were still in the safe, as my mother had said. The moment I saw the jewelry in the velvet box I knew it would be robbery. Just because something once belonged to you doesn’t mean it still does. I couldn’t take the rings—not even for my mother.”

Chance’s eyes narrowed. “How did you get the combination?”

“From my mother. She got it out of Jack one night when he was drunk. I was surprised it still worked.”