Twin Seduction

And who wouldn’t, she thought as she glanced over her shoulder to take another look at those brilliantly orange hills. There was a peacefulness here that appealed to her. Was it because she’d always had that secret fantasy about living on a ranch? But a fantasy was just that. She’d been born and bred in a city—with all its bustle and noise and constant excitement.

Still…there was definitely something about the place that was reaching out to her, tantalizing her.

Had her mother known that this would happen when she’d created that will?

Think about that later.

Knowing that she was stalling again, Jordan frowned and climbed the steps. It wasn’t like her to be so hesitant. The key was just where Maddie had left it—under one of the terra-cotta planters. Jordan sighed and shook her head. No self-respecting Manhattanite would leave a key in such an obvious place. She’d had the foresight to give Maddie a whole ring of keys before her sister had flown back to Santa Fe the morning after the will had been read.

Very carefully, Jordan inserted the key into the lock and turned it. As she pushed the door open, she suddenly realized why an uncharacteristic caution had been dogging her ever since she’d convinced her sister to agree to the switch.

Whatever she was going to discover beyond this door, whatever happened to her on this ranch was going to change her life.

Drastically.

So be it, she thought as she strode into the room. But the feeling that moved through her was so surprising that she very nearly backed up onto the porch. The instant that she’d walked into the cavernous room with its steepled ceiling, she’d inexplicably felt at home.

TWO HOURS LATER, Jordan stood in front of one of the huge windows in the spacious living room of the ranch and watched lightning flash in the distance. The floor-to-ceiling windows offered a wide-screen perspective, and the display rivaled the Fourth of July fireworks in Manhattan’s harbor.

It was nearly ten o’clock, and that meant it was 1:00 a.m. New York time. Still, she felt wired. After she’d finally gotten over her initial surprise, she’d been like a kid in a candy store, wandering from room to room, trying to take everything in. There were three bedrooms—a master suite she guessed had belonged to Mike Farrell, another one that probably served as a guest room and a third that definitely belonged to Maddie. The closet was full of her clothes.Jordan had discarded her sweaty city clothes, taken a quick shower and then changed into a set of her own fresh underwear. Maddie’s taste ran to plain white cotton. Hers never had. But she had borrowed her sister’s robe. Then she’d spent the most time in a cozy room that served as a study or library. But everything she found raised new questions.

She glanced down at the photo of Mike Farrell she’d taken from a table next to his bed. In the picture, Maddie was on a horse. She looked to be about eleven or twelve. The horse was a beauty—black with white spots. Mike Farrell was standing next to her. Something tightened around Jordan’s heart as she studied the images. Mike was handsome in a rugged, solid John Wayne kind of way, and he appeared to be a man who was comfortable in his own skin. His hand rested on top of Maddie’s on the pommel of the saddle. There was something about the gesture that spoke of an easy camaraderie. And love. What had been the occasion for the photo?

Her mother had stood next to her in a similar fashion the first time that she’d shown her horse, Julius Caesar. They’d obviously loved their daughters. Or at least the one each had chosen.

Why had they separated Maddie and her? Why had Eva and Mike split? The more the questions spun in her mind, the more determined Jordan became to find answers. Where had her parents met? Where had they lived when she and Maddie were born? Here on the ranch? If that was so, there might be someone in the area who remembered Eva Ware.

Frustrated and annoyed by the never-ending loop of questions, she strode into the kitchen. It was state-of-the-art, and the freezer and large pantry were well-stocked. Who was the cook, she wondered. Maddie? That was another question she’d have to ask.

But what she discovered when she opened the door to the refrigerator was that her twin was thoughtful. In spite of all the things that Maddie must have had to take care of to make the “switch,” she’d taken the time to leave cheese, plump grapes and wine. A chardonnay from the same vineyard that they’d shared at the bed and breakfast in Linchworth.

Jordan tired to ignore the guilt she felt as she uncorked the bottle and poured herself a generous glass. Then she fixed a plate with brie and crackers.

She hadn’t even thought about leaving food for her twin. Jase Campbell was the one who usually stocked the cupboard and refrigerator, and in the three and a half weeks he’d been in South America, she hadn’t replenished anything. On her own, she either ate out or brought home take out.

That was probably not such a convenient option here on the ranch. After taking a sip of her wine, she picked up the bottle and the plate of food, then moved back to the window to watch the show. The lightning seemed to be closer now, and for the first time, she heard a faint rumble of thunder.

Good thing she wasn’t afraid of storms.

But watching the show nature was providing wasn’t going to relax her enough to sleep. Taking another sip of her wine, she moved to Plan B. A movie. She wasn’t sure if it was Maddie or Mike, but she’d discovered earlier in her exploration of the library that someone shared her love of westerns. In spades. Not only was there an extensive collection of old paperback westerns, but she’d also unearthed a large cache of old cowboy movies. She’d run her fingers over the Clint Eastwood classics Pale Rider and The Un-forgiven, before settling on one of her all-time favorites, The Big Country, with Gregory Peck. The movie centered on ranchers feuding over access to a river that meant the survival of their cattle, but there was also a strong love story.

A perfect way to end her day. Setting her food and wine on the big coffee table, Jordan lit a fat white candle and used the remote to turn on the big flat-panel TV. Finally, she settled herself comfortably on the leather couch and started the film. She couldn’t prevent a smile as the movie’s familiar theme music filled the room.

When the rumbling thunder drew closer, she merely upped the volume, took another sip of her wine and spread brie on a cracker. Within minutes, she was swept away to the ranch in the midst of the vast land that served as the setting for the movie.

THE STORM was finally tapering off when Cash Landry turned onto the highway. The sky was pitch-black, and the rain was still pouring down in sheets. Visibility was poor, but about an hour ago, the electrical fireworks had moved on to the east.

The problem was that parts of the road could be flooded, and there wasn’t much chance of seeing that in advance. Bottom line, it was not the best time to be driving, but he had to check on Maddie. Mac McAuliffe, her foreman, lived several miles away with his family, so for the last year since Mike had died, Maddie had lived alone on the ranch.Cash didn’t like it. He liked it even less when he was out of touch with her as he’d been for the last ten days. His parents and then his father had been close friends with Mike Farrell, and he and Maddie had grown up together. Three years her senior, he’d early on taken on the role of looking after her. In his absence, he’d had his foreman, Sweeney, check on her daily when he came to feed the horses and check on the stock. When Sweeney had told him that he hadn’t seen Maddie today, Cash had only delayed long enough to shower before climbing into his pickup and heading for the Farrell Ranch.

Truth be told, he was worried about her. Her ranch had been plagued by vandalism for the past few months, and the incidents had been increasing in frequency and severity. At first, he’d blamed the occasional cut fence on the Trainer twins. One of them—Joey—had an obvious crush on Maddie, and Cash figured he was making a bid for attention. He’d had a heart-to-heart with the boy. He’d explained that time was money on a ranch and that Maddie couldn’t afford to lose manpower rounding up straying cattle and repairing fences.

But Joey Trainer had vehemently denied having anything to do with it. Cash had believed him. And there’d been other kinds of occurrences. Most recently, her horse, Brutus, had gotten ill. The vet had discovered that some of the hay had been poisoned. Since then, Cash had told Sweeney to bring over hay from the Landry ranch.

The most recent cut fence had allowed about a hundred head of her cattle to stray, and he hadn’t had time to round them all up before he had to take their combined herds to market.

Pressing his foot on the brake, Cash turned onto the drive that led to the Farrell Ranch. When he hit the first rut and heard the water splash up into the undercarriage of his pickup, he slowed. The driving would be tricky from now on.

What had bothered Cash most was that whoever had poisoned the hay had come close to the house. Too close. So he’d taken to sleeping in the guest room a couple of times a week. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but he was hoping that it would give whoever was behind the incidents pause.

Cash had his suspicions about who might be causing Maddie problems. Top of the list was Daniel Pearson, a real estate agent who’d been after her to let him put her ranch on the market for the past six months. Cash knew that Maddie didn’t want to sell the ranch, but Pearson had been persistent, and he might believe that she would cave under pressure.