Travis leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Damned right we are,” he said gruffly, and shot a hard look at his father. “It’s just too bad it took so long for our old man to come to his senses.”
“Came to ’em, didn’t I?” Jonas said. “That’s what counts.”
“Yeah,” Slade said, “but only after you got jerked around by some no-account con man from Atlanta—”
“Slade,” Travis and Gage both said, but it was too late.
“Hell,” Slade mumbled. “I didn’t mean…Catie, Sugar, I shouldn’t have—”
“Tyler,” Caitlin said, and wondered how she could sound so calm and cool when her heart was lifting into her throat. “You’re talking about Tyler Kincaid.”
“Well, go on,” Jonas said. “Tell her.”
Slade took a deep breath. “Yeah. We’re talking about that son of a bitch, Kincaid.” He reached for her hand and clasped it tightly in his. “The bastard took you in, Caitlin. I wish there were some easier way to say it, but—”
“Took me in, how?”
Again, the sound of her own voice surprised her. Maybe it was because whatever her brothers were about to tell her would be no surprise. Oh, the details might be, but in her heart she’d known all along that Tyler was too good to be true. That such a strong, passionate, tender man should have come into her life had to have been either a miracle or a mistake, and she’d always known that life didn’t deal in miracles.
“Took me in, how?” she repeated, as she took her hand from Slade’s and rose to her feet.
Her brothers looked at each other. Gage cleared his throat. “He wants Espada.”
“No.” Caitlin looked from one unsmiling face to the other. “No, you’re wrong about that. He doesn’t want—”
“He does.” Travis cleared his throat, too. “Seems they found oil in the west range. Lots of oil. It’s gonna bring in a lot of money.”
“Jonas?” Caitlin turned to her stepfather. “Is that true? How come you didn’t tell me?”
“Only got the final reports a couple o’ weeks ago,” Jonas said. “I didn’t want to say nothin’ till I was sure and by the time I was, Kincaid was sniffin’ around this place like a dog after a lost bone.”
“Sniffing around me, you mean,” Caitlin said quietly. The room was warm but her skin prickled as if a chill wind were blowing. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at her brothers. “Jonas warned me. He said Tyler was after more than me, but I wouldn’t listen.”
“Oh, darlin’,” Travis said softly, and rose to his feet. “Catie—”
“No. No, I’m fine. Just tell me the rest. There’s more, isn’t there?”
Gage stood up. “Nothing you need to hear, sweetheart. Jonas says you’ve broken up with the bastard, so—”
“I haven’t,” she said, with her head held high. “He’s broken up with me. And you’re wrong, I do need to hear it. Tell me the rest.”
Slade sighed and rose from the corner of the sofa. “The son of a bitch has a woman, back in Atlanta.”
Caitlin couldn’t help it. A soft moan slipped from her lips and she slapped both hands over her mouth, as if to keep in the cries that might follow it.
“A woman,” she repeated quietly.
“Name of Aay-dreee-anna,” Jonas said, drawing out the syllables as if the name were part of some complex, foreign tongue. “Jes’ the type you’d figure him for. Looks like one of them models in a magazine.”
“Beautiful,” Caitlin whispered. “Sophisticated. Elegant.”
Gage, Travis and Slade shared another look. We’re going after Tyler Kincaid, the look said, and when we find him, we’re going to beat the crap out of him.
“Phony as a three-dollar bill,” Travis said coldly.
“All surface,” Slade said, “no substance.”
“They deserve each other,” Gage added grimly, and the brothers nodded.
“You cannot believe the story the man made up,” Jonas said. His sons and his stepdaughter looked at him and he shook his head and sighed. “Nobody would.”
“You mean, that he was a drifter?” Caitlin said quietly. “Or—or that he was interested in me?”
“Catie,” her brothers said, but Jonas’s voice overrode theirs.
“You all know ’bout that grave up on the hill, that it’s the restin’ place of my first wife, who died in childbirth.” He paused, looked at their faces and gave a deep sigh. “I loved that woman with all my heart. It damn near killed me, losin’ her, along with my firstborn. It was a black day in my life. Now here we are, all these years later, a no-account liar named Tyler Kincaid comes walkin’ onto my land. My land,” Jonas said, thumping his chest, his voice rising, “and tells me he’s gonna tell my kith an’ kin a trumped up story of how my firstborn didn’t die, a story that makes him out to be that child—”
“What?” Caitlin said. “What?”
“That’s exactly what I said. I said, ‘What are you talkin’ about, Kincaid?’ An’ he laughed and said he’d found out about the oil on Espada, an’ if I didn’t sign the ranch over to him, he’d tell the world this ugly lie, that he’d drag the Baron name through the mud.”
“But that’s crazy.” Caitlin looked at her stepfather. “He’s Tyler Kincaid. He’s got more money than he knows what to do with. He—”
“What he’s got is the pedigree of a mongrel dog. He ain’t nobody. Even the name ‘Tyler Kincaid’ is a lie.”
“That’s one hell of a performance, old man.”
Everyone in the room turned around. Tyler stood in the doorway, dressed as Caitlin knew she’d always remember him, in a black T-shirt, faded jeans and boots, his hands on his hips and a look of contempt curled across his mouth.
“It’s so good,” he said, with a cold smile, “that I’m almost tempted to believe it myself.”
“Git off my land, Kincaid,” Jonas said. His three sons started forward with fury in their eyes but Caitlin ran past them, to Tyler.
“Tell me Jonas is wrong,” she whispered. “Tyler?” She looked up at him, at the man to whom she’d given her heart. “Tell me he’s wrong.”
“He can’t.” Jonas’s voice was cold. “Ain’t that right, Kincaid? You can’t tell her I’m wrong, cause I’m not.”
Caitlin put her hand on Tyler’s arm, felt the power of the tightly coiled muscles beneath his skin.
“Please, Tyler.” Her voice broke. “Tell me it’s all a lie. What Jonas said. About you claiming you’re his son. About you not really being somebody named Tyler Kincaid…”
Tyler touched the back of his hand to her cheek. “I can’t do that, Cait.”
A sob ripped from Caitlin’s throat. “I loved you,” she said brokenly, “oh God, I loved you!”
“Cait,” Tyler said urgently, “listen to me. Let me tell you the whole story.”
“You’ve told our sister enough stories,” one of the Barons said, but Tyler ignored him.
“Caitlin,” he said, “I love you.”
“He’s lyin’,” Jonas said.
“Did you hear me, Cait?” Tyler’s voice was low and rough. “I love you. I’ve never said those words to another woman. Only to you.”
Caitlin wanted to believe him. Oh, she wanted to believe that Tyler’s kisses, his whispers, his caresses had been the truth, that he loved her as she loved him…
“Is there a woman waiting for you in Atlanta?” she said. “A woman named Adrianna?”
A muscle knotted in his jaw. “Yes. But it’s not—”
Her hand whirred through the air and cracked against his cheek.
“Get out,” she sobbed. “Get out, get out, get out!”
Tyler looked down into Caitlin’s tear-stained face. Now was the time to tell her, to tell her brothers, everything. His briefcase was in his truck. All the proof he needed was inside it. All he had to do was get it and he’d destroy Jonas, wipe those looks of hatred from his sons’ faces.
But the truth wouldn’t take the emptiness from Caitlin’s eyes. It wouldn’t change the fac
t that he’d planned to gain Espada and destroy it. And, all at once, he knew that the things he’d come here for today—the destruction of Jonas Baron, vengeance for himself and for the woman who’d borne him—were insignificant.
The only thing that mattered, that could change his life, was the love he’d found in Caitlin McCord’s arms.
“Cait,” he said, his eyes only for her, “Cait, if you ever loved me, then love me now. Trust me. Give me your hand and come with me.”
He almost thought she was going to do it. He saw, just for a second, the love shining in her tear-studded eyes, just as he’d seen it the last time he’d held her in his arms. But then her brothers stepped forward and surrounded her. Travis stood to her left, Slade to her right. Gage took up position behind her and put his hand on Caitlin’s shoulder. She lifted her hand and lay it over Gage’s.